“This is our other headquarters,” Royce said as we stepped out and into the busy room. “Everything gets run from this room. All the scheduling for patrol, shifts in the kitchen, maintenance, it’s all made here. Everything is logged in, tracked. We keep a tight schedule but everything runs smoothly.”
And as I looked around, everything he said made sense. Everyone looked like they had a place to be, a job to fulfill. It was then that I noticed the solid steel shutters that covered the front door, all of the windows, and every other opening.
“Keeps out things we don’t want getting in,” Royce said when he noticed me observing them.
“You keep them out during the day, even in the middle of all of this,” I said, my voice impressed.
Royce nodded as we continued to follow him toward the back of the big front area. We entered into another hallway, this one wider and more open than the one upstairs. “Restrooms are right there,” he said, pointing to a pair of wooden doors. I wondered what he meant by “restroom”.
We turned a corner and came into another fairly large room with tables and chairs set up everywhere. Along one wall was some sort of glass case and beyond that I could see the strangest looking kitchen I had ever seen. It was all shiny steel and smooth surfaces.
“Back there’s the kitchen,” Royce said as he pointed in that direction. “Meals are served at nine PM, one AM, and seven AM. Pretty much all of us keep a nocturnal schedule here. Dinner will be served in about two hours,” he said as he glanced at his watch. “Most of us wake up around eight PM, just before the sun starts to go down outside. Bed is around ten AM.”
“Doesn’t this place start to feel like a prison?” I couldn’t help but asking. “You never even see the sun.”
“Our lifestyle isn’t easy,” Royce said as he met my eyes. “But it’s kept over one hundred people alive all this time.”
“There are that many of you?” West asked in amazement.
“For a few years we were gaining five or six new people a year. Then it started becoming fewer and fewer. There’s been no one for the last year. We figured there wasn’t anyone left.”
“We found two more people on our way here,” I said as we walked out of the dining room and back out into the hall. “In the middle of the desert.”
“We look forward to meeting everyone in your group. I’ve never heard of such a large group traveling so far. How did you manage it?”
“We drove,” Avian answered.
“I’m impressed,” he said as he raised his brows. We turned another corner and stopped at a desk where a man in a white jacket sat. He looked up at us with surprise in his eyes as we approached him. “This is Dr. Giles. He’s the head physician here. These people here traveled from back east,” he explained to Dr. Giles. After the introduction, Royce stepped into a side room. I heard another voice floating through the door.
“Congratulations on surviving,” the man with the shiny head said. His eyes were kind behind his glasses as he extended his hand to us. I watched as Avian and Tuck shook his hand, observing closely so I did it just right when it came my turn. The motion felt strange and foreign.
“You’re a real doctor?” Avian asked, longing and awe in his voice.
“Board certified,” he said with a smile. His teeth were astonishingly white. “Well, used to be before there was no more board to pass. There are three other medical doctors here as well.”
The amazement was obvious in Avian’s eyes as he shook his head.
“Avian has been our doctor for the last five years,” I said, feeling an odd sense of pride in him.
“Ah, wonderful,” Dr. Giles said. “Where was your practice before the world Fell?”
“Uh,” Avian stumbled over his words. “I actually never attended medical school. I had two and a half years of medical training when I was in the Army. Since I had the most experience I became the doctor. I learned most of my knowledge through experience.”
“Very good,” Dr. Giles said, something in his eyes changing. It took me a moment to realize what it was. It was the loss of respect. I suddenly didn’t like the doctor half as much. I’d like to see this man treat a bullet wound in the middle of the forest with next to no supplies.
“Do you mind if I take a look around your quarters?” Avian asked, unbothered by the man’s rudeness.
“We have a few open rooms you’re welcome to examine,” he said, his friendly demeanor back. “And so is our surgery room. We have patients in a few rooms so I’ll ask you to keep quiet.”
He led us into a room that was so sterile I hesitated in the doorway with my dusty boots and dirty clothes.
Avian walked into the room alone as the rest of us waited in the doorway. His eyes were alight as he observed the strange bed with the rails on the side of it. He ran his hands over a piece of equipment that stood as tall as him, all kinds of buttons and screens on it. He opened and closed drawers and I could just imagine what he would have done for all of these supplies.
I realized then what the fact that there were four doctors here meant. If we stayed here, moved the rest of Eden into this city, Avian would never have to be tied down because of his medical knowledge again. He would be free to do whatever he wanted. He could go anywhere.
Dr. Giles took us to the surgery room, but only let us look in through a window. As I observed the steel blades that lay out, gleaming in the light as it shone through the window, my breath caught in my throat. I saw the steel table in the middle of the room and my dreams flooded my thoughts.
The sound of the drill and the cool against the back of my shaven head were all I could process.
“Come on,” West’s voice said from somewhere and I felt him take my hand and lead me back out into the hall.
I saw nothing as I stood with my back against the tall desk, holding my arms around me. West stood to the side of me, his arm draped around my shoulders, squeezing me into his side.
Avian finally walked back out into the hall and stopped in his tracks. He looked at me, glanced back in the direction of the surgery room, and his face blanched white. “Eve, I’m so sorry,” he said, his eyes looking panicked.
I just shook my head, my eyes glued to the floor. Avian was suddenly standing right in front of me, his hands on either side of my face. As I looked up into his blue eyes, I felt my insides loosen up. I still felt sick though.
“You shouldn’t be touching her,” Avian said, his voice cold as he looked over at West. “Having something happen here is not going to help Eve’s case.” He spoke quietly enough only the three of us could hear.
West only looked at Avian coldly as he took two steps away from me. All three of us glanced over at Royce who had just stepped out of the room and Dr. Giles who watched us with hesitancy.
“Sorry, gentlemen,” Avian said as he stepped away from me slightly. “Just bad memories for some of us.”
They both gave slight nods, though they still looked at me warily.
“I’ll show you our sleeping quarters,” Royce said, dismissing the awkward moment. He walked back out into the main hall and continued down. As we followed, West slipped his hand into mine. I shook it off, remembering what Avian had said to him. It was too great of a risk, having West send me into overload here. West should have understood that.
We entered another hall that was lined with doors. These ones were different however. They had names written on them, some written in clear, precise letters, others painted in colored fonts that I could hardly read.