"Now," I said, opening a cupboard, "we pray."
Emma had fallen asleep by a chair minutes ago and Felix was staring into the distance.
"C'mon," I said, rummaging through most of the cupboards. "It's gotta be here somewhere."
"What are you looking for?" Felix asked weakly, hunger and tiredness straining his voice.
"Food," I replied.
"I don't think food is kept in the working area of labs," he said.
A wave of relief washed over me as I felt something hard and cold inside one of the cupboards.
"You'd be right," I said, grabbing the keys.
He was staring at me as I moved passed the room, shuffling into a dusty corner.
I placed the keys in the lock and twisted.
The door creaked open, revealing a small, dark space filled with what looked like some canned food and a few cleaning supplies in a different corner.
"What's in there?" Felix shouted from the main area.
"Food," I replied.
I felt across the wall for a light switch. After a few seconds of searching, I turned on the lights.
They were blinding. For whatever reason, the lights in here were much brighter than the ones in the lab.
I blinked rapidly as my eyes adjusted to the brightness.
There were a few shelves with canned food on them and two buckets of water beneath the shelves. Beside the buckets was a six-pack of bottled water.
I grabbed two bottles and turned back. Felix was right behind me, and I crashed into him.
There was some shuffling from the other room as the noise startled Emma awake.
"What's going on?" She asked, her tone guarded.
"Nothing," I shouted back.
"Ugh, what the hell. Why are you behind me?" I turned to Felix, rotating my arm.
"You said there was food, I wanted to see," He replied as he turned sideways.
"Holy shi-" He stumbled back, knocking into me again.
"What now," I said, regaining my balance.
My eyes turned to where he was a minute ago.
Hiding in the shadow of a low shelf was a slightly shiny object. I walked over and picked it up, placing the bottles of water on the shelves near me.
It was a head.
I poked at it a bit and spoke, but there was no response.
"It's part of a machine," I told Felix, "Dead."
He still looked a bit shaken, but he nodded anyway.
I grabbed the two bottles of water and handed him both.
"Give Emma one, we have a lot of water here."
He nodded, already opening his bottle as he walked out of the room.
I turned back to grab myself another bottle of water.
My gaze turned back to the robotic head on the floor for a minute. I grabbed it and turned the lights off.
The door clicked behind and Emma's gaze turned toward me. Or, more accurately, to the head I was holding.
"What's that?"
"A robotic head," I said grimly.
She straightened and her eyes went wide.
"What?"
"Don't worry, they're not here...yet."
Felix turned to me and handed the bottle to Emma.
"Yet?" He furrowed his brows.
"The good news is that it's dusty and different from the ones we've seen, so it must be old. The bad news is that this was never here before."
"So, they've come here?"
"Probably. They might have come to take whatever was left after they went rogue. Or..."
"Some might visit occasionally," Emma finished with a grim tone.
I took a swig of water and nodded. I then laid the head onto the table as I took a seat.
Emma pulled it towards herself to get a better look.
Felix broke the silence.
"Are we gonna have to move again?"
Emma also turned to look at me, awaiting my reply.
I shook my head.
"No, there's nowhere else to go. There's food here, and I don't think we could get out if we tried."
"We're just gonna risk staying here?" He asked.
"I did say we should pray, didn't I?" I joked dryly, though it did little to ease the tension in the room.
For the next few minutes, there was complete silence in the room as we each drank our bottles of water.
"Look on the bright side," Felix said as the atmosphere began to get too heavy.
He went and got a couple of canned foods from the other room.
"We got food!"
He slammed the cans on the table, which shook Emma from her thoughts.
"What even is that?" She asked.
"Does it matter? It's good food for once!"
"Canned soup," I answered her after reading the label.
He nodded while smiling.
"That's not all."
He ran back and returned with a can of fish.
"Meat too!"
That had me salivating. Sure, there were plenty of animals out there, but they were far from the city. Not to mention it's hard to hunt when you can barely run.
Felix pulled on the tab and the familiar smell of fish wafted through the air. He pulled out a small piece and ate it.
"This is heavenly," he sighed out.
Emma chirped in.
"Isn't that cold?"
"It's better than the stuff we've been eating," he said, chewing on another piece.
I pulled the can away from him before he could take another.
"There's a microwave by the cupboards," I said as he sulked.
"Oh..." He said.
"Wait here," I told the two of them as I went back to the other room.
I picked up a sealed bag of rice and dragged it across the floor. I might've been very weak because it was heavy. Really heavy.
By the time I got to the table, Emma was looking at me, interested and hungry, while Felix just had a hungry look in his eyes.
I looked through the cupboards until I found some wide, cylindrical tubes and a few trays.
I poured some rice into each of the tubes, as well as a bit of water, and switched the microwave on.
After a few minutes of preventing Felix from stealing bites of meat, I poured the cooked rice from the cylinders onto our trays.
After yet another few minutes of preventing Felix from eating all the rice, the meat and soup were ready too. I opened the door to the break room, which was mostly empty, and took out a few spoons.
"Here you all go..." I said, handing over the trays to both of them.
For the first time in forever, there was a decent meal in front of us.
"As I said. We made it in, now we feast like Kings!"
I looked at Emma.
"...and Queens!"
She shrugged it off, too heavily focused on the food in front of her.
Felix was already chewing on the meat.
As I was about to take a bite, I caught sight of the robotic head that I had forgotten about.
I placed it elsewhere near the cupboards and ate my own meal.
It was something to worry about tomorrow.
I took the first bite and immediately agreed with Felix. It tasted like microwaved heaven, incomparable to what were were used to eating.
After a few minutes of contented sighs and moans, I was too full to eat anymore. The same could be said for the two sitting with me.
"I can't eat more..." Felix said while biting another piece of meat.
Emma's hand was on her stomach.
"Ugh," I groaned, slowly standing up.
Perhaps I ate too much?
...Nah.
It was already very late, maybe past midnight by now.
I took the trays and summoned the strength to place them in the sink in the break room. I rinsed the scraps of food off and went back to the main room.
Emma was sleeping on her hands on the table and Felix was already dozed off on the chair.
I looked around. The only issue with this place was that there was nowhere comfortable to sleep in.
I crossed my arms on the table and tried to sleep like Emma, but gave up after a few minutes.
I tried a few other positions and they were just as bad.
My eyes then drifted onto the bag of rice, which still looked pretty full compared to how much I thought we ate.
I resealed the bag and placed it on the ground near a corner. I hadn't seen any rodents around, so I was pretty sure it was safe.
I turned off the lights and t1hen placed the bag awkwardly as my pillow.
Surprisingly, the floor was a bit more comfy than the chair or the table. Within a few minutes, I dozed off with a full stomach.