Gone Series Complete Collection by Grant Michael

Author:Grant, Michael
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2014-06-02T16:00:00+00:00

THIRTY-FOUR

7 HOURS, 2 MINUTES

DIANA STARTED TO cry when Sanjit put the bowl of Cheerios in front of her. He poured from a carton of shelf-stable milk and the milk was so white and the cereal so fragrant, so wonderfully noisy as it sloshed around in the blue bowl.

She reached for it with her fingers. Then she noticed the spoon. It was clean. Bright.

With trembling fingers she dipped the spoon into the cereal and raised it to her lips. The rest of the world disappeared then, for just a few moments. Caine and Penny wolfed from their own bowls, Bug completely visible as he did likewise. But all she noticed, all she felt, was the cool crunch, the rush of sugar, the shock of recognition.

Yes, this was food.

Diana’s tears ran down her face into the spoon, adding a touch of salt to her second bite.

She blinked and saw Sanjit staring at her. He held the industrial-size box of cereal at the ready in one hand, the carton of milk in the other.

Penny laughed and spilled cereal and milk from her lips.

“Food,” Caine said.

“Food,” Bug agreed.

“What else do you have?” Caine asked.

“You have to take it slow,” Sanjit said.

“Don’t tell me how to take it.”

Sanjit did not back down. “You aren’t the first starving people I’ve seen.”

“Someone else from Perdido Beach?” Caine demanded sharply.

Sanjit exchanged a look with the younger boy, Virtue. He’d told Diana that was his real name.

“So it’s pretty bad on the mainland,” Sanjit said.

Caine finished his cereal. “More.”

“A starving person eats too much all at once, he gets sick,” Sanjit said. “You end up puking it all up.”

“More,” Caine said with unmistakable threat in his voice.

Sanjit poured him a refill, then did the same for the rest of them. “Sorry we don’t have any Cap’n Crunch or Froot Loops,” Sanjit said. “Jennifer and Todd are into nutrition. I guess it wouldn’t do for them to be photographed with fat children.”

Diana noted the sardonic tone. And as she gulped the second bowl she noted, too, that her stomach was cramping. She made herself stop.

“There’s plenty of food,” Sanjit said gently just to her. “Take your time. Give your body time to adjust.”

Diana nodded. “Where did you see starving people?”

“Where I grew up. Beggars. Maybe they’d get too sick to beg sometimes, or just have a run of bad luck, and then they’d get pretty hungry.”

“Thanks for the food,” Diana said. She wiped away tears and tried to smile. But she remembered that her gums were swollen and red and her smile wasn’t too attractive.

“I also saw scurvy sometimes,” Sanjit said. “You have it. I’ll get you each some vitamins. You’ll be better in a few days.”

“Scurvy,” Diana said. It seemed ridiculous. Scurvy was from pirate movies.

Caine was looking around the room, appraising. They were at a massive wooden table just beyond the kitchen. It could have seated thirty people on the long benches.

“Nice,” Caine said, waving his spoon to indicate the room.

“It’s the staff table,” Virtue said. “But we eat here because the family table is kind of uncomfortable.

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