To Thee Is This World Given Read Online Free Page A

good way to get him killed.”
    “Most people who come across a strange dog in the woods try to put it at ease, not hit it with a stick.”
    His face flushed. “Not if they want what the dog’s guarding, they don’t. And even if they don’t go after the dog, nothing’s stopping them from waiting around for you.”
    “Maybe, but most people who won’t risk going after the dog, probably won’t wait around to go after its owner either.” She came to a halt and looked down at the mutt and was silent for a moment. “But you’re right. I put him in danger. I risked his life for a meal.”
    He hesitated as if confused. “Well, I mean, you got to eat.” Then he shrugged. “And if it comes down to you and somebody else, you got to pick you every time. Especially if it’s a dog.”
    “No.” Her eyes met his. “You don’t.”
    “I don’t know how you’ve lasted this long, if you really believe that. You got to do whatever it takes to survive now.” He glared at the ground. “Whatever it takes.” There was a tiny pause before he looked up again. “People’d kill you for that turkey. They’d kill you for that pack. They’d kill you for the dogs if they needed to. They’d even kill you just to make sure you didn’t kill them first.” He nodded to himself, his eyes focused inward. “So, yeah, you got to do whatever you got to do. That’s just how it is now. Things have changed.”
    “No, they haven’t. People used to kill each other for cutting them off in traffic and texting during movies.” A smile played at the corner of her mouth. “If anything, people have mellowed out a bit these days.”
    He gaped down at her. “What the hell are you talking about? Nobody’s ‘mellow’ now. Only an idiot wouldn’t know that everything’s changed.”
    “Nothing’s changed. Except that the dead don’t die. And no one knows or cares what day it is.”
    Disbelief and revulsion swept across his face. “Joke about it all you want, but good people, decent people, lie, cheat, steal, and kill now. They do things now they’d never’ve done in a million years back then.” His expression was strange, almost secretive. “Things they got to do to survive ’cause everything’s changed. Everything.”
    “There’s no such thing as good people and bad people. There are just intellectually honest ones and intellectually dishonest ones.”
    He shook his head. “That sounds like something Lex Luthor’d say to Superman right before he blew up the fucking world.”
    She laughed a little. “That’s because villains are always intellectually honest. It’s what makes them villains, not that they do bad things. Superman did plenty of bad things.”
    “You think there’s no difference between Lex Luthor and Superman?”
    “No. I don’t. I think dividing the world into Lex Luthors and Supermans is just a game we play so that we don’t have to take responsibility for our actions. So that we can still feel good about ourselves when we do bad things. Actions are good and bad, not people.”
    “Yeah, well, I like my chances a whole hell of a lot better with Superman, than I do with Lex Luthor.” He shook his head again. “I don’t even know why the hell I’m arguing with a person who thinks things are exactly the same as before the world went to shit.”
    “If Superman kills a million people to stop Lex Luthor from blowing up the world, he’s still killed a million people. And that’s still bad.”
    He closed his eyes, inhaling slowly through his nose. “It’s not like he’d be murdering’em or something. It’d just happen. It’d just be one of those things. There’s a big difference between killing somebody as collateral damage and killing’em ’cause you’re a dick.”
    “I don’t know. I think if you were one of the one’s that’s dead, you might disagree. The world has pretty much already ended at that point, as far as you’re concerned. So I’m not sure it would be much of a consolation