Page 9 of Broken Triad

She shuts the door hard, and the latch drops into place as it slams shut. I get the horrible feeling that it could be the last time I ever see her.

“You sneaky little bitch. You were stealing from Baron Paulus this whole time, weren’t you?”

I look down at my bag, dozens of brown, plastic sealed rations on the floor. It’s so insignificant compared to everything that’s happened, compared to the betrayal of the man we had to serve, and yet Letty has a vicious edge to her tone.

I clear my throat. “For an emergency. Like this one. Please, keep your voice down. We need to be quiet.”

Her eyes flash in rage. Wrong thing to say. “Liar! And you think you’re in charge? Ordering everyone around?” Her voice rises to a yell, and I cringe, listening for Scorp above.

Everyone’s looking at me. “We need to make a stock of our supplies. I don’t need to be in charge, we can vote on it, but I think we better find out how much food we have.”

The cellar is a long storeroom with a high ceiling. Beef is hanging at the back, in the coolest part, aging, and I wonder if Scorp will be attracted to the smell of meat.

No. They only want live prey.

There are bottles of wine and beer, stacks of pickled beans and vegetables that could last us ages, and so much jam we’ll get sick of it. Paulus picked it clean of what he wanted, but the meat is perishable, so he left it, along with beans that I guess didn’t suit his fancy. Probably not rich enough. The wine and beer left is probably the stuff he serves his least prominent guests, but it’ll help with morale.

“Stock of supplies? We’re not going to last a day, Lola, you stupid little doll. You think you can bat your eyes at a Scorp and he’ll leave you alone?” Letty’s bitter with rage, the fear morphing into anger as she finds an easy target to lash out at.

The other women are silent, looking guiltily to the ground, except Toa, who’s slowly sweeping the floor.

Letty strides to Toa, grabs the broom, and snaps it over her leg. She throws the pieces to the ground and stalks to the row of jars. “Fuck this. Let’s see what there is.” She grabs the bright red jam at the top of the stack, and I cringe as she grabs it roughly, the other jars wobbling. With a grunt of exertion, she twists open the big jar, then smiles at the pop as it unseals. A sweet smell emanates. She reaches her grubby hand in, takes a huge handful, and shoves it into her mouth.

No one can believe her, but no one speaks up.

“We need to ration that food.” I don’t want to provoke her, but if no one else is going to do anything, I have to.

Letty’s face is stained red. “There’s months of food in here, and we won’t get to eat it. Come on, everyone, let’s feast while we’re still alive.”

I look to the huddled women, trying to find the words. “Everyone. We’re one sector off from Elsinor, a planet under the protection of the Aurelian Empire. They can’t let a planet so close to their territory be infested by Scorp! They’ll clear this planet. It could take weeks, or months, but they’ll come, and if we’re silent and hunker down, we can survive.”

There are flashes of hope on faces, hope they’re scared to feel after seeing the skies blotted out by Org-Ships. The constant thunder of the anti-air batteries drums out, but it’s muted down here, in the lowest part of Paulus’ estate.

Closer are the cracks of rifle fire. Summer, Kat and Rachel are taking aim and firing out from their positions in the towers. I hope their aim is true.

Letty ignores me, eating another handful of jam. “Your aliens aren’t coming for you, Lola. Face reality. We declared Independence, or didn’t you know? We’re free.” She cackles through her full mouth. “Free to die.”

I cross my arms, anger flaring up. She’s scared, and it’s only making her crueler. She never liked me, and she thinks I’m an easy target. I can feel the knife pressing against my skin, in the folds of my robe. She has no idea what I’m capable of.

“You’ll make yourself sick,” I say, unable to stop the contempt from souring my tone. I point to a corner next to the door, as far away from the food as possible. “That corner will be for the necessary. We’ll set up a bucket—Jess, we can use the one you brought potatoes down with. Macey, you’ve always had a good mind for numbers. Can you get a tally of our supplies?”

“I can do that. It’s better than sitting around doing nothing,” says Macey, her thin lips tight, her face pale, but she pulls herself together, until Letty throws the jar of jam on the floor. It shatters to a chorus of gasps, directly in front of me. A little shard of glass scratches my legs as it bounces.

Letty grabs another jar, of preserved peaches, and I know she’s going to throw this one straight at me.

I put my hand up. Her face is contorted by anger. Panic made her snap, and she hates that I haven’t given up, that I haven’t accepted the inevitability of death like she has.

“Letty, have you ever been hungry before? I mean really, really hungry.”

She pauses, confused, her grip tight around the jar.

“I haven’t. But my dad told me how it feels.” Letty blinks. She’s used to me being quiet and reserved, not speaking up. “My dad said he found a miner three months after a cave-in. They thought he was dead. They stopped looking for him. He was two hundred pounds when he went in, and a hundred and twenty when they pulled him out. Do you know what he ate for three months? Rats.”

Letty gulps. Her hands wavers, but she’s frozen, not throwing the jar.

“Rats are smart, you know that? He was wedged in under the rocks. Could barely move an inch. The rats started at his toes. He kicked them away at first, but as he got weaker, and weaker…he played dead. He let them nibble at his toes. He lost four of them. Then the braver rats started to move up his body, to his face, and he wrapped his teeth around one, and he didn’t let go, not while it writhed and tried to escape.”

There’s a new look of horror on Letty’s face. She’s seeing me, but she can’t believe the words that are coming out of my mouth. “That’s what hunger is, Letty. And we’re going to feel it down here. We’re going to feel that hunger, and everyone is going to look atyou,Letty. And everyone is going to know you’re the one who wasted food. If people can get to the point they’re willing to eat a live rat…”

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