Betrayed

Chapter Thirteen

The three of us finally get in line, grab a bowl of biscuits and gravy that smells amazing, and we find ourselves at a table with Nia's new friends. She introduces us to a whole crew, one of them being Florencia, the guard who "found" me last night.

"This is Florencia." Nia grins. Florencia shares a knowing smile with me but shakes Erin's hand since they apparently haven't run into each other yet. "She's only been here for a few years," Nia continues, "but she's great at training new guards, so she got elevated to officer status super quick." Nia bites her lower lip, still giving the lady a huge grin...

Erin looks between the two of them, smirks, and ducks her attention to the biscuits.

Takes me a moment to realize that the reason Nia's having a better time than us-and why she was so quick to agree to having Florencia join us for lunch-is that she's found someone she's crushing on. Given the cheerful expression and attempts not to stare at Florencia... The excuse of getting here for the biscuits and gravy were exactly that. Gravy.

"Nice to meet you," I say to everybody else. "Uh... do we do the whole 'Community is safe' bit here? Or is there something else? It seemed a little awkward last night."

Florencia shrugs. "It varies from person to person. Some do. Some don't. Don't feel too miffed if someone doesn't respond to it... a few are still a little jaded about the Community's betrayal, even though the Kariz is better."

"Got it." I stir the biscuits, noticing scrambled eggs under the white gravy. It tastes good, too. Buttery. Unusually tangy, but not in a bad way. Not sure where they're getting the butter from. Does goat milk make good butter? There must be something around here to work with. Hard to say if they used milk or water for the gravy, though I'm guessing the latter.

"How was your day yesterday?" Florencia asks, probably to break the awkward silence. "Once you got to the Kariz, I mean?"

I finish my bite, planning to speak, but Erin jumps in first. "It wasn't bad. But I'm ready to go home as soon as I can find a way back."

The guards exchange glances and mumble their responses over each other:

"There's not really a good way back..."

"That Community isn't safe..."

"David provides everything we need..."

I frown. "But that Community was safer than dealing with raiders," I point out. "Right?"

"Not for us power users," one guy, whose name I didn't catch, protests.

"But what if we could change that?" I hedge. "What if the Community could be safe for us, too?"

Florencia sighs and rests her cheek on her knuckles. "How? The people pulling the strings are way more powerful. They've got themselves a beast army."

I pop a bite of biscuit into my mouth. "An army we never saw in the Community. What's it for if everything out there is gone?" I jab my empty fork in the general direction of wilderness. "Do they have some weird obsession with turning people into beasts?" I pause as the biscuit melts in my mouth. Delicious. Can't argue with the cooking. That's way better than standard Community fare.

Florencia frowns. "Maybe it's to keep out the raiders," she suggests.

I swallow my bite. "How many raiders are there? If we're worried about the Community bombing us, couldn't they bomb the raiders, too? And" -I hold up my fork with another bite of biscuit stabbed on top- "they also have Special Forces. No way those raiders should scare them. There's got to be something else out there. I doubt the Camaraderie has some weird obsession with turning people into beasts for no reason."