“Never leave the Safe Place during daylights.” The adults warned us.
Cautionary tales we didn’t even need. We could see it ourselves. Flattened carcasses, littered our streets. Guts, bodies, crushed beyond recognition. Living cautionary tales. Bodies of brave men, women, fathers, mothers who ventured out to bring food home for their children.
“Never forage during the daylights. For the Creatures will find you. Their heads brush the sky and feet larger than hundreds of us combined.” Mother used to say, before she left Our Safe Place. Never to be seen again.
The Creatures, the ones responsible for the scattered,