Bricks of Ash and Blood

Chapter 7: Raiders

ALEX

When we woke up, it was raining. I stepped out of the houseboat, and was greeted by waves of rain, falling on the island. I stared at it for a few seconds, then closed the door. Rain was not good. It made surfaces slippery, worsened our vision, and made travel generally suck.

The other scavengers were all in various stages of waking up, Thomas was already tying his boots. He must have snuck into the boat late.

"Hey guys." I called for attention. "It's raining. Hard."

Everyone nodded.

"Well yeah." Sarah pointed out. "We can hear it."

"We can either walk back to the school in the rain, or wait here another night. If they'll let us, of course. Votes?"

Thomas stood up. "I definitely do not want to walk home in the rain. It's dangerous. We should wait until it passes."

Jared interjected. "I don't know. What if it keeps raining, like, for a week? We can't stay forever."

Both were good points. "Fair enough. I think we should make the trip. We do not want to overstay our welcome, and we do not want to be away from the school for so long." I decided.

Everyone nodded, even if they didn't agree. "How long until we're leaving?" Leo asked.

Leo was probably the quietest scavenger; questions were rare for him.

"We'll leave in ten minutes. Enough time to properly wake up, and have a bite to eat. You should all have some food left in your packs, so eat that."

The group nodded again, and continued to get ready. All our packs were waterproof, but our clothes were not. We were going to get soaked today. It would not be a fun trek.

We all ate in silence. We'd eaten dried meat and bread for lunch yesterday, all we had left was dried fruit and stale bread. Not the tastiest meal.

Sarah sighed. "I'm gonna miss fish."

Everyone murmured in agreement. Stew was served every day at the school. It was never bad, but after months of the same thing, it was boring. There wasn't much we could do about it though, when you have a bunch of random ingredients, it's the only thing one can make with any consistency. Still, I'd kill for a grilled cheese.

We finished our meagre meal, and headed outside. The rain was cold, and the wind didn't help. We pushed through, heading to the waterline. Boats were being boarded, as people were heading to the mainland to scavenge. Others were staying back to fish.

I waved to a man about to board. His boat was big, big enough for all of us.

"Hey there!" I shouted. He looked in my direction. "If you ferry us over the river, we'll row for you."

He gave us the thumbs up, and we all hopped in. Thomas and Leo each took an oar, and started pulling. It was only then that it occurred to me, every boat had oars. Even the ones with motors. I guess fuel must have ran out a long while ago. Same reason we didn't have cars at the school.

Jared and I took the oars half way across, and rowed the last ten minutes. When we hit land, the six of disembarked, and thanked the Islander.

"Where are you heading? Up north through the city?" He asked us.

"Yep." Sarah replied. "We live way up north."

He smiled. "I'm heading into the city too. Want to walk together for a bit? Safety in numbers."