waiting for something to happen by.  The velvety grassland halts, as though an invisible barrier prevents its continuance.

Darker yet, is the dirt and gravel road that leads to a place where no living thing will go, willingly.  Jogging armies of insects turn back as they approach this road with a sign stabbed into the ground that reads NO TRESPASSING, over a picture of a skull and crossbones.  The road has one way in and one way out... but once in, no one ever comes out.

So many eyes in the dark... eyes that change from one moment to the next.  Closed eyes that can't see anymore.  Frightened eyes that don’t scream anymore.  Half-closed eyes that don’t care anymore.  Angry eyes that can’t fight anymore.

In their enclosures, they wait quietly.  Parents clutch their children.  Males clutch their females.  Some have no one left to clutch, so they clutch the wire mesh that imprisons them.  They know where they are.  They know what happens here.

"It wouldn't be so bad if he gave us a bullet to the head," someone whispered.

"Shut up." another one answered.

"I can handle a bullet" he replied apparently talking to no one. ...This one had lost his mind.

"I said shut up... no one wants to hear this..." the one next to him said again.

"I just don't think I can handle an injection of insecticide.  Did you ever see anyone die shot up with insecticide, and sometimes