Hunger, Part the Fourth

CHAPTER 5

It was our third day in Hollywood, and we hadn’t had any more “visits.” This was all fine and dandy, except for the longer some of them didn’t come, the more the apprehension built up. Things couldn’t be laid back for long periods of time, unless a storm was coming.

“What are we going to do today?” My brother still thought that the good life was here to stay.

“We’re leaving.” There I was again with the logic.

“What? Why?”

“We can’t stay in one place for too long.”

“Why not?”

“Because!”

“You’re being dumb!”

“No, you are! You think that everything is always an abundance of food and happiness, but we could be starving by tomorrow! One day, we’re going to run out of food, and what are you going to think then!?”

“LUCIUS!” My sister never used my name. Names were obsolete.

She looked at me as if I was one of them. What could I have done to make her look at me that way? I couldn’t respond to that look. Nothing could make it go away.

My brother ran into his closet. He stayed there a lot. I think he enjoyed the privacy. It certainly had its advantages now.

---

We finally left on the fifth day. Surprisingly, nothing happened on those two extra days that I disagreed with. How could I keep my leadership, when my decisions-turned-suggestions didn’t benefit my family? I couldn’t.

Nobody talked.

We walked. And walked. And walked.

We had no purpose. No goals. All we did was wander.

We did not see them again, and we did not see any others. Wandering alone in various terrains, and never looking back.

Our lives were dull, and empty.

And it was because of what I said in Hollywood.

---

I hadn’t seen my sister or my brother in three days. We simply started walking different ways, in every sense of the phrase. I thought that the best way to go was right, and I supposed my brother and sister thought otherwise. There was no discussion, no debate. There was a simple and final decision.

Perhaps this is what they wanted from the beginning. I thought that I would never know.

I saw them again on the sixth day away from Hollywood.

”That city treated us well." Somehow he infused his words with sarcasm.

“We had enough.”

“Yes, enough. We should be able to last for another week.”

“A week!? We might as well starve ourselves!”

“Well, we don’t need to be killing every person we see. We can last.

Silence.

“I think he’s gone mad.”

“I most certainly have not! What is “mad” about not wanting to kill anybody!?”

“It’s our nature. Since when do you deny this?”

“Since the boy.”

“Would it be better if we allowed him to live in this world full of fear only to be killed by another group? Would that have been better? Huh?”

---

I was worried every day for my family. Have they survived? Have they eaten enough? Have they been caught? But there was no way of knowing.

I had to find them.