Day four of rationing started with Little Sparrow fainting.
Not dramatically. No theatrical collapse or dying swan routine. Just stopped mid-sentence while arguing with Wei Lin about Gerald's structural analysis capabilities and folded like a puppet with cut strings. Hunter caught him before he hit the ground, which was good because they couldn't afford any more injuries.
The kid weighed nothing. Ten years old and hollow feeling, like picking up a bag of kindling that used to be a person.
"He's fine," Wei Lin announced with the bedside manner of someone diagnosing furniture. "Caloric deficiency induced syncope. His body mass index was already suboptimal. Reduced food intake created energy deficit. Basic biology."
"He fainted because we're starving," Hunter translated for those of them who didn't speak fluent Clinical Detachment.
"That's what I said."
