Chapter 7: Settling

Drake was taken by Steve to the City Registry. Its purpose was to “register” all the inhabitants of Rencia and keep track of their occupations, complaints, queries, suggestions, residences, etc. He registered himself there, with the help of Steve and a worker there. Drake received a food ration card, keys to his new private apartment, some money to start out with, a smartwatch, and a free Data Cube. He didn’t feel like learning about the city and his life there at the moment, so he downloaded the data about it onto his data cube, and left.

Steve sensed that now that he had it, Drake would need some time to himself to process what happened and what awaited him in his new life. Drake and Steve parted ways. Since Bill was still at the meeting, Drake went on his own to find his new home. He noticed, on the way, that there weren’t too many people outdoors. The citizens must all have been at home, grieving of being bereft of all that they knew.

After finding building number fifty-one, going up eleven floors, and then going down to the end of a long corridor, Drake finally encountered a door with his apartment number. He inserted the key and opened it. The inside was already partly furnished with all the necessities: a sofa, lights, tables, etc. in the living room. Drake found the power hub of the house. Similar to a main electric panel from the olden days, it allowed for short-range wireless electricity transfer for all appliances within the home. With it turned on, the lights did, too.

Drake knocked on the wall twice to turn off the lights. He didn’t need them during the day, but also, he wasn’t in the mood. He looked around his new home. There was a living room, bedroom, bathroom, closets and utilities, and the study. He didn’t feel like looking around, so he went directly for the bedroom. When he found it, he promptly fell onto the bed and lay there for the next hour.

He thought about all he had gone through since that night. After a rush of events that were thrown at him, time seemed to finally have slowed down. He remembered seeing the meteor in the sky back then. He remembered seeing the Mayhems for the first time, coming out of the woods with their terrifying forms. He remembered being too scared to move and observe his surroundings, which caused his mother to die. He remembered running through the city, filled with panic and confusion, just like everyone else there. There was probably no one from there left alive but him. Everything was lost, destroyed. It felt surreal.

Drake remembered meeting Billie and traveling through the woods together, searching for safety. He remembered the tragedy of her death, and not being able to keep his promise. He remembered finding Steve, a new hope, and traveling through endless fields of corn. He remembered the dread of finally reaching Cyll, but finding it in chaos. He remembered his oddly sad parting with Steve, odd because they had barely known each other, but they had gotten close in that time. He definitely remembered the sensation of getting hit in the head, knocked unconscious, and waking up to find himself in Rencia, with Steve again.

He remembered all the life-threatening situations he’d been in, throughout his journey. He didn’t want to remember all those terrible things, but at the same time, he didn’t want to let the memories go. They were the only thing confirming why he was in Rencia right now. They told him he wasn’t just in a bad dream.

Drake clutched his pendant and stared up the ceiling as his mind wandered through his memories. He wanted to cry. Now that he was finally at a safe place, and wasn’t being faced with important decisions or running from monsters, he could finally take his time and let out his emotions. But for some reason, no tears came. He felt insulted by his body for not listening to him, and insulted by himself for not showing physical signs of distress.

He lay there thinking about what would happen to him in the future. Part of it was him not knowing what to do with his life in this new world. The other part was his mind daydreaming as it always did. What would his daily life be like from now on? Why should he keep going? What does he have left for him? He had often skipped school, thinking that he would just enjoy his childhood, find a way to make ends meet in his adulthood, and continue until the Apocalypse, when he would just die. But here he was, in the Apocalypse, alive, with no idea on what to do.

* * *

After an hour, his hunger brought him back from his reverie. He hadn’t eaten anything since the green corn he threw up back on the farm. That was over fifteen days ago! Drake recognized the need to nourish himself before getting back into thought, and headed out with his food ration card and some cash. It turned out that the city used a fiat currency called the Dollar, a currency that hadn’t been used since the collapse of the Federal Reserve during World War III, back in 2066.

In front of his apartments was a road with sidewalks running parallel along either side of it. In the middle lane of the road, however, were two walls, also parallel to each other and the road. They were less than half the height of him, and acted as railroads for the common mode of transportation in most cities – trolleys. The trolleys would run between the two “walls”, which were a safety measure and also doubled as electricity lines for the trolleys to use. There were such walls running between cities as well, and they had metal rails to allow maglev trains to travel on them. Drake had rarely been on these trolleys, being from Beil, which didn’t have these.

