Chapter 5: Under the tree.

“He cheated!” Victoria shook her head before continuing to yell. “I’ll take you on right now!”

“What!” Stark immediately looked at Victoria as if she were insane. “I appreciate the concern but please relax.”

“Get over it sweetie, your man lost.” Delilah said suddenly joining Lupus.

Victoria sighed. “Fine, I’ll beat both your asses.”

“ENOUGH!” The director yelled from among the adults who all sat together up in the far left of the arena.

in a flash he was standing in between Victoria and the two other teenagers.

He adjusted his glasses before saying. “Breakfast time is over, it’s time for you all to start your first class of the day.”

At the next moment all of the underclassmen were guided out of the classroom to their respective classes. Stark’s year remained in the arena as it was currently time for their gym class.

Stark himself was sent to the nurse when his side turned blue where Lupus kicked him.

On his way he struggled to not grimace from the sting. Such injuries were common place after sparring, but it didn’t make them any less unpleasant. fortunately it was extremely difficult for a life threatening injury to be sustained as Stark like every other child in the facility, could regenerate at a relatively high speed. Apparently, it was that characteristic that distinguished second generation immortal soldiers like himself from the first and third generations.

He headed all the way back to the cafeteria before turning to the left and entering into a small door in the corner with a green cross depicted on it. The door was rather unique as it was made of wood which made it stick out like a soar thumb in the facility.

“Two of your ribs are broken.” In the nurse’s office Nurse Susanna spoke gently as she carefully wrapped up Stark’s torso in bandages.

Stark groaned and couldn’t help but feel like a total idiot. He had deliberately let himself be kicked for a chance to take down Lupus and ultimately failed in the end.

Stark’s reputation would certainly suffer because of this but he naturally didn’t care. He’d be out of here in less than a year anyway.

“It should heal before your time in the simulation room today so be sure to rest until then.” Nurse Susanna said in a calm and gentle voice.

Stark Left the nurse’s office as soon as the nurse gave him the clear and immediately went to the garden to watch the koi in the pond.

Upon arrival he glanced up at the large clock in the middle of the glass dome. The time was thirty eight passed ten in the morning meant that he had over four hours left until the simulator began.

He walked over towards a nearby tree where he sat and rested, watching the clouds pass by along with the hours. They wouldn’t be heading outside until after all of their classes had passed. The simulation was always the last class of the day and it began at three o clock in the afternoon exactly.

During his first time in the new simulation he couldn’t make it past the fourth floor. Therefore his main objective was to make sure he could at least beat the giant Demi Necromorph on his own before ascending further.

Stark eventually closed his eyes before taking a nap.

“Wakie wakie.” The voice of a particular girl called out to him.

As his eyes opened, Stark saw Victoria staring at him with the sun highlighting her ethereal features. In his half awake stupor Stark looked at her as if she wasn’t the troubled girl he had known his entire life. He smiled at her. “So pretty.”

Victoria staggered back before grasping her chest as she turned red and her mouth fell agape.

“Oh… crap…” Stark stretched and yawned before looking at the time again. It was already past two o clock in the evening.

Victoria’s eyes softened as she stood casting shade over the boy. “I agree… the sun is very pretty isn’t it…”

”Victoria?” Stark couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow. Was it really that unfathomable to her that he may be giving her a compliment.

Stark stared up into her blue eyes before looking at her red cheeks and trembling lips. She was in fact very beautiful.

There was once a time when he would’ve thrown himself into the facility’s trash incinerator before admitting that he found the girl physically attractive. But with age comes wisdom and an understanding that such feelings were not to be ashamed of. Looking back on things now, Victoria had always been a very attractive girl to him, it was her obnoxious attitude that prevented him from having deeper feelings towards her.

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Stark sighed and said. “I think you’re beautiful, is it really that crazy for me to say such a thing.”

Victoria immediately became bright red as her pupils dilated. “You… you’re really complimenting me…”

Victoria’s blush seemed to intensify by the second as if she was no different than one of those infatuated underclassmen girls.

Stark looked at her stunned before his expression became melancholic. “Victoria… do you think I really dislike you?”

“Can I sit next to you.” Victoria asked suddenly, as if she wasn’t already used to always sitting beside him regardless of his opinion.

“You don’t have to ask.” Stark snickered. “Just sit down.”

“Thank you…” Victoria carefully sat beside him before placing the container she was holding in her lap before continuing to say. “With how I am, I feel like you must hate me…”

Stark looked at her with surprise before saying. “Victoria… I could never hate you. Don’t ever say that again.”

Victoria quickly became flustered and muttered. “I’m sorry I didn’t mean to… I… I suck at these kind of conversations…”

She held his hand, gently locking her fingers with his before asking. “Do you really think I’m beautiful?”

“How could I not.” Stark turned towards her and smiled before stroking her hair back causing her flustered behaviour to go into overdrive.

“You’re… you…” Victoria couldn’t string two words together and her face was now redder than blood.

