[ WP ] `` Daddy , are we the bad guys ? ''

We walk along the cracked roads that used to be at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. The bones of great beasts rise up around us. They are ghosts, haunting our footsteps. My boy tries to pick at some of them, grabbing a piece of white when he can. He breaks them down like I taught him, fashioning knives so sharp and hard they can go straight through a man's heart. 
 
 We find the girl crouched near a towering gray reef. She hides behind the holes and gaps, her gray eyes watching us pass. 
 
 She follows us for miles, trying to hide her scent. My boy opens his mouth, I motion at him to stop talking. 
 
 We continue on until I decide it's time to make camp for the night. 
 
 `` Are we close, Mother?'' he asks. 
 
 I shake my head, kneeling while I start the fire. 
 
 `` He's still a very long way away.'' 
 
 `` Will we kill him then? The bad man who drank the world?'' 
 
 `` Yes.'' We do n't have much in the way of food but we have enough. There are still animals to kill. Water is what we lack. Our lips chap. Our skin shrinks. We are husks, walking towards the sun. 
 
 The girl attacks as I twist the spit over the fire. She goes for my back. Smart. 
 
 I turn, slicing at her face with my bone knife. She's younger than I thought. Her cheeks sink into her chin. Her eyes are holes burning and empty. 
 
 She has a knife too. Not as fine as mine but it manages to nick my arm. My boy aims for the back of her ankles as I taught him. Once she's down I slice her throat so she bleeds out quickly. Her eyes never change. Even in death, they are ablaze. 
 
 I take her water. She wo n't need it anymore. 
 
 My boy watches as I strip her of everything else she carries. 
 
 `` Are we the bad people?'' he asks. 
 
 `` Not yet,'' I answer. `` Not yet.''
