Dangerous Game

Reading Books

Lucy raised her eyebrows at the woman who the Gray called Coco. The Gray was apparently Mallory. The other two were Mr. Gallant and his ‘Nana’ Evie. The five already there introduced themselves politely, regardless of how rude Coco was or how cold Evie was. Mallory was called away to work almost immediately after Coco sat down.

“There's nothing to do,” complained Coco for what must have been the fourth time in an hour. She stamped her heels on the floor like an angry toddler.
“There's plenty of books,” Lucy pointed out as she wondered how many books were on the shelves of the Outpost.
“No one reads anymore,” Coco said. “Not physical books, at least. It's so much easier to read on your phone.”
“We don't have phones anymore,” said Dinah. “I guess we'll have to do without. It doesn’t bother me too much, they only provided temporary happiness.”

“Isn't all happiness temporary?” asked Lucy.
“Oh no,” said Mr. Gallant. “We are not having one of those deep existential crisis discussions.”
“Why not? It would pass the time until dinner,” said Evie.
“Uh, maybe it’s because I don’t want to be reminded of ninety-five percent of the world being dead outside?” replied Gallant.

Everyone just kind of sat around, waiting for dinner. Andre and Stu flirted with each other as Stu sat on the arm of the couch and Andre sat next to him. Evie sat on the other end of that couch while Dinah kept walking back and forth, restless like everyone else. One the other couch, Jaz, Lucy and Coco were squished together with Gallant perched on the arm of it like Stu. More accurately, Coco took up half of the couch while Jaz and Lucy were squashed on the other half.

They were all called to dinner not long after, to almost everyone’s delight. As they sat at the dining table, they waited patiently for the Grays to serve food. Soon enough, Ms. venable sat down at the head of the table and plates were placed in front of them. They were uncovered to reveal a small translucent cube.
“What is this?” asked Andre.
“This cube contains all the vitamins and nutrients your body could possibly need,” said Venable. “This is what we will be eating for breakfast, lunch and dinner every day for at least the next few months.” Jaz and Lucy exchanged nervous glances before eating the jelly-like cube.

“There are quite a few books,” said Jaz as she followed her friend around the edge of the room. She examined the spine of every book. Most were blank, some had unrecognisable and barely understandable titles. Some had familiar titles, Stephen King and classic books like Dracula and Great Expectations. “Do you like like read then?”
“I’m always reading,” said Lucy. “I had just left the library with some new books when my parents called me and told me to get to the airport.”

Lucy paused for a moment, her fingers resting on the edge of the shelf as she thought. The library seemed so long ago, now it was gone. Jaz noticed and pulled a book from the shelf. She opened it and stared at the pages. Lucy peered over her friend’s shoulder.
“I have no idea what it says,” said Jaz as she went to shut it again. Lucy stopped her and gently pulled it from her friend’s grasp.

“I think it's Latin,” she said.
“Latin?”
“Yeah,” said Lucy as she read through the pages. The words made little sense, ramblings about fires of some sort. The pages were rough, thicker than most modern pages. It was quite heavier for one of the thinner books. It did have the smell of old paper which Lucy adored.

“You can read Latin?”
“I used to be able to,” she said. “I can kind of remember it. I haven’t seen any books in Latin like this before though.”
“Why can you read Latin?” asked Jaz, staring at her friend with raised eyebrows. Lucy looked up at her as she shut the book.
“I got bored and my friends said I couldn’t do it,” she explained as she put the book back on the shelf. “I was determined to prove them wrong.”

“You are so strange,” sighed Jazmin.
“Oh well,” shrugged Lucy. “You can’t say I’m boring though, can you?”
“I don’t know,” joked Jaz with a smile. “I have only known you for a day.” Lucy nodded in agreement as she pulled out a book with gold lettering on its side.
“We are friends though, right?”
“Well it’d be awfully difficult if we weren’t.”

The two smiled at each other for a while until they heard a walking stick behind them. Ms. Venable.
“We were just on our way to join the others,” said Lucy with a smile.