Here’s a hint.
If you ever have a suspicion that something wrong is going on around you, never keep asking an official what’s going on.
I did.
And I got in trouble.
My big, puffy purple eye is enough to prove it.
As we were walking back towards Ragglov, I got pretty ticked off when Ivan Crawly, the head hunting official, never replied. So I kept asking, and then I started yelling. Of course Evan was trying to shut me up.
But this is me we’re talking about. Why would I listen?
So I ended up with a black eye.
It’s not the first time though.
And I’m a big girl. I can take care of myself.
But Evan and his family don’t think so.
“Here, put this on it.” Mrs. Rhys handed me a small piece of meat.
I managed a weak smile, which turned into more of a grimace,” You’re joking right? You need to eat that…” I said, staring back at the eight pairs of eyes in front of me.
Evan has a big family, quite unlike me. I’m an only child, because my parents couldn’t exactly have more kids after my mom died, now could they? But Evan’s got nine siblings: six boys, three girls. He’s the second oldest, and treats his brothers and sisters like his own children. His older brother, Burr, is newly married, and his wife’s also recently pregnant. The rest of his siblings are still too young to come out to hunt; the oldest is fourteen, and I seriously doubt if she’d be willing to hunt anyway. Abi’s just too sweet. But his brothers- it’s like he’s their superhero or something. To them, it’s like the world revolves around Evan, Burr and their Dad. It always makes me smile to see them run towards their dad when he comes home at the end of the day.
And that’s saying something, because if you haven’t noticed by now, my heart doesn’t just get fuzzy over anything.
But I wish I’d had a real family. Obviously, I never knew my mother, and even after all these years, I still don’t know my dad. I actually haven’t talked to him in a couple years. Not really.
“No, your eye needs something on it. Besides, this meat is about to go bad, it never got salted…” her voice faded.
Not everyone can afford salt for their meat. There’s a factory in the middle of town, what we call The Main, where we salt meat all day. But that meat goes to the Kal.
Yup. The Kal. Of course.
Never for us.
Heaven forbid that should happen.
“No, my eye is fine. It’s too late to be putting anything on it anyway. Plus,” I smiled at Andrew, Evan’s youngest brother,” I think it makes me look brave.”
“Of course it does. And you are brave. I wish I could hunt with you and Evan…” his small six year old hands reached down for the small bow and single arrow his father had made for him. It was his prized possession.
“You will soon.” Evan pulled him to his feet, and rushed him out the door,” But while you’re at it, you may as well practice.” He winked, and then reached his hand down to me. I took it, sighing in exasperation. We’d spent our free time trying to teach the younger ones in his family how to hunt for the last few weeks. And I was about sick of it. They’re sweet kids, but- well you know. They’re kids!
We went outside, breathing in the fresh air that was so non-existent in our house.
We all live in a small, wood house. It’s one of hundreds around here, called a Bunch House. Where a “bunch” of people live. Yup, that’s why I thought they were called Bunch houses when I was little. But it’s not. I figured out it was named after the official who came up with the idea.
Curse him.
So anyway, we all live in these houses with a big number of families packed together with as many as we can possibly fit without suffocating ourselves.
And we practically do.
The only space I have here is my little blue mat that I lay on. Not much, but its home.
And this is where I met Evan when I was eight. My father and I moved to another Bunch house because the one we’d been living it became too cramped. Like seriously, there were people practically sleeping on top of each other. And since there were only two of us, the other people in the house thought it’d be best to let us and a couple other small families out, instead of separating large families.
Logical I suppose.
But it turns out; there wasn’t even enough room for two people in any of the Bunch Houses. So everyone who had been dumped out of number 12 Bunch House, got separated. I got sent to number 102 bunch house all the way across town, and my father to number 15 bunch house.
But it never really made a difference it my life, being separated from my father. We hadn’t really talked to each other anyway, and it’s no different now.
I sighed, breathing in more and more air, and looked back at my home since I was little. It was old, and the roof was rotting a little bit on the top. It was torture when it rained. The smell of wet bodies everywhere, along with the salt from meat, and the dried meat blood along the floor. Plus, it’s never cold here. Always hot. Winter here is like, in the 60’s. Perhaps a bit chilly. But warm nonetheless.
“So,” Evan’s voice was lowered, and he bent down a bit, trying to even up with me,” What do you thinks’ going on?”
…
Wait for it.
“…And don’t go ask an official, please.” He added.
I scowled, hiding a smile. I know him way too well.
“Never mind that.” I muttered,” I dunno what’s going on. But as long as the officials seem upset, I like it.”
“Why? When the officials are upset, they end up hitting us. Like they hit you.” His voice softened, even as he was whispering.
I sighed.
“That was my own fault. I was practically asking for it.” I admitted.
“But still…”
“Come on!” We both jumped, remembering we were supposed to be helping Andrew,” Let’s go! I wanna shoot somethin’”
“ I think I’ll come,” Jon said, literally tripping out of the Bunch House, and started coughing,” it’s way too stuffy in there.”
I couldn’t help but laugh at him. He recently turned thirteen, and his voice was starting to mature. So it was constantly cracking and going up and down octaves at random. Right now, his voice was extremely low, so unfit for someone so skinny and food-deprived. With his red curly hair, long legs, and his new-found low voice, he was almost the split image of Evan.
He frowned as I laughed,” Stop.”
It cracked again.
I laughed harder.
“Aw, come off it Raz, cut him some slack.” Evan grabbed my shoulders and pushed me towards the general direction of the woods.
