29 years old Richard was walking in his technologically advanced exoskeleton armor, he had escaped from the Vancouver Hyper-company’s currently ongoing war with whatever remained of the Canadian government. He had stripped his armor of it’s trackers to not be detected, his technology knowledge helped him a lot in this. However, Vancouver Hypercompany could easily catch him if they could, it’s just that the war was too intense to even care about one soldier escaping.
He was in a desolate valley of what used to be the state of British Columbia, most of the vegetation had dried up, instead leaving behind a brown, bleak, lifeless appearance to the landscape. What used to be a thriving forest was now in crumbles, a former shell of what it used to be. And even though it was December, it wasn’t really that cold, and this kind of “winter” would’ve been unthinkable 100 years ago, but it was now the norm. Scientist had been warning people about climate change ever since the 1980’s, now it’s nearly the end of 2129, and needless to say, the consequences of it was severely underestimated to say the very least. The thermometer of his armor read “7°C “, yet another reminder of the ruined status of the planet.
His armor’s calorie and protein supply was starting to get lower, as well as the water supply. All he heard was the crows flying under the presence of the cloudy sky, as well as the sound of his heavy armored boots making a crunchy dirt sound as he kept on walking on the dry ground. His armor was heavy, but it was also good at supporting you while walking and giving you energy constantly to keep your blood sugar levels up. However as he walked more, his pent-up emotions began to resurface, he could vividly imagine the voice of his now-gone love in his head. She was never going to come back, not after her slow and painful death. Forever gone, without even a last kiss. As those thoughts kept revolving in his head, he slowly collapsed on the ground and broke into tears. His tears fell on his armor, he cried more and more, and it wasn’t just a few tears, it was an entire river. A crushing feeling of impending doom and eternal misery sank into his chest. The world had collapsed, his life had collapsed, he lost his love. Everything was just a former shell of what it used to be, all remaining hope was now lost and suffering had replaced it.
The world had been stripped of it’s color, only leaving behind a gray, lifeless corpse of itself. The previous crushing feeling remained in his chest, but his tears slowly calmed down, and he got up from the ground. Yes, it was all bleak, but he had to be realistic and keep going. Because people can only succeed if they keep going, it’s a blunder to simply give up. The world was abused to the absolute most by greedy, warmongering hyper-companies, the thoughts echoed in his head as he remembered his entire life. He remembered back when he was only a kid, and he believed hyper-companies weren’t really evil. Back when he was a naive child, all he knew was that hyper-companies were the pinnacle of creativity and human opportunity. But he’s not a child anymore, he knows the truth, that hyper-companies only care about self-gains and will not hesitate to destroy the planet and everyone’s lives. Humanity had promised him that there was always hope, that they could reach for the stars, and eventually make colonies in other planets.
But it was all bullshit, hope never existed, only temporary self-gains and greed did. No one ever really cared, it was all doomed to be this way. Humanity always told him that they were all thoughtful, sweet creatures who had planned everything and there was nothing to fear, these were all lies. Because as technology advanced and advanced, humanity got more and more overconfident. Determined to turn the planet into a corpse, and so it did, it succeeded at that.
As he continued walking, he found an old highway, which looked like it hasn’t been maintained ever since the Canadian civil war. As it was full of dirt and cracks and potholes, it didn’t look like it was maintained anytime recent either. He came across an abandoned SUV that looked like a 2020’s model, about a century ago. All of it’s windows were broken and the interior was dirty and ruined, all of it’s tires were missing too. He thought of who could’ve used to use this car a long time ago, it was probably used up until late 21st century, when the entire world began collapsing and succumbing to wars, hyper-companies and eventually, hyper-brains. He thought of what family could’ve been enjoying their time in this car, what memories could’ve been formed in it, and now are anything but pieces of dust. Whatever anyone did back then didn’t even matter now, everything succumbed to the passage of time, no one had cared about the future generations, because there was no future. We weren’t in the future, present or past, we were in what shouldn’t exist, borrowed time from the universe. It was a miracle we even lived so long despite all of the wars and the greedy actions of the hyper-companies.
