Chapter 9: Planning For The Future
Lovino sighed, running a hand through his hair. Feliciano had scampered out of the room a short time ago; despite his small fever and having fainted the night before, his appetite wasn't at all affected and he felt well enough to go to classes. He slept like a baby that night, however... the other boys stood guard by the locked stairwell barricade. It seemed unlikely, but they wanted to make sure the overnight rain wouldn't cause more zombies to swarm into the building. That was what had happened when they returned from their club outing; it was a Sunday and the school was practically empty. However they returned that evening and as they walked up the stairwell, which was generally empty, their guard was down and the door burst open on the second floor, a hoarde of the creatures going towards them.
But without thinking, Roderich threw himself in front of everyone, taking several blows and bites immediately, yelling at them to run up to the top floor. He pushed all of the creatures through the door and locked it behind him.
That was when Feliciano started screaming and crying, trying to get them to open the door and get him... but it had been too late.
"His memory is starting to come back..." Elizabeta said quietly, breaking the silence.
Everyone else was still quiet, though most of them each sighed. "Psychogenic retrograde amnesia. Sometimes triggered by extreme emotional or psychological stress." Kiku said. "In his case... it was caused by us witnessing Roderich being attacked. And... not being able to help him."
"But if he thought it was a memory and not a dream, why wouldn't we tell him?" Lovino said. "I... I know it's best for him to learn gradually, but... it isn't just Roderich he suppressed. He suppressed everything that's happened since the epidemic."
"It isn't healthy for him mentally to do that." Kiku replied. "If his real memories are exposed to him too suddenly, he may not remember it or recognize it as real at all. He has to ease back into it on his own, though we can aid him without plunging him into the pool of truth right away."
"So we're still where we were a few months ago..." Lovino said with a sigh. "We have to let him realize what's going on, gradually, on his own... and then he'll be upset that he forgot everything. That Roderich... and especially, forgetting he's going to be a father! Because what are we going to do in a few months when the baby comes?" he asked. "Just - tell him we randomly found a baby and now we have to take care of it? Or tell him Liz and Roddy adopted it? But what if when he's holding it, he accidentally tries to hand it over to Roderich?"
"We know, Lovi." Elizabeta said. "But... we have to take this one day at a time. Especially since... well, we have to figure out a plan on what we'll do when we have to get out of here. The power supply may not last forever... if there's ever a lightning storm, there could be damage to the electricty reserves. At least if there's ever a direct strike somewhere to the roof. Not to mention if something happens to the water... and the food downstairs can only last so long."
Antonio nodded, leaning against the wall. "Well... at least we have the mini-van. If we can... we should probably plan on moving out of here when Monika gets to her seventh or eighth month. We need to find someone or somewhere to safely deliver the baby..."
Monika looked down at her stomach, her head still whirling quite a bit. After a moment she stood up. "I think I need to go lie down for a bit..." she said quietly before she crossed to the door, not saying anything if anyone spoke to her. Though they didn't.
Lovino sighed, glancing out the window now. "Kiku... is your laptop still in your bag? It's a long shot, but... we should try to see if we can connect to the Internet and send an email or something to someone outside of the country. If we can do that, maybe we can also pull up a map of the town and country. If there's somewhere around here we can go to, maybe somewhere more secure, we can go to there. Maybe a hospital... or the college."
Kiku nodded. "I'll go get it."
It was practically a miracle in itself, but when Kiku booted up his laptop the wi-fi signal had three bars. Three out of six bars. That was amazing, as they had barely gotten one bar most of the time and it tended to cut out.
They had no time to lose, they had already recorded a video on the laptop's webcam and looked up an email to the United Nations, finding several and sent it to each of them. Luckily as the emails were sending, they also looked up a map of the area and connected it to the teacher's lounge in the other room, printing it out successfully before the internet signal cut out.
"Well," Lovino said with a soft sigh. "That was way more then we could hope for. It'll be a miracle if this hasn't spread worldwide... but hopefully, this will catch the UN's attention. If there's still an internet signal, no matter how weak it is... then that means there may be hope for any of the survivors around here."
Kiku nodded, powering down his computer after a moment. "Hai... hopefully it does." It pained him to think of it, but he wanted to vocalize it. "And... hopefully it means that there's still a chance that Yao is alright."
Elizabeta felt her heart sink a little bit, slowly crossing over to the Japanese boy and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. "Don't worry, Kiku-chan... we'll know sooner or later." she told him, gently running her fingers over his hair.
"Si, don't worry, I'm sure Yao is fine. The college is even more secure then here!" Antonio said encouragingly, patting him on the back. "I'm sure Yao and Ivan are both fine and well... they're probably waiting for rescue as well."
Lovino nodded as well. "Si... and now that we have the map, we can see if we can form a plan to get to the college. If we can get there, maybe we can find other survivors. And hopefully... find a way to get out of here."
Elizabeta nodded, gently kissing Kiku atop of his head. "Ja. For now, let's go tend the garden. Later on we can look at the map and come up with a plan."
Kiku was still a bit quiet, but he nodded. "Alright..."
Sorry, short chapter, mostly filler-ish.
I might upload the next chapter in a few days though to compensate for this. If not, see you next week!
