Chapter 32

Kyle arrives at Murasaki and sits down with Colin talking about the new place and how it was divided.

Brandon shakes his head, "There's no way they will not have children. It's risky to make such an assumption."

Kyle sighs, "What about your men? They have wives already?"

"They always have, we never banned relationships. Who are we to decide the matters of the heart. All the children you see, well most of them, were born on this camp." Colin says.

Kyle nods, "Alright. Help me understand. How can I settle this."

Colin decides to show him around the place for Kyle to decide for himself.

He starts at the outside camp, "The kids started this. They set everyone in their groups of 20 and they sleep inside. Their super strict about eating inside the camp, so no one even tries it because they'll miss out on the nighttime treats."

They go inside the kids camp since they are gone, "This is what they look like inside. Showers and bathroom. This is thanks to Thomas's new nano technology. He used June's power to create this small blue pin, it generates water. The red one generates hot water. They lose colour when they run out, but one can last a month. We have a whole crate of them."

He shows Kyle the cabinets, "I can't open it no matter how hard I try. Security on this is out of the world, finger print unlock and automatically locks, "Super annoying when you want to be a parent and check inside."

Colin points to the butterfly on the wall, "It has air freshener and once a week they clean up in here and leave an air purifier on with all the cabinets open. This is done to purify the clothes and blankets. When it's time to change mattresses we wash all these and the blankets and give them to camps. Convenient for others too."

Kyle looks in the toilets with 3 stalls, he enters the first one and looks at a water ring on the wall made with June's power. It's round, but there's a blue ring of light in the centre, the disk is next to every toilet put on the wall, "I can't believe this Thomas and I have the same ability but look at what he's accomplished." Kyle says looking at the material of the tent wall.

Colin chuckles, "It takes an endless supply of Nanites for this, he works all day tinkering with them. He didn't have them at his old camp so he was pretty powerless back then, besides we donated TVs and stuff and you did magic with those. We have plenty where that came from too. We'll send it your way. You have what it takes to do this, better yet something original." He looks at Kyle with a serious face very sure about his last statement.

Kyle nods and follows Colin out of the tent and towards the underground parking lot still trying to figure out how he can be original.

He notices nano walls on the side of the parking lot entrance, he looks at the tents outside and how close to the parking lot they are wondering why they don't just start sleeping inside, why sleep outside? He thinks out loud.

Colin stops and turns around, "For cleanliness, because those tents can buy someone outside enough time to run and activate the nano wall, simultaneously it will ring the emergency alarm and the whole place will emit blue mist from every corner of the city. This is done based on what Lily saw, it increases odds of survival because the infected can't touch Nanites, something about them burns them."

Colin points at the underground parking, "That's the closest way for a large multitude such as this one to get to the bunker quickly. Everyone hangs around here during the day." He leads the way inside the underground parking it has tables set up and a space where there are a lot of random clothes and plates and shoes.

Colin smiles, "That's stuff we're going to give away, this space is supposed to be empty."

Kyle looks at the clothes and plates, "Where did you find these?"

"Chronos, he turns back time when he can. For his training he was turning time back on the mall, most of the shops were clothing shops. Others had jewellery and others had parfumes, thanks to Thomas and his archive power he knew what most of the things were, there were many medicines we found, he's busy finding out what they do."

Kyle nods, "Snowflake was sick and he made some medicine. Can I get my hands on some. I'd like to have a medical cabinet with that, how did he make it?"

Colin sighs, "No idea, I think it's some kind of adaptive power, basically when he's faced with a problem he will get a power to face that problem. He cannot generate nanites out of the blue however that's what he made Rex and Toya wish for endlessly and for some reason they got stronger, he makes my training look like unnecessary torture."

Kyle laughs, "He would be in trouble for using the kids like that at my camp."

"I couldn't even get mad because the kids like it. I don't know how he brain washes them, you literally cannot say a bad thing about Thomas with one of them in the room. They absolutely adore the guy."

Kyle smiles, "It's easy to be a dad to children that are not your own, but why did you expand anyway. I'm doing it because I have alot of people."

Colin chuckles, "We did it because the kids were in charge at the time and decided to chase the infected out of the city just because it sounded like a good idea. Low-key it was to keep more people from coming this side. It attracted infected." He opens the door to the bunker, "Best decision I ever made was trusting those kids, they only make me more proud with every passing day." He smiles at Kyle who smiles back.

