VIII #2
It had become clear to the friends around him that he was in a relationship with the gorgeous Irena.
Not only did the girl all but radiate happiness that morning, but he too seemed fresher as he came out of his room and joined the others in the living room.
They'd decided to start a new custom of pausing to socialize a little in their quarters before each went off to their work in the shelter.
Nick sat on a chair and waited restlessly for Erik to come out of his room.
Just last night they'd decided that today, after breakfast, they'd explore the whole enigma of the red doors down in maintenance.
Somehow it had turned out that the two of them had the least work.
Everyone else was completely absorbed in their duties.
Since peace currently reigned in the shelter, they could use the time to deal with things like the great red doors bound in chains.
Like some entrance to an underground hell from the games Nick sometimes played on the computer.
Nika came out of the dormitory, yawning, and, noticing Nick sitting at the bar, joined him with a sleepy smile.
"Morning!" she greeted him, rubbing her still-sleepy eyes as she settled onto the chair beside his.
"Hey Nika, sleep well?" he cheerfully greeted her back.
"Oh yeah, I overdid it a bit yesterday, so I just collapsed onto the bed."
"Overdid it?" Nick looked at her with interest.
She stretched, yawned, and then, finally awake, devoted herself to her friend.
"Oh, laboratory work — you have to coax the dried seeds' chemical will into wanting to survive and grow. Our initial hopes nearly died when we determined that half the packets of seeds had been ruined by poor storage."
"Oh yeah, I heard something about that. What was it?" Nick was curious.
"Oh, some genius put all the seed packets near the bleach. And then another genius punctured a few bottles of that same chemical during storage," she explained to him with a grim expression.
"Yeah, such things used to happen, they were constantly changing the warehouse staff," he recalled.
"Well, while they were changing staff like that, it cost us our survival. That industrial bleach effectively destroyed three-quarters of the seeds in their cardboard containers," she frowned as she spoke.
"Well then a quarter is left, isn't that enough?" he asked her pragmatically.
Nika looked at him angrily, thinking he might be joking, but on his face there was visibly only interest. So her anger vanished and she explained to him:
"That with the bleach was a total catastrophe. We were left without seeds of carrots, beans, chickpeas, lamb's lettuce, cucumbers, and butter lettuce. Only after a whole day in the laboratory did we manage to coax the first signs of life in the tomato seeds," she sounded frustrated.
"Wow, that really was a blow. And what survived?"
"Some iceberg lettuce seeds and cabbage seeds, and just one packet of bell pepper seeds. The farms will be lean," she concluded sadly.
The news brought a moment of silence as they both thought about the situation. Only some muffled sounds came from the room Ana and Dijana shared. Soon they'll both come out, Nick thought. He put a hand on the girl's shoulder.
"It's no good losing hope, I'm sure you'll think of something. You're a smart head." He patted her on the head jokingly.
"Eh, if only it were that easy. Imagine," she turned to Nick with enthusiasm, "some smart head in the lab suggested we take the seeds from jars of pickled cucumbers."
"Okay? And?" Nick watched her.
"Vinegar, Nick. Vinegar is a natural preservative," she explained to him.
"Ah, so the same situation." Nick turned to the right and smiled at the still-sleepy Ana coming out of her room.
Ana replied carelessly and sleepily headed down the hallway behind the bar, toward the toilet. He turned his attention back to the girl sitting beside him, who was quietly whispering something under her breath. Nick pricked up his ears.
"If the coating is unbroken and the protective shell has retained at least some of its hardness, maybe about thirty percent of the genetic material could be saved. Maybe…"
"What are you talking about?" he interrupted her.
The girl snapped out of her thoughts. "Oh, sorry, I drifted off a little. Well, it seems the pickled-cucumber idea isn't so silly at first glance. I have to go, bye!"
Nika quickly rose from the chair and literally rushed toward the room's exit.
Nick followed her with his eyes, marveling at the girl's vigor, then noticed Erik, whom Nika's passing had literally surprised.
Erik pressed himself against the wall in astonishment as the girl merely whooshed past him without a word, but he was already used to such things.
Vlasta was similar when something got into her head or when she got some answer to one of the questions troubling her at the moment.
He'd learned long ago to get out of the path of the female projectile then, if he didn't want the full force of the impact to shatter against his head.
Instead, he greeted Nick, who sat at the bar smiling at the situation.
