A knock on the door wakes me up the next morning.
Getting up and opening the door one hand scratching my abdomen and the other on the side of the door opening it my eyes still mostly closed. Charlotte is standing outside of my door covering her mouth and sniffling a laugh at my appearance.
I open my door letting her in then flop back on my bed hugging my pillow. She leans over my bed and pokes my cheek.
"If you get up I will make something for you" I open my left eye looking up at her to see her smiling. Grunting, I roll over and get up from my bed.
She opens the door and starts to head out into the hallway. I close the door following behind her. All of the lights in the hallways were turned off but Charlotte made all the turns in the dark without fail me following behind her until we reach a door that she pushed open with her foot and then turned on the lights in the room to show a large room with metal looking walls and metal tables and chairs on the floor on either side leaving a path down the middle of the room to another set of metal doors.
We walked through the other set of doors and inside was a large kitchen that had a lot of different foods and drinks in the fridge and pantry. She walks around the counters and starts to pull out some food to make for us. I started to walk around to help her cook but was stopped. I pulled up a stool just sitting on the other side of the counter listening to her talk while she made food.
Soon she finished the food and the smell alone made my stomach growl. I grab both of the plates as she puts the dishes she used into the sink and start walking out to a table with Charlotte following right behind me grabbing forks on the way out.
I place down the plates on either side of a small table taking a seat on one of the chairs. I take the fork offered to me and give her a small glance before digging into the food. We soon are joined by 3 people that just walked into the room clearly surprised to see us inside before them. Charlotte checks her watch then looks at me.
"We gotta go," she says. I quickly grab our plates and put them in the sink then follow her. We start jogging making turns through the base and end up at the door we were at yesterday. She opens the door going inside. I stop at the door hesitating then walking in behind her.
On the board is no longer the map of lifepods but our names and the task we need to do for the day. We take our seats next to some of the others that live on base. Richard nods to us as we enter continuing his talk. Everyone gets up and starts to head out once Richard finishes. He walked up to me when everyone was leaving. I stand up instinctively and meet his eyes. The doors shut behind Charlotte who was the last one out of the room, leaving me and Richard alone to talk.