Drip.
Drip.
Drip.
The ceiling was leaking again. In the dim light I could just about see the droplets forming and running across the sloped ceiling and drop off at the lowest point to make a puddle on the floor. There had been so many leaks that the damp, musty smell was permanent, but we all had got used to it. I could hear the rodents scratching around outside the door, savaging for food; their little claws making horrid scraping sounds against the hard stone.
It was freezing cold. I could see my breath in the air and despite my endless wiggling my toes were almost completely numb.
My empty stomach gave a loud groan for food, food that we didn't have. I would have to go and find something. Maybe the people at the Centre would be nice enough to give us extra rations. I swung my skinny legs off my shared bed and sat up.
Behind me, my older sister, Gertrud, was breathing heavily. I sighed, before grabbing a dirty old rag off the worn cupboard and dunking it in bucket of murky water. I then wrung it out the best I could and placed it on the hot forehead of my sleeping sister. That should cool her a little bit.
It was strange looking after her. It always used to be her looking after me. While I was in the hospital after the fall of our homeland, Karlsland, she joined the military to protect me... But now, here we are...
Trude was critically injured and our roles were reversed.
Across the room, two of her friends from the same fighter wing were sleeping. Sanya was sat up against the wall, with a thin blanket around her shoulders. Snuggled deep into her lap, Eila was lay. Unlike Sanya, Eila was wrapped in multiple blankets and covers.
Eila's face was pale in the dark room, and she shivered in her sleep, sometimes jerking around. Eila had been ill for a few days now, and the worry was really getting to Sanya. The short Orussian girl had been giving most of her rations to Eila, weakening her own physical condition. Her silver hair was dull and grey. We had all lost weight since the massive losses on the front lines and the struggle everywhere, but Sanya had lost the most by far. Usually, Eila would have not let something like that happen, and would have ensured that Sanya eat all of her own food, and been wrapped in plenty of blankets. But it appeared that Eila was simply too ill to argue.
When Orussia had fallen, Sanya had escaped to Eila's homeland, Suomus. But in time, Suomus also fell, leaving the two lost. The Neuroi spared nobody, so it was important that we went into hiding.
I needed to get some more food for us, we had nothing but a bucket of filthy water and a rotten apple, which was in almost the same condition now as it was when we received it.
With a sigh, I decided to wake Sanya, to tell her where I was going. I stood up once again and made my way across the room, to the bed which was currently inhabited to the couple.
Sanya looked so peaceful while she was sleeping, that you wouldn't have believed that our world was being taken over by aliens and we were almost starving to death.
"D-don't look at Sanya like that..." Eila wheezed and I immediately stopped smiling. Even in her sickened state Eila was as overprotective as ever. Eila's unusual purple eyes burned into me as I tapped Sanya gently. Even with her battered body and mind, her eyes glared with passion and protection. With a coughs, the Suomi girl pushed herself into s sitting position. That move woke the lightly sleeping Sanya. The green eyed girl was sleeping but wiped her eyes with a yawn.
"Sanya... I think I'm going to go and fetch us some more food..." I said, my voice a little hoarse. Sanya nodded. We used to go for food in a duo, but when Eila got sick we had to leave behind someone to take care of her and Trude, and since I was in the fittest state out of Sanya and myself, I was the one who went for food.
"Sanya... P-please can I have some water...?" Eila asked quietly. Sanya climbed carefully off the bed and dunked a chipped mug in the bucket. I turned to put my ragged coat on and I heard Eila suddenly curse loudly. I took a glance in their direction and saw that the blonde was dropped and split her water down herself and on the bed.
"Sorry Sanya..." Eila's voice cracked a little and a few tears leaked from her purple eyes.