Prologue: The man from desert
In the time of the first men, a third calamity befell them, lasting twenty generations. As a punishment from the Lord, the rivers and lakes turned to blood, the great lake grew bitter, and the world was filled with great suffering. At the beginning of the calamity, the first men boiled the bitter waters of the great lake to quench their thirst, and the first generation lived without affliction, as did the one that followed it and the one after that, but this was only the beginning.
In the fourth generation, the earth dried up, the forests stopped growing, and the grass withered. The first men then fed on the beasts, for the fruits and roots ceased to grow, and those that remained were exhausted.
By the fifth generation, the forests and valleys were lakes of sand and salt, all graveyards of bones; there were no deer, no rabbits, no boars, nor any other beast to feed on. The first men began to feed on whatever they could find in the rivers and lakes, until there were no birds, no beasts, no fish, nor any other living creature to feed on.
The calamity ravaged the earth for twenty generations, and in those times there were no cities, no tribes—only small wandering families, each hiding from the others. At that time, there was a young man who lived with his family, wandering in the desert, and his uncle spoke to the young man before nightfall, away from the family. "Flee northward, for your family is plotting against you and has decided that you will be tonight's dinner."
"Where am I supposed to go? There's nowhere to hide in this sea of sand and salt. There are more of you, and you're hungry; I'm all alone, and I haven't eaten in weeks."
"Go east and jump into the great lake, and try to swim until you reach dry land. There, your parents and sister won't find you. I'll stay behind, and that will be enough to keep them from looking for you for a month or two. Take care of yourself and run now." The young man ran desperately through the desert.
"I can't follow the path to the great lake; my uncle might tell the others my route to prevent them from killing him. "I'll go north and hide in the Rocky Mountains." Seeing his nephew run northward, the uncle shouted, waving his arms.
"He's escaping! He's escaping! He's heading north! He's heading north!" The rest of the family saw him from a distance and gave chase, running toward the dunes.
"Where are you going, boy! There's no place on this earth where you can run or hide," shouted the father.
"If he gets away, what are we going to eat, Father? I want to eat meat again."
"Follow him to the ends of the earth. It's either that or starve to death. Hurry up, girl, because if he gets away, you'll be dinner," shouted the uncle as he quickened his pace.
"Sometimes my uncle is scary; my cousin only lasted three days," the girl thought. The blazing yellow orb in the sky tinged the horizon with a reddish hue.
"Damn it, I can't feel my feet anymore. Damn lunatics—I'm their son." In the blink of an eye, the sand dunes shifted from scorching heat to a freezing chill. Upon reaching the top of the sand mountain, the young man exclaimed. "This is how I'll die!… Devoured by my family?… Screw you all! I'm not your food!"
"You can't escape."
"East is that way, you idiot."
"Come into your mother's arms; there's nothing to fear anymore," the mother smiled from ear to ear.
"I'm going to jump… I'm going to jump, don't come any closer! I won't let you devour me, you bastards." The young man looked over the edge of the sand dune and saw some rocks; he didn't think twice, pulled a dagger from his loincloth, and aimed it at his relatives with trembling hands.
"You won't do it. You're a coward, just like your cousin… Don't waste our time, boy."
"I'm hungry too… Damn it! I didn't ask to be born… Do you think I like wandering aimlessly through the desert for days? There's no water, no food—we just hunt each other and scavenge what's left of others." What kind of shitty world is this? We haven't seen anyone else in over two years… You're going to eat me, and then you'll devour each other, and we'll all die. Fuck you all!
"Don't be a hypocrite!… You didn't complain when we ate your grandfather, you didn't complain when you drank your aunt's blood, not even when we ate your brother! We drew lots, and you're next. I know we won't survive, no matter what… maybe you're right and we're the last people alive in this world. "Do you think we wanted this? We have no choice; we didn't have one before… and we don't have one now."
"You're going to die, no matter how, no matter when… If you're going to jump… do it! At least your aunt was brave and didn't run away." He looked at him with empty eyes. The young man couldn't hold his gaze.
"It's cold… so cold," he said to himself before letting himself fall into the void.
"Damn it! He was an idiot." The father leaned over the edge, but the darkness of the night swallowed the young man's body.
"What are we going to do, Father?"
"We'll go down and eat what's left of him," said an unflappable face.
"Your mother is right, let's hurry—the road is long and dark."
"What the hell?" The man was stunned by the sight; the stones were bathed in crimson, but the sand showed no sign of moisture or any flesh.
"Where the hell is he? Where the hell is he! Since when do bodies disappear? Brother, your son should be here. What the hell does this mean?"
"I... I don't know. I don't know! There's so much blood here that either this bastard was a bloodhound or something took the body. We haven't seen a single living thing, not a single bird, beast, or person in years!" he said, on the verge of collapse.
"I don't want to die, Dad," the girl said, her eyes glassy. "I didn't want to kill my brother, but I don't want to die either."
"I don't want to moo either..." He felt a slight dampness on his head before finishing the sentence. "Laugh." He raised his eyes to the sky and saw a huge gray stain and a rumble that shook the earth, illuminating the twilight sky.
"The... the sky... is crying, the sky is crying," the woman said, tears in her eyes. "It's because we killed our son, it's because we killed Chixtac." And it started to rain… and it didn't stop.