Apocalypsis 02 - Warpaint

wench on her best days. I took a step forward to put more distance between us.
    “So what’s the scoop?” I asked. “When do you want to start training?”
    “Today. We have a place on drier land we can use. How many can you handle?”
    “How many do you have?” I turned to face him so he wouldn’t think I was being rude.
    His expression revealed nothing about what he might be feeling. “The Miccosukee have thirty-five guys and twenty girls.”
    “What about the others?”
    “The Creek? I’m not sure. Probably about the same.”
    “Well, that’s way too many to do at once.”
    “I figured. So we’ll divide them up. Just tell me how many you can do at a time, whether you want them mixed or guys separate from the girls, and how many sessions you think you can manage in a day. I’m sure it’s very tiring, so if you can only do one or two, that’s fine. We’ll understand.”
    I shrugged. Yeah, it was tiring. But here there was food to fuel the calorie burn, and I needed to work hard to get my butt back in shape; I’d gotten lax in the last few months. Living alone in my house, isolated the way I had been, caused me to neglect my training. I’m just lucky my dad had ingrained it in my life for so many years before he died. Otherwise, I would have never survived the two canner attacks I’d dealt with before arriving here.
    “I’ll work with ten at a time, max. Smaller groups are better and they should always have an even number so everyone can have a partner. Let’s keep the guys and girls separate to start.”
    “How many sessions a day can you handle?”
    “I don’t know, really. I’ve never taught before. Maybe three? Let’s try it like that and then I’ll see how it goes.” I looked at him, searching his face for any kind of detectible emotion. “I assume I’m going to be working with the Creek too, right?” I was hoping he hadn’t changed his mind about working with them in some sort of cohesive group.
    “Yeah. I think that’s the idea. We’ll find out for sure today. Maybe tomorrow. I expect Trip to show up at some point.”
    “He doesn’t seem the type to keep other people’s schedules.”
    “You’ve already figured him out, I see.”
    “Guys like him aren’t that difficult to see through.”
    “Don’t count Trip out so easily. He might surprise you. We used to be friends. I know him pretty well, or I did, anyway. Just don’t let him get away with anything. He’s going to try, you know.”
    I smiled slightly. “I wouldn’t expect anything less.”
    “Then you’ll get along just fine with him.” Kowi turned and headed back in the direction we came. “Breakfast is on its way if you’re hungry.”
    “Yeah. I’ll catch up,” I said, waiting for him to get out of sight. I hadn’t taken my morning pee yet and I was desperate for a bit of cover and a leaf.
    A few seconds later I heard his voice coming through the trees. “We have outhouses for that, you know!”
    My face burned red as I shouted back. “Directions?!”
    “Follow me!”
    I sighed heavily, shaking my head. One of these days I was not going to feel awkward and out of place in this tribe. At least, I hoped so.
    ***
    The outhouse was located quite a distance from our hut, on a piece of dry land. Kowi explained as we walked.
    “We needed to keep it away from our water sources and the wildlife that we hunt that use the waterways. We’ll move this one when it’s full. The whole structure can be taken down and set up somewhere else.”
    I went inside and saw that essentially, it was a hole in the ground with a bench over it. The bench seat had a circle cut out of it in the middle for resting a person’s butt. The whole setup was surrounded by flimsy walls. The bench could be lifted up for guys to pee, which I sincerely hoped they did since there was no such thing as toilet paper here to clean it with. I saw a stack of homemade paper nearby that looked really scratchy, though, and I was more than a little excited about being able to use something that wasn’t leaves for a change. As soon as I finished my business, I found out firsthand that it was quite rough, but it was better than the alternative. The inside of the outhouse didn’t smell much better than a construction site toilet, but it did the trick. I was going to have to figure out a way to not need to go during the night, though. It was too far of a trek otherwise, and the mosquitoes would have me in lumps from head to toe before I got