Famished (2 page)

Monica Vickers disappeared about six months ago. I was told that her curiosity was eating her alive. That she was so desperate to peak outside that she just left our world, never looking back.

Every week, gatherers were sent out in search of supplies. That was different. They were given permission to leave. But if anyone was like Monica and just wanted to see what was out there, well, they should have seriously considered digging themselves an early grave.

A twinge of remorse struck my heart whenever I saw May, wandering around like a lost soul. But these rules were made for a reason. They had to be followed. There could be no exceptions because with exceptions came chaos.

And finally…..

Rule number three: You could not give food to outsiders.

Yes, there were outsiders. Mostly people that traveled from other cities and states in hopes of finding some kind of rescue or refuge. Sometimes, it bothered me that we never invited them in. “You’d better erase that thought from your mind, Georgina Carver!” my mother would say. “Food is scarce and we have too many mouths to feed as it is!”

“But, what if they need help?”

“They could be cannibals. We can’t risk it!”

I didn’t bring up the subject of outsiders too often. It wasn’t a subject my mother or anyone else liked to talk about. And the punishment for feeding an outsider was….

Well, I honestly never knew because no one had ever done it.

The members of the council made it perfectly clear that if we were caught feeding an outsider, the punishment would be more severe than any of us just stealing food. I don’t think anyone needed them to elaborate. Fear was already instilled us after we saw Dylan Edwards being whipped. Nobody wanted to experience a punishment worse than that.

I caught up with my father as he walked down the wide, muddy corridor with Mr. Baker. I reached out, tugging on his arm. “Daddy.”

He waved goodbye to Mr. Baker and wrapped his arm around my shoulder. “What is it, Georgie?”

I pulled away from him, lacing my arm through his. “What can you tell me about this meeting?”

He craned his head around, looking behind us. “Where’s Frankie?”

“There’s no point, Dad. Mom already yelled at her.”“I’ve got to start looking out for her and learn to watch what I say when she’s around.”

Frankie was one of those kids that was like a talking parrot. She couldn’t keep a secret. And if she was in hearing range of your conversation, she would repeat whatever you said. She was five years young than me. One time, when I was thirteen and she was eight I accidentally screamed the word “bitch.” She heard me say it and even though I asked her not to say anything, she ran around the house for the next two days shouting the word. Naturally, my parents found out she heard it from me and I was grounded for a week. I learned to keep my lips tight around her from that moment on.

My father and I made a left turn, walking into the mess hall. I unlaced my arm from his and stepped away. “So, are you going to tell me more about this meeting?”He placed both of his hands on my shoulders. “Honey, I wish I could but you know I’ve taken a vow of silence when it comes to the council. I can’t talk about what goes on in the meetings outside of them.”

“Did Mr. Baker put you up to this? Why do you always do everything he says?” It bothered me that my father started this colony and Mr. Baker pretty much ran it. There was something sinister about him that made my insides churn when I thought about his fake, gap-toothed smile. It was a smile that said, “I know something you don’t.”

“Georgina, this has nothing to do with Mark. I’m telling you, I took a vow and I will not break it. You need to learn to respect that.”

I pushed his hands off of my shoulders. “It’s not fair!” I protested. “You people keep us out of the loop for all of this time, now suddenly you want us involved!” I was more confident than ever that this meeting was going to be bad. And more than anything, I felt betrayed. Council or not, my father was my father. And if he knew something awful was going to go down he should have told me.

He sighed. “Georgie, don’t act like this. You know I want to tell you. I just can’t compromise my position.”

“Your position as what? A council member or my father?”

“Georgina!”

Storming off, I ignored him as he continued to call out my name. At the moment, I wished that whole council would disband. Then maybe my father would put his priorities as a parent above his priorities as a council member.

Chapter 2 : Hush Hush

Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep and
 
The Spirit Of God was hovering over the waters. Genesis 1:2

The colony was divided into several sections. There was a long, wide corridor that ran horizontally, with open to doorways to each family's quarters along both sides. Mine was at the end, next to the exit. On the opposite end of the corridor was the mess hall.The mess hall was the largest room in our underground village. The floor was made of concrete and the walls were made of dirt. There were six, long wooden picnic tables positioned vertically, three on each side of the room. The only lighting we had was the dull flicker from candles mounted along the walls or motion lamps that were powered by generators.

My eyes had grown accustomed to this kind of lighting because it was the only light we had, but I missed the sun in the worst way. Sometimes I’d close my eyes and remember its warmth. The way it sizzled on your skin as it burned the tip of your nose. There was no sense in me complaining about not having it. I was just thankful to be alive.

I trailed my finger along the dirt wall, as Grace Vickers my best friend nudged into my shoulder. “Why so pouty?” she chirped.

“Ugh,” I sighed. A slow rumble circulated through my stomach. “I’ll explain after I eat.”

Honestly, I could trust Grace with my life. She was such a loving and loyal friend. Every time I was feeling down she was always there to pick me up. The same went for me.

 
The week after Monica disappeared, I sat up with her night after night while she cried herself to sleep. In a way, I knew exactly what she was going through. I had a sister and even though Frankie got on my nerves sometimes, I couldn’t imagine losing her.

Grace patted her belly. “I know. I’m hungry too.” Grace walked ahead of me and I continued walking a few feet behind her.

In the mess hall, I weaved through the rows of tables, listening in on the colonist’s topic of conversation, ‘the meeting.’ I knew once the subject was leaked it would only be a matter of time before everybody found out. I glanced over at my parent’s table and my father was wagging his finger in Frankie’s face. Frankie nodded and rolled her eyes. It didn’t matter how hard my parents tried to break Frankie of the habit of eavesdropping, none of their punishments worked.
 
