Bourgeoisie Recollections

A year, or maybe two months, have passed after what’s been happening. I cannot exactly recall how long it’s been, nor do I care.

Beep

Wait, what happened? Oh yeah, right! So, the people had to stay in that bunker-basement-whatever for quite a while. Though, during that time for me, I couldn’t sit still and be with myself. I had to do something, so I explored the building which we occupied. I didn’t want to go outside as there are many inconveniences. And the inconveniences are, well, a bother. Also, I liked the safe and homely feeling that I had during that period, especially with other people around.

Anyway, it turned out to be a mansion. A large one at that. Oh, that goddamn place. Many corners, walls, and floors were abounding in the mould; it was unnecessarily rich in many colours that I didn’t know existed in such a fungus, I mean… purple? And to go further, this place is a mansion in size but not in connotation. Mould was not the only thing that I found. Spiders and their homes, as well as flies and wasps, didn’t just inhabit corners, but entire fucking rooms! And, some leavings (from perhaps a bigger animal) gave every room a flair of induced coughing and putrid smells. Also, damn, the creeks of the stairs and floors couldn’t possibly be any louder — I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s used as a monitor of where I am in that labyrinth. Speaking of which, I hope the architect of this home didn’t continue in their career. I mean, jeez, what was the point of corridors with no doors? Rewarding me for going on this journey with a wall to my face. Genuinely, nothing is connected; you must go back to the hub to go elsewhere, and good luck in finding that! Like, remembering what each rabbit hole of a door led to was too much estate in my brain.

Nonetheless, it was a great activity which occupied my mind enough. Though, the strangest thing I realised was how a mansion like this could even exist in the first place: four floors; eight bedrooms and toilets; four separate kitchens for each floor; and empty, useless rooms aplenty! All of that is located in southern Rao. I never saw it around once, and I lived in this district for about ten years. And believe me, the people here will talk about a mansion built in an area where the homeless are more than the inhabited ones. I asked about it when I was around my bunker people at the time, but no one saw any person come in or out, nor did any of them see it being even built. Come to think of it (and to leave the nauseous state of this home aside), there was a… strange piece of decoration in there. I mean, a large, carved mouth on the floor of the main hall? And I could’ve sworn I saw it open a little when we had to eventually venture out, as if the mansion was smiling for taking us in as guests.

3:57 minutes elapsed

Oh crap, yeah! Jeez, the number of things that happened after we left. Before our leave though, I remember that one of the people who were with us, and who was oddly one of the more enthusiastic ones, hung herself. In the days after the discovery of their carcass upstairs, the redhead's mother had to leave to be with herself at interval times; we could hear her bawl her eyes out and hyperventilating every so often. Some of them have been trying to console her, but she seems to have gotten broken beyond repair. Quite unfortunate I guess. Anyway, after many months of rationing what was left of the canned food and contaminated water, the cool Mohammad suggested we go out — as was told to us by the radio. But, the mother didn’t leave with us and didn’t utter a word when they implored her to come. I don’t know what happened to her after we left. Though, I remember there were many broken glass shards around, so I can’t help but conjure the worst.

39 kcal burned

Now, when we left, all the mosquitoes had disappeared, so I don’t think it’s ridiculous to think they were only Temporary ones. But, I remember on the radio, there was another Phy they talked about — the same obnoxious and self-absorbed bastards were all we heard when we were in there. Anyway, they mentioned that a dark-green, floating and disembodied hand – the size of a truck – was appearing out of nowhere, only, specifically, in the north and the south, respectively the poorer and poorest places in the capital. It seems to come out of nowhere, apparently crushing civilians with an unimaginable force on the ground using its palm, eviscerating every muscle and bone in an instant. Apparently, it sometimes does it thrice or more, for confirmation that all that’s left is grounded remnants of what was once living. Now it has been at least about three months; not a single floating hand was seen by me or anyone I asked. So, was it actually a Phy that was seen and confirmed to exist? Or, was it a manufactured creation to keep us inside? I cannot answer, as I’m too busy trying to figure out what the hell is happening. One has a limit for how much chaos they could take. I hope it doesn’t get to that point for me, as it did with others.

Speak of the devil, the government (or EIO) has blocked off the inner city; this is only the first step of their many steps in screwing the people over. The outskirts are now on their own and have been left without support. Kind of. I mean, if you count 2,000 people waiting for food and then get given food enough for 20 — and is enough only for one day mind you, where they also receive it once per month, and some months they “forget to” – then I guess they were helping out. The supplies are here and have always been here, and it’s plentiful and enough for everyone! Misfortune is all that the people lived with, and now they are met with even more of it. Like, the condition they find themselves in around here is beyond horrendous; you could not evoke in words how it feels to exist there for one second. Let alone the food (which is all canned and nearing expiry), a brown-coloured mist seems to occupy the entire area and it spreads itself equally wherever you go in the south, much like the smell that no one made the effort or had the care to handle. Honestly though, how could they? Right now, everyone is worried about if their final days are looming towards them faster than before — which already had a small distance cut. And unfortunately, some others decided to close that gap altogether. Children saw their parents hanging, and some parents saw the bleak path their child walked into when the hanging corpse inspired some ideas. I think that I hate the tragedy that’s unfolding before me. Like, shit, people chose to do away with the rumours and venture out into the unknown of that forest. Whether there really is a mountainous golem waiting to strike boulders down on the puny insects it sees encroaching, it didn’t matter for them, as long as they could pick out two berries, praying to some deity that it isn’t poisonous too. Oh, and about that mist, coughing and lung flares were aplenty! What else? Pretty much all the homes of my comrades have crumbled as by-products of the colonisation of Earth Movers. A handful of barely withstanding buildings enrich the desolate, depressing landscape of their days and nights.

