Wonderer's Wish World 2: Evolutionary Rebirth

Nine to Forever

Day 12

Time: 8:27 PM

Location: Storage Room Rime 12

The others woke up slowly, one by one, to Darius carefully stirring at the pot, testing it at random and frequent intervals, both to make sure it was still okay, and to, well, some extra bites. Darius dished out the soup as they woke, serving on more jagged and broken pieces of what the old women, who Darius found out to be Angelico, said were old bits of plates and bowls that had broken, but couldn't afford to be thrown out. It pressed into the pads of Darius' fingers as he served them, but thankfully, the edges all seemed to have been worn down, and were now incapable of hurting any one.

No one spoke as they ate, so Darius filled in the silence, telling them all what Angelico had just explained to him. She had jobs she needed done, Darius told them, a lot of them, some tougher than others because Rime 12 didn't have the man power to worry about stuff like that anymore. Darius told them how he thought it would be best if they split up, focusing on different tasks to get them done faster, because, as Angelico had warned him, this was just them repaying off their debt. For their next meal, they have to do a whole bunch of other jobs.

His friends chewed over this as they leaned over their soup, pondering this. By now, all of them had woken up, and by now, there was no more soup in the pot but a few scant drops at the bottom, not much worth to anyone.

Ai tapped at her piece, having long finished it as she thought. "Are we safe here?"

Darius blinked. "Safe?"

"Well, considering the other places we've gone..." Ai pointed out. Darius frowned at that. Okay, technically, she was correct in saying that the badlands, the moon quarter and the bloodsea have all been horrible, both secretly and not, but this... actually...

"Well... I don't know," Darius replied honestly, after a bit of thought. He was embarrassed he didn't think of it first. He'd just... so badly wanted to believe that this place, the opposite of what Luya preached was good that perhaps he stopped thinking critically for a moment. "All I know is that we need to work with them, staying on their good side. We can't survive out here, not on our own. We really don't have a choice. I mean, without these coats, we would be dead."

That seemed to sober everyone, and a collective shiver ran over the group. They all moved like they meant to glance over their shoulder, just in case.

"I-I wouldn't worry about it," Molly cut in suddenly, her voice shaking. She cast a nervous smile over the group. "I'm on Darius' side. I want to trust these people! They just need a change in perspective!"

"There were sides?" Luca asked quietly, probably to himself.

"Well, no," Molly answered anyway, awkwardly. "I just... you know what I mean."

"...I guess."

Darius decided to move on. "Anyway, there were a couple jobs Angelico wanted us to do-."

"Eight of them," Greg reminded, as if Darius was the one who needed reminding. Darius' mouth pinched.

"Yeah, eight of them," Darius agreed. "Three of them are kind of difficult, but the other five seem fairly simple. I thought the five of us could split into two groups: two people for the easier jobs, and three for the more complicated ones."

"What are they, again?" Ai asked. Darius quickly answered her, before Greg could.

"The less complicated ones are: putting more snow in the reheater and the refrigerator, taking apart the last of the wooden shelves, resupplying the food, drying out the Rime 12 map, and unmolding the library," Darius recited, counting on his fingers as he did so. "The more complicated ones are shoveling the roof, shaving the elephine (that weird creature Pin had), and checking the dirt under the snow outside the base."