They jogged dawn to dusk for a week before anything changed. Ander fell, exhausted, at the end of every day, and barely managed to get his pack open to eat before falling asleep in the damp. Every morning, he would rush to get food out of his pack that he could eat on the run as there would be no time given for lunch breaks. He was starving all the time, and his two meals each day barely took the edge off. He spent most of his time completely delirious, his only moments of clarity coming when he was hit for getting out of formation. By the third day he had to take a few minutes of his precious sleep undoing all the twine that kept his clothes from hanging too much. By day five, he filled them out.

But what changed at the end of the week, was that he reached into his bag at the end of the day to find nothing left. He looked around in panic, he was so hungry, he had to eat. He found a guy, another hatchling, with two packs. Why did he have two packs!? How? Ander’s mouth watered as he stared at the packs, imagining the extra food that could be found within. Ander sidled over to the man, who was dozing as he ate.

“Hey, you, guy with two packs.” Ander said. The guy flinched as he woke up, looking around for the soldier he expected, but only finding Ander. “Do you need that second pack? Could I have it? If that's alright.” The man’s eyes went from fearful to filled with hope in two seconds.

“You would do that?” Now his eyes were tearing. Awkward.

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“Yeah, if you want.” Ander replied, taken aback by the man’s sudden change in demeanor. The man shoved the bag to Ander who gleefully tore it open and started devouring the food inside.

“So, umm,” Ander said between bites. “Why’d you have two packs?” The other man had to shake himself from his shock as he watched Ander eat.

“Don’t you know? We’ve been dropping like flies. Most of us don’t have the stamina to keep this up. It’s been eating into our health. Every time one of us dies, they give our packs to another saying that we shouldn’t be wasteful. About half of us have extra packs now. Don’t know how you got away without, as big as you are.” And Ander was big. He stood half a head taller than any of the other hatchlings, and about twice as wide.

“Hmm, hmg, so, why don’t you guys just eat more?” Ander asked between bites.

“Look, I don’t know what the deal is with you, but we can’t just eat to regain health. I am pretty sure I would die if I ate as much as you.” Ander finally stopped eating, having consumed nearly half the bag. The conversation had given him time to actually eat his fill for once.

“Well, thanks. For some reason I can never fill up, and you are a life saver. I think I am going to relieve some other people from their wrongful burdens.” The man gave a tired smile as Ander moved to the next man and shook him awake.