280
You return to the school in time to see Kate handing little Maria back to her parents. Juan and Rosita Rodriguez cannot thank her enough, and everyone else, including yourself, is full of praise for her. As the excitement begins to wane, Cutter approaches and asks you to brave the storm once more, this time to retrieve food and other vital supplies from the bus. Willingly you agree.
‘This is one heck of a blue norther,’ he says, as you climb aboard the bus. ‘Reckon it could hold us here for a day or two before it blows itself out.’ ‘I sure hope you’re wrong,’ you reply, as you prise open the floor hatch that gives access to the luggage hold from inside the bus. ‘Take a look at this.’ A fetid smell rises from the compartment: the smell of rotten food. ‘Dadburn it! That’s all we need right now!’ exclaims Cutter, as he examines the swollen food parcels at arm’s length. ‘The heat’s put paid to these rations. Now we’re really in for a hard time.’
The colony reacts to the news of the spoiled food with silent disbelief. What little that can be saved is carefully shared out, but it amounts to barely a day’s rations per person. ‘If we don’t find some food to replace what we’ve lost,’ says Aunt Betty-Ann, as she distributes the last of the stone-hard bread. ‘It’ll be a convoy of skeletons that drives into Big Spring.’
‘Well, at least we’ve got enough water,’ replies Pop Ewell. ‘We can live for three weeks without food, but we’d all be dead in three days without water.’
Some people save their ration but you decide to eat yours before finally settling down to sleep (if you currently have food in your Backpack you must now erase it; all food, including personal supply, was pooled before distribution).
