Green Shelter

After crossing the blockade I noticed that inside, about 50 meters away there was a second checkpoint, this created a second wall to block beast out in case of an attack. O on the second blockade there was fewer people than in the first. They opened the path when they noticed Dr. Harting.

The first thing I noticed when we went in was that everything looked almost normal… there were not magnetic cars or any kind of vehicle besides some old cart to move supplies, but besides that, people were moving around like in a typical city. I subconsciously looked around trying to see if I saw someone familiar.

"Welcome to Green Shelter."

Well, it was better than "school group's area", and it was a reminder of the city's original name, so I liked it.

"So how do you manage all these people."

"At the beginning was difficult without money maintaining an economy is difficult and we can't just give supplies to everyone unless there are particular circumstances. With the help of certain people, we managed to create a temporary point system. Children under 12 years gain points by default every day, and teenagers from 12 to 18 have to do some light work, and they got paid a little more than the average. Depending on the work we gave points to everyone, we have telepaths or some fast moving messengers, and they deliver the information to a "central" which is in charge of supplies, and with that, they can buy stuff."

"So, and all this converges into the place they get food from right?"

"Yeah, most of the food comes from the same place, after we got all the food we could, we created a giant warehouse. There are people with fast thinking related abilities, they are in charge the point system and keep a record of the points that everyone has."

"This is all nice for now, but what will happen when you run out of food?"

"With experience, our hunters are getting better, so we are getting more meat from monsters as the time goes, we have a greenhouse, and there is the project to build 3 more when we clear the space of a couple of collapsed building. We should be able to get crops in about a month if the seeds and fertilizer work as we expect."

I was just nodding while listening to Dr. Harting, for less than two weeks work he had done amazingly well.

"Also, we are slowly recovering the technology we have lost, with our current pace we think that we can have a radio system in a month. It would have taken less time, but we lack experts in this area and the electromagnetic pulse from the comet did something weird to the atmosphere, so it radio waves work a little different than before."

"What did you do with the water?"

"Rainwater collectors, and we finished a pump system to get it from an underground source."

Some people were looking at us with curiosity.

"And we are here."

Dr. Harting stopped in front of a 6-story building.

"This should be the best, the first three floors and one on the 4th floor are occupied, but most people don't like stairs, so the 5th and 6th floors are free. Take any apartment you want. I leave you to set up here. If you need something, I'm usually at the school. If Dana is interested we have a class she can assist with kids her age, I tell you about all the jobs and stuff we need, as you should know we need a lot of people here."

"Thank you, professor, I'll go later."

"I told you to call me Stephan, see you later Spencer if you are interested there is a garage one block from here in that direction, Hayley's father works there, and it should be lunchtime." He gave a light smile at Hayley and left.

"Then we should leave our stuff on our new home and invite him for lunch don't you think?"

Hayley looked back at me and just nodded. I don't know if she was scared or nervous, but she seemed a little off.

We went upstairs. There were 5 apartment one which was bigger than the rest, I took that one together with Hope, G, and Rose, there was a room for Hayley, she left her stuff there in the meantime, but she would probably want to move with her dad. Isabella and Dana chose a little apartment next to us. Isabella went to our apartment and prepared to cook something.

Dante started to explore the apartments with Dante, Hope was curious to see if someone left something, so she went there saying that it was to take care of them… Rose went to help Isabella with the food, and G… was going to be unpacking for a while.

I went with Hayley to look for her father.

I noticed her fidgeting a little while we were going downstairs.

"Everything is going to be fine don't worry."

"B-b-ut what if he is still scared of me?"

I remember Dante telling me about her fears, it was difficult to tell someone who had to suffer what she did that everything was going to be okay because it doesn't matter how you say it, there will not be convinced of it.

"And if he is not? Are you going to lose this opportunity and never see him again?"

She bit her lip clearly conflicted, we walked and found the garage we were told, one guy was guarding outside and looked at us.

I smiled and asked him politely.

"Excuse us I know you are busy but can you pass a message?"

He looked at me suspiciously, it was the first time he saw me, and from the looks of it, it wasn't something usual for people to come here.

"What's the message?"

"Tell Mr. Aaron Ryan that Spencer is here to invite him to have lunch."

He looked at both of us and noticed Hayley's nervousness, I don't know how much did he figure out but he saw something and smiled at us.

"He should be about to leave, so you can surprise him yourselves." He winked at us.

After his initial suspicion, he ended up being a pretty easygoing guy called Stan.

"So… Family? Friends? Students?"

"She is his daughter."

"You are Hayley!!! He always talks about you."

Hayley blushed because of the guy's reaction, and we have a short conversation about his life here until a door opened and people started to leave stretching.

After everyone left, and some of the stole a couple of quick glances at us, the familiar figure of Mr. Ryan appeared at the door, he looked older than the last time I saw him probably because of the stress, but he was dumbfounded when we saw Hayley hiding behind me.

"Hayley…?" he started to advance toward us

I looked at Hayley and pushed her a little trying to encourage her.

"Dad…"

Hayley's voice broke, and she moved slowly towards her father trying to control her aura in each step.

They looked at each other with tears in their eyes Mr. Ryan started the hug and Hayley answer it, and both began to cry.

Stan looked at this. And asked me

"Are the rumors about her aura true?"

"Yeah, but she can control it now."

"I can believe that a girl like her could be as scary as they described her."

"About that, I don't know, I was always immune to it."

"Yeah I heard about you too, it's true that you killed a hard-skinned alligator with your bare hands?"

…

"No… I had a knife… and the revolver helped too."

"You should have said yes… or at least don't mention the revolver that way sound more amazing and girls will go crazy for you!"

"Not interested, I have a girlfriend."

"Oh lucky you, Hayley is a beauty."

"It's not Hayley…"

"Oh… so she is single?"

"Probably… unless she met someone before the meteor shower, but she hasn't said anything about it."

"Great do you think she would agree to go out with me?"

Did this guy just cheat me into telling him if Hayley had a boyfriend?

"Ummm, I don't know you should ask her yourself…"

"Any tips?"

What is wrong with this guy?!?

Before I could answer Mr. Ryan and Hayley came.

"I'm glad to see you, Spencer. Thank you for helping Hayley all this time."

"You have nothing to thank me for, want to join us for lunch? You can talk more with Hayley in our apartment."

"So you are moving here?"

"Yeah, for the time being, we decided to work together with green shelter, let's go back to eat something, and we can explain it."

Mr. Ryan agreed and came with us.

"See you later Stan…"

We turned around and went back to our apartment. Hayley and her father were talking. I lagged behind to give them some space to talk in peace. When a voice came from the side.

"So what are we having for lunch?"

"I don't know Isabella is in charge of the food…"

"Another girl?! Holy ****, are you going to build a harem?!? You totally have the aura of a harem novel MC!"

"I told you I'm not interested in that, I have a girlfriend…"

Wait…What is this guy doing here!!