The entire team had risen very early that morning, as they had the day before and the days prior, to harvest the ripe wheat. They stood tall and had a beautiful color, yet Mathieu was skeptical. According to him, they had an abnormal shape.
It was as if his wheat had been crossed with another species. The leaves were also slightly different. They were wider and shorter than they should have been.
As he had said more than once, since he had watched them grow with the greatest attention all these weeks, it was not because his ears were different that they would not feed them. The harvest was looking okay. Not glorious, but okay. He attributed this success, in addition to his team of brave farmers, to the natural fertilizers they had used.
Due to the malfunction of the toilets, they had all been forced to find solutions. All their excrement had ended up in the fields. There was no waste. They couldn't afford it. All the water used for anything other than drinking was reused to irrigate the crops.
Interestingly, there was no particular smell when walking in the black earth between the crops and plots. Unless, of course, their noses had become accustomed to an odor they would have considered foul three months earlier. Anyway, nobody complained, not even the youngest members of this modest community.
In recent days, the team revolving around Mathieu had been eating well. Thanks to mild weather, the potato and other vegetable harvests had been done. The onions had yielded a lot, which was a stroke of luck. They had planted about ten onions with little hope, since they did not look good when planting.
Each onion had produced at least five. Some were large and others smaller, but it didn't matter. Everything that was edible was good.
The potatoes had also yielded a lot thanks to Stéphanie's remarkable work. She had taken care of this sector entirely. She had monitored the growth of the leaves, chased away slugs and snails, made sure the plants lacked nothing, and remained strong. In short, she had done everything.
Although the temptation to harvest them early to have something to eat quickly was great, they had been very patient and waited for them to grow. When Stéphanie had started to remove the soil, everyone had exploded with joy!
They were beautiful!
Each member of the team had been entitled to a nice potato cooked in water. What was regrettable was that they had neither salt nor butter to make them more delicious. They were still devoured, including the skin.
Ah... My back...
The girl had pain everywhere, but currently it was her back that hurt the most.
They formed a line and one step after another they advanced, cutting the wheat stalks containing the precious grain at the end. They were not very profitable, especially when comparing their work to what a combine harvester did.
They had to grab bunches of stalks, the equivalent of a handful, and cut them with their tools. A scythe or sickle would have done the job just fine, but Mathieu had only a few of these tools. Finding them in the mess had already been an achievement, as his father had the bad habit of accumulating objects.
Since his death, Stéphanie had learned since her arrival that he had died of cancer a few years before the blackout, Mathieu had hardly touched anything in his treasure trove, as he called it. For Mathieu, it was just a huge pile of odds and ends. Fortunately, there were antiques in there that were very useful to them now.
If Jérôme could handle an old but impressive scythe, still effective despite the rust, Stéphanie had to make do with a simple meat knife. The blade was long and its edge sharp as a razor.
They were watched with curiosity and amusement by Leto and Soda, who must have thought it was some kind of game. At the beginning of the harvest, the two dogs had been scolded for playing with the newly harvested wheat. Since then, they had stayed a bit away.
"OK, everyone! Let's take a break!" Mathieu declared to everyone.
"Ah, finally!"
Stéphanie rose slowly, supporting her back like an old woman, and felt a hand on her shoulder. It was Marie. Her hair was a bit longer, but she still had time if she wanted to make a long braid as she used to when she was younger.
Marie had always had beautiful hair, but unlike Stéphanie, she did not go beyond strands. Stéphanie also had beautiful hair, however, it had all disappeared when she started dyeing her hair. She had dyed her hair blue, red, pink, green, purple before going back to blue.
After three months without shampoo and even less color-safe shampoo, her hair had lost all its shine. Of course, her hair had grown, revealing the original color of her hair.
The meal was hearty despite the fact that there was still no meat. All the small animals caught, mainly rodents and birds, were reserved for the dogs who could not just eat vegetables.
"Where do you think it's the worst?" Baptiste, Jérôme and Léa's eldest son, launched a discussion topic while everyone was eating and recovering strength.
After confusion and anger, everyone around this table had eventually accepted that electricity would not come back and that no help would come from the outside. If France had been the only country affected by this total blackout, they would have at least received information. But there was nothing. Only a deathly silence. This could only mean one thing: their allies were in the same situation as them.
"The United States," Kevin replied as if it were obvious. "There are so many weapons there that they must be shooting everywhere."
"But they have a huge territory with large plains. I've been there and I can guarantee you that their fields have nothing to do with Mathieu's. I would say Japan. It's mostly mountains and they live, or lived, surrounded by technology. If they are affected like us, it must have been a shock. Can you imagine their big cities without lights? Plus, there are a lot of old people in Japan because they stopped having children. They are so... From what I've seen in the documentaries, I'm not sure they can work the little land they have and have children like before."
"Not wrong," Mathieu said thoughtfully, "but at least they are orderly without being forced. It's natural for them to be respectful. They will help each other, that's for sure, and overcome this crisis before everyone else. I say China. They are so numerous and all in the east of the country. If there is a widespread blackout, people will die of hunger by the hundreds of thousands. Not to mention the chaos. In my opinion, the country was standing before the blackout only because the Chinese Communist Party closely controlled the population. But without artificial intelligence and cameras, I wouldn't give them two days. I think three-quarters of the Chinese are dead now."
"Th-three-quarters?! That's crazy! India must be terrible too, then?"
"I don't know much about that country," Mathieu admitted. "I just know it's very big, that there are almost autonomous states and a big fertile region. Honestly, I don't know what it's like there. There were already big differences between cities and the countryside and within the cities themselves. Plus, there's a caste system."
As the debate raged on, a noise was heard outside. Dogs were barking. Everyone looked for Leto and Soda before noticing that the two dogs had disappeared. The group jumped up and hurried out to see what was happening.
Following the noises, they saw in the distance a silhouette running in the opposite direction to leave the field. He ran strangely, as if he were injured. Yet, he was going quite fast.
"Another damn thief!"
This was not the first time this had happened. For some time now, Mathieu's farm had been experiencing thefts. Not surprisingly, it was mainly food that was stolen. The easiest to take was the vegetables. They could be consumed quite easily unlike the wheat.
"Stop stealing my vegetables! Damn it!" Mathieu shouted towards the fleeing man who had already disappeared.
While Soda had returned, Leto had not.
Stéphanie and the others searched the fields, focusing on the area where the thief was, and eventually found him. Unfortunately, the poor creature had been injured in the right hind leg. Apparently, the thief had hit him to be able to flee.
A terrible anger suddenly rose in the heart of the girl who could not stand animals being harmed. She loved Leto very much, a real teddy bear who loved to be petted and scratched. Leto was extremely gentle.
"It's okay. It's over. You did good." Olivier, Leto's owner, affectionately stroked the injured dog.
"His leg seems broken," Mathieu commented, observing the animal who had become a true member of this family. "Other than that, Leto is fine. He'll need rest."
"I'll make him a splint," Marie decided.
Like a prince, Leto was carried to the house, escorted by Soda.