Scythe

A businessman on an airplane notices that a scythe has boarded the plane five minutes before its departure. His robe is blue and covered in jewels, which is unusually garish for a scythe. Three more scythes appear, forming an “elegy” (71), which is the name for a group of scythes. The lead scythe announces that the entire plane has been selected for gleaning. The businessman runs to the back and opens the emergency door as the scythe says that anyone who escapes will be punished by the gleaning of their entire family. He stays. The lead scythe calls him forward and says that he must choose the order of the people to be gleaned: “Clearly the scythe was enjoying this. He shouldn’t enjoy it—that’s one of the basic precepts of Scythedom” (74). The man asks how the gleaning will proceed, and the scythes open their robes to show him guns and knives. They intend to slaughter the passengers without dignity.

The man refuses to choose and encourages the other passengers to take their own lives and deny the scythes their morbid entertainment. Then he impales himself on the knife of the lead scythe in a final act of voluntary willpower.