Silence the Hunger

Alphonse panted, his breath ragged and strained as his heart profusely burned from exertion. They weren’t sure where it was safe, so they didn’t stop until their legs threatened to cave in. They found a little valley that was protected from the front and offered an escape from behind, if needed.

He thought about the moment that they arrived. His friends didn’t hesitate for even one moment to put their lives on the line to save him. His hand clenched into a fist as he looked at them.

‘Friends, huh?’ He hid his smile as his eyes turned dim, then someone's words woke him up from his reverie.

“Those were orcs.” A recruit said through bated breath. His hands atop his head, attempting to control his ragged breathing. His name was Liam Thorpe, if Alphonse remembered correctly. He wasn’t too sure, as he rarely talked to anyone else outside of his group.

“They weren’t like the ones in the textbooks either.” Isobelle added. The markings that they had and the budding horns on their head, it was clear they were dealing with something unknown.

“What should we do now? We lost all of our supplies back there...” Dillan looked at the rag-tag group. A nasty cut had opened up on his forearm, even despite his toughened skin.

“We should set up a fortification here while we get our bearings. We need to defend ourselves.” Ian Porter spoke up. He was leaning up against his spear. The others seemed to look up at him, their eyes always turning to him for an answer. Alphonse had heard of him before from the other recruits in Class E, he was top at the combat and survival class. "About the supplies." Ian shook his head. "We'll just have to make do without."

Alphonse and his friends had no choice but to agree, as everyone had already made up their minds. Class E got to work setting up a fortified camp. They had learnt survival techniques for different situations, but it was entirely different doing it in a real-life situation. They were tired and sore, their arms were as heavy as steel rods due to fatigue, but they willed themselves forwards. However, thanks to Dillan, Ian and Ellena, the physically strongest of the group, they finished with the fortifications before the night was out.

Alphonse just finished moving one of the tree logs and dropped it into place, finishing a makeshift wall. His hand was covered in cuts, but that was nothing compared to the hunger pangs. He clutched his stomach in agony as he quickly leaned up against a tree.

The pain wasn’t normal. It felt like something was inside his stomach attempting to claw its way out with rusted claws.

Isobelle and the others rushed over. They fished out what was left of their rations that they could take with them and placed it in front of Alphonse. “Alphonse, you need to eat.”

As soon as Alphonse saw the food, he didn’t hesitate even for a second. His hand ripped open the robust packaging and ravaged the contents within. Soon there was nothing left but empty wrappers, and even then it only felt like a drop in the ocean.

“Sorry.” Alphonse clutched at his stomach as the others just smiled.

“Don’t worry about it. We’ll find more food.” Dillan said with a kind smile.

“Shit, finally.” Jenson was ecstatic as he held his stiff hands over the small budding fire at his feet. The fire crackled to life as it quickly became bigger as he added more fuel. The fire quickly illuminated the entire area.

“What are you doing!” Isobelle ran over and kicked the pieces of wood off of the fire, her small feet continued to stamp on the ashes as the light was quickly extinguished.

“Fuck, are you crazy, you damned bitch!” Jenson had a deranged look on his face as he shot up and pushed Isobelle. Although he wasn’t strong, it took little for Isobelle to fall over with the sudden force. He didn’t stop there. He rushed towards her and launched his fist forwards as it hurled towards her face.

No one could react in time as the fist landed, and Isobelle’s scream sounded out. Ian moved forwards, he was the fastest out of all of them. He flung out a kick towards Jenson and kicked him away, sending him rolling.

“What the fuck are you doing!” Dillan and Ellena were raging, their chests violently rose and down as their anger was about to explode.

“Isobelle, are you okay?” Ellena helped her up and looked at her face. There was a slight cut on her lip, but it wasn’t anything major.

“I’m okay…” Isobelle was rather absentminded, strangely her sudden thought was to look at Alphonse. She turned her head to look at Alphonse. He was still sitting in the same spot, clutching his stomach, but he had one hand on his mace now. His eyes took her aback. They were the same eyes that she had seen back at when they had first arrived on the mother ship. Alphonse wanted to kill.

“What do you mean, what am I doing? I was just starting a fire when she ran over and fucking ruined my hard work!” Jenson’s bloodshot eyes looked at the people within the camp.

Liam quickly walked forwards and held Jenson’s shoulders. “Jenson, calm down. We are in a shitty situation and we are all on edge but to hit someone over a damned fire…” he gently shook his shoulders as he tried to talk some sense into him and continued. “But she’s right. What if those orcs find us because of the fire? Think it through.”

“Sh… Shit, I-I’m sorry. I’m so scared.” Jenson fell to his knees as tears fell uncontrollably. Liam wrapped his arms around him as he cried out loud.

Seeing the state Jenson was in, they couldn’t help take a sigh as their anger slowly settled.

Alphonse shook his head. Waking him up from his thoughts, he walked over to Isobelle and flashed a smile.

“Looks like he got you good.” Alphonse joked as he looked at the slight wound on her lip.

“It’s just a minor scratch. I'm tough, you know.” Isobelle laughed, trying to defuse the situation.

“Alphonse, don't… ha, nevermind.” Isobelle shook her head. Eyes filled with worry.