We could’ve experienced a world that didn’t have it’s life sucked out by the short-sighted greed of the hyper-companies. But no, instead we had what used to be the unimaginable. Perhaps even having hope with a species like humanity was an utterly naive thing to do, after all humans are greedy creatures that want nothing but temporary wealth. Humans never stop wanting more, they’re never satisfied with what they have. This is the ultimate reason that caused all of these events and the world we have today in 2129. Our primal instincts that could no longer apply to the modern world failed us and caused us to ruin basically everything, and now we must suffer the consequences of such thing. That crushing feeling of everlasting misery and the species’s failure will forever haunt everyone’s minds, it’s too late now, too late to change anything.
After a bit of walking along the ruined road, an old modified early 1930’s pickup truck was surprisingly driving on the road, it slowed down and came to a stop as the driver saw Richard. What looked like a man with a Fujisato branded exoskeleton came out of the truck, he took his helmet off, revealing his face, he was balding and his beard was getting white, he looked like he was in his 60’s, then he spoke to Richard in a Canadian accent. “Another soldier escaping the Vancouver war, eh?”
Richard pointed to the spot in his armor which normally would have the tracker, cluing towards the fact that he stripped himself of his tracker. “War got too intense to even notice me escaping, who are you?”
The balding old man shut the even older truck’s door, “Ah, I work in a settlement nearby. I was sent out to go find some resources, their salt water filter needed more fuel.”
Richard was intrigued, he knew there were some settlements in the Northern wildernesses, but he didn’t know there was one so nearby, “You’re saying you have a tribe nearby?”
The old man responded “Yes, and we were just in need of some fine men. Our workforce isn’t enough.” He offered him a handshake “Name’s Andrew.”
Richard shook his hand “Alright, Andrew. I’m Richard. I can’t promise I will work in this tribe of yours but I would like to use it as a place to rest temporarily at least, If that’s fine for you.”
Andrew walked towards the driver door of his truck “Well, I can’t promise, depends on what the leaders say. But get in the car, I’m sure they’d appreciate a new addition to our tribe.”
Richard sat on the passenger side of the bench seat, Andrew started up the old truck, the truck’s engine roaring to life. They start to cruise around on the abused road, the dry valleys and mountains being the backdrop for the roads. The car didn’t go that fast, but it surely did go. The interior was a basic 1930’s interior, all the fabric was worn out and the dashboard was a simple metal sheet and the steering wheel looked like a giant valve.
As Andrew drove, he slightly turned his head towards Richard to start chatting with him “So, Richard. What’s your story?” he then looked back at the road.
Richard looked towards the car’s wooden, Great Depression era floor. Which was made from wood of the crates that the car parts arrived in to greatly save on costs during the Great Depression. “Well, you guessed it right that I’m a soldier that escaped. I was drafted for the Vancouver war. I’ve never seen such a horrifying war in my lifetime, the entire city was destroyed in mere 7 hours, I saw my girlfriend die in front of my eyes and- They still told us to fight… But at least since the war was so intense, I could use this as an opportunity to run away. And I succeeded in that, however, my armor doesn’t have a lot of nutrients and water left. So it’s good news for me that a tribe found me.”
Andrew listened to Richard’s words carefully. “Yeah, we may be off the grid but we still heard about the war because of all the people escaping North. Our tribe isn’t very technological – but you’ll still find basic amenities like food, water, shelter, phone lines and electricity. No internet but we don’t want to be discovered globally, do we?”
Richard was relieved “Oh, that’s more than enough. I’m willing to work too, If I have to.”
Andrew responded in a hopeful tone “We’re a group that went North years before the Vancouver war, I think we’ve been working on this tribe since like – 2110? We just gathered together old, abandoned technology and built something basic but good and free, we got used to having no internet, the local community is more than enough for us anyway.”
