Blood Stream (A Short Story) Read Online Free Page B

Asia. 
    However, the damage was already done.  The majority of the English governing party had been killed, and imports had stopped due to the fighting that was still rife in China and America. 
    Countless people died in a struggle to gather food as a famine took hold, and many died of starvation.’
    ~
    I squeeze my eyes shut and rub my temples again, and look back towards the slices of carrot.  I stare at them, only half seeing what’s before me, as I think about what I’ve read, and why I find it so hard to remember it all. 
    It’s the dates, I think.  Dates that are so long ago, and countries I’ve never been to. 
    I’ve never been anywhere beyond where I travel on my own two feet, and occasional trips by train to the city of Exeter, where my father works, where he is now.  It’s one of the few remaining cities in England. 
    That’s as far as I’ve ever been, and it only took about twenty minutes to get there. 
    No-one goes abroad anymore, how would they?  More to the point—why would they?  Europe is in ruins.  There are no-longer beautiful cities with outstanding architecture.  They are all gone, ransacked and deserted. 
    Of course, some people do still live there, but they are said to be savage and murderous. 
    No-one could afford to go further afield, and anyway, no-one even knows much about America or any other continents these days.  I certainly don’t.  I read somewhere that a long time ago people used to travel to other countries all the time, but that world has ceased to exist. 
    Everybody still feels the after effects of the war, still lives in the world that was left behind.  It just wasn’t the war in my book.  Far from it. 
    It was the war against Faerie. 
    The faeries that came from another world, another dimension. 
    Dad says that there is some truth in the made up history, in the sequence of events, the countries that fell first.  Only they didn’t fall to nuclear war, they fell as faerie after faerie came through the gate that had opened to their dimension, like a portal that had got jammed wide-open, and no-body could shut it. 
    The world was overcome, one country at a time, as these faerie’s trashed houses and killed the people within.  They torched cities, possessed people, controlled them, exchanged babies for changelings, and made people do bad things. 
    Dad says that these things did happen on the dates in my book, but they are still meaningless to me—this all happened over two hundred years ago!  And anyway, what does it matter if I remember some stupid dates or not, or know which countries fell first?  It won’t make things any better now. 
    Dad says that the gate got closed in the end, somehow.  That’s what he’s researching, well, one of the things.  He found some ancient papers at the university that describe the faerie invasion, and dad is trying to find out how it ended, in case it ever happens again. 
    He thinks we need to be prepared. 
    That’s why he trains me so hard, why he’s always pushing me to do better.  If it happens again he doesn’t want me to suffer the same death that millions before me succumbed to.  He wants me to live. 
    In fact, he’s been talking about it more and more recently, pushing me harder than ever.  It’s almost as though he believes something bad is going to happen soon.
    My eyes snap into focus as the ferns, near the bait I set, move apart.  A soft grey rabbit pushes his nose through and approaches the carrots. 
    I stay stock still as he looks up to check that it is safe, before lowering his mouth and starting to nibble on the food. 
    I slowly slide the gun out of its belt and point it at the chewing ball of cuteness, then fire.  A net launches from the barrel and wraps itself around the creature. 
    I jump to my feet, letting the gun fall to the ground, and pounce on the wriggling rabbit before it breaks free.  I draw back a corner of the net and, taking a deep breath, stick a hand in fast,