I'm Alone In This Apocalypse Vault With 14 Girls?

The walk to find Eve a room turned into total chaos. She skipped ahead, her white hair bouncing with each step while that weird sweet smell followed her like a cloud.

"This one?" Eve pressed her face against a door's window, her breath fogging the glass. "No, too far from Jin. This one? Still too far. What about—"

"Level 3, Section C," Scarlett said firmly, sounding completely done with everything. "Maximum security, strong walls, and—"

"Three floors away from Jin!" Eve spun around, her thin suit rippling like water. "That's like 47 meters down plus 82 meters across! The smell-spreading rate at that distance would lower baby chances by sixty-eight percent!"

She pulled out a tablet from nowhere—seriously, where did she keep these things?—and showed them math that hurt to look at. The screen had equations that seemed to move like living things.

"See? The best distance for smell-effectiveness is 12 meters or less. Best if we share air systems for maximum smell-saturation!"

Sera stepped forward, rubbing her temples. "Eve, you can't just calculate 'baby chances' based on distance. That's not how relationships work."

"But it's how biology works!" Eve protested, genuinely confused. "My body gives off smells that attract guys! The closer I am, the better it works!"

"Your what?" Sera asked, crossing her arms.

"Pheromones!" Eve said proudly. "The scientists studied how animals attract mates and made me perfect at it! I'm basically the perfect girlfriend!"

Scarlett sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Eve, we need to get you settled. Level 3, Section C. That's final."

"But—" Eve started.

"No buts," Scarlett said firmly. "You'll have your own space, and we'll figure out visitation schedules later."

"Visitation schedules?" Eve's eyes lit up. "For baby-making time? That's actually very organized! I can work with that!"

Clara spoke up, her voice trembling slightly. "T-The room will have all the basics—bed, desk, storage units... And we're adding extra security features to keep everyone safe."

"Safe from what?" Eve asked, tilting her head. "I'm not dangerous unless provoked or hungry or when I want babies or—"

"Exactly," Scarlett interrupted. "So security is necessary. For everyone's peace of mind."

---

The temperature around Shūmei dropped so fast that in the air. "You will be as far from Jin-sama as physically possible."

"But that's not fair!" Eve protested, genuinely upset. "How am I supposed to get my body ready for babies from three floors away?"

Rosa couldn't help but chime in, her usual sarcasm coming through. "Honey, I don't think your body needs help getting ready. You seem pretty... enthusiastic already."

"Thank you!" Eve beamed, completely missing the sarcasm. "The scientists did excellent work! I can actually decide when I want to get pregnant!"

Sera looked horrified. "You can what now?"

"Get pregnant whenever I want!" Eve repeated cheerfully. "It's very convenient! No need to wait for the right time of month!"

"That's... That's not how human bodies work," Clara said weakly, adjusting her glasses.

"Well, I'm not exactly normal," Eve said matter-of-factly. "I was made to have babies easily! It's actually pretty cool from a science perspective."

"Please stop talking about your baby-making abilities," Jin groaned, pressing his palms against his eyes. "Please. I'm begging you."

Eve tilted her head with that creepy bone-cracking sound. "But making babies is what most animals do! It's super important!"

"Not in the middle of the hallway!" Sera snapped.

---

They finally reached the room—a storage space that Maya and Clara had quickly fixed up. The door was reinforced steel with multiple locks, and Clara's fingers flew across her tablet, setting up extra electronic security.

"The locks are coded to your body info," Clara explained, her glasses reflecting scrolling data. "Only you can open it from inside, and we can override from outside if... if necessary."

Eve looked at the door with those weird red eyes, her pupils getting bigger and smaller as she saw things normal people couldn't. "Oh, you're trying to lock me up! That's cute!" She patted Clara's head like she was a smart puppy. "Don't worry, I promise to mostly stay inside. Except for meals. And bathroom breaks. And Jin visits. And patrol routes. And—"

"Wait, patrol routes?" Maya asked, speaking up for the first time. "What patrol routes?"

"For hunting!" Eve said brightly. "I need to practice my fighting skills and get fresh meat. The vault has lower levels, right? Perfect hunting grounds."

