Cruel World (The Tribe Book 1)

15. Lost and Found

"What?! You can't just give up!" Paul exclaims to Amber, Patsy and I standing off to the side, looking between the two like it's a tennis match.

"What?" Amber asks confused.

"What, are you deaf?" Paul scoffs.

"He says we just can't give up," Patsy and I tell her.

"I know. Look, finding Cloe is more important than finding water, I agree, but Paul we're not giving up," she tells him, and he looks at me.

"Martin and our friends are out looking for her right now," I tell him/sign, talking about Reg and the others who left the Locos and are now called The Vipers, and Paul nods in understanding.

"And when we've stocked up on supplies, we'll be better able to search for Cloe, okay?" Amber says, and the twins nod, before wandering away to occupy themselves.

The two of us look at each other sadly, before separating off, and I head up to the kitchen to start making lunch. Jack and I managed to rig up an oven months ago, so I've been able to make us all bread, so I decide to make a whole bunch of finger sandwiches for everyone and cut up a ton of fruit, so that there's lots of variety for everyone.

I save a whole bunch for Martin and the boys when they get back, knowing they'll be starving after searching for Cloe. I call everyone left in the mall up for lunch, and they devour it like a swarm of lions to fresh meat. Luckily, I made sure to grab myself a plate before they all attacked the food, so I'm sat in my own little corner eating.

It's Zandra's turn to clean up after lunch, so I put my dishes in the kitchen for her and go to Trudy's room where I can hear Brady crying. I walk in and see Trudy staring at the wall, completely zoned out, most likely thinking about Bray.

"Trudy, are you ok?" I ask, picking Brady up and beginning to change her, instantly being able to smell her diaper as I approach her.

"Yeah," she mutters monotonously, eyes unmoving, unnerving me.

"Would you like me to take Brady for a while? Give you some time to yourself? And you can come get her whenever you're ready?" I ask her, concerned but wanting to get rid of as much stress for her as possible to prevent any breakdowns.

"Sure, no problem," she says, just like before.

I finish changing Brady, and take her into the café, making her a bottle. I sit at a table and feed her, before burping her and putting her in the carrier on my chest, swaying her to sleep. Zandra and Lex are talking quietly between themselves, and I zone out on what they're saying and stay as oblivious as possible, keeping my focus on Brady.

"Have any of you seen Bray?" Trudy asks, in a trance like state, walking into the café.

"He and Salene went off into the woods for some reason," Lex decides to taunt, not realising how unhinged Trudy appears right now.

"He what?" she whimpers.

"Trudy, listen to me. He is joking. Bray, Ryan and Salene have gone to get water from the stream because we don't have enough in the tank right now. They should be back soon, okay?" I say to her calmly, but making sure she knows I'm being honest and that she needs to listen, because if she doesn't then shit's gonna hit the fan later.

She nods, but quickly walks off, presumably back to her room.

"Lex, when you're around her, please try to take a bit more notice of what state she's in. How you choose to answer her and behave with her very much determines how her mental state is, she is fragile right now. If you upset her, we all have to deal with the breakdown and the repercussions of that," I inform him sternly, and he nods, knowing better than to argue about that, particularly to keep himself out of shit.