Rush Above Sea Level

Chapter 10: Working for the Dead

I stared at the map of the hike trail, seems fairly easy I suppose. I'm not the fit type but not the unfit type either. The board was pretty worn out, nature wasn't merciful to this. Corners were cracked, papers were peeled, the whole thing was dusty. Everyone in this town knew how to navigate this mountain though, just follow the trail and you'll be fine. There weren't particularly dangerous animals there, maybe some docile bunnies and deer. Hunting was prohibited years ago so many hunters moved out and went further to the countryside. Good for the whole town as they always bragged about their hunts everywhere. After reading the unreadable map I went on my way...

"We don't have much antifreeze left but I'm sure we can cope." Wiping her hands on a cloth, she laid down the last functional part of the tractor on the table. She looked at the clock and cursed.

"It's nearly lunch, Mr. Baron would kill us if we are late."

Washing our hands at the dark sink of the garage, not an easy task to do, we ran to the building.

"No running!" Jimmy shouted.

"Sorry Mr. Baron!" Cameron yelled back as she slowed her pace to the cafeteria. As we neared the cafeteria the smell of food filled the air. A black board announced the lunch for the day:

Hot Dogs and Lemonade

Burgers and Lemonade

Tofu Burger with Lemonade

Sides:

Beans

Sweet Potato Chips

"Woohoo! The cafeteria ladies' lemonade rule!" Cameron celebrated softly. The whole cafeteria was laid out like a prison cafeteria in movies. Taking a blue tray,I joined the line behind Cameron. Cameron got a tofu burger with sweet potato chips on the side, I got a hot dog and sweet potato chips. All the tables were separated between the sections. Cameron pointed to all the different sections, farming section, kitchen section,livestock section, management section, laundry section, cleaning section, machinery cleaning section, butchery section, and our section, mechanics. Ours was the smallest, just two teenage girls doing mechanical things. Jerry was sitting in the livestock section talking to a man with glasses, seeing me he waved, I waved back.

"A friend?" Cameron dug into her tofu burger.

"Yeah, my group before we came here."

"How many people were in it?"

"We had five but one died in a fire."

"I'm sorry about that."

"He wasn't a nice person but I don't think he deserved that."

"I noticed you had a dog."

"Kayla? Yeah, I found her in the forest." I took a sip of the lemonade, it was fantastic.

I must have looked surprised, Cameron nodded

"It's good right?"

"You kidding? This is amazing!"

I ate the hot dog.

"This is better than the food in my school!"

"The ladies here really know how to cook."

We quickly finished our food and returned the trays.

As we returned them, Jimmy prepared to make a speech. The whole crowd became silent and waited.

"Good afternoon good people."

The crowd murmured a response.

"We have a few new members today, and our delinquent numbers have gone down."