The Silent Runner

3. jobs

The next morning we started working with the Slicers.

"If you like blood, you can be a Slicer," Alby said, joining Newt, Greenie, and I. I shrugged picking up a sharpened blade.

"Gut the hog." The keeper, Winston said. I walked up to it, raising the knife, ready to drop it down but I couldn't do it. I shook my head no and backed away. What did it do to me? Why should I hurt it? We have plenty of other food sources.

Greenie, on the other hand, he sliced it without a second thought. He glanced at Alby, searching for approval in his eyes only to be empty-handed.

"If you can't do this, shank, you can pick up the animal klunk in the pens," Winston said shoving a bag and shovel in my chest. I took it, with an attitude, and walked over to the empty pen. It was most likely the hog's. I cleaned up the "klunk" and tossed the bag to Winston. He quickly backed away, allowing it to hit the ground. I wiped the sweat off my forehead with my wrist.

"Washrooms are that way," Newt laughed pointing to a far corner where a small shack stood. I sighed and began my walk.

After stepping inside, two buckets of water sat on the ground. I washed my hands in one and cleared my face in the other. On my way back, Ben spotted me. He ran up to me and shoved me to the ground.

"Stay out of my way, klunkhead!" I stood up and pushed him back. When he regained balance I punched him in the face and walked back to Newt and the others.

"You punch a tree or something?" Newt said grabbing my bloody knuckle. I pulled my hand back and shrugged it off. It wasn't a big deal to me. The Greenie was learning how to skin the hog. I felt as if I was gonna throw up.

The next day we worked with the Track-Hoes; harvesting, and planting. It was a fun job but Greenie couldn't seem to plant the right seeds in the right places. Newt kept having to fix his mistakes. It was humorous to watch though. Zart seemed to not like me very much. He would give me a dirty look whenever he thought I wasn't looking.

Another day went by and we worked with the Builders. I'd already known that Gally was the Keeper of this one so I really wasn't looking forward to it. Every time I tried to do something he would tell me I was doing it wrong. He resented The Greenie as well, who by the way asked Newt so many questions. Newt kept having to stop the tour to tell him to give it a rest. Anyways, Gally really didn't want me working with him but to be honest, I wasn't too disappointed with that thought.

After that, we shifted from job to job. There were the Med-Jacks which was boring. There were the Baggers which was also boring. There were the Sloppers where we met Chuck, a little chubby kid. He couldn't be much older than fourteen. The Greenie seemed to have gotten along with him quite nicely. Then there were the Bricknicks which was basically just like the Builders job but less complicated. Lastly, there were the Map-makers but we didn't get to try that one, we were just told about it.

Finally, it was time to practice being a Runner. It was all I looked forward to for the past week. I was so excited that Newt could not stop laughing at me. He and I seemed to have grown closer as well as The Greenie and Chuck. Greenie still couldn't remember his name either. I figured maybe the Creators boosted his memory loss a little bit more than the rest of the boys.

Minho gave us absolutely pointless harnesses to wear. He also handed us old notepads and we both received a small knife.

"Running with knives. . . sounds fun," I thought.

"While you're running, you need to track the turns you make. You write L when you take a left and you write R when you take a right. This will help when you're finding your way back. The knives are for tracks. So if you don't come back, we can follow the traces and find you. As you run, you cut vines to track where you're going. That's in case you get lost," Minho explained. Ben stood next to him with the biggest smirk on his face. He eyed me while listening to Minho. "Greenie, you're with me. Parker, you're with Ben." I ferociously shook my head no but he didn't seem to notice. He took off, with Greenie trailing behind him. Ben took off. I looked at Newt, pleading with my eyes for him to come with. I didn't want to be alone with Ben.