32

Richards spoke with Lu for a long time. With Lu’s permission, she performed a brief physical examination. Aside from the obvious fact that he was sleep-deprived, she didn’t find anything that wasn’t common to all of them in their malnourished states. It was only when she brought up why he thought people were going to eat him that he began acting strange again.

‘Isn’t it obvious?’ said Lu. ‘We’re all starving to death. The only available food is each other. I’m not the one who’s crazy here. What’s crazy is thinking that you aren’t going to get eaten.’

And Richards could not convince Lu otherwise. She did her best to reassure him, and encouraged him to rest.

After she finished with him, she made her way through the ship, communicating the situation to the rest of the crew.

‘For now, I’d like everyone to be careful around him, and keep an eye out for any escalation in his behavior. And definitely avoid engaging with him on anything remotely related to cannibalism. There doesn’t seem to be any changing his mind on that point, so I guess we’ll just have to put up with it for now.’

‘It’s kind of creepy,’ said Greenstockings.

‘Yeah,’ said Hood. ‘Are you sure that he’s...safe?’

‘I don’t think he will hurt anyone,’ said Richards.