"Ha!" (Gemini)

=Chapter 12: Ha!= ''Day 7: It’s been an entire week since Sonia and the rest of the crew departed from the Gemini. We’re currently floating above the North Pole we think. Quite literally, we’re on top of the Earth. Well, if you look at the Earth vertically at least anyway. The thing is, Sonia was right about a lot more than I gave her credit for. I never saw the Earth half as beautifully as she did. But now I do. I’m grateful to have this view. Especially since I’m likely the last person who’s ever gonna see it now. My girlfriend, well, she isn’t too keen on admiring the Earth either. I don’t blame her to be honest. It just means that she’s a normal human being. Ha! Anyway, I think I’m going to call it a night now. The moon appears to be shining over Ireland, I think. Therefore, I might as well sleep with the rest of my people. Night.''

-Wells

 

''Day 12: We’re still floating in orbit. The thing is, I don’t know why Sonia and Roger were so worried. The Green Room doesn’t need power to actually function. As long as all the vents are kept, oxygen flows through the ship anyway. It’s quite a natural process really. And obviously, plants don’t need electricity to grow, so our food source is pretty definitive as well. It took us some time, but Rosie and I found a way to manually power the water generator. Basically: You urinate, you crank the handle, and boom. If you want a drink, just crank it a bit harder and the filter will process it for you. We seem to be doing well considering that we’re living off our own urine. Ha! And yes, I’ve set out to make sure I use the term ‘Ha!’ at least once in every daily entry. Just so that you, whoever you are, can understand the type of guy that I was.''

-Wells

 

''Day 21: Three weeks, and Rosie and I are still going fairly strong considering it’s just us two. The Green Room is fine, the manual water generator is fine, and the plants are still growing berries and peppers for us. The trouble is, we’re becoming quite lethargic now. We don’t have any source of protein. We can’t make protein packs, and it’s basically impossible to find proper meat up here. There’s only one source. You probably already know what that source is. But if it’ll save Rosie, I’ll use it. I’ll hold out just a little bit longer, at least until she is too weak to even function anymore before I make any rash decisions – that’s right, I can actually be quite a sensible guy. Ha!''

-Wells.

 

''Day 28: Four weeks in, and we’ve done well considering we’ve got no protein. We’re increasing how often we’re sleeping. We sleep around three times an artificial day – yes, we’ve made our own calendar including length of days up here – and we sleep for around 4-5 hours each time. Though Rosie is quite the heavy sleeper might I add. Ha! Still, we can’t just rely on oversleeping to fix our problems. One day we’ll get so tired that we won’t even be able to wake up. I’m ready to go to my last resort now. If it’ll save Rosie, I have no choice.''

-Wells.

 

''Day 32: Today was a tough day for both me and Rosie… She was totally opposed to my plan, but I finally went through with my last resort. Using Amanda’s knife, I cut off my left forearm. You wouldn’t believe it, but using the engine and some useless materials I was actually able to start a small fire. I roasted my forearm over it – after Rosie treated me of course – and then I gave it to her. She was furious with me for doing it, but she also knew it would’ve been a pointless sacrifice if she didn’t just eat the forearm. So, she reluctantly did. Eerily, she actually said I tasted better than she expected. Ha! Looks like my plan worked. If I am to be Rosie’s source of protein, so be it. If it kills me, so be it.''

 

''Day 35: 1 month and 1 week since Sonia’s group left us. I wonder how they’re getting by down on Earth; if they made it that is. A hundred things could’ve happened to them. Ninety-nine harmless, but there’s always that one hostile possibility, isn’t there? Anyway, I cut off the rest of my left arm today, Rosie roasted, and she even shared some of it with me. Though she seemed kind of reluctant. I’m kind of scared now though, because she actually seemed to be enjoying my arm, I’m worried she doesn’t love me anymore. I feel as though she’s become a crazed cannibal. I feel as though perhaps the space dementia has returned to affect her. I can’t cope on this station much longer I don’t think. But I really don’t wanna hurt either of us. I’m scared – yes, even I get scared. Ha. I don’t really have the energy to use that term anymore now. There’s no silver lining to my situation. This may very well be my last diary entry. If this is the last that you hear from me, I want one thing to be known. This is directed at Sonia, Roger, Bertie and Kristina. If any of you four ever end up reading this diary, then I want you to hear these words. I want you to acknowledge the fact that these words are in all capital letters, and I want you to interpret them as though I’m screaming them out loud:''

''SCREW. YOU!''

Why?

''FOR LEAVING ME BEHIND! FOR LEAVING ME AND ROSIE UP HERE TO DIE! BET YOU LOT ARE HAVING A GOOD LAUGH AND SHAG DOWN THERE! LIVING YOUR LIVES UP AND OUT ON EARTH! NOTHING CHANGES FOR YOU, DOES IT? THE APOCALYPSE WAS JUST YOUR EXCUSE TO FINALLY START ACTING LIKE THE CHILDREN YOU REALLY ARE! IF I END UP IN HELL, I’LL BE STANDING RIGHT NEXT TO AMANDA. I’M SURE THE DEVIL WILL WELCOME YOU ALL. HA! HA! HA!''

-STILL WELLS.

 

Northern Italy, Earth

26th January 2027

Sonia sat outside an abandoned café. She watched as Roger approached from a distance, interlocking arms with a man who had a bag over his head. He tried speaking out, but it was evident his mouth had been gagged.

Sonia unfolded her arms and sat up straight. As Roger approached the table, he pushed the man down against the chair, pulling the bag off his head, and removing his mouth gag. The man barraged them with a flock of Italian words. Sonia put her hand up – but this didn’t work. She then pulled out her pistol, and cocked the slide, pointing it out between the man’s eyes. He fell silent instantly.

