Isolation

Chapter 17

Sara sat at the desk, fingers locked over her chin as she tried to think. Since she was the one gathering the food, she had stock of the inventory. When Maria had come back to the room last night, she didn't say anything to Sara. Instead, she climbed into bed and went to sleep. She didn't even ask to watch Glamour Girls.

There was a soft whimper. She looked down from her tablet at Sasha. She whimpered some more.

"I'm sorry, Sasha," Sara said. "Oh, I've been so distracted."

She rubbed her head.

"I bet you miss home too, huh?"

Sasha stood eagerly waiting for some food. Sara pushed her tablet away and left the room. It was early, about seven o'clock. There was hardly anyone in the mess hall. She asked for some food for Sasha, which was usually an altered version of spam. She ate three large cans by herself.

"Waste of food if you ask me," someone said.

"I'm sorry, what was that?" She asked the older man.

"If we didn't have wolves on this ship, we would have more food," he said plainly.

"If it wasn't for Sasha, I wouldn't be alive," she said. "I would have died with my family, so she can have all the food she needs."

She cleaned up the cans and threw them away. She went back to her room and went back to work doing inventory. Based on the ration handout from yesterday, they had bought a couple of days. She would have to discuss with the lead mechanic on the ship about when the Frag Drive would be repaired. They could keep searching for food, but it would eventually run out or be too difficult to find. She had to go solo whenever the tether rod snapped. They couldn't grab as much as they wanted to, but at least it was a net positive.

"We've got to get out of here before we starve," she said to no one. "This won't last long."

~~~

Judy's body was buried with the others. As much as he didn't want to, he had her shoes and non-soiled clothes taken off. Two people dug up the grave and put her inside. Mark took her clothes and put them with the other clothes and supplies that they had. It was too difficult to go in and out of the ship, so a pile was placed. James and Austin had already left to get the medicine. Mark was stuck feeling like he couldn't do anything because of his injury. He sat on a log and stared at the pile, wondering what else he could be doing.

"I'm sorry about Judy," Vera approached him. "And your arm."

"Yeah, me too," Mark said.

"I heard rumors it was some kind of animal. Did anyone see it?"

"No. Blaez and Edon sniffed around, but they lost the trail. Judy left by herself last night. I should have gone with her."

"Don't put that blame on yourself. You almost died yesterday because of some stupid fireflies. No one knew what would happen."

"I should have told her to wait until morning," he said sadly.

"Now you can," Vera said. "We know the risk of going out at night. We'll be more careful."

She looked back at the ship.

"I want to try getting the ship upright today," she said. "I need some help getting the injured outside."

"Get whoever you need," Mark said. "I'm out of commission until this arm heals."

"Cool," she said.

She was up and gone. Mark sighed. He looked back at the pile of clothes and shoes. While some of the crew went inside to help Officer Tanner and Addison down, he spent time tying pairs of shoes together by their laces. Technically, they were more like straps, but they locked together anyway.