Nick had just been waiting for that. He had an arrangement with Erik about the massive red doors and could hardly wait for his friend so the two of them could crack the secrets those doors hid.
He was just about to rise from the chair when Ana appeared, and behind her the sleepy Tomi shuffled.
Both let Dijana pass, who was heading to the toilet, and joined the two at the bar.
"Morning," Ana greeted, while Tomi just nodded in greeting, settling onto a free chair at the end of the bar.
"Morning, how are you today?" Nick asked the girl with concern.
"Better," she settled beside him. "I'm not angry anymore, if that's what you're getting at."
"Excellent, you worried me a little at dinner yesterday," Nick replied, and Erik nodded in agreement.
"Oh yeah, really, why do you allow her that?" asked Vlasta, who'd appeared from her room and headed toward the company at the bar.
Nick rose from the chair and gallantly gave up his seat to the pregnant woman, at which she sighed gratefully. She was still looking at Ana, awaiting an answer.
"Oh, I don't even know myself." Ana sighed helplessly. "Maybe because I've known her for years?"
"You've known me literally for years too, and I never caused you such unpleasantness," Vlasta stated.
"Oh, Tina is… I don't know… Different?" Ana thought aloud as she glanced at the gathered faces.
"Well, look…" Vlasta said pragmatically, "being different is completely different from being a fucking spoiled bitch."
The company agreed with that statement; only Tomi was quiet and it seemed as if none of it interested him.
"I don't know," Ana defended herself. "She wasn't like this before."
"Which doesn't mean people won't change. Sometimes for the worse," Vlasta stated, lighting a cigarette. Erik snorted angrily, but Vlasta didn't pay it much mind.
"Hah," Nick chimed in. "Tina was always spoiled, and that she's a bitch is the fault of those ass-kissers of hers she hung around with."
Ana looked at him and asked with interest: "You never took to her. Why did you never tell me your reasons?"
"Because you're sometimes stubborn and don't see what's right in front of your eyes," he explained to her in a gentle tone. "And you don't like anyone meddling in your private circle of people."
"I'd always accept your words, Nick." Ana smiled at Dijana, who had just arrived.
"You know I don't like to meddle in other people's business, better you figure out for yourself that Tina is a leech that's just latched onto you and sucks your blood." Nick turned toward the bar and carefully studied the bottle in front of him.
Ana didn't answer that last statement. The thing was, she herself didn't know how to position herself toward Tina anymore.
Tina obviously strove to be recognized and important and wasn't quite reconciled to the fact that she was just one more face in the shelter.
Clear proof of that was last night's quarrel at dinner, in front of hundreds of people, which seemed staged and false, when she accused Ana of stealing her place on the morale board, even though the people of that guild had clearly distanced themselves from her.
It was completely clear that she wanted drama and that, with the pure intent of self-promotion, she'd started the quarrel in the canteen.
Ana had given as good as she got, and a few harsh sentences were exchanged.
It even came to the point where the irritated Dijana slapped Tina and accidentally split her lip.
At first shocked, but feeling the blood, Tina literally went wild and shouted the whole way to the clinic.
Arriving there, with a few sympathizing souls, she finally got what she wanted — pampering, comforting words, and attention.
Dijana came off as a total villain in the eyes of those present.
By today the story had probably been blown out of proportion, and Ana and Dijana were most likely classified as abusers and bullies.
"Are you talking about that blonde idiot?" Dijana asked.
"Oh yeah, you shouldn't have let yourself be provoked yesterday," Vlasta replied.
Dijana huffed angrily. "And what would you do? Let her keep shitting on Ana?"
"Sorry, dear," Ana cut her off. "I know how to deal with foolish girls."
"Hmm… Your way of dealing is to let yourself be smeared in front of people?" Dijana was relentless.
"Words are like wind, they come and go. You don't stoop to someone's level if that someone doesn't even reach your chin," Ana calmly explained to her, but Nick saw a dangerous flash in her eyes. Dijana was in danger here, and she wasn't even aware of it.
"And you'd just stand there and take insults, I don't get you," Dijana wouldn't give up.
Nick saw that the situation at the bar was slowly growing into drama, and he didn't want to take part in it. He looked at Erik, who'd understood the same, and they just nodded to each other and both headed toward the exit. Behind them, Ana squared off against Dijana.
"Better to take insults and respond intelligently than to savagely start fights, my little one." She now already sounded very angry.
"Not in my world." Dijana sounded brazen.