Amity and Enmity

Chapter 26

Day: 1180

Days Left: 4300

Lives Saved: 6

Satisfied with how much rope they had made, the woman and Jules packed everything up and took the pot off the fire.

"Kai!" a voice called out.

The woman motioned to the other side of the camp to where the voice was coming from. Jules looked over and saw an elderly woman in a- wait, was that a wheelchair? And not just any ordinary wheelchair, one constructed of wood, the same colour as the surrounding trees, and instead of the traditional two wheels, it had tank treads.

Did they also make a fucking wheelchair!

"Kai!" the elderly woman continued to call the name.

Jules laughed to himself. Whoever this Kai was, they were in big trouble.

That was when he heard the rolling of wheels behind him.

The elderly woman cleared her voice loudly. "Mister Kai," she said quietly with an underlying sinisterness. "You were on dish duty today. Why are they not clean? Oscar and I are about to sort out dinner. We can't eat off dirty bowls and plates, now can we?"

"No," Jules squeaked. He looked to the blonde-haired woman for help, but she had already escaped with a smirk on her face.

"Why are they not done?" asked the elderly woman.

"I... had a traumatic experience today," mumbled Jules, unable to think of anything else.

"Yes, yes, we all heard about your bowel troubles, but that does not excuse you from skipping your chores!"

Jules yelped as he was hit on the head with a dinosaur claw stick. "Okay! Okay! I'll go do it now!"

"I guess he was lying about his name being Riley Jackson," mumbled Jules as the elderly woman rolled away in her wheelchair. "He's called Kai." He repeated the name to memorise it.

Rubbing his head to soothe it, Jules went over to the stack of dirty plates, unsure how to begin.

"You're going to need water, stupid," said a voice.

Jules turned to see a young woman with long black hair carrying a pot of hot water that had been previously on the fire. She placed it on the ground beside the dirty plates.

"You should know better now than to incur the wrath of Ivette."

Jules laughed. "Thanks for the water."

"That's as much help as you're getting," said the woman as she quickly left.

"Ivette..." Jules said to himself. "Ivette... Kai..."

After finally washing and drying all the dishes and cutlery, Ivette and a man with fair hair, whom Jules presumed was Oscar, delivered dinner to everyone.

They all gathered around the campfires as they ate their food, chatting.

Jules looked around, trying to think of the last time his own group ate like a community. He had friends, of course, that he would eat meals with, but everyone would run on their own schedule. But here, it was almost like a family, how they worked together, ate together.

It was... nice-

He snapped out of that line of thought, remembering that this group was dangerous to his friends. He was here to infiltrate and steal their knowledge.

Don't become indoctrinated by the enemy, Jules!

So, instead, he focused on the food, examining the brown sludge. What was in it? It looked nothing like the meals that came in the silver packets. What could it be? There was so much of it to spread amongst such a large group. If they were not going to the drop-offs, where were they getting all this food...