The truck kept on driving through the worn roads, dodging abandoned cars and soon going through the mountain roads of what used to be British Columbia. The dry forests in the distance filled the canvas, along with the sun setting. Snowflakes began dropping from the sky as the temperatures dropped, it was also getting windy. The car’s headlights turned on as the sun set, they came across a worn out, old sign reading “Welcome to Yukon Province”. Then as they kept driving north, they eventually arrived at the tribe, snow had accumulated on the ground and it was already a few hours past sunset.
Andrew drove into a rusty metal fortress with electric powered lamps lighting it up, even though it’s pretty rudimentary in design, it was still somewhat cozy in a way. He turned off the headlights and stepped out of the truck “Ah, here we are. The tribe of Sandpeaks.”
Richard stepped out of the car as well, there were some people from the tribe to greet them. “Sandpeaks? It looks fine, well, there’s no war at least…”
Andrew introduced Richard to the people of Sandpeaks “Hey everyone, this is Richard. Our newest addition, he also escaped Vancouver.”
The tribe was surrounded by tall rusty metal walls, inside the walls were some homes and workplaces, along with a clinic and a security. It was kinda small and aesthetics clearly wasn’t a concern for the buildings. Yet it was still cozy, it felt somewhat safe even though it looked poor. I mean, in a world like this, it was sort of like a last beam of hope. Near the exit gate were some old modified cars and trucks, mostly from the 1920’s to 1950’s.
After Andrew introduced Richard, a bunch of people of Sandpeaks shook hands with him, welcoming him to the tribe.
One of them said, “Do you need a place to stay? We have a vacant home.”
Another one of them, which looked slightly more like a leader looked at Richard in the face, “Hey, weary soldier. Don’t worry, you’re safe here. Just work 6 days a week and we will give you food, a place to stay, water and even maybe some friends! Tomorrow’s Monday but since you’re new and tired you can have one day off!”
Richard was more than willing to accept that, “Sounds good to me, where will I stay?”
The man replied while he shook his hand, “Oh, we have a vacant home near the walls, It’s a bit dark but it’s alright. It has a bathroom with running water and a small bedroom. Don’t worry about cooking, we have a central food center that everyone can eat at. By the way I am William Sandpeaks, the leader of this tribe.”
Richard nodded, “Sounds good, I’ll start working on Tuesday. Thank you so much, Mr. Sandpeaks.”
After all the events, Richard went straight to his house. It sort of felt surreal, he felt so lucky. He thought he was going to get stranded in the wilderness of abandoned towns and roads, but instead he found a decently sized community where he would get granted all of his basic needs. There was no war here, no suffering. He could finally get a decent life, even if none of the problems are solved, he’d still at least live decently for the time being.
He went into his house, it had a small simple window, it was a bit dirty inside but it didn’t matter. He found an old looking bed and some drawers in his bedroom, it was so small that the bed was very close to the door to the outside. A bit further in after the drawer was the bathroom door, he opened it and found a simple shower set along with a sink and a toilet, basically all he would ever need. And in case he needed to wash his clothes, there was a laundromat in the tribe. Richard took his armor off, he was now only in his underwear. It was cold outside but the house was warm with the public heating system. He turned of all the lights, crashed into his bed and the last thing he remembered was going under the blanket before he went to the dreamland.
In the morning, he woke up to the noise of a blizzard rattling the building. It was only slightly bright outside as it was just dawn, the mid-century (As in 20th century) clock in his bedroom read 10:15 AM. If it was still working, that is… He opened his door, there was a thick layer of snow in the way but he pushed it away and held his armor outside to see what the temperature is, the armor read “-29°C”, that was about 36 degrees Celsius colder than yesterday… The wind was howling and it was impossible to see further than just a few meters, the whiteout was insane and the snow on the ground had accumulated to almost his height.
