*Beval Hernandez's POV:

"Don't forget to add the peppers and spice to it!", I told the cooks before leaving the cafeteria, directing them. "The pepper steak needs to be right and well done for dinner time, and the plates need to be set!"

"Got it", the cooks responded.

"And make sure the rice and gravy is hot and ready by seven o'clock. I will come back and check on you guys in an hour. If you have any questions, you know where to find me!"

It's sad, yet inspiring how hard my cooks work without the worry of getting paid. It's really just them caring for the people and less about whether they get money or not.

I left the kitchen and rambled down towards the cafeteria. I looked around, it was empty and quiet. Closing the cafeteria door, I blew my breath in relief. Dinner was pretty much ready and about to be served in an hour and a half. I took off my white gown and laid it down on a chair outside of the cafeteria's door.

After stretching, I strolled towards the pharmacy section and knocked on the door. Gaia opened it and swiftly pulled me in by my shirt.

I giggled and moaned as our lips intertwined before she shut the door. Lifting her up by her legs, I placed her on a desk, rubbing my hands through her coarse hair, and waist.

Next thing I knew, my shirt was being lifted up.

We broke the kiss as our noses touched. Our green and purple eyes met. I could hear her breathing heavily as her body made contact with mine. I slowly placed my hand up her shirt before kissing her again, my hand getting higher and higher above her stomach.

"I love you", I told her, exhaling between kisses.

"I love you", she panted.

Grabbing her thigh, I kissed onto her neck before slowly trying to take off her shirt. She let out a quiet moan just before Danny came in and killed the moment.

Me and Gaia quickly stood up and fixed ourselves in embarrassment.

"Oh, oh my god, I'm so sorry", he cringed as he was ready to close the door.

"No, no, wait. Is there something you need?" I asked as grabbed my shirt and placed it back on, trying to not make the situation more awkward than it already was.

"Well." Danny cleared his throat. "There is a new member to the shelter. Celosia and Kimberly brought a kid in. Apparently they found him while hunting."

"What?!" Gaia exclaimed, just as annoyed as I was.

"Seriously? Another member? As if we have room for one more mouth to feed," I groaned in frustration as I passed by Danny, leaving the pharmacy.

There was a small crowd of people, including Hikari, coming to see who the new person was. I excused myself as I pushed and shoved passed them to find my two mindless friends.

"Celosia, Kimberly, what are you doing?" I asked in frustration, walking up with my arms out.

"I found this kid nearly unconscious on the beach. I couldn't just leave him there. He needs us," Celosia replied, defending her actions.

I glanced at the kid. He looked Southeast Asian. His skin was tan. The guy had on dirty clothes and no shoes. From the looks of how cracked his lips were, he must've been dehydrated. Poor kid must've been through a lot, he couldn't even look me in the eye.

"What is your name kid?" I asked him with a smile, trying to lift his spirit.

"Tyler Santos", he responded quietly. He lifted his eyes at me then took a step back in shock.

"Your eyes are purple! Like really purple. How is that possible? Is it contacts?"

I chuckled.

"No. It's my real eye color. You see, I am an experimented person, so is many other people in this place. Me personally, I control the air, but I haven't used my powers in a while. There's just no need," I explained with a smile.

"I heard about you people. They tried to get rid of you before the virus happened. I thought you guys were all dead," Tyler said in awe before eyes began wondering around. "What is this place? Is this supposed to be a shelter of some sort?"

"Yes it is. My name is Beval, behind me is my girlfriend Gaia and my friend Danny. I am that sure you've met my other friends Kimberly and Celosia, we are all experimented. I know this is sudden and-". I glanced at Celosia and Kimberly with an infuriated manner. "Unexpected...but you are safe here". My smile dropped. "Hopefully, we have enough food stored up for one more person."

"I hope so too. It's nice to meet you and everyone else", Tyler responded with a shy smile.

"How old are you?" one person in the crowd asked.

"Thirteen", Tyler replied.

"Where are you from?" asked another person in the crowd.

"The Philippines. It's a long story how I've gotten here to be honest. Someone told me to come here. Some guy."

I looked at Celosia. She had an unsettled look on her face. I wondered why.

"Who was the man who told you to come here to the United States?" I asked Tyler, looking at Celosia before looking back at him.

There was a silence that grew around the fifty or so people that were crowded around us. They wanted to hear what the kid had to say. I damn sure did as well, considering the fact that Celosia's whole energy shifted when he mentioned this "guy".

