The sun is nearly setting in the sky, as Thomas throws a football to a young boy: his younger brother Kyle. The two are in a park, right across from the local mall. It was a nice spring evening, with a slight breeze blowing in from the Pacific Ocean.

Kyle tries to catch the approaching football, but he fumbles and drops it. He then pouted and stomped his foot.

"No fair! You threw it too fast!" Kyle said.

Thomas laughed. "So? When I was your age, I could have easily caught that!"

"It's hard to think that you could catch anything..."

"What was that?"

"Nothing!" Kyle picked up the football and threw it back at him.

~~~

As the sun was now setting, Thomas and Kyle were making their way towards the bus stop. It was time to go home.

"Did you enjoy yourself?" Thomas asked to his brother.

"Kinda," Kyle answered.

"What do you mean, 'kinda'?"

"You keep throwing the ball to hard! It's no fun!"

"You say that every time, but then you always beg me to bring you out here. ...But I guess you WILL be seeing less of me in a month or so."

"Why do you have to leave?!" Kyle whined. "It's going to be boring with just Monica and mommy and daddy!"

"It's better if I get a place of my own right now, so I'll be closer to my job... and my college when I start."

Kyle sighed. "Are you leaving forever?"

"Of course not! I'll visit as often as I can, and you all can visit me."

Kyle got a wide grin on his face. "Yay!"

~~~

Thomas awoke to the sight of the cone-shaped ceiling of his tent. He sat up, and then looked around himself. He then let out a sigh.

It was just a dream. A dream of happier times.

Thomas walked outside of his tent, and saw that many of the other Refugees were quite busy. Dawson was standing outside of the tent, when he noticed that he had finally awakened.

"Well, look who's finally up!" Dawson said. "That was a serious blow you took yesterday."

"Yeah..." Thomas rubbed the back of his head. "Wait... It's Monday?"

"Yep."

"So, what's going on?"

"Well, with Melissa out of the house, the Food Crew over there uses this opportunity to find any shred of anything remotely edible out there."

"So, it's a food hunt."

"Yeah."

"What kind of food? I mean, I know that there was some bread, but anything else?"

Dawson shook his head. "We're lucky to get even that. I wish that he'd find some meat or something. I'm tired of bread and water all the time..."

"Yeah, I'd get tired of it, too. Especially that lukewarm water from that dripping pipe. I wish we had some cold water..." Thomas sighed. "And I had some lemonade, and two slices of pizza in the fridge back at home, too."

"Hey!" Dawson exclaimed. "Please don't mention pizza around me... I love pizza..."

"You and I both."

~~~

Ray stood impatiently at the center of the campsite, twisting his green hair around his index finger. A taller male with brown hair walked towards him, carrying three backpacks and a flashlight in one hand, and a pin needle in the other. It was nearly as large as his body.

"I got the stuff," the man said.

"Resourceful as always, Joe," Ray said, as he was given one of the backpacks and took the pin needle and flashlight from Joe's hands.

Joe looked around. "Where's Hunter?"

"I don't know, but he better hurry up. Before the Giant Bitch comes back."

Joe turned towards Ray. "Must you call her that?"

Ray grunted. "Damn your chivary. You know she's responsible for all of this, right?"

"Yes, but-"

"Then keep your mouth shut!"

Joe sighed, as Ray started to pace around the campsite, as if to try to pass the time. After a few minutes, he let out a cry of frustration.

"Goddammit! Where is he?!" Ray asked loudly, before turning towards Joe. "And don't scold me about 'using the Lord's name in vain.' I don't give a crap about that."

Joe shook his head as Ray continued his pacing.

After several more minutes, a shorter man with black hair approached the area. He seemed to have a look of satisfaction on his face.

"Hunter," Joe said.

"It's about time you showed your face!" Ray said. "What were you doing?"

Hunter snickered. "You know that girl Megan? Well, I must say that she has the mouth of a Goddess! My dick was in heaven!"

Joe twitched as he heard this. Ray merely lifted his eyebrow.

"I'll keep that in mind," Ray said.

"Here." Joe threw one of the backpacks towards Hunter, who caught it and then strapped it onto his back.

"Let's hurry up and get back," Ray said. "Then we can deal with Public Enemy #1."

"...You mean that guy Gloria likes?" Hunter asked. "Thomas, I think?"

"Yeah, that's the one. We gotta figure out a way to do away with him."

Hunter laughed. "I'm with you there!"

Joe sighed heavily, before the three began to make their way down the dark corridor. Their trek downstairs had just begun.

~~~

Thomas and Dawson watched the three of them walk away from the campsite.

"So, who's in this Food Crew?" Thomas asked.

"Well," Dawson started. "You already know about Ray. Hunter's the short guy, and is a raging pervert, and proud of it. I hate him so much. ...Though I don't think I'm in any position to call anyone a perv."

