031. Revolution, 2

(Gamya)

From our apartment's fissured windows, we could witness with horror the nightmarish visions now unfolding in town and beyond.

Dad urged us to prepare our bags with the minimal required to go away and hike.

We're going home he said.

At first I didn't get it, since we were home. What he meant was we would leave this boiling hellish area fast and head toward his hometown. A secluded village maybe a hundred kilometre or so from here, much higher and deep into the mountains. Where he owned a family house.

Mom was pregnant and scared. But she also had seen enough unspeakable things to think this was the best thing to do now. In the city here there clearly was no hope for tomorrow.

So we packed our supplies in a hurry, while the ground was still sometimes shaking.

As much as I wanted to carry more with me or say goodbye, we just left together before nightfall.

Going out late was not wise, mom and dad argued about it.

But the city's ground lines were affected and apparently some tremors were likely clues that some buildings including ours might collapse. Our building wasn't safe at all to spend the night. But heading for a panicked walk into the night was equally unsafe now.

We went outside of town that evening nonetheless. Nightfall followed rapidly

Fires were visible in spots of the city behind our shoulders. Things were going quieter, feeling like a painful bad dream.

As lights to walk became insufficient, we reached a big car abandoned apparently a little in the middle of nowhere. The house behind had collapsed.

It was one of my parent's friend's place apparently. We entered his now ownerless car and sheltered inside together for the time until next dawn.

My parents were chatting about how they didn't expect the house having collapsed. I didn't ask why they had the key to his car. Times had turned strange.

~

None of us managed to sleep that night, quite obviously. We were too shocked and only exchanged our experiences to try to understand what had been going on so far. Some catastrophic event alright...

But nothing as simple as a singular explosion, although it caused violent repercussions.

I had seen more than them how weird diseases now could spread.

How some people alive or dead could rot and spring new herbs, mushrooms and even ugly animals, in the manner of instants.

For the glimpses they had seen on their end, as much as they hated believing my fantasies, they had to admit some of their meaning and depictions. I held my hands as still as I could, but I was always trembling a little still.

The phones and radios in the car still could be switched on, but most communications systems were cut or stuck rebooting endlessly.

Dad thought maybe it was a revenge war. Mom thought such biological weaponry and warfare were too unlikely, going too far, even for centuries long grudges between cities.

Either way, we had been cut from the overall government structure above that ruled this country. Dad was convinced it was only a matter of days at most.

Dad went again on a rant about how it would surely take the authorities just a few hours to reconnect the communications and supply lines, and return to help this searing wound in the country.

The rules of law would structure containment, mending, healing and reconstruction rapidly.

The wider society would react to this sudden strike and heal. It was unavoidable.

I was less optimistic that things could ever return to how they were. I was even beginning to wonder otherwise, toward the opposite end of things. And deep down I'm sure so were my parents, as much as they wished aloud for everything to turn back the tide.

~

We never saw any helicopter nor army convoy.

We abandoned the roads overloaded with discarded cars now, and more scents of death. We headed straight into the mountains to start a shorter but much harder hike.

We longed for rest and warmth. It was painful to walk. Various symptoms of exhaustion were slowly building up. Our bodies were feeling sick, drained unnaturally. We felt it at every step.

They were wheezing, looking already pale, and sweating more stench.

We walked dizzily into the mountains. Seldom looking back for the forsaken land we were leaving behind. It looked like a gigantic misty swamp after a few days. It looked greener already, as if moss had overgrown and covered every building.

Dams had ruptured at some point, flooding the riverbanks and some parts of the basin.

Peculiar clouds with denser spikes, like sea urchins, were spreading and floating around. I thought they were dust in my eyes, but my parents saw these too.

These odd clouds, grey like any other, just shaped oddly, they eventually all rained around and vanished as they fell down, but it had been surreal.

We could only walk a few hours at best each day. We all struggled for air and mostly strength. Our digestion went all the wrong ways.

They aged.

Their faces looked like flappy rags, swollen, pale, with colours you've never seen before and scaring me. It was as if their faces were about to sag and drip off, or fall entirely if I were to pull their cheeks. I was scared.

I was feeling bad, but they felt far worse in all sorts of ways. They couldn't eat much and more often vomited.

I struggled to help them carry on. I did everything I could with dad's camping gear to keep them warm and fed.

They were wilting before my eyes, turning livid and hollow as if dying from the inside.

Mom barely stepped outside the tent that other time.

Dad was wheezing too much, now unable to talk at all as he strayed away to fetch water. His steps were heavy and unsteady. With dread in the heart, I did everything I could do to keep them alive.

I couldn't... I couldn't allow them to give up and die.

~

Dad was turning into an obedient zombie. He still heard my voices sometimes.

Mom was far more of a wreck. On some days she couldn't stand up anymore.

But although they turned unable to speak for a worrying long while, they kept themselves alive, almost on habit and instincts. They survived.

I brought them whatever food I could find, now making sure to boil everything they ate or drink beforehand. Otherwise they always ended up vomiting or having diarrhoeas. In both of which, through the stench we could also now notice weird worms, larvae and bugs wriggling around, and then burrowing into the ground.

As if their stomachs and intestines were now filled with parasitic eggs just waiting for some tainted water to hatch.

But the more cautious about food and water we became, the better they eventually recovered. It's been a painful mess and stench...

The good hike through the mountains that a hardy young man would have achieved in a short week took us maybe months.

They struggled and needed more time to rest than ever. I had to venture every day deeper into abandoned pastures and cold woods to find them enough food to survive.

I was doing alright, albeit terrified. I found some fruits out of season growing there. I didn't find much more.

The hiking paths were devoid of people this time. We didn't meet anyone alive to help.

I did stumble upon a few dead people who could though...

It pained me. As I found these two or three bodies melted onto one another, fused with their clothing beside their camping gear, deep into a trench.

I remember wondering about laws again.

I treaded carefully, terrified of witnessing a sudden twitch from the mass of decaying flesh. There were no flies at this altitude to buzz around, it was too cold for them. But other insects were crawling around their juices spilling and sipping.

I held my nausea and got closer, not to them but their bags.

And I felt horrible doing so, but I stole them. I pulled their bags away from there to plunder them.

I brushed my eyes, then far enough to feel safe and breath without sticky taste.

I opened the duffle bags to inspect my spoils and keep what would matter to me today.

I need to be pragmatic...

~