Evelyn Ford left the eagle in the abandoned Collins house next door. Inside, there was nothing but broken furniture. She picked up a wood splinter from the floor and scraped the rotting flesh off the bird's wound. It was crawling with wriggling maggots and mosquito eggs. Afterward, she held the eagle down with her left hand and pulled the arrow out with her right.
The eagle whimpered softly in pain, but Evelyn ignored it. She nonchalantly tore a piece of a curtain to bandage its wound. Once she had picked off the remaining insect eggs from its body, Evelyn returned to her own apartment.
Evelyn didn't know when she'd fallen asleep. By the time she woke, the world outside her window was bright. She dragged herself up like a walking corpse to drink water and eat some weeds. Perhaps because her stomach was so empty, she only needed to use the toilet once a week. At least it saved her the energy of going downstairs.
