Within The Ash

Chapter 38

I walked up to the large farm with my head lowered and my arms tiredly hanging at my sides. The bags under my eyes had turned a dark shade of blackish gray they made it look like I had been beat up.

And my shoulder slouched with exhaustion as I yawned a deep yawn upon seeing the tall long haired man exit the smaller house at the side of the barn.

He met me on the side walk and eyed me up and down before scoffing.

"You look like fucking shit" he said as I scratched my face that I hadn't yet washed.

"Yea, I guess" was all I said in an uninterested tone.

"Go take a shower in my lake, you smell like shit and it's fucking annoying me" he said as he pointed to the giant lake across the land.

I walked over to the pond and only stood in it's cool water for a few minutes before I walked into its deepness.

The farmer only gave me a single bar of soap but that was honestly more than what I'm used to.

I washed myself all over including my hair and for a moment I even felt good enough to briefly forget about the scar that Violet left. But once I reminded myself of it I felt even worse. I was a mess, an emotional mess and there was no hiding it.

I returned to the farmer and the sun had dried my hair almost completely on the way back to him.

He handed me a sheer and pointed to the field of crops next to the giant barn.

"You will cut crops and set them in the bins beside the White House, when you're done with that you will water the seeds that I spread out throughout the dirt in the area on the other side of the barn. Within the crops that you picked, you will sort out what if bad and what is good. The good will go on the left and the bad will go on the right. Once your work is finished you can take your pick of whatever crops are bad and that is it, see me after and I will give you your payment. You will not take any of my meat and you will not take any of the crops that are good. If I find out you disobey, I won't hesitate to find out where you are, you can call me Zeal"

I only nodded and looked off to the side still trapped within my thoughts.

I stepped within the dirt that held the various amounts of crops. Zeal gave me a total of 6 baskets that said Apples on the front of them.

I set the baskets under the Apple trees and walked within the corn field that had various baskets spread out throughout the crops.

I used the sheer to take out my anger and I violently slashed it through the stems of random crops. I watched as they fell to the ground and I carefully gathered and sorted what was bad and what was good.

There was corn, potato's, lettuce, spinach, carrots and many other vegetables. There was hundreds of bad vegetables and thousands of good. Once I was done with the crops I walked over to the trees that held bananas, apples, grapes, cherry's, oranges and many more.

I carefully separated those as well and was surprised to see there were also many bad and good within those.

I carried every thing I had collected to the same spots he told me to put them and I even went above and beyond and cleaned the ones that were good.

Zeal stepped out of the small White House and handed me a large sack bag that looked home made.

"You've done a good job, I've underestimated you. You can continue to work for me and I guess you can take 2 of each crop that is good as well. But only 2 of the good, because I sell most of my crops for money and supplies. But you can take as much of the bad as you want" he said as he scratched his neck out of boredom.

His words and praises brought a slight smile to my face.

"Thank you, I appreciate it" I said as I began to fill my bag with mostly bad fruits and vegetables. Zeal went inside the small house and returned shortly with 200 dollars.

He placed it in my hand and stared off into the distance where his crops were watered and picked. The dirt was bare and wet and this brought a smile to his face.

"It was nice meeting you, what's your name" he asked as he shook my hand with firmness.

"My name is Zero, thank you for giving me work, if you don't want me to return that's fine"

He shook his head and chuckled. "You can return any time you want, I'll continue to pay you in crops and money" he said before he waved and turned around walking back to the small White House.

I made my way back to the camp and by now the sun was already going down. I set all the food I had collected in an empty area of the camp towards the middle.

Cain walked out of the Forrest and threw 6 rabbits next to the crops that I set down. He sat down next to me and handed me a cigarette.

I was angry at him but I didn't have the energy to show it or yell at him more.

"You know, you're going to realize how much of a bitch she is" I said bluntly as his eyes narrowed with guilt.

"I don't want her man, it was spur of the moment and that's all it was" he said painfully as we watched the sun go all the way down.

"Yea" was all I said before the rest of the men and women revealed themselves and sat around the fire that Clay and I light every night.

Everybody seemed to be here but somebody was missing. I glanced around the camp where I sat and noticed the person who was missing was Lucifer. He was normally back by now.

His girlfriend sat on the other side of the camp with the other girls so I knew he wasn't out with her somewhere.

I'll give it about 10 minutes before I go out looking for him.