Lost

It was our sixty sixth day in the bunker, and the supplies were getting to a concerned level. I looked to the monitor that give us the insight to our exterior. It looked bleak as it was for the last thousand and one nights. Our home had been replaced with the layers of snow that covered even the roofs.  

"Welcome to Earth 2065', I muttered to myself.

"Pardon me, Jimmy. Did you say something?" I looked towards Jenny and smiled.

"No, I was just talking to myself." I focused back on the chore I was doing then. I left the cup of coffee on the side table. If it spills onto the console, then there would be hell to pay.

"Thanks. Decaff with one lump of sugar?" Jenny played the tune towards me. I smiled back.

"No, you see that?' I pointed to the topped up cream layer. "That was just the tip of the iceberg for you. I found it in the freezer. Its still drinkable."

Jenny laughed out loud on my serving. We all make to do with every humor in this sad environment. Unlike the others, Jenny lost her legs to the blizzard but she still holds the most infectious laugh among us. Jenny now moved on a wooden crate fixed with rollers. It was the best we could fashioned up. Anything metallic would stick to her flesh in this cold.

I made my way back to the main chamber, where we had improvised as the gathering area. I saw Micheal who had just walked in from his night post at the blind section of the facilities. He had been our night watchman with his hunting rifle head ready with infra scope. He saw me looking at him.

"It was a dark and stormy night" Micheal read my mind. "The winds were howling and the snow blinds you after a while."

"Don't we all know?" I handed over his cup of coffee. He looked at it and smiled.

"Thick and hot. Just the way I liked it." He pat my back when I walked past him. My next serving was to the Night Nurse, our very own life savior and taker; a choice she sometimes had to make to preserve the living ones. She was at her table with her mind working on the analysis. Her patient; a seven year old boy was on the nearby cot, hovering close to death.

"Florence, your coffee here." I placed the cup next to her. She did not bother to looked up. Nor did I expected her to do so, she was in her own world. She had two patients in her care.

"Jae was sleeping like the dead, but he would live." Jae was at the far end, with his chest heaving in every breath he took. He was our maintenance man who fell one too many levels and broke some ribs. Florence had him wrapped up and given the sedatives.

"He would live, but not Tom." I looked at the seven year old. Florence had decided her choice.

"He was just here last week. Like a kid in a candy store. Asking me questions which I had no answers." Florence took to her coffee. Her hands were shaking; but it was not from the cold but from the decision she was to make. It never get any easier with each day you had to decide. I took my path out of the place. It was so lonely there. I had one more last stop.

"Think out of the box!" That was Jeremy, our local botanist with his head banging on the rack which contained his plant seeds. He had been trying to nurture the seeds to grow and failed. He saw me coming in.,

"Watch the coffee supplies. We may not have anymore soon." Jeremy looked to the rack. "I need good soil. Where do I find soil in this layer of ice?"

He slammed his fist on the rack. He was the botanist and we relied on him to grow our food. I placed the coffee on the far side of the table lest he spilled it. He saw the cup of coffee. He picked it up and sipped at it.

"Thank you for the coffee. I wished I could do your job. It bring out the joy in us. We are all idiots in our field." It was then the other available scientist walked in. He was Sorenson who specialized in genetics but was our resident breeder of rats; a preferred term to rodents. That was protein intake since the hogs went extinct.

"The pot calling the kettle black." Sorenson injected in his humor to the bleak vegetation project. "I have however managed to get my missus to give birth to seven in the litter. She broken the barrier and would give out more in the coming months. Salute to the advancement of science."

Sorenson looked to me.

"Tea would suffice for me. Preferably black tea but I would do with anything that resembled it." The genetic boffin took Jeremy's cup from the other and took a sip.

"The pleasure of life is what we do with whatever we have left." The genetic boffin walked off with the coffee.

"I would get you another, Jeremy." I turned to walk to the makeshift kitchen.

"Don't bother, Jimmy." Jeremy replied. "Your legs ain't healed as yet."

I looked down to my missing left lower limb; a result of carelessness and untimely mishap. Florence had it amputated to save my life. An ordeal I would never forget; losing your leg was not as painful to feel as compared of it being taken off without painkiller. I don't know to thank the Gods, I am alive or be cursed for not having died. I limped away with my crutch while holding the empty tray. I done my chore and its time to seek out my private corner. We all need one to rescue our soul.

Footnote.

This tale was inspired by the movie "Colony".