Caged-City
Dystopian
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Deep in the heart of the city the lion stood. "Where am I? What is this?" He questioned. He was standing in the middle of gray streets in the pitch-black night sky, where blaring television screens were thundering white noise. "Ouch!" He uttered. His ears were ringing. Whooshing, hissing, static noise struck him with bittersweet memories of his family in the forest.
Leo recalled, “Papa...” He heard his sweet cub whisper, once again “Papa...”, before he saw her vanquished into the wildfire. Leo came from a small population of lions which lived in a rural area called the Electric Forest, but he is now considered one of the rarest species in a diverse city full of emotional scars.
“No!” He cried and was full of red fury. Tears ran down his blue face and the white noise from the TV screens caused him to have an excruciating headache.
“BOING!” The clock at the peak of the city center tower wallops at mid-night, or the zero-point field: the deepest, darkest, and gloomiest quantum of Fermi’s wicked white gaslight. Leo was bent down on his knees with his fingers pushed into the sides of his forehead, right before he collapsed.
“Welcome to the gray days!” The nurse addressed Leo as he slowly opened his medium-brown eyes. “No one is stupid enough to go outside during the gray days. All sources of energy are turned off during the long winter nights. Everyone knows we must gather at the city’s integration temple, which is heated by geothermal energy, opposed to nuclear reactors. Despite this, nuclear reactors are the city’s primary source of energy for electricity, heating, and industrial purposes.” she giggled.
His eyes were burning red wars of mercy! The hospital’s fluorescent lighting fixtures are as faint in its luminosity as degenerate dwarf stars. The inferno is not red-hot burning fire, in fact, the inferno is white-cold cooling ice during winter nights. With his bloodshot coffee brown eyes, he grabbed the delicate nurse’s gentle soft hands and pleaded, “Please get me out of here. Please...”
“Oh, don’t be silly! I’m not quite sure what happened to you because I couldn’t find your tracker; but before you know it, I’ll have you back up and running with the masses,” she said compassionately. Leo could hear the screams of others through the walls. One elderly man yelled, “Aaah! It was not me. I swear!”
“Hang on tight.” The nurse whispered in a sweet soft-spoken voice, “We’re short staff today, so they’ll need my help. I’ll be right back.” As soon as the nurse left his room, Leo quickly ate the rest of his green coffee beans and mustered up the fortitude to push the small but heavy platform bed against the hospitals’ inward door.
He leaped out of the first floors’ window into a pile of yellowish tinge snow. It was cold, but nothing compared to the zero-point field, or when the six nuclear power plants – two at each side of the city (north, south, east, and west) – are turned off. Leo tread carefully through the gray shades of shadows in the platinum city; he walked within the bleakest alleys and sauntered behind the filthiest buildings.
What is believed to be all-embracing digital screens and far-reaching conventional billboards of objective coverage, or roots of truth, surrounded Scar City, a caged-city or zoo, with Centipede Man’s grotesque orange of trickery and black of witchery face stating, “Mark my words, thou who serves, lives!” Besides, posters were plastered onto Scar City’s walls repeatedly illustrating Centipede Man’s three slogans:
Life is a SCAR CITY.
Life is BEGRIME.
Life is ORDER.
Resisting the brainwashing propaganda, Leo grabbed a pedestrian who turned out to be the most obedient fermion, then pulled him into a smoky alleyway. He modified the city’s three slogans to describe life:
Life is a TREE.
Life is GOLD.
Life is LOVE.
“Are you experiencing delirium?” He asked, then continued to say, “It’s been all over the news! Anyone who is suspected to have a fever and/or believed to be mentally confused, should be reported to the Bob-bots immediately to prevent any possibility of the virus from spreading.” The gentleman pulled out an old rusty gray tin walkie talkie from his pocket and tried to transmit a signal but wasn’t getting a good connection in the narrow passageway between the two buildings which reeked of cigarette stench. Leo panicked, but reacted quickly when he saw the golden sign posted behind the man’s raven black hat of ill-omen which read:
EARLY BIRDS’ HAPPY HOUR FROM 11AM TO NOON
Leo justified his behavior by pointing upward and said, “No need to worry! I don’t have the virus. I just came from the Early Bird Happy Hour special.”
