《The Half Blind Raven and The Last Winter Wolf》 Chapter 1: A Breakfast on a Saturday Morning The Half Blind Raven and the Last Winter Wolf Chapter 1: A Breakfast on a Saturday Morning //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// Tara Kerrigan ¡°Wake up, Tara. It¡¯s daylight out. Time for breakfast.¡± Andy blabbered. I couldn¡¯t understand her at first, but after a few seconds, my head put the words together. ¡°Give me a few more minutes. I¡¯m still tired, and my head hurts.¡± I said to her. ¡°You used that excuse yesterday. Your head doesn¡¯t hurt, you¡¯re just being lazy.¡± I sat up in my bed slowly and looked over at her. Like usual, she was wearing her auburn hair down to her back. She was watering my plants, a collection of herbs and beans growing beside the window. Even through the curtains, the sun seemed to make her warm tanned skin look prettier. She was a contrast to me. The sun only made my pale skin shiny like a mirror. ¡°Jerk. My head could still be hurting, you know.¡± ¡°If it were, you¡¯d still be laying down, wouldn¡¯t you be?¡± ¡°How¡­¡± ¡°I¡¯ve gotten to know you well, little darling. So how did you sleep?¡± ¡°I slept fine.¡± ¡°Did you dream?¡± ¡°Maybe¡­¡± ¡°Was it a normal dream?¡± ¡°It was sort of normal. I don¡¯t know. What¡¯s normal for a dream?¡± ¡°Normal by your standards.¡± ¡°I guess.¡± ¡°That¡¯s good. That¡¯s a good sign that you don¡¯t have a major brain injury.¡± There she went again, bringing up what had happened to me. ¡°I wish you wouldn¡¯t focus on that so much.¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Tara. I worry about you sometimes though.¡± ¡°You know how long it''s been. The damage is already done. I can¡¯t see out of my left eye and I¡¯ve got a bunch of scars.¡± It had been two years since I''d been taken in, and four years since the bombs fell over the world. ¡°I know. Again, I¡¯m sorry. I¡¯ll try to stop pressing the subject.¡± ¡°Whatever. What¡¯s for breakfast?¡± ¡°I thought we could go out. It¡¯s been a while for me, and I think you need to socialize outside of school.¡± ¡°Seriously?¡± ¡°Yes. We can go get pancakes and juice at Mario¡¯s stand. Maybe you¡¯ll see that cute girl from school that you were talking about.¡± I blushed, then shoved my face into my hands. I didn¡¯t want her to see it. ¡°She¡¯d never go for me. She likes boys anyway. I don¡¯t get why. Men are gross.¡± ¡°That¡¯s because you like girls, sweetheart. Most of the rest of us ladies prefer men, even if they are gross.¡± ¡°So you agree?¡± ¡°Obviously. Now get up, and start getting ready. The day is young. We should enjoy it, us ladies.¡± My head shook and I faced her as she turned around to leave. She closed the door to my suite and went back to her own. I laid down again for a second and then did what she asked. Slowly, I started getting ready. My old clothes were thrown off and my eye hovered to the mirror as I spent a second looking at myself. My hair was a rat¡¯s nest. I needed to brush it. It would need to be wetted down first so it wouldn¡¯t just turn into a giant frizz when brushed. As I ruffled my hair around into a half decent state, I saw the scars again. My missing eye and the canyon in my skin going from my cheek to my brow. It was where a cannibal had slashed me with a modified pipe wrench. The pain was still a vivid memory, and the blood I could still feel running down my cheek. I still felt the pain in my chest knowing who I had lost to them. I would have been food for his band just as my parents had been, but some scouts from the fort happened upon the scene just after the fight. Just in time to save me, but not to save anything else. Not my eye or my innocence, and not my family. I shook the memories out of my head, and my hair danced around with it. I didn¡¯t do it fast enough to stop myself from crying though. I dried away the few tears that came out, and then started collecting an outfit for the day. I wanted to wear a dress, so I grabbed my black gown. I decided I¡¯d wear my flannel jacket over it and my combats with it. I got changed quickly enough and then I opened the curtains of the suite, the light flooding in and blessing the plants. Outside, I could see the center of the stadium where the field had been converted into an orchard and a park. I could smell the scent of apples rotting on the ground from all the way up in the stands. It made me happy to have lavender bags hung around the room. They were a gift to Andy because of her status as the town star. One of many things she had that people had given her. I wondered if I would eventually be her successor. I doubted it though. I didn¡¯t have the style or the beauty to be what she was. I just wasn¡¯t like her. ¡°No. I¡¯m a Raven, not a regal.