Genesis

Better Run Through The (Concrete) Jungle

     "Alright, let's stop here for the night," Dorian announced as I let out a sigh of relief. We had been walking for hours on end and I was sure that if I took one more step uphill, I would turn into a puddle. I swung my pack off of my shoulder, like the others were doing, and took out the smaller bag inside, zipping it open and pulling out the sheet that would become a tent.

     I won't lie; I had no idea how to set up a tent. Luckily for me, Daniel noticed my utter cluelessness and helped me set mine up after he had finished his. We kicked away the bigger pieces of rubble on the forest floor before securing the base of the one-person sleeper into the ground, then unfolding the metallic rods and running them through the fabric, pulling it taut. The whole operation was completed in a little over a minute. I was shocked by how easy it was as I thanked him for helping me.

     "It's no problem. And don't worry, you'll pick it up in no time, too."

     "But how do you know how to do this stuff so well?" I asked him.

     "There's nothing to it, really, once you get the basics down," Daniel replied, "And they taught us the basics in our outdoor skills classes back at Indus Correctional."

     "All done over there?" Dorian asked, hammering the final metal peg of his tent into the ground with a large rock.

     "Yeah," he responded.

     "Good," Dorian said, jumping to his feet and dropping the rock, having finished setting up his tent, "Also, we aren't starting a fire by the chance that it could attract ragers, so we should get to sleep now. Before it gets dark. Comprende?"

     The guys nodded in reply, and some 'goodnight 's were exchanged before we all stepped into, or rather, crawled into, our tents. Those one-person sleepers were so small that I thanked my lucky stars I wasn't claustrophobic. I didn't think much after that, as I pulled myself into my sleeping bag and fell straight asleep.

     The next morning, I was woken up by the pale morning light. It ran through the tent's thin fabric, which filtered it to a soft shade of light grey. I pushed myself up onto my knees before I ran my fingers through my hair, hearing Dorian talking to Lucius outside. I unzipped the tent's door and when I climbed out, the boys turned to look at me.

     "Oh, hey, Quinn. Good morning," Dorian said.

     "Good morning, Dorian, Lucius, Daniel."

     Daniel chuckled, "You can call me Danny, you know. Daniel just sounds so... formal."

     "Alright, Danny," I smiled at him, suddenly noticing Colt sitting further away, leaning against a tree in his typical fashion. I smiled at him too once I noticed he was looking at us with his usual demeaning glare, at which he looked away after a moment, before resting his head back on the tree and closing his eyes.

     "Alright, so, everyone's up now except Kit?" Dorian asked.

     Danny nodded in reply.

     "Should we wake him up?" Lucius questioned.

     Dorian thought for a moment, before confirming, "Yes. We need to get a jump on this mission and get back as soon as possible."

     "Not to mention that after we find the supermarket, we'll have a full meal waiting for us," Lucius added, to which Danny nodded in agreement.

     "Right, food. Rations," Dorian remembered, "Someone go wake up Kit so I can give out rations," he said, walking a couple of steps to his tent and pulling out his backpack.