THE LIVING AND THE DEAD
by Noah Cicero

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twelve

Esmeralda is hitting a punching bag.

Her face is full of anger.

Life seems unstoppable.

A force that cannot ever be properly dealt with.

A large metal machine with a thousand arms and legs tearing away whole cities, smashing baby skulls on innocent civilians. A machine that weighs approximately 23 hundred tons.

The machines name is Kublatron.

Kublatron hates happiness.

She invented Kublatron when she was little.

She is conscious that the machine is not there. But she had to name it. She had to give the face of reality a name.

She had to give the horror and misery and littleness, sadness, degradation, and dehumanization a name.

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