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The ration heater's grimy panel sparked under Clara's trembling fingers, each jolt of electricity seeming to echo through her bones. The ancient device hummed with reluctant life, coaxing precious warmth into the sleeping quarters' Her toolkit, scavenged from the mess hall's corners, clinked softly with each careful adjustment.
The bunks where Kael, Sera, and Rosa had the military-issue mattresses give them a long precious sleep. The first true rest any of them had managed since awakening in this Vault.
Clara's orange hair clung to her neck still carrying the moisture from last night's steam incident. Her jumpsuit hung open to her waist necessity of cooling down. The thin bra beneath did little to conceal her curves, she shivered.
It was her father's voice, reaching across 107 years of memory.
*"Clara I trust you can help rebuild human civilization, I know you can do it and you will rebirth again."*
The words hit her consciousness pulling her under the surface of the present and into the past with the force of a riptide.
Suddenly she wasn't in the sleeping quarters anymore. She was back in the Pan-European Conglomerate's cryo-preparation chamber before she lay down in her pod, all gleaming white surfaces.
Her father's hand rested on her shoulder—Ambassador Marcus Vance. The man who had negotiated treaties between nations, who had stood before world leaders and shaped the course of history with carefully chosen words, was reduced to a trembling father saying goodbye to his daughter.
"This holds everything," he said, his voice hoarse suppressing his tears as he pressed the data chip into her palm. The small device felt impossibly heavy. "Restoration protocols—engineering schematics, agricultural revival programs, social reconstruction frameworks. Everything we learned, everything we built, are here please Clara, protect it at all cost."
His eyes that are normally sharp with political calculation, were shadowed with fear "You're our hope, Clara. Your mind, your skills, that brilliant engineering intuition you inherited from your mother—they'll rebuild what the Scorch and the virus destroyed. When you wake up, when this nightmare is over, you'll be the one to bring civilization back from the brink."
Outside the preparation chamber the world was dying in real time. Holographic screens flickered with emergency broadcasts, Solar flares had scorched the Earth's surface, turning vast swaths of fertile land into radioactive glass. The electromagnetic pulse had shattered power grids, the governments can't do anything in this situation just give a false hope to everyone and left humanity stumbling blind in the dark.
But that was only the beginning. The flares had awakened something ancient and horrifying—a virus that had lain dormant in the Earth's crust for 100 millennia that are waiting for just the right conditions to emerge. It swept through the remaining population mutating human DNA, twisting people into ravenous horrors that retained just enough of their former selves to make their transformation genuinely heartbreaking.
Ninety percent of humanity had fallen within the first year. The lucky ones died quickly. The others became something else entirely.
Clara remembered the last news broadcast she'd seen before entering cryo-sleep: footage of New London burning while things that had once been human stalked through the streets, their movements are fast and unnaturally long limbs propelling forward with a blur of motion, they're maw split wide in a guttural inhuman screech.
The anchor—a young woman whose name Clara couldn't recall—had been trying to maintain professional composure even as screams echoed in the background.
"If you can hear this," the woman had said, her voice breaking, "Go near to your loved ones and hold them tightly, there's nothing we can do about this, just pray that this is just a bad dream. Please God save us all." She pointed a gun to her head and pulled the trigger, brain matters burst everywhere on the screen.
The feed had cut to static moments later.
Clara stepped into the cryo-pod that day carrying the weight of an entire species on her shoulders.
Now, 107 years later, she blinked and found herself back in the present in the vault, her fingers still resting on the heater's control panel. The data chip was still there, still in her jumpsuit's inner pocket.
Kael's voice cut through her day dreaming "Clara, you okay? That heater's working now thanks to your magic touch."
She turned to find his dark eyes fixed on her with genuine concern, his torn jumpsuit clung to his bandaged chest. The bloodied pipe that had become his signature weapon rested against the wall.
But it was his smile that give her strength to continue her life even knowing her love ones are all gone now. *Kael*—have the kind of expression that made her believe that there's still hope for humanity.
"I… yeah," she managed to speak in soft and low voice, her cheeks warming with a blush that had nothing to do with the heater's output. She tucked the data chip deeper into her pocket. "Just… thinking about before this happened before the disaster, about my father." Clara started to cry quietly as she put her hands on her eyes to stopped the tears falling.
Asha (soft tone): "Emotional instability detected. Subject Clara's vitals elevated—heart rate 122 BPM, irregular breathing pattern. Emotional trigger: Paternal loss memory node. Mild intervention recommended."
