Water in a Time of Thirst

Chapter Eighteen

"Miss, please don't be sad. You are not alone. There are others here. People who are trapped too and we're helping one another. We're planning an escape."

"How?"

"We're still figuring it out. But the mainland isn't far, so we can swim. Do you know how?"

"No." Everleigh wiped her eyes. "That was one thing my father didn't get a chance to teach me."

"I must go now, or the leader will get suspicious."

"Wait. What's your name?"

"Tesfaye, but friends call me Tes." He smiled through the window.

"I'm Everleigh."

"Good to meet you Miss Everleigh. I'll tell others about you."

The small window closed and for a moment she lay on the cold cement floor, with her head resting against it as she hoped to speak with him again. Stuck there in the quiet, she repeated his name like a mantra, Tesfaye, Tesfaye, Tesfaye, and committed it to memory. He was a doctor in his country, but was stolen, and brought to the island.

Why?

As she thought about it, she drew circles on the slab with her finger. When tears rolled down the bridge of her nose and onto the cement, she smashed them out with her finger.

"That's enough crying!" she reprimanded herself.

Because Tes was right. She needed her strength and as a doctor, he would know best. Sitting up, she scooped the mashed potatoes with her fingers from the food tray and licked them clean. The creamy texture, although bland, provoked her stomach with gurgles of hunger that were ignored earlier.

Then, she reached for the chicken thigh and bit into it like a feral animal, chewing with a mouth so full potato oozed out. Swallowing it down, she shoved more food into her mouth between deep breaths. She repeated this until all that was left was the chicken bones to suck dry. Desperate for more, she ran her tongue over the tray until it was polished of any food particles.

By the time she was done, her chest rose and fell rapidly like a wolf after gorging on a carcass. As she sucked back meat from her teeth, she wondered, was this what her life had been reduced to? A beast in a cage?

The door rattled and her attention shot toward it as the deadbolts turned. Fumbling to her feet, she kicked the tray under the couch and plopped herself down onto the stiff cushions. No one needed to see the evidence of her desperate, feral moment. If they knew just how hungry she was, they could very well use it against her.

It was the same method her father used right before their home burned to the ground with him in it.

As she sat there wiping chicken grease on her pants, she recalled the nomad who came searching for work and asked for food as payment. Her father didn't completely trust him, but they needed extra help around the farm. However, once her father discovered the nomad was sneaking out at night and disappearing for hours, he decided it was time to play a game.

So, he locked the man in a room and began depriving him of food. Then, he would taunt him by eating things in front of him. The nomad only lasted a day before he broke down and revealed all of his secrets. That's when her father learned he was gathering intel for a group of people who wanted to rob them, take over the house, and kill them. According to the nomad, the group had a map of the property which was marked for having water access, and it was why they wanted it.

When the door finally opened, it was the tall, bronze man who entered the room again. However, Everleigh's thoughts were still on the nomad and the people who wanted to rob them. They had a map almost identical to the one found in Chuck's bunker.