He quickly closed the door again and took his armor inside as he already had learned the temperature he was so curious about. He thought to himself just how lucky he is, he dodged a massive freezing blizzard, got himself a place with running water and electricity, he probably would’ve died if he hadn’t discovered Sandpeaks.
This place was such an undiscovered gem, and we should be glad it’s undiscovered. While Vancouver Hypercompany was busy trying to eat whatever remained of the Canadian government, Sandpeaks was relaxing up north.
He shivered a bit and leaned against the warm radiators, he forgot that he had no other clothing than his underwear, but good thing the place had decent heating. He walked on the cold metal floor with bare feet, going to the bathroom. The bathroom’s metal door creaked as he went in, even the bathroom had it’s own heating, it was a nice neat home despite how rudimentary it is.
After taking care of his business in the bathroom, his feet was cold because of the floor, so he wrapped under the blanket in his bed. He had nothing to do now, so he started searching the pockets of his armor to maybe find something interesting. Then he found his Diginote device, those devices were more modern than smartphones. They could be unfolded to reveal several different screens where you can do many things at the same time, their sleek, semi-transparent screens allowed them to be extremely light and their folding allowed them to be compact in our pocket while big while holding. Their ability to float made them easy to use as well, they also had some anti-thief features. You could make the screen semi-transparent and allow you to see behind it or make it fully opaque, it was up to you. However they were also full of trackers, but he wasn’t really tech-illiterate and he stripped these off the device when escaping Vancouver. These devices also didn’t have a battery or require recharging, they had a self-sustaining mechanism that allowed it to run forever unless if it got severely damaged. But even mild damages were self-repaired by the system, being superior to the smartphones of the past in every way.
He took his Diginote and unfolded it, he went into the notes section, he had many thoughts that he had to unleash somewhere, the notes were perfect for this. He pulled out the big, semi-transparent keyboard and began typing his thoughts out.
‘Why? Why did she have to die? As if things weren’t bad enough already, I had to lose her. Really now? Why? Why couldn’t that bomb have landed a few meters away, where she wasn’t standing? I barely made it, the world is brutal. The weight of the trauma is too much… Traumas haunt our minds to the ends of our lives, they’re how our mind tries to cope with an event that has greatly shook us. We usually blame ourselves for it, but sometimes it’s just related to something that isn’t even in our control.’ He took a break from writing to think, then tears fell down his cheeks as he continued, ‘Why did I have to lose my angel? I’m alone now… I’m incomplete, and the worst part…’ his crying got even more intense as he continued… ‘Worst part is, I have to carry the weight of the emotional trauma to the end of my life. But what would she want right now? She’d probably want me to move on as quickly as possible and keep going, but it hurts… it hurts… it hurts… I can’t forget it… it’s too important.’ He took a break from writing as he sobbed, his mind racing with more thoughts that he couldn’t write down. The death of his loved one plus the state of the world echoing and lingering in his mind, making him cry even more. And the worst part is, he could never change it… He’s just forced to suffer, forced to be alone. No one to help him, ever. Was this fate really any better than death? He doubted it greatly.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
He thought that even though he’s alive, he’s emotionally pretty much dead.
