The Luxury

Chapter 1

The steamy spray of the washroom showers was much welcomed after an incredibly long day, and I stepped in, soaking in the lasting warmth. Just an hour ago I'd helped Grant and Denver extract seven seniors out of a burning retirement facility. It felt like today had been extra challenging for some reason, and yet, it was just like any other day.

After five minutes of lathering myself up with the small bottle of shampoo, the door swung open and I found myself freezing in place as Grant's thick New York accent echoed off the walls. "Elise? You in here?"

Must be time to eat. "Yeah, give me a sec, I'm coming."

He hummed in response and the door closed again. I reached for the chain above my head and pulled it down, slowing the water pressure until it stopped.

Seven minute showers were the max. If you tried to take a shower longer than than that, the water would grow cold or the whole thing would turn off completely.

I stepped out of the stall and went to the door where I'd put a set of clothes earlier. My arms and legs ached as I pulled the long-sleeve and jeans on, and my whole body was yelling at me to just go to bed. But the voices of four rowdy young men were calling me to the commissary and I couldn't help but go check on them at least.

"Denver, Joel, Simon. Eat up." Grant was dishing out mashed beans and carrot sticks as I walked into the commissary.

Joel's face broke out into a smile when he spotted me and he jumped off the stool with unexplainable energy.

"Elise, hey!"

"Joel, what's up?"

"You feeling any better? I snagged an old bottle of Asprin from the kids' commissary and put it in my locker, because they definitely don't need it. I can go grab it if you want!" He offered, already rushing to the door. Joel had a knack for telling who was hurting and how much.

I smiled and nodded. "Thanks, that would be great."

He sped off down the hall and I slid onto a stool by the counter, sharing a glance with the other boys. Though this commissary was for all the adolescents in our building, each crew was designated it's own meal time. And it was a good thing too— the room was small even for just five people. The stove(which didn't always work) was cramped into the corner next to the cold-storage container. An old scraped up table was in the middle of the room, with five seats surrounding it. There were a few dusty books on the table top(usually training manuals that nobody ever bothered to move) and two small windows overlooking the training yards.

It wasn't much, but it worked for the five of us. Not that we had much of a choice. Denver and Grant, who were above average in build and height respectively, needed more calories per day than Control provided, and as a result, both were underweight. Asking for more food often resulted in punishment, but we tried to make do by rationing the rest of the food to offer them both more.

I found myself scarfing down the beans and carrots as soon as Grant passed them to me. Putting out fires and lugging around pipes all day tended to make you ravenous by dinner.

"Control's going to do a run-through on Friday so I suggest we knock out our weeklies by Thursday. Hopper said they might give us a few extra rations if we keep everything spotless." Simon said in between bites of his carrots.

Grant nodded and ran a hand through his sweat-dried hair. My guess was he hadn't showered yet. The guy had far too much on his plate. Figuratively, anyway. 

"Alright. Denny, might be a good idea to get started on wranglin' those extra pipes down by the truck that Control was too lazy to deal with." He muttered, his voice gravelly.