Chapter 96

Breakfast

Ultra Warrior Gunslinger 83: Your sister is fine, Leo. Lydia was asking about you. Apparently, she got tired of doing dishes and serving food in our cafeteria, so they sent her to help out in our makeshift hospital, at which point, she decided she didn't mind doing dishes after all.

Future Man 10/16: Thanks, Jason.

After a bit of searching and asking for directions, he found the cafeteria in a large room underneath the bleachers. From the signs on the walls, Leo guessed this had once been a bar. It was now a busy cafeteria with a long line of people waiting for food.

Leo pushed through the line and between a couple of large security people and entered the food preparation area. “It's okay. My sister works here,” he said, showing off his implant when security, food servers, and people in the line tried to stop him.

“Asshole!” someone shouted as Leo entered the kitchen area.

“It's okay. That's Leo,” Howie said from the kitchen. Leo found the large man working furiously on food preparation, hands moving far faster than they had any right to.

“Howie!” Leo said, surprised at how glad he was to see that the large man was okay, though that could have been because he was hungry. “You're keeping busy.”

“This implant is amazing,” Howie said, not pausing what he was doing. “I'm doing the work of five people right now. Lydia is in the back doing dishes.”

“I don't suppose I could get something to eat?”

“Sure thing.” Howie grabbed a tray and loaded it down with eggs, bacon, hash browns, a chicken-fried steak, and green beans. “We're running out of basic food supplies. Pretty soon I'm going to have to get creative, so enjoy this while it lasts. Coffee, right?”

“Yes, please, and could I get some extra food for my sister? I want to make sure she's eating.”

“She already ate, but sure,” Howie piled some more on, giving him a couple bottled waters and a cup of coffee. “Your friend Jason has ketchup and Tabasco sauce, if you're interested.”

“Thanks, Howie. You're the best.” Leo headed to where people were cleaning dishes.

Leo sagged with relief when he saw Lydia. She was with twenty others, most of them kids. She slowly sorted out silverware before it ran through a large dishwasher, ignoring an adult telling her to hurry. It was clear she'd been doing this for a while. He looked around and saw food and water dishes for a cat in a distant corner, but no sign of Sparkles. Presumably, Sparkles was off exploring.

“Leo!” Lydia's face lit up. She ran over to him. Then she kicked him in the leg. Hard. Thanks to his armor, Leo barely felt it. She glared at him. “Ow! You hurt my foot.” She kicked him a second time, then put her foot down gingerly.

“So quit kicking me, stupid.” Leo held his tray away from her to stop her from jostling it. “I just came to make sure you're okay, but it looks like you're fine.”

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“You ditched us yesterday to run off to do stupid things to get yourself killed!” Lydia said, pulling back her other foot and kicking him for a third time. “Cut it out!”

“You scared us when you ran off like that,” Jason said, joining them. “Thank God Shank got us to the stadium, but she was pissed. You shouldn't have done that.”

“I was trying to help,” Leo said. “I did what I thought was right.”

“Idiot!” Lydia said, kicking him for a fourth time.

“I brought some extra food, in case you hadn't eaten,” Leo said. “Are you hungry?”

“Come on people,” an older lady shouted. “They're running out of clean dishes. Get back to work.”

“I ate already,” Lydia said with a sigh. “I'd better get back to work before Doris kills me.” She turned and limped back to the dishwasher line.

“Come on. I'm eating over here.” Jason pulled him over to a corner table. “We can't eat in the cafeteria. People keep asking where we got the extra portions.”

Leo joined him and wasted no time stuffing food into his mouth as fast as he could. He hadn't eaten in over a day. “This is so good. I'm starving.”

“Do you really like it?” Jason asked, looking gloomy.

“Oh, hell, yeah,” Leo said through a mouthful of food while dumping ketchup on his hash-browns. “Howie is amazing. These eggs have salt and pepper, cheese even. I wish I ate a tenth this well during my previous future.”

“I can't stand cheese on my eggs,” Jason said. “So Howie made me sunny-side-up eggs, but they're runny.”

“They're supposed to be runny,” Leo said. “If you don't want them, I'll take them.”

“Okay.” Jason moved his eggs into Leo's tray. “And it's the wrong kind of bacon.. Mom uses hickory smoked bacon”

“So what? It's bacon. Bacon tastes like bacon.”

“It's not how Mom makes it. Mom could be mean, but she was an amazing cook, and she made great breakfasts--and now she's gone.” Jason started crying. “I thought this world would be amazing. That I wouldn't have school, I could live how I liked and my life would be great. I was wrong. This post-apocalyptic world sucks.”

Leo got up, walked around the small table, and put his arm around Jason. “Sorry, Jason. I did try to warn you.”

By the time Leo left the cafeteria, he'd gone from starving to uncomfortably full, having finished his own overfilled tray and all the food Jason didn't want.

Teach: Leo. We're planning on setting up a trap to reduce the Afflicted population and gain more Demon Tears. I was hoping you would help us out.

Future Man 10/16: I will. But first I need to help at the hospital. I'll use my group heal skill to reduce the patient population.

Teach: Meet me after. I want to bounce some ideas off you.

Leo's next stop was the makeshift hospital.

Patients with minor injuries, like Brick, were on stretchers with blankets and left outside to take in the fresh air and sun. The patients with more serious problems were in a large room underneath the bleachers from which Leo could hear cries of pain.

A lot of volunteers were going between patients trying to help, but from what Leo could tell, aside from bringing the patients food or water or helping them to one of the nearby porta-potties to relieve themselves, they knew very little about patient care.

Leo walked past them into the makeshift hospital. The rows of cots were filled with patients with serious injuries: arms or legs missing, infected wounds, ailments, and illnesses Leo couldn't identify. IVs were hung in less than sanitary conditions and heart-rate monitors were beeping. One patient had a horrible-sounding cough and was getting red flakes on their mouth and pillow. Most of the patients were children.

“What do you want?” a tired-looking nurse asked as Leo walked up.

“I'm Leo Edwards, the Guardian. I have a group-heal skill.”