Wonderer's Wish World 2: Evolutionary Rebirth

Frozen Stiff

Day 13

Time: 11:48 PM

Location: Rime 12 Mess Hall

Darius' spoon made a terrible noise as it scrapped against his broken piece of plate, shoveling the food into his mouth like a dying man. Maybe he was. It was a morbid thought, but it was drowned out within his other thoughts, desperate for food and warmth. When he dwelled on it later, though, perhaps he would find some truth to it.

For now, though, as Darius dragged his spoon against the clay one more time, he was surprised to find it come up empty. His eyes had never left his meal, but for the first time, Darius saw it was empty. Gone in a flash, far too soon.

For a second, Darius didn't move, staring at his empty plate and mourning his food. His stomach, still void and empty, grumbled at him, clawing at itself with terrible hunger pains that hadn't gone away. Darius stared at his soup, as if more would miraculously appear out of thin air. It didn't, and eventually, Darius shoved his bowl away from himself, doubling over.

The others finished their soup at much the same time. It wasn't even thirty seconds ago that they had all sat down. Ai sighed in sorrow.

Luca said what they were all thinking. "That... wasn't very much, was it?"

"Not after a day or so of not eating," Ai groaned. Darius heard her hunched over, too, much like he was. "We're going to die here."

"They wouldn't let us do that," Molly said quickly, but as she spoke, Darius saw her confidence fall. "They... need us. They need workers."

Darius hummed in agreement. "Well, that's true, but it doesn't matter if they don't have the food to feed us. They can't really chose to give us food if there is no food."

The table fell quiet as the others considered Darius' words. Darius, too, fell quiet, because even as he said it, he realized it was not a thing he had really thought about before, and only subconsciously knew it to be true.

This place was different from the moon quarter, from the boat and from the badlands. Their, at least, they had people to count on and food mostly readily available. They were in danger, sure, but... not like this.

The Rime 12 was dying a slow and sure death, with the snow and isolation sucking their resources and lives away as they tried desperately to persevere, to stay strong against the unyielding cold.

The group had escaped certain death right into the jaws of a new trap, slowly killing them.

Darius knew who would win. People were fleeting. The cold was forever.

"I'm not sure I can work a job like... like that again," Ai admitted quietly. It was an obvious confession, but Darius grimaced at the truth of it nevertheless. That was true, wasn't it? If they had to go up there again, it'd only be a race to see what could kill them first: the cold or their own weakness.

Darius grimaced at the memories. They had found the shovels, and then left the safety of the shed to find a ladder attached to the side of the building leading up. Ai had went up first, with Darius following, then finally Molly. What they were met with was piles of snow towering twice as tall as they were, and packed together, almost like an immovable wall. And when they finally climbed up on top of that, they saw miles of it stretching in front of them, covering the whole entire base.

They started on it with many complaints, and after hours of working, they had only cleared a couple meters of it.

Thankfully, it was enough. When they went down and told Angelico the problem, she had seemed sympathetic (as well as incredibly worried), and told them they'd down more than enough for now. They got their soup.