He was too tired to do anything else, his ankles sore from all the stuff he did yesterday and the day before, it has already been a few days since her death, but he kind of lost count. To him it was only a moment ago, he could’ve stopped it, he surely could’ve stopped it but he, he failed to… If only it happened slightly differently, she would still be here now, but she isn’t, she will never come back…
The blizzard outside continued raging, he was alone in the shelter with his thought. Maybe it was better than death, or was it? Was it better than death? Maybe not… He didn’t have any energy left in his mind or body, he just woke up though, he couldn’t sleep now. And he surely couldn’t spend the entire day staring at the wall, but he might as well could, he was bored out of his mind on top of already being severely traumatized. His mind kept on racing, constantly asking him if it would’ve been better if he died. He couldn’t stop remembering her voice and face, and how she will never come back, she’ll just be a skeleton under the ground for the rest of eternity. Death is horrifying, it’s scary. But another side of his mind kept nudging him about whether he should join her in her death as well, but the other side was trying to keep him alive, telling him that she would want him alive and well and strong. But he wasn’t strong, he was far from strong. He was never going to be strong, the world was just a former shell of what it used to be, the beauty of the world, the vegetation, everything that made the world beautiful was gone, and they were never going to come back. It’s all gone, forever… forever… forever…
Forever… the thoughts kept echoing in his head. Forever, what did mean? It meant permanent, it meant that however it was decided it was going to stay that way forever. It meant an eternity, a very long time that never passes. And what did he lose for during this time? Of course, his sweetheart, the world, everything, just a depressing little hut to stay in. The other side of his head kept nudging him about something else however, it made him think about how he’s ungrateful because he feels so depressed despite finding a nice shelter with running water and electricity. Yet, the other part kept him crying saying this is miserable and everything will be hell forever, the both sides of his head were abusing him. Why must we be so brutal to ourselves, what is the meaning of anything if misery and suffering is never gone for good? Even if misery and suffering was gone, we still wouldn’t be happy, happiness just isn’t a part of Mother Nature’s plan.
What is happiness? Is it not worrying about something nearly as much? Is it believing in false lies of hope? Is happiness just a myth? His head wouldn’t stop asking him those questions. Just constant stream of questions, questions and questions… He just couldn’t stop wondering… what happiness is. Wait wait that’s it! He’s spoiled, he wouldn’t be wondering what happiness is if he wasn’t relatively comfortable right now, comfort makes us idiotic. Or does it? Maybe that thought in itself is idiotic. The two sides of his head, and the every other thought in between them filling the void, the lobes were never going to find an answer. They would only raise more questions, more suffering and more misery…
Then the logic department of his brain started speaking to him, making him think that our brains are just programmed to always fear something, fear is unavoidable. In the first days of humanity, we always had something hunting us down, we got used to feelings like fear and anxiety. But now they were getting out of control, or maybe not? Or maybe it was… Why do those questions never have answers? Why isn’t anything resolved? Why is there always more problems to take care of?
He was forever stuck in this miserable land, this miserable land of rusted rudimentary settlements, coarse dirt hills, dead forests. About half the species on earth had already gone extinct, at least they still had spiders and a few other species to eat. But it was far too gone now, the planet would soon be no better than Mars. Sure, at least humans had developed artificial meat but it also came with consequences like… cancer. Oh god, cancer, that’s even worse… he thought. Cancer happens suddenly, when you expect it the least and kills you from the inside while using your body’s own functions. Can you imagine that? That’s one of the most horrifying things on earth, your body willfully destroying itself, out of your control… That’s… horrible…
His head looked down as he thought even deeper, only the blizzard noise accompanying him, even which was starting to fade slightly as he was so focused. He thought deeper and deeper… Stuff like… how life is nothing more than suffering, sure there were some fun here and there. But maybe that fun was just human delusion? I mean, was anything even real? Or… or… a simulation? Then he started thinking about something else… Like, why is it that video games and simulations always make us feel better? Do we get distracted? Or is it because life itself is a simulation or video game of some sorts but it directly affects us which stresses us greatly. But when we play a fun little simulation game, it doesn’t affect us much so we end up enjoying it instead, real life is maybe… too serious to be enjoyed?
He was trying to formulate thoughts but everything eventually led him deeper into a hole, everything was starting to not make sense… He thought it’s one of the most horrible things to be stuck with nothing but your mind for a long time, because we could never make sense of things. Everything leading us down a spiral, towards mental dead ends that lead us nowhere. Thoughts never made sense, never, we were little more than animals after all.
