Normal work.

“Any radio-active dust on the plates, Ella?”

“Nope, nothing today.”

“Hmm... The weather is a bit unpredictable, though...”

“Yes... We can’t risk being outside for too long.”

“And we really need to lose some energy...”

“Yes... but I have been thinking...”

“Did it hurt?”

“Haha, Kylie. No, but we need more room. Mia needs a separate room. Ambra needs one too, she can’t sit for hours in the corridor on her own. In the dark.”

“No, she shouldn’t. And Mia needs to sit on her own sometimes.”

“Yes... So we covered quite a bit of the hill in anti-thermal screens, camouflage and under the hill we have some overlapping roof surfaces. So if we dig under that...”

“Ah... between the two rooms and the tunnel, we could set up reinforcements, extend the roofs, without collapsing the walls.”

“Yes, Ella, very correct. Someone to keep guard, someone to keep watch with the Geiger, and someone to stay in radio contact with Tom and Didier. So we can rotate as well.”

“Excellent, finally some physical work for all of us. Who would have thought we would actually start enjoying it?”

“I always enjoyed it, Kara.”

“I’m sure you did, Sophia...”

“No chit-chat... Get on with it!”

“Yes, Sir!” Kylie yelled, with a mock salute.

We did enjoy it. The women and the girls were almost begging to hold a shovel. To aggressively dig into the earth. To strain their muscles pulling rocks out of the earth. Ella was in her element. Sophia exhausted herself even more, but rolled her eyes every time I told her to take a breather. Kylie was filling sacks in rapid tempo. Clara was hauling the construction materials we covered up outside very quickly, almost running. Emma was smiling almost when she tried to carry the sacks on top of each other. Mia enjoyed moving the earth towards Kylie. Ambra surprised us with her strength, mumbling something about ‘more leaves’ when she held the support structures into place. Kate was humming when she placed the extra ventilation filters into place. And I was enjoying the sight of them all, working, coordinating, myself sweating like mad carrying the extra earth away. It was a beehive at times, smiles all around.

Ambra would be closer now to us, to me, in her private room. Mia had her own room now too, between the middle room and the smaller room. The rooms connected to the corridor via crooked paths. We had enough energy to extend some of the alcoves in the long hallway, improved the shower and latrine room, some extra closet alcoves here and there.

The weather changed again in the evening. Not in our favor. So we sealed everything shut again, heated the air with our presence and candles to keep a positive air pressure, blowing the warm air out where it should go.

“Ha... I feel better... But let’s not do that again for a while.” I sighed, exhausted and lying down.

“We all feel better. The entire section does. We really needed it. And we are just in day four.” Sophia said.

“Hmm... yes... I am afraid it will take longer than a week. We have supplies for a month or more, but one day we will have no other choice than to go hunting again. Fishing again. If the hunting grounds are not too contaminated... Some villagers have reported dying cows to Tom. They slaughtered them fast, but this will get worrisome in the future.”

“We will need to venture out more, expand our activity radius... Meeting new people, more dangers...”

“Yes, Ella... It’s what worries me too. Perhaps there are some empty cities left around here, but in the end others will get the same ideas. Our society will never be the same, I am afraid. No technology to speak of, so no electricity for perhaps years to come, even decades... Everyone only busy with survival. If there are any children born healthy, the parents will not have the time to educate them, except in survival skills. No city will survive. They will all disperse into separate clans. I am afraid for the future, to be honest.”

“The future is not here yet. You speak of years into the future. Even decades. First this, Alex, then we can visit cities, train the villagers further in combat skills, so they too can defend themselves against roaming gangs and deserted Russian groups. We have an arsenal for a small army, I doubt few other so-called clans will have.”

“True, Kylie. Thank you... You are...”

“Yes, yes... I am always right, I know... Now, all to bed!”

“Yes, Mam!”

“Very funny, Alex...”

---

The day after the digging, I saw Ambra in the corridor just at the entrance of our room. She was waiting for me after being cooped up in her own room, doing... I don’t know what she was doing, but I heard hammering sounds coming out of her room. I was curious, but she left a candle at the long corridor, so I respected her privacy. I had no idea how long she waited, perhaps we should install a bell system one of these days.

“Ambra?”

“Alex...”

“Yes, what is going on?”

“Come with me.”

She gently took my hand and guided me into her private tunnel.

No, not that private tunnel... The one leading up to her...

Room...

I couldn’t call it a room anymore. She had moved some of the decoration furniture from the middle room: a heavy carpet, cushions, and decorative wall hangings. But the result was astounding. Room for books onto hanging shelves leading all the way up to the rafters. Creative paper decorations she had painted with spray. Chinese candle lights. A wall hanging was fixed onto the entire ceiling. Perhaps one could compare it with an Arabian lounge room. The colors were warm and sometimes bright, with small tinfoil leaves all around, upon the walls, fixed with fine ropes onto the ceiling letting the leaves rustling against each other in the faint draft of the ventilating air.

