Discoveries | TMR | Three

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"I would kill for a bit of bacon right about now."

Adeline listens to Nick's voice quietly whistling into her ear as he stares through the binoculars in front of his face. This small group of teenagers have only been scoping the compound for thirty minutes, but already, darkness has crept gradually upon them, and the gates of hell have spewed out countless unwanted Cranks on the streets of this derelict old town.

Divided into pairs, nestled beneath whatever abandoned and rusted vehicles they could find and
patiently awaiting orders from Oscar through their earpieces, they have nothing to do but try to find mundane - and quiet - activities to pass the time.

For Nick, that is talking about bacon... apparently.

"I mean, I can literally taste it in my mouth."

Adeline's face scrunches in disgust. "Ugh, I hate bacon."

I know you do, is Nick's first thought, but of course, he cannot say it. As far as she is aware, there was no overlap during the time they spent in the Glade. "Have you even ever tried it?" Instead, he settles on a question that will carry the conversation forward, despite already knowing the answer.

"No," she states. "But I know I don't like it."

Laying on his stomach, Nick peels the binoculars from his eyes and allows his hands to drop to the dirty, gravelled road. He stares at her, a quizzical expression taunting his features. "How can you know you don't like it if you've never tried it?"

"The smell puts me off," she states. "Don't know why, but there's something about it that just... I feel like I've had a bad experience with it. Makes me feel sick."

Probably has something to do with the fact you nearly lost your hand to a pig on your first day in the Glade, he muses. Again, Nick does not say that, though he does struggle to stifle the amused smile that threatens to invade his face with the memory. Adeline bolting across the Glade, making every one of them believe she was trying to escape, only to hunch over a tree by the door and hurl all over the grass.

What a day that was.

The day that changed his life, in fact.

"So what do you like to eat?" It used to be blueberries - especially in muffin form - and he wonders if that has remained the same since she left the Glade. "What's your favourite?"

Shifting to her left and propping her elbow on the gravel to rest the side of her face upon her palm, Adeline's eyes drift off into the distance, and her lips pout as she contemplates. "Definitely pineapple," she states, bowing her head slightly and swiftly locking eyes with him. "And I quite like honey, too."

"Honey?"

The girl hums in agreement and slowly nods her head. "Back in the Warehouse, Betty used to make all kinds'a stuff. She would give the hunters lists of things to bring back from their supply runs, you know, stuff that lasts years. Rice, spices, powdered milk, lentils- all those kinda things."

"So that's why the fish she makes sometimes tastes funny," Nick slowly mumbles.

"Yea." Adeline chuckles quietly. "It's because she's testing out all the spices that get brought back for her. Trying to find something that works. Her expertise was chicken, I mean, we had loads of chickens stuffed in a coop at the back of the Warehouse. Maggie told me once that her mum grew up on a farm, so she knows all about that sort of stuff."