#lokni

Zaid really hoped he wouldn't run into Akhila, even though the slag haunted the Medicentre like she was a permanent part of it. Not after their graveyard debacle. And usually Zaid would power through a pounding headache, but this one felt migraine-levels of pain. He hadn't had a bad migraine in ages, and FLOWR-brand cola didn't help, shower didn't help, sleep in cool darkness didn't help. He needed a painkiller. And he wasn't going to traverse the fucking Odyssey for a bottle of fucking paracetamol.

Fucking Medicentre. Fucking Akhila Asthana. Fucking everything.

March into the Medicentre, hopefully find some hapless volunteer to get Zaid a pill, march back out. That was the plan.

He found Lokni pacing in the foyer instead, looking like a man waiting for the delivery of his newborn baby - that level of anxious. Zaid lifted his sunglasses (yes, he was wearing sunglasses indoors - fucking migraine!!) to greet him. "You're looking worse-off that I do. Everything alright, love?"

és erre tessék

te löktél a szakadékba

"So did you grow your own fruits and veg too, then? Like a proper personal farm or that? Grocery shop visits only for stocking up on microwave dinners?" Zaid was trying to paint a picture in his head, about how Lokni lived, foodwise. Part of culture was food; and part of life. Where and how one lived determined where and how one got their daily meals. Every story was unique, and Lokni's was new to Zaid.

So they were now wandering through the forest (Zaid considered it a wander. Lokni likely had more focus) to try out some foraging. The Warehouse was beautifully stocked, and Zaid's partial woe from the Kay-Kay-fridge-leftover incident left the chef feeling all kinds of ways about eating. A huge part of survival since technically that was what they were all doing on this island.

It wasn't living; no one wanted this life, expect perhaps Darcy. This was simply survival.

A survival that wasn't about self-sufficiency since basic needs were provided for. So Zaid deemed it more like a depression survival. You had basic needs available - shelter, food, showers, etc - but you were too depressed to do anything but simply survive another day. Zaid knew that feeling (or rather, non-feeling) well.

So to avoid that spiral, he forced himself to do something new, and useful: foraging. And Lokni was the perfect candidate to give Zaid a deep dive. Knowledgeable, helpful, and extraordinarily amenable.

Zaid pointed at a nearby bush, laden with bright purple berries. "I know they've got to be poisonous. Look how tempting they look." Sagely and ruefully, Zaid added, "Anything that beautiful is bound to be poison." Silently, he named it the Tejberry.

Nothing here made sense. A deserted island but there was running water - hot water, too, and electric power. A pseudo-hospital. And unnerving feast set out on the 'Hub. The Cruise ship looming on one side of the land (the island? He couldn't even be sure. Zaid held out a vain hope that this was connected to a mainland, that this was all a product of some strange government experiment and they'd all be found and returned home) and what looked like a dormant volcano on the other side.

And then there was that strange, old fashioned radio tower type structure, poking out from the trees.

Zaid had regained some energy, still exhausted from the day's madness, but the sun was slow to set. He hadn't bothered with the bungalows yet, except to use the facilities. Why make any claims? They were going to be found. They had to be found. He kept wandering, restless and under some impression that if he did something, then something would happen.

Zaid happened upon one thing, as he neared the trees to the north (or what he assumed was north. He'd need to find qibla direction at some point as well) - a man. A tall man, beautiful long hair neatly held in a thong. And he was heading straight into the trees. After Zaid's previous attack (so Zaid considered it, anyway) from wild horrors back at the beach's treeline, he didn't even stop to think.

He just broke into a jog, and called out. "Hey! Oi, you there!" Zaid caught up, circling around to face - and block - the other man. "Where d'you think you're even going?? That's not - are you mad? You can't just go alone in them trees, mate! It's dangerous."