Drake started walking in the direction of what he remembered from seeing a map back at the register to be the shopping district. He went alongside the wall. When a trolley arrived a few minutes later, it sensed his presence using a motion sensor and stopped. He boarded it, and it continued its journey around the city in circles. Inside, there were a few faces. Drake had been creeped out by how much the city was like a ghost town, with no one going out. But seeing a few faces relieved him, albeit, these people seemed to be in a grim mood.

Is everyone just going to be depressed forever? Drake thought. They had been in the city longer than he, so they should have gone through their somber emotions and moved on by now.

“…It’s going home, right?” a guy was sitting near him, mumbling. He wore a suit and had a briefcase, which he held with both arms closely around his chest. He stunk and looked shabby. “The train always takes me home from work. It’ll reach South Jonesboro soon. I’m sure of it. My family will be waiting for me there, wondering where I’ve been. I have quite the story to tell them…” He looked up, confused, “What was it again?”.

What’s wrong with this guy? Drake thought.

A few minutes later, when the trolley reached a shopping center, Drake knocked on the door of the trolley, stopping it. He got off. He looked for a restaurant to eat in. There was a decent amount of people here if you didn’t consider the fact that this was supposed to be a bustling shopping center and during the afternoon.

After chowing down an enormous meal till he was completely full, Drake looked around to see what else the city offered, within the shopping area. It did indeed seem like a normal, functioning city, not at all surrounded by man-eating monsters and in an Apocalyptic world. It created a nice illusion. Any normal person would fall for it, if they didn’t notice the absence of their loved ones every minute or so. The truth was that the cheery place the city was designed to be, was unintentionally a stark contrast to what the populace was going through, meaning they couldn’t escape into any fantasy. Every time they try, reality would punch them harder. As a result, the city was plagued by a solemn stigma of depression, remaining unyielding for as long into the future as can be seen. People preferred to stay indoors, where their surrounding could match their mood and they didn’t have to act like they were in a normal state.

Morale being low created problems for the future of the city. One of the problems that the authorities of the city were facing was getting people’s morale up and get them working hard again. Everyone needed to work, to get the economy running, and civilization developing.

Drake, however, did not understand this problem.

A crowd gathered in an open pedestrian area in the distance, causing a commotion. This drew Drake’s attention. He went there to check it out. Ten or so people were gathered in a circle around an obese middle-aged man, who held a woman hostage with a knife pressed to her throat. Some people awkwardly tried to negotiate with him, while others were discussing what they should do.

“Should I actually run and go get the police?” One man said

“What good would that do?” Another said. “They haven’t been trained yet. They wouldn’t be able to handle the situation better than any of us.”

“It wouldn’t hurt,” said a third person. “Go. We’ll keep him distracted until then.”

The first person sprinted away, cursing the city’s lack of communication devices.

Drake, meanwhile, was in utter confusion. He stepped forward towards the criminal, out of the ring of people surrounding him.

“Hey! Kid! What are you doing?! Don’t move any closer!” he warned, pressing the knife at the throat of his victim. She breathed heavily, and a trickle of blood went down the knife. Drake stopped.

“Step back!” he demanded. Drake didn’t comply.

The crowd yelled at Drake to come back to them. Drake didn’t listen.

He instead yelled at the criminal. “What the heck are you doing?!” He was genuinely confused and enraged at what was happening.

“What does it look like I’m doin’, kid? I’m holding this lady hostage and demanding these guys crowding around to get some authorities so that they can hand over some money in exchange.”

Drake still didn’t understand. “Now?! We’re in the middle of an Apocalypse! We’re the last of humanity! Why are you doing this now? And why instead of helping the city that saved you?! Don’t you feel you owe anything?” Drake turned, “That goes for everyone. Ever since I came here, all I’ve seen were gloomy faces. Why?! Because the Mayhems destroyed everything? Are you all just going to sit there and whine forever?! You have to stop at some point!” More people from around started gathering.

“I don’t know how you got here, kid,” the captor started, with a serious face, “but there were only a few seats on those rescue helicopters, and we all had to do some nasty things to get them.” The others looked away, knowing what he meant. Remembering the terrible things they had done to get on the helicopters made them uncomfortable. “You know, I had to kill in order to get my seat. I’m sure there are others like me right here. We’re all filthy criminals. But we’re unfortunately the ones that got to live. The good men of this world are all dead.”

