A Trash Novel's Only Reader-Chapter 53: Camp

Thirty minutes into the walk, Jin started falling apart quietly.

His breathing changed first, shallow and uneven in a way Shu picked up without turning around. Nari had also been quiet for a while now, he wasn’t entirely sure when it started but if he had to guess, it was definitely that encounter with the mutated pigs.

’I hope she doesn’t have mental shock that causes issues,’ he thought, looking at her with a worried expression.

Her hand was still in his, fingers wrapped tight but not trembling anymore, at least not outwardly. He gave her a small squeeze and she looked up at him with those big eyes before looking away again.

Behind them, Jin kept shuffling along with that pouch pressed against his chest.

’Man,’ Shu thought, his jaw tightening a little. ’Everyone around me today is going through it.’

"Mister Shu," Jin said.

"What."

The kid’s jaw worked for a second. "About my sister, you said you could fix it."

"Yeah."

"What do you want for it?"

Shu stopped and turned around, looking at Jin who stood a few feet back, his eyes looking at the ground, clearly expecting some outrageous demand.

Shu looked at him and felt that familiar annoyance settle in his chest, ’this kid really thinks I am about to name a price?’ he thought. ’Haaah.’

"What do I want?" he said out loud while Jin nodded, still not looking up.

He rubbed the back of his neck and thought about it, ’the mission covered the sister either way, so that was already handled,’ he continued thinking, tapping the bat on the road, ’now that I think about it, this is the perfect chance to grow my domain.’

"Well, there is something I want," those words alone made Jin flinch, "it’s simple really, I want you and your family to come under me."

Jin stared at him with his mouth half open, eyes moving between Shu’s face and the ground like he was trying to process the words in the wrong order. "Come under you? What does that even mean?"

"It means exactly what it sounds like. You, your mother, your sister, all of you living inside my territory."

"But why?" His voice came out smaller than he probably wanted, "you don’t know anything about us, we could be—"

"You will understand later," he said, already walking, "for now just know I am not asking for anything weird."

Jin stood there watching him go, ’is that really all he wants? Can I trust him?,’ he quickly pushed that thought away, ’of course I can trust him, he saved me twice now, the least I can do is at least hear him out.’

A few minutes later the camp entrance came in to view, showing dirty tents and old buses stacked around a parking structure.

The people moving around where slow and hollow-eyed, some carrying buckets while others were just sitting in whatever shade they could find. The whole place had a heavy stanch that made both Shu and Nari cover their noses.

’Is this really how people live? This is worse than I expected,’ his eyes moved to a group of skinny kids sleeping near a wall, ’are they even safe from infection living like this?’

"Mister Shu," Nari said, tugging his hand, her voice barely above a whisper, "why do they look like that?"

He looked down at her, seeing the way her face had gone tight, eyes wide and fixed on an old woman sitting against a tent pole, too tired to even swat the flies off her face.

"Some people have it rougher than others," he said simply.

She opened her mouth to say something else but Jin spoke first, his voice low. "It’s not just rough, it’s on purpose."

Shu glanced at him.

"The people running this place have a system," he continued, eyes moving across the camp with a look that was more anger than sadness, "whoever is useful gets the good spots, the food and the medicine. Everyone else gets pushed to the outer tents."

"That old lady over there, she used to be a teacher before everything changed, since she was no an awakened, they put her on the edge where the water line barely reaches."

Shu’s jaw tightened while he listened, ’a hierarchy,’ he thought, ’so Raniel was wrong about the other place being the only one with that rule. Looks like every camp does it the same way.’

It annoyed him, but not enough to do anything about it right now. He had a mission ticking and a sister to save, getting into camp politics would only waste time he did not have.

’Focus,’ he told himself, ’heal the sister first, we can deal with the rest later.’

"Let’s go," he said, nodding toward the gate.

Jin led them forward but before they could step through gate, a guard moved into their path, hand raised.

"Hold it. Who are you people?"

The guard was a lean man in his thirties with a vest two sizes too big and a baton hanging from his belt. His eyes moved over Jin first, recognizing him, then shifted to Shu and Nari.

His gaze lingered on their clothes, which were clean, without any stains. Then there was their faces, they had no bruises or hollow cheeks, from his point of view, they looked well fed. The kid’s hair was brushed and the man beside her looked healthy, rested even, like he had actually slept in a bed recently.

’What the hell?’ the guard thought, his eyes narrowing, ’those two look better than the chief does and that bat on his shoulder, doesn’t look like something you find in a dumpster.’

He looked at Shu, seeing the confident way he was standing, ’these two have a base somewhere,’ the guard thought, his jaw working, ’they don’t look that threating, we can definitely take it and whatever they have inside.’

He smiled, ’I need to tell the chief about this.’

"Name," he said flatly, pulling a clipboard from behind the gate.

Jin stepped forward before Shu could say anything. "They’re with me, I brought them to see my family." 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

The guard looked at Jin, then back at Shu and Nari, his eyes lingering a second too long before he stepped aside. "Fine, go."

They walked through and Shu did not look back but he could feel the guard’s eyes on him the whole way, heavy and calculating.

’Hmph,’ he thought, his expression flat, ’doesn’t matter what you are scheming, if you get in my way, I will crash all of you.’