Chapter 189: The problem

Seeing the children go quiet again, Leo realized asking questions wouldn’t work. They were too guarded. He had to lower their defenses first.

"Okay, you all," he said, turning back toward Storm. "Follow me."

The kids exchanged uncertain glances. Nobody knew what he wanted, but after a brief pause, they trailed behind him in a tight group. At the truck, Leo climbed inside.

"Wait here."

The children nodded, staying put as he disappeared into the rear compartment. Facing the storage cabinets, Leo called out.

"Storm, give me eight packets of protein bars."

"Yes, Master."

A small door slid open, revealing neat rows of bars. Leo grabbed eight and faced the front of the truck.

"Storm, prepare a meal for the eight children. It should be nutritious. Add milk and eggs as well. If you don’t have enough ingredients, tell me."

"Understood, Master," the mechanical voice answered. A beat passed. "Master, I am short on eggs and milk."

Leo nodded. He pulled several Resource Cards from his storage space and released them one by one. A golden glow filled the cabin, fading to reveal piles of supplies on the floor: rice, meat, vegetables, milk, and eggs.

"Stock up on these," Leo said. "You can preserve them, right?"

"Yes, Master. No problem."

"Good."

Grabbing a folded mat, Leo stepped back outside. The children squatted together on the dirt, checking the truck every few seconds. The second he came into view, they scrambled upright.

Leo smiled. "Come. Sit here."

He rolled the mat over the ground. They huddled close and took a seat. Leo offered a bar to each child, but no one reached for it. Their eyes locked onto the shiny wrappers, while their hands stayed pinned to their laps. The conflict on their faces was clear. They were starving, yet something held them back.

Leo let his shoulders slump and put on a wounded look. "Oh... I see."

The kids looked up.

"So now you all think your Big Brother Leo is a bad person." He made his face drop even further. "You all hate me now. And you won’t even accept the things I give you."

Becca’s eyes widened. Unable to stand seeing him sad, she jumped to her feet.

"It’s not like that, Big Brother Leo! We don’t hate you! It’s just..." She paused, picking at the hem of her shirt. "It’s just..."

She lowered her head.

"We had a problem with our food supply. Big Sister Nina told us not to bother other people."

Leo’s face grew serious.

"She especially told us not to disturb you," Becca went on. "Food is very precious and rare nowadays. She said we shouldn’t keep bothering you whenever we have problems." Her voice dropped to a whisper. "So... we didn’t want to trouble you."

It all made sense. Nina hadn’t neglected them; she just knew supplies were limited and wanted to protect his stash. The kids had just taken her warning to heart.

Leo smiled. "Okay. But you won’t be bothering me." He offered the bar again. "So just take what I give you. Don’t worry about what other people say."

This time, the hesitation barely lasted a second. One by one, little hands reached out. Becca tore open her wrapper, and the others followed her lead. Crinkling plastic echoed over the mat. Leo sat among them, watching the gloom fade from their faces as they chewed.

In minutes, the bars were gone, a few kids licking crumbs from their fingers. Leo smiled. At least they had some energy now.

He looked around at the group. "Alright. Since you all ate my food..." He paused for dramatic effect. "...it’s time for you to pay me."

The smiles vanished from their faces. Ben looked nervous.

"Pay?"

Leo gave a serious nod. "Of course. You thought I was giving you free food?"

The kids traded worried looks. Ben stared at his lap.

"Big Brother Leo... We don’t have any money. We don’t have anything else to pay you with."

Ron’s head popped up, a spark in his eyes as he sprang to his feet.

"Big Brother Leo! We don’t have anything to pay you with... But if you have some work you want us to do... We can do it!"

The gloom lifted from the rest of the group.

"Yeah!"

"We can help!"

"We can do things too!"

A faint smile touched Leo’s lips. "Are you all sure? You’ll do whatever I tell you?"

Heads bobbed up and down. "Yes!"

"Okay." Leo leaned forward. "Then tell me what happened with your food supply."

The cheerful energy drained away, leaving a heavy silence behind. Leo raised an eyebrow.

"What? Didn’t you just say you’d do anything I asked? You can’t back out now." He crossed his arms. "This is the price I want."

The kids shot nervous looks at each other. No one made a sound. Leo waited. Eventually, Ben lifted his chin. His young face looked dead serious.

"Big Brother Leo... It’s..." He swallowed hard. "It’s Big Brother Atlas."

Leo’s eyebrows crept up.

"Atlas?"

"Yes." Ben nodded, taking a deep breath to explain.

"Ever since we all left Rendell City, Big Brother Atlas has been acting strangely. He keeps getting hungry, and no matter how much he eats, he is never satisfied."

He paused, staring down at his lap. "At first, he tried to control his hunger because he didn’t want to worry us. But since yesterday, it has gotten much worse. Big Brother Atlas seemed to be in a lot of pain, so Nina and the rest of us thought that if he ate until he was full, he would be okay."

Ben picked at the edge of the mat. "Big Sis Valentine had given us a lot of food this time. So we weren’t worried. We kept giving him more and more food, and he just kept eating."

A shadow of worry crossed the boy’s face. "That was when we realized that Big Brother Atlas had eaten everything we had stored. We felt bad for him, so we all gave our own food to Big Brother Atlas. This is why we’re so hungry. We haven’t eaten anything since yesterday afternoon."

Leo’s features hardened into a grim line. He had guessed the kids were dealing with a food shortage, but he never imagined a reason like this.