Faces, Names, and Memories (completed)

Chapter 40 - Ideas

"We shouldn't think about this tonight," Cale says, after a few seconds of silence. He looks at me. "You said you can give us a week?"

"Ideally," I answer.

"Good, then we'll think about this more in the morning," Cale says. "We'll think better after a good night's sleep."

"And a meal," Deen adds.

"I wouldn't bet on that," Kinnie says. "I haven't eaten since we got here."

I hadn't thought about how much they've given Kinnie to eat. We had a pretty filling meal yesterday while we were in the cave; she spent that time here.

"They'll probably feed us," Spenzo says.

"Jade is the only person we can count on them feeding," Deen says.

"I doubt that, I've eaten just as much as you guys have, as in nothing," I reply.

"Come on guys, let's just get some sleep. If they plan on feeding us, we'll eat," Tressa says, lying back down on the floor.

"Tressa's right," Cale says lying down.

The rest of us follow suit, except for Spenzo, he stays leaning against the wall.

I lift my head up to look at him.

"You're not going to try to sleep?" I ask.

"Nah. I'm good," Spenzo answers.

"Do you want company?" I ask. Who knows what will happen in my head if I actually sleep. Last time I slept, I remembered the horrific accident that sent me here. I don't want to go through that again.

"Nah you should sleep, you have a lot of planning to do tomorrow," Spenzo advises.

"I get more rest when I don't sleep than when I do," I say. "But, okay. Good night."

I lay my head back down and soon drift off to sleep.

When I wake up, there are 7 trays with a glasses of water and bowls of oatmeal-looking sludge on the floor in front of the door.

"Looks like they do plan to feed us, huh?" Spenzo says.

"At least it's something," I say. I'm glad for it; I wasn't expecting anything.

I look and see that everyone else is still fast asleep. I'll wait for them to wake up so we can eat together.

Spenzo knows what I'm doing.

"Don't," He tells me. "We'll be here all day; you don't know how soon they'll take you to work."

He's right. I grab a tray and

I nod and grab a tray. There's a dented spoon in the cereal bowl. The food is incredibly hard to swallow, thickening on my tongue and in my throat. I manage to get through it all, then take some water to help it go down. But, the water is bitter and metallic.

I finish the food as Deen stirs. He sits up and sees Spenzo.

"Hey, did you get any sleep?" He asks.

Spenzo shakes his head.

"Didn't think you would," Deen says. He notices the empty bowl and glass in front of me, then sees the other trays. "So they are feeding us, good."