Hot. Shower. Mom and Dad talked about them; said they were like when it rained even though the sun was out. A hot shower is nothing like that, though. A hot shower is the greatest thing. Ever. I didn’t like them taking my clothes and giving me somebody else’s. But that hot shower. Holy shit.

My heart jumped when I got out and the kid wasn’t there. Dr. P put her arm around my shoulder and guided me into a room where a bunch of people were eating. The kid was there, hair wet from his own shower, chowing down with a big grin on his face. I was given a tray of potatoes and sliced canned meat. Hot like the shower. I sat at the table next to the kid and ate my food. There were other kids there, all laughing and smiling. One little kid kept flicking water from his cup at another little kid, wasting it. The other little kid started crying like a fucking baby.

“You enjoy our shower?” A guy about my age was standing over me at the table with a stupid smirk on his face. “Three or four more and maybe you won’t stink, scavvie.”

“Fuck you,” I said and kept eating.

“Yeah,” he said. “It’s all ‘fuck you’ but you keep eating it, don’t you?”

From across the room, I heard raised voices. Dr. P was arguing with the man who’d brought us here. The man kept saying, “I told you, Pam! I told you what would happen!” Dr. P took him by the shoulders the way she did me and walked too far away for me to hear more.

“You’re the reason we’ve got to move camp,” the smirking guy said. “Assholes like you. Scavengers and hunters who won’t leave us in peace. Just take, take, take.”

I started to say that, hell yeah I take. Hell yeah, I’m not just given everything I ever wanted like a fucking baby. I started to get up and kick his camp-soft ass. Why the fuck did he deserve any of this and not me? But that’s when Dr. P came over to the table and told us to finish up quickly. It was time for a practice safety drill. Something about the way she said it told me it might not be practice at all.