“That explains!” The pitch-black raven grinned from ear-to-ear, then introduced himself. “My name is Sentinel! I’m stationed to guard the powerhouse today while the other workers continuously load and deliver our leaders’ goods.” Sentinel tilted his head from side-to-side and blinked twice, then went on to ask, “Where were you stationed today?” Without hesitation, Leo quickly replied, “Well, I am actually one of those workers who are loading and delivering goods to the powerhouse today.”
“Well, we better go then,” he continued to smile, “I’m pretty sure they’ve already started without us!” Leo pretended to fit in and followed Sentinel to the powerhouse. Before they could be assigned to a higher-level of prestige and work elsewhere in the city, the workers were given directions to complete a five-day task. A couple of days after working into the system, Leo planned to overthrow the hierarchical social structure by attempting to kill the trickery orange and witchery black centipede man of malice. Blacken with ingrained dirt and oil, collected from the connected land-rig, Leo hid in the shadows of the immense drilling barge and creeped into Centipede’s office. The air felt moist, and the room looked dingy.
From behind the old, dusty window drapes which scratched his skin, Leo saw Centipede Man speaking with Captain Fermi. Centipede's voice corrodes like copper terror, from high-to-low, "GET GET Ooout." With his blue shoes of loyalty, Captain Fermi left. “He should be filled with glee to leave so soon,” Leo thought, “perhaps, he's eating human waste!” Centipede's office at the Powerhouse Oil Company reeked of decomposing fecal matter. Centipede Man clenched his fist and cracked his knuckles, “Bam! Bam!”
He smashed a long, juicy earthworm which was as fat as a cow. It tried to slither out of Centipede Man’s salad bowl of mixed living plant tissues, roots, and seeds. Centipede Man lifted and squeezed the worm over his dish. Leo mumbled with his eyes wide open, “The worm is golden relish. I'm starving... Simultaneously, I am disgusted and delighted.”
Leo looked down at his clock and counted 60 seconds remaining before the crude oil bomb he left beneath Centipede’s office in the chamber explodes and kills everyone on the platform including him. Then quickly only 50 seconds remained, but the next 45 seconds felt the longest. Centipede’s voice and body sputtered as he cautiously dragged his feet towards the window. “Ha-ha, ha-ha ha...” With a deep and evil laugh, he yanked on the old dusty window drapes and grabbed Leo by his neck. He slightly picked him off the ground and intensely spoke to him, while spitting in his face with his breath as foul as death:
“You thought you were a clever lion boy! Captain Fermi found that piece of junk long before you knew it. It’s nothing compared to what he can do on an atomic level. And the nurse slipped a tracker in you long before you knew it. Also, there’s video surveillance... You’re nothing but a street cat!
Thanks to you, your bomb is now heading into the garden on the freedom train with just a few stupid patients from the very same hospital you found yourself at. Oh, and another thing... I’m sorry about what I did to your family. Ha-ha! No, I am not... Anyone who decides to stand in my way, will die! But you... You’re just a waste of my time.”
Centipede Man tossed Leo out the window. In the last 5 seconds, he tried to catch his breath and swim to shore. He wanted to live to fight for truth and justice; he wanted to live to create a world that will aim towards the greater good, but he wanted to die because the bomb he designed and detonated is killing innocent people.
By the time he reached the glowing blue shore water, he saw his wife’s green hazel eyes, golden blonde hair, light tan skin, and wide facial features. For sure, he thought he was hallucinating this time. Behind her stood a great cathedral which pierced the sunset sky. The lioness whispered, “The cathedral disappears when the blind man can no longer see the minimalism in architecture.”
“Who’s the blind man?”
“I’m so glad I’ve found you; Centipede doesn’t know everything,” she declared. “They’re dying because of me... I tried, but I couldn’t kill him. Now they’re dying! It’s my fault...” Leo cried. “I’m sorry Leo but you’ll have to get a grip if we’re going to survive this. It’s not your fault... This might hurt a little.” She slit the back side of his ear.
“Ouch! Are you mad women!?”
“Just a little,” She smiled, “It’s the tracker. Toss it back into the river as far as you can. There are others just like us living underground. Come with me, and we’ll patch you back up there.”
