Lauren Hammond - Famished

“I’ll be back later,” my mother announced as she waved goodbye to me at the door.

“See you later, Mom.”

Shortly after my mother left, Grace stopped in to check on me. We made small talk for about an hour, then she left because she said she was on kitchen duty for dinner. Which meant that she was serving the food.

Frankie rushed in minutes after. She lingered at the foot of my bed, with both of her hands clamped over her mouth. Her eyes were bulging out, like she was going to explode if she didn’t say what she needed to soon.

“Well.” I looked around the room, warily. “Did you find something out?”

She nodded, lowering her hands. “Something. Something big!”

“Tell me!” I yelled, then caught myself. “Tell me,” I repeated in a lower voice.

She skipped over to the chair next to my bed and plopped down into it. “After lunch,” she began, “I followed Colin Martin to Mr. Baker’s quarters.”

My stomach lurched. “Did he see you?”

She shook her head. “No.”

“Are you sure?” Sometimes when she was hiding, she wasn’t so subtle.

“Yes!” She waved me off. “Just be quiet and let me finish.”

“Fine.” I urged her to go on with my eyes.

“So, where was I? Oh, yeah. I followed Colin into Mr. Baker’s quarters and his father and Mr. Edwards were already there. And then, they all started whispering amongst each other.”

“Well, what were they saying?” I found it odd that they were all meeting in secret like that. And why without the other council members?

“I could only make out two things,” Frankie said.

“And?”

“And the only two things I could make out was the word lottery and a name. Your name, Georgina Carver.”

After Frankie left, I replayed several different scenarios out in my head and none of them worked out right. Maybe they wanted me to go back out there because I’d only found one thing on my list. Or maybe it was because I disobeyed and wandered off when I was told not to. Yeah, I wasn’t buying any of it. The lottery was supposed to be random. So, why was my name being brought up again?

Seriously, hadn’t I suffered enough? Mr. Baker should have hoisted his own rotund body out of that hole and went looking for supplies. Someone needed to kick that bastard off his high horse and it looked like I was going to be the one to do it—as soon as I got out of this damn bed.

“Good morning, Georgina,” May greeted me with a cheerful spike in her voice.

“Morning,” I said glumly. I wasn’t trying to be disrespectful, but I was still seething over the information I collected from Frankie the night before.

If I offended May at all, she didn’t act like I did. She continued on with her polite tone, “I think I should have you walk around the room one more time before I send you back to your quarters. You okay with that?”

“Sounds like a plan.”

During my stay in the infirmary, I’d grown fond of the time I spent with May. Grace was lucky to have her for a mother. She was kind, generous, and selfless. I truly appreciated all the time she had taken with me these last few days.

May strolled over to the side of my bed. “Place both of your arms over my shoulders,” she instructed. I made a circle with my arms and lopped them over May’s head. “Okay. Good,” she said. “Now on three, you’re going to stand.”

“Got it.”

“One… Two… Three.”

I squatted and pushed with my legs as hard as I could. When I stood, I latched my hands onto May’s shoulders and steadied myself. I beamed proudly. My legs felt sturdy, not at all wobbly like they had been the day before. I almost thought about jogging from my bed to the opposite side of the room, but I didn’t.

With May guiding me, I walked slowly, deciding to play it safe. “Did you ever figure out why I couldn’t use my arms or legs when I came in?”

May put a tighter grip on my shoulder as we glided across the floor. “Without a cat scan, I don’t know for sure, but I will say that you took a very hard hit to the head. And you’d be surprised how that can affect the brain. When I worked in surgery, there were a lot of brain injuries and I’ve seen much stranger things than a person not being able to use their limbs for a day.”

That was interesting. I assumed that my immobility had something to do with the hard hit I took to the head. “Really? Like what?” I asked as we turned to walk back the way we came.

“This one time, they rushed in this woman who had a skull fracture and a piece of the skull about a half an inch long got lodged in her brain. She actually started barking at me.”

I laughed. “Like a Golden Retriever?”

“I’d say more like a Yorkie. She was very yippy.” May laughed with me when we stopped at the foot of my bed. “You’re as good as new,” she complemented.

I beamed. “Yeah, I guess I am.”

May hand delivered me to my mother, who was waiting just outside my room. “Look at you!” my mother squealed as she enveloped me into her arms.

“Back to normal again,” I joked

My mother kissed my hair. “I’m so glad.” She turned to May. “When will the stitches have to come out?”

May smiled. “They are self-dissolving so we don’t have to take them out.”

“Great,” I commented. I had stitches cut out once. I didn’t want to go there again.

“Sweetheart,” my mother began, “why don’t you go into your room? I’m going to walk May back to the infirmary.”

I peeked inside the empty room. “Where’s Frankie?”

My mother smiled. “It’s a Wednesday, silly. She’s in school.”

“Oh.” I had completely forgotten about school. In the back of my mind, I hoped that she wouldn’t make me go back until next week. “Well, I think I’m going to walk around then. I’m so sick and tired of lying down.”

She gave me a stern look. “You’re not going anywhere by yourself. When I come back, I’ll take you on a walk.”

I placed both of my hands on my hips. “Mom, are you serious! Quit treating me like a child! I’m seventeen years old!”

She wagged her finger at me. “Let’s get two things straight. I don’t care how old you are, you’re always going to be my child. Also, you have just been through something traumatic and you need to take your time and recover. I don’t want you running around here making yourself sick.” My mother gave May the come-on-back-me-up look. “Right May?”

May nodded. “Listen to your mother, Georgina.”

I sighed, defeated. “Fine. But can’t I walk with you guys?”

My mother smiled. “Sure.” My mother laced an arm through mine and May did the same with the opposite arm.

As we walked through the chilly, empty hallway I thought that it was kind of nice that nobody was around. Even though we were a small group of people it got overly crowded down here

sometimes. Usually the worst when it was around meal times. I wondered why the people here were still so obsessed with food. True, it was a luxury, but we had been eating good for the last two years.

In that moment, I thought of the cannibals and outsiders who lived above us. I couldn’t help but feel sorry for them. The outsiders, because they would ultimately become a meal for the cannibals. And the cannibals because they were just doing what they had to survive. Eating other humans was grotesque and disgusting, but it made me think of what I would do in their situation. Would I resort to eating my own kind?

A queasy feeling bounced off the walls of my stomach. Never. I just couldn’t do it. No matter how hungry I was, I’d rather starve to death than kill and eat another human. I stole a glance at my mother and May, who were chatting quietly amongst one another. Would they? No. I knew my mother and I knew May. They wouldn’t be able to do it. Then again, you’d be surprised how fast the people you knew could change when they’re starving to death.