Warning: mentions of cannibalism, graphic death, language
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Tearing into a strip of jerky, I lean back in my seat as I offer the bag to the driver.
I know he'll like it. It's got that crispy, tender flavour he's always rambling on about like a creep.
"Homemade?" his white eyes light up.
"The way you like it" I smile back and take another piece.
People adapted to survive out here. This guy was one of many in our group we formed to keep ourselves alive.
Monsters roamed the lands out there. Simple animals were dying to the more dangerous ones evolving with each wave they birthed.
So, humans adapted too.
Exhibit A: the driver.
White eyes so haunting that you could only see the pupils. Teeth so sharpened that they looked like they belonged to a dog. Skin darkened and dusted with specks that matched the dead landscape. Hair that grew right down the back of his neck and ended at his shoulder blades.
We called him 'Tear' because of his obsession with human flesh.
"You know, the closest thing is pork" he wagged his jerky as he tore into it "so says the internet."
"You know I don't have a phone to check if that shit is real."
Tear snorted with me, laughing.
I wasn't nearly as insane as he was. He had no limits. I, at least, still had my sanity.
All the years of cannibalism made him go funny. They say that you shake if you eat too much of your own kind. You laugh too.
Tear was always laughing lately. It'd be silent and he'd just bend over in hysterics, or you'd hear him trying to control himself as he tried to climb into a car for our supply runs.
Tear snorted again, his fingers curling in the air above the steering wheel he guided with his thumbs.
"Take it, take it" he gasped as he started to laugh again, throwing his head back into the headrest to try and stop himself.
"Foot off the accelerater" I shoved it to the side "you know what happened last time."
We almost ran into the back of an abandoned car. Another time, Tear veered so violently that I swear I couldn't move my head right for a week.
He sputtered and howled, trembling as he tried to gain control. I huffed at his antics and kept guiding the car along the empty road.
Not many people drive anymore with fuel being too pricey. We syphoned the fuel from other tanks so we never had to feel that sting.
I swear the taste of it was stained inside my mouth from sucking on the hose just a little too long more than once.
"You good?" I grumbled as he choked and gripped the wheel around me again.
"Y-you should drive so we don't need t-to worry" he breathed deeply to keep control "I could teach you."
All this shit went down before I had the chance to learn from an actual driver, or adult for that matter.
How old was Tear? Fourteen? Two years older than me.
"I don't want to run off a cliff, thanks" I eyed him, guiding us around a steep curve "I'll take my chances."
Fishing for more jerky, Tear eagerly took his with a smile.
My body ached from stripping and marinating it for hours on end, but I felt glad that he enjoyed it enough to crave more.
I'd do anything with him. He was like a brother to me.
"We're getting close" I warned as we cut the engine and gently let gravity roll the car down the slope "be ready."
Our hunting gear was in the back. The biggest creatures roamed further from towns and noise. They'd keep anyone fed for weeks.
Letting the car eventually run out of momentum, we heaved our cramped legs out so we could start weighing ourselves down with gear.
Tear groaned as he shouldered the bag we kept the bear traps in. Should be three of them. I counted them myself.
"Shut the fuck up, dude!" I hissed as he stuffed a fist into his mouth and drooled around it, shuddering "you'll make us lose them!"
It wouldn't be a first time for that either.
He circled the spot, smashing his other fist into himself as he rode out the agony.
Trembling and swiping his tearful eyes, he was barely holding on when he nodded and we hurried across the road for the crumbled landscape ahead.
"Set it up here" I ordered when we hunched together to carefully heave down both sides of the trap and latch the plate.
Checking the oblivious twin-headed herbivores ahead, we advanced with another ready to be loaded.
We couldn't make noise. Not because it would startle them, but because it could alert us to the carnivores.
Rather than hunt the weaker animals, they guarded them for themselves. They could kill them whenever they got hungry, in exchange for keeping them safe from others wanting an easy meal.
"Over there" I pointed across from the herd. A nice patch of grass where an unsuspecting herbivore could graze.
We grunted as we set the trap, almost snapping it shut prematurely.
Sweating and blowing out my breath, I led us closer to the herd starting to notice our presence and scatter.
It was only a few, but my hammering heart and rattled nerves warned me that we were running out of time.
Placing down the last trap, our eyes darted to the bounding herbivores crashing through the trees. I reached in to latch the pressurised plate, still remaining hunched opposite Tear who began to snort again around his clamped mouth.
"It'll be OK" I reached over to touch his shoulder "you'll get through it."
He snapped out a wail, slapping his hands over his mouth.
I smiled back, gripping his shoulder to slam his face down into the trap.
It snapped instantly, mutilating what used to be his head. Parts of his white eyes were flung across the ground, and I saw his tongue lolling out the side.
His body still trembled from the laughter and shock trying to register to his minced brain.
I flicked the gore off myself as the carnivores crashed into the scenary to eye off the trap Tear was smeared around.
I wasn't going to let anyone be the death of me, not even someone I grew to love like the family that had kept our group alive so long ago.
Swiping the blood off my patched legs, I smirked at how easy it had been.
Tear wasn't the only one to be better at surviving.
I carved strips out of my own skin to feed him, under the lie I was hunting others. He never saw my arms or legs I kept hidden under long clothing. He never tasted the poison that leaked out of my skin when it was drowned in so much marinade.
I adapted. I was better.
I used my body to form a silent treaty with the carnivores. They avoid hunting our group if I filled traps for them. As a bonus, I could help strip whatever was caught in them for our own hungry mouths.
Our group knew. They always praised me for plentiful bounties and painted me as some hero for filling our stew pots every night. When someone wasn't reliable anymore, it was up to me to make sure I found a new way we could benefit.
Missing people were part of supply runs. The gouges and scars I let the carnivores carve through me always sold my story of being overrun to the fresh blood we let in.
That's how they were always so unknowing. I kept Tear in the dark for months until it was my turn to play reaper with him.
I was just a good guy doing the essential thing to survive. Keep the blood of everyone else's hands while I licked mine clean.
One down, another two to go.
ns 15.158.61.12da2
