Day Zero, Part 2

He stepped away from the building and looked up at the floors above his ground floor room. There was fire licking the window sill of two rooms a few floors up and smoke coming from three others too. This was only one side of the oblique building too, so this had to be a success.

The dorm didn’t burn to the ground, which was good for Anna as he sat cross legged on the lawn eating his breakfast. His hope was that all evidence of the attack was destroyed in the fires.

He didn’t notice the girl watching him from over his left shoulder. Several students were crying around him, because they knew their rooms had been engulfed. The fact that the Campus had its own Fire Brigade had certainly helped save the building.

Anna was approached by Mai a little later when he was sitting on the ground reading, some distance from the dorm. She sat next to him on the grass and introduced herself; “I am Mai” she said.

Anna didn’t reply, but took in her very pretty brown skinned round face and jet black long and braided hair. He smiled and said “Hi”. He looked back to his book, feigning calmness. Thinking to himself, “That has to be the prettiest girl I ever spoke too.“

“Were you in the fires?” she asked.

He looked back at her. Anna closed the book and said “No, nothing of mine was burned, I think.”
Mai smiled and said “Good to you and me.” She looked Indian.

He smiled back, she was being very cute and was hard to ignore. They talked for a while until they had the signal that they were allowed back into the dorm. She had never brought up the fires again during the rest of the time they had spent talking.

Classes started as normal following the weekend and Anna ran into Mai several times that Monday. He had never noticed her before, but now she was the only person on Campus that he could pick out of a crowd.

Anna was among a throng of students interviewed that week by the Foreign Police. Since Anna was not a citizen, his interview went longer, like the other non-Czech students. It was nothing violent, but he had a definite feeling that these Police didn’t like him or any expatriate.


Mai cornered Anna on Tuesday and they agreed to meet the following night for dinner after classes. Mai took him to a restaurant that was a short bus ride from Campus. He didn’t get out much, but whenever he got away from Campus he always commented on how beautiful Prague was. He had only been here for 4 months.

The dinner was good and the chatting was fine, mostly about the fires and what investigators had found out so far. That they were all caused by a computer and they were almost all different styles of system.

Mai took his arm as they waited for the bus to head back to town. Anna was almost having trouble believing this gorgeous girl liked him. He decided then that he would kiss her good night when they parted.

The bus dropped them at the front entrance to Campus. It was about a 10 minute walk to the dorm. They talked more and she held his arm as they snaked up the shortcut path. The dorm was built in 3 wings, one for women and two men and after 9PM, they had to keep to their own sides. It was 10:15 now.

When they got to her dorm she spun, leaned up and with a grin planted a kiss on Anna. He had to fight the surprise and reflex to pull back, because he was in the mindset that he was going to kiss her. After a moment, the surprise passed and smiled back at her as they separated.

She said “Good night, fun!” turned and went inside.