n

n

nKairos slowly held out another piece of strawberry gum with his hand while softly chewing on the one in his mouth. Though this wasn’t really the time, he couldn’t help but think that it tasted pretty good.

nIn the end, though Sydney seemed scared, she reached out to take it.

nThere was a strong contrast between the smooth piece of gum and her wrinkled skin. But in the end, she wasn’t able to put it into her mouth.

nKairos thought this might be because he couldn’t normalize it, thus stood up and pulled another one out of the pack before handing it towards Nicole.

n“Do you want one?”

nNicole blinked a few times before nodding.

n“Um, yeah.”

nShe gently reached out and took it before slowly unwrapping the piece of gum. Kairos then looked towards Chase and Tori.

n“What about you guys?”

nChase shrugged his shoulders.

n“It’s a little weird you have gum in the apocalypse, but if we are going to be down here for a while… then it would be nice to have one.”

nKairos flicked one over towards Chase, who caught it promptly. He then looked over to Tori and gave her a look when it seemed like she didn’t really want one.

nTori seemed to catch on, nodding with a bit of hesitation.

n“Sure.”

nKairos tossed another one towards her.

nIt did not take long for the room to be filled with various chewing noises. Sydney looked around her a few more times before looking back at the piece of strawberry gum. Then, she slowly put it in her mouth.

nAlmost immediately, she began violently chewing down on it, a show of how hungry she really was. In reality, it did startle Kairos slightly, but he made sure not to show it, pretending it was completely normal.

nSydney forced herself to stop and grabbed onto the side of her head, groaning slightly.

nKairos slowly asked a question.

n“Is the flavor of gum bad? You seemed to like it at first.”

nHe purposely stayed on the word gum a little longer to more clearly show she wasn’t eating flesh, but rather a piece of gum, so there was nothing to be concerned about.

nSydney shivered slightly before shaking her head.

n“N-No.”

nShe began chewing again, slow at first, but rapidly became quicker and quicker.

nKairos coughed a little when he saw this.

n“Ah, I almost swallowed it, but you aren’t supposed to eat gum, haha.”

nThat was a lie, but it was supposed to wake up Sydney to make her realize she was just chewing on gum.

nThankfully, it seemed to work as she stopped chewing so obsessively on it. Kairos kept his eyes on her the entire time, trying to gauge any changes he saw.

nAnd so, he was able to notice that Sydney was sneaking glances at the bag of bread Nicole was holding. She seemed to calm down considerably but was still a little jittery.

nKairos looked over to Nicole.

n“Say, I’m a little tired of chewing on the gum.”

nHe then spat it out, letting it land to the side.

n“Could I have a piece of bread? I’m feeling a little hungry.”

nThat wasn’t exactly a lie, because he was definitely hungry. Nicole nodded slowly.

n“O-Ok.”

nShe seemed to catch on to what Kairos was doing, and also made her actions slow and gentle as she gave the piece of bread.

nKairos took it before slowly and deliberately chewing.

nAfter taking a bite, he spoke up.

n“Does anybody want one?”

nSydney practically instinctively raised her hand.

n“A-Ah… I-I.”

nKairos tilted his head to the side.

n“Oh, you want some?”

nHe turned to Nicole.

n“Why don’t you give her the bag so she can take as many as she wants.”

nIn response, Nicole nodded hurriedly.

n“Yes!”

nSydney grabbed onto the bag with both hands a little tightly. She reached in and anxiously took one, but before eating it, she let the piece of gum fall out of her mouth slowly.

nSydney slowly raised one bread up to her mouth, before taking a small bite. Then, she began eating ravenously, no longer holding back. She ate it quite messily, holding onto multiple pieces and clenching onto them tightly.

nConsidering that it did not even take a minute for her to finish the entire bag, it showed how hungry she was. By the end, she began panting slightly, but it seemed to be out of relief.

nA few seconds later, she let out a gasp.

n“Ah! I’m… I’m sorry…”

nKairos shrugged his shoulders.

n“It’s fine. You were just a little hungry.”

nThat being said, he couldn’t help but feel a little jealous that she had eaten the whole bag when that was what he wanted to do. Nonetheless, he just continued to eat the piece that he was holding onto.

nKairos then walked back over to the others and looked over his shoulder, towards Sydney.

n“Are you going to come back now?”

nSydney held onto the side of her head uncomfortably, but seemed to be more or less fine now.

n“Ah… ok, ok.”

nThey went back together as a group back near the center. Upon reaching there, Chase ended up scratching the back of his head.

n“Um… what now?”

nKairos scratched his head.

n“I guess turn off the light and catch up on some sleep. We were trying to sleep before all of this, after all.”

nTori chuckled.

n“Ah, that’s convenient. Now I won’t have to take watch.”

nKairos cracked his neck.

n“Just don’t make too much sound, and we should be fine. Remember we are hiding, because of…”

nHe narrowed his eyes.

n“The Red Priest we pissed off earlier.”

nSydney’s eyes widened slightly.

n“Eh? What happened before?”

nKairos rolled his shoulder.

n“There was a giant red eye that looked down at us. The reason we are hiding out here in the first place is in hopes that they don’t find us. If we stay down here long enough, they should stop looking and we can probably leave.”

nSydney seemed slightly taken aback.

n“So… we shouldn’t be eating too much…”

nKairos sighed.

n“We should be rationing food, but not starving ourselves to death. Eating when we really have to is natural.”

nHe massaged his temple.

