The City of Meat and Bones

That’s the thing about this city, glamorous on the outside, rotten on the inside. Each of us was shredded into meat and bones walking, disguised in decent outfits twice the value of our individualities. 

She thought survival was easy in college. She succeeded in each semester with a row of shimmering Grade A. They told her studying well is the only pathway to get a job, earn a living and survive so she finished her bachelor degree with a First Honour. But they didn’t tell her that her academic record card is never handy to win bread from those barbaric bastards.

 The apocalypse struck the city when she turned 22. Those creatures just appeared suddenly after the first month she graduated from university. They looked indifferent from us except for their hollow eyes, the sparks of life had run out from their rotting torso. They eat, they walk, they dress like us, except that their motions are all purposeless other than hunting down those who still perceived the hope in their eyes. They are the walking carrier of a 'disease of hollowness'. 

She was terrified of them at first because of their eyes. They are so hollow with milky pupils, too milky to stare at or focus on anything. She even doubted if they were sighted, but they could always tell the difference between their kind and the others. If anyone dared to show a trace of hope in your eyes, they would overwhelm you in less than a minute, one of them may clap their jaws on you and you will never see a pair of clear eyes in your mirror reflection again. It may take some time for the transformation, everyone varies but it happens eventually. It would be a shame if she got bitten, for she had always been praised for her beautiful eyes. Her mother said that they present a vitality like the sunbeams dancing on a waving ocean.

Resistance was no use. How do you kill something that was already lifeless? She had a hard time hiding at home from those creatures with her mother before she discovered their properties:

1. They are easily fooled if you stimulate their movements.
2. They only wander on the street, they never enter the residential apartments.
3. They can’t talk.

So, one experimental morning, the sunlight is still hazy (the creatures don’t have the concept of time), she sneaked down to the street as her mother was still asleep, hoping to get some bread from the supermarket two blocks away. She twisted her torso into a weird posture, dragged her feet walking as if they were cramped, and most importantly, forced her sight into a trance, staring at nowhere and headed towards the supermarket. She was not the only imposter on the ways. There were lots of them whose eyes were not milky. She didn’t exchange a sight with them. Those creatures had no companion, a good actress should also cater to their desolated nature. Keep your eyes empty, walk purposelessly, to the supermarket, she reminded herself, you can fool those creatures. It felt absurd to slow down her movements when her heart is screaming with fright, beating with excessive fuel to prepare her for running. Was it the ugly disguises of those creatures or hunger that made her stomach churned? She never thought an expensive tuxedo could appear so grotesque on a torso. For the first time, she wanted to stay 1 mile away from a shining diamond bracelet from an expensive brand, as well as the cramped hand it chained. 

Nevertheless, she succeeded. Her mother grinned for the first time after the apocalypse. 

She mastered the skill to disguise among the creatures so food hunting became a daily routine for her. She went out in the morning and returned before the sun descended to look for food and necessities. From time to time, she might bump into some of her old schoolmates, either as imposters or already transformed into one of those creatures, as she wandered blindly on the street. She might encounter a glimpse of surprise or happiness from the imposters’ expression, but it faded soon. They shouldn’t exchange any words, everyone had their problems to survive through. Obey the creatures’ rules and no harm would be done.

Went back home, ate a meal, slept for some hours, woke up, looked for food. Survived and repeated...

Survival was much easier for city dwellings than for those in rural because the city conformed. Those who fled to the mountain still believed in resistance, seeding their food so that they didn’t have to rely on the food airdropped by the government in the city. The sprouting vegetables might survive through the winter, even their excessive optimism could not change the fact. Each night, the city entered a dead silence except for the urban periphery sounded with their music and chatter, as if life still worths celebrating under the risk of dying from cold and starvation. The city was better for survival though, even though having hope was fatal.

She listened to their songs by the window as they rarely played a tender lullaby tonight. She was usually too exhausted by the day to do so but the soft plucking of the guitar vibrated her nerve that had long been numb. She used to listen to guitar music while writing a story or a poem, believing that one day her work could be published and her stories could be read by everyone in the city, convinced that her dream could be accomplished only if she studied hard enough the theories taught in college. Bullshits. How would those theories be useful against those barbaric creatures? How would their empty heads understand the weight of her dream? Having ambition was unrealistic. It was a fast track to death. 

Feeling suffocated, she grabbed a pen and her notebook with the drafts of her writings, carefully tiptoed out from her apartment so that she wouldn’t wake her mother. She sneaked out onto the silence street and perfectly diffused into the crowd of those creatures. All this time having to disguise herself among those hollow creature had made her one of those crowds. Why would survival be meaningful if she lived just like the lifeless? But she only had to bare that hollowness for 10 more minutes before she could reach the mountain before she could finally devote herself to her dream without the stress of daily food hunting for her mother. Even if resistance would kill her, at least she stood out from the crowd to leave a mark for her dream. 

Into the woods, like the fairy tale protagonists who found magic in a mythical forest, her hands trembling with excitement. Snowwhite is leaving the cursed kingdom, away from the claws of the wicked witch. Approaching the top of the mountain, those creatures were far away already. No more pretence with dragged motions, she was as swift as Robin Hood in the woods. Adieu! Little Red Riding Hood is tired of obeying the rules!

Maybe one more glance at her birthplace.

If it wasn’t for the blight she had experienced, she wouldn’t believe that a city so glorious had ever fallen. The skyline was curved with skyscrapers, adorned with millions of tiny lights filtering from the residential apartments. Rule no. 2: the creatures can’t enter the apartments. Maybe the city wasn’t as empty as she thought? The lights were the reason for the imposters to remain in the city, though it was always terrifying to stay near those monsters. They could always walk away into the rural like she just did, but they were risking their lives to hunt for food in this Chao. Why? It must be the faces of their smiling children, the love of their life and their dearest siblings that glowed under those lights. And she recognised that one of those glowing lights belonged to her that accompanied her mother into a sound sleep.

The lullaby from the mountain ceased, the luring Siren went voiceless. She retained her consciousness and stared at the notebook. Then she set down, wrote this story, left it on the track and returned to the city.

Carpe diem was only real for those in the rural. The hinterland of the light was the unbreakable responsibility she shouldered. She had to survive.