4 Toxic Dinner
The first thing I remember, clearly and exactly, is the Swamp. I believe it used to be Louisiana in the old world, I checked a few maps. It's a curious place. Swampy. Foggy. Beautiful. Toxic.
"Well, who would actually bother to nuke crayfish and gonorrhea..."
The fog was the first conscious thought after weeks of blank staring and mindless walking. I went through what was left of the cities and I felt pain. It was different than before. Pain didn't bother me until then. But suddenly, I took a breath and it burned as if I had acid in my lungs. My eyes started tearing, and I involuntarily touched my face. I was crying blood, bright red, cold and sticky.
"What happened here?" I asked myself, and my voice emerged as a dark shadow from unknown depths, echoed in my head and shattered all of me. I was blinded by pain and awareness. I was alive. I was. I. Reborn.
And then, rage.
"The weak are meat and the strong do eat..."
Darkness. I blinked. I just blinked and it was night.
"How long have I been here?" I whispered to noone.
I realised I was still in the Swamp, except I was in a city as well. Nature went wild around here. It couldn't have been more than two months ago, but it seemed like decades. The trees were taller than the buildings, covered by moss. Everything was covered by moss. It was thick, soft, bright green, luminous, radiant. Glowing. The moss was glowing. And moving.
"Hungry..."
I was standing on a street, knee deep in it. It was warm and strangely structured underneath the plants. I felt as if I was standing in a freshly gutted corpse. It burned a bit, but it smelled really nicely.
"Hello."
I turned around quickly. I could see twenty one of them, but I knew there were more. Hiding, lurking in the shadows and under the surface. They were beautiful. So full of life, just like this place. Colourful, tender, moving slowly. Flowers in the rain. Reaching.
"Come, join us," they sang. "Come, be us."
Mesmerising. Glittering. So gentle. Blossoms carried by wind.
"So hungry."
I moved towards them. They were smiling. Swaying. Messing with my head. They surrounded me, dancing wildly, laughing.
"Mother is so pleased you are here! We haven't had a visitor for weeks!"
They reached for me and, as their small, gentle fingers, covered with moss, touched me, I felt it again. Pain. Horrible pain. As if I was digested alive.
"Stupid."
I was being digested alive. The Swamp was nibbling at me since the moment I came there. And these creatures were its hands. Its teeth. Its tongue. I was bathing in Nature's stomach.
The only thing I'm sure of after this point is that I lost it, completely. I got angry. Never before was I so angry. So filled with rage. Disgusted. Furious. Loathing.
I woke up next morning, covered in drying, green goo. The scent was amazing. I was lying on the same street, but there was no Swamp around me. It receeded a few meters from me. Nothing was touching me. The Swamp was watching me closely. Mother Nature, offended. Scared.
I started walking and a path appeared in front of me. The Swamp was filling the space behind me carefully, slowly. It showed me the shortest way out. A fragile truce.
"Live and let live," I told one of the biggest trees.
I saw them as I was leaving. They were waving sadly in their diminished numbers, praying that I will never come back. The cult of toxic sirens. A very unhealthy meal. Looked good, tasted funny. Not very nutritious, either. But I was rather hungry.
Oh, yes. I have crossed the Swamp's Leftover Bin on the way out. Strange place. It showed the true power of the monster devouring the land. Nature, taking back what belonged to her. Nothing organic was left, only plastic and metal. There were clothes of thousands of people. Uniforms of at least a brigade. Torn PPEs, ripped gasmasks, broken firearms. And a few tanks, opened up as if a child was impatient with a can.
It wasn't much, most of it was too damaged, but I have found a few nice items.
* * *
Curiouser and curiouser!
Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland, 1865
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