The rain tapped slowly on the roof of the tent. Inside, Jones sat upright staring at the ground. He had been like this for 30 minutes now, at least.
The incident with his sister was 3 years ago, but Jones was never the same as when he was a boy. The tent was unzipped and a girl walked in. Teenage, around Jones' age.
"What are you doin'?" She asks sternly but concerned.
Jones lifts his head up and looks at her.
"Nothing. What's the issue?"
"I was just asking. It's your turn to skin the hides." She said.
Jones sighed and stood up quickly. Without saying a word, he walked out of the tent into the pouring rain.
"That one and that one." Gus pointed at the unskinned squirrels. He patted Jones on the shoulder and walked past him.
Jones marched over to the two squirrels on the hangar. He darted his eyes around until he found the skinning blade. Jones stretched and reached for the blade.
Right as he was about to grab it, a hand quickly swooped in and snatched it.
"Too slow!" Tenn exclaimed, grinning like a madman.
Jones snatched the blade from Tenn's hand and leaned back towards his squirrels.
"Damn, man. I was just kidding." Tenn says quieter than normal.
"Do you see me laughing? No." Jones asserted.
"Why are you like this?"
Jones locked eyes with Tenn.
"Because I have to be."
Jones severed the first half of the squirrel's skin.
"The only one around here with some damn common sense."
Tenn tilted his head.
"Common sense? What are you talking about" Tenn chuckled in confusion.
"Look around us, Tenn." Jones points to every tent one-by-one.
"Living in tents? We're not bison."
Jones aggressively tosses the squirrel hide aside. He darts his head back to Tenn, locking eyes with him.
"We have to restore the world." Jones said.
Tenn looked at Jones' expression. He was dead serious.
"Restore? There are undead monsters who eat people." Tenn exclaimed.
"We can't exactly erase them. Or go back." Tenn said.
Jones put his finger up to stop Tenn from talking any more.
"Not if you think of it like that, moron."
"We need to build walls. Big walls. Then we can build a city inside. Maybe even take back the continent." Jones explained.
"They'll die of hunger at some point."
Tenn looked at Jones with a pained expression.
"We can't exactly build walls. For one, we don't have the resources. Two, we don't have the manpower to build big ass "walls". We just can't, man." Tenn states.
Jones stares Tenn dead in the eye.
"Get the fuck out of my face, Tenn."
"Now."
Tenn sighs.
"Have it your way." Tenn marches away.
Jones puts his face in his palm and takes a deep sigh.
"We can't live like this. Like prey." He mutters to himself.
Jones removes his hand from his face and notices the squirrel blood on his hand. He uses his sleeve to wipe the blood from his face.
"Damn it."
Jones continues skinning the second squirrel.