Certainly enough leaves here...

With the candle light flickering the leaves all were glimmering softly... It was like I landed in a dream all of a sudden. I couldn’t speak, it felt so... peaceful.

“Alex?”

“Sorry, Ambra, your room is... so beautiful, so peaceful. I thought I just landed in a dream.”

“So you find it beautiful?”

“Ambra, it is the most amazing space I have ever seen...”

She smiled brightly.

“Hug, Alex?”

“Yes, Ambra.”

And we hugged. I wanted to thank her for her gift of beauty, her creativity making this... whatever I should call it. A dream lounge, perhaps? And she was very happy I approved of all her creative work.

“Thank you, Alex.”

“No, Ambra, thank you...”

“No, Alex, thank you for saving me...”

She never had said that to me. To none of us as far as I was aware of. And now she thanked the only man in the vicinity, hugging me closely. She had done it again, making me feel so special... I hugged her closer, still overwhelmed of the emotions I felt. Silent tears flowed from the corners of my eyes upon her face. She broke the hug and looked at me, suddenly so worried.

“Alex, why are you sad? Did I do something wrong?”

“Oh no, Ambra, you did something very right. I cry because I am so happy to have brought you into my life.”

“Oh...”

“Hug, Ambra?”

“Yes, Alex.”

We stood there for the longest time. I calmed down. She felt it. She broke the hug, smiling warmly to me.

“It feels good, Alex, to make you happy. But you have to go now, you need to make other people happy too.”

“Okay, Ambra, I will leave now.”

Perhaps she was overwhelmed too? To make me happy? To make someone happy, truly happy for the first time in her live since she was brought here? Perhaps she genuinely wanted me to spread her warmth? Or my happiness? I wanted to, but when I looked for people in the middle room, no one was there. It wasn’t stripped, it was still a nice room, nothing compared to Ambra’s room, but still warm enough to be in. All books were removed, the leftover equipment, construction materials we brought in during our recent dig, were all stored now in the long corridor.

But no one was there. So Ambra in her private room, Mia in hers too. Mia had probably taken all the rest of the books, she had been gathering quite the collection over time. She loses herself in her reading, like I had done when I was her age. She had asked to make a bookshelf that would cover an entire wall. And she had been filling the middle room quite a bit when we were still free to walk the earth. So that left my five girlfriends...

Five...?

Five girlfriends and myself in our room. So only Clara and Emma in the small room. I tried to go to the small room, but a small candle light was burning brightly at the entrance, so I turned back to my room.

That day after the dig I was still somewhat tired and sore. Not as sore as I would have been a year ago, but still sore enough to let myself rest. The women had some reading to do of their own, it seemed. Ella was reading a book about constructional engineering, Sophia was reading leisurely a book of organizational psychology, Kara read a book about anatomy, Kylie was devouring a book in medical sciences and every time she didn’t understood something she disturbed Kate with questions, trying to read the same romantic book she had read a few times before. Perhaps Kylie was just teasing her, interrupting her casual reading about a rich guy meeting a blond intern, named Anastasia, blushing once or twice. I had found a book about playing chess and a chessboard in the school library, replaying the matches on the board.

---

“Alex?”

“Yes, Kara?”

“Have you seen Ambra’s room?”

“Yes... So... beautiful, peaceful...”

“Yes, it is... She did it all by herself. She didn’t want any help with it. But when she was ready she said she needed to tell you something important.”

“She did...”

I smiled happily just remembering being there a few hours ago. Remembering that feeling she gave me...

“Alex?”

“Yes, Kara?”

“You were daydreaming? Did you have...?”

“No! No, no...”

“Consider me curious now too, Alex, what did she tell you that it even makes you daydreaming?”

“Kylie, we just hugged, and then she thanked me for saving her...”

“She did?”

“It was an incredibly happy feeling I had then and there. In her room... of leaves... So peaceful, she thanked me when I said her room was the most amazing space I had ever been in. So I thanked her back, but she said she meant thanking me for saving her. And then we hugged again...”

The room was silent. Looks were exchanged, nonverbal communications went back and forth, smiles here and there, all unreadable to me. Women had a totally different nonverbal language when they were communicating amongst each other. Men never had succeeded in deciphering it, and never will.

“Well... That’s good, Alex. Very good.”

“Exceptionally good...”

“Very nice of her to finally say it...”

“Very good of her too, she is progressing at least. Not only in language, morals and attitudes, but also socially...”

“She is finally expressing herself...”

“Very creatively...”

“Yes... Very creatively...”

“She is. I have never seen such beautiful decorations in my life. She has transformed her room in a piece of heaven.”