The bunker is a large room divided into sections. There's the infirmary, there is a room where the children stay 24/7 with toys everywhere, there are rooms with supplies and medicine cabinets.

The rest of the place is rooms with beds everywhere.

"You have a kitchen down here" Kyle looks around in shock.

"We have showers too. The original mall had more room than we thought. Didn't realise that across the street was still the mall, they are connected underground." Colin talks about the new building that used to be heaps of rubble blocking one of the entrances and some of the rocks were leaning heavily on the mall.

Thomas trained Chronos, Toya, and Rex to open a time vault together and they rewound the entire mall, there's trees and green grass. A walk way from one side of the mall to the other with palm trees on both sides of the red road. On one side is a big statue on the other side is a pool covered in nano glass so no one accidentally drown.

From the underground bunker Colin takes the stairs out of habit.

They go a single floor up and it's where security is the tightest.

"Here is where people used to sleep but after turning back time we decided to keep things as they are." He enters the first clothing shop and it has children's clothing and shoes.

Kyle is still outside hypnotised by the interior. The tiles, the colour, the glass. He looks up and the place looks so much larger.

"Hey! I've been talking to myself here." Colin says deep in the shop.

Kyle enters the shop and walks aisle by aisle, "These look so comfortable."

"Yes, you get different clothes depending on the year. Chronos likes to switch things up for the children."

"So thoughtful." Kyle says walking out. His eyes glued on the winter boots, children at his camp really need those for the next winter.

"Will the nanoshield hold for the winter storm? The infected are starting to gather in groups for hibernation. I want to place cold machines a few blocks away from the new camp. Infected hate the cold."

"We should do that too. In the spring season this region is still cold so they start in the outer skirts but they come back in summer, is it just me or did we see too few infected this year?" Colin says.

"We did, but powerful ones were born. So it wasn't exactly a win. We lost too many people to count, thanks to you guys maybe this winter won't be so cold. Last time winter came early there was a snow storm so intense we went into hibernation too." Kyle says upset, winter is one of the few times people get to go outside without shields or infected to worry about.

"This winter not all the infected will hibernate, someone is helping them adjust. Purposely using them to take us down. We've been spreading word, do the same. This winter will be the coldest, the red liars are helping the infected, well, attempting too anyway. Idiots will get themselves killed if we play our cards right, than no one will threaten the change towards the infected free life we're all after." Colin says.

"It's only our camps they will come after?" Kyle asks as they leave the second store for the next.

"More like only our camps they will have time to come after. If they fail to come after your camp they will wish they never came here. Years of struggle and pain, and they just want to kick us while we're down." Colin's face shifts expressing so much anger he looks like a completely different person.

"They are sick and twisted." Kyle adds.

They enter the next shop.

"This is called make up, we have camps that have heard of this asking for it. We don't need it so we give it away. Women use it to cover up their aging. It makes them look younger. Men use it too."

"Clearly that's an everyday problem for us. Except for you, what happened to your face?" Kyle tugs on his cheeks.

Colin winces, "Stop that. I just use the toiletries my wife gives me."

Kyle laughs, "Your face is so smooth and shiny. Can I borrow your wife."

"No!" Colin says holding his hot cheek, "Not my wife. Never the wife."

Kyle laughs again.

The next aisle is just different types of perfumes, "We give all this away." The next aisle is hair and skin cosmetics. Different brands and galore, "We give this away too."

"Woah, do people know how to use them?" Kyle leans in staring at the foam baths.

"No, the reason why delivering goods takes so long is because we have to sit down and explain how everything works. Verify clothing sizes first before we leave and nursing them back to health because the throwing up gunk process is unpredictable, it's really hard to predict how long people will be sick for. It needs someone with the stomach for it too." Colin says now used to it.

The next aisle is all medicine for various illnesses, "We throw this away, our biology is different from the old humans. These are practically poison for us."

Kyle looks at what it says, "I can't read this language."

"Thomas can translate it, it is poisonous to purple blood cells that are vital to us, the infected would probably evolve from this so we dispose of it here. We all know what's bad for us is good for them." Colin says walking ahead.

The next aisle has more medicine and feminine products, "Here we give away these pads, a woman by the name of Shakira makes disposable underwear for the women. Everyone prefers that over this, but camps without worship these. You'll find it in other grocery stores too."