“Our baby...” He said in an inquisitive manner.
“She made it, but she’s in critical condition.”
Leo recalled, “Papa...” He heard his sweet cub whisper, once again “Papa...”, before he saw her vanquished into the wildfire. Leo came from a small population of lions which lived in a rural area called the Electric Forest, but he is now considered one of the rarest species in a diverse city full of emotional scars.
“No!” He cried and was full of red fury. Tears ran down his blue face and the white noise from the TV screens caused him to have an excruciating headache.
“BOING!” The clock at the peak of the city center tower wallops at mid-night, or the zero-point field: the deepest, darkest, and gloomiest quantum of Fermi’s wicked white gaslight. Leo was bent down on his knees with his fingers pushed into the sides of his forehead, right before he collapsed.
“Welcome to the gray days!” The nurse addressed Leo as he slowly opened his medium-brown eyes. “No one is stupid enough to go outside during the gray days. All sources of energy are turned off during the long winter nights. Everyone knows we must gather at the city’s integration temple, which is heated by geothermal energy, opposed to nuclear reactors. Despite this, nuclear reactors are the city’s primary source of energy for electricity, heating, and industrial purposes.” she giggled.
His eyes were burning red wars of mercy! The hospital’s fluorescent lighting fixtures are as faint in its luminosity as degenerate dwarf stars. The inferno is not red-hot burning fire, in fact, the inferno is white-cold cooling ice during winter nights. With his bloodshot coffee brown eyes, he grabbed the delicate nurse’s gentle soft hands and pleaded, “Please get me out of here. Please...”
“Oh, don’t be silly! I’m not quite sure what happened to you because I couldn’t find your tracker; but before you know it, I’ll have you back up and running with the masses,” she said compassionately. Leo could hear the screams of others through the walls. One elderly man yelled, “Aaah! It was not me. I swear!”
“Hang on tight.” The nurse whispered in a sweet soft-spoken voice, “We’re short staff today, so they’ll need my help. I’ll be right back.” As soon as the nurse left his room, Leo quickly ate the rest of his green coffee beans and mustered up the fortitude to push the small but heavy platform bed against the hospitals’ inward door.
He leaped out of the first floors’ window into a pile of yellowish tinge snow. It was cold, but nothing compared to the zero-point field, or when the six nuclear power plants – two at each side of the city (north, south, east, and west) – are turned off. Leo tread carefully through the gray shades of shadows in the platinum city; he walked within the bleakest alleys and sauntered behind the filthiest buildings.
What is believed to be all-embracing digital screens and far-reaching conventional billboards of objective coverage, or roots of truth, surrounded Scar City, a caged-city or zoo, with Centipede Man’s grotesque orange of trickery and black of witchery face stating, “Mark my words, thou who serves, lives!” Besides, posters were plastered onto Scar City’s walls repeatedly illustrating Centipede Man’s three slogans:
Life is a SCAR CITY.
Life is BEGRIME.
Life is ORDER.
Resisting the brainwashing propaganda, Leo grabbed a pedestrian who turned out to be the most obedient fermion, then pulled him into a smoky alleyway. He modified the city’s three slogans to describe life:
Life is a TREE.
Life is GOLD.
Life is LOVE.
“Are you experiencing delirium?” He asked, then continued to say, “It’s been all over the news! Anyone who is suspected to have a fever and/or believed to be mentally confused, should be reported to the Bob-bots immediately to prevent any possibility of the virus from spreading.” The gentleman pulled out an old rusty gray tin walkie talkie from his pocket and tried to transmit a signal but wasn’t getting a good connection in the narrow passageway between the two buildings which reeked of cigarette stench. Leo panicked, but reacted quickly when he saw the golden sign posted behind the man’s raven black hat of ill-omen which read:
EARLY BIRDS’ HAPPY HOUR FROM 11AM TO NOON
Leo justified his behavior by pointing upward and said, “No need to worry! I don’t have the virus. I just came from the Early Bird Happy Hour special.”
