*Gaia King's POV:

"What?" I asked as I approached her from behind Beval.

"Mr. Matthew's store is shutting down for good", she replied, with a nervous tone.

There was a panicked commotion from around the crowd of people. Some were starting to cry, others remained calm.

"Everyone, please calm down!" Mr. Hada said to the crowd as he approached us, raising and lowering his arms. "I'm sure there is a way around this". He looked at Celosia with glaring, serious eyes. "Right Celosia?"

"N-no. I know this isn't much supplies, but it's all we've got now. This is the last we will ever get," she replied in devastation.

The crowd of people began to panic for the second time.

"What are we going to do now?!" I heard a lady say.

"I should've stayed with my family up top if I'd knew this was going to happen!" I heard another say.

Celosia hung her head low and bit her lip, not knowing what to do.

"We need to leave!" I heard the strong voice of a little girl say. It was Hikari.

The whole crowd paused and looked at her.

She stood there, with her friends Yasmine and Devon behind her. Hikari was never afraid of speaking her mind in front of a group of adults, even if they tried to silence her. Even though she was still a bit immature for her age, she was a bold adolescent who had the courage of an adult. She could always figure out a way to do something, even if she was told not to do it and even if the odds were against her. That's one thing I loved about Hikari, but at the same time, it annoyed the hell out of me.

"We need to leave this place! Look at us, look at what it's doing to our minds! This isn't what surviving should be about! If we leave, we'll finally be at peace and have all of the food we need!"

"Hikari, there is a viral pandemic going on, if we leave the shelter we'll die!" Mr. Hada irritability argued back with his daughter.

"Actually...the pandemic is over" Celosia spoke up, in fear of Mr. Hada's reaction.

He turned to Celosia, his mouth half open, his eyebrows furrowed. "What?!"

"When we went up, it was a utopia in the nearby city of Eureka. People were walking around without masks, no one was quarantining. It was as if we never went through a pandemic."

"I can confirm this," Max said, approaching Celosia, and Mr. Hada. "It's finally over."

"Then what are we doing here? Why are we still here?", I heard a lady ask.

Everyone started arguing with Mr. Hada.

"Quiet!", Danny shouted, walking up towards the angry crowd. "Listen, the pandemic is over, but it's still not safe to go out! There's a world leader who will be the reason of causing world war 3, I have seen the prophecy for myself! The best thing for us to do is stay here and-"

"A world leader that is actually causing world peace and prosperity will eventually cause world war 3? You're insane!" a random male shouted.

"Everything that I said would happen eventually did happen, do you really wanna test me?" Danny clapped back at the guy, walking up to him but swiftly being held back by Beval.

"Enough!"

Everyone turned to look at Mr. Hada.

"No one is leaving this place, whether the pandemic is over or not. If this world leader really isn't in our best interest, we rather be safe than sorry!" Mr. Hada said to the crowd in a stern, loud voice.

"But who said we had to live in a city where this "leader" is? We can live in the forest, or a rain forest or someplace far. We have to leave! We can't stay here or we'll di-"

Mr. Hada grabbed a hold on Hikari's face with one hand and held on tight. The sight was triggering to say the least.

"I am just about tired of you and your mouth. All you do is run around and cause mischief with your friends, causing trouble, then wanna complain about the shelter being too boring and not fun enough?! You think we are here to have fun? We are here to keep our asses alive!" Mr. Hada hissed.

Tears started to stream down Hikari's face as she whimpered and pleaded for him to let her go. He eventually did, and she ran off crying.

I watched her as she eventually disappeared down towards the bedroom section. Mr. Hada was going mad. Just like Beval, the shelter was affecting his mental health as well.

"If you feel as though you want to leave the shelter because you don't feel safe here anymore, feel free to leave! But don't even try to come back!" Mr. Hada said, scanning the crowd.

Everyone was silent, and no one dared to even walk towards the doors.

"Now, let's make something clear, no one is leaving this shelter, you hear me? No one! And if you decide to, you no longer have our protection once this war happens!" he screamed before pointing to the items and foods in people's hands. "Now get all of this shit to where it belongs!"

The people were still as quiet as a mouse, still uncomfortable, still scared, still confused, still anxious.

Mr. Hada walked off, stopping by Celosia. He looked at her with piercing eyes.

"I am holding you responsible for getting us food. If you aren't able to get us the food we need by the next two months, you will be kicked out of the shelter. Indefinitely."

As he walked off, Celosia's skin became pale. She was devastated, not knowing what to do or how to reply.

