Red Fox by Lara Fanning

and my teeth bared. The door to my compartment opens an inch and Seiger’s square-shaped face appears in the gap, along with the pistol, which he points at me lazily. I would jump out but he will shoot me, so I just stare longingly at the outside world as he opens the door further. Still keeping his gun trained on me, saddle-sore Seiger stretches his limbs, and I hear several of his joints click as he stretches them out. He cracks his neck, and I silently wish it had snapped completely. As I sneer at him, he steps into my compartment and closes the door firmly behind him.
    With him here, every nerve ending in my body tingles with life. If I thought I could take him on and win, I would happily fight him. But locked in a box, weak from hunger, pain, and exhaustion, and with my hands bound, the odds aren’t in my favour. I hang against the wall but am ready to fight. Seiger looks weary as he moves to stand on the opposite side of the caravan box so we are facing one another. He never lowers the gun and we face each other, me glaring with poisonous hatred and he disconcertingly calm.
    “You’re a disgusting man!” I spit, seething with rage. I’ve never felt such a powerful hatred before.
    He holds up one hand defensively. “Just following orders, girl. I heard what you just told Whil. If you hadn’t lied on the test, you would probably be in one of our new settlements with your family. They were all placed in A.”
    My heart gives a skip of joy. So my family is alive! If I had just been honest in my test and stayed in line at the sorting, I could have been with them right now instead of locked in a box with Seiger. I shake my head firmly. My own comfort doesn’t matter in the scheme of things. Seiger still killed Clara and probably ordered the execution of the people in D.
    “That wouldn’t have stopped you from killing Clara,” I snap. My nose wrinkles and my lips peel back like they did at the rally. I feel wolf-like, snarling like this. Even my hair stands on end similar to how a cat fizzes up when in danger.
    Seiger’s face shocks me. It doesn’t show some sick sort of pleasure for killing my best friend. Seiger looks at me with an expression I wouldn’t think could live on his angular, harsh face:
    Sympathy .
    Towards me ? Why?
    “I didn’t want to kill that girl. Especially not in front of her family and those children.”
    “You say that but you killed all of the people in D!”
    “I didn’t personally, but I gave the order, yes.”
    “Well, then you’re a despicable person. Don’t try to reassure yourself otherwise.”
    He shrugs. “In this new world it will come down to eat or be eaten. I want to eat. I want to live. The new government wants a world without people who follow a religion. Religion has destroyed this world. The majority of wars are caused by religious debate, and people are divided by it. Those who are religious will preach that they are favoured while stating that those who do not believe in their God are sinful and doomed to Hell. The earth is the only thing we need to worry about, not pleasing a deity that doesn’t exist.”
    “Why couldn’t you have just told them that instead of killing them? Clara wasn’t highly religious. She only followed Christianity because of her family.”
    “Do you think they would listen?” Seiger asks with genuine incredulity. “You cannot talk sense into those people. It only takes one to spread the rumour. Once we destroy The Bible and eradicate its followers, we will be free of one of the biggest lies of all time. Religious people have destroyed this planet by saying there is a God and by saying God made us the stewards of the planet, placing humans above the rest of the natural world. The Bible justified their doings. Humankind must return to a more natural way of living and that means taking away their power over everything else that lives on this planet. Destroying the concept of God will make us natural again and put us back on equal