3 Decisions

As I walked over to the table Jaime called out to me "Azy! Over here!" And motioned towards the empty seat next to him.

Azy is short for Azalea. An odd name I know, but there are worse things than being named after a flower. I plopped down into the seat and relaxed.

"Your map sucked" I teased with a grin

"It got you there didn't it?" He replied while rolling his eyes and brushing his sandy hair out of his eyes.

Jaime was one of the newest members of our pseudo family. We found him and his father holed up in an old barn about twenty miles away from the farm in one of our longest excursions. After watching them secretly for a few days to determine that they weren't cronies in disguise, we approached them cautiously and offered them a home. We were always very careful about who was at the farm but in the seven years that we had been established here our numbers had swelled to thirty two, quite a large group compared to most.

"Time" Ma announced. It was a tradition here that before every meal we take a moment of silence to hold hands. For some of us this was a moment to pray, others to remember lost loved ones, but for all of us it was a moment to reconnect and find the harmony needed to survive.

My face flushed slightly as I Jaime gently grabbed my hand. I wondered who or what he thought about during these times but I wouldn't dare to ask him. The moment was over quickly.

We all dug gratefully into our simple meal of venison and potatoes. All of us here besides the youngest, a three year old born at the farm, had contributed in some way to the meal whether it was hunting, gathering wood and herbs, foraging, or tending to the large vegetable garden.

I grinned from ear to ear as Alex brought out an apple cobbler made with wild honey. It was rare to have a true dessert. Jesslyn, who was sitting in front of me nearly squealed in delight.

For a moment I wondered what her life would have been like if the world hadn't fallen apart. She'd probably be in middle school right? Jaime and I would have been seniors in high school.

I was interrupted from my thoughts once again by Louis, a middle aged man who was one of the original members of the group, cleared his throat loudly.

With all eyes on him he announced "We're going to have a meeting tonight, we have some things to discuss and decisions to make."

Most of us looked at each other nervously.

"I found another group"