Ryn of Avonside

After the huge assembly we were all asked to stay and talk to staff members with clipboards who sat at folding desks nearby. No one could leave before we had gotten their approval. I was more than weary at first, thinking this was going to end up being awful for us in some way, but the reason for it soon became clear and I relaxed with relief.

They were taking a census. Specifically a census of who’d been taken along with the university and where they were currently staying, but more importantly everyone’s skills. Knowing the capabilities of who would be staying at Avonside was beyond necessary, as it would be the make or break for us as a community.

A point of contention came up quickly, the census staff member wanting to reassign us all to different rooms, and we all flat out refused. We demanded to stay in the same room, but the guy was adamant that it wasn’t an efficient use of space or some shit like that. The compromise came when he agreed to put us in a larger room that would be able to house all seven of us well, if not comfortably. I'm not sure I followed his logic, but staying together was the important thing.

It was easy sailing after that, Bray’s metalworking hobby was of particular note to the census guy. Grace’s time growing up on a farm would also be helpful for the coming need to plant crops. Duncan had been doing a class in plumbing, hoping to get an apprenticeship at some point. The census guy perked up considerably when I mentioned I was interested in environmental sciences, more specifically studying ecology.

He told me right then and there that I’d be needed to help study the ecology of the region to find plants and animals that were safe for humans to eat and would provide the nutrients we needed. It sounded interesting, except I had to stress that I wasn’t even there yet, only in my second year and beginning to diversify out of general science classes. Shit, I still had classes with Bray who was keen on diving into the science of metallurgy or whatever it was called.

Regardless, I was told to report to a classroom tomorrow along with Grace, Melody, Kelsey and Adam. We’d all be working together apparently, with Grace and I being in charge of the team. Bray and Duncan would be going off to the workshops to do something there, I guess helping with constructing power generators I think, since that required both plumbing and metalworking.

When we were done, we were given a new room to move all of our stuff into, as well as a little piece of paper that we were meant to take to a place that would give us more beds and other stuff. I was kinda hopeful about this, we’d been taking turns in the beds the last few days with the rest of us using the pillows to make nests in an attempt to get comfortable. It hadn’t really been the greatest, so the idea of us all getting mattresses was a welcome one.

“What do you think they’ll be having us do tomorrow?” Melody asked as we delivered our stuff to the new room we’d been given. It was basically just a classroom, but we also had some dividers for a little bit of privacy.

I had to think for a moment. “I’m not sure, it could be a few things, although my best guess would be going out to collect samples of plants and especially things that look edible.”

“Oh yeah, that makes sense. Food will be a concern, for sure,” she said, dumping the pillows on the floor in our new room.

With our current load delivered, we turned and began the trek back through the campus to our old room. The two rooms were almost half the campus apart, and even though we’d been going since early afternoon, it was taking forever to move everything. The others were all fetching things from places around the uni that we’d need for our new little home.

Melody and I were moving the last remaining small items as the sun began to set. It would pass below the rim of the world soon, plunging our side of the ring into the dark of night. It was kind of amazing to see and think about. A damn ring world! We were on a ring world!

We chatted idly as we walked, and the topic of Kelsey came up. My curiosity won out and I rather awkwardly asked, “So uh, you and Kelsey…?”

“Me and Kelsey?” she asked, although I could see a flush expanding across her features.

“Um, I just noticed you’re... really close,” I said, feeling my own embarrassment warming my cheeks. I shouldn’t have asked, it was rude of me.

“Oh uh, we…” she started, then immediately trailed off. “It’s complicated. We were roommates during freshman year, but we knew of each other before then. Uh… I guess we kinda sorta got feelings for each other? But both our families were super awful and homophobic, so we agreed to just… not do anything about it you know?”

“Ah,” I nodded, understanding now why they had looked happy when we were told we might not ever be going home. “So now that we’re stuck on this ring world and cut off from home…”

The smile she gave me when I mentioned that little piece of information was enormous, genuine and shy. “Yeah, exactly.”

“That’s cool!” I said, feeling my heart swell a little with happiness for the two of them. “Well, if anything bad happens, I’m with you. Got your back or whatever, for what little that is worth.”

“Thanks,” she grinned, her cheeks rosy with happiness. “And it’s worth a lot, don’t put yourself down! You might not be muscles mcstompynuts like Grace or the other guys, but you’re the brains. You’ve been figuring out stuff faster than Avonside has been telling us!”