That was one of the strangest things about her, whenever she had him ripping out his hair in frustration, she’d be a boisterous as ever, laughing endlessly at his expense. Yet in quiet moments like this when they weren’t play fighting. When he treated her like a girl should be treated, she’d become a bumbling red mess.

there was an intimate silence that persisted until Victoria managed to calm down and speak coherently once more.

“I brought some more of Aunt Veronica’s chicken.” Victoria said, the pitch of her voice abnormally high.

“Thank you.” Stark smiled before retrieving the container from her lap. It seemed that today would be a day when she was a darling and not a thorn in his side.

she then continued to ask. “How are you feeling? I asked the nurses and found out that the bastard broke two of your ribs.”

“They should be mostly healed by now.” He said tapping his side to see if he still felt pain.

“Delilah’s not coming with us anymore.” Victoria said, tightening her grip on his hand. “That jackass kept on bragging about how strong Lupus is, it’s sickening so I begged Beverly to exclude him.”

“That’s a little petty.” Stark yawned before opening up the container. She was quite territorial when it came to him, Stark knew that she’d likely hold a grudge for quite some time.

“I’m a petty person and you know it.” Victoria smiled bitterly. “Especially when it comes to people that hurt my beloved Stark.”

Stark felt touched as his expression became melancholic. “I really meant it when I said that you’re pretty.”

“Really!” Victoria’s eyes quickly became dilated as she blushed and gave stark a wide smile, managing to maintain her composure this time. “Aren’t you embarrassed to admit that?”

Stark let out a long sigh. “We’re not children anymore Victoria… there’s no shame in complementing someone else of the opposite sex. How stupid would it be if I became all flustered because of a mere pretty face. Soon we’ll be out of here and free to roam the world as we please. When that day comes what path will you follow?”

Victoria stroked her chin before replying. “I haven’t put much thought into it, I definitely don’t want to join the ACDD though. I have no interest in wasting my life away fighting the Cosmic Death forever.”

“That sounds quite selfish.” Stark chuckled before he began to eat. “Defeating the Cosmic Death is why they bred us in the first place. The director once told me that they beat and even sometimes kill deserters, apparently it’s because it’s considered a great taboo for an immortal soldier to pursue a normal life. I can’t say a blame them for thinking like that though, the universe is dying after all. Yet there’s still a part of me that wants nothing more than to be free to do what I want to do…”’

“What do you want to do?” Victoria asked leaning in.

“I actually don’t know at all.” Stark laughed almost choking on his food. “That’s crazy isn’t it, I don’t know what it is that I want to do yet I still would rather do it than fight a hopeless battle to save a dying universe. I suppose it’s human nature to avoid doing things that you’re told to do. Perhaps we’re all wired to automatically defy authority no matter what the circumstance is.”

Victoria giggled before resting her head on Stark’s shoulder and placing her leg over his. “You should stick with me after we leave here, then whatever we do or wherever we go we can at least enjoy each other’s company.”

”Do you want to marry me or something?” Stark said nudging her shoulder to annoy her.

“Shut up.” Victoria yelled suddenly turning red again. “I just mean that we should do what makes us happy! In a world like this that’s all we have left! You saw the old internet logs too right? Everything was already going to shit a hundred years ago. When we leave we’ll only have each other left.”

“I’ll marry you Victoria, it’s ok.” Stark wore a shit eating grin as he teased her.

“Don’t joke about that stuff…” Victoria began to fidget and lose her composure again. “You should never joke with me like that… I might think you’re being serious. Don’t play around with my feelings. There’s nothing crueler than promising a person a good future only for it to be a lie.”

“My bad.” Stark sighed, realising that he may be going too far with that one. He was pretty sure that Victoria had feelings for him. It would explain her behaviour very well. If that really were the case then teasing her in such a manner would be quite awful of him indeed. Stark himself didn’t know how to feel about her as he didn’t even know how to feel about himself, or his future. He had no real calling in life, no passion or goal besides freedom. A man without a calling would naturally try to replace his calling with a woman, causing him to become overbearing. At least that’s how it went in the romcoms they were forced to watch. Stark knew himself well, if he allowed himself to fall in love with Victoria before he found his true calling in life then she’d become his calling. Having another person be your entire reason for living would only lead to an unhealthy relationship.

“As for what you said a minute ago about not getting flustered easily, You got pretty flustered yesterday when I threatened to spill our little secret.” Victoria said.

Stark immediately laughed. “What do you expect? It was something I couldn’t control…”

Victoria grinned before getting up. “I took it as a compliment.”

She then pulled at her white gown slowly. Raising it further and further up.

“Knock it off.” Stark sighed. “There’s probably underclassmen watching us from the Cafeteria right now.”

“Oh crap!” Victoria quickly directed her eyes at the glass wall where she saw several underclassmen boys looking at her with ravenous curiosity.

Fortunately she had only raised the gown to her upper thigh and nothing particularly inappropriate was exposed.