Mornings. Objectively the worst part of the day.
Orange light penetrated through the heavy curtains and bled into the room. The man buried under the thick sheets groaned and tucked into himself further to protect himself from what the morning would bring: responsibilities. He kept his head down, protected in his nest of warmth until he heard the animals outside scream at their keeper for nourishment. His stomach grumbled loudly and he couldn't help but feel the same. Oh, what he wouldn't give to be fed when he screamed.
The man flung the bedsheets from him and rolled out of bed, only for his face to meet the ground when the sheets tangled around his ankles. He groaned loudly before freeing himself from the prison of fabric around his legs. He shuffled into the bathroom and glared weakly at his reflection in the mirror. His fiery hair, though usually tamable, sat like a bonfire set ablaze upon his scalp. Tired hazel eyes looked back at him.
"Logan, you absolute mess." He said to the mirror. "Let's fuck this entire day up."
With that, he turned away to get dressed. A pair of jeans, a ratted AC/DC shirt, a pair of old converse, a random baseball cap, and a dozen bracelets later, Logan was ready to leave for school. He stopped by the kitchenette of his apartment for a protein bar, grabbed his backpack by the front door and left. He thanked whichever Gods were still laughing at their current situation that gave him an apartment on the first floor. He hated stairs.
The walk to his campus was short considering the size of his Herd. Logan had grown up in the small Herd - approximately 2,000 people, give or take - with his parents, never knowing what it's like living in a large community Herd. He didn't mind, since he could easily study it, but he did wonder sometimes.
"Logan!"
Logan turned at the call of his name and smiled wide. Running up behind him was a short blonde girl dressed in jean shorts and a bright yellow hoodie with donuts painted all over it. Her satchel slung over one shoulder with stray papers practically waiting to fly out. Logan slowed his pace to allow her to catch up before greeting her and continuing his walk.
"Did you do the readings for today, Aly?" Logan asked. He didn't have to glance in her direction to know the guilty look that crossed her face. He sighed. "Alyssa Flitz, you had a week to read 4 chapters of an easy book. What were you doing?"
"You know as well as I that there was a smaller Herd merging with us last week." Aly said retaliating against his scolding, "I just wanted to see if there were any... Infected with them."
"How close did you get?"
Silence. That wasn't a good sign, but he waited for her answer so he could properly scold her.
"The Inner Wall security."
Something about the way she muttered those words made his brain explode a bit. Every Herd was protected by an Inner Wall and an Outer Wall. The Outer Wall was where those looking for sanctuary were screened by security and were the Infected were either lured away or shot. If a person turned out to be immune, they could pass through the Inner Wall, but if they were Infected, they were brought into the Outer Wall and branded so they couldn't make their way into another Herd. To be a part of the Inner Wall security meant they would be in direct contact with the Infected.
And Aly willingly exposed herself for no reason besides curiosity.
"Are you fucking serious?" Logan yelled in shock. "Do you know how dangerous that was? Did your little stunt yield anything good?"
"Yes, actually! I learned a lot. The Infected don't have to look infected to be infected like the course material tells us."
Logan rolled his eyes. He already knew this. The documents their library had was limited and some was off-limits, but his pursuit of higher education allowed him access, so he knew that not every Infected was a walking corpse until the later stages of the disease. He wanted to be mad at Alyssa for getting so close to an Infected, but he couldn't stay mad at her for long. He never could. He tugged her into his side and squeezed her in a tight hug.
"I'm sorry for yelling." He said against her hair. "You know I'm just worried about you. Sometimes I care too much."
"I know," Aly said as she buried herself deeper into his side, "but you have to admit you were a little curious yourself."
"I wasn't, actually. I'm only learning about the Infection and the society we built around it because I have to. Teachers have to learn a generalized knowledge of all things before they can teach. I also had to learn math, and in case you forgot all the times I spent at your place complaining, I wasn't exactly ecstatic to learn that either."
"Whatever killjoy." Aly winked at him before running off to her part of campus.
The campus, as the students and faculty affectionately called it, was a long building near the outskirts of the town. It was separated into divisions based on the higher education a person wanted to pursue - social services, STEM, theory, and security - which were then divided further into all other occupations. All other occupations were considered tradecraft.
For a long while, when his parents' opinion still mattered to him on some level, he seriously considered becoming an engineer and going into construction work. But his slim build wouldn't make him very useful when handling such heavy materials, and so he figured the next best thing would be teaching the next generation as best he could.
Logan made his way to the west wing where the social services were taught and headed to his classroom.
His first class was always boring - learning elementary STEM - and then he could get to his second class, where he learned how to deal with children. It was the main reason he chose teaching as his profession. He loved working with kids and loved the thought of teaching the next generation. He'd also love to have a few children of his own, but that was just a daydream he'd have in his first class. Where he could live with a partner and a few kids in a world without Infection and the walls could come down.
Logan put down his book bag at the back of the class and dropped his notebook at his desk, readying himself for the next hour and a half of math and science. If God existed, They'd be laughing at his misery.
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