Frenzy (The Frenzy Series Book 1) by Casey L. Bond

feet on the ground. My heart skipped and butterflies took flight, their wings tickling my stomach. I’d heard Mercedes talk about swooning over boys our whole lives, but never dead ones, or undead ones, for that matter. Why wasn’t I feeling those wings for Saul?

 
     

     
    Saul offered to carry me home but I wouldn’t let him, so he walked slowly with me. My legs quivered and I felt weak, but he walked at my pace, side by side, his arm at my lower back ready to swoop in if I stumbled. (Which I did a few times.) “Do you have any chicken left over?” Glancing up at him, I could tell he knew the answer.
    “I’ll be fine. We just have to stop for the rations this morning.”
    “You need to eat.”
    I laughed mirthlessly. “I need the rations in order to eat, Saul.”
    His jaw worked back and forth, but he led us to Town Hall, ran in, and grabbed both his sack and mine and came right back to me like a boomerang. The burlap bags were half full of something, I hoped meat or cheese, but anything was better than nothing.
    About a block from my house, Saul stopped and told me to hold on a sec. He rifled through one of the sacs gently. “Cheese, bread, and two eggs, so be careful. Here.” He extended a hand with a wedge of cheddar. “It’s not meat, but it’ll help. Cook the eggs when you get inside.”
    I nodded, nibbling at the exquisite orange triangle, trying to savor every morsel. With cheeks stuffed with cheese, I accepted the sack he gave me. “Dinner this evening before we go back?” he asked hopefully.
    “Sure. Where do you want to meet?”
    “What about under the big maple near the river?”
    “I’ll meet you there.”
    He nodded and I shrugged out of his coat for the second time that morning. “I’ll get Mercedes’ for tonight,” I promised. Saul sat his sack down and pulled his coat on, buttoning it against the cold. The sun had risen during our long trek home. Roman would already be inside by now.
    “Take care of yourself, Porsch.”
    “You too.”
    I watched him walk away, one hand clutching the extra rations and the other on the cold metal handle of our front door. When I pushed it open, Father was standing there. I breathed a sigh of relief. “You look pale,” he said in a concerned voice.
    “It was my first time. It freaked me out a little bit.”
    “Let’s cook some breakfast.” He ushered me inside. “Your mother and Ford are still asleep.”
    “You haven’t woken her?”
    Father grinned. “Not yet.”
     

     
    Father stoked the fire while I broke the two eggs into a pan. I would split the ration with Father and Ford, but if Mother thought she was taking more food out of my mouth, she was sorely mistaken. “I have to work the soil in the back garden this morning so it can rest for spring, but I want you to come back from Mrs. Dillinger’s at midday. I’ll teach you what I can.”
    “Thank you.”
    He smiled slightly and told me to cook my eggs. “They’re our eggs,” I corrected.
    Father placed his hand over mine on the pan. “They are yours. You are giving so that the entire Colony can have meat.”
    “What if the hunt isn’t successful?”
    “The risk you take is still appreciated, Porschia. And you will eat every bite of both eggs this morning.”
    “Fine, but we split the other rations.” That would be bread, because I’d stuffed my face full of all the cheese on the way here.
    “The bread and cheese will be wonderful. Thank you.”
    “Cheese?”
    Father rifled into the bag on the counter, pulling out an orange triangle identical to the one I ate on the journey home. Saul took the wrong bag…or he gave me his on purpose.
    Heat flooded my cheeks and my head sank in shame. What he must think of me. The reason he proposed was obvious. Pity. He felt sorry for me. And the reason I even told him that I needed a husband or the rotation’s rations? Desperation. Weakness. Everything a man wouldn’t want in a woman.
    Mother made her appearance just as I swallowed