“Where’s my precious? Give me my precious!” Rooster said, mimicking the voice from Lord of the Rings.
He and Cary laughed, but Faith didn’t find them all that funny. It wasn’t fun being the center of a joke. Maybe if she had better relationships with both of them, she could laugh along with them. The only person she really got along with was her brother, and he rarely spent any time alone with her.
She understood; he was their leader and focused on keeping them all safe and alive. But she missed doing things with just her brother. Before the nuclear disaster, they were a normal teenage brother and sister, who had arguments and often ignored one another, preferring their own friends. But they had developed something special too.
After their grandmother got sick and their mother had to spend a lot of time helping her, Felix and she would cook the family meals. They would joke and laugh while cooking. Felix burned more than he cooked but she always ate whatever they fixed. He would call herFay Babyand she would call himJerkorBig Feet. Nothing hurtful. Just sibling name-calling allowed between them, but no one else was permitted to call them names. She loved and missed those sweet innocent times.
Felix today was nothing like who he once was. Before the nukes, he was her hero. Someone she looked up to and someone she could confide in. Now, he was hard, cold, and unmoving when it came to what he thought should be done. If anyone disagreed with the way he ran things, they were free to leave, even her.
About four years ago, her brother laid down the law. When she tried to question him, he told her in front of everyone, “I don’t care if you are my sister; no one questions me. If you don’t agree, feel free to leave with the clothes you wear and nothing else.”
It shocked her to the core and broke her heart. Ever since then, she kept quiet and to herself. There was nowhere else for her to go. This was her life, for better or worse, and she had to accept it in order to survive. Only in private, she dreamed of being in a world without destruction and violence, a place where beauty was valued, a place where she could relax and live her life, not just survive. That place was only in her fantasies.
Then one day while exploring, she found something that gave her hope. Only, she would have to keep it a secret from everyone else if she ever hoped to eventually find her own way to live apart from the tribe. For now, she would remain the dutiful sister and tribe member. Taking one of the cans out of her main satchel, she placed the single can in her personal satchel where she kept her secret stash. For now, she would keep the peace.
