Bird Box

by Josh Malerman

You are saving their lives for a life not worth living. Malorie sees the drapes soften another degree through blurred, teary vision. If there is a fog out there, it won’t be for long.

‘They can’t haunt you forever,’ he says. ‘They can’t force you to live like this forever. You know that, miss?’

I’m the only one here with the nerve to look outside. Your worries only keep you safe long enough to worry some more.’

Training the children means she has scared them so completely that under no circumstances will they disobey her.

Malorie denied the Girl food until she agreed to do it.

How can she expect her children to dream as big as the stars if they can’t lift their heads to gaze upon them?

‘The camera was only running for five hours and it caught something. How many of them are out there?’

We left because some people choose to wait for news and others make their own.

The moment between deciding to open your eyes and then actually doing it is as scary a thing as there is in the new world.

She thinks of the house as one big box. She wants out of this box. Tom and Jules, outside, are still in this box. The entire globe is shut in. The world is confined to the same cardboard box that houses the birds outside. Malorie understands that Tom is looking for a way to open the lid. He’s looking for a way out. But she wonders if there’s not a second lid above this one, then a third above that. Boxed in, she thinks. Forever.

it’s better to face madness with a plan than to sit still and let it take you in pieces.