 

Hearing everyone whispering about the meeting made my anger resurface. Just who did the council think they were? And my father disappointed me the most. He had always been so open and honest. He’d tell me anything. Why not now? Was it just because Mr. Baker told him not to? Even though my father denied it, I knew it was true. That simple act of denial reassured my gut feeling that this meeting was going to be bad.

I made my way to the back of the room. I shared a table with a group of kids my own age from the other families. Lifting each leg, I hovered above the sturdy wooden bench, ramming my butt into my seat. The whole table shook. I huffed, folding my arms across my chest as all sixteen eyes at the table turned toward me. “What?”

Exhaling slowly, I lowered my arms as another rumbling growl escaped from my belly. All of my worry about the meeting mixed in with my hunger was making me a little bit cranky.The rest of the eyes turned away from except for Colin Martin’s. His hazel eyes burned into my chocolate brown ones. “Who peed in your Wheaties?”

“I’m just hungry, that’s all,” I scoffed.

There were a lot of times when Colin caught me off guard and I always wound up snapping at him. I never meant to. Honestly, every time I heard the sound of his deep, smooth voice my heart would begin racing, my cheeks would get red and tingly and my stomach would do a back flip.

One time, during recreational time he gave me a cocky smirk, his perfect white teeth glowing in the candlelight, and I got flustered and smacked my head into the side of the doorway. Out of all the boys down here, Colin was by far the most attractive. He had a perfectly proportioned heart-shaped face, chiseled jaw line, and hair the color of the sky at midnight.

Sometimes I caught myself staring at him, only to look because half of the time he walked around shirtless. And Colin shirtless was like staring at one of the those old ads in Cosmo with the toned underwear models.

A few times, when I caught him walking around in nothing but a towel, I had to pick my jaw up from off the floor. It was difficult not to let my teenage hormones get the best of me, when I lived this close in proximity with boys my age.

Colin knew he was good looking. He had this arrogant way about him. There were plenty of times where I’d seen him with other girls and he’d ask them to feel his bicep, a smirk on his face and dimples present on his cheeks. And Colin took full advantage of the way he could manipulate the girls down here.

We weren’t forbidden from fraternizing with the opposite sex but the council didn’t want teenage members of the colony running around fornicating everywhere. Pre-marital sex was something that was severely frowned upon.

Part of me thought that the council should spend less time worrying about pre-marital sex, and more time worrying about our future. Like when or if we’d run out of food.

Colin got caught in compromising situations on more than one occasion. I didn’t think it ever got as far as him going all the way with a girl. But it was close. I’d actually walked in on him one time when he was with Anna Shafer in the rec room.

He hovered over top of her, shirtless, the contour lining of his abdomen tightened, his back muscles flexed. I froze at the sight of it. I tried to speak but I couldn’t get the words out. My veins pulsated. My breathing quickened. My brain kept telling my feet to move but I couldn’t. Finally Colin lifted his head, gave me a haughty grin and winked at me. “What’s up, Georgie? If you don’t mind I’m kind of busy.”

Outside of the room, I rested my back against the wall of the muddy corridor, panting. Colin made my insides burn like a crackling ember in a fireplace. But after seeing him like that with Anna, I knew he was the type of guy who couldn’t be trusted. I couldn’t understand why he was always giving me mixed signals if he didn’t have an interest in me. So, from that moment on, I vowed to keep my feelings for him to myself.

My attention averted to my left when Grace took her seat next to me. As she brushed a strand of her honey colored hair off her shoulder she beamed at me, her pale blue eyes sparkling “Hey you,” she said excitedly. “Don’t look so glum. I can smell the food. I’m sure they’ll be bringing it out any minute.”

I admired the way Grace always tried to look at things in a positive light, especially after what happened to Monica.After going through something like that, I thought Grace would be more negative than positive. That wasn’t the case. When you went through the hardships that we did, we had to step outside of the box and consider ourselves lucky. We could have been on earth, rotting away. Instead, we were down here, eating and living our lives.

“It’s not just that.” I tucked my fiery, auburn hair behind my ears. “I’m just distressed about this stupid council meeting.”

Grace shrugged. “I’m wouldn’t overexert myself by worrying about it. The council knows what they’re doing.”

“We put too much of our faith in the council. What if it’s something bad?”

Grace stole
 
a glance around the room. “Shh,Georgie! Don’t say that!”

I leaned into her ear. “What? You don’t think it’s odd that this is the first time in two and a half years that the families have actually been invited to a meeting?”

“Georgie’s got a point, Grace,” Colin spoke up.My eyes flashed over to his. He crooked me a smile and winked.

 
I shook my head and faced Grace.“Seriously, Grace. I have this terrible, feeling in my gut.”

Grace raised her hand. “I don’t want hear about it anymore. Can’t we just talk about something else?”

At the same time I opened my mouth, people started coming around with bowls of food. Three ceramic bowls were set down on our table. Each person took one helping and passed the bowl down. We never allowed seconds. We also weren’t allowed to waste any. We had to consume every piece of food that was on our plate.

In the beginning, after starving on and off for three months straight, inhaling all of the food was a challenge. When you starve for that long, your stomach shrinks to the size of a peanut. Now, after eating well for the last couple years, it was hard not to ask for seconds.

For dinner, we were served scrambled eggs, cooked carrots, and a piece of flat bread. Every day it varied. Like I said earlier, each family in the colony had something to provide. When we ate, three times a day, each family donated part of their food so that we could actually have a full course meal.