He began searching nearby abandoned dwellings for anything useable, but there was not much. The famine had gone on too long, and people had eaten anything edible. He did find a large men's plaid shirt to wrap himself in at night, and a small blanket.
It was during his endless scouting, that Jim discovered he wasn't the only person living in the shadows of the poorest part of the colony. Every now and then he saw a fleeting glimpse of another person moving in the darkest shadows of the alleys. So far, no one had harmed him or stolen from him, but the thought that someone could left him constantly on edge. He carefully began adopting the "don't mess with me" swagger that Chuy had taught him at all times, trying to appear confident and as though he would not be an easy victim. If he was a few years older and a foot taller, this would have been more effective. As it was, he began to wear down and weaken, due to both hunger and a lack of sleep. His own nightmares of what he had seen, combined with sleeping lightly out of fear of being attacked, weren't allowing his body the rest it needed.
If had been a man alone, he never would have dared to get close. But the young man, maybe only a decade older than Jim, had a young women held protectively close. There was a soft sound, quickly shushed, and Jim realized she was covering a child with her coat. A family then. People trying to stay together and help each other.
In the end, he couldn't turn down a chance for survival, no matter how slim it was. He followed the small family for nearly a day before they acknowledged his presence, and even then it was rarely more than a brief nod in his direction. They had a little boy who couldn't have been more than 5 or 6 years old with them and it was obviously all they could do to care for him. A lost adolescent wasn't something they could afford to take on in their desperate circumstances, but they would tolerate him as long as he wasn't taking food from their child's mouth. He began to sleep by their small fire at night.
Jim felt better sleeping at night beside the Riley's fire. Hearing the young man and woman breath at night and listening to the soft child sounds Kevin made in his sleep made Jim feel somewhat safe and like he wasn't alone in the world. It wasn't very logical, considering he could have hidden better without them. The larger a group was they more likely that Kodo's guards would stumble across them. Still, he stayed nearby and always came back to them at night.
Jim spent his days scrounging for any kind of nourishment, but there wasn't much. One day he managed to catch a large rat, and Thomas Riley showed him how to clean and skewer it on a stick to cook it. In return for the knowledge and use of their fire, Jim gave the man part of it. Another day he found an old dented can that contained a plain broth. He drank half, then gave the other half to the Riley's in return for their protection. He watched Kathleen Riley give it all to her oldest son, who was the skinniest and quietest boy Jim had ever seen.
That night, he watched Kathleen silently rocking the boy back and forth as he slept against her breast, and he wondered how any of them would ever survive. Even if Kodo's guards didn't catch them, how long would it be before Starfleet learned of the situation? How would they stay alive until then?
In the end it was sheer luck when Jim stumbled on a cache of food someone had been hoarding behind a false wall in a closet. There were bags of dried fruits, a few small bags of native grains and many small pouches of juice and milk as well as a few Starfleet issue ready meals in pouches. Jim filled his knapsack with all that it could carry before snatching an extra meal pouch and juice bag and eating them there in the closet. The bland meat and rice meal tasted wonderful even cold, and the juice was sweeter than any soda. After sitting and waiting a moment to ensure they were going to stay in his weakened stomach, Jim considered his options.
He could replace the false wall and use this stash to survive alone, or he could try to help the starving family who sometimes let him share their fire and hideyholes. He thought of little Kevin, and the choice was simple. If he remained alive and watched them die, he couldn't forgive himself. That night, Jim approached Thomas and told him what he had found. In the cover of darkness, they snuck back to the hovel and packed every scrap of food in bags and Mr. Riley even tied part of it to his back. On their way back to his wife and child, Thomas stopped and carefully dug a hole in the ground where they hid half of the food, in case they needed it later.
It was one of the rare times Thomas really spoke to Jim. "Remember where this site is. If something happens to me, bring Kathleen or Kevin here. Take care of them for me."
He then placed a hand on Jim's shoulder, patted it and whispered "Thank you…"
Jim would remember that only two nights later. They were all feeling somewhat happy and well fed. Kevin's skin and body already looked healthier, due to a mixture of the milk and grains his mother had been cooking into a sort of porridge and feeding all of them. He had taken Kevin with him to help trap rats under a nearby building. The boy was small and fast and good at catching them, matter of factly smashing their heads with a rock and rarely bitten. Jim sometimes marveled at the stoic little boy, wondering if he would have managed so well at the same age.
Then there was a loud noise and a sharp scream. Kevin was running back to their shelter faster than Jim though possible, and he had only barely caught up to the smaller boy and pulled him into the shadows, throwing a hand over his mouth in case he was tempted to cry out.
Thomas already lay dead next to their sleeping pallets. Kathleen had blood spreading across her stomach and dripping from her nose and mouth, as a patrol guard nudged her with his boot and barked questions at her. Her head fell back without answering, and Jim felt Kevin keening against the hand over him mouth.
He watched the patrols rifle through the bags and take all the food and anything else of value. They stayed there for a time, and Jim silently led the small boy away, into the smallest, darkest closet of a hovel he could find where they both cried as quietly as possible throughout the rest of the day. They were a teenager and a child alone now, without any semblance of protection.
That night, under the cover of darkness, Jim chanced to go back to what had previously been there sanctuary, leaving Kevin behind to sleep his grief out. He tried not to look at the bodies of the man and woman who had been kind to him, and nearly threw up when he accidentally touched a puddle of what he knew must be blood. The food was gone, and he was suddenly grateful for the cache he had helped Thomas hide weeks before. He did manage to salvage a few blankets, a shirt, and a small cooking pot. It was something, at least.
In the weeks he had spent with the Rileys, at least Jim had acquired more skills to help them survive. He could start a fire out a scavenged wood, although they only did so when cooking small animals or boiling water. He could catch and skin rats and the native small mammals that lived underground in the fields. Even so, their small store of grains and dried foods continued to deplete and they were only weeks away from having nothing but what they could catch themselves. He and Kevin continued to looked for other foods left behind by the former inhabitants, but with little success.
The night before they ventured out of the abandoned part of the colony, Jim dreamt of home. In his dreams he was back in his own room, with soft, clean sheets and starship models handing above his bed. He could imagine going to the kitchen to find his mother home on shore leave and making fluffy pancakes topped with butter and syrup with big glasses of milk. His brother George would be there, and since it was a dream even his stepfather Frank had miraculously vanished, although now, after dealing with real pain and cruelty, his stepfather's verbal put downs and physical threats seemed childish.
When Jim woke, he put his hand on Kevin's shoulder and said simply "We will get off this rock. We will get back to Earth. We are going to survive this." The younger boy studied his face a moment and then nodded just once. They packed what was left of their supplies and set out towards the main part of the colony near the palace, where all the prisoners were being kept. They didn't realize it yet, but it was the most dangerous day they could have possibly chosen to do so.
