READ NOVEL ONLINE Chapter 1602 Food for Thought
--- Kamiko ---
Kamiko was just seasoning the third round of steaks and moments away from putting them on the grill when she heard the door open. Frowning she turned and quickly realised that it wasn't HER door, but the one to the mess hall. Kamiko glanced at the workout crew and already they were heading out to see what was going on.
Kamiko did duck backwards to turn off the appliances before she followed them outside.
There, she found every staring at the door with an awkward looking woman looking back. She was wearing a fluffy robe in place of actual clothes, though it was at least shut tightly with a belt unlike Church who still hadn't even put the provided coat on properly. The woman had a much sharper face then all of the young teens and an obvious maturity about her. Might just be the crow's feet though.
"Oh… err I see a missed something important while I was… asleep?"
The crowd continued to stare at her. "What? I made a pact with the rest of the adults not to talk about it. I might think it's stupid considering how lax we've been about parenting you all and keeping the specifics quiet but I DID still agree to it. No matter how many times I try to get them to walk back on the matter they stay firm. Tell me it's because I can't have kids that I'll never understand.
Useless pricks. Only good for one thing,"
"It's ok Aunty Brella," said Pip. "You've done more to raise me then my own parents did so I think you understand,"
The now named Brella winced. "As nice as that is to hear from you Pip… if anything that makes it worse because I know I was still rather lax about raising you… and if your parents did less then that? Yeah… that sort of hurts…"
Pip shrugged, "This is not the first time we've had this conversation,"
Brella just winced again and glanced around. "Soooo… um… what's going on exactly? I see…" Brella quickly glanced over at Corela. "Some old faces and even a few new ones… um… but they look a bit too old? And obviously…" Brella glanced at Meg, "… yeah got no idea. Am I still asleep?"
"No. They're demons and they can get through the barrier. I've been conducting a meeting with everyone here to determine what the plan is going forward," stated Corela.
"Yikes… and I take it we were rather intentionally not invited?" asked Brella.
"Yes… I had thought I'd even locked the door…" added Corella.
"Ah yeah… the automatic lock doesn't work because we replaced it with a manual deadbolt to make sure none of the kids got in…" offered Brella.
"That'd do it. But yes, I decided it was for the best that any of the… older generation be avoided to allow for this conversation to happen as smoothly as possible. I personally do not want to deal with the nonsense that would come from allowing any of your age group coming along and I am not sure you have the necessary mental flexibility to even make the attempt.
Even the children here are a bit older then would be ideal, technically,"
"Hey we're not kids!" hissed Ben.
"Ben, compared to me everyone awake in this facility is a child. I have CENTURIES on every single one of you. The age of everyone awake likely doesn't add up to my own. You'd have to dismiss my time in the cryo-pod for it to even get close… and I'm still not sure if that's sufficient. Yes, you are children," glared Corela.
"Right right," said Brella cutting in. "That's all well and good but what EXACTLY is happening. You said there's a discussion about leaving? Why does it seem more serious then that? I'm guessing it's a one and done thing? No extra chances?"
"The demons won't be hanging around…" at this point Kamiko shrugged and got back to her cooking. She could still listen through the wall. Without anyone else talking, all too engrossed in the current conversation, it was easy. Kamiko had enough control over her hearing for this much. "… so while in theory people can leave or enter once again in practice it's unlikely.
"The real issue though? The generators on the surface are breaking down apparently. Not gone completely but I wouldn't give this place longer than two hundred years. Probably less, but I'd have to see the damage to be sure… and the exit, even should we get past the remaining robots, has treants covering it.
I am unsure if I could defeat them, or hold them off for a sufficient time to transfer people even should we get back in… though another set of demons could probably help,"
"And you don't think some of us might want to avoid that?" asked Brella.
Corela shrugged, "Fundamentally you are all much more likely to die of old age here instead of outside. It is a dangerous place and frankly you're all… much to soft. The kids I still have some hope for but I'm going to have to babysit them all essentially… and even that likely won't be enough.
"That's not even taking into account the hellish forest of mist that surrounds the place. Sure the demons are willing to play bodyguard through that… but they aren't gods. If they miss one little snake then that could be it for whoever gets bit. I… I'm still not sure what I want to do about everyone in the cryo-pods but I'm trying not to let the numbers balloon too much," explained Corela.
"But… but there's HUNDREDS of people in cryo-sleep! Are you going to abandon them all? Even the ones that went in with you at the beginning?" asked Brella with venom in her voice.
Corella sighed, "No… they… most of them are already dead apparently,"
"What the fuck do you mean apparently?" asked Brella.
Meg stepped forward with a grin on her face, not that Kamiko could see it. She could imagine it though, after Meg's next words. "That, they are DEAD. Their SOUL has left the building. Cryo-sleep is not meant to be maintained indefinitely. The body is still there but there's nobody home anymore.
Corela is massively resistant to the type of slow painful soul decay normally caused by living in those things but she got very lucky.
"All those tanks marked with the big red signs? They're pretty much all already gone… and waking someone up isn't a perfect answer either. That jolt awake? That could be enough to finish off a good number of them for good if they're right at the edge. I am not qualified to change those odds so… nobody wants to pull that lever." Meg shrugged.
"Truly a horrible situation all around, and one that's been eating at poor Corela this whole time. So many people she knew, all dead and with no way to help them…"
Despite the fact Meg was sounding as if she was really quite sorry in the tone of her voice… her words themselves were sharper then they needed to be. Meg was leaving no room for creative interpretation and was not attempting to soften the blow of the news in the slightest. It was a big slap aimed both at Brella and Corela… and Meg was getting away with it because she was the expert. Technically.
Brella of course had no idea how to react to something like that and Hunter didn't have the social graces to realise it might be best to pull Meg away from the conversation… or the will. Bower did though, he gently placed a hand on Meg's shoulder and stepped forward a touch. He also subtly pushed her towards Hunter, which was enough for Meg to allow the push and head over to her favourite lamia.
"Sorry about that… blunt… blunt she may be but she's telling the truth I'm afraid," said Bower, not wanting to get into the full truth of the matter.
Corela decided to back him up a bit, despite being a touch distraught herself. "Indeed. Demons are incapable of telling falsehoods. They can twist words and avoid limiting themselves to only definitions that you are expecting… but the translation ability they have removes a lot of the truly nasty tricks they can pull. It's a bit of a double-edged sword in that way.
"I… I really don't know how many risks I want to take with the pods… and I worry a lot of people entered them just for an excuse to… well not commit suicide basically. How many truly wish to wake? How many wish to see the outside? How many would survive the awakening process? I don't know the answers to those questions. It… has also just occurred to me that none of them have any STUFF anymore.
Not even sure if I do. Hmm… gonna have to look into that…"
Brella winced and said, "Um… right well this… this has been just… just a lot more than I was really after. I happened to be a bit hungry and it was around dinner time so… never mind I guess it doesn't matter. I'll stick around I suppose but try not to… unduly influence anyone,"
"You might be worth taking along you know," offered Corela, perhaps a peace gesture.
"I'm not sure I believe that," whispered Brella under her breath.