11 Section 10: Looting

I thought I could break the ice if I asked him a question. However, that didn't seem to be the case. Joel still statued himself on the bed with a blank gaze, this of course irritated me. I nudged his shoulder lightly, he turned to me still in a daze but managed to meet my eyes.

For some reason this time, I was the one who averted my gaze from him on impulse. I just hated the thought that he could see my embarrassed face.

"Help me out and try to be cooperative", I said sternly as I averted my gaze from him. "Seriously, what do you think?".

"What do you think?", Joel asked me back which only frustrated me more.

"Why don't you try to be more assertive for once", I snarled at him. "I'm sick of being in command Joel".

Joel was surprised when I'm being upfront with my statements, he thought about it deeply as he furrowed his forehead. He looked pretty anxious when I asked him to be in command, he looked at me agitated but couldn't express his opinions well.

"Sure", he replied coldly.

He looked pretty upset but didn't want to confront his disagreement with me which irks me. After he finished his treatment, I confronted him directly. I sat across her on the bed and sharpened my gaze on his gentle hazel eyes, he gulped as he saw how close our distance was to each other.

I felt a surge of nervousness on my stomach when I faced him head-on, there was a moment of silence when we faced each other.

"I don't understand why we are in this kind of situation" I gulped nervously.

"Hey" Joel looked at me awkwardly. "Do you hate me?".

I didn't know what happened to him to make him think that I hate him, I sure do dislike him at some point. I'm not sure how to reply to his sudden question, I clenched my fist anxious with this sudden development.

"I don't know what to say" I said blankly. "Listen let's just fill our stomach cause I'm pretty hungry".

I shrugged it off, ignored his question just like that with another suggestion. Joel looked at me disappointed. However, followed me when I went outside the bedroom. Joel told me that he already locked the back door last night since the drones didn't have the initiative to search into closed doors.

The drones were usually loitering around the streets, but they never broke into the house unless they already spotted their prey. It's surprising to see Joel being vigilant, or maybe it's just because I didn't trust him enough to be vigilant.

We walked toward the glass door entrance to check the perimeters. Still, I felt an air of uncomfortableness seeing that unlocked sliding door, Joel agreed with my worries.

"What should we do with the glass doors?", Joel asked me again.

"We can block the entrance with furniture. However, the drones are flying and there's only two of us here" I sighed. "We don't have enough manpower to block the entire door, it'll waste our time".

"Got it, so I guess the only way is to find the switch for the door" Joel concluded.

Joel surmised that the switch might be located on the top corner right, there's a power button located there waiting to be pressed. I dragged a chair and positioned it below the power button, even with the chair I couldn't reach the button. I sighed heavily and heard a giggle behind me which belonged to that midget Joel.

I glared at Joel, I told him to get on the chair and turned it off which he did by tiptoeing on the chair. Joel is five centimeters taller than me but he's still a midget. I hated the fact that I couldn't hide my embarrassment or my anxiety because of how close our height gap is.

After finding a way to close the glass door for good, both of us decided to explore the hotel. We split up, Joel explored the first floor, while I explored the second floor.

So far there's not a single sound that could be heard on the second floor, which means the chances of the drones slipping in are slim. There's nothing but hotel rooms and a public toilet on the 2nd floor. At the corner of the hallway, is a locker for cleaning supplies.

"Nothing interesting here," I thought sullenly as I rummaged through the cold steel locker.

There's a rotten stench from one of the hotel rooms, though. I didn't dare to open the door. I should ask Joel to accompany me. I went down to the first floor to find Joel who already made his way to the kitchen. Strangely enough, there's no sign of this hotel ever being broke in.

There are traces of people running about and messy carpets, but no living person either. It was as if this hotel is already deserted even before the drone terrorism happens.

I looked for more clues and found the board UNDER RENOVATION in front of the kitchen backdoor. In front of the kitchen Joel investigated, there's a dining area, perhaps a restaurant.

The chairs were covered in a blanket though, so it's not visible to the eyes. Joel then called my name in excitement.

"Aria! Check this out!" he called me over to the kitchen. Same as the hotel color schemes, which are pink and purple. Even the kitchen walls and counters are in the same colors as the hotel walls. I could only sigh as I looked at the bright painful colors.

As a design student, this made my heart ache to renovate the whole place. Joel tugged my sleeves and showed me a strange machine I cannot recognize next to the counter table.

"What's this?" I asked the midget next to me.

"It's a backup generator for our electricity! We can cook and use the refrigerator as long as the backup generator is still on" his lips formed a childish smile.

What a convenient setup, it was as if our movements were being watched and controlled by someone else. This convenient setup must have been planned by someone, not that I'm being pessimistic. However, I'm far too cautious to even trust this hotel in the first place.

It's like someone made this hotel convenient for us so that we can stay here and use this as a temporary base.

"Joel, don't you find this fishy?" I asked the glasses boy in front of me.

"Hm? I'm not sure, as long as the kitchen works I'm fine" Joel said uncaringly.

I facepalmed myself, he is far too ignorant to survive in this survival of the fittest world. I wonder if I can live longer with only Joel as my partner, seeing how ignorant he can be.

Joel suggested venturing into the minimarkets before someone looted them. For once, I agreed with Joel's suggestion. We walked side by side in silence, we didn't even bat an eye to each other. I gripped my metal bat tightly as I ventured in utter silence, both of us are just that awkward.

Fortunately, there's a mini market near the love hotel, it's a small market but the ingredients and food were sufficient for both of us. We went inside the abandoned market, although I was feeling a little bit anxious about the minimarket broken door that was damaged by the bullets.

You could say broken doors mean open sesame to the flying drones that hunt us down.

"Hey, I could cook us a simple dish", Joel grinned as he saw the ingredients in front of him.

Then again what amazed me is that the electricity still runs in this abandoned market. The refrigerator for the drinks was broken for good though, there was a rain of bullet marks on the refrigerator glass. Strangely the vegetables and the meats were still fresh because the freezer still ran just fine.

Joel's eyes sparkled as he put varieties of food and seasonings into the grocery bag we found on the cashier counter. He looks excited to whip us some food, Joel seems to be pretty into it so I decided to leave him for a perimeter check.

I left the mini-market for awhile just to make sure no drones passed by. However, rather than a drone, I found a lifeless body in an alley next to the mini-market.

I stiffened for a bit when I saw that familiar face, it belongs to one of Joel's classmates. Allen Maine, the famous girl that's been bad-mouthed by everyone within our peers.

Rumour says Allen is an annoying backstabbing woman who uses people for her benefit, I also saw how badly she treated her friends. However, since I'm nothing but a mere spectator, I didn't have the will nor the energy to even care about her toxic lifestyle.

I saw Allen dirty blonde hair, maybe because of the dirt on the ground. I checked her pulse but there's no sign of life from Allen Maine. The beautiful woman clad in white with blonde hair but possesses "a heart of a demon" according to her friends.

"So this is the end for her", I sighed.

Next to Allen's body was a surgical knife, already smeared with blood. The scalpel position is near Allen's right hand. She might have used it before she died, but the reason is still a mystery.