Evening, Prison camp.
A crowd had gathered around the kitchen, just past the second gate of the prison. The people sat and gathered around large cans, or pots with a burning fire inside while munching on their dinner together with their own group of friends.
On the front lawn of the prison, between the main gate and the secondary gate, sat another school bus, parked on the verge along the dirt road.
Michael has climbed up on top of the bus and is having dinner by himself while stargazing with a reminiscent look on his face.
Thud!
A loud thump was heard coming from the front of the school bus. Followed by a familiar face that popped up in front of him.
"It's quite nice here, isn't it? I have witnessed this scene many times already, but it's still beautiful. Unfortunately, the only time we are witnessing such starry skies again is when human civilization is on the verge of collapse." Putting down her plate in front of Michael, Andrea climbed up to the roof and joined him in watching the night sky.
Michael glanced at his side for a moment before looking away. "Yeah, though technically. You'd see this countless times if you lived in the countryside. It's just unfortunate now that the only time that we would appreciate things like this is when it's already too late for us to go back."
Andrea took a spoonful of rice mixed with scrambled eggs into her mouth. It took a moment before she gave him a reply. "It's obvious that the world is finally healing after countless years of suffering under the tyranny of the human race."
Listening to her words, Michael lightly closed his eyes before opening them shortly after. He let out a soft chuckle filled with helplessness. "Now, those very same humans are now wishing for everything to go back to the way it was before."
Andrea smiled, she was one of those people, but she knew that such hopeful thoughts are useless right now. "Maybe in twenty years, the world will regain some normalcy. After all, we humans have always been a resilient species despite our glaring flaws."
Michael spiced up her words with the following. "Order will be restored. Humanity will realize their fault, but decades later, they will forget the lesson of the past and will once again be consumed by their own wickedness. Repeating the cycle."
"..."
There was a short silence between them before he added the following words. "Humanity will never change. We, as a species, embody both order and chaos. We'll always be on the path of self-destruction, unless the world comes together to face one common enemy."
Andrea turned her face towards him and asked. "What will that be then?"
Michael lightly shrugged his shoulder and responded. "I don't know. Maybe a demon king perhaps? An alien invasion? Another World War?"
"Aren't those things still leading to destruction?" she asked with a soft snort.
"Indeed it is, though it won't be self-destruction, but self-preservation instead." Michael calmly answered.
Andrea took a sip of water and with gloom in her voice. "I guess it also applies to the current situation of the world. Everyone is facing one common enemy, the only difference compared to those two examples you mentioned is that the various governments of the world had already fallen against this crazy virus that swept the whole world, leaving everyone to fend for themselves."
"Look at the bright side, at least we're still alive and kicking. We also don't have to go to work anymore and deal with our toxic boss. Also, I think this is one of the good things that has happened for men since we don't have to deal with women constantly screaming about equal rights anymore, and hopefully, those few people I won't mention have returned to their factory settings." Michael let out a laugh when he remembered how chaotic society was before this. Especially, that loud minority constantly screaming that there are countless genders out there.
Michael happily stuffed a spoonful of food into his mouth while Andrea rolled her eyes at him. "On another note, I'm still feeling worried about Rick and the others. They were supposed to return today, but neither group showed up at all."
Contrary to her words, Michael wasn't the least bit worried about their safety right now.
'I don't know about the rest, but Rick and the other main guys should still be safe this early into the series. The unfortunate ones though, are those extras since there's a high likelihood that some of them will die.' Thinking about the people that died following Rick and the others every time the group gets scattered or when they just go for another supply run, Michael couldn't even remember how many of those minor characters had lost their lives.
"Stop thinking about it, or you're gonna have a headache. They have survived this far already, they'd be idiots if they're gonna get themselves killed due to carelessness." Michael tried to soothe her in a reassuring tone, but his words were certainly not reassuring at all!
Andrea rolled her eyes, then shrugged off his arm wrapped around her shoulders and slightly berated him. "Just..just don't say anything, your words are not helping at all."
Raising his hands, Michael also shrugged his shoulders. "Alright, whatever you say babe."
".."
After a short silence, Andrea turned to look at Michael beside her and asked. "Say, how about we go look for them tomorrow?"
Slightly taken aback, Michael answered. "Tomorrow? Do we really need to? We still have a lot of things to do tomorrow. There's the wall building and well digging I need to supervise."
"You can just assign it to someone like T-Dawg, or just anyone you can trust." Andrea replied, and Michael also noticed the insistence in her tone.
Michael squinted his eyes while looking at her, trying to discern on her face what she's up to. "Hmm, alright, but no promises. I'll see tomorrow if there's anyone willing to take over the task."
Andrea responded with a slight of her head. "You can choose between T-Dawg, Maggie or that old lady you sent here to join us, Mary. I noticed she's actually quite good at leading people."
"I got it. I'll decide who will take over tomorrow." Michael just sighed.
"If we're gonna leave tomorrow, then we'll take this bus with us. " He immediately added.
Andrea immediately picked up on what he had in mind. "Ohh, you want to take some resources while on the road?"
"Of course, we shouldn't waste fuel just to look for Rick and the others. Having another task in mind is the most efficient way to use our fuel since we would not be able to use them in less than a year. So we should take every chance we can get to increase our stock of supplies. It will be harder to gather them when fuel becomes unusable." Michael gave her a brief lesson on one of the things that will happen in the following months.
Andrea made a weird face when she heard him. "That's not true. Fuel can last for years if they were stored correctly or if you know how to handle them. What really happens is water condensation forms inside the tank, then drips down into the gas and settles at the bottom as water is heavier than fuel. So it isn't that the gas "goes bad", but that water gets sucked into the intake and into the fuel system."
"Is that something you heard or.."
"I heard, experienced it and learned it from my dad. My dad worked as part of the maintenance crew for planes so he knew a lot." Andrea explained, giving him a small peek into her past.
"That's amazing." Michael was genuinely amazed, but he was also grumbling inside. 'There's really a lot of unreliable answers on the Internet.'
Andrea scoffed. "Of course, if we really ran out of available fuel. We can turn our sights into older cars since we'll be able to drive those using vegetable oil or anything resembling oil or grease. Besides, there's now thousands of cars abandoned all over the place. We can just pick any from them if our cars break down from using cheap oil."
"That..I'm actually amazed."
Michael was speechless, he didn't think that far ahead.