30 Days After The End of The World

Number Five set out to begin his daily routine. Routine. It sickened him to think that this was his life now, that he had become used to it. Although, he supposed adapting was inevitable considering it had been roughly a month.

As per usual, he started the day with another attempt at a time jump. And as per usual, he failed. "Shit," he cursed under his breath. He just didn't fully understand yet how time travel worked and, unfortunately, the few libraries that were still standing didn't contain any useful information on the subject.

He had spent the first week or so in disbelief, refusing to accept that he was stuck, spending every waking hour attempting to jump back through time and return to civilization. But the continuous failed attempts drained both his energy and his spirit. So, he resorted to only attempting once in the morning and once at night.

After his attempt for the morning, he set out from the camp he had established where his old home had once stood. He chose the site out of a sentiment which he vowed to never admit to any of his siblings once he finally found his way back to them.

He started his daily trek of the surrounding areas in search of any signs of life, preferably human. Even with his abilities and superiority complex, he wasn't daft enough to sincerely believe that he would be able to last very long on his own. After all, he was still a child, only thirteen years of age. As much as he hated to admit it, he desperately hoped that he would find someone, anyone, to pass the days with while he searched for a way to get back to his family. He was beginning to get lonely.

That fact became even more evident that night, when he returned to camp after finding nothing. He heard music playing. He looked around frantically with hopeful excitement but did not see anyone. Then, he realized that the sound was familiar. It wasn't just music, it was the melancholy sound of Number Seven playing her violin, pouring her heart out the only way she knew how. It was a hallucination. Another one.

Just the day before, he had seen out of the corner of his eye one of Number Two's knives flying through the air. And two days before that, he had heard Number Three's hypnotic voice declare, "I heard a rumor...."

In the week that followed, his hallucinations became more frequent and more intense, making it increasingly clear to him that his mind would not be able to last much longer without someone to talk to. However, his searches for life continued to be fruitless and he was running out of nearby places to look. It dawned on him that he needed to grow up and leave the academy behind if he ever hoped to get back to it.