"Depends on how bad he is compared to you."

"Oh, he's really bad. ...Anyway, then we have Joe. He's a bit of a religious fundie, but he's actually a pretty nice guy. He's one of the few people that even Gloria likes. I think you should try to become friends with him, too."

"I see... Well, when he comes back, I'll introduce myself."

"Great." Dawson smiled.

~~~

Gloria sat in her usual spot, at the hole dubbed "The Bathroom's Hole." A rather introverted person, while she had been spending quite a bit of time with Thomas and the others over the past two days, she still prefered to be alone with her thoughts.

She also wanted a cigarette. Back in her normal life, she would light up several times a day. She had been here for quite a while, so she had since overcome the withdrawal symptoms of going cold-turkey.

"Dammit," she muttered to herself.

She started to once again go over how she had been tricked into coming to Melissa's house. How the professor of one of her classes had made her and Melissa work together on a project. A joint venture that she knew would be trouble, though never did she think it would come to this.

The two had never been too fond of each other. In fact, one could say that they hated each other. Therefore, once Gloria was inside of Melissa's room, Melissa wasted no time in pulling out the Shrink Ray and reducing her to bug-size. It was a wonder how Melissa restrained herself from killing her during the ordeal she put her through. No doubt that she was going to finish the job later, but she never got the chance, as Gloria had been rescued from the closet by the time she returned.

"Hey."

Gloria looked to her left, and saw Shawn approaching.

"I thought you would be with Thomas," Shawn said as he reached her.

"I need time to myself every so often, you know," she responded.

"Which is every day, I guess."

Gloria chose to ignore this comment. "So, did Joe and the others leave yet?"

"Yep."

"Mm."

"...Why don't you come back to the campsite with me? Some socializing will do you some good."

"Not now. Later."

"Suit yourself. I guess I'll head back, then."

"I'll see you later."

She watched as Shawn turned around and walked back the way he came, before he disappeared in the darkness. Then, she turned back towards the hole.

She had no idea why she always looked out there. It was not as if anything interesting ever happened in the bathroom. Except for the time when Melissa vomited up one of the Homeless she tried to eat, the bathroom is a fairly boring place.

Yet, she would rather be here than to be at the campsite, where she would have to put up with the complaints from the other Refugees.

~~~

In the community college Commons area, Melissa sat at a table, sitting across from her friend Lauren, who was a young African American woman with short, blond-dyed hair. They were both eating food that they had bought from the Subway stand in the Commons.

"Ooh, Gurl!" Lauren said after swallowing the piece of sandwich she had been chewing on. "I haven't seen Thomas here today! Don't you share your English class with him?"

"Yes, I do," Melissa answered, while picking at her salad with her plastic fork. "And it's weird. He never missed a day before."

"You didn't break his spirits, did you?" Lauren said with a sly look on her face.

"I only said that I didn't think it would work out between us. I don't know what happened after."

"Maybe you let him down so bad that he went and killed himself." Lauren chuckled.

"Lauren," Melissa said, now with a serious expression on her face as she addressed her friend. "Don't joke about that. Thomas is a bright guy with his whole future ahead of him. Why the hell would he kill himself over me?"

Lauren sighed. "Sorry, Miss Killing-is-Wrong..."

"Anyway, it's just one day. He could be sick or something."

"Maybe..." Lauren looked towards the salad that sat on the table in front of Melissa. "I couldn't eat that. I'd be hungry a minute after finishing that."

Melissa laughed. "Of course! Because you're fat!"

Lauren grunted. "I'm not fat! I just like things with more flavor!"

"Well, this salad has enough flavor." Melissa pulled a leaf of lettuce on the fork from the salad and shoved it into her mouth, before chewing and swallowing it. "The italian dressing helps alot."

