Robert Moore
Day 1: Night - Catch up Post (Part 2)
Eventually, Robert had shamefacedly returned to help out with the sick and the corpses. There had been an attempt to bury the corpses, but the ground was hard and packed, and most people were falling sick.
A massive argument had broken out about what to do with the corpses. One suggested cremation, but another argued that fuel would be precious now. One insisted on a proper burial, but was rebuffed with the argument about conserving energy as well as the low food stocks. Someone else made what Robert hoped was a macabre joke about following some ancient traditions and leaving them for the birds so their souls could go to some great sky god or something. Another argued that leaving the bodies outside would attract beasts that would soon associate humans as food from that.
Robert wasn't sure what the best answer was.
If there was a cave around here, entombing them might be an option. Cremation would perhaps be less effort, but he wasn't sure how well bodies would burn and well, it was absolutely true that fuel would be limited. It wasn't like there were that many trees left for wood to burn for one thing. In fact, they would need to look into some alternative heating and cooking systems it seemed.
Robert had a camp stove, but again, it would need fuel and fuel would be limited. He knew he was mentally escaping from the argument.
With a sigh, he hefted a shovel and went looking for a likely location for a grave. He tested the soil with his shovel until he found a spot that seemed pretty good, and then he started digging. After he dug for a few minutes and found that it was still bearable, he returned to the other survivors and simply informed them that he'd found a place that could work and that he didn't want any animals getting to the bodies.
A few backbreaking hours of work with the more able-bodied survivors and a mass grave was created. Robert set some larger rocks a foot away from the corners of the grave to mark it out and then they got to burying. The pile of corpses they'd have to bury kept growing.
He got a headache just thinking about how many graves and mass graves would have to be dug out.
It was dark by the time people decided to call it a day. It was getting hard to see, and no one wanted to get lost, get injured, or get attacked by wild animals after dark.
Robert saw the Asian man as he was coming in, but fortunately the man was busy with the sick. Robert snuck away as fast as he could to go wash his hands, grab a change of clothes, and get a proper shower.
With a groan, Robert heaved himself onto his bed. Dinner had been a dour affair, with people sick, miserable, grieving, nauseated, and thoroughly discouraged. Some people just picked at their food, some scarfed it down like it was the first meal they'd seen in years, and some people, like Robert, grimly soldiered through their meal.
Robert was physically and mentally drained. From the way he felt, he knew he was going to have sore muscles the next day. He'd been on an emotional rollercoaster. He'd seen people die and he'd had to bury some people and haul the dead from the bunkers. That was bad enough but earlier today in the showers.
Urgh, the showers. He'd forgotten to replace the curtain, earlier. Apparently it wouldn't have mattered much because he'd still been seen running about with the torn shower curtain, so everyone knew he'd been the one to tear the shower curtain. It wasn't so bad, he guessed. He just said he'd slipped in the showers and accidentally tore off the curtains. People asked him if he was fine and someone had helped him find a replacement shower curtain. No one asked anything further, probably because his face was bright red and no one felt like being too much of an asshole right now, he supposed.
To be honest, he certainly wondered what they'd been thinking when he'd "confessed" about his shower mishap. Of course, he hadn't volunteered much information at all, and never mentioned the Asian man.
That train of thought sent him careening down the path of what he could have done better and what he should have done to prevent that ridiculous shower scene. He rolled around on his bed hugging his pillow as he pondered on it for a good thirty minutes before he finally gave up.
To some extent, he really, really wanted to know what people were thinking. For example, what had been going through the mind of the Asian man when he'd seen Robert fall over in the showers? What was the person by the box he'd seen thinking when Robert had let go and left him to die.
He started to feel nausea. He didn't want to think about this. He covered his face with a pillow and shivered a little. It was odd how it felt a little chilly here. Maybe they'd turned down the heat some to preserve energy. He'd never bothered to ask how the bunker maintained power.
He put his pillow back in its place and wriggled under the covers in the dark. As he was drifting off he suddenly came to a realization.
When the Asian man walked in, I could have turned the shower on and pretended I was taking a shower!