Chapter 33:
Mayhem on Earth
Tom Dudley sat in his chair and stared warily at the two other persons trapped in the basement with him.
It had been twenty days since the mutated animals had shown up in Cyll, destroyed the city, and slaughtered most of the inhabitants. In the midst of the chaos, he, a woman by the name of Olivia Brown, and a man named Gerald Hawkner had chosen to hide in this basement they’d found in a suburban building, where they were safe: the monsters couldn’t reach down there. It had been built by some rich person to be an apocalypse shelter. Underground facilities had been used historically for protection against tornados, nuclear radiation from above, and as protected military bunkers during wars, and now, they had a use against savage, mutated animals that ate people. Inside these and behind walls were perhaps the safest places to be throughout history.
But the only door leading out of the basement was blocked by rubble outside, preventing them from leaving, and the little food stock that the incomplete bunker had offered the small group had run out long back. They were starving now, and the gold that Tom had brought with him in a hurry, thinking it would be useful during an end-of-the-world situation such as this, could not fill his grumbling, more-than-empty belly.
And so now, the three stared at each other leerily. Sitting in chairs in a circle was the only thing they could do. Any activity to cure their dreadful boredom would burn precious calories.
Tom eyed Gerald’s backpack. There was clearly some stuff in there. Gerald noticed the gaze and pulled it toward him protectively. He was a big, muscular man with ginger hair, not one Tom could fight and hold on his own against. Tom suspected Gerald had food in the bag, yet didn’t want to share it.
Look at him, Tom thought, he doesn’t look famished at all. I bet he eats it when we’re not looking. At this point, the hunger was very strong. If only I could take him down. Then I could get ahold of the food. It was not a feasible idea.
Tom then looked at Olivia. She was a short, black woman who looked hungry and weak like him.
She, on the other hand, looks weak. I could overpower her quite easily… Wait, humans are made of meat. If I could take her down, I could feed for weeks…
Tom realized he was thinking about cannibalism and killing a defenseless lady and shook away the thought. It was too inhumane to even consider.
Three more days passed. Tom was now frail and ravenous. He did his best not to think about the hunger, but there was not much else to think about. He didn’t want to talk to the others; the situation was awkward and uneasy. Occasionally, one of them would ask a pointless question like “Do you think the monsters are still outside?” and the other two would voice their opinion of what they thought the situation outside was like. They all knew that it was pointless to think about—not while they were stuck down there with no possibility of escape. They could only hope that the monsters would recede from up there and that rescuers would dig through the rubble to discover them.
Of course, this hope was idealistic and improbable. The most probable result would be that they would all die of starvation in that miserable hole, but they didn’t want to think about that reality. They wanted to cling on to even the tiniest bit of hope if they thought they could survive.
The three used idle talk to prevent themselves from going insane. They acted friendly on the outside, but deep down, they all knew that at this rate, one of them would have to go down so the others could eat.
It was now night, according to Olivia’s watch, which had so far been more useful than the cumbersome gold Tom stored in a bag. The basement was roughly divided into three sections in which each of them slept. Tom lay on his bed, thinking about his life until recently. He saw movement and immediately got up, alert.
It was Olivia. She put a hand up to show that she had no malintent and put a finger to her lips with her other. “Hey, Tom. I have a plan I want to propose to you,” she said quietly.
“I’m listening.”
“I’m sure you understand the current predicament. Without any food, if no one comes and saves us, we’re going to lose our minds with hunger and thirst and eat each other. That’s why I want to team up with you and take down Gerald first.”
Tom looked surprised but inside, he knew this day was coming. Olivia had taken the initiative here because she was the weakest of the three. If either of the others had attacked her first, she would definitely lose and be killed. It was better in her stance to be the first than die.
Tom knew he should have been mortified of even planning to kill another human being, but he was actually relieved and grateful that Olivia had come to him about this first.
“Why’d you come to me about this?” He wanted to know. She should have thought well through this by now. “If you had partnered with Gerald, he is stronger and your chances of killing me together is…”
“Well… He’s too scary to approach about this. If he were to dislike my idea and attack me, I wouldn’t stand any chance. He’s all brawn, but from what I’ve seen, you’re clever. I knew you’re also aware that this is inevitable.”
Tom felt bad when he heard this. Was he a bad person? Could people tell? He liked to think of it as being realistic. He tried to move on with the topic:
“So, what’s the plan?”
“Gerald is sleeping on the other side of the basement. We can attack while he’s asleep…”
It was a dirty tactic, but at least Gerald wouldn’t suffer. After some thinking and preparing himself mentally, Tom agreed to the plan. There really weren’t any better options. He was starving and didn’t want to think too deep into it, afraid his conscience wouldn’t let him go through with it.
Olivia and Tom slowly and silently crept up to where Gerald was resting. They didn’t have many weapons. The plan was to suffocate him. Just in case Hawkner woke up and had the strength to retaliate, Tom Dudley had filled his bag with an assortment of sharp objects and brought it with him.
Olivia went over with a thick blanket, folded over several times to prevent any air from going through. She glanced at Tom. This was it. There was no going back now.
She smothered the cloth over Gerald’s face, covering it completely. The timer commenced; they just had to wait. Tom was ready with his bag open, a shard of glass in his hand.
Suddenly, Gerald’s hand shot up and grabbed hold of Olivia’s neck. Choking, she let go of the cloth and tried to free the hand’s grasp.
Huh? Tom thought.
“You think I was asleep!?!” he bellowed.
