At the same time I opened my mouth, people started coming around with bowls of food. Three ceramic bowls were set down on our table. Each person took one helping and passed the bowl down. We never allowed seconds. We also weren’t allowed to waste any. We had to consume every piece of food that was on our plate.
In the beginning, after starving on and off for three months straight, inhaling all of the food was a challenge. When you starve for that long, your stomach shrinks to the size of a peanut. Now, after eating well for the last couple years, it was hard not to ask for seconds.
For dinner, we were served scrambled eggs, cooked carrots, and a piece of flat bread. Every day it varied. Like I said earlier, each family in the colony had something to provide. When we ate, three times a day, each family donated part of their food so that we could actually have a full course meal.
My mother was a botanist and my father was an electrician. Together they concocted this genius idea before the colony was built, that with artificial lighting, and soil deep beneath the earth’s surface, plants could be grown and survive. So my family provided all of the vegetables.
We grew carrots, tomatoes, cucumbers and potatoes. Sometimes, when the crops were harvested, we’d get a bad batch. For example, the carrots rotting before we picked them from the soil. Potatoes not being any bigger than a pebble. But most of those mishaps were in the first few months of The Great Famine.
The Baker family used to own a chicken coop so they provided all of the eggs. They managed to save several chickens from the coupe after the apocalypse. So we always had fresh eggs. Grace’s father, Ed Vickers, was a baker. He provided the flat bread. Grace’s mother May was a doctor, and she ran our infirmary. Colin’s family used to own a ceramic’s shop in what was once Omaha. Without them, we’d be eating off of the table with our hands.
Each time I took a bite of the food on my plate, it felt like a gift. When I finished, I thought about licking my plateand cleaning up all of the crumbs. That’s how valuable food was anymore. Even crumbs were worth a person’s weight in gold.
After dinner Grace appeared next to me and laced her arm through mine. “What are you going to do now?”
I shrugged. “Probably just go back to my room.”
“Or…” she grinned.
I shook my head. “No way.” I knew exactly what she
wanted. Grace had this crazy obsession with checkers. Anytime we had free time that’s always what she wanted to do. I didn’t like playing with her. Mainly because she beat me every time.
“Come on,” she whined. “Do you honestly think you’ll have more fun sitting in your room alone?”
I grumbled in defeat. “Alright.” She had a point. There were too many things on my mind for me to sit alone in my room and dwell on them. “Maybe I’ll actually beat you this time.”
“Ha.” Grace laughed. “I doubt that.”
An hour later we were on our third game. Grace picked up her black piece and jumped over my red one. “King me.”
I moaned. “Don’t you ever get tired of winning?”
She pondered the question for a second. “Uh. No.”
I turned my gaze to the open doorway as Colin walked passed us. Grace looked over her shoulder, then turned back to me smiling. “Somebody has a crush,” she teased.
I blushed, looking down at the floor. “I do not.”
Grace rolled her eyes. “You know you can’t lie to me.”
“Fine. Maybe I like him a little bit.” It felt odd that I finally admitted it out loud to someone. And who better than Grace? I knew she’d never say anything to anyone and she probably would have some good advice.
She clapped her hands together. “I knew it!”
I pushed the checkers off of the board and started putting the game away. “I wouldn’t get so excited about it. It’s not like he has the same feelings.”
Grace leaned in close. “Are you freaking blind? He’s always staring at you. And whenever you’re around, he always tries to find an excuse to talk to you.”
I put all of the checker pieces in the box and closed the lid. “That doesn’t mean he likes me,” I began, “He does that same stuff with a lot of the girls around here too.” Colin never struck me as a loyal type of guy. He was way too charming and did way too much flirting with other girls.
Grace stood up and extended her hand to me. “You still don’t get it, do you?”
I took her hand and stood up. “No. I don’t. And besides, why would he want someone like me? There are girls that are way prettier than me down here.”
We walked toward the door and hung a left. Grace’s families quarters were right across from the infirmary—which was on the other side of the mess hall. Grace nodded toward me. “I think you underestimate yourself, Georgie. You’re a lot prettier than you think you are.”
I smiled. “Thanks.”
Grace went on, “And I also think Colin flirts with those girls to get your attention.”
My mind went back to the time I caught him with Ana. He didn’t seem like he was trying to get my attention. He acted like I interrupted him. “Maybe.” I wasn’t going to disagree with her. Even though I knew what she was saying wasn’t true, I didn’t feel like talking about Colin anymore. All I wanted to do was go back to my room and get some sleep.
After I said goodbye to Grace, I walked back to my room, lost in my own thoughts. The meeting still loomed in the back of my mind, but I’d blocked it out thinking of Colin. Damn him. He was always distracting me.
I couldn’t help but let my worry drown me. People like Grace were fine with being kept in the dark about certain things. But not people like me. I had to know what was going on. Perhaps it would have been better if Frankie would have kept her mouth shut and not said anything at all.
Out of nowhere, I felt an arm wrap around my waist. I opened my mouth to scream, but before I could even utter a squeal, a warm, moist hand covered it. I couldn’t get a look at my attacker. They came at me from behind. In attempt to free myself, I extended my arm back and elbowed the person in the face. Whoever it was, growled out in pain as they pulled me into a dark room.
The person shoved me backwards, slamming me into the cold, damp dirt wall. Breath caught in my lungs as I felt the wind being knocked right out of me. I flapped my arms wildly, trying to slap the person away. Keeping my mouth covered, they pressed their body into mine. I reached out, hands sliding up their shirt, feeling the muscled torso of a man.
A match sparked and Colin brought it to his face as he grinned. “You’ve got spunk, Georgina. I like that about you. ”
I shoved him backwards as the match went out. “Colin! You jerk! What the hell were you thinking, sneaking up on me like that?” My emotions were torn. Part of me wanted him to hold me and another part of me wanted to slap him across the face.
He hovered over me, arms placed on the wall above my head. “Hey now, you’re not the one who got elbowed in the face.”
I raised my voice. “I thought you were attacking me!”
He looked over his shoulder. “Keep it down, nobody can hear this conversation.”
I ducked from underneath his arms. “I don’t want to be a part of this conversation.” I headed straight for the doorway.
Colin caught me by the wrist and pulled me back toward the wall. “You’re going to want to hear this,” he murmured, his deep voice hushed.
I glowered. “You sound awfully sure of yourself. What’s the topic of this conversation?”
He leaned in close, his warm breath caressing my ear. His lips being only an inch away from my neck made my spine tingle. “The meeting.”
“Oh yeah,” I snapped. “What about it?”
“You know how you said you had a terrible feeling about it?”
“Yeah, so?”