Chapter 5: Reality

The children of the orphanage sat around the table, eating their lunch, chatting happily, simply enjoying the little things in life.

...or that was what should have been like.

A gloomy silence filled the room. No one spoke, no one smiled. If a random person happened to walk into the room for whatever reason, they would immediately rush back out, eager not to be infected with the depression that lingered openly.

Finally, Luka couldn't take it anymore and decided to break the silence, "Where's Cal?"

"He's sleeping..." Dean answered gravely, black spots surrounding his eyes. "He stayed up all night yesterday, he deserves a break."

"How about Orly?" Kai asked as he played with his food. You know that the situation has reached its worst when Kai wasn't in the mood to eat.

"She..." Shaw bowed his head, "I honestly don't kno—"

"Hello...?" A small, sweet voice came from the living quarters. Followed by a cough. "Why do you all look so sad?"

Everyone nearly twisted their necks a hundred and eighty degrees trying to spin fast enough to look behind.

And...

"ORLY!" Luka literally flew off his seat and tackled Orly from the front. The room was finally filled with the sound of laughter as the two rolled around on the ground, overjoyed to see each other.

Kai stepped in front as well, looking like he wanted to join in too.

"Okay. Okay." Dean took on an impression of Cal, but he was also glad to see Orly well, "Break it up."

The two reluctantly separated from each other.

Dean knelt in front of Orly, putting a hand on her head. "How are you feeling?"

Orly averted her eyes from Dean, "Cal said that my tem-pera-ture was lower... but I'm still a little sick."

Dean sighed in relief, "Well, as long as you're okay..."

Shaw was the only one who hadn't left his seat, "Wait... you were forty degrees yesterday night, right? How did it take you such a short time for you to get better?"

Dean thought about it, "Yeah... that sounds a little weird—" When suddenly he paused, "Wait a second... hasn't it technically been two days since the bomb dropped? Maybe it was the radiation that caused her to be sick, and now that that's gone, she's better!"

Kai gasped in realization, "That would make sense!"

Shaw still looked a little skeptical, "But I don't think it's that simple..."

"How would you know?" Luka tilted his head.

"Yeah. The government wouldn't lie to us? Would they?" Dean tilted his head like Luka.

Shaw scratched his neck nervously, "I'm not saying that they are, I just think we should wait a full forty-eight hours before we go outside."

"Alright. Alright." Dean spread his arms, "I'll go take a look outside then. If it seems fine, I'll step out. If I get burnt or something, we don't go outside, okay?"

Shaw crossed his arms, "Fine... But if you get hurt, I'm not gonna help you."

Dean walked up to the front door, and put his hand on the metal door knob—

"Gah!" Dean yelled in pain.

The younger ones screamed in fear and surprise.

Shaw rushed up to him, "Woah! What happened?!"

"The handle..." Dean clutched his hand tightly and scrunched up his face, as if he was suffering a tremendous amount of pain, "It burns! Probably... probably because of the radiation!"

Shaw looked towards the kids, "Go get a packet of ice from the icebox in the basement! Then grab the first-aid ki—"

Dean all of a sudden started whimpering.

Wait a second, no, he wasn't whimpering.

He was giggling.

Then he bursted into furious laughter.

Shaw blinked in confusion, "What the—"

Dean opened his hands. They were completely fine, "Gotcha' guys!"

Everyone froze for a second, stunned.

Then the young ones charged up to Dean and started pounding him with their tiny fists.

"That was so mean!" Luka whined angrily.

"We thought you were hurt!" Orly cried.

"I can't believe I screamed!" Kai bashed Dean as hard as he could with his stubby hands.

"Alright. Alright. I'm sorry..." Dean kept laughing, amused by how hard they tried to punch him with no effect. Then he looked up and saw Shaw crossing his arms and pouting.

"That was uncool, man..." He said, not looking at Dean.

He smirked, "And I thought you said you weren't gonna help me?"

"Shut up." Shaw rolled his eyes and headed back to the dining table, "If you're gonna play jokes like that, then I'm gonna go back to eati—"

"Alright. I'll really take this seriously now." Dean pushed the still angry, yet cute kids away gently, "So stay back..."

He turned and put his hand on the handle (He didn't recoil away in pain this time.) and pulled the door open just a bit, peeked through the small crack in the door.

"Soooo...?" Shaw slurred, "Is it safe?"

"It... looks fine, honestly..." Dean admitted, "But just to be safe..."

He opened the door wider, large enough for his body, and stepped into the outside world.

He kids gasped silently, then waited for a response.

It never came.

"Dean?" Luka called out. But there was still no response. "Dean—!!"

"I'm fine guys!" Dean's voice penetrated through the door, causing everyone to breathe a sigh of relief. "I'm just... shocked."

"What do you mean?" Shaw got off his chair and walked towards the door.

"Come see for yourself..." Was Dean's simple answer.

Shaw extended his hand and opened the door farther. He stepped onto the front porch outside and—

Devastated.

That was the perfect word for the world outside.

Completely. Devastated.

The air was dusty, yet smelt humid at the same time. The grass that used to stretch for miles around was now rotten, shriveled up, dead. The birch tree that they were so used to, that they even climbed up a couple times, was now dried up, its branches barely hanging on by a tread to its mother.

Shaw looked to the right, where the silhouette of the city could be seen, but all there was now was just clear sky, an empty horizon.

The two outside simply couldn't believe it. And yet, it was truly, and simply, reality.

"What's going o— URP!" The kids behind opened the door fully, and also feasted their eyes on the desecrated landscape that surrounded them.

"W-What happened?" Kai stammered, rubbing his eyes like he thought this was just a bad dream.

"The bomb. My dear Kai..." Dean couldn't even take his eyes off the destruction around them. "The bomb happened."