"Well, I don't know. He never told me his name. I just remember what he looks like", Tyler shrugged as he looked down at the ground. "Um, from what I remembered: he had blue eyes, like, really blue eyes, and he was East Asian. He looked like he was in his twenties, around your age."

The only person who fitted that description that I knew was my old friend Shimizu, but he passed away five years ago. It couldn't have been him. It must've been a good Samaritan who wanted to help the boy out.

"What?" Hikari said in shock, walking up to the boy. "Was it my brother, Shimizu?"

There was a bunch of muttering in the crowd.

"Uhh, I'm not sure who that is", Tyler replied, looking at everyone, including Hikari in confusion.

"Please! Try to remember!" Hikari pleaded as she grabbed his hands.

"Hikari, chill!" Kimberly yelled as she pulled her back. "Don't be so pushy!"

"What's going on here?!"

We turned to see Mr. Hada approaching. He looked to be in a bad mood so I already knew having a new kid in the shelter wasn't going to be good news for him.

He pushed his way through the crowd, towards the center of the commotion. There he saw us, Tyler and Hikari.

"Who is this? Where is the food?!" Mr. Hada yelled at Celosia.

"This is Tyler. We found him barely conscious on the shore while we were hunting for fish. I couldn't leave him there to die," she responded, trying to hold her composure.

"We already have way too many people in this shelter and you decide to bring one more?! It's like you are asking for death and starvation!" Mr. Hada exploded. "What are you not getting in your head? What's not clicking?! You already know we are going through a food shortage and you decide to bring a kid?!"

At that point, I was already fed up with Mr. Hada's yowling and yapping at everyone. Most people at the shelter did not liked him, mainly because he was a grumpy fifty year old man with nothing positive to say. Everything was either a complaint, criticism, or something that you could do better.

"I will find a way to make it enough. But what I'm gonna need you to do is to calm down. Yelling isn't good for your blood pressure", I stepped in, defending Celosia. "This kid doesn't need any criticism for you. It's already hard enough that he is here by himself, away from his family. Celosia did a good thing bringing him here! I will admit I was a bit frustrated at first, but hearing her story actually made me change my mind."

"I'm the one keeping this place structured here! And I say he is out!" Mr. Hada shouted.

"No! The kid is not leaving! Imagine if this was your own kid? Would you want him to leave?" Celosia chimed in.

"I'm not playing this game. I'm the one making sure this place is running well while you all barely do anything!" Mr. Hada scowled.

"Barely do anything?! Me, Celosia and Beval are one of the hardest working people at this shelter! We make sure we have everything everyone needs, while all you do is bitch, moan and complain about every little thing. Yet, the water is barely running and the electricity is down! You've got a nerve! It's not our fault that you will die alone and go to hell in a hand basket! Go fuck yourself!" Kimberly snapped. Me and Celosia held her back by her arms.

"Language, young lady! That is a hard-working man you are talking to! You need to have some respect for your elders!" an older woman in the crowd said in offense, pointing at us.

"Fuck him and the elders!" Kimberly yelled back. "You're so ready to defend the hell out of Mr. Hada because you know you'll be getting dicked down by him tonight".

"Kimberly, stop!" Celosia cried out.

I will admit, she was going a bit too far with that comeback. But then again, it's Kimberly. She had no filter and said what she wanted.

Kimberly stopped and looked straight at me and Gaia. "Take care of little dude. Me and Celosia are going back up to the bay, we will be back later tonight. I don't have time for any of this."

Kimberly pulled Celosia by her hand, towards the shelter's door.

"Wait, uhh-", Celosia stuttered.

Everyone, including me and Gaia stood there in disturbance. We didn't know what to say. Kimberly said pretty much what everyone was thinking. Mr. Hada looked just as shocked as we did, but more so offended.

"Um, is it like this everyday here?" Tyler asked me, not sure how to feel about what just happened.

An hour had passed by. I was sitting at a cafeteria table with Gaia and Isabella. Tyler was eating with some other kids his age, Danny was off doing something, not sure what, and Thomas wasn't hungry so he stayed in his bedroom section.

I forked my pepper-steak as I reflected on all the events that has happened this past hour or so. So much shit, so little time.

"Are you doing okay bro? You look unwell" Isabella claimed before she laid her hand on my forehead.

