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xoopaswritings · 6 years

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Dystopic State Of Mind | Chapter 2

I went back to the restaurant, but she wasn’t there. I didn’t want to go on a manhunt for her, so I just stayed around the general area. People were clustering around the park sqaure of Théâtre Marigny, I then found out there was a mini tent city around the theatre. Almost everyone had a frown, or sadness on their face. It was very quiet as well, with only sobbing noises. People weren’t talking to each other. At least that’s one thing that stayed the same. I sat down on a bench, contemplating what happened. Gathering from what the woman said, a bomb went off. I then came to the realization I was living in a nuclear post apocalypse, but that thought didn’t faze me as much as I thought it would. I continued to look around. None of the trees had leaves, almost everything that was a plant was now ash, and everyone had dirt on their faces. It was as if those scenes in WWII movies where the characters are in a trench, and they’re all dirty came to life. Except this was Paris in a nuclear apocalypse, and people were in a park. A park that was turning into a tent city. I’m surprised the city even survived as much, I assumed that if a bomb were to hit, it would hit the city center, instead of outside of it. Leaving people to survive or suffer, most likely both.

I felt a tap on my shoulder, it was the woman. She still looked fine and calm, and less dirty than the rest of the people.

“You’re back already? That was fast.” She said

“I guess I was fast.” I agreed with her. I was just so lost in my thoughts I didn’t even bother to do anything but agree with her.

“Who were those girls you were trying to get out of the rubble? Were they yours?” She said while moving around the bench to sit next to me.

“No, they were a different person’s daughters. I was just trying to be helpful. How did you even get the debris out of the way so easily?” I asked her.

“CrossFit and essential oils from pyramid schemes.” She said jokingly, “I can tell you’re a tourist. You better be careful, I guarantee that there will be a race war, but with tourists and locals.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“It’s human nature. You are two groups of different people, and humans love hate. And hate spreads. It’ll start with an argument with a local and a tourist, then it will be 2v1, then 2v3. Then 10v10. Soon, the entire city will be at war with each other.”

“Then that means I'll be infected with hate, right? Because it’s human nature?”

“Where did you get the notion you’re only human? There’s always a place that’ll make you more.” She said with a matter-of-fact voice.

“What's your name?” I asked her

“Valerie, why do you ask? Is it because I straight up told you that you weren’t human?”

“Kinda, yeah, my names Peter.”

“Okay, Peter, I need you to do something for me.” She said, then proceeded to go behind me. “Close your eyes and don’t open them until I tell you.” I then closed my eyes, she then placed her fingers on my eyelids. “Tell me to stop when your eyes begin to hurt.” She then started slowly pushing against my eyelids. For some reason, they felt fine and I didn’t even have to tell her to stop. “What I expected...” Valerie mumbled. “Ok you can open them now.” She said.

“What was that for?” I asked, she was then looking around frantically, and then looked at the parking lot.

“I need to tell you something, but I can’t do it here. Do you know where the girls went? The ones that you rescued?” She had a sense of urgency in her voice, like something bad was about to happen.

“I brought the girls down to Avenue Montaigne where their mother was. And then they headed south.” I said

“They probably went to the tent city near La Tour Eiffel. But I need you to find them after I tell you this.” She then grabbed my arm and pulled me. She was very strong. I was almost a foot taller than her, but she had muscle. We speed walked towards the parking lot. She took me to the darkest corner and spoke in a whisper.

“Peter, have you ever been sick?” She asked me. I thought it was a weird question, but I answered it.

“No, never. I’ve never had a sick day. My parents told me I was a living vaccine because when I was born, they noticed they barely got sick too.” I said, I didn’t think much of it until now.

“And when did you wake up? Like how long ago did you wake up in this hellhole of a hollow paradise they call Paris?” She seemed even more frantic now.

“I woke up today, like 2 hours ago.” I said, I must’ve been under the rubble for a day or two.

“You were in rubble for 7 days without any food or water?” She asked me. I nodded, because the last thing I remember was looking at clothes in an expensive shop that I could never afford.

“Is that why you said ‘where did you get the notion you’re only human?’” I asked.

“Yes, and I need to know where the other girls are. They were in the rubble longer than you, but still survived. Peter, we need to be very careful. The locals and tourists won’t be hating each other, they’ll be hating us if we’re careless.” She said.

“So am I-.”

“We also need to find people who are in the rubble, or who were recently unearthed.”

“Okay but am I-.”

“We then need to find a safe haven for people like us, so that we can-”

“VALERIE! Am I human or not?” She looked at me for 3 seconds, before sternly answering.

“No, no we’re not completely human. Neither are the girls you rescued from the rubble. And others among the city. I don’t know why certain people have it and other people don’t, but I have a theory about it.” There were footsteps in the parking garage, we then found a car to hide behind. The footsteps got closer. They didn’t seem like friendly footsteps either.

“On dirait qu'il n'y a personne ici, disons simplement que nous allons regarder autour des décombres pour plus de Specials.”

“What did he say?” I whispered to Valerie.

“They said ‘it looks like no one is here, let’s just look around the rubble for more Specials.’ It seems like they’ve already found out we exist.” She said.

“What can I do about?” I asked.

“First of all, go and find the girls. I can already tell we need both of them.”

