External (Book 1&2)

7|Final Day

The week is almost up and I have been getting used to the routine. Breakfast, gun range, lunch, practicing being a 'criminal', dinner, and lastly sleep. A constant 360 cycle.

The pain from the loss of my best friend isn't fading, but at least I don't cry myself to sleep like the first night. He wouldn't want that for me. So, to do him justice, I try to show up the others as much as I can. My plan of being better then the others isn't exactly working, but I've improved on my skills, so maybe one day.

Marcus still speaks snarky comments towards me and obviously makes fun of me to Sabrina. Oh well. I think he has a thing for her, since he won't seem to talk to anyone but her.

Jacob and I are getting closer. Lilyanna joins us sometimes. I think Jacob might like her, poor Caleb. William is still as distant as ever. I don't think I ever hear him converse with the others. He says simple sentences and then leaves. I'm not sure how he's supposed to be our leader. I don't even know if he wants to be here.

Though today is our last day until we go up, so naturally everyone is on edge. Breakfast was the worst since no one spoke a word. We all just stared at are plates listening to the sound of chewing and the ever so often clicking as the fork hit the plate. I hit the inner rim at the gun range a couple of times, still not hitting bulls eye, but I still didn't hold back my smile. Logan was a good teacher and I hadn't expected to improve so much in the matter of a week. Lunch was exactly like breakfast and now I am currently trying to pick a lock.

"You okay?" Alonzo asks next to me as I fiddle with the Bobby pin. I had been getting very easily frustrated today as we practice, not getting the lock as fast as I want.

"Yeah, alright." It wasn't a lie, I feel fine. Just tired and my feelings are just a reaction to my nervousness. I don't know what's on the surface and tonight we are preparing to leave and tomorrow morning we go. I will be leaving behind everything I've ever known, not that I have many people left down there to hold me back. Maybe that's why they chose me.

I unlock the box, only taking 57 seconds.

"That's a pretty good time." Alonzo muses and I sigh.

"You can do it under thirty."

"Don't worry about it. You'll get there."

"Would the eight and the leaders come to the dining hall for a final meeting." The intercom interrupts our conversation and we get up quickly. Nerves run through my mind as I walk to the hall. When I enter I can tell everyone is feeling the same as me, nervous. I send a small smile to Jacob before looking towards Charlotte. The silence is almost deafening, making it very difficult for me to not fidget where I stand.

"Well, now that we are all here we shall begin." Charlotte's voice breaks the tension. "Everyone of you eight will receive a backpack of tools and supplies your own leader supplied for you. You will all need to work together to use your abilities to explore the surface. After traveling to the city of Fairhaven you will come back like we discussed. We need you guys to answer these 3 questions once you get to the city."

"Is the city safe?" Logan says since his job is to be concerned about the people's safety.

"Does the city have a good food and water source or land to farm?" Leader of floor six states, since she controls food here.

"Is there a secure place to build a sustainable shelter for all of us?" The engineer asks.

"After these three questions are answered then come back and we'll begin the moving process." Charlotte finishes and I furrow my eyebrows.

"What happens if we find people out there, living?" I ask. Not everyone could be completely dead.

"Then you report that back to us as well."

"Seems simple enough." Marcus says with a smirk and I roll my eyes. Nothing about this seems easy since there is so much unknown.

"Get a good night sleep after dinner, you'll need it. Your bags for tomorrow we prepared are at your dining chairs." With that Charlotte left, the other seven leaders following.

I turn to the table to see the usual abundance of food as well as bags sitting at each of our chairs like promised. Jacob's arm rests on my shoulder as he nods of to our seats.

"Let's go see what's in them." His voice extra enthusiastic, perhaps to cover up his frightful inner thoughts.

I follow him over to our chairs which are next to each other. I wait for Jacob to open his first, before turning to my own.

The backpack has three pockets and a water bottle attached to the side. I open the smallest one to see a pocket knife, compass, and folded up peice of paper.

"I think we all got generally the same things." Jacob says as he takes out the paper from his own bag, unfolding it to reveal a map. It was a copy of a much older and faded map.

"Look that's where we are." I point at the red x hand drawn on the Jacobs map. There was another black x where the city was, the title Fairhaven under it, but the letters were faded and hard to see. Jacob nodded his head and placed the map back in his bag, moving on to the next pocket. I return to my own to see the next one filled with food and water supplies: water purifier and food packages included.

"Damn look at this." Marcus speaks up, pulling out a gun from his bag. His mouth in a lazy smirk as he messes with the deadly object. I raise my eyebrow but don't comment, of course he would have a gun in his bag, it's the only thing that makes sense. I open the last pocket seeing, to my surprise, my own gun as well as a notebook, pen, machete, and lastly a box.

"Are last pocket is different." Jacob said as he peered into his own. His had bottles of liquid that I didn't recognize. I nod and turn to the others, trying to see what is different with there's. Sabrina has packs and bottles of medicine, Caleb held contraptions that most likely had to deal with air quality, Lily had books on agriculture, and lastly Kevin had a single book titled 'Shelter In The Wilderness'. It seemed that Marcus and me had the most similiar bag, which is interesting. The only difference being his throwing knives and my mystery box.

"Wow were just so different, right?" I said to Marcus across the table and he just glared at me. Jacob stifled his laugh and I reach into the bag to take out the box. Opening it, I quickly realize that it was lock picks. Im not exactly surprised seeing as we worked on that for the last two days. I'm just not sure why there would be a locked door in a supposed 'apocalyptic wasteland', but you never know.

I place the bag on the floor next to my chair and sit down to eat the last dinner in this facility.