This Conspiracy

Chapter 10

Author stuff: Hi. Work continues to kick my behind. I need a vacation.

In other news, I keep looking at the amount of reads I get from all y'all and it makes me so happy to see people coming back to read more. Seriously, thank you so much. It warms this frozen heart and gives me tippy-tappy toes — which makes my coworkers laugh. I'm humbled by how many people keep coming back for more. Y'all are so wonderful.

Really, y'all, thank you.

Chapter 10

In Which Gardening Is Hard

Being a Track-hoe was a lot more difficult than Archie imagined.

Why anyone in their right mind would want to be one, he had no idea. Then again, Zart had him and Graham ducking off into the Deadheads – of all places – for fertilizer. Not to mention they had to do a great deal of heavy lifting. There was clearly a great deal of favoritism directed towards Flossy – not that he hadn't expected it.

Flossy seemed to relish being in the Gardens, surrounded by all the green and earth. It was almost as if she were at home.

"Is it almost lunch time?" Graham said, leaning against a newly installed trellis. It curved under his weight. He instantly straightened, not wanting to break it.

"We've only been working for two hours," Archie said, squinting up at the sky. "Does it ever rain here?"

"Sometimes," a Track-hoe named Chris said. "It rained before you shanks got here. We should be getting some rain soon. Girlie's not doing too badly with those green beans."

"She wants to be a Track-hoe."

"She could be whatever she wants, and Nick wouldn't tell her no, if we're being honest. Well, he'd tell her no for being a Runner, but no one wants to be a Runner."

"That's running the maze and mapping it out, yeah?" Graham said.

"Yeah. Now, slim it and get to work on tilling those rows with the fertilizer. I don't want to get yelled at by Zart." Chris shuddered, as if reliving a bad memory.

"Zart yells at people?" Archie said, looking over to the Keeper – who was looking over his tomatoes.

"Yeah, and don't let him catch you talking to other people and not the plants. It really gets to him. He's jacked in the head, if you can't guess. This place kind of does that to a person. Don't think any of us will come out of here completely sane."

Tilling was... monotonous. And then planting the seeds – turnip seeds – was even worse. Who in the Glade even ate turnips anyway? He couldn't recall even seeing any ever being made by Frypan.

Flossy came over to help with the seeds before being called over by Zart to do something. He was showing her the berry patches, from what he could tell.

Lunch was a welcomed relief. Archie and Graham collapsed on the ground near the Gardens, letting their skin soak in the sun.

"You two want me to grab you something to eat?" Flossy said, wiping her hands on her pants. They left behind dusty, brown finger smears. "Ew. Going to go wash my hands. I like dirt, but I don't think it'd be very good to eat it."

"No, we'll get our own food," Archie said, sitting up. "Thanks though."

She shrugged and headed off to the nearby watering pump to get as much dirt off her hands as she could before she would eat.

"She's annoying," Graham said.

"She's like a little sister," Archie said, kicking his foot with his own.