Later, day 283. Four hours of hauling crates, dragging carts, stacking boxes. Deliveries from one side of the shelter to the other, past broken hallways and taped-up murder sites, pretending the world hadn't ended.

Now, work was over. Each of them carried meals for themselves, for Alice, and for her parents—two meals each, just as it was done. Lili held a bag with canned drinks. Some brand neither of them could read. Probably an army sponsor, or some mass-produced cola that didn't quite make it before the shelves got wiped clean. The popular ones were long gone. This was what's left.

There were also bags of tea leaves, the dry kind Alice's mom liked. Tasted like dust to them.

They walked mostly in silence. Not the awkward kind—just the end-of-day kind. Past the maintenance wing, Victoria slowed down near a pair of old cinema-style doors—double-swinging, heavy-looking.

"Do you know what that is?" she asked.

Lili glanced at it. "Nope. Never seen it before. You?"

"Nope."

"Wanna go check?" Lili asked.

"Yeah, why not."

They pushed the doors open.

Inside, the room was dark. Then, a few squares lit up on the ceiling—motion activated. The room revealed itself. Clean. Cold. One wall was entirely a black screen. The other walls, the ceiling, and even the floor were lighter—grayish, like they could be screens too.

In front of the screen, four seats. Theater seats, wide and soft-looking, spaced out like no one was ever meant to sit next to anyone.

"What is this? Private cinema?" Lili asked.

"Or like… therapy for the workers. So they don't snap from isolation or something." Victoria added.

They sat in the two front seats. Each armrest had two slots—one for a cup, and a square one. Maybe for popcorn. Maybe nothing. On the other side, built into the armrest, was a control panel—thin and clear like glass—and a stick that connected into a see-through screen.

Lili tapped it. Buttons came into view—icons, soft shapes in circles of color. Eight total. The green one looked like layered sticks, the blue one had wave shapes, and the yellow one had hills.

Victoria poked hers. Same interface.

"Which one should I press?" Lili asked.

Victoria shrugged. "Whichever you're feeling."

Lili pressed the yellow one.

The main screen in front of them flickered. Then: dunes. Golden, warm and rippling, scattered with little cactus shapes and crawling desert things too small to name. The sky above was a soft orange, fading into reddish blue.

Then the door behind them snapped shut. Folded in. Became part of the wall.

The rest of the room transformed.

Walls, floor, ceiling—all turned dark, then lit up. The desert wrapped around them—complete now. Endless golden dunes. Two suns hung in the sky, both low, casting twin shadows. Birds circled above. Wind moved the sand in waves.

Lili stared. "That's… awesome."

"Why only two?" Victoria. "Where did Helion go."

Lili tapped the screen again, and the desert was gone.

The landscape shifted. They were no longer surrounded by golden sand. Instead, they found themselves sitting in a vast forest. Tall trees loomed above. Thick trunks stretched to the sky. Sunlight filtered through the high canopy, but the deeper they looked, the less they could see. The shadows hid most of what lay beyond. The only things clear were the sounds—bird calls, chirps, rustlings in the leaves, and other animal noises they didn't know.

Then, a gentle breeze. A gust of wind swept through the leaves and brushed across their skin. It wasn't cold. It smelled sweet—like tropical fruit.

The longer they sat, the more the details began to pop out. The trunks of the trees became sharper, defined by layers of deep green and brown. The forest was alive. A few birds flitted by.

Lili tapped again, and the forest vanished.

They were on an island now. Small and deserted. Just sand, stretching in every direction. A few coconut trees were swayed in the breeze. The sky above was clear and blue, stretching out infinitely. There were no signs of a sun—not a single one—just this pale, unbroken sky.

The sea rolled gently onto the shore. The sound of the waves was soothing, rhythmic. The air was salty, fresh. Every gust of wind brought a soft, cool relief.

It was quiet. Peaceful.

Lili tapped the screen once more, the landscape shifted again.

This time, they found themselves on a farm. Crops were growing around them—some yellows, some greens. Divided by neat fences. Each section with different types of plants. In the distance, a few cows wandered lazily, and something smaller, too. It looked like little white dots, almost like sheep, but they were too far away to be certain.

A small barn stood far in the distance, barely visible. It looked like something out of an old memory.

Then, Lili tapped again, and the scene changed once more.

They were now on an island—agricultural old-world feel. There were areas for crops and small houses. A few boats lined the coast, tethered to wooden docks. It reminded them of those tiny islands off the coast of Greece with a history almost forgotten by time.

No, no. Go back." Victoria said

Lili tapped again, and the farm returned.

She glanced at Victoria. "Does this mean something to you?"

Victoria paused as her eyes absorbed it. "Yeah." she said slowly. "It does. I used to live on a farm once."

Lili's eyes widened in surprise. "A real, genuine farm?"

"Yeah. One of the last to exist. Before the world started... changing. It was... well... A place that belonged to the past."

"Does it still exist?"

Victoria let out a soft laugh. "No. It's a shopping center now."

"I figured."

Victoria gave a tiny laugh. "Yeah. It's funny, I guess."

Victoria started using her own screen, moving through the tiny roads between the crops. She moved the view up and down, taking in all the angles of that red barn. She zoomed in closer to the cows, the sheep, and other animals. It was surreal, the way the virtual world reacted as she moved through it.

The cows were eating tomatoes and onions, a mistake in the simulation. Whoever designed this didn't know what cattle actually ate. Victoria didn't care about it. She kept gliding, as if lost in the world that once was.

Lili watched her in silence. Then, she spoke. "It's like you're lost in there."

"I wish I was." Victoria said quietly, still focused on the screen. "It's kinda nice, isn't it?"

"Yeah."

They didn't speak for a while. Minutes passed as they sat there, letting the image breathe, letting themselves get lost in it, as though it could somehow take them away from everything else.

Then, after a while, Lili broke the silence. "You think it will never end?"

Victoria glanced at her, then back at the screen. "This?It'll end one day? I doubt we'll live long enough to see it."

"I didn't mean... Do you think the killer will get us too?"

Victoria paused, her fingers frozen over the screen for a moment before she let out a quiet sigh. "Maybe. I just… I hate that I got used to it."

Lili's eyes softened. "I don't think it ends. We just get used to it."

Lili looked around the room. "Look at this." she said. "This place, this room, some tech guy built this before everything fell apart. Probably cost more than all of our food put together." She paused, "And all of that just to remind us of what once was, what we will never get to experience again."

Victoria didn't respond immediately. After a long moment, she spoke, almost reassuring herself. "It's still kind beautiful, though."

Lili glanced at her. "Does that matter?"

"Sometimes."

support the story on patreon for the big picture to come true.