"No Bella, I'm not going to faint again," I chuckled. My stressed levels were more in control since a big portion of the load was taken off of me, thanks to the cooks and those who decided to volunteer to help around in the kitchen.

"Just making sure you are okay! You're health is important you know", Isabella smiled genuinely. She began to rub her belly before letting out a sigh. "I just can't wait until the baby comes. Me and Danny already have the names planned out."

"What are they?" Gaia asked, resting her head onto her hand, with the fork in her other.

"Christopher, if it's a boy. Ella, if it's a girl."

"Cool, cool, looking forward to being an uncle," I responded with a full month of rice, deep in thought.

"Beval?," Gaia called out.

I didn't hear her. I was too busy questioning what Tyler had said earlier. I wouldn't have paid it much attention had he not say that his eyes were "really blue". Where they unusual, or just an normal icy blue color? Why would this man send a young teenager across the pacific ocean to come here, as if there isn't world peace worldwide? What if he sent the Tyler here for a reason, and the hunters were meant to find him? Like, the guy knew we were able to help Tyler? I tried my very best to still be logical. Shimizu is dead, there's no way he could've survived a blast like that. We never saw the body to prove his death, but at the same time, I don't think we should've. Seeing him like that would've caused more trauma than we already had.

"Beval?", Gaia called out again.

I snapped out of my thoughts before answering. "Huh? What?"

"What's on your mind?" she asked.

I wanted to tell her that I was questioning whether or not the man Tyler was talking about was Shimizu and to tell her something about what the kid said did not sit well with me.

"Well, uh, did you find it weird when that kid claimed he saw an East Asian man with really blue eyes?"

Gaia blinked her eyes in bewilderment. Isabella just listened, trying to see my point.

"Um, no?", Isabella responded.

"I don't know, maybe I'm thinking too much into it. I just don't understand how or why would a person send a teen over here for refuge when there is world peace everywhere? It just doesn't make sense to me. It's one thing if it's the kid's choice to come because they always wanted to come here, but it's another when they didn't have a say in it and were sent by themselves."

"I wonder if he had any parents at all. It's pretty odd thinking about it," Gaia responded, glancing at the boy that was a few tables away from us.

"I wouldn't overwhelm Tyler with too many questions right now. Let him adjust to the shelter and get a feel-in first. You know, make him feel welcome. Who knows? He may become a big help around here," Isabella suggested to both of us before finishing up her food.

Later that night, Celosia arrived with Kimberly and the other hunters, carrying loads of coolers , filled with fish. It took hours helping them place the fish neatly inside the freezers, but surprisingly I wasn't too tired from it. I noticed that Celosia was in a trance most of the time she helped out. It was as if she wasn't fully there.

Following the forty-five minutes it took to clean and sanitize the cafeteria, I searched for Celosia. She was about to enter her bedroom section before I grabbed her arm.

"Celosia," I called. She turned and looked at me. Her face showed concern, as if she was lied to for years. "Are you okay?" I asked.

"Yeah, it's just that Tyler claimed he saw an Asian guy with blue eyes. Do you think he was Shimizu?"

I had a feeling she would bring that up. Nobody cared about Shimizu more than her, besides of course Hikari and Mr. Hada. I just didn't want her hopes to get so high that she won't rationalize the situation.

"I don't think so", I sighed, shaking my head. "That explosion in that cave, no one could survive that. I think it was probably a guy trying to help the kid out of his situation. But that's just my opinion. I wouldn't bring it up to him though. Let him adjust to the shelter first."

A silence grew over me and Celosia for a few moments.

"Well, thanks for your opinion, but I'm gonna head to sleep. You should get some rest too, you have to help prepare breakfast tomorrow", she smiled. I could tell the smile wasn't genuine and that she was a bit disappointed that I didn't tell her what she wanted to hear.

"Yeah, well, I just wanted to check up on you. I saw you looked kind of out of it. Get some rest, okay?" I smiled back before she closed the door. I started my way to my own bedroom section.

That night wasn't so pleasant, nothing more than just me tossing and turning, trying my best to get comfortable enough to fall asleep . Gaia fell asleep an hour prior and I was pretty much the only person still awake.

"Asian man with really blue eyes" was still playing in my head, living rent-free. I tried my best to rationalize it, but a part of me kept having that feeling that something wasn't right.

Hopefully, I'll find out what.