Alice Clarke

The Looters

It was around 9am on a nice, sunny Monday morning when the Looters came to my area. Max told me vague details about them; you can always see them coming because they only wear red, they don’t actually want to hurt us but they will if they have to, and most importantly do not speak them on any account. I asked Max why the last point was the most important, and he shrugged and said it was just what his dad had told him. Then he was quiet, banging the toe of his shoe into the ground. Max kept a photo of his dad in the lining of the cap he always wore, only removing it for the purposes of wiping his brow or laying his head on his pillow. You’ll be able to see them coming, he repeated.