The Anomaly Affliction

Eighteen

TRIGGER WARNING: killing animals

Ahead of us, near the bottom of a small slope, is what looks like a home for foxes.

There's a hole in the sloped land about the size of a coffee table. I can see several fox heads peeping out. Their fur is roughly the same colour as the dusty ground. There are another couple of foxes sitting beside the hole, like District Guards outside a building back home. They're skinny animals - it makes me wonder why the group chooses to hunt them. But then again, what else is there to eat? They can't survive on tinned meat alone.

"You got the bait, Cage?" asks Harrison.

Cage reaches into one of his trouser pockets and pulls out a small handful of what appears to be meat from the tins in the scrapyard.

"Right here," he says with his deep voice.

"You know the drill," says Harrison.

Cage nods in response.

"Now Violet." Harrison turns to me. "You see those rocks over there?"

He points to a set of large rocks protruding from the floor a few metres away from us.

"Yeah," I say.

"After Cage lays the bait, we're all gonna hide behind the rocks. Then, all of us are gonna chuck our knives at the foxes and wait until they fall. Then we'll go and finish 'em off. Sound alright?"

It doesn't really sound alright, because I don't like the thought of killing an innocent creature, but I don't have a choice. These people have probably done this every day for years. I need to do it too.

"Yeah," I say again.

As Cage places the meat on the ground near us, the group scurries to the rocks, with me at the back. We crouch behind the rocks and Harrison tells me to stay silent. Cage joins us at the rocks and crouches.

After about thirty seconds, three foxes pop up over the horizon and make their way to the handful of meat on the ground. One of them gives the meat a curious sniff, before taking a little bit in its mouth and chewing. The other two do the same.

"Poor bastards love that stuff," Cage whispers to me.

The foxes clearly don't get much food, because they hiss and scowl at each other, fighting over a mere handful of meat. I can't help but feel sorry for these animals. I'd like to give them all the food they need...but I can't. I have to kill them instead.

"And..." Harrison raises a hand, then brings it down swiftly. "Now!"

The group spring up and all hurl their knives at the foxes, except me. All of the foxes disperse and try to speed away, but the knives are too quick for two of them. One knife collides with a fox's neck, and another meets the other fox's abdomen. The pain in my abdomen returns just from watching it. Both foxes squeal in pain and stumble, trying to keep going despite the blood oozing out of them, but soon they fall to the ground. The fox with the knife in its neck falls first, then the other. Nova throws a spare knife towards the third fox who ran away, but the creature disappears over the horizon before the knife gets near it. Nova goes to retrieve her knife, while the rest of us go to the bleeding foxes.

They aren't dead yet. The poor creatures are writhing on the ground and raucously screeching, blood pouring out of their wounds. Vic and Cage pull their knives out of the animals, making them screech more. I wince at the sight and the sound, but force myself not to look away. I need to get used to this, don't I?

Harrison and X go to pick up their knives, X carrying his window-smashing rock in his arms. When they return, Cage says: "Now for the fun part."

X grins and drops his rock straight onto one of the fox's heads. It lands with a squelch, and the animal stops writhing. On instinct, I look away. I've been trying to be tough but I can't watch this. The sound makes me feel nauseous. That poor animal...