Page 31 of The Compound

It worked out well, to cast out a boy and a girl: that way, no one had to sleep alone. That night, everyone had a huge slab of meat, any kind or cut we wanted, and we stuffed our faces with bread until our jaws ached. Mia took pains to assure us that her vegetarianism had just been a phase she was going through. Vanessa ran into the kitchen as soon as she hadeaten and put some bread in a cupboard, freezing the rest along with the meat. She used a padlock that we had earned the other day to lock the freezer. It had been a hard day, but we had put the work in; we knew we wouldn’t be hungry again for a long time, and we feasted like kings.

Seven

In the days that followed,we relaxed a little, spending more time by the pool, sitting down for long, leisurely dinners, and taking extended naps. Tom was the only one who remained high-strung. When the sun rose each morning he went out to sit by the front entrance. One morning I slipped out the back door, walked around the house, and appeared silently before him. He gave an almighty lurch in his seat, nearly falling to the ground. I had never seen him so discomposed. I watched neutrally as he straightened himself in his seat again.

“Morning,” I said.

“Morning. I’m glad to see you, actually—I have a favor to ask.”

Despite myself, I was pleased. It felt nice to be needed. “What can I do?”

“I was wondering if you might speak to Sam.”

“About what?”

“We need to get back to doing tasks. We’ve been getting complacent since we got the food delivery. Sam’s in charge of Repairs and Construction. People trust him. If he would say something to the others about needing to get back on track, they’d take it seriously.”

“Why don’t you say it to him?”

“He might pay it more mind if it came from you.” I considered his words. I wasn’t sure if he was taunting me, hinting that he knew I liked Sam, or if it was simply because Tom was intimidated by Sam, and wanted someone else to speak to him.

“Why don’t you get Andrew to say it?”

He picked up a stray piece of rubbish from the ground. I felt a dim flush of shame. Cleaning was my department, not his.

“Andrew and I aren’t in charge, you know. We all have a say in how things are run. Otherwise it wouldn’t work.” I watched him place the piece of plastic in the recycling bin by the entrance, then sit back down, his arms braced on his knees. The sun was in his eyes, but he looked at me directly. “Would you mind mentioning it to Sam, then?”

Sam and I were hardly close, even if we were on slightly better terms after killing the ducks together. Becca was Sam’s bedmate: it would have made more sense to ask her. I wondered if Tom knew that she loathed him.

“I’ll say it to him,” I said.

I woke Andrew, as was now our custom. He turned to Candice and kissed her lightly on the lips. She smiled and opened her eyes. Becca and Sam were still sleeping. Ryan was, too: he generally woke close to noon. We sometimes had to delay doing a task until he woke, but no one ever gave him trouble for it; no one really criticized Ryan—even the bitchier girls only ever said that he was indisputably gorgeous. He slept like the dead and could nap at any time of the day. I wondered if he’d had a stressful job, and if this time on the compound was a rare break, or if he was naturally easygoing.

My little screen said:

Task: Wear another girl’s clothes without asking

Reward:Mug

I mulled for a moment. A mug was a fairly basic prize at this point in the show. But, I consoled myself, rifling through the others girls’ clothes, it would likely be a very nice mug.

Mia was closest to my size, but I didn’t dare to cross her, though she had been nice enough to me recently. Instead, I took a dress from Jacintha’s wardrobe, a beautiful blue midi-length tea dress, and twirled around in front of all the mirrors, and laughed a little. I then slipped on her sandals, a bit too big, but not too bad. I looked good. I had been collecting more and more rewards from Personal Tasks, and had started to look similar to how I would have on an average day at home.

I saw Jacintha later, fixing a drip in the bathroom sink, and watched her do a double take. I chewed my cheek, but said nothing. She frowned at me, but then I saw something shift in her expression as she realizedthat it must have been for a Personal Task. She didn’t look thrilled, but she let me pass by without comment.

The mug was unexpectedly gorgeous: wide-brimmed, lilac, with silver clouds painted along its circumference. I put it in the cupboard, thinking gleefully about how drab the other mugs looked beside mine.

Everyone must have been doing a number of Personal Tasks that day, for they were all acting strangely. I found Marcus in the kitchen, holding his hand in the freezer. When he saw me he smiled painfully, but didn’t otherwise move. Vanessa sat down beside me at the edge of the pool and, apropos of nothing, said hello to me in five different languages.

There was time now, too, to be with our bedmates, and I sought Ryan out early in the afternoon, when we usually would be doing Communal Tasks. I found him doing chin-ups on a bar that the boys had installed over their dressing room’s doorway. He was shirtless. “Looking good,” I said.

“Thanks,” he said, touching back on the ground. He picked up two enormous cartons of protein powder called Strong Stuff and used them to do bicep curls. He continued that way for a long time, his face blank with concentration, the cartons rising and falling, and I wondered if he was angling for a sponsorship deal from the brand.

When he was done, he pulled me into the bathroom, still doorless, and kissed me against the sink. I sighed into his mouth, and he gripped me tighter. Then he was lifting me and carrying me into the shower. I giggled, and he kissed my neck hungrily. He cupped my breast, and I shivered. When he lifted my dress, I stepped back, and said, “Wait.”

“What’s wrong? Don’t you want to?”

“No. I mean, I do, but…”

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