"What do the disposable underwear have that this doesn't?" He asks because at his camp women use pads.

"My wife says that these are not comfortable for taller women. The disposable underwear are comfortable for any shape and size female, it's comfortable around the thighs and cover this area, the inner thighs. The pad in the underwear goes all the way up and the wings cover the whole behind. In design it looks like ordinary underwear just bulky. It has this pad like material but it's not just straight like this one. No one complains about waking up with a mess in the morning. My wife hadn't seen her period since we had Mira, it recently came back. I think I want another baby." Colin says snickering evilly.

Kyle laughs, "I don't want to introduce them to something that convenient. Bring me some of these pads will you. I use those at my camp."

"Noted."

They walk to the lower aisle and find oral hygiene products and shaving products. The rest is snacks.

"What?! All of this? No one comes to steal?"

"No, they get a treat daily. We have no choice to give it away every month too. We never give the people in our camp too much. Sometimes they make their own treats, it helps keep everyone busy and less hungry."

They walk past the toilet paper aisle and hair technology aisle. The rest is kettles, foot massagers, face steamers and more.

"Wow, you really are wealthy. There's more?"

"Yup."

They enter clothing shops and shoes shops Colin showing him the boxes in the back, "We have women and men that help us sort these out and we give them to camps. Everyone already has their own clothes. Kids grow up too damn fast we have to be careful with how we give those away."

He enters another perfume shop, "We give this away. People honestly appreciate it though."

Kyle picks up one and sprits it in the air. He inhales the smell and covers his nose, "it's too harsh."

"Not for other people." They tour the entire floor and the second floor was mostly used for restaurants, "This is where the women spend their day with cook books trying out different recipes."

Kyle enters the shops with chairs and tables neatly prepared, "It smells nice."

"I promise you, product testing is a dangerous job." Colin says, but his words jump the ears of the starving Kyle.

From there on he goes shop by shop tasting different meals he enters the elevator stuffed.

"All those meals were fantastic. Letting them almost burn the mall is starting to pay off."

Colin smirks, "I'm glad it is."

The third floor has the arcade occupying half the space. On the opposite side Colin presents the monitoring room with cameras watching every street in the city.

"Wow, in colour and so clear." Kyle says.

"Courtesy of Thomas."

He takes him to the second mall and the building is empty packed with crates heaped on top of each other.

"This is Jacob, who makes the crates you see here. When someone asks for our help they are written down and we package their orders immediately. This is where business is done."

He shows him more tents outside, "There's a second entrance to the bunker here, when we get new members this is where they will sleep. At the moment only people vital to this operation sleep here."

The first floor is packaged crates only with portals opening left and right.

"We recruited 4 new portal users to speed up the operation. They really doubled the speed." Colin explains as they pass through watching 3 women talking to 3 groups of men.

"Infected are in that area, Lily said they won't make it if we make them wait one more day. Go there now."

"Okay. Order 4ç to 6z. We'll be fast."

"Thanks."

Second floor is where the packaging is done.

"We has to get new members for this as well, when the kids come back they'll be surprised how many people we added to just fill the gap they left behind, but it was totally worth it."

Last floor is where the leaders sleep and where the more important supplies are stored, every floor has security placed according to powers.

Kyle nods, "I see, this place caters to the type of powers you have, that's why you showed me around. I definitely wouldn't be able to do it like this with the number of people I have and powers I have to work with."

Colin nods, "I understand."

"Thank you. This certainly has convinced me I made the right decision I just need to keep border security team closer to the people so they also can escape into the bunker, and practising evacuation drills is an excellent idea." Kyle says happy.

Colin smiles, "Glad I helped."

"Your mall is beautiful, in fact the houses are great and colorful too. Is this what they were like years ago before all this nonsense?" Kyle asks wondering if he can roam the streets, there are lights and lines on the ground and the fallen structure is now standing and there are alot more tall buildings here.

"Yes, according to history. This was a large businesses city, hence why all the large buildings that are known as Sky scrapers. Chronos can sometimes show us real time events of what happened there, like computers in that large building and paper. Thomas discovered computer games and is working on a mission that will be able to take us back in time, it's Chronos power but a machine does all the work. We'll learn more about back then."

Kyle smiles, "Send us what you learn. I'd love for the children to learn about it."

"I'm sure Thomas will get a kick out of that." Colin says leading the way back to the office.