Chapter 5

Adriana POV:

My smile seemed to unnerve him more than any argument could have. He stared at me, his brow furrowed in confusion and suspicion.

"What does that mean, 'you have it covered'?" he demanded. "What did you do?"

"You said it yourself, Bryant. You have your plan, and I should have mine. This is my plan."

"This isn't a game, Adriana! You're being deliberately provocative. You're creating a problem where there doesn't have to be one!"

I just turned away from him and went into our bedroom. My bedroom. I pulled my suitcase from the top of the closet and began to pack. Methodically. Impersonally. Socks, underwear, two sets of practical, durable clothing. A data slate with my old projects on it, files I hadn't looked at in years.

I picked up the silver-framed photo from my nightstand. It was from our honeymoon in Italy. We were laughing, young, and impossibly happy. For a moment, a wave of grief washed over me, so intense it made me dizzy. This was the life I was losing. The man I had loved.

Then I looked at the smiling face of the man in the photo and saw the cold, pragmatic stranger in the other room. They weren't the same person. Or maybe they were, and I had just been too blind to see it.

With a steady hand, I opened the trash can by my desk and dropped the frame in. It landed with a soft, metallic thud.

Survival wasn't sentimental. He taught me that.

"What are you doing?" Bryant said from the doorway. He had followed me. His eyes were fixed on the trash can. "That was from our honeymoon."

"It's dead weight," I said without looking at him. "Ten kilograms maximum, remember?"

I continued packing, ignoring the storm brewing on his face. I went to my mother's room, helped her pack her essentials, her medication, a small photo album. I told her to get some rest.

The rest of the day passed in a thick, suffocating tension. We ate our rationed protein bars in silence. Bryant and Katia huddled in his office, whispering and pointedly excluding me. I didn't care. I sat with my mother, listening to her tell old family stories, her gentle voice a balm on my raw nerves.

The power grid failed completely just after sunset, plunging the city into an unnerving darkness, punctuated by distant shouts and the occasional smash of glass. Our building's generator kicked in, but the lights were dim, the air conditioning struggling.

I woke up in the middle of the night, parched. The water dispenser in the kitchen was programmed to release a strict amount per person, per day. I had saved half of my portion.

As I padded into the dark kitchen, I saw a figure silhouetted by the faint glow of the refrigerator light. It was Katia. She had a glass filled to the brim with ice cubes, and she was letting the purified water from the dispenser run over them, cooling the outside of the glass before pouring the water down the drain. She was wasting it. For fun.

She saw me and froze, like a child caught with her hand in the cookie jar.

"Oh!" she said, quickly shutting the fridge door. "I was just... I was so warm."

I stared at the puddle of water on the floor, then at her. I was too tired to be furious. All I felt was a deep, profound exhaustion.

"We all are," I said, my voice flat.

"It won't happen again," she said quickly, her eyes darting around.

Just then, Bryant appeared in the doorway, drawn by our voices. "What's going on?"

"Nothing," Katia said immediately. "I just couldn't sleep."

"Adriana is upset because Katia used a little extra water," Bryant said, his voice dripping with condescension. "For God's sake, Adi, she's under a lot of pressure. She's a key mind for the future of humanity. Can't you cut her some slack?"

He was defending her. He was scolding me for being concerned about our dwindling, life-sustaining resources because his prodigy was feeling "warm."

And in that moment, I understood. The strict rationing he'd been enforcing, the lectures about conservation-it wasn't for us. It wasn't for me. It was to ensure there was more than enough for Katia. Her comfort was the priority. My survival was an afterthought.

Katia looked at me over Bryant's shoulder. A slow, triumphant smile spread across her face. It was a declaration of victory.

I didn't say a word. I turned on my heel and went back into the kitchen. I opened the pantry and took out my pre-portioned bag of protein bars and my mother's. I took our two allotted gallons of water.

"What are you doing now?" Bryant asked, his voice sharp with irritation.

I walked past him, my arms full. "I'm taking my resources and my mother's resources."

I went to the guest room where my mother was sleeping peacefully. I gently woke her. "Mom, I need you to come to my room for the rest of the night."

Confused but compliant, she followed me. I led her into my bedroom and then turned to face Bryant, who had followed me down the hall.

"This is my room now," I said, my voice calm and final. "We will be staying in here until our transport arrives."

"Adriana, this is my home!" he sputtered.

"Not for much longer," I said.

I started to close the door. He put his hand out to stop it.

"Don't do this," he said, his face a mixture of anger and something else... desperation?

I looked him dead in the eye. "You wanted a separation, Bryant. You got it."

I pushed the door closed, ignoring his resistance. The lock clicked into place, the sound echoing the final closing of a chapter in my life. I leaned my back against the solid wood, listening to his stunned silence in the hallway, and felt nothing at all.