The Knife Ritual

We borrowed my brother's car - he was off staying with a friend in the suburbs, I mean, he'd be pissed if he saw us using his car but not much he could do about it. Things weren't...like, they weren't great back then. This was before they rebuilt the land, my parents where out like all the time trying to wring food out of the ration depots for us, I know my mum was going half crazy, my sister was working like non stop up at the hospital. But it was a gorgeous summer, like, almost as good as before the Fall.

So we pile into my brother's car, put more fuel in, pack up all the shit the shamans needed and head down past the cordon, down to the old empty lots past the train lines, the inter-city ones that they don't use no more. More people where there than I was expecting, lots of us kids, too wild and young to be any use to anyone, just killing time and trying to have fun where we could. Too old to not be saddled with memories before the Fall, still trying to cling on to our old ways. The shamans where there, three of them - one of them I went to school with. It's weird seeing your friends change like that.

Guitar, an old radio, someone had charged an iPod for the occasion, a couple crates of beer. I was chewing rabbit jerky the entire night. Trying to stave off the nicotine craving. We hung out there, while the sun spread across the sky, filling up the horizon. Will never get used to that view. The old Citifin building slowly turning to mud. The shamans dancing for us, scuffing the chalk up. They'd been dancing for a reason but nobody reeeeaaally cared that much, it was just something to do. Just something to do. And we just did that something every month for years after that, the knife dance, wanting rain or food or computer parts or fucking whatever. Long after they rebuilt the Farm. Long after they made contact with the South. Long after the world moved on.

Dedicated to my friends

Alex Facey

Adele Reeves
Amy Powell
Ben Spring
Charlie Cunningham
Charlotte Hampshire
Connor Proud
Darcy Calcraft
Harry Phillips
Jack Attewell
Jason Blackwell
Kat Sinclair
Katy Donnelly
Korrina Veropoulou
Lloyd Brace
Molly Bystrom
Sarah Miller
Sarah MacDonald
Syan Zina Medina

who are all the best x