Both of the women let out a laugh.

~~~

Ray and his group had emerged from the hole that led into Melissa's kitchen. It was pretty big on its own, but to them, it was like a vast city, with the stove and counter rising over them like skyscrapers.

Ray turned back towards Joe. "How are we making on time?"

Joe looked at his watch. "It's 12:37."

"Good." Ray smiled. "We have plenty of time."

"Can we get something other than bread this time?" Hunter asked.

"Can you open the fridge?"

"No, but-"

"Then shut up!" Ray snapped. "And just follow my lead as always!"

Ray began to walk forward, towards the counter, with Joe and Hunter in tow behind him. At their size, it took them nearly thirty silent minutes to cross the kitchen floor and reach the large counter.

As they arrived at the foot of the counter, Ray looked upwards towards the top.

"Well, I guess it's time for us to go climbing again," he said. "The sooner we finish with this, the sooner we can deal with our unwanted guest."

"Okay," Joe said with an annoyed tone. "Just what do you have against Thomas? He seems like a nice guy."

"So?" Ray responded. "He talks too much. I don't like him, and neither does Bruce! So anyone Bruce doesn't like, I don't like!"

"Get off Bruce's cock," Joe responded. "Let's go get this mission over with."

"You don't tell me what to do!"

"...Were you responding to me telling us to start, or the Bruce's cock thing?"

"You know which part I was talking about!"

"Actually, I don't."

"Whatever!" Ray said in humiation. "Let's-"

"Hey," Hunter called as he was looking to his right.

"What now?" Ray asked, annoyed.

"I think I see something over there." Hunter pointed towards the corner of the counter.

Ray and Joe looked in that direction. Indeed, something did seem to be there. This object seemed to be tan in color.

"What is it?" Joe asked.

"Let's go find out," Ray said.

"Are you sure? Do we have time?"

"Sure we do! The Giant Bitch won't be back for at least three hours!"

Ray then began to walk towards this mysterious object, followed by Hunter and then Joe. As they approached it, the identity of the object started to become more clear. Once they reached it, they found themselves standing in front of a slice of bread, one that had been laying on the floor.

"Well, that makes our job easier," Hunter said.

"Are you sure?" Joe asked. "It's not like Melissa to leave stuff like this just lying around. I'm a bit uneasy."

"Maybe she dropped it by accident, and didn't notice it."

"Who cares how it got here!" Ray said. "Let's take out share of it!"

The three began to tear off chunks of the bread and pack them into their backpacks. They made sure to fill the backpacks to the brim, as they wanted to make sure that they had enough food for the entire colony; including the newest addition. It was this last detail that frustrated Ray, that he would have to find food for the person he now hated the most in the colony.

With their bags were full, the three strapped them back over their backs, and then began to make their way back towards the hole.

"So," Ray said. "Back to Thomas."

"Not this again..." Joe lamented.

"Yes, this again!" Ray exclaimed. "Any ideas, Hunter? Since Joe is going to be of no help whatsoever?"

"Why don't we knock out one of the girls," Hunter started, "and then put her head on Thomas' crotch while he's sleeping? Then, we'll tell everybody! Gloria would be pissed, and drop him right there! Then, she'll go back to Bruce and then we can send Thomas to the dogs!"

"Only would would come up with an idea like that," Ray said. "...And it just might work."

"You two are pathetic," Joe said in contempt.

"Whatever." Ray flailed his hand behind him.

As the three were halfway across the floor, they heard a sound. A terrifying sound. The sound of the house's front door opening, and then closing. There was no other explanation: Melissa was back. FAR earlier than expected.

"SHIT!!!" Ray exclaimed in fear as he heard this sound. "She's back already?!"

"We're fucked!" Hunter was also horrified. "There's no way we can reach the hole before she comes in here!"

"We can try! Run! Now!"

With Ray's words, the trio made a sprint towards the hole.

~~~

Melissa walked into her kitchen, wanting a bottle of iced tea. However, she then caught sight of the two, no, three small creatures that were running across the floor.

She gave a sinister smile as she walked towards them and stomped her foot into their path.

They were trapped. They looked up at her, with both fear and anger expressed on their faces.

"Well, well," Melissa said. "It's so nice to see you all again!"

She croutched down and scooped them into her hand. She then stood back upright as she held them in her palm.

"W-what are you doing home so early?!" The man with the green hair asked.

"My last class was cancelled," Melissa answered, "so I came home, and I'm glad that I did!"

She looked towards the torned and ravage slice of bread on the floor besides the counter.

"You all took my bait," she said.

The face of the brown-haired man lit up as if he was overcome with a sudden realization.

"I knew that it was you all stealing my bread," she continued. "Do you know how much money I spent on it, only to have you all mess it up? It's pretty annoying."

At that point, she noticed something in the green-haired man's hand. It looked like a pin needle.

"What is this?" she asked as she pulled it from his grip. "Where'd you get this?"

The man did not answer. He only folded his arms and looked away in anger. Almost like he was a child.

"Well?" Melissa said.

"I don't have to explain anything to you," he responded. "You giant, sadistic bitch."

Melissa glared at him. "You have some mouth on you, little man. I'm really going to enjoy having fun with you."

The other two men looked towards him, with fearful expressions on their faces.

"Ray, you idiot," the brown-haired man said in frustration.

"She's going to kill us!" said the black-haired man.

"Damn right I am," Melissa said.

She then walked out of the kitchen, and made her way upstairs into her room. Once there, she placed the three men on her desk, and then croutched down onto the floor to look under her bed. She soon found the glass jar she was looking for, and then stood back up and placed the men inside of the jar, before setting it onto the desk. Finally, she grabbed a dark cloth and covered the jar.

Melissa usually did not torture these people during the week, but since her class was cancelled, she needed something to fill that void. She had just the game in mind for these three thieves. She walked out of her bedroom to make the necessary preparations.