Chapter 25: Fireflies (Part 1): Hunger

11-years-old Jack was focusing all his attention on the small cube on his hands, colors moving left, right, up and down. Patterns, lines, colums. Everything slowly arranging just a he wanted.

"Done!" Jack said triunphantly holding the solved cube on his left hand.

"Wow" Jane was seated next to him, both of them resting their backs on a rusty dumpster in an alley, staying out of sight from the street.

"So?" Jack asked.

His sister took a second to answer "84 seconds"

Jack was happy with that, he gave her a big smile. "At least I'm better than you on something"

"Okay, what's the secret?" She took the cube from his hand and examined every one of its faces.

"There's no secret" he said.

She threw a skeptical look at him "Yeah, of course not"

"Look, to solve the thing you need to..." he was struggling to find the words "... to know... know how it works"

" I know how it works, you twist it and it change" She then started playing with it until the cube was once again a mess of colors "See, changed"

" I meant... you need to know how it works, not what it does" he retrieved the cube and threw it into the old backpack he had between his legs "For example, the center pieces are in a fixed position that never changes, no matter what; but the corners and edges are all interchageable. If you understand the functioning, sooner or later you'll start seeing patterns. It's impossible to solve it with random moves."

His sister didn't say anything, she remained silent with her eyes locked in the distance, lost in her thoughts. "you have a lot of free time" she finally said with a smile.

Her comment didn't cheer him up as it was intended. She accidentally hit a soft spot.

"Well, maybe I wouldn't have so much time to waste on a toy if you..."

"Jack" She interrupted him, knowing where he was going "we already been through this"

"But... "

"Jack... I'm your older sister"

Jack hated that question, it was her 'win argument'. He sighed to show her how annoyed he was by this, resulting in little to no effect.

She rested a hand on his shoulder "And what's the old sister's job?"

He knew the answer, he was reminded of it all the time. But answering her question was admitting defeat, so he took some time to do so.

"Provide"

"Yep, you're my responsibility, and that means I'll keep you alive no matter what. I'm not letting you risk your life just because you fell guilty"

"I just want to be helpful"

"And you are"

"How? All I do is sitting around in some super dirty spot and play with the rubik or read that fucking book, all this while you are around, trying to find something I wouldn't instantly throw up, I can't do nothing while you..."

"As I just said" She said as softly as humanly possible "You. are. not. useless, Jack"

He was going to respond, but a low hum coming from the street behind them demanded their attention.

Jack wasn't sure what was that "It's a..."

"Shh"

The low hum slowly turned into the sound of several vehicles, a convoy.

"What's the..."

"Jack, please shut up" Jane said urgently.

Jack wasn't sure if anyone on the street could've heard him over the deafening sound coming from what he suspected were giant truck after giant truck. But his sister seemed nervous, and this was not the moment to generate unnecessary tension.

Finally the loud and confusing noises of the convoy turned again into a distant hum.

Jane stood up and checked the street, getting sure there was no one left. She sat down besides him once again.

"Where you think they were going?" He asked.

"It was a big one, so probably outside the wall"

"Fireflies?"

She shrugged "Don't know, maybe just a patrol" she remained silent for a little while before speaking again "c'mon, we should leave this place"

"Why?"

"They used this street and there's no reason to believe this was the last time, so we should get as far away as possible from this place" She stood up.

He couldn't argue with that logic. "Alright; help me out, then" she helped him stand up and almost immediately the familiar feeling of weakness and dizziness struck him, almost sending him back to the floor.

"How are you feeling?" She said with a note of guilt on her voice.

"I'm fine, I'm fine... I just need some..."

'Food. I need food' He thought, but he couldn't bring himself to openly say it, after all Jane was doing the best she could. The last time he had anything to eat was days ago, and it was starting to affect him.

"...I'm okay" he finished.

She took the backpack from the floor and handed it to him. "Hold on to this and follow me, if you need to rest..."

"Yeah, sure. Let's go" He put on the backpack.

Jane rolled her eyes, turned around and started walking away from the street. Jack followed her.

They moved across the decaying buildings, avoiding any street when possible; sticking to alleyways most of the time.

They only walked for 10 minutes before Jack's strenght started failing him. The backpack was getting heavier by the minute and a small pile of dirty paper a few steps ahead of him looked like a very confortable mattress.

"Hey..." He said, trying (and failing) not to sound weak or tired "It's enough, we're safe here"

"We've just..."

"C'mon, sis, I know you're as tired as I am... I can't go any further right now"

His breath was getting heavier, for the first time in days he felt concerned about his health.

"I'm sorry" She said.

"Don't be..." He carefully sat down, sighing with relief "Please, don't be"

His sister sat down besides him and helped him take off the backpack, placing it again between his legs.

"Where are we heading?" Jack asked after a moment of silence.

"What?"

"Everyday you look for food, then we eat and then we stay hidden until the next day. I mean, what's next? One day we'll just die?" It was a little thing that has been nagging him for years. What was the plan? They'll just continue doing the same shit for what was left of their lives?.

"That's your empty stomach talking" As always she was avoiding difficult questions, next she would use it as an excuse to look for something to eat. "I'm taking a look around, I may find something good"

"Of course" he said, annoyed to no end by not been taken seriously. His sister seemingly didn't care about the future. Maybe she knew there wasn't any for them.

She was gone a minute later, leaving him alone in the relative safety of a new alleyway.