Want to know what happens *after* global pandemics and climate change destroy the world as we know it? Check out THIRST (first lines below).
Use it as a warning or a guide.
In Camp, after lights out is called, it is so black that when you close and open your eyes, the view is the same. It is as if our bedroom is at the bottom of a deep, empty well. There is no sound but Dad's voice and the soft whistle of my brother Nile's breathing, coming from his bed across the room.
"It was when they ordered us to kill all the dogs that we knew," Dad lets the words hover in the blackness.
I've never seen one outside of pictures, but I know dogs and cats were domesticated from our training manuals. I'm not sure why Dad's voice sounds as if it is being pressed down by a heavy weight. I work to puzzle it out, but I cannot understand what makes this so important. There is a longing in his voice that I can't wrap my head around.
"What did you know, when they killed the dogs?" I ask, working to make my voice calm and quiet. Because I know he likes to see that we can control our emotions.
Dad doesn't answer right away.
"It was not only dogs, but all pets. We saved the animals being raised for meat, of course," he laughs in a bitter way, "or tried. But it didn't matter, because they all died eventually."
He stops and takes a breath, calms his voice a little, and then answers me, "When they killed the dogs we knew that the reports and speeches saying things were fine... we knew they were lies. We knew it was much, much bigger than they'd told us."
https://www.wattpad.com/story/197807854-thirst-complete