Twenty Four

Day 2- Nature's Blood

A/N I've been getting a lot of questions, on who this 'Alice' is. As much as I base this story on my inspirations of real life, Alice is not real. If she was, she'd be in the mental hospital. 

People are still discussing the topic of Lola. I don’t see a need to. I glance around and find that there are more shelters built now. Paranoid. It’s not like we’re going to be washed away at our campsite. I play with my shoelaces, ignoring everyone else. With Lola gone, people are rising up to her leadership role. I honestly don’t see a point in that. We’re doing just fine, aren’t we? I see Jed on that stone, I continue to ignore him. Then I see the girls at a corner, discussing something. I have this habit, of eavesdropping. 

“Ugh, Lola couldn’t have just fallen off! Someone pushed her, who was behind her again?” 

“Alice.” That girl behind Lola on the kayak accused me of being behind their leader. What? 

“Well, she’s too wimpy to do anything. Maybe it was just the wind. What’s Jed trying to do? We don’t need another bossy person here. So annoying!” Adeline’s squeaky voice is squeaky and irritating. Her hair was let down which made her look like a monkey. I hope she got mauled by one. But I think today we’re doing something less outdoors-y. 

Jed orders us to all gather around him, and he hops down the stone like a brute. I see the counselors, his joking attitude gone. I felt a new found happiness for his attitude, it can only get better. 

“Let me get to the point. Today, we’re going to work with forest herbs. Surviving is essential, and I think we all need some foods. We’re here to see which foods are-” I shut him out. Forest herbs. I know many poisonous ones, but this forest hardly has any of them. I can still easily name most of the edible ones, and a rough description of how they taste like. One of the advantages of external research. 

We each receive a handout that tells us which plant is edible, and what it looks like. I realize Adeline doesn’t have one, I give her mine. I don’t need it. Adeline smiles and thanks me exuberantly. I’m not exaggerating when I say ‘exuberantly’. She screams thank you so loud the people back home can hear her. Everyone gives her a funny look, but she pats me on the back and smiles. I sense acid behind that fake grin. She glances back at her little group and laughs. They laugh along. What? 

They move us out, and get us to pick our vegetation. I take leaves of trees, and try to get sap from them as well. I see some interesting plants, but I dismiss the idea. I find Adeline, away from her group and with some boys instead. She sees me and waves towards me. I don’t go over, she comes over instead. Her basket is full of poisonous berries and leaves. I widen my eyes in horror when I catch a dead centipede in her basket. I smile as she looks confused. 

I get her to dump all the leaves away, her expression was shocked throughout my lengthy explanations on how each leaf can cause her to die. She wipes her basket clean with a cloth and looks around her. I don’t plan to give away my own little sanctuary of food. But I saw some fruits back there, maybe she’d be interested. 

“Hey, do you like chestnuts?” 

“I find them...okay.” I smile and lead her to a little patch of colourful chestnuts on the ground. They’re native to Europe, and we’re in an Asian forest. I assume there were other travelers here, and they dropped their little stash of food back home. I pick one up, its flesh still in the shell, and dust off the dead insects. I press the fruit in her hands and smile. I pick all of the whole ones up and dust the insects off. She picks them from my hands and drops them in her basket. I show her a little patch of mint leaves and get her to pick all of them. As she does, I kick the other chestnuts away, they’re very rotten. Still edible though. A month old? As long as it’s whole, it’s fine. I see a bird come and peck at the chestnut, I wish it didn’t. The colourful spiky green shell, the brown inner flesh. I see the bird do its fashion of hurling and twitching. Then it died. I kick it away. I see it rolling down a little hill, and drop on something white. I turn.