To Those in the Future, Part 7

John didn't register what Kath had said for a while. Then, he finally managed to eke out one single word.

“Huh?”

Kath's gaze remained steady and calm. “I'm serious. There's been a very slow decline in the number of people living in this shelter.”

“What? How can you tell? How do you even know how many people are living here?”

“I counted. Using this.”

Kath pulled out a small device that was so small, it could sit comfortably on her finger. “It's an automatic counter. I set it to only count when it saw a face it didn't recognize.”

“How did you make something like that?”

“Well, I used to be an engineer. Something like this is easy for me.” Kath put the device away. “In any case, I put this in the one place I knew everyone would have to visit at least once a day.”

“The cafeteria,” John guessed by instinct.

“Good guess. I left it by the doorway for a week, and when I retrieved it, the number it gave me was something around 205. This was three weeks ago.”

“Three weeks ago?” John was stunned. Considering Kath had said there were less than 200 people left now, that meant several people had disappeared in the three weeks since then.

“Now, there's obviously going to be a margin of error,” Kath continued, “but even that can't explain why there are less people in the shelter than there should be.”

“I don't understand,” John stammered out. “The Ackerton family doesn't gain anything from killing us, do they?”

“No, they don't. In any case, I never said it was their fault people were disappearing anyhow.”

“So you think they're trying to hide something from us?”

“Of course. What, did you really think the Ackertons would be great rulers? They're obsessed with their authority and easily get drunk on power. If anything, it's everyone working hard to keep the shelter running that should deserve thanks, not them.”

John smiled wryly. Considering the stories that Martina had told him about the Ackertons, he fully believed everything Kath had said.

“By the way, how did you even find out about these disappearances? I can't imagine you found out by pure coincidence.”

“Well, you'd be right. You see, I work in tech maintenance in the shelter, and my co-worker there was a woman named Natasha. She was one of the best friends I ever had, but then about two months ago she disappeared.”

“I see,” John mused. “So you started looking around because of that, huh?”

“Well, not really. I mean, at the time I was told she was sick and recuperating, so I didn't make much of it. But there were circumstances that definitely made me worry.”

“Such as?”

Kath's somber expression became grimmer. “To be honest, a little bit before she disappeared, Natasha began acting strangely. She seemed fatigued, as if she was at her wit's end.”

“Was she experiencing the 'cabin fever' everyone's been whispering about?”

“How should I know? All I know is that she started muttering under her breath and and freaking out at every little thing. She used to be a cheery, kind-hearted person, but before she disappeared, she had changed completely.”

Kath's expression fell, and instead of the fierce and determined woman he had seen this whole time, now John only saw a sad, lonesome girl. He started to understand the reasons why Kath began this search.

“Still, what can we do about it?” John asked. “There's a chance that the people might have been disappeared for a reason. Like, what if they caught an illness and needed to be quarantined?”

“If that's really the case, don't you think we have a right to know? I know I wouldn't want to be kept in the dark about something like that.”

“I guess so,” John mused. “What can we do about it, though? Do you have any leads?”

Kath fell quiet for a moment, then turned to John with a determined expression on her face. “I do have a plan. Do you want to help me with it?”

“A plan? What kind of plan?”

“A risky one. To be honest, I wouldn't be mad if you turned around and left after hearing it. But I genuinely believe it's necessary to find out the truth of what is happening in this shelter.”

“Risky? How risky?”

“I don't want to tell you unless you agree to help. Truthfully, I still don't fully trust you. I wouldn't put it past the Ackertons to put spies throughout the shelter to weed out any naysayers.”

“I understand. But how can I get you to trust me, then?”

Kath stared at John with a steely glare. “I admit, there's not much you can do. I don't have the skills to suss out deception either. I can't trust you so quickly.”

John sighed and threw his hands up. “Then we're at a standstill, aren't we?”

Kath fell quiet, for a much longer period this time. Her brow furrowed more and more as she went deeper and deeper into thought, until she eventually slapped her own face.

“Fine! I can't do this alone. I'll have to keep you at arms' length, however. We'll meet again in a week, around the same time. I'll leave first, so stay here until at least ten minutes have passed. Don't try to follow me, okay? I'll only cooperate if you agree.”

“Sure. I suppose I'll see you soon then.”

Kath nodded, then crawled out of the alcove. John waited the ten minutes just as she had asked, then climbed out on his own. He didn't know what to make what he had just learned, and to be honest, a part of him didn't want to believe it. But at the end of the day, he knew that there had to be something to what she was saying. He just didn't know what that would be.