Carter was broken out of her trance by the sound of slamming doors. She looked to her left and watched as the strange woman walked back into the gym from wherever she had been. She would have checked the time, but she gave up her watch in the beginning.
"Time to go," was all she said; all of them stood up and began to file out of the gym. The fighters kept going, not distracted by the announcement if one could call it that.
They were all led back to the rotunda, where that began with small baskets lining that wall, filled with the items they gave up in the beginning. Carter found her stuff in a far corner, separated from everyone else. Feeling the weight of her bag and giving it a cursory look through, she determined that all of her stuff was still there. She pulled her phone out and turned it on again. She decided that she still had time to get to the nearby bus stop. Looking around, Carter didn't see the woman who led them here, so Carter started walking to the exit, hoping that she wouldn't be randomly stopped, and she wasn't.
Carter was half-way through the parking lot when she was finally stopped.
"Hey, Carter, whatcha' doing?" Bryce called from behind her.
"Walking..." she replied, turning to face him.
"Where?" Bryce asked intrudingly.
"To the bus stop. It's not too far away from here."
"Why don't you let me give you a ride?"
"I'm fine. Thanks, though," Carter said, turning around and quickly walking away from the guy who was getting way too close.
Carter thought she heard him say something behind her, but she decided to ignore him.
It took her about ten minutes to walk to the bus stop, giving her five minutes to spare before the bus came. Carter sat underneath the streetlight that was continually flashing. After getting annoyed by it, she felt out to the light's wires and fixed it. Playing the addicting game on her phone, or many because she kept finishing levels and refused to spend money, she waited. Almost as if no time had passed, the bus roared around the corner. Carter stood up, waiting for the bus to stop in front of her.
"Good evening," Carter said as he handed the driver her bus card, receiving a grunt in response as well as her card back.
Walking toward the back, where there were plenty of empty seats, she got her phone back out as she had a half-hour ride to her apartment building.
"More levels to beat," Carter quietly muttered to herself.
Around her, the sound of people getting on and off the bus continued until she got to her stop. Calling out "thank you" as she got off, she walked into the nondescript building in front of her. She opened the front door as the bell dinged.
"Hey, Carter," a raspy voice called from the desk in front of her.
"Hey, Mal," she replied, reaching to press the up button for the elevator.
"How did the job interview go?"
"It was not what I was expecting."
"What was weird about it?"
"It honestly didn't feel like an interview."
"Maybe they just called so they could spy on you," Mal suggested.
"Your distrust in the government is hilarious, Mal. See you later," Carter called out as she walked about with the elevator dinging open.
"You never know!" Mal yelled after her.
"Good night, Mal," she called through the closing elevator doors as she pressed the "three" button.
As the doors reopened, Carter let the exhaustion of the day get to her. By going to said, "job interview," she was behind in the work she already had. Getting her keys out of her side pocket, she opened the door to her small apartment. It felt like a college dorm room; at least she thought it did.
She placed her keys into the bowl that she had on a counter next to the door. She walked into her kitchen, opening her practically empty freezer and refrigerator, finding enough to make herself a sandwich. Looking around her empty apartment, Carter hoped that the world would feel like it was on her side for once.