A heavy breath passing around a room, a sound of shuffling, was slowly succumbing near the hilts of a wooden frame. As the tossing was brought about with its physical view. A bed was shown as a lass slept soundly on it with slight breathing difficulties.

As she yawned slowly during her wake, she stretches her arms as she was greeted by her guardian partner who was watching by her side from a single seat woven from wool and other cloth-like material.

"Good morning, Maiden Mary." The dark-toned guardian called out to her master, smiling whimsically as her feathered angelic wings wrapped around her body like a linen blanket.

Nodding slowly, the lass rubs her eyes as she cracks her neck to release the painful pressure that was feeling her skin down. With a wave, her clumsy yellow dress rubs off her as she smiles.

"Morning Lady Id'dreek, quite a morning isn't it?" She greeted her guardian back in the corresponding kind tone as she then adjusts her seating and buttons of her custom-made blouse of sorts.

Pulling herself off her lovely and comfortable bed, not the same as her own home's one, she slips into her shoes as she then heads to a nearby sink and mirror that was standing prepared next to the bed, similar to a prison cell.

There was no bathroom and not even a shower faucet. They were all probably in a separate place, far from the current room, probably shared among its residents and sheltered staffs.

Turning on the faucet, she pulls off the earphones hanging from her earlobes as she then wraps it around her tape recorder and places it gently on the soft bed.

Combing back her hair, she then takes a small puddle of water with her bowled palms as she then splashes it a few times on her face. Rubbing off the dirt and the morning smell that lingered on her skin.

"So, Maiden Mary are you excited for today?" Id'dreek asked as she floats around Mary's peripheral vision. Reflecting Mary's face through the mirror that was above the sink.

Wiping her moistened face with a prepared rag of a towel on a smallholder, Mary then nods confidently as she smiles back at Id'dreek through the mirrored view.

"As ready as I can ever be." She replies before adjusting her bed and pocketing the tape recorder. "You know I was wondering..." Adjusting her bed covers and flattening her bed, she then spreads the linen blanket seamlessly and presses out the creases. "Once everything and every one changes to the obvious second earth, what will happen to this one?"

"Ah, that's quite simple to explain actually!" Id'dreek strikes out as she then follows her floating behind the back of Mary as she slowly heads out by unlocking her room door and walking down a long white hallway, with various coloured doors made out of multiple types of wood and metallic alloys.

"Once we move to the new place, this earth will cease to exist through the dimensional array of time. As the multiple millions upon millions of time variations already are strewn with our thread of time, you would just be an atom of linen from the others as the new one lives its new life."

"You, on the other hand, can't be around your mother and your siblings from a certain distance as your abilities kind of separate multiple restrictions from the allowance. But it is safe to say, I can reverse that."

"Sounds good, but how will be our current time in the new world with everyone and everything back? I kinda feel like this thing will be mental in decisions and I hope nothing bad would happen if it were." A little curious as Mary can be, she was partially telling the truth.

This feat sounds a little too advanced and insane for a gerbil of a human to spark off. Playing God is already a problem, but when including science in the theme, this is pretty crazy for just a young adult to be thinking about.

"Well, our male species will flourish again, buildings unscathed and resources as much as possible still readily available. Maybe even better advancements of technology and other productions with us Guardians in the mix." Id'dreek before waving to one of her old colleague who lived as long as her from an old encounter.

Appearing before the entrance of the following room, a canteen of sorts, Mary bumped onto NZ and a familiar lass who was conversing about gardening fruits and vegetables.

"Ow." Mary squeaked as she stumbled upon the old man, rubbing her contacted forehead with her palm.

Id'dreek laughing softly off, she calms Mary's ache. with her kind gesturing remedy of shoulder rubs.

NZ turning around, he smiles at the two lasses fooling around in the early of the morning."Top of the morning gals...How was your sleep, pretty clumsy there? Needing glasses soon?"

Mary waves her hands towards her "teacher" as her cheeks blushed red. "No, no. I don't need glasses." Making sure if NZ made a sarcastic joke, she shrugs it off as so as he gives his signature smirk that she is familiar with.

"Well, I suppose you and your friend here are just a little famished. Go on, take a seat. Food is being served in a minute or two, you could probably at the meantime, chat up with the other staffs or residents here." NZ replies as he then waves to her before returning to a conversation with a lab-coated lass who acted more odd than usual.

Taking small brisk steps, Mary and Id'dreek sat in front of a seating General Leutenegger who was busy writing up something on a piece of paper as she gobbles herself with whole doughnut balls. A recent simple dessert made the day before for everyone.

Mumbling to herself gibberish, she then ends her paper and reaches for her cup of coffee before cleaning off her bready palette. "....Ahh." She grunts as she clears her throat before noticing Mary who was smiling back at her. Her eyes ever reflecting as if diamond prisms gouged into her eyes.

"Ahh, Guten Morgen, Mary. You are up early than usual." Leutenegger calls out as she closes off her document folder. "Are you wondering what's next to learn or are you just hungry?"

