A Taste of Ichor

Chapter 1

     I dust the book cover off and try to make out the letters that have been mostly smudged off. I-T-I-R-Y. Itiry? There are a few gaps in the title that I can't make out, but I flip the book open. The pages are lined with English words, the meanings of them, and ways they can be used. I close the book after skimming the pages for a few minutes.

"Ethan!" I yell, shouting to the man closest to me. The leader. Ethan was probably around 50 years old, although none of us knew exactly how old we were. They stopped counting years many moons ago, and it was difficult to count the days. Counting days and trying to stay alive are two very different agendas and there was no time for both.

"Vera." Ethan's voice is much quieter than mine, and I look out the window to make sure that the sun hasn't set yet. Thankfully it's still sitting pretty high in the sky, but dusk will come soon. Our foraging will have to come to an end.

"Look at this ancient book I found. It has a lot of words in it, English words! We can take it back to camp and teach the young ones so much more, this could really help our-" I begin but am cut off by Ethan grabbing the book from my hands and tossing it aside.

"No, Vera. We are here for food supplies, not dusty books that will not be helpful to our family." Ethan's brooding voice circles me, leaving me feeling uneasy. I simply nod at him as I clasp my hands together, there was no arguing with him. He became Head of the Family once Mariette was killed. Mariette was a strong woman, and Ethan's older sister. She was gruff, built, ferocious, but motherly. That was her downfall.

     There are five kids in the Family, although we are not kids anymore. There's Evette, Gilda, Sampson, Donovan, and me. The other four are Ethan's biological children, they have kids of their own, ones that cry and sometimes stumble when they walk. Ethan's kids don't ever go foraging, that job is left to me. Mariette found me when I was small, I was wandering away from Fereska, the safehouse that was made when the Awakening happened. Fereska didn't make it. I was the only one who got out. Even now I still hear the howling, the screams. And the sounds of limbs being torn off of people that didn't deserve that fate. My mother had hidden me in an air duct as they came in. Snuck in. Manipulated their way in. I crawled through and fell outside into the trash pit. It was full of pig intestines, ones that I wrapped around myself so that if they found me they wouldn't be able to know I was alive. I was just lucky. Lucky that my mother had enough time to shove me in an air duct that had gone somewhere it shouldn't have. Lucky that we had slaughtered the pigs that morning. Lucky that Mariette was there to find me. Lucky that it wasn't just Ethan.

     Ethan despised me. He kept me around to be used as bait for them. He kept me around because it would be better to him if I was killed instead of any of his own kids. His real kids. He blamed me for Mariette's death.

     Mariette had gone with us to another foraging site. She had been teaching me to fight, to use weapons to defend myself for a very long time. It had been one of the only activities I was allowed to participate in. We went into an old brick house, or an attempt at a brick house. It was clear the house was once something grand, something that could now only be seen in their cities. Someone had tried to use the brick that was left to make a sort of lean-to. There were 8 cans of chili. And I grabbed one. Mariette saw it before I did, so she shoved me out of the way. A scythe swung from the ceiling and chopped her hand clean off.

     It bled and bled and bled. We knew what that meant. After all, the sun was setting and we wouldn't make it back to camp in time. Mariette took the scythe and yelled at us to leave. We ran, but we heard the screams and growls that echoed throughout the trees, until there was nothing. Just silence.

     Ever since that day Ethan has treated me as less than. And I get it.

"Time to go Vera." Ethan says as he points out of the Church where we are currently standing. I nod, and follow him out of the big wooden doors. The way back to Camp is not long, but the sun was setting fast. Faster than usual.

"That's not normal," I say motioning towards the sun that was drifting to meet the horizon, "Ethan there's only a few more minutes of daytime tops, we need to hurry." He nods and starts to jog, picking up the pace as the sky turns into darkness. He doesn't dare make sure I'm behind him. There's a myth that they can hear better than us, but I don't think it's true. Somehow, they just know where we are, even if there isn't a sound to be heard.

     We near the Camp but something feels...off. Something is wrong. There is no hustle and bustle as there usually is. There are no cries heard from the road and insistent shushes. I stop running, but Ethan only gets faster. I slowly walk towards the camp where no sounds emerge. Ethan disappears behind the wooden walls, and there is still nothing to be heard.

"Ethan?" I whisper, more to myself than to call out to him. The silence is more eerie than the voices of the pained. Screams put me more at ease than absolute nothingness. I creep towards the Camp and slowly round the corner into the main area of our Camp. The darkness engulfs me, and my eyes try to adjust to the darkness that the sun has left behind on its departure.

"Boo." A voice hisses as hand wrap around my arms, pinning them behind my back. The pressure from these hands makes it feel like every bone in my arm is breaking slowly. Almost as if I can feel the bend and tearing of each individual bone. I swallow my squeal of pain, as I know what this is. People are not this strong.

     But they are.