Life Sentence Read Free Page B

My
mouth had been so dry and cold, and now it felt like it was being
scalded with burning liquid, and like I was drowning in the
slippery, greasy wetness of her blood, all at the same time. It was
the most awful thing I’ve ever felt. I clutched my throat and shook
my head from side to side and tried to swallow, and I was sure it
was going to kill me, the burning and drowning sensations were so
intense, first in my mouth, but then even worse in my throat, like
throwing up backwards, even though later I realized I wasn’t sure
what throwing up felt like; I just remember it was very unpleasant
and it burned. But what was worse was that once I swallowed, it
seemed to make me even hungrier. My stomach—or whatever was left of
it—had been a dull, pained pressure in my middle, but almost as
soon as I swallowed, it gave a wrench, and its insistent demand
filled me completely, as if my limbs and head could feel hunger as
well—as if every part of me were writhing, twisting, screaming in
need.
    From somewhere I suddenly remembered that drinking
salt water was like that, and many people lost at sea died when
they drank the sea water, because the more they drank, the
thirstier they got, until it killed them. Isn’t that funny, that I
should suddenly remember that? And from where? I had just awakened
a few days before, and I knew I hadn’t heard that particular fact
anywhere since waking up. I still am not sure. But I knew from then
on not to eat, because it just made things worse.
    So I didn’t want to attack the younger man and I
didn’t press forward with the others. But I could hear the two of
them talking, even as I hung back.
    “Do you want me to help herd this bunch to the
prison, Milton?” the younger man said.
    I didn’t like that at all, because I knew what the
word “prison” meant. The other people didn’t react to this
description of where we were going, they just kept grasping at the
younger man. But I hung my head, for I remembered what I’d done
back in the city to the woman I’d partially eaten. I felt like I
deserved going to prison, though I was surprised it had taken them
so long to catch us. I didn’t think all the people with me had been
there when we had eaten the woman and the others, but maybe they
had eaten other people or done other bad things, and we were all
being punished together.
    The people with me didn’t seem to understand what
was being said, they just milled around as the man called Milton
kept them back. “Stay behind me, Will,” he said to the young man.
“We’ll take some of them to the prison, but it’s getting too full.
I’d like to take some to that fenced-in place we found a while
ago.”
    The younger man called Will said, “That can’t hold
many.”
    “No, but Jack says it’s not close to anything
important, and he’s marked it on the map so people don’t stumble on
it by accident. And it’ll help ease the overcrowding. Don’t worry,
Will, we’ll find other places. We have to.
    “I’ve been watching them. They fight each other
sometimes, and some of the bigger and more violent and aggressive
ones hurt the smaller. They even hurt the women and children among
them. It’s wrong. They don’t eat them, of course, and that makes it
even worse, like they’re just doing it out of cruelty or rage, and
I had always hoped they wouldn’t be capable of that, at least.
Sometimes they hurt them to the point where they can’t move, and
then you or I have to put them out of their misery. That’s not
right. I’d like to put the less aggressive ones somewhere
else.”
    Will shrugged. “All right.”
    And so we marched on. It took us a couple days. At
night some of the people would wander away, and Milton would bring
them back in the morning. But they couldn’t get far in the dark,
and mostly we sat down at night and didn’t move. Will would climb a
tree or something else, like a billboard or an electrical tower, in
order to sleep and to keep away from us.
    By the