"As a nutritionist, I have always believed that the weakest link in indurance performance is in an athlete's nutrition...Proper fueling will make or break the athlete's ability to perform and to stay injury free." -- Nina Caron Runner, Andover Mass."And this is soy, and this is soy, and this is soy. ALL of this shit is SOY ISOLATE PROTEIN. ALL OF IT." There was a box by my bed where I had dumped my MRE's sent in from Portland. Divided up per day I had about 12oz of food ready to be mixed with water or 800 calories. Soy is a big problem for an athlete, it blocks the absorption of many minerals and proteins which rebuild muscle which is why Whey protein shakes are preferred over Soy 10:1 -- the 1 being those who don't know any better. SOY. Damn it.
I was talking to myself again the Commander and I missing each other due to scheduling. Sometimes I went and talked to Runner 8 through the fence sometimes and he grunted softly as if listening. The rain had really deteriorated his condition and his face was failing as if eaten away by the rain drops.
"GOOD NEWS Runner 5!" Grant marched into my bunk house. I immediately stopped scratching my butt. "YOU HAVE CHICKENS!" He waved his arm in a ta'da motion.
I was at a loss for words. "Two of them" he continued. "We know that because you run all day your rations will make you far under on your calories everyday -- well actually Rilea told us because they're supplementing their runners and we thought it made sense so -- wallah! Chickens. You'll have to take care of them and make their coop and find them food and do everything for them but you have exclusive claim on their eggs."
Winter was coming on, we had always butchered chickens before winter on the farm. Did chickens even lay eggs in the winter I wondered? I had no idea.
Long story short is the chickens were um' well one was a little grey game hen. She was about the size of a pigeon and scared to death of everything. Her strong protector was a lanky red hen, a Rhode Island red I think, although she was scrawny for a Rhode Island...
They were disappointing as chickens but I figured they would be okay enough pets if the Coyotes didn't get them first.
Later in the afternoon the Commander wanted me to go gather samples from zombies and animals with Zombie Mortis to take to the labs at Portland 1. You might recall he is having me ship out there on the 2nd for blood work and checkup. Anyway, it was horrible reader. I had to tell him flat out no and his face grew this burgundy color and he said "okay" and slammed the door on the way out which made a horrible noise since it's metal.
I'm sitting here with my packets of MRE's. It's raining outside still. I leave out at 4:30am in the morning to pursue the elk herd, count them, see if any are sick, and watch them. I have my rain gear in the boiler room drying. Turns out my waterproof hoodie isn't waterproof. It is pretty however so maybe I can trade it when I get to Portland 1 for something more durable.
Tomorrow the rationing starts and peoples tempers will get really short and terrible I would imagine. I'm not looking forward to my diet of Soy.