“That explains!” The pitch-black raven grinned from ear-to-ear, then introduced himself. “My name is Sentinel! I’m stationed to guard the powerhouse today while the other workers continuously load and deliver our leaders’ goods.” Sentinel tilted his head from side-to-side and blinked twice, then went on to ask, “Where were you stationed today?” Without hesitation, Leo quickly replied, “Well, I am actually one of those workers who are loading and delivering goods to the powerhouse today.”
“Well, we better go then,” he continued to smile, “I’m pretty sure they’ve already started without us!” Leo pretended to fit in and followed Sentinel to the powerhouse. Before they could be assigned to a higher-level of prestige and work elsewhere in the city, the workers were given directions to complete a five-day task. A couple of days after working into the system, Leo planned to overthrow the hierarchical social structure by attempting to kill the trickery orange and witchery black centipede man of malice. Blacken with ingrained dirt and oil, collected from the connected land-rig, Leo hid in the shadows of the immense drilling barge and creeped into Centipede’s office. The air felt moist, and the room looked dingy.
From behind the old, dusty window drapes which scratched his skin, Leo saw Centipede Man speaking with Captain Fermi. Centipede's voice corrodes like copper terror, from high-to-low, "GET GET Ooout." With his blue shoes of loyalty, Captain Fermi left. “He should be filled with glee to leave so soon,” Leo thought, “perhaps, he's eating human waste!” Centipede's office at the Powerhouse Oil Company reeked of decomposing fecal matter. Centipede Man clenched his fist and cracked his knuckles, “Bam! Bam!”
He smashed a long, juicy earthworm which was as fat as a cow. It tried to slither out of Centipede Man’s salad bowl of mixed living plant tissues, roots, and seeds. Centipede Man lifted and squeezed the worm over his dish. Leo mumbled with his eyes wide open, “The worm is golden relish. I'm starving... Simultaneously, I am disgusted and delighted.”
Leo looked down at his clock and counted 60 seconds remaining before the crude oil bomb he left beneath Centipede’s office in the chamber explodes and kills everyone on the platform including him. Then quickly only 50 seconds remained, but the next 45 seconds felt the longest. Centipede’s voice and body sputtered as he cautiously dragged his feet towards the window. “Ha-ha, ha-ha ha...” With a deep and evil laugh, he yanked on the old dusty window drapes and grabbed Leo by his neck. He slightly picked him off the ground and intensely spoke to him, while spitting in his face with his breath as foul as death:
“You thought you were a clever lion boy! Captain Fermi found that piece of junk long before you knew it. It’s nothing compared to what he can do on an atomic level. And the nurse slipped a tracker in you long before you knew it. Also, there’s video surveillance... You’re nothing but a street cat!
Thanks to you, your bomb is now heading into the garden on the freedom train with just a few stupid patients from the very same hospital you found yourself at. Oh, and another thing... I’m sorry about what I did to your family. Ha-ha! No, I am not... Anyone who decides to stand in my way, will die! But you... You’re just a waste of my time.”
Centipede Man tossed Leo out the window. In the last 5 seconds, he tried to catch his breath and swim to shore. He wanted to live to fight for truth and justice; he wanted to live to create a world that will aim towards the greater good, but he wanted to die because the bomb he designed and detonated is killing innocent people.
By the time he reached the glowing blue shore water, he saw his wife’s green hazel eyes, golden blonde hair, light tan skin, and wide facial features. For sure, he thought he was hallucinating this time. Behind her stood a great cathedral which pierced the sunset sky. The lioness whispered, “The cathedral disappears when the blind man can no longer see the minimalism in architecture.”
“Who’s the blind man?”
“I’m so glad I’ve found you; Centipede doesn’t know everything,” she declared. “They’re dying because of me... I tried, but I couldn’t kill him. Now they’re dying! It’s my fault...” Leo cried. “I’m sorry Leo but you’ll have to get a grip if we’re going to survive this. It’s not your fault... This might hurt a little.” She slit the back side of his ear.
“Ouch! Are you mad women!?”
“Just a little,” She smiled, “It’s the tracker. Toss it back into the river as far as you can. There are others just like us living underground. Come with me, and we’ll patch you back up there.”
“Our baby...” He said in an inquisitive manner.
“She made it, but she’s in critical condition.”
