When I wake up, Joanna is not in her mattress. She probably got an early start and did her morning shift on Wall Watch. I take the noon shift and the dusk shift with Aviva.

In the meantime—what am I supposed to do again?—I think I'm supposed to just take classes?

My eyes fall on the book-made nightstand where a schedule on a piece of notepad paper and a watch are.

I sit up and reach over to it. I take the working watch and the schedule. And I was right when I assumed this place would have classes, because I'm already late for the first one.

---------

The first class is hunting—which not only is easy but I might as well be teaching it. It takes place inside at some sort of indoor expansion. It seems as if they literally got some building material and connected a bunch of community buildings.

At lunch before out shift, I ask Aviva about it.

"When it all started near the cities, everyone in town worked together to fortify the library, still thinking education would keep us more knowledgable than enemies thus being more powerful when strategy is needed." Aviva starts as she bites into her meal bar. "There was construction nearby, and the builders wanted to be a part of it too. My dad orchestrated and ran the whole project. The town was incredibly small in population, but large enough to be a "legion" and the large numbers makes it safer for expeditions for food and water.

"Cool, very cool." I say as I eat my soup. "So you grew up learning and studying war strategy?"

Aviva shrugs. "Unintentionally as I grew more fascinated with history, I've developed a natural knowledge of it. So now a sixteen year old girl is their battle strategist, though there hasn't been much use for me yet."

Wish Aviva was at the prison to help us with the whole Governor situation. I have a feeling he was the one who had somehow acquired military-level arsenal.

"Hey, we sent out scouts to help look for your group."

I look up. "You what?"

"Yeah, my dad told me what was up. And my mom sent out some searchers. They'll be taking a shift organization. The first group just came back and we're sending out a second wave." Aviva explains, smiling.

"You people are so organized it's refreshing." Ember laughs.

"We could use the people we find. I've heard of how well you did in your classes. You have a survival instinct, we need more like that—not that we don't already have more like that. We're very experienced. Just we need more numbers—we can support more."

I nod. "Hopefully they'll stay given the option."

Aviva nods too. "They might be wary, but remind them how can a civilization like this crumble when there's nothing to cause its erosion?"

Just then two people sit down on the other side of our table. Some boy with red-orange hair and freckles and next to him Joanna. Hi Joanna.

"Hey!" I greet my friend. "Who's this?"

The boy raises his hand in greeting. "I'm Nate." He says. He nods to Aviva. "Hi, Ava."

"I changed my name two years ago." Aviva scoffs and she eats the rest of her meal bar.

"Yeah, now you're all sophisticated." Nate mumbles into his soup and Joanna elbows him lightly.

"Anyways," she says lightly, directly the word at Nate. "How's life?"

"I don't know—lifelike?" I say. How am I supposed to answer that? Well, sure, lifelike is a quirky and real answer

Joanna smiles a little. "Yeah," she starts. "Hey, I got something for you." She slides the package of Sour Patch Kids Watermelon version across the wooden surface.

"Dude, you've been holding out on me!" I gasp and I high-five Joanna. Aviva raises an eyebrow but grins mid-chew (which didn't look pretty.)

"Nate, did you and Joanna sneak into the candy stock?" Aviva chuckles. "I won't tell."

Nate smiles sheepishly. "Yeah, I—we did." He admits. Oh, I've seen him. His mom is the manager of storage or something.

"Thanks Nate." I say, grateful. I was incredibly sad when I learned that my candy would go to food supply.

I tuck away my candy in my backpack that rests against my chair.

Nate glances at the watch on my wrist. "Joanna, it's time for us to join the search scouts." He announces. Joanna nods in understanding and sighs.

"Okay, let's go." She says. They quickly finish their food and soon leave.

"They'll be fine." Aviva reassures me, noticing my deflated expression.

"Everyone's risking their lives for people they don't know." I say, expressing my guilt. The search party information is just starting to sink in.

Aviva rolls her eyes. "It's the friggin' apocalypse, Em. If we don't do this we've lost what's human in us."

"So that's why you're doing this? To prove a point to yourself?" I question, frowning.

"To prove a point?" Aviva frowns and shakes her head. "No...

We're letting the universe know we haven't lost."

Zaremareth