Humanity is a fickle race. Hypocritical in nature. Two-faced. We care and don't care, we love and we hate. We have desire, passion, ambition, but when all hell breaks loose, we falter. We devolve into savagery or start to fall on our knees with the belief that the advent of judgement is upon us.
However, do I fault humanity for this? No. Its nature. Only a few can rise above the mould in times of desperation, while the rest...
It was as such on that day. Regardless of status or background, we were all wearing the pathetic face of desperation and hopelessness as if the joy, malice and hatred a few hours ago was a farce.
7 June 2028, 9.30 am
I was in my house in a place called Melville in Johannesburg, South Africa. A single-story brick house with 5 rooms. The outer walls were designed with grey roughcast, leaving only a few portions to display the magnificence of the glossy face bricks at the front of the house.
Outside was a few square meters of well-maintained lawn with a concrete tiled pathway that went from the road to my house.
To others, it wasn't much, but to me, it was a big deal. This house, this life had come from blood, sweat and tears. Mine, my parents and my grandparents.
My birth country was Zimbabwe, a teapot shaped country right above South Africa on the world map.
I love my country, many memories, from elementary school to college that I hold dear. I was fortunate to have been raised by both my parents, even having the privilege to be an older brother to two younger siblings, my younger brother Victor and my little sister Pauline.
Due to the erratic nature of our economy, we were often bombarded with inflation and a lack of basic commodities leading to a burning of the family pocket.
I grew up with a passion for writing and drawing, my parents supporting me for a time. I enjoyed creating worlds and characters, giving them personality and humanity. Naturally, with my young nature, that personality was usually the heroic one, altruistic, while humanity was idealistic at best.
With time I grew to write stories and draw images that embodied the truer sense of humanity and got a few fans here and there. In high school, my parents discouraged me from continuing with this passion and taking on a more, commercial study. I acquiesced and joined the commercial class. It sounds bad, but actually, it made sense.
The world my parents and I live in is a world where a white-collar job is a way to success. Singing, YouTubing and the rest are for hooligans. As absurd as it sounds, in this continent it's like a supernatural ban on creativity, where business is gold and everything else is garbage.
Later on, I developed a passion for media. I practised photography and videography and set up my own YouTube channel that did well during the COVID 19 pandemic of 2019-2024. I took this passion seriously and decided that I wouldn't throw it away. I would nurture it.
In college, I did a degree in Economics, passing by the skin of my teeth, only to be told of my family's hopes for me to do a Master's degree abroad. And I did. Kinda.
I got a full Scholarship, for a college in Canada and went abroad to study. Or so they thought.
I decided to gamble. Using all the money I received from my parents for general use here, I bought a full camera kit and managed to open a small studio in Ottawa. Though, I bled from the inside, using the money my parents worked so hard to scrounge up so I wouldn't have problems while away, studying, I couldn't live the rest of my life sulking in an office with a shirt and type that might as well hang me on a tie beam.
My gamble paid off. After using my YouTube channel to market my work, a few well-known photographers whom I considered idols reviewed my work and asked me to join them on a project. I was beyond happy.
While I was at it I got back to writing, publishing my refined earlier works on famous platforms and became a bit of someone in the Author world too.
Alas, there was still an issue I had to address. At this point I had quit attending school, making this my full-time job.
Breaking it to my parents was the most mind wrecking thing I remember. I saw the happiness on their faces as I told them I had made something out of my passion, but the disappointment couldn't be masked on the other side as well.
My siblings were happy. Perhaps because either way, I was the brother who would spoil them at the end of the day.
And here I am, sitting down in my study, brainstorming for ideas on my next book.
My laptop showed me an incoming Skype connection request from my mother and I gladly accepted.
The woman on the screen was a short, stout, lady with short black hair that was gelled on its fringes. She was dark in complexion and had almond-shaped brown eyes. A button nose sat in the middle of her face with full lips below. She was wearing a black and red sweater, that somehow accentuated her motherly figure. It was the sweater I bought her for her 43rd birthday.
Was it intentional or coincidence?
"Hey, son." The casualness of her first sentence made me feel like I was back home. I relaxed.
"Hello, mom. How are you?"
"I'm good. Do you expect me to be otherwise while gaining some kilograms like this, Bernard?"
She asked whilst she giggled.
"Not in the least. All that's left is so for you to retire and I'll gladly feed you until you turn into the ball you were destined to be," I said.
She burst out laughing and then looked at me silently for a couple of seconds.
"What's wrong?"
"Oh, nothing much. When you become a parent you will understand why I always gaze at you and your siblings. It's a marvel. That I brought you into the world, but you made a decision that made you a better man than I could have ever made you. It's the feeling of pride, son."
Like most people, I couldn't find a reply to that. I could feel her passionate gaze. She was happy.
From the blue two figures popped up on the monitor from both my mother's sides, giving me a scare, while she remained looking at me with a slight smile of smugness.
"Big bro! You forgot to send me the cash I asked for and I can barely keep you on your phone for one minute."
"Yes."
"Hey! You said you'd be becoming back home for Christmas this year. You'd better come back, or you'll eat this fist!"
"I see."
My two siblings.
While my younger brother, Victor was always hogging me for money, being the teenager that he is, and my little sister, Pauline was always threatening me with her tiny fist, I was sighing and clutching my chest.
Victor was as tall as my mother, with a similar dark complexion and hooded brown eyes. He had a fit, youthful body and he literally couldn't stop shaking from excitement.