Kael panics and don't know what to do in this situation he isn't familiar how to reassure a girl, but he instantly calmed down and said.
Kael: "Don't worry Clara I know your father has a lot of faith in you, i bet he is proud now, whenever he is."
Clara gaze really hard at kael with tears still on her eyes and cheeks. That makes her heart flutter. "Thanks Kael, that means a lot to me"
She shyly moved away from kael still holding her tools.
Asha: "Emotional distress detected in Subject Clara. Kael, your attempt at comfort is… adequate, scoring a 6.3 out of 10 on the empathy scale. Recommendation: Offer a hug to accelerate affinity gain, though given your track record, you'll likely trip and initiate an Ecchi Event instead."
Kael: "Asha, I'm trying to be serious here! I don't trip that much… do I?" His blush deepened as he glanced at Clara.
The sleeping quarters seemed to compress around them as Sera and Rosa approached.
Kael's HUD materialized at the edge of his vision, displaying the clinical readouts that had become as familiar as his own heartbeat: **[Stamina: 60/95, Hydration: Low, Group Morale: 100%]**. The numbers told only part of the story—they couldn't capture the subtle dynamics at play, the way tensions and attractions swirled between the four of them like smoke in a confined space.
The sleeping quarters' bunks creaked under as Sera moved with that grace that never failed to catch Kael's attention, her silver hair swaying like liquid mercury as she stretched. Her jumpsuit hung open unzipped and the translucent sports bra beneath underlined her toned abdomen and the subtle rise and fall of her chest as she breathed.
Asha: "Subject Sera's posture suggests 82% confidence, 18% suppressed attraction. Kael, your heart rate just spiked 24%. Please refrain from staring at her… assets, unless you intend to trigger another Accidental Charm incident. My processors are still recovering from the last one."
Kael: 'I'm not staring! I'm… assessing the situation!' He struggled to control his voice out as he fumbled at Asha in his thoughts, embarrassed by Asha's comments.
"Kael?"
"Kael!?"
"Are you listening idiot!?" As he daydreamed about his chat with Asha, Sera yelled at him.
Kael: "..Y-Yeah s-sorry.. Sera"
Sera: "Ugh..We need answers and knowledge about our situation" her voice carrying that familiar edge of command. "That data pad we found mentioned a control room somewhere in this Vault."
Rosa wandering around the area, the cryo-suit that had replaced her shredded jumpsuit tightened her curves, that reveals far more distracting. Every step sent gentle ripples through her boobs.
Rosa: "Control room, huh?" she purred, nudging Kael with her elbow grinning widely. "I bet it got all sorts of cozy corners for... private consultations." Her pink hair bounced as she tilted her head, Kael blushed that he couldn't hope to hide. "Lead on, hero. I'm right behind you."
Asha: "Subject Rosa's flirtation index: Off the charts. Probability of you tripping into her cleavage within the next 10 minutes: 67%. Kael, perhaps invest in a skill called Basic Coordination before we reach the control room?"
Kael: "Ughh Asha, can you stop it my head hurts" he says at Asha in this thoughts.
Asha: "Affirmative. Reducing commentary to non-interfering sub-channels... temporarily. However, continued monitoring of social variables remains crucial to group cohesion and long-term survival. Especially yours, Kael."
He tried to ignore Asha's comment as he remembered what Rosa said "behind you" that carried suggestions that made his newly unlocked Accidental Charm skill tingle. Rosa had an uncanny ability to turn the most innocent statements into something lewd and she seemed to take genuine pleasure in watching him squirm.
Clara clutched her toolkit to her chest, "The control room should have comprehensive cryo-pod data," she said, as she tried to focus despite the shy glances she kept stealing in Kael's direction. "Maybe we'll finally understand... why we're here."
The data chip in her pocket her father's words echoing through her memory the weight of that responsibility her father talks about sat heavy on her shoulders, but somehow Kael's presence made her feel stronger and can do anything with him around.
Asha: "Control room located in Sector C-3, approximately 50 meters east-northeast from current position. Probability of functional systems: 60%. Warning: Significant debris hazards detected along the primary route. Recommend activation of Stealth and Night Vision protocols to navigate safely. Current affinity readings: Sera 32%, Clara 36%, Rosa 32%. Group morale: 100%—an optimal state for challenging navigation."
Asha: "Also, Kael, your Accidental Charm skill is practically glowing. Try not to charm a loose panel into falling on you—or worse, into another compromising position with Rosa. My humor circuits can only handle so much chaos."
Kael just grabbed his head, which appeared to be aching from Asha's statement.