Mary, nodding slowly. She smiles in glee. "Why, yes. I woke up early due to my need for daily sustenance, haha." She joked for a change. "Well, to be honest, I was just bored with sleeping and thought I could use some time to explore the place, other than that, the assignment."

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

"Oh, I see," Leutenegger replies as she then finishes the last few sips of her black sludgy liquid out of her mug. "Well, I guess that's fine, go ahead, after breakfast of course. The assignment is only a one-shot of a trial anyway. Even if it fails, we can just continue with our current daily lives."

"You mean in this fallout of a disaster, I guess that could work one way or another," Mary replies before an electric bell started clanking about profusely.

Clink, clank and clink it went for a painstakingly couple of seconds before shutting off with a melodramatic wub. As it shut down, the servers then trollied out a couple of freshly made food on plates for the residents and staff to feast on. In an obvious disciplined manner, people were lining up one by one immediately before picking out their favourite meal.

Another server with a separate trolley of the same for, excused a line of people before heading to the main centre, perhaps to serve the lesser able folks and the elderly.

"Go line up quickly, before all the food goes away." Leutenegger reminds Mary as she twirls her pen about.

"Uh, huh. Yeah, sure!" Snapping out of the ringing tinnitus of a trance, Mary immediately hoists herself off the bench she was sitting on and squeezes through a few people to get to the back of the line.

Luckily, she was quite early for it as there were fewer people upfront than behind. Glad there was enough food for everyone, she waited for her turn as one by one disappears a plateful.

Some garlic bread, spinach and a bowl of soup, Mary then head back to the table only to now see Doctor Faltina and NZ sitting beside them.

"Heyah, curio. Come on, let's eat." NZ calls out to Mary as she slowly proceeds to take her seatback.

"Sure." She replies as Id'dreek smiles watching them preparing to eat. She couldn't consume food unlike the other few guardians since she mostly relied on light and electrical wavelengths as energy but at the same time, she wasn't fond of filling her stomach with unnecessary resources, practically the aftertaste it gave out. "Id'dreek, you didn't take any?"

Shaking her head, an obvious decline, she then dissipates to a blinding light out of thin air.

"What was that for?" Mary asks.

"She's probably a little worried about today and you too. " Doctor Faltina answers as she pokes her fork onto her poached egg.

"Hmm, that makes sense. If I were her, I would feel the same for a friend of mine." Mary answers before explaining about a time where she met a fellow tribe ally from a time when she was way too young. A time of more harshness when the monsters wandered about the grainy sands of collapsed buildings.

"Well, after seeing her being taken away, I just stayed quiet, sitting in the room, staring at the unknown as I hear outside the shouting of my mother on some sort of telephone as loud sounds of crashing could be heard." Ending her story, Mary sighs before smiling. "What do you think?"

"Hmm..." Swallowing his last bite of bread, NZ nods his head before turning to her. "I think I know where that got off to, I was there during that time. General here was helping the back lines and Doctor here was guiding you and a few other children one by one to another place, you were stuck there with your baby siblings at that time because your mother deemed it as she gave out orders to the other side of the impact zone, towards another military company, of sorts. " He explains as Mary makes a surprised face.

"So what happened to the girl then? How come you never told me this?" Mary questions in a very subtle way.

"The girl is fine. Well, not much of a girl anymore. She's ya a few years older than you if I remember." Doctor Faltina answers as she still remembers the list of children she had transported to some institute. "She was one of the few staffs here that helped solve the Infected lingering about at the more northern areas."

"Is it possible if I could communicate with her?" Mark asks, in a very amusing way that gave a smile to the three.

"Hmm, I wonder. Can you?" Doctor Faltina sighs as she takes a wink from NZ. "I guess you may."

"Yes! That's great. Hope she remembers me though, I am pretty sure we were too young to remember everything." Mary excitedly gleams as she rubs her hips, feeling the cache from her intense exercise yesterday.

"Sounds good then. I will take you to her. You can ask her about the Infected, the many variations that exist and perhaps check out the old files that lay about in the dust. A few video cassettes exist there if you are so interested. NZ told me about your tape collection over the years, seems to be quite a bundle."

A little embarrassed, Mary shakes her head a couple of times in agreement before getting up and stretching her back. "Could we go now?"

"Sure, let's go on ahead." Doctor Faltina answers before dragging Mary away far away before clearing her throat. "Tell me, Miss Mary, have you ever thought of affection?"

"Love? I mean for my mother and siblings sure but I don't think I have anything else to think about. Never really got into my mind." Mary replies.

"That's quite straightforward. I wanted to ask medical questions to finish your biodata and was wondering if you ever had your period yet." Doctor Faltina answers as they went through a long empty but echoey hallway.

"Period, what's that?" Mary replies as she thinks hard in her head. "Is it when...the bleeding happens?"

"For a second, I thought you weren't taught about it. But yes, that's what I meant. Have you gone through puberty ?"

