7 Chapter 6

HIRO

"What makes her so sure that she is the beneficiary of my will?" Hiro muttered to himself as he walked down the hallway to where the garbage disposal chute was. "I might just leave everything I own to Wayne. At least, he doesn't bother my life."

He pressed the button next to the chute's intake door which flashed red before turning to green after a couple of seconds and the door slowly slid open. He proceeded to put the garbage bag he was holding into the chute and he walked back to his apartment as the chute's door closed.

He patted his pockets when he got to the door and realized he had left his identity card in the house. He was about to knock when Omi opened the door and held out his back pack and card.

"Uhhh..."

"Hiro, there's no onion or cayenne pepper at home," she stated.

'So?' he thought when she didn't say anything else and kept staring at him.

"I... I don't understand," he replied as he stared back at her and the corners of her lips curved downward.

He did understand. She wanted him to go to the store to get them but he didn't want to leave the house at this time.

He tried to walk past her but she quickly moved to block his path. "Please, please. I beg you. Please go buy it," she pleaded as she put on the best puppy dog eyes she could muster and Hiro only wrinkled his nose in response.

"Ew, your face looks weird. Cook the meat without spice, you devourer," he tried to walk into the apartment again but she blocked his path. "Let me through... and where is your gas mask?"

"I'll go get the shitty mask after you leave. Please, please, please. I know you don't have taste buds but I do and the gluttonous spirit in me won't be happy if I eat bland food. Besides the supermarket is just down the street and I know you won't let me go there myself." She gestured for him to take the things she was holding out to him and he closed his eyes as he took a deep breath.

'I am calm. I am serene. I can't kill her because she's the only family I have left.' He slowly exhaled as he collected his back pack and identity card from her and she grinned at him.

"I love you too," she mouthed before she winked at him and he glared at her.

"Glutton," he muttered before he headed towards the elevator as he swung his back pack over his shoulder.

He pressed the elevator call button and heard the apartment door shut after the elevator doors dinged open and he stepped into it before it closed. He patted his back pack as the elevator descended to confirm if the spare gas mask he always kept in it was there and it was. The elevator doors opened on the ground floor and he realized that the apartment's lobby was empty when he stepped out of the elevator.

He glanced around because the apartment complex had three concierges which meant that there was always at least one of them standing behind the concierge desk. He stood there for a while, waiting for one of the concierges to show up because anyone could get into the building when a concierge wasn't in the lobby.

'If anyone that doesn't live here does enter the building, they wouldn't be able to get into anywhere else without the identity card of someone that lives here,' he thought before he decided to stop waiting and go to where he was headed.

His phone chimed with a message and he pulled it out as he walked toward the decontamination chamber.

FOODIE, 9:20PM: I don't see you outside :(

He rolled his eyes as kept his phone back into his pocket and stepped into the chamber before later stepping out of the building. The patrol car was driving slowly down the road, flashing the green and blue lights from the top of the vehicle. One of the patrollers that recognized Hiro waved at him and he waved back.

"Where are you going Hiro? Need a ride?" the man asked and Hiro shook his head.

"I'm going to the supermarket down the street. I'll walk there, thanks."

The man nodded before the car picked up speed and soon disappeared around a corner as Hiro started his walk. His phone chimed again and he pulled it out of his pocket.

FOODIE, 9:22PM: I see you now :) I love you

Hiro wrinkled his nose at the message but still smiled as he replied.

HIRO, 9:22PM: I'll block you. Get lost.

Another message came in immediately and he let out an exasperated sigh.

FOODIE, 9:22PM: I know you love me too ;) Buy more packs of meat. Don't be gone for too long. Run if you have to because I don't want you getting arrested for breaking curfew.

'At this rate, I'll go bankrupt. And she didn't think about me breaking curfew before she made me go out,' he thought as he shook his head and quickened his pace to the supermarket, getting there after a while.

He was in and out of the supermarket with the things he needed after a couple of minutes because only a few customers were shopping there. He started to speed walk back to his apartment complex when he saw that the time was nine forty-seven PM. He didn't want to be out on the streets when it became ten PM because that was the time curfew started.

Anyone out on the streets past that time without a proper reason would be asking for trouble from the patrollers.

He slowed down when he was almost at the apartment complex, and then stopped as he watched what was happening in front of him. The doors of the apartment complex decontamination chamber were wide open as smoke undulated out of the building.

'Oh God, no.'

His blood ran cold and his heart rate elevated as the bag in his hand dropped to the ground when he saw that the residents of the complex were out on the street without their gas masks.

Including his sister.