Chapter 102: Drinks With Friends
“Well, who wants to be the first to try it?” he asked, gesturing around. There were no volunteers.
“How about you?” he asked the man that had tried to gut him for his water skin only a few minutes ago in an attempt to win him over.
“I will not let you poison me!” the man growled, pacing around the edge of the light like an angry cat.
Simon was fairly sure that if he stayed the night here, that man was going to try to kill him in his sleep. That either meant he’d have to put the man down or make friends with everyone else. Fortunately, the latter was going to be pretty easy since he was the only one here with drinkable water.
“Suit yourself,” Simon said, raising it to his lips and downing it like a shot. It was okay.
It was closer to tap water than bottled water, but he detected no taste of corpses amidst the earthy flavors of sand, and he was sure it would get clearer as it went. That’s what all the videos he’d seen had shown anyway.
“Who’s next,” he said, replacing the cup back under the leaking barrel.
Everyone looked at him skeptically, but as a few people like Torrin came over and investigated the setup, they saw it was just as Simon had promised. The top of the barrel was full of watery mud, and perfectly clear water dripped down into the cup out of the hole in the bottom. That was enough for the man to at least take the chance, and as soon as he pronounced it good enough to drink, a line had formed.
There were 14 people strong enough to move around on their own and a few more who were dragged over with the help of their companions. Soon, everyone was taking turns in a way that was more or less peaceful, one glass of water at a time. It was a celebratory atmosphere, and people thanked whatever gods they believed in as they had their first taste of water in days.