The morning after

Loud muffled noises echoed in my ears

Opening my eyes I saw a room that was just bright enough for me to see but not too bright to hurt my eyes

I reached up and rubbed my eyes slowly coming out of my daze

After a while I sat up and stretched my arms 

It was already morning, although I went to bed pretty early it took quite a while to fall asleep

My mind felt groggy as I slowly stood up using the wall to support me

I placed my ear to the wall when I finally stood up properly and listened attentively for a few seconds

It seemed the party had long ended as all that greeted me was uninterrupted silence

After a few seconds I decided to leave my room to get breakfast

I walked through the bright hallways seeing a few people passed out laying all over as if they were knocked unconscious

I carefully stepped over them maneuvering to make sure I didn't accidentally step on any bodies, arms or legs that were laid out like ropes

It took a lot more of my time and effort safely making my way through the hallways to the cafeteria

'Why couldn't these idiots just stay sprawled out in the cafeteria?'

I continuously complained inwardly as I kept on moving, making myself hungrier and hungrier the longer it took me to get there

After finally arriving at the cafeteria I was greeted by a terrible sight

There were bodies stacked upon bodies all passed out, some had kegs next to them and others had piles of vomit next to them

They had drunk themselves into an alcohol coma, hopefully none of these passed out bums were important enough to put the base in danger

Glancing around I spotted a girl sitting on top of a mountain of passed out drunks

'Jessica?'

She sat there with bandages wrapped around her arm and around her stomach area under her crop top, her long ripped jeans clung tightly to her legs making it hard for one to look at her for too long 

She seemed to have taken a real beating in yesterday's fight

In one of her hands was a massive leg of chicken about the size of a forearm and in the other hand was a large wooden mug that held foamy alcohol

It seemed like she was still bummed about her loss as she had a cold face as she ruthlessly tore apart the meat before gulping it down with her alcohol

I quickly averted my eyes and made my way over to the cafeteria counter where a bunch of ladies were all standing near prepared food already loaded on trays ready to be taken

'Debbie's not here? she must be in the back today'

The kitchen staff normally did shifts to make sure they would never get too bored of working in the same place, other than that it seemed like an ideal job to have

'They must have a hard time not eating the food though haha'

Making a light joke to myself I grabbed a tray loaded with chicken and vegetables, there were two or three potatoes on the side as well

As I grabbed a tray I was stopped by a ladies voice

"Excuse me hun, did you drink last night and have a hang over?"

Turning I found an average looking girl that seemed to be in her late forties, she had shoulder length brown hair and she wore a kind compassionate smile

"Ah, no. I actually went to bed early instead of drinking"

Energized by her warm smile I smiled back to her as well

"That's a relief"

"Can I ask why you wanted to know?"

Surprised she reached down and pulled out a jug filled with greenish liquid that didn't seem appetizing in the least, she even held it away from her nose to prevent smelling it

"This helps with hangovers, we're gonna give it to all the idiots that drank themselves silly"

"Ah, thank you for worrying about me"

I was touched that she actually worried about me like this, even though it was probably a part of her job it was still nice 

I carried the tray away and looked around for an empty table

Some of the tables were used like beds, some had been flipped upside down and a few had some free space next to the unconscious people slumped over snoring on the table

I walked over to a relatively empty table and sat down with an unconscious woman with loose curly black hair drooling on the far left end of the table

I sat on the far end of the table making sure not to got near her or her pool of drool that was dripping its way down the tables edge onto the floor

Turning away I started to pull apart the chicken with my fingers and stuffed it into my mouth, after I finished my chicken I tore my potatoes in half and let them cool down as I slowly made my way through the vegetables

'Eugh. disgusting'

I hated vegetables no matter what kind they were

But no matter how much you hated something it was almost like an honor to be able to eat them, that's why I never left anything on my plate no matter how disgusting it was to me or how much I wanted to stop, food was food after all

I stopped halfway through my vegetables and reached for half a potato, I blew on it gently before taking a small bite to make sure it wouldn't burn the insides of my mouth if I ate it

After making sure it was cold enough I quickly ate all of the potatoes

After finally finishing me meal I stopped for a bit to digest everything

As was sitting there eating a few people had started getting up in a drunken stupor, knocking into each other and stumbling with every step

Sometimes they fell onto the floor and at other times they walked into the edge of tables and tripped over chairs

It was quite a comical scene to watch if I was being honest

it even made a great way to pass the time as I sat there making sure all my food had gone down properly

"Eepp!"

A loud squeal pierced through the cafeteria

I quickly turned my gaze to what made the loud noise

Jessica was wobbling on her mountain of drunken idiots as they began waking up and getting up causing her perfectly arranged chair to start falling apart

She was wobbling back and forth trying her best to make sure that she wouldn't accidentally tumble down the hill

After a few seconds she finally regained her footing and quickly launched off someone's back and gently fell through the air landing on a table a few meters away

It seemed like she was a gently leaf falling in the wind before coming to a gentle stop on the table

After she landed she stepped off the table using a chair and grabbed another mug before walking over to another keg

'There's no way she's getting another drink'

She reached the keg and turned the valve letting the foamy brown concoction pour out into the mug

After she got a refill she quickly gulped down the contents in one breath

After a few seconds she picked up the entire keg and unscrewed the tap before carrying it over to a table with a girl slumped over drunken

She kicked the girl to the floor and sat down on the table lifting up the keg and pouring its contents down her throat like a barbarian 

Sometimes she seemed more like a guy than even the men around the base

After awhile everyone seemed to pull themselves up from their drunken stupor and went up to the counter to collect their trays of food as well as their hangover drinks that had been prepared in large batches

As everything seemed to return to normal I simply became more confused

'Where's Charlotte? she should be here by now, I can understand if Joshua isn't but she's never missed two big meals before'

I kept frantically searching around for her but couldn't spot her unique coloured hair no matter how much I looked

'Should I go out looking for her?'

An insane thought crossed my mind as I started worrying about her

'Why am I so worried? I'm not normally like this, right?'

I had been acting differently from before and yet I still couldn't exactly understand why I was like this

I got up and went towards her room, I had to see if she had come back last night or if she was really in danger

I walked through the male dormitories and passed the farming wing that separated the two, it was designed so nothing 'inappropriate accidentally' happened

I finally came upon her room and knocked on it 

I stood there waiting for a response but there wasn't any so i knocked again

Listening intently I heard a soft rustling behind the door, not loud enough to surprise me but not too quiet I missed it

"Charlotte are you in there?"

Everything was quiet for a few minutes before a gentle whisper responded from just behind the rotten wooden door

"L-Lucas? what are you doing here?"

"I was worried about you, are you okay?"

Her voice seemed happier after I responded as she even responded faster

"It's okay, I'm just... stabilizing my emotions, I'll be fine soon"

'Will she really be okay?'

I waited for a few minutes 

"I'm gonna be around the base, tell me if you need help, okay?"

"T-thank you"

For the first time in a very long time i wasn't going to head out and scavenge but I would end up relaxing around my room

'I have to make sure Charlotte is going to be okay after all, right?'

That's how I convinced myself to stay at the base. just for today at least