The Bryne Runaways (Updated)

Chapter 16

It's the first week of the new month. The weather is getting colder and the cafeteria began serving much warmer meals. A warm bowl of tomato soup is in front of me served with three sliced handmade bread that is also toasted till golden brown. This is my second favorite meal they serve in this place. I like it. It reminded me of back then when my grandmother would make pastries and I would always eat them and ask for more. It was when Uncle Ben was beginning the adult life and when my grandmother was still alive.

"Campers!" A loud, steady, and clear voice booms throughout the cafeteria. I look up from my meal to see Gordon's messenger in front again. The cafeteria grows quiet and everyone is paying close attention to what he'll be announcing this time. Mostly everyone is wanting to hear about the game they have been waiting for.

Our tradition.

"A message from the head of our camp Dr. Andrew Gordon. The one who gives the command and sponsorship!" The messenger points at Gordon on top of where the ledge is at. The cafeteria applauses and cheers for the man with no heart who he looks directly at me. The boy with a beating heart.

"Our tradition has come and the objective for the games shall be to survive with your ally or your own skin because this game shall be..." My heart goes rapid and everyone at the cafeteria is desperate to hear what will we be doing when we are set in the battlefield.

"A game of infection! Where all campers of each station will be split to be a moral wicked infected to eliminate a stranded survivor, or be a strong hard survivor and help your brother in arms to defeat the infected horde!" By then the crowd is already going crazy at the announcement now that we know what will be our game.

I look up from the messenger and into the eyes of the one person who always makes everyone look weaker than him. He stares at me like if he's looking into someone, like into their soul.

Gordon can look at everyone in this world but not me.

He shakes his head at me and that's when I doze off to what happened outside. Does he know that I left the camp? I doubt it, he's always in his office doing his own work but this time he probably knows. It's what I'm afraid of now.

"What are you looking at?" Uncle Ben says to me snapping me out of it.

"Oh nothing" I say and continue to eat and Uncle Ben messes up my hair, pulling me closer to him where he sits.

"How was your day buddy?"

"Uh, it was okay nothing interesting happened" I say putting a spoonful of tomato soup in my mouth enjoying the savory warm liquid going down my throat.

"And you?" I ask him as I put another spoon in my mouth.

"I beat my record and killed two birds within 5 minutes with my axe" He looks at me with those memory remembering eyes. He shrugs his shoulders at it and gives me the recognizable grin I haven't seen since him and Dr. Meredith thought I was depressed.

"That's not cool, it's saddening" I say because it is.

"It is, but it's what we have to do to survive Norman" He says and wraps an arm around me. I suppose he's right. Survive. The word constantly replays in my head. Survive. If there's really survivors outside our camp then why don't they find us. Why isn't there any motion or signals or shots in the air? They're hasn't been no newcomers here since the beginning of it all.

What really goes on in the world now?

Are we the only ones alive?

What about the outsiders outside that shot Dean? How are they alive and how come they don't live with us? Is there anything still alive out there? All these question roam in my head so quickly my head feels like it's spinning.

"Uncle Ben how come anyone hasn't done anything to what's happening outside" I say to Uncle Ben and I look as he tries to find the right words to say. He's struggling now.

"What's happening outside buddy?" He says and I think, don't tell him about the outsiders with the arrows that shot Dean. Don't tell him about that.

"I don't know, but why aren't we able to leave the camp?" I whisper.

"It's just probably just for our safety Norman. No one's ever left the camp before"

"But you have. Your entire station has when you go hunting"

"Yeah but we go to the area that is ours nowhere far from the camp" Uncle Ben says I kinda stop this conversation and do something else.

There's something out there in the world. I feel it. What if Bones is right? Are we doing nothing about the unknown things. I turn my head to where he sits with the rest of them and I think what if you are telling me the truths.