¡± I joked to myself. I put up a folding wall between the windows and my mirror. I took my jacket off again and folded the top half of my dress to my stomach. I still had to brush my hair and I knew, with the water, it¡¯d make a mess. I took my girl pills before I started though. I was thankful they were still able to make them despite the state of the world. I was thankful that Andy accepted me as well. Not everyone did, even if the apocalypse was going on. My peers at school did though, and so did Andy¡¯s friends and the people at the meetinghouse. I had my groups, and I was thankful for them. ¡°Ow!¡± I blurted as I ran the brush through my hair. The knots pull away into separate hairs, but it was a painful process to get them to do that. I went through again and again until eventually there were no knots left. I shook my hair around and found a few more though, so I brushed them out. Once I was done, I kept my hair down as I wanted it. My left eye was covered, I didn¡¯t want people seeing it. I started getting dressed again and after that I was ready to go. I walked into the common suite and called out to Andy. ¡°I¡¯m ready to go!¡± ¡°I¡¯ll be right out, darling.¡± Andy called back. It figured that she would end up being the one who still needed to get ready. I sat down on the couch and looked out at the town below. There were homes and houses built atop the lower stands. A society had been built into the old Farrell Banks stadium. It had once been the home of the Bucks, and now it was instead the home to 1,325 people and counting. It was my home too, and I was thankful for it too. If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. ¡°Mroew!¡± Parker chirped from just beside the couch. He stared up at me with wide green eyes. ¡°Yeah. I¡¯m thankful for you too, stinky.¡± I said, reaching my hand down to pet him. His smoke gray fur rolled back as my hand went over him. He jumped into my lap and I ran my hand over him as I waited and as I watched the dusky world. ¡°At least the dust is fading¡­¡± //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// The walk across the stadium had been short. Most of the stores were already open for the Saturday morning rush. They were actually more like soup kitchens basically, but good ones that everyone loved. Free for all and publically run. It was better than how it had been before the end of the world. Andy and I both sat down with our food, having gotten it from Mario¡¯s stall seconds earlier. Everything was ready to eat, but of course she wanted to say a silent grace. The kind of thing the Quakers taught us. We did, and then we started talking. Something we often did instead of eating. ¡°So did you see her on the way here?¡± Andy asked. ¡°No. Do you think she¡¯s everywhere?¡± ¡°I just wanted to ask. I do think there¡¯s a chance she might like you too.¡± ¡°I doubt it. I don¡¯t look like what I was born as, so she wouldn¡¯t like me.¡± ¡°If you say so, darling.¡± ¡°What? Do you think I look like a boy?!¡± I blurted. Andy gave me a stare of disapproval for getting so loud. ¡°Sorry¡­¡± ¡°No, I don¡¯t. That¡¯s not what I meant. What I meant was that I think you should give it a chance.¡± ¡°Whatever you say, Andy. Maybe I will eventually. I don¡¯t want to be embarrassed though.¡± ¡°You have to take risks in life.¡± ¡°I know, but the last one I took cost me an eye.¡± ¡°Look who''s bringing it up now.¡± I rolled my eyes. ¡°Shut up. Not cool.¡± Andy just laughed. I shoveled a forkful of apple pancakes into my mouth and enjoyed the taste. The apples were diced just right so that they weren¡¯t annoying to chew. All of the ingredients were grown in the stadium, under the dreary sun. It wasn¡¯t all that bad, even if I would have preferred pancakes with the fake kind of syrup. That was all gone though, and only real maple syrup was left. ¡°I always used to hate this stuff when I was young.¡± ¡°What?¡± Andy asked. ¡°Maple syrup. It¡¯s too sweet, and the taste is weird.¡± ¡°So you don¡¯t like the food?