The Crow King of The Junkyard
We lived in the junkyard after the world ended. The town had emptied, save a few of us who escaped the final judgment. There had been talk among everyone about the Crow King who ruled this junkyard and kept everyone scared straight. I don’t know how someone who was never seen could inspire such fear, but he did. Crows circled us all day, and people thought they were his eyes, always watching us.
We were ordered to salvage what we could find to build dwellings, weapons, whatever we could manage. It was a way to pass the time, keep our minds off of what we had lost, but I couldn’t help but wonder what all of this is for.
I wanted to meet this Crow King for myself, so I followed one of his messengers deep into the junkyard, who seemed to just let me follow. The crows cawed as I walked the darkening path, the wind whipping at my skin.
I entered a dwelling made of large metal sheets. There he sat in a throne made of scrap parts and wore a crown of aluminum. Under him was a pile of bones. He threw down the bone he was eating from as I approached and lunged toward me.
“Another one!” he cheered.
I stopped and felt paralyzed. My vision went dark, and when I awoke, I found myself high above all the scraps and heaps of metal.
I cawed at the others to get back to work.
