Gray (Book 3) by Lou Cadle Read Free Book Online

like a wealth of food, and a mad variety of tastes, to Coral. Her salivary glands were responding to the words and the memories they triggered.
    Jamie finished cooking one fish fillet and set it aside on a rock that formed the fire ring to keep warm while he cooked the next. Light faded from the sky as they waited for everyone’s meal to be ready at once, and soon the fire and flashlights were all the illumination they had. The four of the strangers had camping plates, and Coral and Benjamin poured their meal pouches into the pan she’d used to boil water, and they shared that as a plate, passing it back and forth in the firelight. They all drank hot water.
    She wasn’t sure she’d tasted anything quite so good, ever, as that meal. At some level, she knew it must be pretty mediocre stuff by her old standards. But having turkey again, and cornbread dressing, and the wild sweetness of the cranberries—what a wealth of sensation. All she could think about for those too-brief moments was the food, its taste and texture.
    When the meal was done, and Benjamin was tearing open the main packet to lick out the last of the gravy, her mind came back to their situation. Why were these people willing to share the food with her and Benjamin?
    She didn’t trust them and their seeming kindness. She didn’t trust anyone but Benjamin. The world had taught her that no one was honorable, and that kindness was a lure, like the lures she dangled in front of the fish. What were these people trying to lure them into?
    The comparison to fishing provided an answer. After she’d lured the fish in, she killed and ate them. These people wanted to use her. And it might be as food, or it might be for sex. If she was very, very lucky, it might be for her skills. When they found out she wasn’t as skilled at doctoring as she had claimed, what would be done to her and Benjamin then?
    Should she be trying to ingratiate herself? Or looking for an opportunity to escape?

Chapter 5
     
    Coral thought they should be looking for a chance to escape, despite the stranger’s access to a variety of food. Still, she wondered, not for the first time, what she might be willing to do—to sacrifice—in exchange for one of these meal packets twice a day. Not the use of her sex organs. Not Benjamin’s well-being. But anything else might be negotiable.
    It was a terrible thing to know about yourself.
    If all they needed was for her to do first aid on a few people back at their camp, she could manage that. If they expected her to be able to do surgery or set a compound fracture, her inexperience would be glaringly obvious. And then what? In the new world, your value to a group had to be weighed against your cost to the food supply. There was no room any longer for carrying dead weight. If you were dead weight, you were just dead.
    Kathy collected the empty food bags. Benjamin stopped her from taking the fish heads and bones away as garbage. “It’s good for soup,” he pointed out.
    “Not much meat left on them,” said Jamie.
    “More than we had for many a day,” said Benjamin. “If you don’t want them, we’ll take them back.”
    There was an awkward silence, and Jamie handed the trimmings of the fish to Benjamin. There were fish bones from yesterday stored in one of the burlap bags, and he added these to those.
    Martin said, “So how are we going to sleep? Six in the tent will be crowded.”
    Benjamin said, “We dig a snow cave every night. It won’t take long to do it again.”
    “We need to talk about this,” said Jamie, and not to Coral and Benjamin. “If they stay, we need to set a guard.”
    Martin stayed at the fire to keep an eye on the two of them while the other three moved away into the darkness. Coral heard the murmur of their voices but couldn’t make out any words.
    They came back and Kathy announced their decision. Everyone would sleep in the one tent, and no guard would be needed. Jamie escorted Coral and Benjamin to the latrine, and