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t mind it. It¡¯s better than canned sardines and radioactive raccoon meat.¡± ¡°Better than cat food even?¡± I giggled. ¡°Yeah, definitely.¡± ¡°I thought so.¡± Andy chuckled. ¡°I still miss the fake stuff though.¡± ¡°We all miss something, dear. You already know what, and who I miss.¡± ¡°Your mentor?¡± ¡°Yes, and spray can cheese.¡± ¡°Gross.¡± I said, faking a gag. ¡°It was not. It was delicious.¡± ¡°Whatever you say, mo¡­ Andy.¡± She gave me a side eye and stopped eating as soon as I made the mistake of saying that. Then she smiled and went back to eating. For a moment, I was in the clear, but she had to say something. ¡°I love you too, dear.¡± I had to say something in response. There was a pause, but eventually I spoke. ¡°Thank you for taking me in, Andy. Thank you for everything.¡± ¡°Of course, Tara.¡± she said smiling. There was another pause before we spoke again. ¡°Do you remember when they brought me in? When I woke up, I mean.¡± ¡°Yes. I remember singing you to sleep those years ago. I remember it all.¡± ¡°Do you ever regret taking me in, and all the time it cost you?¡± ¡°Not for a second. You¡¯re my little helper, and my kid too.¡± ¡°I¡­ you¡¯re¡­¡± I struggled to speak. I knew she wanted me to call her my mother, but I couldn¡¯t. I didn¡¯t have it in me to move on. Just then, the alarm bell rang out over the stadium speakers. It wasn¡¯t a cause for worry though. There were new people being brought in from the outside. A few new citizens to join the ranks of the town. It was an excuse to avoid the conversation too. ¡°Can we go see who it is?¡± I asked. ¡°Of course. As an unofficial town council member, it''s basically a part of my job. Let¡¯s finish up quickly so we can beat the crowd.¡± I smiled. I was glad to see the newbies, though guilty that I had skipped out of saying what needed to be said again. Oh well, maybe another time. We could enjoy meeting the new people together instead. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// We¡¯d managed to beat the crowd mostly. We were close to the front row. Everyone watched and waited as they brought the new people in through the gates. I could hear the horses neighing outside as they settled in. There were whispers amongst everyone and loud talking from the guards. Andy stood next to me and whispered. ¡°Think we¡¯ll see any celebrities?¡± ¡°Uh¡­ I don¡¯t know.¡± I muttered in response. The steward appeared and shouted above everyone else. The crowd quieted, and the guards went silent. ¡°Settle down, everyone. I know you¡¯re all excited, but let¡¯s not scare these new fine people. Let¡¯s all give them a warm welcome. If I¡¯m reading their names right, they are Beauford Townsend, Emma Phan, and Kenny Brown. Everyone welcome them, please.¡± The guards moved aside and allowed the new group in for everyone to see. There were cheers and shouts of welcomes. The crowd started clapping, as did I and Andy. I couldn¡¯t help but be a little suspicious though. I always was when they brought new people in. I worried that they¡¯d be our undoing. I tried to ignore the unease. It was different that time though. I was more worried than usual. Something about that last name sparked a fire in me, and I didn¡¯t know why. I couldn¡¯t yet see the new people, but they were getting closer. The first two I did not recognize, but as the last one breached my view, I knew exactly who it was and why I felt filled with a burning flame. I saw that freckled, peachy face and my heart started beating as fast as it could go. I could only think of one thing to do. I grabbed the knife from my pocket and shoved through the crowd. Andy tried to grab me, but she couldn¡¯t stop me. ¡°Tara, where are you going?¡± she yelled. I didn¡¯t answer her. I kept pushing through the crowd of people. As I burst out the end of it, I flipped open the knife and ran for the man named Kenny Brown. ¡°BASTARD! I¡¯LL KILL YOU!!¡± I screamed as I swung the knife at him. He fell back, and I missed. I felt a body slam into me as I was tackled to the ground. I hit my head and the world went dark for a moment before becoming a blur. Regardless of the confusion, the fire remained. I had to kill him, for he was one of the killers, and the son of the man who put the mark on my face. He was a threat to the town, and a people eater. I would make sure he didn¡¯t have a chance to act again. I had to. As my vision returned, I tried to force myself free. The guards held me steady though, and started moving me away from the man. ¡°GET RID OF HIM! HE¡¯S A KILLER!