Free How To Avoid Death On A Daily Basis: Book One by V. Moody Page B

popped, and the centre glowed crimson like a warning light. Getting the burning logs out of that seemed like a fool’s errand. The job I was born for.
     
    I raised my stick, letting them see its barbed end for a moment (I enjoyed seeing their eyes widen as they realised I wasn’t quite so defenseless as they’d thought) before smacking it into the fire. I felt the nails dig into wood and pulled.
     
    A large log, bathed in flames, came skidding out. At the same time, the rest of the fire collapsed. Logs rolled out, the roasting pig fell, burning twigs went flying. Everyone jumped back, squealing and swearing as they tried to avoid getting hit by red-hot embers.
     
    I ignored the protests and hooked out some more logs.
     
    “For fuck’s sake! Look what you’ve done, bruv.” Dag sounded extremely hacked off. “It’s ruined!”
     
    The pig was lying in the dirt, a couple of burning branches on top searing the flesh.
     
    “What? He told me to help myself. If you want to blame someone—” I pointed at Tin “—blame him for being a cocky wanker. Anyway, the pig looks fine. Just think of it as barbecue.”
     
    I kicked the log nearest me so it rolled over to our area. The others followed my lead and kicked and poked the still-burning wood away from the murderous looks aimed our way.
     
     

23. Then There Were Three
     
    Getting a fire going was pretty easy since the logs were already smouldering nicely. We piled them together, added a few smaller bits of wood, and hey presto.
     
    We focused on getting the rabbit cleaned and organising a way to cook it. I could feel eyes on us, but made sure not to respond. There was no doubt in my mind that the issue was not over yet. At some point we would be made to pay for my outburst, but for the time being I intended to eat dinner and plan for tomorrow.
     
    It’s worth mentioning that while out little dispute was ongoing, the Cool Kids totally ignored us. I don’t mean they watched quietly, I mean I don’t think they even noticed. Whatever they were talking about must have been far more important and interesting than what us plebs got up to.
     
    Cooking the rabbit was kind of tricky without utensils. Although we’d probably find out later that Captain Grayson had a drawer full of spoons, forks, pots and pans. I emptied my stew into one of the other dishes and placed my dish on top of the fire. Thanks to Flossie’s knife, cutting up the rabbit wasn’t too hard. I placed the chunks on the dish like it was a hot plate and let them sizzle away.
     
    My spike with the handle worked well as a tool to take bits of rabbit off the hot plate, but you had to be quick.
     
    We impaled the main body onto Maurice’s metal rod and balanced it (rather precariously) on posts hammered into the ground. Turning it so the flames cooked it evenly took some doing, and it fell into the fire a couple of times. But it tasted quite good, if a little plain.
     
    Together with the stew, we had quite a filling meal. It also helped that Dudley came up with the idea of whittling some of the firewood into crude spoons using Flossie’s knife. We sat around the fire stuffing our faces.
     
    Darkness crept up on us, revealing a stunning sky of stars. Was it different to our own sky? I have no idea. I didn’t recognise any constellations, but then I probably wouldn’t back home either. In London, where I lived, the city lights made it hard to see the night sky properly. Plus it was  London, so heavy rain clouds were the norm. I did think maybe there’d be two or three moons up there, but there weren’t any.
     
    We lay on our blankets, staring up at the glittering sky, which definitely seemed to be stuffed to overfilling with pinpoints of light.
     
    The other groups settled down for the night and one thing became apparent. There were only three groups now. The four girls hadn’t returned, and it didn’t look like they were coming back.
     
    My first thought was that they were dead. They met