Into Ruin

Chapter 2 Involuntary

Minutes after Marcel's return, Olivia was on him like a thick jungle leech. Sending the boys first must have aggravated her when he was not there to her beck and call. Her dark brows furrowed and her boots clacked against the stone floor. Each step echoed with intended force.

"It's been two weeks, Marcel. When the hell are we going to do something about this issue?" Her face was so stern he was surprised words escaped her pursed lips.

He met her aggression with a forced smile. "Good morning, Olivia. How wonderful to see you too."

Her scowl deepened. The teasing did not go down as it used to. "Don't treat me like that. I know we've wronged each other before, but this is bigger than our past. The longer we sit idle, the more time they have to retaliate. With such a big network, our escape wasn't as clean as I anticipated."

Our escape. The words stung his ears. Marcel bit his tongue to keep the burning question in his mind. Why now? Why had 'our' not been good enough six months ago? But the past was best left to rest and he was quite positive he did not want to know her answers. They had all experienced enough pain for a lifetime.

"You can bring in the scavenging team and whoever else you feel would be best suited to the task of gathering intelligence from the neighbouring communities."

She marched off with a familiar monotonous rhythm that time could not erase. She held her head and chest high. Behind her, a couple of women sorted through items returned by the scavengers to be placed on the supply shelves. Items dwindled lately and more and more resembled trash instead of supplies.

With a quick shake of his head, he tried to return to the mindset that everything had potential and value. Their generation had been spoiled by instant availability, himself included. One gray-haired woman went to throw out ripped plastic bags.

"No, we can use those. Keep them and we will weave them into ropes and useful items," Marcel said as he twisted the gritty plastic between his fingers.

The woman raised her eyebrows, and both sets of eyes widened, likely unaccustomed to intervention. She put the scraps on the bottom of the shelf nonetheless.

"Couldn't resist stepping in here too?" a gentle voice teased.

As much as he wanted to reassure her things would be fine, he owed Cynthia the truth. "We will hit hard times very soon. The items we have managed to keep stocked and use have let us forget how dire our situation is."

Cynthia still managed a smile despite the circumstances. "We have you to thank for that."

"For the supplies or for the harmful outlook?"

"Both I suppose." She walked past him into the back room and emerged with a jug of water and a few plastic cups they had guarded from the kitchen. "Olivia mentioned a meeting in passing."

His shoulders tensed at the mention of her name. He wanted to keep the two women in separate worlds as one was gold while the other was a snake.

He made an effort to relax his still neck muscles. "We need to plan out our next move on a larger scale."

Cynthia gave him an inquisitive look and one end of her mouth turned upward. "Haven't you been trying to build and acquire more weapons?" She continued after his nod. "And haven't you had Reggie train volunteers in self-defence?"

"I have."

"Then why is she so anxious?" Cynthia waited for an answer as Marcel set about readjusting the plastic chairs around the gray table. She shook her head. "You haven't shared any of this with her, have you?"