SOMETHING TO DO

He walked towards the rooms to lock himself in on his own, the bunker had no windows so he didn't know if it was night or day outside but the big clock on the walls of the rooms marked eleven. He let out a sigh while in his mind he remembered the scene, Ocean, her boyfriend?

He preferred not to dwell on the matter, he got out of bed to lock his door and sleep without being disturbed, but when he was about to do so, he heard voices and footsteps outside his room.

"Commander, reinforcement 090 needs more air capsules, according to the report today he was about to be injured by the girl due to lack of oxygen, luckily reinforcement 091 was close."

"Supplies are running low, try using asthma inhalers on him."

Zev put the safety on too slowly to avoid making noise and being caught spying, the voices receded so he couldn't hear any more. He was sure that 090 and 091 were referring to Ocean and her boyfriend, he even wondered if the boy could also emanate fireworks from his hands.

He took off his pair of socks, made them into a ball and began to play with them lying on the bed, the movement up and down made him sleepy, sooner rather than later he would fall asleep.

The next day no one had come to see him, only Milo who was outside waiting without knocking. When Zev woke up it was around one in the afternoon, he was sleeping a lot.

"I have to go to work!" He said exalted.

When he fully opened his eyes, he realized that he was still in the bunker.

"I don't understand anything, why am I still in this nightmare?"

He changed his clothes and went out, when he opened the door Milo was outside.

"Any news brother?" he asked.

"The military went out looking for more survivors, surely they won't be long in coming, they left early but a soldier asked that we all meet in the common room in fifteen minutes, you should eat something in the meantime."

Zev nodded, they went to the dining room for something to start the day and make time until the meeting. He ate some scrambled eggs and orange juice, he even had time to go brush his teeth.

They both went to the main room, people were arriving and they were taking seats in the chairs that he had ordered inside the place, Zev and Milo sat in the middle, they thought that maybe it wouldn't be anything important and that's why they didn't take a place in front. When all the survivors were already gathered, someone Zev had seen before appeared.

"Hello everyone, listen" Ocean's supposed boyfriend began to speak.

Zev crossed his arms to take a defensive stance but his body leaned forward slightly as he wanted to hear what this boy had to say. Before continuing with the speech, he saw that he took an inhaler from his pants pocket and took a breath.

"Umm well, I don't know how to say this but since you are here you have only one option, there are jobs that you can do."

Before continuing, people started talking as if they were complaining.

"They will be paid for their work, we don't want you to be our slaves or our employees, we just want you to be able to earn some money while you are here, you know, for when the situation is resolved and we can return to our homes," he said with a tone carefree, despite being serious, his voice reassured others, even some women began to sigh for him.

Zev rolled his eyes but this earning money thing interested him.

"On that wall there is a list of the jobs you can do, write you down and each responsible soldier will instruct you, any questions?"

No one asked questions, the guy left, and people came up to the list. Milo and Zev went to check out the available positions.

"Look, there's cooking, you work in a restaurant, brother," Milo said.

Zev hated his job but since it was well paid he preferred to stay until what happened, although while there it would be a good option to try something different. Positions available in addition to the kitchen were general facility cleaning, babysitting, laundry, and nursing.

"I think I'm going to choose this one," he pointed out.

"I'll choose general cleaning," Milo smiled.

They both split up and went to the chosen area. Zev arrived, fortunately it was not a job that was in high demand for the other survivors, there were at most about six people.

"Okay, you will help us to help the health needs of the survivors, soldiers and reinforcements."

"Reinforcements?" He thought.

"The doctors together with me will first teach you the basics, CPR technique and more things," the soldier said.

"Excuse me sir, who are the reinforcements?" He dared to ask.

"They are special soldiers, they help us fight against the walkers," he answered without giving any further details, "now, when the others return, you will have to attend to the survivors, check their vital signs and support if anyone is injured, sick or if a woman she's pregnant, okay?"

All six nodded. As they were being instructed in their first lesson, Zev saw Ocean's boyfriend walk into the nurse's area but walked past him and then came to a door with a yellow stripe.

Zev followed him with his eyes as far as he could, while the soldier gave them a single rule, which was not to enter the door with the fringe, access was restricted and only high-ranking soldiers were allowed to enter.

Later, at lunchtime, the military arrived accompanied by a few rescued people, everyone seemed calm but soon a group of soldiers would run in carrying their wounded comrade, his leg was completely destroyed and blood would not stop flowing from it.

"I think I can help," a new girl spoke, from her tone of voice it could be said that she was someone quite shy, she even raised her hand to offer her help.

"Miss, please stay with the others, we have this resolved."

Zev got up from the table along with the other nursing colleagues but they were asked not to intervene as it could be risky. The commander told the people that everything was in order and there was nothing to worry about, and he would talk to everyone again soon. After the move, Ocean came running desperately asking for his boy.

"Where is he?"

"In the lab," the commander said quietly but Zev could read his lips.

Apparently the striped door was a kind of laboratory, surely there they studied everything related to the walking epidemic. Everything was disconcerting to him, he wanted to discover the truth, as well as understand why he felt that he did not belong there, that everything was a dream, a simple illusion.

Ocean entered the door and saw the boy lying on a gurney, with wires attached and a respirator.

"Hey," she spoke softly.

He widened his eyes glad to see her face again.

"Ocean, you're back."

*You are better? I found out that there is almost no oxygen left," she commented worriedly.

"Relax, with this I will be able to resist a little more," he got up slowly.

"We need real oxygen," she frowned, "but I don't want to go back there…"

"No, we'll find a way to keep breathing," he took her hand.

They were silent for a few minutes until the commander requested that they all go to the meeting room once more. They both headed right away. Zev saw them go in together and Milo looked closely at the girl trying to find why his brother swore that she was just like the Ocean they knew.

"Listen, as you know a soldier was wounded, the walkers secrete a thick black liquid that affects all the cells of the body and slowly eats away at the skin, a quick way to solve an attack is to amputate the contaminated member but the mental effects it causes take time minus two days to disappear if the flow of blood stops, it's something like a virus, if it doesn't stop, the person falls into total madness," he paused briefly, "because there are still survivors we have lost many soldiers and we don't have enough reinforcements, in an hour a new crew of soldiers will arrive."

People were surprised, it was true that there were very few soldiers in that bunker, it was almost impossible for them alone to cope with all the hard work of searching and especially the fact of having to fight walkers.

"We need more soldiers, so if any of you want, we will open a new support area as rescue soldiers, we will also pay you even higher value than the rest, if you want to join, who will instruct you will be one of our reinforcements," he paused to point it out, "Evander, those interested come with him."