Read Online The Feral Sentence - Part One by G. C. Julien - Free Book Online

glanced my way. There were a few nods, some hand
gestures, but overall, there was still hostility and
mistrust.
    “ You gotta bowl?” she asked.
    “ Sorry?”
    “ Girl, if you wanna eat, you gotta have your own bowl. You can
buy one in the Tools tent. You can use mine for now, though.” She
handed me what appeared to be a broken piece of skull.
    It was
of average size with a slight curve all around to form a bowl. It
had egg and meat residue inside, and although disgusted by the
thought of using someone else’s dirty dish, I was too hungry to
refuse. I grabbed it with both hands.
    I could
feel the hatred around me as Sunny scooped an oversized spoonful of
cold eggs and meat bits.
    “ S’all you get,” I heard.
    There
was a young Asian girl sitting on the ground with her legs crossed
in front of her. She raised an eyebrow when I glanced at her, so I
quickly looked away. The other women around her laughed.
    “ Brone, meet Sumi. Sumi, meet Brone,” Sunny said
nonchalantly.
    “ Pleasure,” Sumi said, although she sounded more disgusted than
anything.
    “ Sumi’s the cook,” Sunny said. “And the portion size she tells
us is the portion size we eat.”
    “ I thought Battle Women—” I tried.
    “ Trim’s rules,” Sumi said. “You gonna snitch on me?”
    I looked at Sumi once more, and she smirked up at me. I could
tell that integration into the Village wouldn’t come
easily.
    I ate my food, forgetting entirely that I was shoveling
bacteria from Sunny’s mouth into mine.
    “ Thank you,” I said, handing the piece of skull back to Sunny.
I turned my attention to Sumi, and although I disliked her already,
I thanked her for the food. She simply scoffed, and the others
followed suit.
    I couldn’t believe I’d be spending the next three years of my
life with ignorant women like this. I made my way to the tents
Ellie had told me about, fuming.
    “ Brone!”
    My name had been followed by rapid footsteps behind
me.
    “ Sorry ‘bout that,” Sunny said.
    “ It’s okay.”
    “ Here,” she said, placing three pearls into the palm of my
hand. I was already holding onto four of them which had been given
to me by Ellie.
    “ Start by getting yourself a pouch—you know, for your pearls.”
She tapped the side of her belt, from which hung a leather pouch
filled to the point of hardness. “And a belt,” she quickly added,
eying my waist.
    I stared at the fist-sized pouch dangling at her side. “Aren’t
you scared of theft?”
    She
shrugged.
    “ It’s always a possibility. That’s why you don’t carry it all
with you. I bury mine.” She grinned and showed me her fingernails,
which were filthy brown in every crevice. I couldn’t believe we’d
shared a dish.
    I nodded
slowly.
    She pinched one of the pearls in my hand and stared down at me
from behind her bright yellow eyes.
    “ Pouch.”
    She then pinched the other pearl she’d given me and said,
“Bowl.”
    She
finally grabbed the last pearl, but this time, she
smiled.
    “ Anything you’d like.”
    I smiled back, feeling completely awkward and wanting nothing
more than for her to remove her germ-encrusted hand from
mine.
    I thanked her again and continued my path inside the Tools
tent. It wasn’t like any store you’d find in the real
world—everything was dim, and there was no welcome bell, no “Hello,
how are you?” from a tired cashier, no bright florescent lights
shining down from above; I was still in the wild.
    I received a glance from a butchy woman with thick arms and a
protruding belly who sat at the back of the tent atop a wooden box.
She was carving something—a knife, maybe. She didn’t speak; she
just watched me. A table at the center of the store displayed
various handmade items: carved tools, bones, bowls, arrowheads,
rope, blocks of wood, elastic-like bands, and boxes constructed of
solid wood.
    I noticed several small leather pouches in a pile with strings
long enough to tie them closed and around one’s waist or belt.