The mealcave was right across the small space at the center of the ravine. Smoke billowed from it rising into the air. There even were still a few people sitting at tables eating. Most people didn’t cook for themselves anymore, they ate in bigger groups was much less work in total and it wasn’t like most zones had a lot of options. Well outside places like Brindgap, there one could get ingredients and fuel to cook for a smaller group, still it was more efficient and had less waste to just eat in larger groups.

  It was later in the day and there wouldn’t be much left at this point but Jeff knew he would get his fill anyway, worst case it would be some sort of bread or something similar. Olivia was standing behind a counter, the room had a high ceiling, going down towards her corner, a metal pipe leading form above the cooking place towards the exit. The entire room was cozy, they had surprisingly comfortable chairs, some pelts they got from Esher probably, draped over shells chairs and benches made from wood and the hardened shell of some big crab thing dying. The chairs in this zone were much better than in Esher though. Esher did have wood and pelts but the shells from here were nicely rounded and some people here had gotten really good at shaping them. Nothing beat one of the old cushions he had in the past, but most zones didn’t have creatures to make the soft insides of these things. At least the zones Jeff knew didn’t.

  Olivia was a small woman, her dark hair just that bit darker than her skin. Her face was probably the nicest one Jeff knew, well if he left out the dead … Anyway. Olivia had a nice face, not in the sense Jeff found it nice to look, more nice in that she smiled all the time, well at least when Jeff had seen her the few times. She had one of these smiles that made people just come and sit down and talk with her, she even got Jeff to tell her a bit about his real self. Still Jeff was careful around her, she was the exact type of person that he could like and then things would be even more complicated, the whole thing with Candy and the others had Jeff already convinced it was better that way.

  Olivia wore the typical style for the region, a skirt which went to her knees, a bright top which was lose fitting. The humidity made longer clothes from other zones mostly impractical and since whatever seasons really were, stopped happening, there wasn’t really any variation unlike what apparently had been more common before the Pandemodium. Though Olivia did change up the local style by wearing a bright red apron over her shirt, it was one of the few red clothing items Jeff had seen in this zone, the only readily available dye was blue. The cloth also didn’t take much to coloring since it was some kind of plant fiber mostly harvested in the so called Kelb forests up north. So most clothes were green to blue, other colors were rare imports. Olivia apparently had gotten the apron from her dead boyfriend or husband, Jeff hadn’t quite understood their exact relationship.

  Currently Olivia was occupied cooking behind the counter, preparing the next days breakfast, from what Jeff could smell probably a soup meant to be eaten cold or easy to reheat. As for the other guests, there was one girl roughly Jeff’s age sitting alone eating, she had some kind of light red hair, making her stand. She was a new arrival that much was sure. Better keep away from her.

  Jeff went up to the counter and politely cleared his throat.

  “Oh Jiff back again?”, was Olivias happy reaction upon seeing him, the woman smiled just as invitingly as the first time Jeff was here. The few time she had been here she always had been jovial.

  “Yeah last time until I go through back to Esher, got everything I need.”

  “Well that is sad to hear, you did help out quite a bit with the stuff you gathered from the stoneflats. I did hope Diego would get you around to staying”, her joviality had left her voice a bit, but she didn’t seem surprised or genuinely saddened. She had known like Diego that it was unlikely Jeff would stay.

  “Sorry but I gotta go, maybe I come back around to visit once I have finished my business in Esher”, a small lie but what was the hurt in it?

  “Anyway I came because Diego said I would get some food on the house?”

  “Sure hon, give me a second to finish this patch for tomorrow and then I will heat some of the stew for you. I still owe you for the help last time, you helped without needing to, better than most kids around here”, she again gave him a warm smile and gestured him towards the nearby seats at the counter.