Pauline was shorter, with a light complexion, like me. We were the odd ones out in the family as our skin colour seemed to ostracise us from the family.
She had hair done into a braided updo, round eyes and a button nose. Her smile was the cutest thing you could ever see and frankly, it was what lightened my schedule tight days.
"One PS6 for Victor and five dresses for Pauline, plus, a full two days of movie watching at SK. Deal?"
"DEAL!"
They both immediately agreed.
(A/N: Ster-Kinekor (SK) is a cinema based company).
I sighed in resignation and then smiled. I had dreamed of spoiling my siblings while growing up. No matter how much they nagged me, I wouldn't get upset.
"So, we gotta go. You look busy. Have a great day, son."
"You called just to give me a jump scare?"
"For the most part, yes. It was their idea, not mine. Oh, by the way, do call your dad, he's on a trip outside Harare," she said.
"Will do. Love you."
"LOVE YOU TOO!" They all yelled at the screen before logging off the connection.
I sighed again and smiled. It felt like centuries since I'd been home, and I wanted to go and visit.
I was going to grab my phone and call dad, but a sudden earthquake rocked under my feet. I almost collapsed on the ground.
I ran out of the house, the earthquake continuing to shake the ground. On reaching outside, I saw the ground, the roads, the trees shaking.
Seconds later it got violent. So violent that houses exploded, and I heard horrible screams. You could barely walk. The air got thinner, and I found it hard to breathe, then it got hot, then cold.
The next second my body floated. I felt light. I went up almost 4 meters in the air, struggling to reach the ground, then suddenly I felt heavy and fell to the ground. I grunted from the pain, feeling like I broke something within. The cycles of temperature and gravity repeated themselves, causing death and devastation, as they grew worse.
This was the day everything we knew, everything we built was crushed to the ground.
As we came to learn later, this disaster was caused by the invasion of unknown energy into our atmosphere. The ozone, which was full of holes, put up a fight, before the energy penetrating through the openings and ate it from the inside.
The sun's harsh rays descended upon mankind.
The ice melted, many drowned, many were burned alive. Cities were destroyed.
The unknown energy caused mutations that turned others inside out or turned humans or animals into feral colossal creatures. The sea was not safe either. All living matter was affected in some way.
From the south of the African continent, waves tore loose on the land and drowned many lives. The atmosphere was agitated for days, lightning rained down, acidic rain poured, and the unknown energy remained.
The world governments tried to respond to the threat. The only problem was, unlike what they show us in fictional movies, where there is usually a physical enemy to subdue and extract intel from when there is someone to just plunge a knife into and be done with it, our nuclear weapons, missiles and our bombs do us no good.
No medicine could cure the mutations, no shade could cover us from the sun's ultraviolet rays. It was game over.
I remember the bitter memory of how I dug a hole and hid in it. Afraid of being taken by gravity, being hunted by monsters or being burnt by the sun or flooded away.
In my mind, my thoughts wandered to my family.
Victor, Pauline, mom and dad. Why??? WHY?!
I cried I begged, I prayed for them to be alive. My happiness did not mean that the world would remain still. I didn't want to die! I had too much I had to do! My mind kept telling me it was a dream, but I had felt the burning of my flesh, the freezing of my bones and the thinness of the air. But still... I didn't want to die!
I wanted to see my family.
My mother had to get another job on top of her already stressing one to make ends meet.
My brother whom I slept late with while watching Demon slayer and Supernatural, eating leftover ice cream in the fridge.
My sister whom I used to teach basic math and dance with to her favourite singer's songs, Alessia Cara. I wanted to see her get married and have fun glaring like a jerk at her suitor.
My father. I wanted to see his reassuring glance one more time that put us all at ease in hard times.
YOU CAN'T! YOU CAN'T TAKE THIS AWAY FROM ME!!!! I FREAKING GAMBLED ON AN OPPORTUNITY TO MAKE MY LIFE AND THEIRS THE BEST I COULD! AND IT WORKED! YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO TAKE THIS FROM ME!!
That was the last thought I had for a time.
However, I didn't die. A burning sensation in my body woke me up from near death due to asphyxiation. My muscles wriggled painfully as I felt my nose draw in the air. Not the burning hot or the acidic kind, but pure and clean. I felt strength in my flesh and bones, but the burning sensation kept growing as if to devour me whole. I screamed in pain. It was as if someone had taken a shovel full of hot coal and emptied it on my abdomen.
I was about to die right after I could breathe again!
A barely discernible voice suddenly spoke in my head. It was like a dying young lady's voice, full of desperation and melancholy.
'Think...your.. happiest...memories...' it said.
What? What on earth?
The voice repeated itself in my head again and again, sounding weaker each time.
I didn't have any time to wonder or doubt so I did as it said.
I imagined the moment that turned my life around. The anxiety of choosing between college and going rogue.
NO! NO! NOT THAT! I NEED TO THINK ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED AFTER.
And I did.
The happiness of working with Peter McKinnon. Being hired to shoot a movie with him. The millions of good reviews on my book. My siblings' happy faces when I took them abroad. My mother's beautiful smile when I bought her a sari. My dad's proud smile as he hugged me and told me how he was sorry for almost crushing my dreams.
That gamble changed my life.
I felt the sensation dim as I flooded my mind with these thoughts.
After who knows how long, I finally woke up. The pain was gone. My body was fit and strong and I could breathe.
I took in the fresh air as I looked around me.
However, I felt something in my right hand.
I looked and saw two cube-shaped objects.
Dice.