US (Formerly The After Effect - Book 2)

7 - Hunter, Gatherer

Snowball fights lead to death wishes. All jokes, of course.

After doing a quick eeny, meeny, miny, moe in my head, I pick a side of winners and a side of not-winners. People take a moment to cheer and to blow up, but it is all in good fun. Everyone declares future rematches.

When things settle down and turn boringly serious, our previously discussed groups commence formation. One good thing about playing around is that it distracted people from hunger. Now that it is getting down to the wire, the complaints begin.

"Hunters, come with me. I'll teach you a few things a couple miles this way. Jada, where's Jada?" Travis asks the air, then turns and locks eyes with me as if I know. The revolutionaries all look the same from a distance with their clothing styles, making it hard to distinguish them from one another.

I shrug as a response, and Travis quickly searches the little area and calls her name out a couple times, which results in major eye rolling from me.

Dark-skinned, bright-eyed, enviable Jada trots her little but strong body over to us—to Travis.

"What do you need?"

"Firestarters. Don't think for a second I remembered the names you gave me. Can you gather them up and start the fire? People will start to get cold after all the snow fighting if we don't get something going soon."

Ugh. There's that word again. "We."

Jada complies without any hesitation. "You got it. We will begin immediately. You have all the hunters. Not everyone has a weapon, but it should be enough," she concludes before turning her attention to others.

Travis tells his new hunter friends to huddle closer and gives them a little rundown of life on Earth and any potential dangers they could encounter. Luckily, no one looks spooked.

"Alright, are you guys ready?" Travis asks. When none of the hunters say anything, Travis takes it as a yes and heads into thicker brush.

I trail behind him eagerly, but when he sees me in the group, he stops in place, making every other person pause as well. "Aurora, what are you doing?"

I frown. "I'm going hunting. What's it look like?"

He shuts his eyes for a second and places his hands on both of my shoulders, smiling. His expression is almost...awkward. Embarrased?

"You're staying here. Get warmed up. I'll be back probably in an hour or two."

I scoff. "I'm what?"

Travis sighs, his eyes flashing to all of the guys around him like he isn't sure what to say. "Baby, stay here, okay? I don't want you out there."

I bite my tongue, trying so hard not to explode on him.

"We need someone smart to stay behind," he adds with a chuckle, as if it would help any.

I cross my arms, but give in to whatever nonsense he has going on in his brain. "Fine. I guess I'll just go see what the Five are doing." Without a hug, kiss, or farewell of any sort, I turn on my heels and walk toward the colorful crowd. A place my outfit no longer fits in with. The sound of snow crunching notifies me that the hunters have continued on.

"You shouldn't give him such a hard time. He's only looking out for you," Stella says once I'm in earshot. She grins wide, pokes her fingers at me, and gets all googly-eyed. "He just loves you."

Her attempt at making things better is making things worse. "Whatever. He acts like I can't do anything myself or that I'm not capable of doing things."