Chapter 757: Distributing the Food

At eight the next morning, after breakfast, Evelyn Ford and Ronan Kendrick went out again to search for people. They focused on hospitals and residential buildings that were still standing, but came up empty-handed.

They returned empty-handed at six-thirty in the evening. They had set up five tents, and even though they were far from the crowds, they had still drawn a lot of attention. Just as Evelyn Ford and Ronan Kendrick got back, they ran into some people looking for trouble. Already fuming from the fruitless search, Evelyn’s face turned cold and she strode toward them.

"They have food! They’re eating! Everyone, get over here! Someone’s hoarding food for themselves! They’re eating white rice!"

More and more people started heading their way. Evelyn paused for a moment, then immediately detoured back to her tent and quickly packed everything up.

By the time she came out, the man who had been shouting was trying to force his way inside. He and his group were armed with rebar and clubs. At the mention of food, the gathering crowd lost all reason and swarmed the tents. Officer Graham and the others tried to hold them back, but the scene descended into chaos. People fell, screamed, and threw things at the tents.

BANG! BANG! BANG! Evelyn fired three shots into the air. The crowd fell silent instantly. All eyes turned to her. Evelyn walked up to the man who started the trouble, grabbed him by the collar, and hauled him forward.

"I’ll give you one chance. Go search the tents. If you find any food, you can take it. I’ll even throw in the tent. But if you don’t find anything... you’ll be leaving your life here today."

The man stumbled back, glaring viciously at Evelyn.

"Fine! I’ll search. I smelled cooked rice, I know I did. There’s no mistake."

With her gun still in hand, Evelyn’s eyes swept over the crowd. "Then go on, search. What you find is the only thing that counts as proof. But let me ask you something—even if we were eating rice, what business is it of yours?"

The tents were tattered old things that had seen years of use. Back when they were clearing out the storage area, everyone had suggested getting rid of them, but Evelyn had stopped them. She’d had a feeling they might come in handy someday. She never expected to be proven right so soon.

The man entered the tent. Inside, there was nothing but a large pot, a few ragged pieces of clothing, and some shoes. The pot itself contained some Famine Clay Soil. An iron bucket on the ground held a little water—no more than a liter or so, and it was murky. He searched every tent and found nothing. Not a grain of rice, not even a single husk.

"Impossible! I smelled it!"

Evelyn opened her hand, revealing a small, flat cake made of dirt that she’d just formed. "I think what you smelled," she said, crumbling it, "was this. When you’re starving, everything smells delicious."

Evelyn then showed the clay cake to the crowd. "This is all we have. Famine Clay. No rice. If you don’t believe me, you’re welcome to search."

She invited them to search, but seeing the rifle in her hand, no one dared to step forward.

Just then, the man tried to make a run for it. Quick as a flash, Evelyn kicked him squarely in the back of the knee. He let out a howl of pain and collapsed, spewing a torrent of curses at her.

"We made a deal before you went in," Evelyn said. "If you found rice, you’d get the food and the tent. If you didn’t, your life was the price."

The man’s eyes were full of hate. "You must have hidden it! I know I smelled rice!"

"Isn’t that the woman who beat up that guy yesterday?" a survivor in the back whispered. "This kid is screwed. The man she beat up is still lying by the side of the road." The survivors who recognized Evelyn began to murmur amongst themselves.

The moment Evelyn pressed the muzzle of her gun to the man’s forehead, he dropped to his knees. "Don’t kill me! I didn’t smell anything! It was him! He told me to come start trouble! He said he smelled rice and even saw you eating meat!"

The man pointed to a scrawny boy in the crowd. The moment the boy saw Evelyn’s eyes fall on him, he turned and bolted.

Evelyn narrowed her eyes as she watched the boy disappear into the crowd. She didn’t give chase. Instead, she kicked the man at her feet aside.

"Scram."

The man scrambled to his feet and scurried away. The crowd of onlookers dispersed just as quickly. Watching them go, Evelyn pulled off her mask and beanie.

"Did you recognize that boy?" Ronan Kendrick asked, walking over and taking the rifle from her hands.

"He looked familiar, but I can’t place him. I know I’ve seen him before, though." Evelyn ran a hand through her hair in frustration.

"We’re supposed to give them the food tomorrow, and they pull a stunt like this. I just... God."

’For fuck’s sake.’

The curse died on her lips before she could speak it.

"After we distribute the food, let’s search for Roy Henderson and Owen Chapman one more time. Once we find them, let’s get out of here," Evelyn said, looking at Ronan.

"Okay. Whatever you say."

Back in the tent, Evelyn took out the things she had packed away earlier. No one had much of an appetite that night. To avoid attracting more trouble from the other survivors, they made a simple meal of canned food and compressed biscuits.

"Are we still going to give them the food?" Liam Sterling asked, looking from Evelyn and Ronan to Rhys Chase.

"What are you even thinking? Of course we are," Evelyn scoffed.

"The food in the underground storeroom belonged to the base residents in the first place. We’re not going to withhold it over a little incident like tonight’s. What would that make us? Bandits?"

Liam Sterling gave an embarrassed smile. He had honestly thought for a moment that Evelyn, in her anger, would just take the food and leave. After all, she might seem easygoing, but she had a long memory when it came to grudges.

"Evelyn, I was wrong. I shouldn’t have thought that," he said. "So, how are we going to distribute the food tomorrow?"

"It’s simple. Tomorrow, I’ll go to the underground storeroom ahead of time and plant some food and water. You all will go out to the ruins, ostensibly to scavenge. Try to get a few other people to join you. At the right moment, you’ll ’discover’ the entrance to the storeroom. Once you go in and ’find’ the food, word will spread and everyone else will come running. You bring the supplies out, and when they see it, they’ll inevitably try to grab it. That’s when we’ll announce that we’re distributing it to everyone. We’ll hand it out right there, under their noses."

"Is that all? Won’t they be suspicious?"

"Let them be suspicious. We can use the commotion of the food distribution to look for Roy Henderson and Owen Chapman. Once we find them, we’re leaving this place and finding somewhere new to live."

"Alright, that’s the plan."

With the plan settled, everyone went back to their tents to rest. Evelyn, however, found she couldn’t sleep.

"Still thinking about who that boy was?"

"I know who he is now. And I think he recognized me, too. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have run."

Evelyn chuckled. "He’s a clever one, finding a fall guy to start trouble for him."

"You’re not angry?"

Evelyn shook her head. "It’s not worth getting angry over. We’re different from them. We have food and water, so we don’t have to worry about survival. If we had nothing to eat, I’d do whatever it takes to survive, too."