“I have a feeling it’s in Avonside’s best interest not to tell us everything they know,” I said with a grimace. The idea that there was info worse than the stuff we'd been told already— it gave me the chills. “But thanks for the compliment.”

“You’re welcome, now let’s get moving, it would suck to keep carrying shit in the dark,” Melody replied, picking up her pace.

We finished our run, and as the night progressed we began to put our new den together. Bray stuck his posters up all over the walls and I created a sort of communal area with an older sofa, some old chairs, and all my cushions everywhere. Someone even found a beanbag from somewhere, completing the cozy little room.

We used partitioning panels to make separate sleeping areas for the girls and the guys, which of course drew attention to the fact that I was one of the guys, not the girls. My stomach wrapped itself all up in depressed knots over that, and the others noticed but no one could figure out how to cheer me up— and oh, how they tried.

Dinner time rolled around, and our rumbling stomachs forced us to leave the safety of our new den. Security quickly intercepted and pointed us towards one of several makeshift cafeterias where food was being doled out. We only had to turn a corner and see the entrance to know that the situation was grim.

Harried staff were explaining to frustrated and angry Avonsiders that the president had instituted a rationing plan. After the chaos of the last few days, too much food had been stolen, ruined, or had just spoiled in unpowered refrigerators. We— Avonside— were in trouble.

The university didn’t hide this fact either, cafeteria managers openly stated that getting a proper meal would depend on how hard everyone worked in the coming days and weeks. They weren't wrong, per se, but the way they said it made me deeply uncomfortable.

The next morning, we all moved off to get our first work assignment, and it was strange, but I found myself getting excited. We were essentially colonists now, just like in all the sci-fi books I had consumed voraciously since I had learned to read. While I had issues with conflict, this whole deal was starting to feel alarmingly like an adventure— an adventure into the unknown, and if there were any one trait I could claim, it was an insatiable curiosity.

I used to run around in the woods out the back of my house, partially to get away from my constantly arguing parents, but also because I was playing explorer. Mapping out new areas of the forest, building little huts, pretending to farm. All sorts of dumb little games of make-believe. Except now, my dumb little games were very, viscerally real. Probably. I'd just been assuming things so far.

The room we were required to report to was a lecture hall that already had several hundred people in it. At the front was a professor who I recognised as being from the biology department. She was messing around with one of those old transparency projectors, frowning as it failed to start before she gave up and surveyed the growing crowd.

The five of us who were going to be working together all seated ourselves near the middle and waited patiently, if excitedly, for the professor to speak.

About ten minutes later, when the room was full, she stepped up and cleared her throat. It took a moment for the chatter to die down. “Hello everyone, thanks for coming. I’ll cut the crap, we don’t want to waste daylight. We need everyone here to go out into the wilderness directly surrounding Avonside and collect samples of the vegetation for analysis. Specifically, we’re looking for plants that might be edible, because we sure as hell don’t have enough food right now.”

Aha, I’d been right! I felt a little pride for a moment that I’d guessed correctly.

The room was silent as she paused to sweep her gaze over the crowd. Satisfied that we were all paying rapt attention, she kept talking. “You’ll be going out in groups, if you don’t have a group, you’ll get assigned to one. We want at least one biology student, tutor or professor in each group, so please make sure this is the case before heading out. You’ll be given the necessary tools for the job, including a field guide that we think might help. Please make sure not to touch anything directly, however— we don’t know what is and is not hazardous.”

She kept talking after that, giving us a quick rundown on what our duties were, how to collect samples, and any other important instructions of note. Questions inevitably followed, but she cut them short because most could be answered by the biology ‘experts’ in each team. Following that, she directed us to come up in groups and collect our kits, which included sample bags, large work gloves, knives, trowels, among other things.

Once we were properly equipped, we received a directional heading and that was that. Go forth and find food. Our group was told to move out and up towards a low ridgeline, one of several in the large valley that now held our lonely university.

“Of all the places that Avonside had to get plopped down into, it had to be a fucking mountainrange,” Melody complained as we stared up into the forested hill that was our destination.

“Hey, on the plus side, you’ll get some great thighs out of all this,” Grace laughed, giving Kelsey a wink. “I can think of someone who’ll enjoy that.”

“Alright, let's not,” Kelsey grumbled, playfully  shaking a finger back at her. “No teasing.”

Grace raised an eyebrow, but relented and turned, heading off towards the treeline. It was time to save the people of Avonside University, one plastic bag of random foliage at a time.