Stay...Alive

Chapter 14

Victorine woke up on her side, one of Yolanda's arms around her. She was still holding Primus' hand, who was sleeping right across from her. The first thing she saw was his face, and for a second she thought that she was still in prison. But she heard the screech of a crow, and quickly recalled all that happened the night before.

From the looks of it, she was the first one up. All around her, other refugees were asleep. All of them were sprawled out on the ground since most of the people probably weren't used to sleeping on the hard ground. Victorine was considering breaking out of Yolanda's arms, but she didn't want to wake her (or give her mini heart attack). Therefore, all she could do was silently observe as she watched the blonde, brunette, and redhead lady wake up regroup. The redheaded lady's eyes scanned the crowd of sleeping escapees.

"How are we supposed t'feed all these people?" she asked.

Not looking her in the eye, the blonde lady uttered, "S***."

The redheaded lady facepalmed herself. "I told you we shouldn't've let all these people come with us!"

"I brought extra food," the brunette lady defended.

"Enough for, like, thirty people?" the blonde lady whispered.

"Hell, this place is crawling with troops. Someone'll find us."

"Most of whom will throw us back into a jail!"

The brunette lady held up her tool. "Not if I have anything to say about that."

The blonde lady smirked, but the redhead simply shook her head in disdain. Slowly, the rest of the crowd started to wake up. Yolanda's arm lifted off of Victorine, and she slipped out. She stood up and took another good look at the terrain now that it was bright out. The land was mostly clear, but in the distance, there was a large heap of what might have been a town once. There wasn't a lot of plants on the ground except for a few patches of dry, yellow grass that was sharp as a bunch of tiny blades. The sky was mostly clear, at least. However, the air and hot and dry as hell.

"Okay, everyone!" The brunette lady announced. "I dunno if any of you have done this, but we're walking to the next safe haven."

"Walking?" a voice whined.

"Yep. All the way. Got no choice," the brunette lady sighed. "This might be hard as a group, but...try to keep up."

The questions started to come in, but the redheaded lady yelled, "JUST SHUT UP AND FOLLOW US!" before anyone could get answers. The three started walking, and the crowd reluctantly trudged behind them. They moved slowly, Victorine's group being the only ones to know what they're doing. She already had deja-vu from the sound of heavy feet on the dead ground and the pangs of hunger in her stomach.

Victorine stayed close to Primus and his brothers. The littlest one kept on asking questions. "How long are we gonna walk? Where are we going? Where are we? How are we gonna get mom?"

Oliver looked at Victorine everytime he asked a question, but she never had an answer. She'd ask herself the exact name questions while on her own migration, and she always waited for life to answer. He just had to do the same.

"We heard you went through somethin' like this," Jay told Victorine, trying to keep up with his brother's strides. "When did ya eat?"

A lot more often than when they'd be eating, considering how many people were there. But Victorine gave him the benefit of the doubt and vaguely answered, "When we found something."

Jay knit his eyebrows, unsatisfied. Oliver glanced at the ground and asked, "In dire circumstances, is dirt edible?"

"Let's not test that theory," Victorine quickly blurted out. They kept on walking, in silence. She kept on hearing the worried mutters from adults, many of whom probably still had families back at the prison. Eyebrows were low, lips quivered, and eyes nervously darted around the land. God, Victorine thought. I could only be there for so many-