Part of me felt bad for her, but at the same time I didn't for some odd reason. She was the head of the hunting crew; fetching us the food, clothes and other items we may need. We told her from the jump she shouldn't have depended on someone up top for the items. Anything could have happened: they could have ratted us out and told the authorities we were here, or they could've shut down or even stop service for any reason and there would be nothing we could do about it, which is the case here.

I was disappointed in her, but at the same time, I could see why she depended on someone else for our needs. We didn't know what else to do. We could hunt animals, but we didn't know which animals you couldn't eat, for they might be poisonous, nor did we know how many could feed a few hundred people. Stealing from stores up top wasn't an option, but the quickest way to get caught.

Kimberly walked up to Celosia and held her as she began crying. Something inside of me wanted to comfort her too. I walked up to her to give her words of encouragement, but was abruptly shut down by Kimberly.

"Uh-uh, don't come over here with your bullshit criticism, she doesn't need that right now!"

"I miss Shimizu! I miss him so much, he would've known what to do", Celosia whimpered, squinted her eyes as tears fell down her face.

There she goes, bringing up Shimizu again.

"Well, he's not here. He's dead, and there's nothing you can do about that. All you can do now is focus on getting us the food we need," I said calmly.

Kimberly gave me a death stare before I turned around and walked away, deciding to leave them alone.

I wanted to spend some valuable time alone, so I went to the pharmacy room. To get my mind off of what happened, I opened my anatomy and nursing books, sat down in a chair behind a table and began studying.

After about an hour into my nursing book, I heard a knock on the pharmacy door.

"Come in", I said in a blank tone, still glaring down at my book.

"Hey, I thought I'd find you in here", Katie said before shutting the door behind her. "Are you okay?"

"I rather not talk about what happened back there. It's over and done with."

"Huh? How is finding a food source within the next couple of months over and done with?" Katie asked in confusion, tilting her head as she placed her hands on my desk.

"Oh, um, sorry, I thought you were referring to something else. But anyways, I'm fine. Do you want to come and study with me? You can learn a lot while you are still my Nursing Assistant," I smiled at Katie, trying to lighten up the mood.

She wasn't the most naive seventeen year old. She was pretty smart and could see through people. I envied her for that. I wasn't the smartest kid at her age and was a bit of an airhead at times, but I'm glad I decided to grow up out of that. Kimberly thinks I'm cold-hearted, but I just think I have matured.

"No, I'm fine. I just came in here to see what you were up to," Katie responded before flopping in a seat next to me. "What happened back there was messy. Poor Hikari. Hell, poor us."

"Yeah, I rather not talk or think about it. It's just best to not worry about it. Celosia will figure it out," I responded, not looking Katie in the eye as I flipped a page.

"I hope so, or she'll get kicked out, and then we'll really be in trouble."

The thought of Celosia being kicked out isn't as frightening as it should be for me, maybe it's because we recently found out the pandemic is over. Or...maybe it's because we're just not as close anymore. It kind of concerned me that I didn't have much sympathy for Celosia, but it was partially because she put herself in that situation by relying on someone else.

I refused to reply to Katie and went about reading a chapter.

"Hey, I remember you guys were so close when we were kids, and now everything is different. It's like I'm your Celosia, and Kimberly is her Gaia", Katie stated deep in thought, yet glaring at me.

"Yeah I don't know about that Katie, you and Celosia are very different" I said, getting up.

Suddenly, there was a knock at the door.

"Yes?" I shouted.

"Gigi, it's Beval."

Me and Katie looked at each other in amusement. She started teasing, making kissy-faces as I went over to open the door.

"Hey, is it possible you, me and our friends can have a chat in the garden section? It's urgent", Beval asked in a serious tone, swaying from side to side. He seemed worried, but I already knew why: we were running out of food.

"Okay, but what fo-?"

"I'll explain later, let me go find the others," Beval said abruptly as he left, jogging away.

Me and Katie both looked at each other in confusion, wondering, yet hopping it was only about the food scarcity and nothing else.

When we made it to the garden section,  Kimberly was already there and so was Celosia. We made eye contact for only a few short seconds before I decided to greet them politely.

"Hello Kimberly and Celosia."

"Don't try to act all fake and phony now", Kimberly scowled as she side-eyed me.

Celosia was going to say "hi" before Kimberly's rude comment, but instead, she gave her a look, telling Kimberly to cut it out.

"Hmph, looks like somebody slept on the wrong side of the bed...but that's expected for someone who can"t get a man", Katie joked, followed by her giggling.

Kimberly replied by giving Katie an evil look, which caused her to hid behind me.

Next thing we knew, Beval was walking in with his sister Isabella, along with Thomas and Danny.

