Here's To Humanity

Chapter 2

I walk with Keir through the brightly lit hallways in a new outfit Byrd had brought me. It was a black tank top and a flannel shirt that was coloured blue and red with dark blue jeans and brown boots that took forever to lace up but in her words, "They stay on better when you're trying to run."
I have no memory of how Keir and I got here, or how the world ended. I remember us on the couch of my apartment one day after class and then it's like my memory took the next four months off. I don't know, I wish I did, but I don't. I stay silent and take it all in, this place is called "The Underground", that's it, just The Underground. Maybe because we are twenty or so stories underground. There is chatter and the loud sounds of cutlery being used, that sound makes me realize that I'm hungry. I look at Keir and looks at me, fully knowing what I'm thinking of. We enter and there are loads of people ranging at all different ages, but it follows a pattern, young children at the back and the oldest people at the front. I hear a loud metallic crash behind me and I jump around to see what it is. I'm the only one to turn, everyone just keeps eating and talking. We walk over to a small line and I stand behind Keir.
"Well, today we have chicken breast, pasta, a salad and fruit." An elderly woman with dyed red hair says to us and hands us each a tray. Keir passes one to me and when we pass through the end I see Keir swipe his wrist over some sort of sensor.
"You do it to." He says to me. I swipe my right wrist, like Keir and the then walk away.

We don't sit with the crowd, instead he leads me down a small maze of halls that all look the same, the only thing different about each room are the numbers on the door. We finally stop at room 1334. Keir swipes his right wrist and the door swings open and a few welcoming yellow lights turn on. It looks like a hotel room. The lights are yellow, unlike the ones in the hall and I feel a little more comfortable. There is a bed to the left of the room and on the other side, where a tv might be is a bookshelf with only three books and the rest are clothes, some of mine, some of Keirs, and pictures, but not all in frames. But besides that there is a small chair in the corner beside the bookshelf and that is all in the room.
"Well are you going to stay a little." Keir says and I shoot him a confused look. "In others words, this is our place, sit down, lay down, I don't know, sleep." He suggests.
"I've been asleep for a while. I just want to know what happened when I was out." I say and walk over to him. My arms are crossed, not cause I'm mad, I'm just a little confused and scared and, now I think of it, cold. I sit down next to him on the bed and pull the covers up to under my arms and he puts his left arm around my shoulders. This is a feeling I miss, or missed. I didn't even know I was missing it. There is something that just makes me comfortable, happy and relaxed about being in a guys arms, or arm, same thing. He looks down at me and his eyes truly do look tired.
"Can you tell me what happened?" I ask. He nods his head. "Besides, you're the one who looks like you need some sleep." I add. He laughs.
"Do you remember the epidemic?" He starts.
"No." I shake my head.
"Alright. So, since the war with The States and the rest of the world was going on, Russia added a virus into the food, a virus that we thought was unstoppable. They sent it to the states and it spread everywhere, here, Mexico, all the way into South America. That wasn't it, an employee screwed up that they even sent the food to here, which for the most part is still Canada and all over the world, even to their own parts in Russia." He paused, "We thought it was unstoppable until you."
"What?" I ask, wishing I had added more to that stupid reaction.
"You came down with it, puking up blood, high fever, spots all over your body, they were going to kill you after three days in quarantine, I was with you though. I may have locked them out after the third day to give you more time." He looked at his arms and I looked to, scars in an odd pattern, almost like a basket weaving pattern. "But you got better then, they didn't understand it and you've been in a coma for the past two months. I'm assuming your short term memory loss is from the virus." He finishes. I don't say anything, just look at him.
"Well then. Wait. If you were with me, why didn't you get sick?" I ask.
"The virus can be passed through blood, eating or if someone that is around is sick, you can catch it, like a cold or flu. But some people are either stronger or immune. They haven't figured it out yet." I don't say anything. Just sit there and stare at the full, yet empty bookshelf.

My thoughts have scattered again and I don't know how long I am like that because when I come to I see Keir has fallen asleep. I gently get up and eat my lunch? breakfast? dinner? I don't quite know, but I do know that I'm starving. It's great, the chicken is cold but the best food I have had in months. I laugh at my own stupid make shift joke and Keir jumps out of bed and it startles me. I throw my knife and it gets stuck in the ceiling. Shit.