Shivers went down his spine, he felt regret, deep regret for what he couldn’t improve… He started thinking about what the meaning of his existence was, and how every single thought we have is unlikely to be ever correct, I mean, what was the ultimate answer to everything. He wanted that answer, he wanted it bad. He was tired of going down into meaningless dead ends of thoughts. He wanted an answer, something that reassures him greatly, something that feels good and right.
Thunders stroke outside, the blizzard sped up, and so did his mind. He was thinking, he was finally thinking better. Maybe he found an answer… an answer… The answer was… He had to keep going! Death is never the answer, never. He had to move on from all of his trauma and leave it behind. He found a decent shelter, he’s not going to die or be in danger for the foreseeable future, at least other than some unforeseen consequences. Why? Why bring yourself down for no reason? It is one of the basic of human principles to at least somewhat decently attempt to bring yourself up and find a way out. It is one of the basic human instincts also to somewhat attempt to make things even if very slightly at least, BETTER.
BETTER. BETTER. That was the answer!
He had to make it better even if very slightly.
YES! YES! BETTER!
All of a sudden, his motivation was back in place, the will to live was one of the hardest parts of the human mind to defeat. Being a human was beautiful, because of the pure willpower and intelligence that no other species possessed. Our conscious mind wasn’t the only part of our intelligence neither, there was the subconscious that always worked to detect things and make silent analyses that we might not even notice. That’s what gut feelings were, always this hints about stuff. If something felt wrong, then it might as well have been. That was the subconscious, the stuff that we didn’t actively and consciously thought about. That was one of the most beautiful parts of humanity, because no machine could ever replicate gut feelings. Even if artificial intelligence was somehow actually achieved, it would still be unable to get jokes, have gut feelings and have emotions. And emotions were one of our fundamental parts of our minds, which gave us some perks that simple computers could never achieve. We were superior to computers, A.I. didn’t exist and it was just a passing fad that existed mainly in the 2020’s, even the name A.I. was wrong, it wasn’t intelligence in the slightest. It was nothing but a predicting algorithm that went too far, and people had hyped it and companies had milked it to death. A.I.’s popularity had almost entirely declined around 2029 when basically everyone on the planet had realized just how unintelligent it is and it started being treated as a joke, as it should. It’s now been a century since the death of the A.I. hype, he wasn’t even alive back then but he read about this online from some historical articles when he was younger.
He mentally felt like the rusty metal walls around him were closing in, stuck in this rudimentary shelter for the entire day with no one but his own thoughts. How was time going to pass? When his thoughts were doing nothing but hurting him and were raising more questions than it answered? The reality of the situation was starting to sink in even deeper, the word ‘forever’ kept echoing in his head as he kept remembering what he lost. But he was getting too stuck up on this, he felt. He wanted to create some flow and move on, but it was such a torture to have to deal with your thoughts alone for hours.
He had enough…
He had ENOUGH.
Logic didn’t matter no more.
He just needed to feel SOMETHING.
So with all logic out of the window, he went out the door in nothing but his underwear, in the middle of the raging blizzard. Immediately, his whole body was met with a frigid, harsh wave of freezing cold and wind. He shivered immensely, it’s only been a few seconds but he still felt incredibly cold, he never felt so cold in his life. But at least it wasn’t boring… but it was COLD, COLD, COLD! He kept shivering, trying to reorganize his thoughts and think despite the -29°C cold that he was just confronting, but he couldn’t, he couldn’t think of anything but the bitter, brutal, bare COLD. So he ran back inside in just a few seconds, it wasn’t pleasant but it felt refreshing, at least he was a bit less bored now, and his traumas felt less serious to him. He laid against the warm, pleasant radiator with his bare back. He hugged the radiator to warm up, and he was wondering what the hell did he just do and why. But at least he felt more powerful now. He thought that since he can go into the blizzard naked for a few seconds, then he surely can get over his trauma and survive even in this brutal world.