¡± ¡°Stargirl, what¡¯s gotten into her? What is this?¡± the steward screamed. ¡°I don¡¯t know. She¡¯s never been like this. Tara, calm down!¡± Andy yelled. ¡°He helped them kill my family, Andy!¡± I yelled back. The small group around me went silent. They all knew what all I¡¯d gone through. Slowly, they turned to face Kenny Brown. The two guards loosened their grips on me, but they still didn¡¯t let me go. Instead, they turned to face him and I turned in turn too. ¡°Mr. Brown, you have some questions to answer.¡± the steward declared. ¡°Everyone clear out. Mr. Altman, Mr. Kaneko, Mrs. Walberg, take Mrs. Phan and Mr. Townsend to processing. Mr. Brown will be taken to the cells, and we¡¯re going to get this all figured out.¡± ¡°What about Tara?¡± Andy asked. ¡°You¡¯re both coming with us. Tara to answer questions, and you because you¡¯re her guardian.¡± ¡°What punishment is she facing?¡± Andy asked in fear. ¡°That all depends on what the truth ends up being. I can¡¯t say for sure what we will do if she tried to attack someone for no reason.¡± ¡°She didn¡¯t.¡± Kenny Brown said in response. Some of the crowd looked back as the whole group was being pushed to leave. ¡°What was that?¡± the steward questioned. ¡°Everything she said, it¡¯s all true.¡± Andy looked at Kenny with as much rage as I had had, but she restrained herself. I wished she hadn¡¯t. I wished that she had taken a gun from the guards and shot him dead. ¡°Get him to the cells and away from my daughter!¡± Andy yelled. ¡°RIGHT NOW!!¡± Immediately the guards did as she asked. The steward looked on, dumbfounded. ¡°I¡¯m sorry¡­¡± ¡°I want him dead. It doesn¡¯t matter how. Hang him off the balcony for all I care. Just kill him.¡± ¡°We¡¯ll do what we must. You¡¯re both free to go back home.¡± Andy snorted at the steward before grabbing my hand and yanking me from the guards. She stomped away with me in tow. ¡°You¡¯d better deal with him or you¡¯ll be dealing with me and everyone I tell about him.¡± Andy declared as we both left the gathered group of enforcers. I smiled, knowing that one more monster would be gone from the world. A very personal monster at that. I just wished I had done it myself. Chapter 2: Strangers Brought in from the Cold The Half Blind Raven and the Last Winter Wolf Chapter 2: Strangers Brought in from the Cold //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// Kenny Brown I didn¡¯t deserve it. I knew I didn¡¯t. After all the time I¡¯d spend killing, and cutting up bodies, what mercy did I deserve? I kept telling myself I could make something of myself, and that I could make up for it, but I didn¡¯t really believe that entirely. I was having a moment where I truly didn¡¯t believe it when they called my name. ¡°Kenny Brown, it¡¯s your turn. Please stand up and come with me.¡± a man said. He moved out of the doorway and a woman walked out through the space left. She looked as if she had been crying. The other one that had come before her had looked the same. Whoever the stranger was, he must have been doing something. I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if he was branding them or something. Maybe the city was more like a cult. The man himself looked like a cop, only dressed in army green instead of navy blue. I¡¯d seen a few people dressed like him. They always carried assault rifles, hatchets, and pistols. I had to assume they were the police force of the small city I was trying to join. I got up and went to follow the cop as he walked through a reinforced door to the interview and interrogation room. ¡°So what did you do to her?¡± I asked. ¡°Nothing. She just talked with BB. Sometimes it gets emotional when people talk with him.¡° ¡°So that¡¯s all this is? It¡¯s a talk?¡± ¡°That¡¯s part of the processing procedures. We need to know who you are before we give you citizenship here.¡± I felt sick to my stomach, knowing exactly who I was. I didn¡¯t want them to know. If they did, I¡¯d be as good as dead. I knew it. ¡°What if I¡¯m no one good?¡± ¡°Are any of us?¡± the guard said with complete seriousness. ¡°What do you mean by that?¡± ¡°Talk to Byron, and you¡¯ll understand. He¡¯ll be in in a few. Take a seat, pour yourself some tea, and settle in.