Drake’s mouth opened. He closed it, thought for a few seconds, and opened it again. “So, you’re saying that just because you’ve done bad things before, you can continue to commit crimes?”

He gave some thought “I guess, yeah.” He looked down, sadly, “The stuff I’ve done can’t be forgiven… And that goes for everyone here. They can’t just act like victims.” He glared at the crowd. There were about forty people here now. No one challenged the claim. It would seem he was right about the citizens.

Drake thought for a moment. He still didn’t get the thought process of the man he was talking to, but he spoke his mind loud and clear. “We were all given a second chance in this city. Sure, we’ve all done things we regret, but can’t we put that behind us and move on? Those people died so that we all could live. Can’t we give meaning to their deaths, and fight for humanity in their place?” he looked at everyone, “We can’t fight each other and live in isolation like this. There are enemies threatening our existence! When you think about those creatures, doesn’t it fill you with anger?! At all the things they took from us?”

The crowd couldn’t relate, but they understood what he was saying, realized he was correct, and glanced down with a sense of guilt.

Drake lowered his voice and talked to the criminal now. “I still don’t get why you’re doing this, but can’t you lay down your weapon and work with the rest of humanity to fight against the common enemy? I’m sure everyone here would forgive you.” He extended his hand.

The aging man thought for a few silent minutes. He looked around at people who would rather forgive a criminal than go back to using violence and distrust. “You know, kid… I’m not really doing this for the money. Ever since I got here, I got the chance to think of my previous actions and look at society here. I don’t regret what I did to survive. That’s what I hated about myself. At one point, I didn’t want to live anymore and tried to commit suicide, but I couldn’t bring myself to. I don’t know why. Maybe it was the same will to live that kept me alive until now. Looking back, there was no way this plan would have worked out. I probably figured a monster like me at least belongs in jail. I didn’t care what happened to me anymore. I just didn’t believe I belonged in this society, and what it represents. I think that’s why I did this…”

He looked at the hand. “But what you said made a lot of sense to me. All those people that died… I want to show that I was worth their deaths. I would hate myself even more if I don’t.” He let go of the hostage, who ran into the crowd. They comforted her.

“I’m sorry,” he said, looking at the woman. “I’m sorry,” he repeated, this time for everyone there. “I really didn’t mean to hurt anyone. If you all really are willing to forgive me, then I would like to work with you all as a fellow representative of the human race, and live for the sake of all those who couldn’t.”

Drake took his meaty hand, “Good!” He looked around, “I hope you all got over it, too. We all have to put in our effort. Spread the word. Let’s all work together! Fight! Take back our world!”

The crowd was unsure how to respond, but they seemed cheered up compared to earlier. They were more relieved that the situation came to a peaceful conclusion, and they didn’t have to get involved. The victim seemed unhurt. She just needed some time to get out of shock.

“Thanks for that… I needed a wake-up call,” the man said. “I’m Joseph Striker. You can call me Joe.”

“Drake,” Drake said, shaking hands.

At this point, the police arrived with the person who ran to get them. They were understandably quite confused, but also relieved once they found out what had happened. They thanked Drake, who dismissed their praise modestly. It was nothing to him. He just said his mind without really thinking of the consequences, which made him feel a bit guilty now.

The police handcuffed Joe and took him into their custody. They didn’t know what to do with the victim. Before they left the scene, Joe told Drake: “I don’t know what’s going to happen to me, but I promise that, however I end up, I will try to work to better this society.” He looked at the poor victim, “Once again, I apologize. I don’t expect you to forgive me, but I will try to make it up to you one day.” With that, everyone went their way, and Drake was alone again.

Drake clutched his necklace. The whole incident suddenly made it crystal clear to Drake who his real enemy was; it was the one thing he despised most in the universe: Mayhems. Humans could be reasoned with. They usually have motivations and a conscience. But those things, on the other hand, killed all mercilessly and without any reason.

Drake remembered Steve telling him that he had to get a job in the city and become self-sufficient. After some thought, he resolved his mind. He was going to join the Defense Militia, and fight the Mayhems that had stolen his world…