Mandy Donovan was quite familiar with Archie Young by now.
She grinned and made a funny face.
“Something pretty to look at helps the food go down.” It was an inside joke that Archie didn’t get, and Mandy didn’t explain.
“‘Pretty, pretty,’ what’s the difference in the end?” Archie Young attacked the root in her hands with force.
“It’s this stuff every single day.
I lose the will to live just looking at it.”
Because she was using so much force, the peels she shaved off were thick and plentiful.
Mandy had seen this happen a few times.
Seeing it again, she knew something was off, no matter how dense she might seem.
She whispered, “Auntie Young, slow down.
Be careful with your hands!”
Seeing that Mandy had noticed the pile at her feet, Archie Young scooted her little stool closer, using her body to block the view of the other kitchen workers.
“I am being careful.
There are two boys over by the coal shed who collect the trash.
Tell them to come get it.
It’s piling up on the floor; someone’s going to trip.”
She squeezed Mandy’s hand, feeling a little nervous.
“I’ll just gather the trash and give it to them,” Mandy said.
She would never betray Archie Young.
She swept the scraps on the floor into a pile, loaded them into a dustpan, and carried it to the coal shed behind the kitchen.
Once outside, she shouted, “Trash collectors!
Come take this away.”
The coal in the coal shed was piled as high as a mountain.
Mandy didn’t even consider secretly collecting any.
Most of it was just fragments and dust.
In the era she came from, it would have all been used to make briquettes.
Clearly, no one here had thought about how to make the most of this coal dust.
Two boys, covered in black from head to toe, ran over.
Mandy dropped the dustpan on the ground, her voice gruff.
“Where have you two been running off to?
Auntie Young couldn’t find you.”
One of the boys wrung his hands and explained, “We weren’t running around.
We were over there, stacking coal.”
“Etta,” the other boy, Gary, said as he quickly picked up the dustpan.
He immediately saw that the so-called trash was all peels from the mutated sweet potatoes.
“Thanks, miss.
We won’t wander off next time.”
“Hmph, well-behaved!” After the compliment, Mandy clasped her hands behind her back and headed back to the kitchen, completely forgetting she didn’t look much better than the two grimy boys herself.
She had the same short hair—too short to even grab—and a scrawny, petite frame.
And she was dressed in a set of filthy clothes.
Gary could tell Mandy was a girl entirely by her collar.
The welfare center’s clothes were almost identical, with no differences in color, only slight variations in the collars.
Closed, pointed collars for boys.
Flat collars for girls.
After Mandy left, Gary and Etta took the dustpan over to the coal pile, emptied its contents into a cloth bag, and stuffed it deep into the mound.
“Bro, there’s enough in here for us to eat for two meals,” Etta said, rubbing his empty stomach and grinning, revealing snow-white teeth.
Looking at his carefree little brother, Gary rapped him on the head.
“We’re about to turn sixteen.
Don’t you ever think about the future?”
Etta used a shovel to pack down the earth over the bag buried in the coal pile.
“I have.
I just want to be with you, Bro.”
They had had this conversation several times, and it always ended the same way.
Gary shoved the dustpan at Etta.
“Go put this back in the kitchen.
Ask that miss what’s going on.
If there are other people around, don’t ask.
It’s better to avoid trouble.”
The welfare center was huge.
Not everyone was a familiar face.
Gary was worried that someone would find out about Archie Young helping him and his brother.
“Don’t go running your mouth.”
Etta carried the dustpan to the kitchen, but Mandy was already gone.
When Archie Young saw Etta return with the dustpan, she distastefully patted him down.
With each pat, the rising coal dust made her choke and cough.
“Why are you always so filthy?
How is any girl ever going to take a liking to you two like this?”
“Hehe,” Etta grinned foolishly.
“The coal dust over there wasn’t stacked right, so I went to fix it.”
‘This foolish child.
What’s he going to do after he leaves the welfare center?’ Archie Young worried for the two brothers, and her work pace slowed considerably.
A kitchen worker beside her said nonchalantly, “Archie, don’t be too kind-hearted.
You can’t help that many kids.”
“Their time in the welfare center might be the most innocent days of their lives.
They don’t have to think about anything, just follow the team to gather supplies.”
“Where are there any good days in a world like this…”
“I’m not helping with much.
Who has extra rations to help others these days?
All I’m doing is helping them find marriage partners.
Didn’t you all just hear?
Mandy came to me looking for someone to marry, right?” Archie Young was even more nervous than Gary and Etta.
If her little indiscretions were discovered, she would lose this job.
The other kitchen workers didn’t say anything more.
‘After all, isn’t helping in the kitchen just a way to bring a little something extra home for your family?’
Everyone knew this perfectly well, so the conversation ended there.
Mandy collected her dinner.
She endured the nauseating smell and the scratchy, choking sensation in her throat as she ate, her expression unchanged.
The water she received after the meal was moderately contaminated, so she just used it to wash her bowl.
The only thing in her Space that was odorless and could be smuggled out was water.
Her water had a 0% contamination level—crystal clear—and it was crucial that no one saw it.
Maggie first took a habitual sniff around the room.
“Uncle Gordon is leading a gathering team tomorrow morning.
Sign up if you want to go.
There are five spots left.”
“I’m not going!”
“I’ve been on gathering duty for days.
I traded my food rations for a day off.”
“Go ask someone else.”
Few people responded.
Maggie scanned the room and snorted.
“But there’s a vehicle tomorrow.
You can bring back more stuff.
Aren’t you tempted?”
No one else spoke.
Clearly, they weren’t interested.
Mandy lay on the top bunk of the four-tiered bed, pretending to be asleep.
The caregiver, Gordon Gomez, often led gathering trips.
The teams he led had the highest casualty rates, which he always claimed were accidents.
‘That might be enough to fool the actual children in this welfare center.’
‘But Mandy had been an adult for a long time before she transmigrated.
She wasn’t so easily fooled.’
‘Who knows how many of the kids Gordon Gomez takes out tomorrow will actually make it back.’
“Hey, are you all really not going?” Maggie lost her patience, picked up a stick, and started tapping on the occupied bunks one by one.
“There’s a vehicle!
You don’t have to walk there and back.
And Uncle Garrison will even help you hide things.”
Someone was swayed.
“What kind of vehicle?”
‘A death trap.
A one-way trip,’ Mandy thought, pretending to be asleep but with her ears pricked up.
Just then, Mandy’s wristband began to vibrate.
It was a call from Archie Young.
She couldn’t pretend to be asleep anymore.
She answered the call.
“Hello—”
“Mandy, I have a relative’s kid who’s also sixteen.
Come meet him tomorrow!”
“Okay, where should I meet you tomorrow?”
She had it on speakerphone, so their entire conversation was heard clearly throughout the room.
Maggie was just about to tap the third and fourth-tier bunks when she heard the call.
She asked, her voice full of jealousy, “Someone’s setting you up with a marriage prospect?”
“We’re just meeting tomorrow.
It’s not a sure thing yet.” Mandy had no intention of warning Maggie that something was off about Gordon Gomez’s group.
She chose to let others decide their own fate.
‘In the apocalypse, the saints die first!’
‘And she would never be one of those saints.’
However, she still offered a tactful piece of advice.
“I’d suggest you all stop thinking about going out on gathering trips for now.
You should hurry up and find a marriage partner instead.
None of you want to become drifters, right?”