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The Nothingness
από Ευλαμπία Τσιρέλη
It was a sweet
August afternoon. The sea was calm and the park near the port was full of happy
people enjoying their walk. However, I couldn’t enjoy anything. I had a bad
feeling all day. I watched the people’s faces and tried to keep in memory that peaceful
expression of theirs, for I knew that this was going to change very soon…
Gradually, the air became unbearably hot and smelled like sulphur. Everyone covered their noses disgusted. The sea became rough and strong waves hit the weak boats. I knew that soon everyone stepping ashore would not have a happy ending. I knew I had to get into one of those boats… but I didn’t. I still had the hope that what I dreamed the other night wouldn’t happen for real. I started blearing because of the hot air and the disgusting smell and the people around me now seemed really upset.
Gradually, the air became unbearably hot and smelled like sulphur. Everyone covered their noses disgusted. The sea became rough and strong waves hit the weak boats. I knew that soon everyone stepping ashore would not have a happy ending. I knew I had to get into one of those boats… but I didn’t. I still had the hope that what I dreamed the other night wouldn’t happen for real. I started blearing because of the hot air and the disgusting smell and the people around me now seemed really upset.
The sea was dangerously waving now. Bubbles reached the surface bursting and releasing green gases that obviously were responsible for this horrible sulphur smell… The water was boiling and suddenly a green sphere emerged on the surface with a creepy whirr. It began to move, approaching the shore! I knew that if it touched the shore it would be the end for all…
“Run!!!” I cried, but no one seemed to listen to me. Everyone was hypnotised by the strange and creepy sphere. Suddenly, I saw a policeman shooting a five-year-old child and then eat it. I thought I was hallucinating because of the disgusting gases, but sadly I wasn’t…I assured myself about that, when I also saw an old woman with a paranoid smile, taking her clothes off and tearing her skin apart with her nails.
“People went mad!” I thought panicked. Everyone had gone mad and ran down the streets, killing and raping, putting fire on everything and laughing like demons! Damn, it was true! What I had dreamed the other night was really happening!
The sphere had dangerously approached the shore now and I looked at the East. The black sheet had begun to spread all over everything. It was like a huge black wave swallowing trees, people, anything alive. Whatever was up in the sky and in the water survived, but not for long, for the birds sometimes landed on trees or on the ground and then were doomed by the black curse, while the water had begun to boil, so everything in it was doomed too. The only things remained unharmed were the cold buildings and the asphalt. Whatever left behind had no life, nor colours.
The rest of the people didn’t seem to understand what was going on, but kept killing and eating each other.
“I have to get in one of these boats” I thought, for I knew it was the only way to survive a little more. If I wasn’t boiled alive in these temperatures, maybe I could reach one of those cargo ships and leave. I saw a little fishing boat that seemed a good choice. However, I had to drug it near me by its rope that was boiling in the water. I braced up and touched it. It was hot but I hadn’t got a choice! I pulled and I pulled in tears because my hands were burning. I was in great pain but I kept pulling… I was so close…
“Damn it!! I can’t stand it anymore!!!” I screamed and threw the rope off my hands. The skin in my palms was severely burnt. I was doomed.
I began to run through the city’s ruins breathing with difficulty. There were dead bodies everywhere. I took the scarf from a dead woman’s neck. She was missing her feet and I saw them half-eaten a few meters further. I wrapped my burnt hands with the scarf.
The airport seemed as my only hope now. I started one of the abandoned cars and for a moment I believed I was going to make it through this hell but no… The airport was east of the city and that was the direction from where the black curse had started to spread.
“Curse you! Curse you black hell! I am doomed!” I screamed and cried with sobs. My mind though, never stopped looking for a way to get out of this. I wanted to survive so desperately. Surviving is a powerful instinct…
I headed to a store with weapons, survival, camping and climbing equipment. All the show windows were broken and nobody was inside. I took a gas mask, some climbing equipment, a forty-five pistol and some bullets. I wore the mask and headed to the city’s tallest building. I managed to run ten floors up the stairs and went out on a balcony. I looked down. If I wasn’t wearing that mask, I would definitely smell pure death. Dismembered bodies, blood, ashes, crashed cars and stores and here and there those demonic laughs that can’t get out of my mind…
I wore the climbing belt and surged the rope in the pulley. I applied the hook to the balcony bar and started descending. I stopped two floors below and snugged the trapper. I waited there, swinging eight floors above the earth. I wasn’t thinking…I didn’t even know who I was anymore. I just knew I still WAS. The black wave was near. I couldn’t see it for it was behind the tall building, but I could sense it, for it expunged every sound in its passage.
And then I felt its cold touch. That totally black veil went through me and I felt its evilness and anger that I had escaped it. It penetrated me and I was left there…alone in grey scenery with no colours, life or sounds…just nothingness. NOTHINGNESS. This is NOTHINGNESS. I was hanging above nothingness and the nothingness emptied my soul. The black sheet kept swallowing everything, until the entire city -and I guess soon the entire country- was dead. I was sure I was the only one survived.
I can’t tell how many hours I am hanging here. I’m
exhausted and I think I’m losing my mind… The survival instinct led me here,
but the survival itself has abandoned me. Sleeplessness, hunger and thirst have
done their job. I grab the forty-five. I look over the black sea and bring to
mind that beautiful last afternoon of my life...
* σημείωση: H ιστοσελίδα της συγγραφέως http://evlampiatsireli.webs.com/ .
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