Page 20 of Everything Under the Sun

“Yes!” I cried. “It matters!” I squeezed Sosie tighter. “We don’t want it! Please just leave us alone!”

The leader dropped the meat back inside the bag.

He scooped up his gun from the ground. “If they were savages,” he said to his men, “they’d have taken it without question.” He tossed the bag back to the man who’d given it to him.

“I’d say that one’s a savage,” the man whom I’d bitten chimed in, pointing at me. “Gotta a helluva jaw on her, that one.” Only then did I remember what I’d done; I spit on the ground a few times to get the taste of him out of my mouth. He watched me with a sort of sick satisfaction.

“Well the good news is,” the leader said, “we don’t have to put you down—and it was squirrel meat, by the way. The other news will either be good, or bad, depending on how cooperative you are.”

Sosie’s fingers were inside my skin by then, I was sure of it.

“You’re going to have to come with us,” he said.

My heart clenched. And then it stopped.

“No! Please leave us alone!” Sosie screamed.

Three men shuffled around behind us, blocking our path.

“You’re not safe out here alone,” the leader said, holstering his gun at his side. “There are cracks all over these mountains. I’m surprised you’re not dead already.”

“We’re not going anywhere with you,” I spat.

“Well sure you are,” the leader said, cheerily. “Don’t know why you wouldn’t want to. You’re in more danger out here than you’ll be with us. Shit, most women would be grateful. You’ll be safe.”

“Safe?” I echoed with sarcasm. “You’re murderers. You move through the countryside, ransacking people’s homes, killing those who fight back, slaughtering elderly people.” My voice rose thinking of my father. “And…you kill people’s fathers!”

The leader put up his leathery hands.

“Hey, we only do that to the cracks and the savages,” he said, pleading his case. “Where we live, we don’t need to ransack innocent people’s homes.”

Surprised by how truthful he seemed, I wasn’t sure what to say at first. I didn’t want to believe anything he had to say, but a part of me couldn’t help it; the irrational, hungry part.

“You didn’t attack a small town about a day’s walk from here?” I asked warily.

“Don’t believe them, Thais,” Sosie whispered next to me. “They’re lying—don’t let them take us.”

“Hey, what’s wrong with that one?” another man, skinny as a rail, said pointing at Sosie. “Somethin’ wrong with her eyes?”

“Yeah, she’s blind, you idiot,” the brute of a man whom I’d bitten said.

“It wasn’t us,” the leader said with a shrug, about the attack on our town. “It was probably the cracks—I told you they’re all over this forest.”

“What do you mean, cracks?” I asked.

“Bandits. Thieves. Rapists. Murderers—the unruly sort.” He seemed surprised I wasn’t already familiar with the term.

The leader lit up a cigarette; afterward he tucked a flat tin can of sorts he carried them in, back inside the pocket of his camo pants. He took a long pull, held it deep in his lungs and then let the smoke stream from his mouth and nostrils, carried off by the breeze.

“What are your names?” the leader asked.

We didn’t answer.

“I’m Marion,” he offered.

Still, we refused.

Marion waited, patiently sucking on his cigarette, taking time to enjoy each inhale.

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