¡± the guard said before opening a door for me. My legs carried me in and I found myself in what looked like an office. ¡°Wait, what if¡­¡± I tried to ask, but the guard had closed the door and stopped listening. Quietly, I pulled out a chair. The wheels ran smoothly over the flat, mostly even carpeting. The room was quite comfortable for an office. Whoever had built it had done their best to make it not seem like an interrogation room. My hand trembled as I picked up the coffee pot filled with tea. All the coffee in the city had been used up long before, so tea was what we all were left with. What I wouldn¡¯t give for a cup of the stuff to quell my nerves. Something to make the guilt go away. God, I still remembered them all and all of their faces. I prayed that I wouldn¡¯t see them if I survived what I was about to go through. The tea poured into my mouth as the cup tilted against my lips. Its taste was pleasantly bitter. It was some sort of herbal concoction. As I was drinking it, the door on the other side of the room opened. A man walked in with a file and a briefcase. He wore thin glasses and a faded brown suit that looked like it belonged in the seventies. He himself was a man somewhere in the range of his thirties. Not much older than me. He could have been my brother. ¡°I¡¯m sorry for the delay. I had to use the restroom. How are you doing today?¡± ¡°I¡¯m alright.¡± ¡°That¡¯s good. Are you feeling comfortable?¡± ¡°Plenty.¡± ¡°Good. Are you okay with me asking a few more questions?¡± ¡°That¡¯s fine.¡± I said with a sigh. ¡°Alright then. What is your full name, including your middle name?¡± ¡°Kenneth Carson Brown.¡± ¡°Can I call you Kenny? You¡¯re listed as being a Kenny in the files.¡± ¡°Sure.¡± ¡°Thank you. When were you born, Kenny?¡± ¡°May 25th, 2011.¡± ¡°Happy birthday. Where were you born?¡± ¡°Lakeside Medical Center in Norton, Wisconsin.¡± ¡°Mother and father?¡± ¡°Both dead.¡± ¡°Who were they?¡± ¡°Mary and Douglas Brown. Do you want my mom¡¯s maiden name? I don¡¯t remember it, I¡¯m sorry.¡± ¡°That¡¯s fine. What did you do for employment before all of this?¡± ¡°I worked as a mechanic at my uncle¡¯s shop in town.¡± ¡°No college?¡± ¡°No. It wasn¡¯t for me.¡± ¡°Would you consider yourself proficient as a mechanic?¡± ¡°No, not really. I was just barely getting the hang of it when everything happened.¡± ¡°I see. Do you have any illnesses or allergies that the town should be aware of?¡± ¡°That¡¯s an odd question. I don¡¯t think I¡¯d be here if I did.¡± ¡°You¡¯d be surprised. Not everyone in this town survived purely off of their own skill. Some people survived because of luck and others because of family.¡± ¡°Having family is having luck.¡± ¡°Perhaps. Well, that¡¯s all done. Now it¡¯s time for the difficult part of this process. I¡¯ll just come out and ask. What have you done in order to survive?¡± ¡°What do you mean?¡± I questioned, but I knew what he meant. I just didn¡¯t want to answer. ¡°How did you get here today? What have you done in order to keep breathing?¡± Breaths came in and out strained and slow. He needed an answer, but I didn¡¯t want to give one. BB nodded his head. ¡°What¡¯s your actual name?¡± The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°Byron, Byron Bryant.¡± ¡°Do I need to tell you what I¡¯ve done? Is there any way around it?¡± ¡°No. It¡¯s a requirement so that we know who we¡¯re dealing with. I¡¯m afraid you must answer the question.¡± ¡°I can¡¯t. I know what you¡¯ll do if I do answer you.¡± ¡°Do you think we¡¯re unforgiving?¡± ¡°You¡¯re civilized people.¡± ¡°We are here, but all of us came from outside these walls. We¡¯ve all sinned. There¡¯s not an innocent soul among this populace.¡± ¡°What do you want me to say then?¡± ¡°I want the truth.¡± ¡°Then tell me what you¡¯ve done. I want your truth!¡± I yelled. Byron held up his hand. I looked back to see the guard staring at us both. He was telling him to stand down. ¡°You want to know what I¡¯ve done?¡± he asked. ¡°Yes.