He needed clothes though, but he couldn’t get any right now because of the blizzard. This sort of weather basically obstructed everything for humans, even when the houses were so close together. He knew his soul would forever be wounded with the loss of his other half, but he had to keep going…
He wrapped himself in the blankets and dived deeper into his thoughts, desperately trying to warm up. He didn’t know what to feel… he just wanted something good, some sort of escape from this ruthlessly brutal world. He wished none of this were real, Vancouver was in ruins, nature was crying, and he would never be the same again, not after what happened.
He was eternally haunted.
After hours of basically being numbed by random thoughts and sometimes a bit of napping, he fully woke up around noon. He was hungry, the blizzard had stopped and outside was still cold but visibility was okay and there was only slow snowfall. He got into his exoskeleton armor and stepped outside.
Andrew was there, and he jokingly said. “Hey Richard. You still alive?”
Richard’s was aware that he was joking, yet it was a bit melancholic still. “Yeah, of course I am. Oh yeah, I need to get some clothes. I only have my underwear beneath this armor.”
Andrew put his arm on Richard’s shoulder “Ah, I see. Follow me, they have a clothing store.”
Richard got a bit curious “So, do you guys have currency or anything here?”
Andrew chuckled as they walked towards the clothing store “Ah, no. The name ‘store’ is only a metaphor, we have bigger worries than having a currency. Our resources are limited, we only give a set amount of stuff to everyone, given that they work regularly and do all their duties. No one ever has more than what they’re set to have.”
Richard nodded “So, you have communism?”
Andrew chuckled again, “Ah, I don’t know what we have. At this point it doesn’t even really matter, we just want to stay alive… I mean, having a currency and some recreation would be nice and stuff but we don’t have much room for stuff like that. We first gotta be alive, then we can have a little bit of fun but we’re not many people anyway so… we can just arrange a tiny bit of resources for fun occasionally.”
Richard raised his left eyebrow “You awfully sound a lot like you’re a leader here or something. You seem to know a lot.”
Andrew nudged Richard’s arm “Ah, you got me! Well, indeed I know a lot about how this place is ruled. But it’s not exactly a mystery, we only have like 100 people living here. There’s just too few people for it to be a mystery, plus the fact that we’re desperate for survival and have bigger enemies. Don’t wanna deal with internal conflicts when we have much bigger worries…”
Richard was still curious “So, what do you here exactly?”
Andrew explained carefully “Well, I’m not a leader. But I’m close friends with the leader, and well… You could say sometimes I… demand stuff from him.”
Richard knew that there were some sort of conflict and set of demands here, even despite the desperate survival situation. But he didn’t want to ask him anything more, since he didn’t want to get involved in this in any way. “Alright, I see.”
They arrived at the clothing ‘store’, it was a rusty metal box structure like everything else here. There was a ‘shop’keeper woman as well as some sets of clothing with everything from wool winter clothing to thin summer clothing. They weren’t very aesthetic focused for obvious reasons, but they were practical nonetheless. There was a workshop at the back where people spent weeks making clothes with nothing but Fujisato branded sewing machines, even though population increase was slow, clothes were still needed time from time and since clothes took long time to make with nothing but Fujisato sewing machines, it was good to have a few people slowly working on them at all times.
Andrew started speaking “Alright, every citizen gets 2 summer shirts, 3 underwears, 2 winter shirts, a thick wool jacket, 2 pairs of summer pants and winter pants, 2 socks, boots and summer shoes.”
Richard followed Andrew’s instructions and took the exact amount of each type of clothing, but as he did so, however as he did so, some thoughts passed thru his mind. When he first met Andrew, Andrew introduced himself as a regular worker of the tribe. But he’s clearly not just a regular worker, he won’t be surprised if he was actually the leader. But why would he lie about this? It certainly made him less trustworthy for Richard.
Andrew smiled, “Alright, Richard. Enjoy your clothes, and your day-off.”
