Never Alone (All of Us Sequel)

Chapter 6

Just like Jack had said, we were up at 6:00 in the morning to an alarm going off. In a tired voice, Kathy said that this was our daily wakeup call, and I had to get used to it. When we opened our door to go get breakfast, Jack was there with a gun in his hand.

"Rise and shine," he said, his smile not friendly in the least. Kathy looked confused why he was here. I followed her, wondering if he was about to detain me or something, but he just followed us to the cafeteria.

"Just making sure you follow the rules. Trish said you were a bit difficult yesterday. Gotta learn your place."

I shook my head and followed Kathy. We stood in the breakfast line that moved along quickly. I kept glancing over at Jack who was watching me intently, and then looked at all the other people in line who looked just as exhausted as I felt.

We got a bowl of mush that I could barely force down and had five minutes to eat it before Kathy left one way and Jack came over to escort me to Trish outside before leaving me with her.

The day was pretty much the same as yesterday. Trish gave me jobs to do, pick produce, water plants, dig holes, and then she had me help some workers who were repairing a deck. It was non stop all day, and of course, it was another hot day. 

Trish seemed to love seeing me tired, so she refused to let me get any water all day and dropped a bottle of water at my feet again when I was forced to ask her for water. I was either bent over all day or lifting heavy things, and by the end of the day, I was exhausted, hungry and my mouth was so dry I had trouble swallowing. Even with the intense labor, I still couldn't think about anything by Daryl, my stomach in knots all day. Was he okay? Where was he? I wish I could just see him and my mind would be put at ease.

The day was almost over when Trish ordered me to go organize some farming supplies. I bent down to pick something up when I heard Trish's harsh voice.

"Hey, get back to work," she yelled from across the yard. I looked up at her, and then followed her line of vision to an older lady who was sitting on the ground with her head between her legs not too far from me.

"No breaks on the job,' she yelled, and when the lady still didn't start working, Trish started walking over to her, and by the look in her eyes, I could tell this wasn't going to be good.

"Hey," Trish shook the lady's shoulder harshly. She meagrely raised her head, her face pail and eyes unfocused.

"Did you not hear me?" Trish growled. The elderly lady was panting rapidly. When Trish shook her shoulder roughly again, I stood up.

"Leave her alone," I said and walked over to them. It was obvious the lady was struggling. She probably had severe dehydration, maybe heat stroke. She needed medical attention, and Trish would never give it to her.

Trish looked at me, her hand still on the lady's shoulder, and raised her eyebrows.

"Excuse me?" It didn't come out as a question, but as a threat.

"No one is aloud to just sit on the job. We all need to work, no excuses." Trish looked back at the lady who looked like she was in bad shape, and then Trish started to squeeze the lady's shoulder until she was wincing with pain.

"Stop," I said and reached forward instinctively, grabbing Trish's hand and yanking it off the poor lady.

Trish acted so swiftly, she caught me off guard. Trash grabbed my hand that was on her wrist and twisted in behind my back. Before I had time to react, she wrapped her leg around mine and tripped me as she pushed me down. I fell to the ground face first. I turned my head to the side, my cheek pressed against the dirt. She kneeled down, placing one knee on my back and leaning down to whisper in my ear.