#rp sim

The family of 5 that was camping woke all at the same time, just not in their tents. The 5, mother, father, son and 2 daughters, saw themselves separated in their own concrete cells in a 10 cell circular jail. Each of their barred metal doors faced the center of the ring, where Edwin Dust, a wiry man with a tall flame of orange hair above a slack lipped blue-collar worker face, filled buckets of water and left them outside of their cells. Edwin then left through a heavy black iron door through one of the cells.

 Edwin returned the next day to refill the buckets. He refused to speak to the imprisoned family, even though their only question was when they would be getting fed.

 A week passed. Some of them began to eat the skin around their fingers and toes, their hair, anything. On the 7th day, the jailer returned with a newly polished hatchet, an electric camping stove, a pan, some cords coiled on dinner plates and a large jar of seasoning. Edwin asked what they wanted, a leg or a wing. When he got no answer, Edwin said “legs are good” before sitting down and lopping off his own leg in 3 quick bursts and applying a tourniquet all while humming a happy tune. The family watched him skin, filet, season and fry his calf. When Edwin saw that it only made 2 plates, he picked up the hatchet and with 5 woozy drunk off-center hacks, the other leg was off. Edwin didn't bother tying it up. He stirred in the seasonings, thyme and lemons as the blood pooled under him. His last act was pushing the plates towards the cells while the family screamed, finally dying after the last plate was in the hand of the youngest sister.

 The father was the first to eat. The rest soon followed. With something finally in their bellies, they slept, never to wake again. After 7 days, the 5 bodies stirred again. Their backs split and peeled away, the carapaces of the Altilda family separating to give birth to 5 clones of Edwin Dust. As usual, they agreed to go their separate ways to find new places to multiply. None were as successful as the clone that sprang from mother Altilda's body.

 That Edwin Dust wandered to the Western deserts following the smell of decaying meat. He stopped at a rickety desert gas station to find an old man sitting behind the counter, nearly as thin as Edwin was. As soon as Edwin was at the counter, the floor gave way. Edwin fell to a small bloody cell lined with human skulls and their spines hung from the ceiling, where a group of hungry, hallow feral faces looked down at him from the trapdoor where he fell through, the old man's face included.