DORM LIFE

It has been a week since Theo left. Hamon was currently living in the dorm for the young.

“I told you to not touch the food in the middle of the night. What are we gonna eat now?” Samia, the housekeeper, dragged a girl by her foot as she tried to struggle free. Soon enough, the girl stopped feeling her limbs as the cold crept inside her.

“The devil! You are the devil” The girl threw acid spit everywhere.

“You little fiend, stop destroying the house.” Samia kicked the girl’s mouth shut. In the past, she really believed in educating and disciplining kids with care. Post-apocalypse? Not so much. Kids given superpowers were a super headache.

Sally crossed the corridor, scratching her belly and yawning, and avoided the sizzling acid spit left by the girl. “No breakfast today,” she mumbled.

“Sally, good thing you woke up.” Samia perked up. “Go fetch more food in the communal kitchen. “I have to find another little trickster. This one didn’t operate alone this time around.”

Sally started grumbling as she went upstairs. “Hamon! Mila!” She banged on their respective doors. They were twenty in the dorm and slept into five separate rooms. “Samia told us to go fetch some food.”

Hamon woke up a bit groggy, rubbing his eyes. “What happened?”

“Stupid spitter girl melted the food,” Sally answered as she banged again on Mila’s door. “Mila! Wake up!”

“Shut up, Sally!” Came a voice from another girl from the inside, just before the door opened, and Mila was thrown out.

Mila was still managing to wake up as Sally started dragging her by the arm. A few steps later, she looked back at Hamon. “Come, and you carry her.” Sally motioned for Hamon to take Mila’s arm.

Hamon shoved Mila on his shoulders, and the trio went to the communal kitchen.

Hamon’s life couldn’t have been better in his opinion. He would never have had the strength to carry someone like that before, or to fight on his own. Before the abyss, everything was always a matter of run, endure, hide, and suck up. Not to say he was sad all the time. Since he didn’t know any better, life was good.

In the abyss, he could be the hero he always wanted. Hamon liked the thrill of smashing monsters when they were weaker than him and didn’t pose a threat. The fact that he was still level four after a week bothered him a bit. However, when he looked at Sally and the surroundings, he noticed he didn’t really care. Hillfront was the best place to be, and he could just relax without fighting at all.

Mila had just given up going back to sleep, and Sally was telling her about what happened earlier. She didn’t make any signs of trying to walk by herself and just let Hamon carry her all the way. The communal kitchen was full of people eating on long wooden tables. Food wasn’t a problem at Hillfront since people got adept at hunting the surrounding monster habitats. They established turns on the hunts of some usual monster types, cattle as they called, to not make them scarce.

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Sally went straight into the back door and barged into the kitchen, a place with less than ideal sanitary conditions. People coming from a gate in the back carried huge slabs of meat on their shoulders and threw them on a stone platform. Others were in charge of cutting up the meat and other vegetables in smaller sized pieces. In the center, there were several cauldrons with boiling food; no ingredients were wasted in Hillfront. There were some blessings involved, but most of the work was done on raw strength.

“Uncle Fey!” Sally skipped towards a man with a potbelly and a mustache.

“What are you doing here this time, Sally?” Fey cleaned the sweat from his forehead.

“Stupid kid melted our food at the dorms, Aunt Samia told me to get some more.” Sally side-eyed the caldrons as she smelled the tasty aroma.

“Third time this month. The witch is having far more trouble with kids than devils!” Fey laughed, and Hamon couldn’t help but notice the motions in his belly.

“Can we eat with the troops?” Sally made her prized puppy face.

“Why not? go ahead.” Fey turned around, “Now let me work,” and went back into screaming at some recruits about every little thing they did wrong.

The trio grabbed plates, spoons and chose a somewhat empty table to sit down. There was a warm pot full of stew in the middle where the ones sitting at the table served themselves.

“At least we won’t have to wait for breakfast.” Sally put a spoonful of stew on her plate.

“I’m impressed by how you know almost everyone in town, going everywhere.” Hamon followed her, going first for the meat.

“And you hadn't even arrived yet when we got to the castle rooftop.” Mila played with her stew with the spoon. “It was so cool.”

Sally rubbed her nose, proud of herself. “We went to the healing wards yesterday,” Sally smirked. “It was nasty inside there, with all the injured. I talked our way in there with Miss Melanie.”

“What?” Mila widened her eyes. “You called him and not me? I feel betrayed.” Hamon had a small laugh between servings as Mila flopped on the table.

Sally rolled her eyes. “You were stuck in cleaning duty. That’s what you get for losing the bet with the boys.”

“We also checked out the monster farm they were trying to set up,” Hamon scraped his plate as he went for another round, “It isn’t going as well as planned.

Mila got even more shocked by her friend’s betrayal. Sally started kicking Hamon from under the table, but he remained clueless, only laughing as Sally facepalmed.

After a while, Hamon was almost finished with his fourth plate. The girls were flabbergasted, Mila hadn’t even finished hers yet. “Damn, you eat like you starved all your life. Didn’t you have food before that?”

“Not everyday.” Hamon shrugged. “It’s always good to eat when you can, you never know.”

The girls went silent. They obviously didn’t know much about Hamon, and Mila felt she had touched a sore topic.

Hamon didn’t care and shoved another spoonful of stew in his mouth. “That’s what I like the best about the apocalypse. The food is so good, and there’s always enough for everyone.”

Mila played a bit with her food, not sure what to answer.

Hamon was really enjoying the apocalypse those days. He was quick to adapt and the previous shrugs with death were easily thrown to the back of his mind. If only he had already found his mother, life would have been better than ever. Suri promised him to investigate the town, so there was progress.

The girls had been silent for a while, and Hamon wasn’t sure why. As a gentleman, he burped really loud, breaking the ice once again and making both of them laugh a bit. The trio kept laughing and having fun in the communal kitchen for another half an hour. They didn’t have much to do, there was no use in hurrying.