Story 12: hero; no, survivor; yes

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by hlwing

by hlwing

Everything sucked. My health, my stability, my social life, everything. I survived the FAYZ. Was I strong? No, far from it.

I fought for food, I lied, I stole and almost killed. I wasn't a hero, I was a survivor.

All my friends were either dead or in the same boat I was in. Going back to school sucked, being pointed at, getting pitying looks from adults, people getting scared of you when you have a panic attack. Only good thing was the food.

Sometimes kids would complain that they were starving. I'd always ask "Would you rat?" They're always shake their head and I nod and say "Then that isn't true hunger, I ate lizard and mutated fish, when I was lucky. Some kids at Coastes ate their fallen."

That always went over well with the principle.

One time, in civics, we where talking about the death penalty and someone was like "If you try to kill someone you should go to jail." I laughed so hard and my peers just looked at me. I had to wipe tears from my eyes "So (laugh) how long (laugh) would someone go if (laugh) they about killed multiple people. I want to know how long I'd be in a cell."

They all looked at me with shocked expressions "Y-you almost killed someone, Lila!?" Bekka called from the first row.

I shook my head and they relaxed. "No, I about killed multiple people, I suspect Sam was quite ready to just shoot me, I frustrated him." I laughed. "King Caine had to put me in a cell and tax me so much, I thought I'd end up with Penny."

I saw confused faces "Oh, Penny could make you see things. I believe she was that girl with concrete smashed in her face by King Caine that people saw when the FAYZ went clear." She was crazy before but the FAYZ and jealousy drove her over the edge."

The teacher spoke "So the Perdido Beach anomaly was a monarchy?"

I shrug "Yes, no, no and yes, and then it was chaos."

"Sam was mayor or president while Edilio took care of everything, Caine was always King Caine, Albert was emperor. All were scared of Drake. Lana wouldn't get messed with at all, no one messed with The Healer."

I don't know how it happened but I talked about everything that happened beginning to end up every detail. From the chaos, to hunger, to the lies, to the plague, to the fear, and finally, for the first time, I felt light. I had tears running down my face and so did a lot of the other kids but I smiled at the good times.

Bekka spoke "So, Lila, your like a hero?" I whole my head no "Hero; no, survivor; defiantly."