The Things We Lost, Part 3

Caleb emerged from his tent and greeted the day with a full-body stretch. Once again, there were no sounds of birds chirping in the air, and while it still unnerved him somewhat, he was starting to get used to it. As he absent-mindedly stoked the ashes of last night's fire, he noticed a few bugs crawling around the ashes. It wasn't much, but it was nice to see that this place really wasn't bereft of life.

Hope woke up soon after, and once they were ready, they began properly exploring the valley. Their current goal, which they had decided on last night, was to look for any animals that still remained within the radius of the fire while making sure nothing could start another wildfire. While there was still some semblance of wildlife here, a lot of it was burnt cinders, so if there were any animals still here, they needed to move them to the parts of the forest that hadn't been burnt down.

That all depended on whether they could find any animals, of course. For the time being, they still hadn't seen much sign of life, except for the trail of bugs Caleb saw earlier. The fallen, half-burnt trees also made the valley a harder place to traverse, which meant it took much longer to cover what they'd usually do in no time. As their stamina began to drain, the two were forced to take an early break, resting in the shade of a tree near a small creek.

As they chatted idly, Caleb heard the sound of two sets of footsteps approaching them. Sure enough, Tia and Aislinn soon emerged from the burnt woods. Tia's face of disdain betrayed the fact that she knew they'd be there, as if her attitude didn't already make it clear.

“You two again, huh? What, are you the only other people here?”

“Can't even offer a friendly hello, huh?” Caleb sighed.

“W-We were surprised to see that a section of the forest so deep in the wildfire's radius escaped being turned entirely to ash, so we thought we'd investigate,” Aislinn said apologetically, as if trying to make up for her partner's rude disposition. “We saw your camp a little distance back, so we sort of figured you'd be here.”

“I see. As for this place, I believe that fires take longer to burn downhill, so I imagine that's the reason this place isn't as damaged by the flames. Ironically, it's actually made things harder for us. The half-burnt trees are all getting in the way, and navigation is a little rough.”

After some more back-and-forth, the two pairs decided to travel together for a bit. Tia seemed to be the only one unhappy with the arrangement, but she made no argument against it otherwise. As they made their way through the forest, Caleb, Aislinn, and Hope continued to chat about the job and what they'd discovered, with only Tia willfully keeping silent.

Uncharacteristically, Caleb found himself irritated. Sure, he knew that Tia had something against him, and while he wasn't personally offended by her dislike of him, he thought it was unprofessional of her to act like this. If she didn't want to work with him, she should have said so earlier, but since she hadn't, it was ungracious of her to act petulant.

He figured he'd try to draw her in to the conversation. “Tia, what do you think? Are we going to be able to find any animals hiding out here?”

No response. Tia didn't even bother to look his way, which annoyed him even further. Funnily enough, he didn't think even Hope managed to frustrate him this much. Perhaps it was because Tia had much more experience and time spent as a remainer. She should have enough experience to know that she was being immature, and yet she was still acting this way.

After a little more walking, the group took another break while resting in the shade of some mangled trees. He noticed Aislinn and Hope having a conversation and decided to take the time to talk to Tia yet again. He figured he'd probably get the cold shoulder again, but he had to at least try.

“Listen, I suppose it's a little weird to ask outright, but did I do something to offend you in some way?” Caleb asked gingerly. “It's pretty obvious to everyone that you have something against me.”

“Is that so?” Tia replied with a voice dripping in scorn. “I don't know about that. Maybe you're a bit too self-obsessed. Not everything has to be about you, does it?”

Caleb sighed. At least he got her to say something this time around. “Even so, the way you're treating me is a little much, isn't it? At the very least, you should have said something if you didn't want to work with me.”

“I don't really care. Whether you're around or not, it doesn't really get in the way of my work.”

“Don't be stubborn. There's a lot of ground to cover, and being uncooperative isn't going to make things easier. I don't know what you have against me, but let's at least work together for the time being.”

Tia replied with a vicious glare. “Don't you think that's the problem? The fact that you don't know is the reason why I'm so angry!”

“What?” Caleb had no idea how to respond to that. “I'm sorry, but I've wracked my brains over what I could have done to you, but nothing really speaks to my mind. I mean, this is the first time I've seen you in two years, and that time was the first time I ever met you!”

“Maybe you should wrack your brain a little harder, then!” Tia growled. “There aren't that many options, are there?”

“You could stand to communicate a little better,” Caleb complained, his voice starting to grow angrier. “It's important for us remainers to work together. Where's the value in holding a grudge against me?”

Tia huffed. “Fine. If you're going to be like that, why don't we just go our separate ways already? There's no need for us to work together anyway.”

Caleb sighed. Well, it was true that there wasn't any requirement for them to work together. If that was what she wanted, well, he couldn't possibly tell her no. Of course, there might have been some room to negotiate, but considering how uncooperative she'd been, even Caleb didn't really want to work with her that badly. He turned around to call over Hope, but to his surprise, he found that both his and Tia's partners were missing.

He spun around as he looked for the two, but he could find no sign of them except for a trail of pressed down grass heading south, which he assumed was the two of them walking off. He sighed and turned back to Tia, exasperation clear on his face. “Looks like our partners got tired of us feuding and walked off on their own.”

Tia looked shocked for a moment, but after confirming that Caleb wasn't pulling her leg, her expression changed to one of sheer disdain. “Damn that Aislinn. She's doing this again, is she?”

Caleb raised an eyebrow. “Sounds like this is something she does often. Might it have something to do with your personality?”

Tia responded with a bitter scowl. “You've certainly become snarky. Given up on being polite, have you?”

Caleb merely folded his arms in response. “I don't take kindly to having my courtesy thrown back in my face, after all.”

Tia sighed and turned to walked off. “Where you going?” Caleb asked. “That's not where Hope and Aislinn were headed.”

“Aislinn probably wants me to spend some alone time with you so that we can get over our differences,” Tia explained. “She's done this a couple times now when we've had to work with other remainers.”

“Maybe you should work on that if even your partner thinks it's a problem.”

“That's none of your business!” Tia growled. “In any case, Aislinn thinks she's slick, but I'm not playing her game this time! I'll work alone by myself if I have to.”

“Don't be like that,” Caleb said as he followed her. “She's only worried about you.”

“Well, I don't need it. I may look young, but I've been working on Earth for centuries just like everyone else! I'm not a kid!”

“I'm sure that's not why she's doing this. Come on, let's go after them.”

“Shut up! Stop following me!”

Caleb persisted nevertheless. He couldn't leave Tia alone, and it wasn't because she looked younger than him. He knew how much it hurt to be on his lonesome, and even if Tia claimed that she would be just fine, it didn't sit right with him to leave her alone. He would accompany her as long as he needed to, even if it only earned him angry glares the whole way.