The World We've Set On Fire ■ Wattys 2016

1. The Wreckage

I had no idea what to feel so I chose to feel nothing.

Let me tell you a story.

But first, I'll introduce to you, my long term girlfriend and fiancée, Esmeralda. You could call her Esme if you wanted but there's no need, because she's dead.

About the story, let me warn you, it's pure tragedy.

So what happened was that the idiots who live in this world decided to have a little war and things got out of hand.

In our apartment in Rio, Esmeralda and I were worried. She kept on telling me that we would die and humans would become endangered species.

'Rubbish,' I told her. 'That can't happen.'

I got a slap in my face for that.

But here's the thing, she was kinda right. Especially about the dying part.

We were going to the grocery store one day when it happened. Rio had no warnings, no threats so it happened suddenly and unexpectedly. We were walking hand in hand on the sidewalk when the sirens went off.

"Damn, I hate that noise." She grumbled.

I didn't get time to reply because the bombs came down on us.

We flew into the air and hit the ground with such force that our bones cracked.

I remember staring at my hand as I lay on the cement road.

Guess what?
My hand wasn't connected to my arm.

Esmeralda wasn't anywhere near me so I stood up to look for her. There she was, lying a few feet away, in the rubble.

I rushed over to her, my severed hand dripping blood and took her face in my hand.

"I'm dying." She croaked.

"I know." I whispered.

"You don't have to be so dramatic about it."

"Please don't leave me."

"Shut the **** up." She smiled at me. "I really really love you, Kenyon."

"Esmeralda..."

"Don't cry, loser."

"I'm not crying... I just don't want to leave you."

"You're not leaving me, I'm leaving you. To be perfectly honest, i don't want to." She made a face. "Okay screw it. I'm really scared, Ken. There's no point in pretending otherwise."

"It's okay."

"No..." She hissed. "I want to live."

I had never seen her cry before. But that was nothing compared to seeing her the way she was right now. Legless and broken. I smiled bitterly.

She tried to slap me but she didn't have enough energy so the hand hit my cheek lightly and slid down.

I knelt over her and kissed her forehead. She smiled.

She died smiling.

I took off my jacket and laid it over her. Then, cradling my handless arm, I limped towards the horizon.

No, on a less dramatic note, I limped towards my house, only to find rubble.

Trucks came into the area and men set fire to everything. I was the only survivor so I was escorted to the largest military camp in Brazil.

There, I met a woman named Naomi who taught me everything I needed to know. In some cases, slightly more than that.

She was a woman without a heart and I smiled for the first time in days when she was promoted to an area near Greece.

Shortly after she left, the real fighting began. We spent our days in the headquarters and the nights on the border, firing at other countries.

"Kenyon, come with me."

"Who are you?" I frowned at the redhead. She scowled at me.

"Kira, who else! Now cone on. You've got work."

She took me to a large room filled with computers. On one side, a man was strapped to a chair.

"Kenyon, do you know what we do to spies?"

I shook my head. She turned up her nose and muttered something.

"Okay so you will cut the sides of the man's head and insert these wires into his head."

"I'm not doing that."

"I'll make you do it!" She spat. "Do it or things are going to get terrible."

"Things are already terrible." I muttered.

"Shut the **** up, you son of a pumpkin! And get to work!"

Slowly, I cut the man and pushed the wires into his brain after wrestling with his skull.

Though she tried to hide it, she was disgusted too.

"Okay... so turn on the computer. The password is RIPWORLD. Open the tab on the top left corner, yeah. And click on 'delete'. Yeah, that's great."

The man behind us screamed. Then, he closed his eyes again.

"What did you make me do?" She bit her lip.

"You wiped his memories."

"Is that possible?"

"Of course it is. You killed all the brain cells in his memory sector or whatever you call it."

During the two years that I worked there, I wiped the memories of over eight hundred people; half of them weren't even spies.

"Please, Kenyon. You have to do this to me." She begged. "All those people I've killed, I can't live with myself anymore."

"Kira, i can't-"

"Please."

So I wiped her memories and gave her the serum so her brain cells would repair themselves. Then, most of her memories would come back but not the recent ones.

When the war ended, I went to Lebanon to take care of victims.

Kenyon Wayosa was killed by a mentally ill victim of the Wreckage War. The murderer stabbed himself after stabbing Mr Wayosa and couldn't be identified. Both bodies to be cremated.