Gerald’s other hand came up. He was holding something, but it was all a blur to Tom. The other hand went to Olivia’s neck also, and the next thing Tom saw was blood dripping down it. Olivia was still. It was not food, as Tom had suspected, that Gerald had kept in his backpack, but evidently a knife. The blade was now lodged deep in Olivia’s neck. She was instantly dead.
Oh, shoot!!! Tom panicked.
No doubt after Olivia was finished, Gerald would turn around and attack Tom too. He had to move first. His mind worked at warp speed. He looked around for anything at all he could use. The objects in his bag individually would not be enough to kill this beast while he was awake. Tom had an idea: His bag was heavy because it was full of gold. It could work as a blunt weapon.
Before Gerald could turn around, Tom used all his strength to swing the bag at Gerald’s head. With a heavy smack, Gerald dropped to the ground, dead.
Tom looked at the two corpses in front of him. He felt sick. He slowly walked away from the scene, sat in a chair, and contemplated what had just happened. There was no way he would be able to sleep tonight. He wondered if there could have been a way to avoid two deaths. He wondered if he could have planned better. The hunger had pushed them into a half-baked plan.
After an hour, his stomach grumbled.
Two days later, a group of Cyll Survivors cleared out the rubble in front of the basement door and entered. Inside, they found two putrid corpses and a man drenched in blood.
General Information:
This section contains information not related to the story, such as fun facts about things mentioned in the story—like an appendix.
CCTVs:
In the modern-day filled with developed technology and cameras that can take photos with thousands of megapixels of resolution, it would seem that having CCTV’s that can record HD color video isn’t too much to ask for, but there are a few reasons why the video quality hasn’t upgraded much:Cheapness: No matter how far in the future you are in, a lower quality camera is cheaper than a better one. And the footage isn’t something people want to save for memories. It’s not seen as too important: it’s enough as a deterrent for crimes for most. The cost they save is more important than the quality.Storage: Continuous footage has to be recorded and then saved for days before it is deleted. Higher-resolution color video takes significantly more space. Storage space is an expensive extra expense. You can put the rest together.
Underground bunkers:
Some types of bunkers along with their purpose are:Storm cellars—protection against severe windstorms, usually built near homes, used especially in tornado-prone areas.Military bunkers—hostiles can’t penetrate the ground, so it acts as a sort of fort against enemy attacks, especially bombs. However, there are weapons that can penetrate the thick walls of these bunkers, such as bunker busters: https://science.howstuffworks.com/bunker-buster.htmFallout shelters—the concrete, lead, or dirt act as a shield from the explosion fireball, fallout (radioactive material that falls out of the sky after the nuke detonates), and harmful high-frequency radiation, which can normally penetrate through many solids. The fallout is small dust that emits harmful alpha, beta particles, and gamma rays. It is recommended to stay in the shelter for two weeks before going out periodically because that’s when the radiation reaches a less toxic level.
Querencia:
Querencia is a Spanish word referring to the place in a bullfighting ring that a bull takes as a ‘home base’. The bull feels safe and comfortable here and can take a strong defense.In the context of this story, humanity has been backed into a corner, and it has taken up its defensive stance in its last relatively-safe city of Rencia. Further, Rencia has many resources to fight against Mayhems. Thus, it acts as humanity’s querencia.
Genome Mapping:
Simply put, gene mapping involves identifying certain genes and their functions in a chromosome by recognizing patterns. This allows one to compare two similar genes and find where one cell mutated by finding the difference. Although much of what genes do isn’t known, we can find out by seeing the difference between two slightly different organisms and finding where their DNA differs. We can then infer that that portion of the DNA is responsible for that characteristic of the organism’s species, placing a ‘molecular marker’ on it.In context to this story, it is possible to replicate the exact function of the Mayhem virus with a man-made one, assisted by the advanced technology of the time. However, Dr. Lazzie creates something similar but not the same. It is more potent, even though it is possible to create the same virus and she should have.Unrelated to mapping, an interesting article: https://www.discovermagazine.com/health/our-cells-are-filled-with-junk-dna-heres-why-we-need-it
Tom Dudley:
The Queen vs. Dudley and Stephens is a famous criminal court case that established a legal precedent that homicide could not be justified by necessity.Three men and a cabin boy, aged seventeen, were sailing on a ship from England in the year 1884. The ship was wrecked and the group was drifting in the ocean with little food and no water. After weeks of starvation and no hope of finding rescue, two of them—Tom Dudley and Edwin Stephens—decided to kill the cabin boy, Richard Parker (unrelated to Life of Pi), and eat his body. The three did this and four days later found a ship that took them to land. To the two who committed the murder, they did what was necessary and did not feel they deserved punishment, however, the law used the opportunity to set a strict precedent against such illegal activities despite the need.
More on the Space Treaty (related to the story):
The Space Treaty was made at the end of the Space Wars and signed by the many nations that participated in it. It was originally planned to prevent weaponized spacecraft from going into Earth’s orbit, but after subsequent discussion, it was decided that it should include more than just that, and prevent all from sending any manned spacecraft, to be safe and preventing any nation from procuring many resources from space.If a manned rocket or one with weapons were to enter space, the satellites would pick it up and send an alert and data about it to the SORSs, which would assess and report the threat to the country. Unfortunately, due to this treaty, there could be no weaponized ships in space to guard against/destroy meteoroids. Instead, the country would rely on a SORS to inform them of the threat and then send a missile to destroy it once it entered the atmosphere.Due to a lack of government budget, not many SORSs or missile systems were built, contributing to the current problem.
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