Star Island, located on the border of Country A, was also known as the Slums. It's a place where the helpless elderly, severely disabled, and mentally ill were abandoned to fend for themselves. There's no internet, no electricity, and no supply of daily necessities. No laws, no governance. It's a living hell.
Under a nearly dead tree, a young girl sat huddled on the ground. Her name was Hazel Haynes. Her frail body was barely covered by thin clothing, her pale face streaked with blood beneath long, unkempt hair.
Hazel gnawed at her fingernails, her eyes staring ahead, calm and indifferent.
Naked people ran around wildly;
Some jumped into the sea in a desperate attempt to escape;
Some couldn't take it anymore and silently sharpened stones to cut their wrists and end their lives.
Scenes like these had become all too familiar since Hazel was abandoned here by the Haynes four years ago.
She was the Hayness' adopted daughter. In her childhood, the Haynes would give her all sorts of medications that kept her constantly ill, and she didn't know why back then. It wasn't until three years ago that she found out the Haynes adopted her solely because her blood could cure their daughter, Chloe's illness. All those medications were to improve her blood so they could draw it for Chloe's treatments. Once Chloe was cured, she became useless to them.
At eighteen, the Haynes forcibly handed her over to an older man. She fought back desperately, stabbing the nearly sixty-year-old man several times with a fruit knife in an attempt to escape. Shortly after, they labeled her as mentally ill and sent her here.
Three years had passed. Hazel didn't know when she would die.
Suddenly, the whirr of helicopters filled the sky. Dozens of them hovered over the island.
What's happening?
The helicopters landed by the sea, and a swarm of mentally ill people rushed to surround them, trying to climb on, like zombies besieging a city.
"Bang."
"Bang."
"Bang."
Several deafening gunshots later, people fell one after another, huge bloody holes in their foreheads.
From a distance, it was clear they were men in suits, each holding a gun.
Hazel slowly curled up tighter. Was the country finally deciding to destroy them all? Was she going to die? What was the point of her life then?
She wasn't willing to accept this. She really wasn't.
She wanted to survive. She wanted revenge!
"Boss, this area is quite far from the shantytown center. Most of the people here are mentally ill. They've been driven to the seaside by those who are somewhat more sane. The annual death rate here is over fifty percent."
Two lines of armed men entered the woods first.
Hazel sat stiffly under the tree, the barrel of a rifle pointed in her direction. It felt like she was next in line to die. She kept her eyes lowered, noticing a pair of shiny pointed shoes stepping on the fallen leaves, making a crisp sound as they passed her.
Suddenly, the sound of the leaves being crushed stopped. The shoes turned towards her. A gaze fell on her.
"Sis??"