“That’s better!” She lowered the gun under the table. “Now, Um… Do you speak the English?” She knew no Italian at all. The man looked away from her at first, then she nodded at Roger. Roger smiled evilly, and pulled out Amanda’s knife, he inserted it through the man’s arm, as the blade pierced all the way through it. “She asked you a question,” Roger bent down and murmured in the man’s ear. The man winced in agony with an increased breathing rate, trying to nod. Sonia motioned for Roger to remove the knife, which he did. She leant over the table.

“Then this should go rather smoothly… My scouts saw you lumbering two canisters of water about this morning. Do you fancy telling me where you got those?” She leant her entire body forward now.

“The… the trade route,” the man’s Italian accent was strong, but Sonia could still interpret what he was saying. “All over Europe, there are trades. We trade valuable items for water! For many water!” His English was weak, but still Sonia grasped what he was telling her, “What kind of ‘valuable items’?”

He stuttered while thinking to himself, “Guns!” He raised his finger when it came to his mind, “You trade enough rifles, you get traded many water. For five rifles, I get traded two canisters!” He sounded as though the deal was worth it.

“Putting guns aside,” Sonia didn’t have many of those to spare, “What else do they accept?” She crossed her legs, interested in the information she was receiving. “Meat! But not any meat… A special kind of meat. Human meat. In Belarus, there is a butcher. He has a market. He sells human meat for water. But that deal works both ways! You give him human meat; he will give you some of the water he earns. I have never traded with him, but my friend, he has.” Sonia nodded slowly, taking in all the information, “So, the world is larger than we thought… How interesting. Thank you, that’s all I needed to know.”

A gunshot echoed out, causing both Roger and the man to jump. The man looked down, noticing a gunshot wound in his lower torso – his corpse fell off the side of the chair. Sonia put her hand back on the table, still holding her pistol, smoke coming out of the end barrel. “We couldn’t risk anyone knowing about us… yet. You heard about the trade routes. We’re going to take them over, Roger.” She rose out from her chair. “Human meat is valuable, he claims. I suppose that makes sense with it being a protein source. So, here’s what we’re gonna do. We’re gonna find this butcher, and we’re gonna take over his end of the trade. It’s how we must survive. Tell Bertie and Kris, our next stop, is Belarus…”

Roger bowed his head, before heading off to inform the other two. Sonia watched him, thoroughly examining his body. “Yes… yes, I could get a huge chunk of meat off of him,” she mumbled to herself, “More meat, more water,” Already she had plans to betray her closest friend…

=Epilogue= ''2nd October 2029 Northern Italy, Several Miles from the France-Italy Border''

Kristina and Bertie had been on their own for a while now – separated from Sonia and Roger. From a café balcony, they scanned the empty town to the left of them, as well surveyed the crevice in between the two mountains on their right. “Hey, you want some of this?” Kristina offered him a chunk of her rice cake. “Sure,” he gratefully accepted it. “Wow,” he spoke while chewing on it, causing half of the crumbs to fall out, “That’s actually pretty darn tasty! And to think, rice cakes outlived most of the human race!” They laughed gently.

“Enjoying that rice cake?” An unfamiliar voice asked Bertie from behind, as he felt the barrel of a revolver against his temple. He put his hands up slowly, dropping the rice cake. “Hey lady, listen,” he sounded terrified, “I don’t know what you want, but just don’t hurt me to get it!” She held him firmly.

“Don’t you move either!” She nodded to Kristina, who also raised her hands. “If you try anything, I’ll blow his brains out…” She sounded genuine about her threat. “Now listen up. I don’t care if you’re connected with the whole trading bullshit. I don’t care what camp you’re from. Don’t care if you’re Camp Leroy, don’t care if you’re Camp Wilson, don’t even care if you came all the way from the camp in Kazakhstan either. I’m looking for my stepbrother. I just wanna know if you’ve seen him or not, that’s all…” She began to sound reasonable, despite still holding the revolver against Bertie’s head.

Kristina slowly walked towards the woman, “Dear, I’m sorry. We’re nothing to do with the trading business. Bertie and I are just two freelancers. But… We’ll help you find your brother, ok? What’s his name? That’s always a good place to start.”

The woman slowly lowered the revolver, “If you’ve eavesdropped on a stolen radio before, you’ve likely heard his name already. He’s called Elliot…”

Kristina lowered her hands, and nodded slowly, “I’ve heard his name before, sweetie. Bertie and I listen in on the walkie talkies sometimes. There’s a lot of commotion surrounding this… Elliot. What’s so special about him?”

The woman lowered the gun off of Bertie’s temple, as he immediately ran over to Kristina’s side. “There’s a bounty on his head. Camp Leroy took him, but he escaped. Ever since then he’s been committing crimes all over, sabotaging the trade routes. It’s not his fault, he’s doing it to try and get to me. He only cares about me and my mother – we’re his step family now! You said you’d help me find him, so let’s go, now!” She pulled up the revolver again, “Just so you know, this is for my own safety. Hands up…” She gestured with the handgun, prompting Kristina and Bertie to raise their hands.

“What’s your name then dear?” Kristina didn’t break eye contact with her. “My name… Crikey, haven’t used it in a long time. But now, people know me as Annabelle. You too, shall know me, as Annabelle. Now, enough chitchat. Move…”

-The four surviving characters of the series - Sonia, Roger, Kristina and Bertie - Will all be crossing over to S5 of the original series.

-One of the lines in Wells' letter was censored and replaced. Specifically, the line, "SCREW. YOU!" Originally used the F-word. However, the writer does not like to use this word, therefore it was changed before release. -Annabelle is the only character originally from Nature to make an appearance in Gemini.
 * This makes this chapter the first one in the entire Nature series to have a censored line.
 * Though Elliot and Gwen are mentioned however.