The Glade

13. Stars

(Y/N) pov

I'm barely asleep when Gally wakes me. The pale blue sky signalled the sunrise on the other side of the wall. We get ready for work in silence, him leaving for a shower and me getting dressed. We don't say a word. Instead, we awkwardly move around each other.

Nobody talks during breakfast. It's a strange atmosphere when Gally eats with us. We finish together as a group and head out to our section in one clump, Gally at the lead.

"Did you sleep okay?" Henry asks as we get to the tables.

"Yeah, thanks for asking." I say politely. I watch Gally head towards his cabin, stopping at the stairs and turning to look out at the field.

"That's good. I'm excited to finish our wall. Maybe they'll let us do one with a window." He mused. His cheerful mood is helping mine.

We gather our belts and begin moving some planks towards the cabin. No one needs to be told what to do. We still have tasks left over from yesterday. I watch as guys around me start to slot into their duties, Gally watching silently from his cabin door.

We spend most of the morning moving wood. It's exhausting, and my back is beginning to hurt.

"Can we stop a moment, Henry?" I put the two-by-fours down to rub my lower back. "I just need some water or something."

"Yeah, that's an excellent idea." Henry says, putting down his planks and hurrying back to the section. I sit down, so I can stretch the pain out. I look up into the sky. The sun seems hotter than usual. I'm already irritated at my uneven tan, but then, everyone has a weird tan here. After a moment, Henry returns with two bizarre-shaped jugs.

"What are those?" I laugh, confused.

"They're gourds. Excellent for storing water." He thrusts one into my hands, and I can feel the weight of the water sloshing inside. I take out the tiny stopper from the top and look inside. It's dark, but I can feel the cold air spill out at my nose. Henry has already taken a sip and corked his.

I bring the gourd to my mouth and take a deep sip. Cold, refreshing water. I didn't realize how thirsty I was until the water hit my lips.

"Maybe I should have grabbed these earlier." He chuckles.

"Yeah, maybe." I laugh. "Where were these things yesterday. Those warm water cups were gross."

"To be fair, that's fresh well water." He points to a water pump sitting between the gardens and the builders. "See there? That is the coldest water in the whole of the glade."

"I've never noticed that before." I say, taking another swig.

"Usually, only the track-hoes use it. It's the closest source of water they have for the plants. They even have a hose they hook up so someone can pump it when they water the big crops." He turns back to me and takes another swig. "It's not always available."

We take another minute to drink our water. We then tie the gourds on our belts and bring the last of our wood to the cabin.

Eric told us he wanted to measure and mark the window, so we could work around it. We set to work filling in the wall where the window will go, careful not to work too high. We're halfway there when a loud voice interrupts us.

"What is taking so long?" Gally has appeared and is in a mood.

Eric comes running from around the corner to meet him. "Sorry, Cap' We've almost finished the roof, and we're about to make the measurements for the windows." Eric hands Gally the revised plans where we've marked everything. He looks them over, and grunts, then moves to where we've been filling in the walls.