Apathy

Water poured over my face and ran down my body as I blankly stared up at the shower head. One hand carefully had lathered my skin with soft soap, the other clenched out of the range of the raining droplets to avoid getting wet.

I turned over my fist, opening it up to reveal the ticket to world peace…a small blue and white pill capsule.

My chest started to pound as I gazed at it. A pressure built up in body and scattered to my hips, then to my throat and finally to my head. All these things ached at once.

The pain caused me to clench my fist again, threatening to crush my salvation. But I had just enough sense to keep from falling to primal anger.

Rather than destroy peace, I ate it. I shoved the pill into my mouth and drowned it with shower water that had spilled passed my lips.

The internal frustration peeked, but within seconds of the pill entering me, I could feel that horrible pain leave.

“One more day,” I said, glad to have been given another day of peace by this drug. “I can make it.”

I came out of the shower feeling clean and refreshed of any sanity I'd lost in the night. These sorts of morning rituals tended to take up a lot of time, but were worthwhile.

Downstairs, my family unit was all gathered at the table, waiting for me to join them.

“Good morning.” I greeted.

“Good morning.” They all said as a single voice.

Breakfast paste had already been served. We all began to eat the moment I planted down in my seat.

“I assume grades are optimal,” father asked my sister and I.

“Yes, father.” I replied.

“My weakest subject is math," my sister, who’s in fourth grade, said. "I believe I’ll need tutoring to be successful.”

“Very well,” mother nodded, taking initiative. “I’ll contact the school tonight for accommodations.”

My sister gratefully continued to eat her food.

Everyone remained quiet the rest of the time. Unless something was wrong with either the house, school or a job, we didn’t have any reason to speak further. it was a mercy to spare each other from a needless anxiety trip.

After breakfast, I took my sister's hand and we left for the bus stop a few blocks down.

***

Each day while walking to the bus stop, my sister and I passed by the exact same people at nearly the exact same times and places. I’d become accustom to counting the people and steps to pass the time. Each trip was somewhere between 1,122 to 1,125 steps, and I encountered exactly 53 suit clad people along the way. Like clockwork, we were all cogs, marching together to sustain society.

Finally, we reached the bus. My sister and I were assigned seats in the fourth row left side. Some busses separated based on school year, others based it on family unit. A rare spot of variety, but I’m sure there was a reason I wasn’t aware of.

With everyone loaded in from this area, the bus lifted from the ground and began hovering into traffic. Just like with people, car traffic was a finite art. Not that it happened ever, but if you missed your slot to enter the highway, you weren’t getting on the road that day.

It’s a rather calm drive from that point. Most of us just stare out our respective window, watching for landmarks to signal how close we were to school, trusting the automated driving system would get us there without a hitch.

Today however, I noticed something new. Along the shoulder of the road was a hover car, clearly driving erratically. It swerved in a way that suggested its autopilot was damaged.

It didn’t seem real. I blinked a few times to make sure my eyes were seeing properly. But this car was very real, all the way up until it slammed into the side of the bus.

CRASH!

The smaller car was strong enough to veer our bus out of its lane. We were protected by the sheer size of our vehicle, but the bus was nocked way off course into the neighboring lane, causing a terrible accident.

Out of morbid curiosity, we all looked out the window to see the outcome. A man with barbarically long hair and beard climb out of the offending car and leaped onto the side of the bus. He pulled out the emergency window and dove in.

“Come on!” He shouted. “Let’s run! We gotta go!”

He smelled retched, like smoke, and his cloths were covered in dirt and grime. This man was a relic of the old world come to life.

We'd heard stories of archaic men who practically lived in the stone age. they were driven by pure instinct, filling their lungs with toxins, seeking relief from their trivial needs, all hoping to get a new high point in life.

Nobody responded to him. We all avoided eye contact and sat still.

“Come on! One of you have to listen to me!” He scratched his head. Visible flakes of dandruff fell from his scalp. “Ahh…dang…one of you kids has to be off your meds…right!?”

He turned all around the bus, looking for anyone who seemed to be reacting poorly to his presence. For the most part, everyone seemed to keep a calm face.

Except one girl across from us.

Ekko Haruki. A straight A student council member with a bright future and a healthy body. If any of us understood envy, we may have swooned over her position in life.

But right now, she was the envy of no one. Her face was bright red, and clear perspiration had caused the moderate amount of markup she wore to run.

Seeing her as easy prey, the grimy barbarian had targeted her with his hollow words.

“You get it…I can tell!” He was so close to her face that his horrible breath must have been causing her discomfort. “Please, come with me! I need to get you out of here.”

His hands were reaching for her. She shifted as close as she could to the window, but that made the man more desperate to grab her.

“Please…come with me. I can make you feel again. I can show you what it means to be a human being! Just come with.”

“No…” she hummed weakly. “Leave me alone.”

“You…you’re a girl, right?” His deranged tone began sounding even more ludicrous. “Hey…that means you want to know about cute stuff..." He pulled a small pin from his pocket. It looked like a crude looking cat. "Or...maybe...you want to know about love, right? I…I can teach you! I know everything about that…Believe me! I know about love!”

Ekko was curled up even more against the window, trying her hardest to avoid acknowledging the barbarians existence.

SCREECH!

The bus doors were forced open. Two men in black suits marched onto the bus and grabbed the barbarian.

“Oh…oh God…no!” the barbarian tried to wrestle the men in black, but he couldn’t overpower them. “Tasukete! Somebody help! Get out of here! Get out while you still can!”

They dragged him away, leading him into a hover van, never to be seen again.

That disturbance would likely cost the city quite a lot of time...time we could have used to keep the cogs of the world turning. But things like this weren’t enough to make or break our society. We had ways of recovering quickly. Hyper efficiency afforded a few mishaps every now and again.

With a few minor readjustments to the flow of traffic, we were right back on course for school.