The Silver Death

chapter eight - library

I have finished this book in Google Docs! I will be updating much more frequently now. I'll upload the rest this week and maybe next week.

Also, these next few chapters are mainly fillers, but after that it gets good.

Enjoy!

As everyone stands up to leave, I gently nudge Dawn's shoulder, as she has handed off Ozzy to Grace again. She turns, staring at me over her narrow, toned shoulders. "Yes, Hazel?"

I frown. "Afternoon chores?"

"Yeah. You can come with me and meet Artemis. Tomorrow you will make meals all day with Emily and I, and then we'll clean bathrooms." At my disgusted look, she laughs. "No, no, everyone here is fairly hygienic. We only clean toilets about once a week. It'll just be showers and taking out trash, and restocking soap."

"So, what are all the jobs?" I follow her, continuing down the first hallway, but instead we go straight, heading towards a set of glass doors. I look up at the stairs I followed Edward, Emily and Vale, up to the bathroom.

"Feeding Artemis and taking her eggs, cleaning bathrooms, cooking, sweeping, and lately we have started cleaning the doors and the stairs and stuff, getting stains off and such. Before, when we weren't very stable, we couldn't bother with such chores - we had to work on more vital things for our survival." We've reached the doors. She simply pushes the door open, and enter the first fenced area to the left and open the gate. Out of a small chicken coop comes the fattest, most spoiled-looking chicken I have yet to see. She's a standard brown and white, not much to look at, but is plumper than starving children after Thanksgiving.

"Edward wanted to name her Fatty, since she got into the food when we got here, but I figured since she's our only source of eggs, we should be nicer." Dawn points to the chicken coop as she opens a dumpster and takes a cup of chicken feed into the bowl. "Find any eggs she's laid."

I am short enough that I barely have to stoop when I go inside. I check inside of every little space, and come up with a single, large beige egg. I gently take it and rub my thumb over the smooth shell. Dawn sticks her head inside. "Find any?"

I hold it up. "One."

She smiles. "Good. Come on, let's take it back to the kitchen. Then we'll come out and check on Jet."

"Jet?" I follow Dawn and watch as she pulls a keychain out of her pocket and unlocks the door.

"Yeah. We've got another bird, Jet. Patrick brought him. He's a kestrel we use for hunting, but so far he's proved unsuccessful for things we can eat - all he catches are mice and baby rabbits." Starting to get the hang of the place, I can walk with her to the small steel door I passed by before. She continues as she unlocks and then pushes the door open and takes the egg from me, gently setting it in a small egg carton in the refrigerator, which, much to my amazement, still works. Ari and Liam, who are doing dishes from lunch, barely look up at us as we come in. "He likes to sleep in Vale and Edward's room, because him and Avery II get along well, and Avery won't leave Vale's side. But right now he's in a spare chicken pen," says Dawn, exiting the kitchen with me in her wake.

I nod, not sure what to do with this information. Again, we go out the doors and into a different chicken pen, this time housing a small bird perched on the top of the fence. It - or he, as Dawn said earlier - has a small beak, blue-silver spotted wings and head, with an orange and white body. He chirps at us as we come in, ruffling his periwinkle wings.

"Hello, Jet," says Dawn cheerfully, gently scratching him under the chin. She looks back at me. "He likes pets. Usually he's pretty self-sufficient, but we come out and give him a pet every once in a while."