Famished (9 page)
I snapped out of my trance, and my attention averted to my feet as a rock underneath my left foot began to wobble. “Time to start digging,” I groaned. Then I picked up the first rock and tossed it aside.
* * * *
Minutes passed. Then an hour. I was a least threefeet down in the hole of rocks that I dug out and still hadn’t found one item on my list. What were the council members thinking, only giving us four hours? At the rate I was going, it was going to take me days. Maybe Colin was having better luck, wherever he was. He still hadn’t returned.
Grunting, I picked up a medium-sized rock. I chucked over the side of the hole. “I better find something soon,” I mumbled to myself. Every time I picked up a rock I was digging a deeper and deeper hole for myself. And I didn’t know how I would get out of it when it was time for me to go back.
Speaking of the time, it had to be dwindling down. I peeked up out of my hole and looked at my knapsack. Mr. Baker said that we only had four hours and I knew that a couple hours had passed before I started. Mr. Baker also said that one of our knapsacks contained a watch, so we’d know when to come back. The only problem was he didn’t say which knapsack contained the watch.
Colin didn’t mention anything about the watch so it had to be in mine, somewhere. I had gone through it earlier but only briefly. I didn’t examine everything that was inside of it. Or maybe Colin did have the watch and never got the chance to tell me because I stormed off.
Either way, I knew I was cutting it close time-wise. So, I made a mental note that I would only move a couple more rocks and if I didn’t find anything, I’d chalk it up as a loss and move on.
What could the council say? If we didn’t find anything, we didn’t find anything. The outside world was vast and confusing for teenagers who hadn’t seen it in so long.
Picking up another rock, I followed the same routine, tossing over the side of the hole. Then my eyes centered on something black that was peeking through some smaller rocks.
Delighted, I got down on my knees and brushed the various pebbles away. I yanked on the black item, which had the same texture as an inner tube, and fell backwards as I freed it.
My back slammed into something sharp. and warm liquid oozed down my spine. I was bleeding. Truthfully, it seemed like every inch of my body was bleeding. My hands were cut pretty bad from handling some of the sharper rocks. Flaps of my skin dangled at my palms. I had gashes across my shins from the climb up, and not to mention the cut I got on my ankle when Colin saved me from my potential squashing. Now I could add my back to the tally. And I didn’t even care, because I was distracted by something else entirely. I had finally found one item on my list. “A tarp!” I exclaimed.
That was it. That was all I wanted. One item and I was happy. It wouldn’t have bothered me that much if I went back without any, but a twinge of failure would still be gnawing at me. What if Colin finally found me and he had every item on his list?A horrified expression formed on my face when I thought of Mr. Baker. “Did you find anything?” he’d ask. Of course Colin would dump out his knapsack and beam proudly as he displayed every item on his list. Then Mr. Baker would turn to me. “And what about you, Georgina?” That would never happen but, I still felt the embarrassment of the fake scenario—my cheeks red and tingly—like they were burning. Thank God I found that tarp.
After balling up the tarp, I climbed out of the hole and began my journey down the rock mountain, scraping my shins at least a dozen more times. When my mother saw me she was going to freak out. She used to hyperventilate when I bumped my head as a kid. And now I looked like some mad man’s special experiment.
Once I reached the bottom, I made a beeline for my knapsack. Determined to find the watch, I fished through every pocket and examined the interior thoroughly. Damn it. There was no watch in my bag. And that meant that Colin had it.
Cupping my hands to my mouth, I shouted, “Colin!” I heard nothing in response, only the sound of my voice echoing. “Colin!” When I was worried about someone or something, nine times out of ten, I would let that feeling completely consume me and feed off
me until I found a resolution for it.
Another thing that made the entire situation worse was the fact that if I left without Colin, and something awful happened to him, I’d blame myself. And living with that kind of guilt for the rest of your life, was a burden no one in their right mind would want to bear. Also, if I wasn’t back in time, I didn’t know if I’d be allowed back into the colony. I’d be out here alone, meandering around the morbid desert/earth. And I knew one thing, I wouldn’t last long. I’d probably starve to death. No, probably wasn’t the correct word
. I
would starve to death.
In the end, I came to the conclusion that I would wait another ten minutes for Colin—fifteen minutes if necessary—and that was pushing it. If he wasn’t back, then I’d have no choice. I’d have to go back without him.
As those final minutes began, I prayed for two things; One. I prayed that I made it back on time—so I would be welcomed back into the only home that I had ever known for the last two years.
And two. I prayed that Colin was alive, well, and didn’t die for real this time. And that hopefully, when I returned, he was inside of our underground world, at the bottom of the rope latter, waiting for me.
Chapter 9: The Boy With The Violet Eyes
But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. ~ Genesis 2:17
“Seven hundred eighteen. Seven hundred nineteen. Seven hundred twenty.” I decided that counting the numerous pebbles around me was the best way to keep time. Since I didn’t have a watch, I had to be as accurate as possible and going with my gut wasn’t accurate at all.