¡± I said, trying to avoid my fate. Byron took off his glasses slowly and placed them on the table. He looked at me with crisp green eyes, though I wondered if he could see me clearly. ¡°I once had three children and a wife. In the beginning, we hid in the subway tunnels to escape the fallout. The only problem was that those tunnels were not watertight. We were flooded out within days. Forced into the fallout before it had faded. Do you know what radiation sickness looks like in a three year old girl? Do you know what it''s like to watch your youngest die, well you, the provider, can do nothing? That¡¯s not the worst of it either. That¡¯s not my sin. My sin was that I left my son behind. When my youngest died, it might as well have killed him. He was the middle child, and she was his best friend.¡± Byron said before taking a breath. After a few seconds, he went on again. ¡°With her gone, he gave up. He stopped doing anything. One day, when we were trying to get away from scavengers, I dropped him. The stress was too much, and I didn¡¯t even try to pick him back up. I kept my last daughter and my wife running while he laid there on the ground. The scavengers didn¡¯t even stop for him. They trampled him down and kept on after us. My last sight of my son was watching his head break under a boot. He said as he sighed and gulped down a swallow of tea. ¡°From then on, I did whatever I needed to do to protect what I had left. I killed innocents and killers alike. Anyone who came upon us. I did that for months. There were at least a dozen people. Men, women, even a teenager once. Not an old one either. She was barely older than being a kid. You want to know why I stopped?¡± ¡°Why did you stop?¡± ¡°A scout from here shot me in the hand before I could shoot her.¡± Byron said, holding out his hand for me to see. Two of his fingers were missing. ¡°I thought they were going to kill me then, but they didn¡¯t. They didn¡¯t kill any of us. They offered us a chance for forgiveness. We were invited to join this place, just as you¡¯re being invited now. I told them my story then, and they still let me and my family in. Just as I told my story, you must also tell yours. I promise, we will forgive you.¡± My eyes focused on his green irises and I breathed in and out violently. I gulped down spit and cowardice. It was quite a while before I spoke again. ¡°My uncle, two of his employees, and I were in a group together. We didn¡¯t have much in the way of food, so we went to robbing people.¡± ¡°At first we got plenty of food, but eventually everyone started to run dry. We kept catching couples or singles with nothing. We¡¯d bag their heads and let them go. That was at first at least. Once the hunger started to sink in and we started to feel weak, my uncle made a decision for the rest of us. The next person would be the meal if they didn¡¯t have the meal.¡± Byron nodded as if to say to keep going. ¡°Eventually we did come upon another person. They had no food, but they weren¡¯t starving. They still had plenty of meat on their bones. I distracted him while my uncle pushed him to the ground and smashed his skull in. He was dead in an instant, but it wasn¡¯t over then. One of my uncle''s employees was a hunter. He knew how to gut deer, so taught us how to gut people based on the same knowledge. We ate the meat, cooked it inside a burger place, and left whatever we couldn¡¯t eat for the birds. None of us spoke of it. We were full, and didn¡¯t feel weak anymore.¡± ¡°At first we thought it was going to be the only time, but it wasn¡¯t. It took weeks for us to reach the point where we needed to do it again, but we did reach that point eventually. We killed a couple. Two queers. The first one was quick, but the second put up a fight. I still have a scar on my arm from him. We ate them too, and at that point we decided we wouldn¡¯t stop until we found something else. We were already damned anyway.¡± There were tears falling down my face at that point, and sweat running down my head. I kept looking at Byron¡¯s eyes and then away, trying to see any emotion in them. There was none. He was listening without judging, but he wasn¡¯t forgiving me either. ¡°How many in total?¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°How many did you kill?¡± ¡°I¡­ I think twenty. It only ended when my uncle died. We were ambushed and I was the only survivor. I ran, and eventually I guess I got lucky. I found a cache of food in a basement and I stayed there for a while. Years, I think. It was filled to the brim, and I only left about a month ago, after the food ran out. I haven¡¯t eaten in awhile. To be honest, I don¡¯t think I want to anymore. I don¡¯t deserve to. I shouldn¡¯t even be here. You should order that guard to kill me. I deserve to die.