#writing blog #writers #writing #writeblr #story #stories #chapter 2

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xoopaswritings · 6 years

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Dystopic State Of Mind | Chapter 1

All I could hear was white noise. I couldn’t see anything, and the only thing I could feel was the crushing weight of the building on me. I smelt smoke, but I could still breathe. I don’t know how long I've under here, but it’s felt like days. I’m thirsty and hungry, but I can still move one arm. There was a loose rock I could feel near my chest, I pushed it, and I could see a sliver of light, I push harder. I could hear voices and flames kindling. I tried screaming for help, but my voice was muffled. I pushed one more time with all my strength, now half of my body was out. My eyes weren’t accustomed to the light and I immediately covered my eyes. Once they adjusted, I got up slowly. I was only slightly injured, but incredibly sore. I looked around for anyone, anyone who would help me or who knew what was happening. All I saw was destroyed European buildings. Some on fire, some already burnt to the ground. I screamed for help, but I knew no one was coming. They were probably occupied with saving themselves. I backed myself up so I could pull my legs out of the rubble. My legs immediately broke free. I staggered up to find myself in the middle of the building that collapsed on me. I didn’t know what happened, but I knew I had to find someone to tell me what the hell was going on.

I walked down the destroyed boulevard in my torn clothes toward the city center. I saw some people, but most looked as clueless as me. And some were dead.

“Avez-vous vu mes filles?! Je marchais avec eux quand la bombe a explosé et je ne peux pas les trouver!” A woman said. The woman was ragged like me and had a dirty face with clear tear streaks. She was grabbing my arm desperately, but I didn’t know what she said.

“I’m sorry, I don’t speak French.” I said with sadness in my voice. The woman looked down for a second and the looked at me again.

“Have... american see... my daughters? Walking with them... bomb went off... can’t find them.” The woman said in a thick accent. I knew I had to help her, I didn’t want to start off my life in this hollowed out city with a bad impression on a local.

“What are their names?” I asked

“Claudine et Jeanine.” She said, while fumbling for something in her pocket. She then grabbed her wallet. “Picture!” The older girl was a teenager, at least 14. The other one looked 10, with dark long hair for each of them and pale white skin.

“I just got up from the rubble, I haven’t seen them, but I'll help you look for them.” I said

“Merci Beaucoup!” She said while hugging me. She then promptly let go and started walking around and screaming their name. I walked over to a pile of rubble that was supposed to be a building, I looked around the rubble to see if they were there, but I couldn’t feel, see, or hear anything.

“Where were you when the bomb went off?” I yelled to the woman.

“J'étais près du restaurant italien No-... Oh... forgot you American... near restaurant NoLita Ristorante e Enoteca... on Rue Jean Mermoz.” The woman said while still looking away from me. I knew that restaurant. It’s a bit pricy, but it had great breadsticks I thought to myself. I quickly got that thought out of my head and head straight towards Rue Jean Mermoz. I spotted more people along the way, I even saw someone trying to kill themselves with a glass shard, but I was already toon worn out to stop them, so I let him be. As I continued to walk towards the street, could feel the ghastly voices of the injured and dead. And a breeze blow through the alleys.

I saw the building where the restaurant was supposed to be and tried calling out for Claudine and Jeanine. I could hear nothing, so I went to the front of the rubble and started throwing the rubble out of the way to get to the heart of the pile. I continued calling out for them, still no luck. I almost gave up until I saw some debris moving, I tried picking the piece of debris, but it was far too heavy. I put my ear up against the bricks and called their names one more time. I heard a muffled yell, I didn’t know if it was the woman’s daughters. But that didn’t matter. I had to save them. I yelled at whoever was in there to push the bricks up. They tried, but it was useless. I started looking for things to move the giant bricks. I found nothing but continued to try and move the rubble. I pulled and pulled. Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

“Besoin d'aide?” A voice came from behind me. It was a woman who looked like one of the girls from the picture, but not quite.

“Oh, uh... I don’t speak French.” I was panicking because I was talking to this person instead of digging out the trapped children.

“Don’t worry about it, let me help you.” She said with no accent. She then went to the rubble and shoved it to the side instead of picking it up like I was doing the entire time. She seemed so nonchalant. Like the entire world didn’t go apocalyptic. A hand then shot up from the hole she made, trying to push the rest of the rubble away. Within 15 seconds, she had cleared all the debris covering the two girls. They looked shellshock, and the little one was in the fetal position and wouldn’t move. The older one was crying hysterically.

“Are you Claudia and Jeanine?” I asked the older one.

“Ou-Oui...” The older one was trying to comfort her little sister to no avail.

“Your mom is looking for you, she’s alive. She’s on Avenue Montaigne.” I told her. The older girl then got up trembling, trying to pick her sister up to go see their mom. But she wouldn’t budge. I picked her up and then started walking back. The older one was yelling for her mom, but the younger one was whispering something. I leaned into her mouth so I could hear what she was saying.

“The Watcher’s Madness... The Watcher’s Madness... The Watcher’s Madness.” She kept whispering the same thing repeatedly. I asked her who the watcher is, but she didn’t even notice me. It was like she was possessed. Taken over. I saw the man again, but this time he was dead in a pool of his own blood. Looks like he succeded in what he wanted to do.

“Claudia! Jeanine!” The woman screamed, running towards us. She then hugged and picked up the older one. They both started crying. I then put the girl down next to the mother. She had not moved a bit. “Claudia, Lève-toi ma chérie.” The woman asked her, she still hadn’t moved.

“She wouldn’t move at all, and she kept whispering ‘The Watcher’s Madness’ Over and over again.” I told her.

“oh... ok... but thank you so much... for finding them... I'm forever thankful.” She then asked the older one to help pick her up and then walked south. I just stood there, not knowing what to do, but at least I helped someone out. I kept thinking about the other woman I saw at the destroyed restaurant, how she seemed so relaxed and how she immediately got the girls from the rubble. I started walking back towards the restaurant, because she seemed like the only person who knew anything so far.

#writing #chapter 1 #paris #nukes #nuclear war #dystopia #dystopic #writers #writing blog

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