Mary finally understanding what she means, she makes awe before smiling. "Well, if I already had the bleeding, that means I have already come of age, right? Well, then that's good enough. It's a little embarrassing to ask these questions suddenly but I suppose it's normal as you are a doctor."

"Yeah, my bad. I should have asked you after reviewing your medical files with you in private. Anyway, we're here." Reaching upon a metal door with a blinking red light, it had a sign glowing, mortuary.

"A mortuary!? Isn't that where dead people are kept?" Mary steps back in surprise. She had a little fear in her heart for things dead as she got easily scared of ghost stories and other horror themes during her younger years, even if all the killings she did wasn't a worry.

"Relax, this place is just like that because we don't want people to just go into here. We got experiments and other dangerous machines here that need to be professionally handled. So don't go around touching things unless it's deemed for the public." The doctor replies before knocking and pushing the heavy swing door open.

"Hey, Wilia! We got a visitor here! She wants to know all things, Infected!". Faustina shouts in the silent room as the dim lights shone brightly, revealing a popping face and other devices that strew across the bloody mess on the floor, the metal tools laying on stainless steel tables and random black things placed about everywhere.

"Oh, curious of Infected, are we?" The far replied before removing her pair of goggles revealing a pale skinned lass who looked like she never stepped out even once from her room, with a happy yet tired look of her eyes. "Hmm, tell me, what is your name?"

"Mary, Mary Welter." The lass replies with a smile. "How do you do, Doctor?"

"Oh a Welter, impressive. Heard stories of your people in the younger days. Had an old friend who was part of the family, she's probably a few years younger than me. Do you know who could it be?" the lady asks as she then squint's her eyes. "Wait...you can't be...no you..."

"I guess you do remember." Mary chuckles. "Been a long while hasn't it. To be honest, I still never got your name."

"Goddamit, I'm been stuck in this hellhole of a room so long, I didn't even realise you were here all along." The lass replies before knocking her head with her gloved fist. "Mary, my name is Wilia, Doctor Faltina just told you. Silly dolt. Also, I am no doctor. Just a gal into strange dead people, I suppose."

"So kinda like a plague doctor...?" Mary raises her eyebrow in confusion.

"A plague doctor with a curiosity on corpses to be more precise." She chuckles before hugging Mary immediately. "Been a long while old friend. Days in the bunker was kinda fun. Well before I was dragged here."

"Bunker huh? Nice to meet you too. You are not quite as tall as me the last I could remember either." Mary replies as she hugs back the bloody coat she had stained across before pulling away from the hug.

"Sorry there, I was just getting a little, curious about my work. Also yeah Bunker, well not this one. It's probably on the more western part of this place along the old memorial park, well before it turned to some dead trees Ville. Come on in, I got some books and other devices on the Infected, feel as cosy as possible even if the smell of blackness dews through your eyes. "

"Sure..." Mary replies as she was struck with a strong smell of ammonia which killed off her fresh nostrils for sure. "Wow, this is strong!" As she held her nose and started reporting through her mouth.

"Don't worry, you will get used to it once you work more in my so-called expertise." Wilia winks before reaching upon an old shelf. Putting on her pair of glasses after removing her goggles, she searches through a few books before pulling out a folder filled with papers and photographs.

"Here you go, a biodata file of all things infected. If you want, we got a video format too, if you are more the techy kind." Wilia replies.

"Nah, it's fine. Reading through is alright." As Mary was led to a place to seat, Faltine at the entrance finishes her noting before calling out Wilia. "Oh yeah, she may also want access to the old tapes by Mr William and his other Guardians, the one during the search.

"Huh? Dad's tape. Sure then." Hearing a name after so long, she made a surprising look. "Been a while since I glimpsed through those."

Raising her head, May places the documents on the table as she heads to Wilia. "Wait, wait wait... NZ, William is your father?!"

"Well, biologically yeah since it used his sperm code but I am more of a clone of him, well female to be more precise." Wilia pulls out a bag as she then smiles. "Why so surprised?"

"He is my teacher all this time and he never told me he had a daughter, clone... whatsoever. I only saw his wife partner." Mary stutters in her words as the shock scattered into her brain.

Wilia laughs softly as she then sighs. "I mean, we kind of have similar looks and behaviour. Didn't that catch you off guard? The glasses, the behaviour, there is some familiarity. Heck, my name to is just a variation of William, origin Williamson."

"Come to think about it. Yeah, you kinda do. Minus the eye bags and the overall mad doctor attire. Your hair colour kind of match too and that smirk, that damn smirk you are making." Mary replies as she inspects.

"Heh, you know your stuff. I gotcha for that. Anyway, thanks for the compliments. Now, shall we learn a bit more of the jittery and not so creepy black things?" Willia pokes her tongue out as she made a ghost-like roleplay.

"Sure, let's go ahead. Let's learn about these "black things" and your... father during the infection. Well, more precisely his misfit search crew." Mary replies as she then pulls out her tape recorder as then pulled out the accordant tape.

"You ready?"

"As ready as you can be," Willia replies with a wink in simulation.

[Tape Start]