¡± ¡°I won¡¯t do that.¡± ¡°Why?¡± ¡°You¡¯re not the first people eater to find their way here. You¡¯re nowhere near the first murderer. Almost all of us here are killers. We acknowledge that, and we try to do better. That¡¯s all we can do. We can¡¯t all kill ourselves. If we did, then what would be left but bones and a barren world?¡± I looked at him with teary eyes. I couldn¡¯t say that humanity deserved to die, but I still believed that I did deserve to. ¡°What will you do then?¡± ¡°I¡¯ll offer you a brother¡¯s hug and welcome you to Fort Resilience.¡± ¡°I shouldn¡¯t¡­¡± ¡°None of us should, but we must go on. Death is the coward¡¯s way out, so let¡¯s be courageous and face our demons together.¡± Byron offered me his arm as he leaned over the table. I leaned into him and cried into his shoulder as he patted my back with a three fingered hand. ¡°It¡¯s going to be alright, Kenny. You¡¯ve got a place here.¡± I couldn¡¯t help but keep crying. I couldn¡¯t think. I could only weep. That was all there was left for me to do. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// A few days passed before they finally ushered us through the gates. It was the three of us together, Beauford, Emma, and myself. We looked to see a crowd gathered before us. Fine people, well groomed and well fed. People who had rebuilt themselves from the ashes of the old world and the death of the new one. The mayor of the town gave a speech and called on the crowd to quiet down. He called himself the steward though. The crowd listened to him and calmed itself down. We walked in front of them and towards a podium. We were on display as new citizens for all of the older people who¡¯d been there for a while. It was like a ceremony where we were due to receive trophies for achievements of some grandiose scale. I thought it was all going to go well, but then I heard a scream and watched as a girl ran through the crowd. She swung a knife towards me and I fell backwards, barely avoiding it. ¡°BASTARD! I¡¯LL KILL YOU!!¡± she screamed. It wasn¡¯t very long before she was tackled by the guards. Her head hit the ground and she was lights out for a moment. The guards picked her up and held her back, but as soon as she came to she was pushing against them and trying to get back to me. ¡°GET RID OF HIM! HE¡¯S A KILLER!¡± she yelled in addition. I started to feel a sense of recognition, and I knew in seconds who it was that I was looking at. I felt the flashes of memory coming to me. I remembered seeing my uncle die, and I remembered seeing him bash her head with a pipe wrench before he did. Bile and acid came up from my near empty stomach as I collapsed to the ground again. No one seemed to notice, or if they did, they didn¡¯t care. They were all focused on the girl, and talking amongst each other. At first I couldn¡¯t hear them, but as my focus came back I started to make out the words. ¡°What punishment is she facing?¡± A red haired woman asked. The mayor replied. ¡°That all depends on what the truth ends up being. I can¡¯t say for sure what we will do if she tried to attack someone for no reason.¡± ¡°She didn¡¯t.¡± I said in interruption as I wiped the puke from my chin. The crowd from before all focused on me, as did the guards, the woman, the girl, and the mayor. All eyes were on me, and I could feel the anger building up. Maybe I would die after all. ¡°What was that?¡± the mayor asked. I replied. ¡°Everything she said, it¡¯s all true.¡± The mayor looked at me and then back at the woman. She herself was looking at me with the rage of a kicked pitbull. The woman screamed. ¡°Get him to the cells and away from my daughter! RIGHT NOW!!¡± And so the guards did as she commanded. She must have held some respect in the community. One of the guards whispered. ¡°Bag him.¡± and a bag was put over my head. I played out scenarios in my head for what would come next. I hoped for a bullet, but expected a hanging. Just as I thought that thought, the red haired lady blurted a similar request. ¡°I want him dead. It doesn¡¯t matter how. Hang him off the balcony for all I care. Just kill him.¡± The guards walked me away and guided my legs. I was sightless and I couldn¡¯t know what death was to come. I knew I would die though. My story was about to end. It was just as it deserved to end. I didn¡¯t really deserve any better.