Institution Main Entrance
Clay descends from the ladders, being followed by Callie. A machine pops out from the left wall, and begins to scan them both with a beam, being more concentrated on Callie than in Clay. The machine beeps for a second and retreats back into the wall.
"What was that?" Callie asked.
"It's just the bio-hazard scanner. The beam scans you, and then uses an Ultraviolet light to kill any microbes in our skin. It just took longer to scan you, since you're not human."
"Oh, that makes sense." They walk to the end of the hallway, leading into the Assembly Room (imagine a really big cafeteria-like room with a high ceiling; the walls are white).
"Wow, this is a huge room! Do you have concerts here?"
"If only. This is the Assembly Room, where everyone meets up when needed." Clay the points into the left side of the Assembly Room, where three hallway entrances are seen. "The far left hallway contains one of the bedroom sections. Next to that are the storage rooms, where some people store clothes, furniture, etc. Finally, the last hallway leads to the indoor garden."
"An indoor garden? That's so fresh!"
mentally "Who says "Fresh" anymore?" "Yeah, but it's just plants and stuff." Callie then looks to the hallways on the right side of the Assembly Room.
"What about those hallways?" Clay suddenly remembers that that is where the Science and Digital departments are. "Just where all the nerds hang out."
"Says the one who is in charge over there." Both Clay and Callie turn around to see Lela standing behind them. "What? I thought you were going to tell her that,"
"And I thought you didn't want to come."
"You're right. I just went to use the bathroom, and saw you showing around, so I just stayed a bit longer. Anyways, I've got to go. Bye" Lela then leaves them, going to her room.
"Never mind her. I think this is a good time to answer some of the questions you have." Callie then pulls out her notebook, and begins to look through the pages.
"Ohh, this is a good one. How many humans were there?"
"Depends what time period. It varies from almost 8 billion 12,000 years ago to a few hundred right now."
"8 BILLION! How were there so many?!"
"Well, we reached these numbers as we found ways to efficiently grow crops to feed our population, we had somewhat stable governments/societies, and enough natural resources for growing food, water, and energy."
"I wonder how many Zapfishes you needed?"
"What's a Zapfish?"
"It's what powers our city."
"We didn't need that, or have that as a matter of fact. We mainly relied on fossil fuels, used wind, water, and geothermal power as renewable energy, and beginning to expand on nuclear energy."
"What's nuclear energy?"
"It's harnessing the power of atoms with fission. Just don't explore that as a power source, since a small mistake can kill a large amount of people."
"Okay then, another question." This keeps going for about an hour and a half until a growling noise is heard.
"WHAT WAS THAT?!" Callie said, with slight fear.
"Sorry, that was my stomach growling. I'm just a bit hungry, since all I had for breakfast was a banana. Actually, that gives me an idea. Come on, follow me to the cafeteria." They begin walking straight through the Assembly Room to end up reaching the cafeteria, with about twenty people having breakfast/lunch.
"Callie, I need you to stay here for a moment. I'll be right back."
"Wait, don't go." Clay runs towards the cafeteria kitchen, and vanishes from her sight. Some people look at Callie for a few seconds, and resume back to eating. A few seconds later, Clay runs back with a plate full of a variety of fruits.
"I'm back. Now, since we're in the topic of food, I would like to know if any of these fruits look familiar to you." Callie looks at the plate, and picks up an orange.
"Ooh, this is a squid orange. At least that's what we call it. What do you call it?"
"An orange."
"Oh really? I thought it was something cooler." She then grabs a few grapes. "And this is a squid leg grape."
"We call it a grape."
"Can I eat them?"
"Don't ask me. You're the Inkling." Callie hesitates at first, but then proceeds to eat a grape. She then eats all the grapes in one quick scoop.
"Mmm. That was delicious!"
"These were grown from our garden. They were planted long before we awakened."
"You mentioned something about cry-e-o-stasis or something like that? What is that?"
"Cryostatsis is the process of having your body preserved in frozen conditions. Other animals did this, but just for the winter. We had to do this for THOUSANDS of years. The process is reaaalyy complicated, so I won't try to explain it. But one thing I want you to explain. I have found out that your species find water to be lethal. How do you maintain yourselves away from the rain?"
"Light rain doesn't do us any harm. It's only bad when it's ALOT of rain. That doesn't happen very often in Inkopolis, but it does in many other places, which are uninhabited. Yet, we can eat many types of food because of the glands in our mouth. Speaking of eating, can I eat this orange?"
"Sure, why not. Actually, I'm also going to eat an orange, I'm still starving."Clay begins to think/eat the orange while Callie peels her orange, struggling for a bit. Moments later, a large thunder is heard. "The hell? Is it raining?" Clay pulls his tablet out of his pocket (these are very small tablets btw) and begins to check footage from an external camera, which was placed just recently.
"That's a big storm. Good thing you're in here, or you'd be dead."
"That gives me more time to ask you some more questions!"
"God dammit." About 45 minutes pass of Clay answering Callie's questions when Callie's phone rings.
"Whoa, you guys have phones?"
"We do. Hmm, it's Marie." Callie answers the call and begins to talk with Marie. They talk softly enough for the translator to not pick up the sound. She hangs up and turns to Clay.
"What did she need?"
"She wanted me to ask you if I could stay."
"Wait, why?"
"She had something come up that I couldn't go to, and she doesn't want me to be alone."
"Isn't that other Inkling with you?"
"You mean Agent 4? She's out right now."
"So, she trusts someone of a completely different species, who both you and her barely know?"
"She says that you looked pretty trustworthy."
"I'll have to ask Kari. Hold on a moment." Clay leaves and comes back about 5 minutes later.
"What took you so long?"
"She said you could stay, but she'll need you for something later."
"For what?"
"Some more questions. "
"This is a perfect time for me to tell you about me and Marie."
"Marie and I, not me and Marie."
"This isn't how our language works. Your translator thing might need some more work. Now, it all starts when we were kids."
In his head "Well, hope I don't fall asleep."
Little side-note: Marie never called Callie.