n“Anyway, we can talk about this later. I still didn’t get much sleep. Since we won’t have much to do, this is the best opportunity for us to take some rest. Who knows how long we will have to wait later on?”

nWith that, he laid down on the floor, shifting uncomfortably. His head was aching slightly, making him just want to lay down.

nChase seemed to more or less agree as he had turned off the flashlight and also laid down on the ground.

nA few snoring sounds filled the air, coming from Tori and Sydney. It seemed that they were both quite tired.

nA little while later, Chase had fallen asleep as well.

nKairos yawned and was about to drift off along with the rest of them, but Nicole grabbed onto his hand before he did so.

nShe whispered to him.

n“Th-Thank you for helping my mom.”

nKairos closed his eyes with a slight grumble.

n“No problem.”

nHe rested his head against one of the red veins that were on the floor and fell asleep before Nicole could say anything more.

n…

nKairos saw himself walking home from school. At the time, he was walking home with Nicole, but there was a slight frown on his face, displeased about something.

nOn the other hand, Nicole had a really excited expression.

nShe hugged Kairos tightly and giggled.

n“Let’s go to the park! We haven’t been there since last week!”

nKairos did not respond at first.

nNicole lowered her head and peeked at his face.

n“Is that a yes? Or…”

nKairos shook his head.

n“We still have to do our homework, don’t we?”

nNicole seemed taken aback.

n“Ehhh? But we didn’t even get that much, and we haven’t been to the park in so long!”

nKairos clicked his tongue.

n“We aren’t kids anymore. Instead of playing, we should be working.”

nNicole visibly recoiled before shaking Kairos a little.

n“Earth to Kairos? Are you there? You must’ve been replaced by an alien!”

nKairos narrowed his eyes.

n“I’m right here in front of you. It seems like you are the one that needs glasses.”

nNicole pouted slightly.

n“Gah… Why are you being so uptight? It’s not like we are actually adults! When we grow older it’s going to be all boring all the time, we should play around while we have the chance!”

nKairos continued walking forward, not even sparing her a glance.

n“Being a kid is more than just being young, and being an adult is more than just being over eighteen. It’s also about changing as a person. And I have changed to not wanting to go to the park anymore.”

nNicole let out an unsatisfied grumble.

n“Then let’s just stay kids forever! I don’t want to grow up!”

nKairos lowered his head.

n“Growing up isn’t a choice you get to make. It just happens.”

nHe frowned.

n“Plus, it’s already too late. I said this before.”

nKairos adjusted his glasses.

n“We aren’t kids anymore.”

n…

nKairos woke up, feeling uncomfortable.

nAnd soon enough, he found the source.

nSomeone’s leg was on his chest.

nHe furrowed his brows and pushed it off. Soon after, Tori let out a groan.

n“Hmm…”

nAfter the sound of rustling and a yawn, she spoke once more.

n“Why are you pushing me around? That’s rude.”

nKairos clicked his tongue.

n“Why did you think my chest was a good place to put your leg? It made it awkward to breathe.”

nTori grumbled.

n“Hey, hey, I can’t help that I move around a lot in my sleep, but you didn’t have to push me.”

nKairos rolled his eyes.

n“Just because you didn’t mean to do it, doesn’t change the fact that you did.”

nTori chuckled.

n“Oh, so what if I told you that I meant to put my leg there? I’m sure that would change how you felt, no?”

nThe corner of Kairos’ lip twitched.

n“…Fair enough.”

nTheir conversation ended up waking the others up. Nicole sat up and let out some satisfied grunting noises as she stretched.

n“Good morning!”

nChase grumbled.

n“Is it even morning?”

nKairos let out a soft hum.

n“Our internal clocks are probably going to get really messed up by this.”

nSydney let out a random comment.

n“My hands feel quite strange… My face feels a little strange as well.”

nKairos’ eyebrow twitched.

n“Um… you lost a bit of weight when you fought earlier.”

nSydney gasped.

n“I did?”

nAfter a few rubbing noises, she exclaimed once more.

n“Oh, dear… I did. But I’ve done exercise before and it hasn’t been that drastic.”

nKairos couldn’t help but open his mouth with the urge to ask, ‘Do you not remember what you did?’

nHowever, he also thought that might trigger a bad memory, thus he shut his mouth.

nTori let out a dissatisfied sigh.

n“It reeks of blood.”

nKairos raised an eyebrow.

n“It always reeked of blood.”

nTori mumbled.

n“But this is different… if we were in the middle of a battle then it would at least help pump up the adrenaline, but now it’s just stinky.”

nKairos rolled his eyes, not responding to it.

nSydney spoke up, but in the form of an embarrassed mumble.

n“How will we decide when we eat?”

nChase responded fairly promptly.

n“Considering that we have at least eaten somewhat regularly beforehand, we shouldn’t eat for quite a while.”

nKairos brushed off some dried blood that had formed on his knuckles.

n“And why is that?”

nChase let out a soft hum.

n“Well, right now our bodies expect a normal amount of food intake and are operating off that basis. If we continue to do so, they will also operate on the same capacity. If we want to make the most of our food, we first have to stop eating.”

nKairos nodded.

n“For how long?”

nChase sighed.

n“We shouldn’t think about how long. If all of our thoughts are about food, then it will quickly drain us and make us even more tired than before. The way I survived starvation before was distracting myself.”

nKairos put a finger on his chin.

n“Fair enough. What should we talk about?”

nTori let out a soft gasp as though she had been enlightened.

n“Oh, what about how to use our points?”

n