Humanity Read Online Free

animals finding the food, as
well as other humans – as long as they didn’t happen to look directly up this
tree.
    He dropped back down to the ground,
sparing me a glance as he started for the nearby stream.
    “I already know how it feels to be
alone,” I told him bitterly, watching as he squatted down and rinsed his hands
and knife; he cupped some water in one hand, splashing it onto his face and
neck, rinsing away the grime that had been there.
    “No, you don’t,” he replied, standing and
walking past me; he gave me a wide birth as he headed back for the fire. “You
only know the initial sting of loss. You haven’t had time to dwell on that
loss, and you haven’t had time to really be alone. That’s part of the reason
you’re so focused on killing me; it gives you something to focus on, besides
the reality of your lonely future.”
    “But I’m already alone,” I insisted.
    “No,” he said, looking at me. “You’re
with me. You’re not alone.”
    “You don’t count.”
    He laughed. “Good to know. Ready to eat?”
    The smell of the deer meat made my mouth
water; it was still sizzling away, not too far from where we’d gone. The man
stuck his knife into a slice, holding it up, out of the flames.
    “You have something to hold this with?”
He asked. “I ain’t giving you my knife.”
    “What are you afraid of?” I taunted,
turning to rummage in my mother’s backpack, bringing out a flat piece of spare
wood she’d stored there for whatever reason. We’d had knives, too, like the one
this man had. However, Dad had always been the one to carry them, and I had
unthinkingly left them with his body, just as I’d left all the other guns.
    I held out the board, and the man leaned
forward, carefully easing the meat off his knife and onto it. The meat was gray
and white from the ashes of the fire, but smelled enticingly good. I
immediately leaned down and began to tear chunks out of it with my teeth.
    I watched the man as I ate, as he ate,
loathing the way he used his jaw to rip the meat away from his knife. He was
only eating this meat because he had killed my parents.
    But yet . . . how did I even have an appetite right now? All I
could understand was the incurable hunger, and that I had to satisfy it. The
hunger was like every single other day of my life, and it didn’t feel any
different today, even though my parents were gone. Why was that?
    Even though there was a certain shock
churning in my skull, tying my gut into knots, I had always known this would
happen. That they would be gone one day. That they could be gone any day. That
was how the world was: ripping life away with absolutely no notice.
    That knowledge did not stop me from
wanting to kill this man, from wanting to rip his throat out the same way he
ripped my parents’ lives away, the same way he was ripping the deer flesh with
his teeth before chewing and swallowing it.
    “Want seconds?” he asked.
    I glared at him with all the hatred I
felt. Him. He represented all the evils of the world. Why should anyone be
separated from their loved ones?
    He faltered at my glare. “Er, is that a
no?”
    “No, it’s a yes. Give it to me.”
    “Right.” He speared the meat with his
knife and leaned forward to place it on my proffered plate. He muttered
something under his breath.
    “What was that?” I asked, regaining my
composure as I began to eat again.
    “I called you a crazy chick.”
    “Yes. Be careful, because one of these
days I’m going to rip your throat out.” I gave him a meaningful look.
    He chuckled. “I understand you’re
serious, but you need to relax a little. It’s going to be a while before the
opportunity presents itself – if ever.”
    I wanted to punch him for suggesting I
relax, but he’d shoot me if I tried, so instead I just finished my dinner.
    “Are you thinking more clearly now?” he
asked.
    “If by ‘thinking clearly’ you mean, am I
going to let you live, then no,” I replied, settling more