"Is there something you want to explain to us?" Kimberly asked with impatience, already annoyed with Katie.

Beval checked to see if anyone was around before closing the door.

"Okay, I have some bad news along with the previous bad news we had earlier today. We are starting to lose electricity. The lights are starting to flicker more and more, and the air conditioning system constantly cuts on and off. Let's not mention the kitchen's stove, whom is also inoperable. I was presented with all of this by different people in the shelter."

Beval bombarding us with all of this information all at once was both overwhelming and profuse.

We stood there, discombobulated, yet shocked.

I swear, it was one thing after another. First, Beval passed out, then Celosia and the hunters came back with little materials, there's a food scarcity going on, and now, the electricity in the shelter could fail at any moment.

"Wait a minute, wait a minute, you're moving way too fast. So the electricity is acting up and could possibly fail? Causing everything in the shelter that runs on electricity to shut down?" Thomas asked, trying to summarize what Beval was saying.

"Yes", he responded after taking a deep breath. "The worst thing about this is that the main doors of the shelter run on electricity. If we don't find a way to fix the issue with the electricity, then it's either keep them open for good, or we will be locked in forever."

"I control fire. I know I haven't used my powers in a long time, but I can use it to cook our meals for food instead of using the stove," Celosia spoke up, trying to fix part of the situation.

"Celosia, do you realize you can not light up a stove burner that's off, right?", Beval asked.

"Well, we can use my fire for heat. We can gather some sticks from outside and place them on the middle of the floor and-"

"Placing sticks in the middle of gray marble floor and lighting them on fire is a terrible idea. We don't have the equipment to create a safe campfire inside of here. And another thing, if our powers are physical, like your's, or can potentially cause destruction in any way, then we aren't supposed to use them. Mr. Hada's rules, not mine", Danny explained,  interrupting her intentionally.

"Okay smart-ass, so what should we do about the food? The doors? The electricity? If those doors shut down and close on us and if our powers won't allow us to breach through it, we will die of starvation. And what's going to happen once winter comes? Hm? If we leave those open we will also die, but from hypothermia!", Kimberly ranted in a mix of frustration and fear to Danny.

Isabella rubbed her stomach, fearing for her baby's future.

"Hey, our child will be fine", Danny said before comforting Isabella by kissing her on the head after noticing the fear on her face.

"Is anyone in the shelter an electrician?", Katie asked Beval.

"Yes, she was one of the people that told me about the electricity, but there was only so much she could do. She was basically stalling it.

"So, what should we do?" I spoke up, looking at everyone. There was a nervous silence among me and my group of friends as we glared at each other, worried, waiting for an answer from someone.

"I'll go up and go hunting for animals", Celosia spoke up. She paused before continuing. "Me and my parents had a passion for the wildlife, I have a sense of what's good to eat and what may be bad for us, but it may take a while to feed hundreds of people. Me and the hunters may need some extra help. "

"I can help", my brother Thomas spoke up. "There's nothing wrong with a couple extra hands. I'm not that much of a nervous wreck anymore, haha."

"I'll help too", Danny volunteered. "It was my fault for not telling people sooner that the pandemic is over, but the worse is still to come. This world peace will only last a few years. We will have to figure out what to do before this world leader creates havoc."

"Three years is more than enough time to save up enough food, water and supplies. I have hope that we will find another shelter", Celosia persuaded us with a small, but worried smile.

I struggled to have hope, but I had to put a little bit of faith in them, even if it means eating deer for now on.

That night I laid in bed, tossing, turning and thinking about "the good ol days"; when we were younger. I remembered getting ice cream near downtown and having picnics in the park. I remembered when Beval and Celosia were having rap battles at the school lunch table during freshman year of high school, and when Shimizu pranked Celosia during a sleepover which resulted in her wrestling him to the ground. I thought about the times when I used to sing and dance, when Celosia played soccer and made clothes, and when Beval happily cooked and wrote raps and poetry.

I missed those times, the times that have been lost for five whole years. The memories, the smells, the sounds of downtown San Francisco, the music, the smiling faces of people we've seen five years ago who are dead now, one of them being someone we deeply care for. I miss it all.

I groaned and turned my body over to my side. As I opened my eyes, I looked over at the bed to the right, next to me.

It was Beval in bed, laying down, staring at me.

When he realized I was looking, he smiled before telling me goodnight. I responded with a "goodnight" before he turned, facing the other way, his back facing me.

That smile. Even now, it still makes me feel warm inside. It made my night.

Even through these hectic years, at least I had someone who kept me going, besides my parents of course.