The Unworthy

One night in the hollow tree, the narrator tells Lucía what happened in the “metallic woods.” The narrator and Circe had left the town and wandered for days in search of food, water, and shelter. They finally came across a strange building that looked like an old school. The narrator found books full of formulas and words she didn’t understand and a box of “useless” cell phones. The narrator’s mother had told her “how people had done everything on those screens” (135) before the “final blackout.” Some believed that countries had turned off their electricity to protect against an artificial intelligence that was trying to take over, but “nature finished things off with a new degree of devastation” (135). The narrator also found a few cans of food in the building and a notebook filled with entries beginning with measured “concern” and ending with “pure rage”: Words like “CHAOS” and “CATASTROPHE” written in red ink. The narrator built a fire and was about to sample the canned food when she heard men’s voices. She put out the fire, grabbed Circe, and hid under the bed. Eventually, the men left, and Circe and the narrator fell asleep in their hiding place.