The brilliant idea of counting the rocks came to me when I was thinking about my time in elementary school. I couldn’t remember exactly how old I was when I learned to tell time correctly, but I did remember that there were sixty seconds in a minute. Then I multiplied that by the number of minutes I’d been waiting for Colin. Twelve. Whole. Minutes. Twelve minutes equaled seven hundred and twenty rocks. And those twelve minutes had been the longest twelve minutes of my short life.
“I have to go,” I sighed. Staying out here on my own was not an option. If the council or my parents would have educated me on how to survive on the new, and in my opinion, not improved earth, I was positive that I would have no problem being out here on my own. But they didn’t educate me on survival skills. They educated me on how to find items on their stupid list. Why didn’t they think we needed to learn survivalist skills?
That was one of the many things I disliked about the way our world was ran. We were too sheltered—like we were living under a microscope—everyone was watched carefully and a lot of discussions were kept secret or only revealed to certain people. Sure, it was safer that way, but with safety should also come precaution.
Sometimes, because I was so good at keeping myself hidden, I’d eavesdrop on some of their conversations. Several members of the council ranted about the same stuff all the time. Like how smart the cannibals were. And from all the stories I’d heard, I didn’t have any doubts about that. I liked to think, that if the council members were actually as smart as they thought they were, they would be one step ahead of the genius, flesh eating humans. But they weren’t.
The only separations that we had from earth were: a hole in the ground that was six, maybe seven feet deep: a braided, flimsy rope ladder: and a gigantic rock that covered the hole Colin and I emerged from.
Whenever I heard the council members talking about how safe we were, I always asked myself a few questions. How long would it take before the cannibals figured us out? How long would it be before they founds us? Smart people caught on to random things quickly. So, when would they finally put two and two together?
Realistically, all they needed was to find a few members of their group so they could help each other lift the giant rock that kept us hidden. If they hit us with a surprise attack, we‘d never see it coming. It would be like an all you can eat human buffet.
When my father first told me that the cannibals liked to travel in groups, I found that kind of strange. “They’re cannibals for God’s sake,” I said to my father. “Wouldn’t they want to eat each other?”
At the time, my father’s reply didn’t make any sense. “Of course they do,” he began, “They’re human beings who eat other human beings, which is why eventually they would have to turn on each other. But….” And this was the part that finally made me understand the cannibals’ nature. “In any complicated situation, it is much easier to function as a group. Together, they can cover more ground. When they hunt, if it was a one-on-one battle, because of them being so weak, they would most likely lose the battle. But they wouldn’t lose it if they hunted as a group. It’s a lot easier to kill your prey when there is more than one person involved. Does that make sense?”
I remembered nodding. “Yes.”
He continued, “As the human race continues to die of starvation, it won’t be long after until the cannibals will have no choice but to separate and start hunting each other.”
I shuddered and gathered my things. Now I was on edge. I shouldn’t of thought about that. If I could’ve taken that memory and erased it from my mind, I would have. No more cannibals, no more council, no more stories. I had to stay focused, because that was the only way I was going to make it back in one piece.
* * * *
After checking over my knapsack several times, to make certain it was secure, I flung it over my shoulder and started walking. “Focus, George. Focus,” I told myself.
As I strutted ahead, walking farther and farther away from the rock mountain, I closed my eyes and racked my brain, trying to remember any familiar surroundings that might point me in the right direction. There had to be some kind of landmark close to our colony. “Okay. Okay.” The only way I was going to figure out how to get back would be by retracing my steps.
First, Colin and I climbed up the rope ladder, pushed on the boulder, and emerged from the colony. At the top, we wound up in a circular room. There was a bright light shining at the opening of the room, and then we walked into the brightness and ended up outside. Once we were outside, I picked up that baby skull…
I paused to take a breath when I thought about the innocent child who lost its life. I squinted and skipped to the next step in our journey. It was all I could do to keep myself from crying.
Ugh, I was thinking way too hard. Whenever my thoughts ate at me, I got flustered. I was never any good at anything I was trying to do when I was under pressure.“All right. Clear mind. Happy thoughts.” So Colin and I walked about ten feet when we noticed the ‘Welcome To Lincoln’ sign.
Wait….
The Lincoln sign! The mangled and faded sign that used to say ‘Welcome To Lincoln, Nebraska’ was only ten feet behind the entrance to our colony and a little off to the left. I was just there!
“Yes! Yes!” I shouted, adding a little dance in with my excitement. That sign was only five minutes away. Eight at the most.
After figuring out the biggest part of my problem, it took me a few solid minutes to contain myself. But only seconds later, when I finally started walking again, something just didn‘t feel right. I felt like I was being watched.
Inside my head, I told myself not to panic. I had to play it cool. “Colin, are you playing another joke on me?” I chuckled nervously. I thought that if I pretended I wasn’t all alone, whoever was watching me would get scared off.
In my gut, I knew who was watching me. A searing pain shot through my organs when I thought about the cannibals, hiding from my view, their mouths salivating at the sight of me. If I kept up this façade and hyped it up correctly, I wouldn’t have to worry. But if I didn’t, well, that would be the difference between me living and me dying.
“Colin, this isn’t funny!” I snapped, placing my hands on my hips.
“Who’s Colin?” a deep, raspy voice hissed.