I relented, but only when we passed an official wondering around the streets. Looking around for people like us. We made sure to make a detour around him.
Technically, we’re not allowed in the woods unless it’s hunting hours. And that’s it. But plenty of us do anyway. I don’t think any of the officials know. Or at least the officials that care.
But we have to be careful, because other families have been found out before. And rule breaking results in beatings- and lots of times, death.
So we try hard to not get caught.
“I wanna shoot a rabbit and give it to mama.” Andrew said, hanging onto Evan’s arm.
“I don’t think we should shoot any animals today.” Evan hesitated,” We’ll just shoot a couple trees or something. To help with your aim.”
“But Mama’s hungry. She needs food. For the baby.”
We all froze.
“The what?!” Jon asked, his voice suddenly pitching high.
“I saw her today. She was crying outside and holding her belly. Like when she was still big with the unborn baby.” He was talking about the baby that died only a couple years ago.
I quickly did an improve, hoping that what he said wasn’t true;” She must have just had a stomach ache.”
I almost laughed. Yeah, that’s a good one, Raz. He’ll really believe that.
Evan just shot me a glance,” I dunno why she’d be pregnant. There’s already too many mouths to feed, Drew. That really wouldn’t be a smart thing to do-“ he stopped and blushed,” What I mean is Mama must just be feeling sick, like Raz said.”
Andrew didn’t look like he believed us, but he just kept walking.
***
“Good shot, Drew!” Evan’s comment was enough reward in itself. Andrew drew himself up proudly, displaying his arrow that had dug deep into the tree for something so small and pretty much useless.
I often try not to tell him his bow and arrow is useless when he annoys me. Yeah, that’s how well I know this family. Their children are like my siblings, annoying-ness and all.
I nodded, and then looked up into the sky,” It’s going to be dark soon. We need to head back before the officials come home for dinner.”
The others quickly assented, and we started to make our way back through the familiar woods.
Our town is pretty much just a square. And at each entrance of the town-there’s six in all- stands two Official’s houses. There are also two in the center of Ragglov. The officials at the entrances of the town are there to make sure we don’t try to escape or go hunting for our own meat. Our meat is ten percent of the kill. That’s that. But any way they do a pretty good job of guarding the place- mostly. But Evan and I found that the two officials keeping the south-east entrance usually were in The Main making sure that people were doing their job. So in the hour they were gone, we sometimes tried to make our way stealthily through the entrance and out to hunt extra game or to teach ourselves or his siblings to hunt more efficiently.
So, you can imagine our surprise when we were sneaking through the shrubs, and we heard a shout.
A very angry shout.
Apparently, someone had decided to come home early.
Instinctively, I would’ve shot him.
But, rather fortunately for me, I didn’t have it with me. Else ways I would’ve been punished far worse than I was going to be.
He and a couple of his little ‘buddies’, ran after us as we tore through the streets trying to get away. Even though we knew we were in set trouble. There’s no getting out of this one.
We raced through The Main, barrels of still unsalted meat, and walls hung with bows and arrows fell apart as we tripped past them. The officials were still hot on our tail, and soon more joined the chase.
And they closed in and around us.
The first blow. It hurt so badly. I felt my cheek swell, bursts of hot and cold emanating from it.
They grabbed my arms, and knocked me against the ground, also knocking the wind out of me. I coughing, gasping for air, but just getting a mouthful of dirt. More shouts, more alarmed voices. I looked up and saw Evan, fighting against the several men packed around him, trying to get him down. But he was strong, even if he didn’t get as much to eat as them. I didn’t need to worry about him.
But I started to worry when I didn’t see Andrew anywhere. I hope he’d gotten away. And Jon, where was he!?
I looked up hearing a shriek. Jon’s bloody face met mine.
I didn’t even have time to panic for him when I felt a kick aimed at my stomach. I curled, flinching as someone started beating me with something. I felt something wet fall down my back and my stomach.
Blood.
Then I heard a voice, speaking over the loud gasps and yells of the people around us, too scared to really interfere,” This, is what happens when you disobey. We tell you over and over, it’s for your own good you stay within the town walls.”
Curse that voice. Curse everything living.
I tried holding in my shrieks, not wanting to seem vulnerable and weak. But I couldn’t let it in, and I felt like I was screaming harder than anyone. The beating- it never stopped. This couldn’t be happening. Not to me. My heart was going to stop soon, I knew it. I’d never live to see another day.
But my heart really stopped when I heard the next voice. It was so small, yet so brave.
“Let them go, or I’ll shoot you!”
Me and Evan looked up, fear written on our faces.
Andrew stood up on one of the roofs of the Bunch houses around us. His small bow and arrow pointed towards the head of head official. It would have been comical, had this not put his life in danger. And if it hadn’t been so sad that my world had come to this. A small child. Trying. Trying so hard to live with us.
“Andrew, run! Let us go and run you stupid child!” I screamed, my voice rising and falling with emotion and pain. But I knew it was too late. Andrew wouldn’t be seen as a child. But as something that would grow, and turn into a threat one day.
The official growled,” Such a young thing. Too bad it won't grow old.”
And that’s when the most heart-piercing scream rent the air.
My heart about broke into a million pieces, and I cried. Not because I hurt, and was being hurt. But because they’d found one of the few things that could really truly damage me. I wasn’t one to care much- but they’d found the one thing that I did care about.
And that’s when I decided that the death of another hurts so much more than any physical pain ever could.
And I blacked out