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  Jeff took a seat and looked around in the room, the only person really standing out was the new girl, but Jeff did try not to stare, so he searched for something else to focus on. There was a old screen, a “TV” apparently, they weren’t that rare the bigger problem was having batteries to run the damn things and stuff to watch on them. Jeff knew this camp had some old movies on CD’s quite valuable, but they never even considered selling them, there was apparently some sort of educational videos on them and some more mature movies too. Still the TV had only run once when Jeff came in, during one of their local community days, they had few batteries to run it currently and it had apparently spent more time turned off the last few years.

  Brindgap did produce electricity, but they had few functional batteries anymore, making new once was at least not really feasible in this zone so the few that still held a good charge were used infrequently. That and the humidity did mess with electronics. Jeff knew a few of the numbered zones could make them, well the entirety of the numbered zones was practically a safe haven for people, but then you had to live with council rules and well people didn’t like the council that much. Why bow to some crazy old people when you could life in zones like Esher or this one that were already reasonably safe, at least not that much worse than the numbered zones.

  “If you really want to go to Esher you need to hurry, heard it was fizzeling out”, said Olivia as she put a bowl with a thick stew in it on the table, the bowl like most things was made from carapace. Smooth and hard it also held warmth surprisingly well.

  “I know Diego already told me, I should be fine, I know what I do”, well fine was a question of definition but he knew if he told her the truth, she would get worried and tell Diego and both would try to convince him to stay, this time with more intensity. They wouldn’t force him but Jeff knew he wasn’t up to long arguments about it right now, so better keep it vague.

  “Well if you really know what you are doing maybe talk to Vaeri, she also wants to go to Esher and wouldn’t really listen. Comes from somewhere in the Greylands apparently. She stopped by a few days ago and has worked to get some food with her on the road. Maybe you can talk her out of it I don’t know why she insists upon it so much, she doesn’t seem very experienced as a traveler”, Olivia indicated the girl with the light red hair sitting alone. Then Olivia patted Jeffs arm,” if you change your mind about leaving, I know Diego wouldn’t mind you here to help. Otherwise, I wish you a good road ahead, sadly I can’t stay to talk much more I need to finish this and then get back to the carerooms so the small children have someone to look after them.”

  Well, it was good to know the new girl’s name and that she too wanted to go to Esher, but it would be best not to get involved. Though if they both moved out at the same time … better get a move on then, sleep through at his camp and then move early tomorrow to get a head start. Travelling alone was generally safer in Jeff’s experience.

  He sat down not especially far from Vaeri but made sure he had some distance, a good amount that Olivia wouldn’t come to ask about why he was avoiding the girl, but still enough she wouldn’t get near him by accident and he could take his time and ignore the whole situation. He blew on his hot stew and took a spoon, also made form carapace and began to eat the stew. It was rather thick, but it tasted amazing. Olivia was probably the best cook in this zone. The stew held a mixture of local vegetables and some of the local crab meat. Probably from one of the smaller breeds some people held as a sort of farm animal. This camp didn’t have any of them but not a few kilometers outward there was a camp that had a lot of them, led by some crazy guy named David. Jeff had been there once and left quickly. David wasn’t bad crazy, more crazy crazy. In the way people build giant fences to keep out bad spirits. Overall he and his group were harmless and just really weird. They followed one of the so called new religions, unlike the old they worshipped some of the weirder things in the zones. David and his people believed in the Titan, a cult mostly based on the believe that the giant eye in one of the zones belonged to a titan who created all the zones and was the real god. They were generally searching for one of his ears to speak to him, why they expected it to be a him or how they thought to find it if all that was ever found was an eye, which was maybe not real, was beyond Jeff. But he did see the appeal at least it may be proven. The old religions all didn’t have such a thing.

  Anyway back to eating and then leaving, better hurry so he could get some good sleep.

  Olivia went by him as she left and asked him again to talk to Vaeri, he just nodded in acknowledgement and tried to not make it obvious that he didn’t plan on it. Instead he ate his lunch quickly and went out, it was a bit of a shame to eat his lunch this quickly but better safe than sorry.

  He then made his way towards his own camp, thankfully he did not run into Vaeri but got away, what was it called? Scatch free? Ah yes, Scratch free, that made sense.