THE GIGAS

pg 3

Long chapter alert ⚠

The next couple of days passed by in a blur. It was a hectic race against time to prepare the RV, our supplies, and the offerings to barter with.

The RV's interior was purged of any nonessential items, trash, and reorganized to fit our trip.

Ruth was cleaning underneath one of the seat cushions when she screamed in terror.

" Eeewww, theresss something squishy and slimy in there.... and I touched it!!! WHO is the nasty ass who forgot to throw away their trash!! Come on, guys!!" She shrilled into the air.

I could see from faraway as Junior glee fully slinks away barely containing his laughter. Boys.......

Well, for that he will be on supply duty and He is going to have to help me put everything away.

Joseph helped take out the items that look useless from the rv while ruth cleaned. Any questionable items where turned over to me by him so I could decide if we needed it or not. Most of the time, it was a no.

After the deep cleaning, I took a sulking sullen Junior to help pick out the supplies. He tried to hide from his petty crime for awhile but I found him hidden in the maze lazin' around.

For hours we waded together through furs, ropes, preserved food in a variety of states, odd trinkets, and metal parts trying to decide what to take with us.

The under ground bunker turned into a bustling hub of activity. Everyone was picking out what they wanted to bring with them.

I made three separate piles of stuff. One for food, personal items, and bartering stock.

Not including the weapons, of course which are non negotiable to bring with us for obvious reasons. Each one of us took the time to properly clean, sharpen, and repair our weapons. The strips of newly acquired rope and hide came in handy for the task.

At the end, we all stood together looking at our completed work. I smiled and gently put my hands on Ruth's and Joseph's shoulder. "We did a good job, I' ll look up our aunties routes later tonight or tomorrow morning... Let's go get some well earned rest" I left first to the bunker, ruffling Juniors head on the way. He put up a lot of grumbling during the sorting.

Junior hates spending time just looking through things that he doesn't care about. He says it takes away the time giveth by big sky daddy, aka god, to do things he really wants to do when his life is so short.

Eyeroll. I laugh merrily at his words though there is truth to what he is saying.

I wasn't hungry when I passed the kitchen and for some reason I have been starting to get progressively more tired as the days wore on.

So I quickly turned into my room, happy to have a moment of relaxation alone.

Junior left soon after the first night of the slumber party. Ruth and Joseph sporadically would come to spend the night. Which is, again, very welcome.

But when I'm alone, tears prick my eyes and I feel a small pebble of longing for him. He made the days fly past peacefully when we were together. With no real worries in a seemingly safer reality different from this one.

The thoughts crossing my mind are quickly squashed by my heart and the burning shame I feel creeps down, heating my body. How can I think that way? For what ? a what if... I need to bring myself down to this very real situation of my family and stop thinking about him.

He is a stranger, a no one.

A sweet no one who has.......

Taken away what little certainty I had over the future.