“Thanks, Andrew. See you.” Richard said before going back to his home with his clothes, he put his clothes in the drawers of his bedroom. Then he took off his armor and wore his winter outfit as well as his thick wool jacket, he felt much warmer. He then walked outside to the food center to eat his lunch, he waited in a line for about 10 minutes before it was finally his turn, he signed his signature on the paper list to confirm that he got his lunch already. Then he put the plates of food on his tray, today the menu was; Fried spiders, mushroom soup, potato stew and hot birch bark tea. It wasn’t a bad meal, he sat on a dining chair and started drinking his mushroom soup, he was starving.
Then a young woman next to him who didn’t take the fried spiders, but took everything else, spoke to him, “Hey, Richard, right? The newest guy here?”
Richard said with a tired tone in the middle of his soup drinking, “Yes, I’m Richard. Hello.”
She looked over to his tray for a bit and looked away quickly as she saw the fried spiders “I’m Harmony, nice to meet you Richard.”
Richard noticed how she looked away from the fried spiders immediately, “You don’t like spiders, huh?”
Harmony nodded nervously, “No, I don’t. I can never eat… some little crawler with eight legs. Even the thought of it gives me the creeps.”
Richard had an understanding tone, “Okay, I understand…”
Then Harmony continued, “I don’t get why they even eat spiders… I get that there’s no meat but surely not all animals have died? They can at least find a moose? Or some wolves?”
Richard thought as he continued drinking his mushroom soup “Eh, maybe it’s not that simple? I don’t know. Or maybe not enough animals to hunt, well what about fish? I’m sure there’s plenty of fish in the sea, literally.”
Harmony sipped her birch bark tea, “Well, they do have fish every Thursday. But most of the time it’s just spiders or some other disgusting insect. But yeah, the weekly fish’s enough for me, to be honest. But I still don’t get why they bother to cook these disgusting things.”
Richard tapped his chin thoughtfully, “Well, maybe because some people would like extra protein? I mean, some people are used to these stuff. Even back in Vancouver, there were some people that didn’t mind eating insects, some even found them tasty.”
Harmony sighed “Alright, fair enough… But I must say, I’m not into it… I was just wondering why, that’s all, really.”
Richard drank the rest of his warm, creamy mushroom soup, “It’s understandable if you’re disgusted by it, but personally, I don’t prefer it but I don’t mind it either.”
Richard reminded himself of the times he had to eat spiders and crickets because fish was getting really expensive from the shortages, he grabbed a fried spider and stopped looking at it and put it in his mouth without looking at it and chewed, while trying to not think about the fact that it’s a spider. “Ew! well, whatever, protein.”
Harmony had a ‘I told you’ kind of look “See? It’s a bit disgusting…”
Richard shook it off, “Eh, it’s fine. I can handle it.”
Harmony sipped more of her birch bark tea “To me it sounds like you’re downplaying it a bit.”
Richard shook his head “Okay, fine, yeah. I don’t want it. That’s the truth.”
Harmony was relieved as she enjoyed her tea, “Ah, there you go. Thank you.”
Richard started eating his potato stew with his wooden spoon instead “Now that’s much better.”
Harmony finished her tea, “See? No one wants to eat insects! At least let them live so that they can at least contribute to… whatever is remaining of nature. I es… especially don’t want to eat spiders.” She said the last part with visible discomfort.
Richard chuckled while getting closer to finishing his meal, “I could tell you’re an arachnophobic, you didn’t really have to tell me.”
Harmony giggled, “Ah, ah. Whatever, forget about it.”
A few minutes later, Richard was done with his meal and drank the hot tea.
Then Harmony spoke to Richard “Oh, you’re done eating, Richard? See you later.”
Richard got up from the table with his tray “See you later, Harmony.”
Richard walked back to his home, he spent the rest of the day venting more into the notes of his Diginote and also ate dinner at the food center, he fell asleep on his bed near midnight.