Still, the biggest irony I can’t help but chuckle at is that Rao, which was on the outside a prosperous capital and on the inside a corrupted mess, is now in disarray and chaos on the outside, but a heavenly place on the inside. For select individuals. And it comes with the reprehensible cost of thousands of lives that just came off the crossfire of the corrupted mess they found themselves in before. And like, It isn’t as if the moneyed bastards have been or will be anywhere near struggle. Now they are hoarding more and spending more lives for more plates and security as they empty their sixth packet of cigars. A tragedy to end all others, especially when you consider the deities which contaminate our skies from time to time.

7:34 minutes elapsed

Oh, the Earth Movers. Where do I start with you. From the distance, I could see its green-brown scaly body polluting the sky of that day with Tote. The front of this goliath bares no face. Only one, circular, giant mouth that never closes, encompassing the entire front area of this hellish worm. The entrance of its cave holds enormous spikes for teeth, standing tall all around, all meeting at the centre point. God, it doesn’t even need all this! But hey, sprinkle in more horror for the people whose concern is their next plate, eh?

God, the number of things it has done since. Well for starters, it seems like those lads separated the entire fucking land of Rao away from the country! We are now residents of an island, I guess. Every so often, the whole place shakes a little. Apparently, these things are pushing the whole goddamn city from its side! To god-knows-where! So, I guess that they traverse both land and sea, even though most of their destruction is caused inland, hence their name, doofus. But still, It’s honestly crazy. Though, I wonder what it would be like if I got close to them.

Nothing from outside the island can get close to them, that’s for sure. The Earth Movers have made it one of their missions to attack anything and everything that dares to try and get close to the island they now border. You can see it in the distance anywhere from here. As if reaching for the mesosphere, one of these ungodly creatures makes a jump, charging at the poor helicopters merely wanting to report the global disaster that happened. It’s a sight to behold, as terrible as it may be. Many, many lives were taken, both on the sea and in the air. I cannot even fathom how would it feel when before your brutal and ultimate demise, you see a creature out of the deepest depths of cosmic horror charging at you with unrelenting momentum to end you. The sight of such a carcass – assuming there is one left afterwards – most likely won’t resemble a human anymore. I don’t know why on earth they keep sending more victims, knowing the eventual aftermath; I recall hearing on the radio that most of them are convicts…

This shouldn’t be what occupies my mind at the moment. The thing that is beyond despicable is how this grand curtain can allow the bourgeoisie to do as they please. Conglomerating most of the land’s resources away from the tens of thousands of people hankering for a piece of bread, and into the hands of a few hundred who care about losing the 2 kilos they gained from their chef's signature lamb shank. And who’s looking? No one but me. The onlooker. Exactly what have been doing my entire existence. A spectre only there to witness the unrelenting progress of civilisation, of all its ups and downs. The rock which has been witnessing the rise of skylines that now clutter space, and I cannot do anything but watch it unfold.

Here you are again.

103 kcal burned

“Oi! You! You spendin’ your time on a treadmill, whilst we’re out here searching for food?!” A deep and powerful voice comes from behind me.

“Just wanted to chill for a bit okay? Jeez, sorry” I stop the workout and step off the machine to face them.

She scoffs. “Thought the ones in shops are there for show.”

“Seems not, I guess. Workin’ just fine,” I giggle for a little too long, increasing the time before the silence comes.

She stares at me for a little too long, looking up and down at me. I give out half a chuckle.

“How come you don’t get hungry?” She asks in surprising earnestness.

“I-I mean, you know me don’t you? Haha…”

“I don’t.”

I look down, giggling. “Ah. Uhm, well, I’m a Phy. And my power-thingamajig is that I can’t die. That also somehow includes me not getting hungry, which is fairly convenient sometimes, haha.” She doesn’t laugh; she is only listening. “Though sometimes, I crave stuff and I still eat. It still digests and whatnot.”

“Right…. Anyway, we need everyone to join and help out, okay? Every person counts. Since these fuckers aren’t giving us enough, we need to organize and see what we can do. So. Yeah, we need everyone, including you. So come on, okay?” Her voice becomes tender and inviting. A smile unfolds from under the scars that alloy her light brown complexion. Her pure devotion to her community arose from me a deep-rooted, radical desire. But now, it makes me paralysed from accepting something so simple-

My Nokia rings, and she looks down at my right pocket.

“Gee. You really are bougie, haha,” she turns her back as tittering is coming out of her, and goes to put one foot out of the broken window. “I’ll go to the South’s Hub before you then. Meet ya there,” she says as she steps over the window to get the rest of her body across, leaving the shop.

I take out the phone from my pocket, answering the call.

“Oh Greetings, Mr Burkhaven. Damn how long has it been since we talked?! How have you been? I hope that you’ve been getting by!”

“Well, it hasn’t been the b-”

“Anyway listen, considering you are so stubborn about living in god-knows-where, we have no idea where you are, so find a way to come to us. Management needs you in the office. Now.”

“Wait, now? I can’t. How am I going to go through the border you guys set up?”

“Jeez, so that’s where you are! Let’s see…” Keyboard mashing sounds come out of the phone for a little while.

“Okey-dokey, we can set you up an escort to take you in safely since you’re special and aren’t one of them. You have an interview thing to attend.”

“Yeah, but, I- I don’t wanna-”

“Oh, ho! Remember, what else are you going to do?”

…

The devouring silence, and what it always comes with, walks in. I sit with it for a few seconds.

“Yeah. That’s right. I don’t have anything else to do.”

“Be there in thirty minutes.”

The call ends.

She turned to the right when she left; I proceeded to walk in the opposite direction.