Page 47 of Hunted By Fae

Louise saw firsthand what people are. It cost her her life.

I always knew.

It doesn’t surprise me.

But it leaves us with a truth, one I spoke to Bee, ‘We need to be worse.’

It silenced her.

So I told her about this film I watched once.

Two boats, one full of families, civilians. People. Children.

The other boat was full of convicts and their guards.

Each boat had a button to detonate a bomb on the other one, and one boat had to go down or the villain would kill them all.

But neither boat pressed the button to save themselves.

That was a lie.

That scene, with the intention of revealing the beauty of humanity, the compassion, was a steaming pile of shit.

I would press that button.

In a fucking heartbeat, I would sink my finger into that glossy red button—and blow up the other boat to save my own.

If I have my friends or family on the boat with me, if I look around and see the faces of children, of babies, and I know that if I do not press that button and kill everyone on the other boat, convict or guard, we all die. I am pressing that fucking button.

And I won’t lose a wink of sleep over it.

That scene was a lie. A pretty one.

Reality isn’t so pretty.

People would be clawing and climbing over each other, trampling others to death, screaming and crying. But the truth is too ugly to show in a movie.

The truth is, it’s everyone for themselves.

It’s in any history book.

Look at the death toll of bomb sirens. Look at how many people died from being trampled by others seeking shelter for incoming bombs. Then look at the stats. How many of the trampled victims were women? Mothers?Pregnant? How many were children, babies, elderly, disabled?

All of them.

Now tell me you believe in the value of humanity.

FIVE MONTHS INTO THE BLACKOUT

TEN

TESNI

The soft sole of my boot flattens on the sidewalk.

Shattered glass crunches under my weight as I slink into another step.

The torch taped to my shotgun loosens a faint and dusty light in this thick blackness. The beam reaches out only some metres before it’s engulfed by the dark.