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“We have something similar in the mushroom factory. Once we’ve pressed the mushrooms, their husks are ground and kept chilled until they’re needed to make a batch of sustenance.”
He shuddered. “I’ve had your mushroom slop before. I promise, this will be much better.”
He did something that involved many layers, some of them colorful, like the red wet-looking disks he called tomatoes and orange squares of cheese. He placed them atop bread slices that reminded me of miniature white mattresses. He also added a squirt of yellow mustard, white mayonnaise and layers of something he called ham.
None of those items was familiar to me, but I remembered all their names as I took my first bite.
And froze.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, pausing after swallowing his mouthful.
I chewed slowly, savoring the many different flavors. So many. I didn’t want it to end.
But if I didn’t swallow, I couldn’t have another bite. When my mouth cleared, I said, “This is food?”
“Yes.”
“It’s—” There were many words I could have used.Flavorful,different,amazing. But I stuck to just taking another bite and another. I finished it off and wanted more. But that would be indulging in greed. Everyone got the same portion.
He slid his plate over with half his sandwich left. “Want it?”
It took effort to keep my hands in my lap rather than grab it. “I can’t take your sustenance.”
“I’ll be fine. Eat it.”
If he insisted, I shouldn’t refuse. We had a rule against waste. The sandwich hit my belly, and I sighed.
“Thirsty?” he asked.
Not usually a problem, given our meals were usually liquid. Before I could reply, he’d gone back to the fridge and pulled out a vessel from which he poured amber fluid into a glass.
“Apple juice,” he said as he slid it toward me.
At the sweetness, I guzzled it, then drank another glass. I would have taken a third if he didn’t shake his head. “You’ll make yourself sick. When you get thirsty again, have some. There’s also water and milk. I’ll have more beverages made available once we know your tastes.”
More? I frowned. “In the Caves, food is scarce. And yet, you have so much.”
His lips flattened. “A perk of living on the surface and my position.”
The natural question being, “Because you’re a commander. Were you marked?”
“In a sense. The Cabal chose me.”
An answer that wasn’t an answer. “Why don’t we all live on the surface if food is plentiful?”
“Because it’s not, and in order to maintain a balance that works with the planet, we mustn’t repeat the errors our ancestors did with overpopulation.”
I might have asked him more about it if I hadn’t turned around and noticed the most frightening thing outside his windows.
“It’s getting dark.”
“Because it’s night.” Which involved an explanation I didn’t understand much of, about the planet rotating around the sun, which was the giant ball of light in the sky. The part I did grasp was the time had come to rest in bed. Before I slept, after all the things he’d shown and given me, I felt a need to give something back.
I squared my shoulders and said, “Shall we have intercourse now?”
