The Living by Anna Starobinets

the blade of his axe. Only after the birth of the Living were they able to catch the madman. He was sentenced to a public pause by hanging, and after reproduction the infant was confined to a prison…’ At that moment, Cracker said, complete darkness fell, and there was a roll of thunder – kkrrboom! – and the voice came back: ‘… Our era: The Living is all-merciful, so there are no more prisons, there are only Houses of Correction. In one of these Houses lives the cruel Butcher’s Son. Until, one night, he manages to escape…’
    That’s why I loved The Eternal Murderer. One night he managed to escape. Those words gave me hope. At the end of every episode they managed to catch up with him: but the hope… The hope stayed with me.

    ‘…Why is a destructively criminal incode vector not a sentence?’ Cracker finally unstuck himself from the glass and looked at me. ‘Have they explained to you why we have to answer that question every day?’
    ‘Yes,’ I said. ‘They explained. To get a positive boost.’
    Cracker giggled:
    ‘You could say that as well… But do you know why we don’t get full access to our cell in Renaissance? Why they only let us read letters from our immediate inc-predecessor?’
    ‘Ef says it’s because every earlier predecessor is a step closer to the original Criminal. Letters from early predecessors could harm the correction process…’
    ‘Your mate Ef is lying to you. They’re not planning on correcting anyone here. They don’t let us read letters from early predecessors so that we don’t go mad. Because all our predecessors rotted away in Houses of Correction. All of them, get it? I was here before the pause and I’ll come back here after…’
    ‘Stop it.’
    ‘There’s no escape from this place!’
    As if to confirm what Cracker was saying the Butcher’s Son started banging his forehead against the see-through wall. It was one of his favourite pastimes.
    ‘I know a lot. I have a letter from my inc-predecessor,’ Cracker turned away from the Son; he was unnerved by the silent blows. ‘…Very boring. A run-through of the day, retelling of episodes, remarks about the weather, quotes from the Book of Life, “fifteen signs that I’m correcting my vector well” and stuff like that… But it’s a code. I immediately realised it was a code. And Cracker can always break a code – especially if he made it himself…’
    ‘You’re crazy.’
    ‘…Cracker can break any password. Cracker can break through any defence. Cracker can write any program. My monster must die…’
    ‘Shut it!’
    ‘My monster must die…’
    ‘Shut up, Cracker! You, what, want to get locked up in solitary like him?’ I jabbed the glass with my finger. ‘That phrase is forbidden. Especially for you! That’s from the Frankenstein Message!’
    ‘The Frankenstein Message,’ Cracker whispered dreamily. ‘Someday I’ll finish it.’
    He stuck his nose back against the Son’s chamber. To make the piggy snout. The Butcher’s Son stopped beating his head against the wall and froze.
    ‘I know it’s not your fault, little fellow,’ Cracker said, not taking his face from the see-through surface. ‘It was Him who made you do it. He took away your reason. And then locked you up here forever. But I’ll take care of you. Cracker will take care of everyone, right, little fellow…? I’m a piggy!’ Cracker wrinkled his nose and started grunting jokingly. ‘Look what a piggy I am!’
    ‘He must be twenty or so. Why do you keep calling him “little fellow”?’ I asked.
    ‘Because that’s what I called him when he was little. Last time. In my inc-letter it says he liked it. And this too: “I’m a piggy, I’m a piggy. Oink-oink!”’
    The Butcher’s Son examined Cracker’s flattened face thoughtfully. And then smiled.
    His smile was utterly childlike.

Report
    (Transcript of conversation between correctee Foxcub and SPO officer, dated 17.07.471 A.V.; extract)
    Foxcub:
Then, I reckon,