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Chapter 11

"Good morning!"

I smile, an exhausting cheerful smile, as I approach the woman. She stops what she's doing and waves to me, energy practically bursting out of her eyes. At least someone here got a good's night rest.

An impossibly wide grin grows when I come up to her. "Good morning sir! I trust that sleep aided you well?"

"Well yeah, I suppose so or I wouldn't be up so early up." Lies, lies lies lies pouring out of my mouth. But that's okay, I don't want to ruin her happiness. "Anything I can do to help?"

The woman nodded. "Water is needed, but we have no hope for rain. Think you can help with that?"

I hesitate, covering it with a tilt of my head. I don't really want to go to Harper's cave, not because I don't want them to have water, but because I'd be really far from Jesse if anything were to happen. I suppose there's some in P.A.M.A.'s cave...

"Harper knows where a lot of the water is left." The forced relax words flow out easily from my mouth. "But I can get you three buckets."

"Superb!" She laughs, just absolutely beaming. "Anything you can get is much appreciated, all your help is deeply valued."

"Hey, there's no need for that much praise. I'll be back in less than a few minutes." As I turn to P.A.M.A.'s cave, I spot her face morph into worry. So I whistle while walking away, it's strange how such a carefree sound can be emitted when everything just feels so heavy.

Although, the more water there is the more food can be grown. There definitely needs to be a lot of food right now. Harper needs to bring a team of people to her lab today, preferably like right now. Everyone needs food, Jesse especially. He's practically a walking husk right now.

"Hey miss!" I turn around, walking backwards. "Be sure Harper leaves as soon as possible to get that other water!"

She smiles at me again, it slams painfully against my heart but I return it. Then hiding my face from her and picking my pace up to P.A.M.A.'s cave. Her smile, it shouldn't make this deep ache in my chest.

Taking one deep breath, and then a few more, I jump into the cave's entrance. I never wanted to be back here, but it's probably worse for everyone else. Although this is just gives me more time to wallow in my thoughts.

But still, I can't get that smile out of my mind. It's a simple smile, a happy one. It's just an expression she used to display gratitude towards my kindness. I'm glad she feels that way but it's not like I've never seen someone smile before.

Jesse's smile flashes through my mind and I can see both side by side. They look so identical, why am I even thinking about this? There are other less depressing topics to think about at the moment!

I climb back up the first tower, I really hope I don't have to do this again tomorrow. At least P.A.M.A. isn't constantly talking about how I'm going to fail this time though.

Trudging through the water, I pull out one of the buckets. Maybe this is why I couldn't sleep, I was laying on buckets. How come I didn't notice that? I wonder when my back's going to be sore from that.

I scoop up the water, the stream fading away. I get this sense that I'm really pushing off... everything I suppose. My mind's too busy with all these problems that it refused to let me rest. Despite the need I feel for food, I'm not hungry at all. Although my muscles were really stiff getting up and are still pretty sore, I know that after yesterday I shouldn't even be able to move.

Flexing my right hand, I grab the next bucket and swim upstream. The hand feels tender and weak, faint traces of pain calmly floating into my head. That shouldn't be happening. There was glass embedded into my hand and I then proceeded to use it for climbing and yanking and more climbing. Thankfully my gloves mostly protected me, I know I didn't break any bones, but it still isn't suppose to be like this.