Contaminated (Posting Chapters Weekly)

Feral

The world is now mostly gray, sometimes brown. There are some trees, but with no fruitage. There are plants, but no flowers. The world no longer knows sea life, no longer knows bees. Man has no more ruler, society has broken down and democracy has become a meaningless word. The only animals left to be feared in the wild are men, although pigeons, rats and other vermin have survived in the large wastelands of trash and garbage we have built like cities. They have infested everything like our desires and unnatural tendencies. But man, being the incessant scavenger that he is, still lives.

...

I lay under the rusted, decrepit vehicle that was to be my blanket for the night. The feral city was far behind me. I felt so alone in the darkness that the presence of what was left of the cars body felt comforting, like a still and gentle giant who was trying to console me.

Fingering my mouth and gums, there was a lot of inflammation. My jaws were throbbing slowly. It was the first I noticed of it. I wonder why I feel so calm... maybe adrenaline. They said that seeming as though one was in a constant state of adrenaline would become our new sober state mind if it worked. I didnt want to speculate and I told myself that it was just a normal, human reaction to what had just happened, what I have just been through. I have probably been clenching my jaw all day.

My mind was crystal clear. I was out of harm's way, I was alive, I was safe and present. Though a part of me can not forget, will never forget what had happened.

Earlier...

My parents were scientists who worked for the town and I was one of the few to be born into privilege when hundreds of thousands were born into poverty. Before they were killed, we lived in a guarded and sterile community. One thing about my parents was that they always took extra precautions; they knew what was to come.

The world was contaminated and they had foreseen a sort of plague which was going to arrive and take over man-kind. They told me it was going to change our DNA and it was going to change our lives, our world. It was going to change everything. But it was too late for them.

Today they were killed. A riot took place, people swarmed into our community like pigeons into a fresh garbage heap. The people that trespassed our community did not look like us. Their bodies seemed limper, their faces harder, their eyes colder. It was as if they were from another species.

This morning I was at home in the large garden, clipping the foliage into shape and watering and treating the soil. It was wonderfully green against the gray sand, and the pale sky. My phone began to vibrate and I took it out of my pocket. It was my mother, I answered;

"Dahlia!" She shouted into the phone. Her voice caused a wave of coldness to shoot through my body, "Get out of the town, get out of the city. Dahlia can you hear me?"

"What's happening?" I instantly began shaking. I got up and ran into the house through the large open glass doorway, phone in hand. "Mom, what's happening?" I shouted.

"Are you safe in the van?" She asked.

"Not yet I'm getting there, what's happening?" I pleaded, already out of breath as I picked the keys out of the marble drawer and ran into the garage.

"Dahlia, you need to get out of the city. I love you."

"Mom!" I cried, "I'm in the van, where are you what is going on?" As I began to drive out of the garage I heard a heavy blow, a man was banging at the windows and the wheels, people from around began to charge towards my car. I began to cry and sob uncontrollably, one hand on the steering wheel and the other holding the phone. I never fully appreciated the security of the big van, nor did I understand its excessive defence, until today.

I could hear my mother breathing hard and fast, something had happened.

"I've been shot, your father aswell, he... he's dead." She wept into the phone, I cried out. I blinked hard to keep my vision clear, people littered the streets, setting things alight, breaking into homes, throwing bottle bombs, holding weapons. I began to lose my hearing. Someone shot at my my window but it did not shatter the glass.

"I dont know what to do." I wept.

"Baby, get out of here. Please." She cried. I considered trying to get to her.

"Its too late for me, I.. I'm fading now. Please be safe. I..."

"MOM!" I screamed, "Mom...Dad, mom." I yelled out.

Someone jumped onto the front of the van but with thrusted off of it as fast as they made impact. I dropped the phone and continued to scream and call out for my mother and father. My grip hands felt numb and rubbery as they gripped onto the steering wheel. I drove out a larger gate, which used to gaurd the little town. It's big doors of steel bars lay on the road and the car shook as I raced over them. The lump in my throat seemed to choke me. I turned a corner and approached the free way, a big blue car came from ahead and nearly collided with me. More cars were driving around madly on the roads, like flies above a carcus. I couldn't tell who was escaping and who was just revelling in the chaos. There were people on the highway too, but these did not try to attack me. I blended in with the rest of them.

I drove without looking back, without looking around. Just ahead. I drove as fast as the car could go. The engine cried his own angry, sad song. Pictures of my father and mother filled my head. What did they look like now? What did they look like this morning? I was never going to see them again. Suddenly I could see the empty horizon, the flat seedless earth. Tall, derelict buildings no longer shrouded me. I looked back and noticed no one had followed me out of the city.