Read Online The Scavengers by Gen Griffin - Free Book Online

isn't. They don't bother the Cube and we avoid them when we go outside of it. We almost never cross paths.”
    “Why did he come here tonight?” I countered.
    Drake kicked at the bus. “He was probably hoping I'd need his help. Seth would like nothing more than to see me beg.”
    “His help?” I asked.
    “It all goes back to what we do,” Drake shook his head in frustration. “You see, the Scavengers were scavengers originally but useful goods are becoming harder and harder to come by. The grocery stores are pretty much empty now. We're down to searching through individual houses and hoping like hell no one beat us to it. The thing is...” he trailed off but I didn't think I needed him to finish explaining anyway.
    “We're in Seth's turf.” I filled in the blanks in his sentence.
    “Yeah. We're in Seth's turf. He and his people have already raided most of the houses and businesses in the valley. The only supplies that are left are the ones they don't want.”
    “Oh my God.” The severity of our situation was easy to grasp with far reaching consequences.
    “It’s not a good situation,” Drake confirmed.
    “But, if they have all the canned goods, then why is Seth-? I mean, why does he look the way he does?”
    Drake was quiet for several minutes before answering.
    “There aren't enough cans,” he said finally.
    “What?”
    “You wanted to know why Seth is turning into a zombie. It’s because we're almost out of canned goods. Pretty soon no one is going to have a choice about whether or not they're going to eat contaminated food.”
    I was struck speechless by Drake's admission. The implications of running out of canned goods were almost too much to take in. If I hadn't already seen Seth – that dead eye – I would have accused Drake of lying to me.
    Drake kept right on talking. “You asked me about Ra-Shet earlier. Ra-Shet is a city a hundred or so miles from here. It’s supposed to be the only city within a thousand miles.”
    “A city?” I was stunned by his revelations.
    “Yeah.” Drake nodded. “A pretty big one.”
    “But, I thought there weren't any cities left?” I asked. “I was always told that the Cube was the closest thing left to a city.”
    “Maybe that was true when the Cube was first occupied, but it’s not true now. Ra-Shet is bigger than the Cube and it has a lot more people in it.”
    “Do they have canned goods?”
    “Not enough.” Drake's eyes searched mine, but I didn't know what he was hoping to see. “But they have more cans then we do.”
    “Oh, wow.”
    “Ra-Shet is struggling in a lot of the same ways the Cube is. There isn't enough food. Not enough supplies left over from before the apocalypse. The difference between Ra-Shet and the Cube is that the king of Ra-Shet is trying to promote growth and industry within the city. He's been working with his people to produce new goods, medicines and more food.”
    “Okay.” I took a deep breath and struggled to understand all the information that he'd given me. “I guess I'm having a hard time figuring out where all of this leaves us.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “You just told me that if we can't find more canned goods, we're all going to be forced to eat food that will slowly turn us into zombies.”
    “Right,” Drake nodded.
    “You also told me that we're unlikely to find very many cans because Seth and his people have already taken them.”
    “Now you're starting to understand.”
    “I don't feel like I understand anything. What are we supposed to do to get more food?”
    Drake shrugged his shoulders. “It’s a lot to take in, but what the Scavengers mostly do now is trade. We go back though the houses and stores looking for valuables that earlier searchers might not have thought to take. We trade anything we can find for more food.”
    “You've actually been to the city?” I asked.
    “Plenty of times. If we can't find parts for the bus tomorrow we're going to have to go to Ra-Shet to get