"Absolutely not," Scarlett said firmly. "You stay in designated areas until we understand your capabilities better."

"But I'm an excellent hunter!" Eve protested. "I can take down crawlers in under three seconds! I already showed you earlier!"

Maya stepped forward, her engineering mind intrigued despite herself. "Yeah, she seems strong enough to take Crawler's easily"

"See? The weapon lady gets it!" Eve beamed. "She likes good fighting techniques!"

---

Eve bounced into the room and immediately started moving everything. The regular bed got pushed against one wall. The desk ended up upside down for reasons no one could fathom. She pulled strips of fabric from her suit—how was there still a suit left?—and started making what looked way too much like a nest in one corner.

"What are you doing?" Rosa asked, leaning against the doorway with arms crossed.

"Making it ready for babies!" Eve explained cheerfully, weaving the fabric with movements too fast to see properly. "The normal way humans have babies is dumb. A good nest lets you try different positions and keeps babies warm!"

"Different positions?" Rosa raised an eyebrow. "Honey, I don't think you need to worry about positions until you actually have a boyfriend."

"But that's why I'm getting ready now!" Eve said logically. "Planning ahead makes things work better! The scientists always said good planning increases success by forty-two percent!"

Clara stepped forward, her scientific curiosity overcoming her nervousness. "The way you're weaving that fabric... it's creating a structure that's both flexible and incredibly strong. How are you doing that?"

"Oh, it's simple!" Eve said, holding up a strip of fabric. "The fibers have special stuff in them that reacts to body heat and pressure. When woven right, they stick together almost as strong as steel!"

"As strong as steel?" Maya asked, stepping closer to examine the weave. "That's incredible. What kind of stuff?"

Eve's face scrunched up in thought. "I think it was called... polymetha-something? The scientists used lots of big words."

Elena stepped forward, studying the nest with professional interest. "This structure is amazing. The way you've created tension points makes it both strong and flexible."

"Exactly!" Eve beamed. "Babies need protection! The nest can stop bullets and keep babies warm!"

"Stop bullets?" Sera asked, her voice rising. "Why would babies need protection from bullets?"

"Well, at the end of the world," Eve said as if it were obvious. "Dangers everywhere. Better safe than sorry, right?"

"That's... not the point," Sera said, rubbing her temples.

---

Eve paused, looking thoughtful. "Should I plan for eggs? Live birth? Spores? Oh, this is exciting! So many choices!"

"Spores?" Clara asked, her voice squeaking. "You can... have babies with spores?"

"Not right now!" Eve said cheerfully. "But my body can change! With the right changes, I could probably spread babies like spores! It would be super fast for filling up the world with people!"

"I think we should stick to normal human babies," Sera said firmly.

"But normal is so slow!" Eve protested. "Having babies is messy and dangerous. Eggs would be much safer—controlled growth, perfect food, no problems during birth!"

Jin, who'd been trying to sneak away unnoticed, froze as Eve's attention snapped back to him like a targeting laser. The air between them seemed to shimmer.

"Jin! You should pee on the nest! It'll help with bonding when the babies come!"

"There won't be any babies!" Jin's voice cracked, sounding utterly horrified.

"But bonding is important for babies!" Eve insisted. "Peeing on things shows it's yours! Babies need to know who their parents are!"

"How about we skip the pee-marking and focus on, I don't know, not building nests in storage rooms?" Sera suggested.

"But nests are the best!" Eve said. "Humans used to build nests all the time! It's in our history!"

"Maybe in cave days," Rosa said, "but we've moved on to things like beds and houses."

"Progress isn't always better," Eve said philosophically. "Sometimes old ways are best for having babies!"

---

Two hours later, they attempted their first group meal with Eve.

The cafeteria still smelled like fake protein and sadness, but now it had a new smell—that sweet stuff that followed Eve everywhere. She sat in the middle of the table like a white spider, her red eyes watching everyone while she shook with barely contained energy.

Lin had made what she could with their limited resources—protein bars that supposedly tasted like chicken, green paste that might have been vegetables once, and something called fruit juice that tasted more like someone's memory of fruit.