Wildlings

2: Order and Chaos

In my time here, I have realised something fundamental: wilderness is other people.

Their darkness, their unpredictability, their unfathomable souls.

It's become clear to me I must fight or die, but o, the enemy! How terrifying they are! The savage faces of the Natives, all twisted in lust and fury, haunt my every nightmare. Their bodies, blue-painted and naked as animals, crawl like cockroaches through my dreams. They show no mercy, have no sensitivity. It is terrifying that humans, supposedly like you or I, have the capacity to be such monsters.

I think every night of my dear Mary, of little Pan. How I long for them, but how I fear for them in this savage land! How can we build a society here, amongst such viciousness and brutality? How can I look into the innocent eyes of those I love, after what I've seen in the eyes of the Natives?

Sannah's screen vibrated gently in her hands, interrupting her reading. She ignored it. Probably just Judit, some nyaff joke about her Geography teacher.

She put it down and yawned. This Defeat of the Natives stuff was giving her the creeps. Stupid. Real life was nightmare enough without hurling out over ancient history.

Sannah lifted an arm to wipe her forehead. It was swampishly hot in the classroom, the air turgid with warm breath and sweat. She'd barely slept a wink, and her eyeballs felt like they'd been dipped in powdered acid.

The unbearable heat made the rest of the class even noisier than usual. Everyone was irritable in the close, oppressive atmosphere.

A herd of boys moved around the room, its members picking fights and screeching—literally screeching—at one another.

The girls behind Sannah were loudly trash-talking their friends, while doing make-up in the mirrors of their screens. Who does Lox think she is? He's only with her because she lets him...You know he cheats on her. He's way too hot for her. She's deluded. Big-eared bitch. I heard...Well, I heard...No way. Licit. He's brutal. So dark. She's making a fool of herself. I'd die. He's...She's...No skitting way.

And was that? Surely not. Yep. Two guys at the back, hunched around a screen, were definitely watching porn. They'd not even turned the sound off, for skit's sake.

The so-called teacher ignored it all. Eyes glued to her screen, she was eating a tray of chips at the front of the class, a pointless and pathetic protest at being overworked and underpaid.

Sannah rubbed her tingling eyes. Seriously, how could this legally be called education?

The herd of boys was getting closer. One of them was throwing lewd comments at the trash-talking girls. They ignored him.

Sannah tensed, knowing she was next. She pulled tighter to the wall, resting her forehead on the scum-mottled window and directing her attention outside.

The sky was dirty white, the distant skyscrapers of the financial district barely visible through the smog. Below, Birchwood's scruffy streets were deserted, the jigsaw of buildings behind the school fence crusty and drooping in the heat. A drone fluttered overhead like a bird.

The only other movement was a pair of pigeons in the road, fighting over some discarded chicken bones. They pecked each other, lunging cannibalistically for the clinging tendons of meat.

"Oy!" One of the boys was shouting at Sannah.

She set her eyes on the pigeons and pretended not to hear.

Ten months, one week and two days, she thought. That's how long we've been here. You'd think I'd be used to all this by now.

She wasn't.