Natural Selection (Elijah Kamski x Reader)

Carrying Capacity

Compiling key events...
Time_Lapse=60 DAYS

It wasn't much...but it was honest work.

Being out here, getting sunburned, living off the land – it gave some merit to that meme you and Anthony had warped time and time again.

"Anna, have you ever heard of Ivy Hawke?"

You dug up each potato, taking special care to not puncture the tubers. Anna's sister, Dels, had waited for a dry day to begin the harvest. She'd told you it was so that the soil wasn't as compact.

She stopped, wiping the sweat from her forehead, "Carter got in your head with his superstitions and shite?"

You'd had to wait 2 weeks for the plants to stop flowering. Had to cut browning foliage to the ground and wait another week, so that the potatoes would develop a thick skin. Even the healthiest plant could not be so without the destruction of diseased material.

"Aye, that he did."

Dels grinned, hacking at the ground, "Don't know if you were crackin' a joke, but that was a mighty fine response."

"I guess you're rubbing off on me?"

"Luck smiles on you, then."

You'd learned that potatoes should never be stored with apples, because of a chemical reaction that no one on the farm knew what to call – but that it was bad. You'd researched it, reporting to them that it was the apples' ethylene gas. Most of them bit their thumb at you, but you shrugged it off.

"Aye, I heard'o Ivy Hawke. Heard she disappeared without a trace, after gettin' involved with that tosser of yours."

You were proving to be a bridge between two cultures that'd disregarded each other.

"Was a good idea, gettin' some of these knee pads from that biker shop, kid." The man named Joseph, or "Jo," said dryly, licking his lips as he continued to dig, "Beats the hell outta leather, I'll tell you that."

"Wore them a lot as a kid when I was learning how to ride a bike." You put more potatoes in the basket, making sure they were dry enough to avoid mold, "Didn't stop me from taking a few scrapes and bruises...but I never had a skinned knee. I've heard some horror stories."

Dels, to your right, lifted her dress, her legs folded under her. She'd wrapped an apron around her waist, but both were tattered and muddy. Most of their clothes were "work" clothes, but they didn't wear rags because they were poor. This community was quite the opposite, actually.

Anna and Dels ran a large trading ring in this community.

"Stop changin' the subject." Dels spat, "What did your Anthony say about that story, anyhow?"

You stopped working, leaning back on your heels as your knees remained planted in the dirt.

"He said he thought it was suspicious that Elijah told me not to talk to the same people who knew about...certain things. I didn't have much to say in Elijah's defense." You dug your pick in the earth, stronger than before, "After the argument Elijah and I got into, I didn't have much to say at all."

"Oh, boy..." Dels sighed, "You two still fightin' every night?"

"Yeah..."

It wasn't just about when you'd asked him about Ivy, or Amanda...that was just the tip of the iceberg. When you asked him about the woman who lived in the house, the one who his parents – who'd hated you as Elijah got older, welcomed with open arms...it'd gotten ugly.