Remain Human: Changed

Part 1: Today's Trip

8:15 AM

Dreams.

The human minds imagination, made wild and rampant during the hours of sleeping. Society has been, for the most part, built on dreams, metaphorically and literally. Many of mankind's tools and inventions, mundane and important have all been inspired by dreams. They have helped progress Man and kept people hoping and innovating for the better of themselves and others. Dreams have also been made from the brain's massive collection of information during the day or week. Sometimes, these dreams were pre-cognitive, showing a randomly rare plethora of scenes and events from both the near and far future, regardless of their meaning. However, for the most part, the brain wouldn't dream in sleep. Not nightmares, no no no. It would have been a time skip for it, a black space before the sleeper woke up. This had been rather common in society, especially for the people who did the same routine of things for much of their lives. Even you. For you had that life half a decade ago. You had your own dreams, your own goals that was birthed from said dreams.

But now? 

Now, as you heaved yourself from the single ancient oak bed, feeling the otherwise relatively new sheets slip off from your upper body, grey T-shirt partially caked in sweat from an unexpectedly warm night, that dream had been reduced to ashes. Not burnt, just crumbled to ash over time. The dreams' only trace of it ever existing was inside a cardboard box in the attic above you, along with various other things of your accomplishments that you received throughout your life, only there for you to reminisce about the old days, before the virus came and brought that to a grinding halt over a course of 1 year. Then, when all was dead and done, everything started to decay over the course of 5 years.

1 years....... 5 years.....

You get up from the single bed, feeling the blood in your body rushing in your body and your heart pumped rather hard and quickly in response to the sudden movement. With a elongated grunt, you stretch, preparing your muscles for the day ahead. Another day of exercising and walking. And for this particular day,

Scavenging.

You've done this multiple times, scavenging. After the 4-and-a-half months, there were scavengers, taking things first from small convenience stores in the city, then to bigger places such as supermarkets and malls when shit hit the fan, when the government became panicked, overwhelmed, stretched beyond its capacity by the worsening pandemic along with the military, the other branches as it struggled with the unfathomably infectious virus and the deaths that followed.

It was a bloody shitshow, you thought to yourself as you made your way down the stairs to the pantry area, grabbing yourself some packeted powdered coffee that you got from some government relief packages a while back, that people even when the country fell apart, torn from within and without, would still have the absurdity to take flatscreen TV's, washing machines, handbags, jewellery, computers, even furniture, towards the last few days of any sense of order leaving the country. You scoffed at it. "Idiots", you mutter as you walked over towards the kitchen, placing the powder into a mug before filling a electronic kettle with water coming from the attics water tank store which you've made a daily ritual to clean its contents and check for water leaks. You set the filled kettle onto the electronic heating pad and let it heat up as you walked into the attached living room and vaulted onto the long couch, promptly plopping yourself onto it. 

You stare at the opposite wall, a large shelf with an empty space where a medium-sized TV screen once sat. It had been disassembled, then reassembled, then stopped working when you attempted to turn it back on again, then disassembled for boredoms sake. At least you learned something from it!, you mused. The shelf , in its many holdings, contained trinkets, keepsakes and childhood items, some belonging to your grandfather, others 3/4 or half your age. The shelf itself had been made by your grandfather, bless his soul, a few years before he died, which was about a year before the Pale Virus reared it's head out. He had this here 2 storey forest house to be inherited to you in his will, since you were an only child. The house, and the surrounding woods, had been a good part of your childhood that you enjoyed thinking about, one of the few sweet memories that helped keep you afloat in the past 5 years of isolation and survival, amongst other things. The workshop and the garage, along with the parts and 'junk' in the connecting storerooms ensure you had something to work on during these past 4 years of isolation. The basement had Gramps alcohol collection ,his homemade brew and drying and meat smokers that helped drown and munch your sorrows in booze and good meat whenever you needed it. The woods, which connected to a Wildlife reserve, were abundant in game, much to your advantage ever since lockdowns were implemented 6 years ago so not only has food been abundant here, no-one else thought to make it for the woods when things went south. Not only that but the house had solar panels, a rain-catcher system, and a wind turbine that provided you with electricity and water whenever it rained since the nearest water source was several kilometers away deep into the woods. In addition, the location of the house, along with the the few dirt roads that connected to the other roads and its somewhat far distance from the city made it relatively safe from the chaos of the death throes of the city. Thanks Grandpa!

You smile at the thought of it, old mans' been carrying you for the past 5 years along with the needed survival guides and natural recipes that Grandpa has kept meticulously for many years. 6 years ago, you would have scoffed at the idea of keeping those notes. Who would make such notes when you got all the comforts of the modern era here? You aren't scoffing now. But you're all the more wiser, 4 years is enough to tame the wild and get a lay of the land.

Hearing that all too familiar whistling sound of the kettle, you get up from the sofa and walk over towards the kettle, pouring its hot contents into the mug and stirring it with a spoon. Presto. Your coffee.  You stir it around as you move over to the balcony connected to the living room. Pushing the translucent glass door aside, you are greeted with a view of the morning sun already rising from the pine tree tops, its warm orange-white glow caressing you, stirring up a feeling of bliss, something a person out in the woods would get to have after being with nature for a set amount of time. You were rather mostly eye-level with the tree tops but it was still quite a view, something your grandfather would have also enjoyed, most probably standing in the very spot you're standing in. As you took in natures beauty, a thought materialized. 

Grandpa. How would he react to everything that has transpired? How all the things in those old movies about virus', riots, looting, fighting, military and police brutality, countries collapsing from the strain of upholding the law and vainly attempting to contain and study the Pale Virus. You bet good money that all of grandpa's conspiracy theories would have, in some ways, been proven correct. To an extent. He'd be doing the whole "Told you so" and all the other conspiracy theory proven, yadda yadda. Best you don't go down that rabbit hole. Even after 7 years, that shit still gives you a headache.

But enough bogging around, you got a scavver trip to do. Food supplies are becoming more harder to find. Much more harder to hunt despite the apparent increases in the amount of game in the area. You're gonna make sure you don't starve and not find yourself hunting for rats in some dark building. Tis the apocalypse and you'll do what it takes to survive.

But first,

a bath.

.

.

.

.

9:00 AM

You get out from the bathtub, butt-naked and shivering at the after-feel of cold water collected from the water tank upstairs in the attic. You hurried rub yourself clean of cold water and dry your head to the best of your ability. 

Wow, gotta cut all that hair one day.

After brushing your teeth with a worn-out toothbrush and a drop of hardened toothpaste, you exit the bathroom and make way to your bedroom. Only bedroom since you have reconverted the other 2 bedrooms as storage areas for clothes and building supplies. You put on some underwear and began to think.

Now, what to wear for today's scavver trip? And what do you need to take? You've got some good clothes, vests and some choice backpacks...

                                                                                   End Part 1