@@@@@ We felt wide awake nowWe sighed, preferring
@@@@@
We felt wide awake nowWe sighed, preferring unconsciousness, and let our head fall into our
handsWhat now?
“Why did you give it water, Jeb?” an angry voice demanded, close behind our back
We whirled, twisting onto our kneesWhat we saw made our heart falter and our awareness
splinter apart
There were eight humans half-circled around where I knelt under the treeThere was no
question they were humans, all of themI'd never seen faces contorted into such
expressions–not on my kindThese lips twisted with hatred, pulled back over clenched teeth
like wild animalsThese brows pulled low over eyes that burned with fury
Six men and two women, some of them very big, most of them bigger than meI felt the blood
drain from my face as I realized why they held their hands so oddly–gripped tightly in front of
them, each balancing an objectSome held blades–a few short ones like
those I had kept in my kitchen, and some longer, one huge and menacingThis knife had no
purpose in a kitchenMelanie supplied the name: amachete
Others held long bars, some metal, some wooden
I recognized Uncle Jeb in their midstHeld loosely in his hands was an object I'd never seen in
person, only in Melanie's memories, like the big knife
I saw horror, but Melanie saw all this with wonder, her mind boggling at their numbersEight
human survivorsShe'd thought Jeb was alone or, in the best case scenario, with only two
othersTo see so many of her kind alive filled her with joy
You're an idiot,I told her
I forced her to see it from my perspective: to see the threatening shapes inside the dirty jeans
and light cotton shirts, brown with dustThey might have been human–as she thought of the
word–once, but at this moment they were something