Chapter 20 - RETURN

Mankind neither hunts nor harvests....

does not mean that it does 

not know how to do it.

Anonymous

Gosh it's been so long since I've talked to a person! Yes, it's really a big difference, in this place I'm the only one left, to be honest neither is it my house, nor my building, but I lived in the outskirts, I imagined little houses that couldn't even make their own electric light. We had a contract that forced us to consume electricity from Mother Nature, those bastards made sure to take a lot of money from us and they could; they supplied us with that swill they called Solu (not a great name, I admit) but they were very proud of being able to prevent humanity from dying... We were already dead by then! When they took away our luxuries they killed us.

 

With me it was beer, the CEO always had good ideas with the chela, from the glass to the can, and then to a bag (with a system that kept it from shaking) and they were introducing beer that kept itself cold. It was different flavors, different brands, same delicious vice....

 

How I miss it! When it started getting scarce I didn't worry too much, there were always new brands, new tastes and dark beer, my weekend lover and confidant, but it wasn't replaced, my most prized brand became scarce until it ran out, I had to stick with the second most popular and down from there; the last thing I drank was urine flavored (not that I had ever tasted it before) pale yellow and I paid more than a half my fortnight's wages... when that happened I realized it was time to go.

 

I know it hurts, you have several bruises on your back from trying to climb my fence...cutey, right? Well, when I started to run out of alcohol and didn't see the government bringing my weekly diet I decided to go out, nowhere in particular How to do it? Since I was a child I lived near my supplier, my dad chose a house near the industrial park, now that I go out to the city I realize how abandoned they had us: the food existed but only up to there and as I get closer to the city I see wrappers of various products that I had more than six months without seeing.

 

The view of this building is what keeps me here, well, that and the fact that the store in the building had the last packs of my favorite drink. When I saw the companies' family facilities (even this one that is from a family far away from the leaders) with a rainwater tank, cells and generators and the best part: a lot of fancy food... Would you believe I tried different types of meat and dehydrated fish? The fuckers knew what was coming! I know! They have a shelter under this building, I don't know how deep; they have very advanced safeties; they are time lock, upstairs they left what they couldn't get in, here's everything to drink A brandy? Whisky? Rum? But no more beer, in a few days I finished my supply Don't look at me like that! It was a long trip and on foot and I needed my reward.

 

Being a mafia mechanic I learned very quickly what things would keep me alive and I stayed close to the facilities when the production of the new filters started, you know with the fall of Mother Nature mankind felt footsteps on the roof...ha, ha, ha; anyway...I stayed there until I saw the raw material and many of them were people I knew. That's where I learned the big secret: While there is life there is hope, I am not saying this as a joke, that was the motto of the gangsters! They were remodeling the company to produce more filters, but in the meantime they used the employees to subject them to the treatments they stole from the company that no longer exists, we had the filth to drink while they found a better solution, but I did not want to end up there, I am not humanitarian or anything like that, that sacrificing for the greater good is a joke to me, so I stole some tools; I copied some methods and I went out to the city.

 

Please eat; you need to stay strong, as I was telling you while I was traveling I discovered that not all the animals had died, almost all the predators were still alive but weak; infected meat caused them death by sepsis (something like being rotten inside) and I took advantage of that, I have bled the entire population of cats, rats, a few lions in the private zoo and the ones I have not been able to do that to are the vultures, the few that were stupid enough to consume the kidneys of their victims were dead in the surroundings and apparently they learn quickly, in many occasions I came across very clean corpses, with their kidneys intact... and that is the reason I want you to eat; there are no more animals I can bleed; I will be able to live on dry food for a long time and so will you, of course. I have plenty of medicine and that will prevent infections. As for the catheter in your vein; it is my life insurance, passing through a water filter the blood loses almost all the dead blood cells and leaves you with a more acceptable taste, you will drink and eat; I will drink and eat and in a few days I will have the apheresis machine in this building ready, what didn't the damn rich people have! I'll hook you up to it and then the infection won't spread too far.

 

Look, what do you know? He dies the hard way, apparently he didn't contemplate the pain of the procedure, but no matter. From an improvised radio I am sending signals offering food, in a few weeks we will have more company, I have prepared medicated anesthesia for them or damage their nerve endings (don't you see what you learn when you have nothing to do) I am going to drain you so that the visitors can eat, the blood and your liquids are mine, but as they will be finished before more people come to be milked I will have to live on liquors for a while... I know... it hurts him, it's a stinking end for a survivor, but his consolation is that it will keep me alive and the truth is this life without chela sucks. But I'll settle for it.