Amentia

Chapter 18 - Raw and blind violence

Five more people fell unconscious in the next hour, all under a deep sleep filled with nothing but unpleasantness. Then ten, fifteen people. The village obviously started to notice that so many of their roommates were falling ill within minutes of each other, so they began gathering outside, first in small groups to casually gossip but, as the number of unconscious people increased throughout the rest of the afternoon, the groups got larger and more nervous, and the gossip quickly turned into accusations. As sun began hiding behind the trees and the street lamps lit on, the entire village was gathered outside and talking over each other in increasingly concerned tones until eventually it turned into yelling. Somehow, even though they barely actually talked to each other, they came to the conclusion that the people who were unconscious had been poisoned, since no one was injured and they had fallen to the ground just like that. No one thought to consider any other possibilities; there was no scenario in which their fellow villagers weren't to blame for the situation.

"She was your roommate! Did you do something to her because she rejected you that time?"

"I bet it was you who did something, you stupid bitch!"

"I saw you specifically giving Nikki a glass of juice the other day. Did you use it to poison her because she cooks better than you?"

"If I wanted to kill him I wouldn't be so obvious, Mariana, you're so dumb! I bet you did this!

"You're so obsessed with Ji-Hoon! You must have poisoned him so no one else could have him!"

It started with the insults and some pushing and shoving to get the point across, but then some guy grabbed a rock from the ground and used it to hit someone in the head with it; the victim didn't see it coming and fell lifeless to the ground with just one blow. Taking the one attack as permission, a woman standing nearby looked for a broken branch with a sharp point and quickly impaled another woman with it, who looked down at the hole in her belly before spitting out blood and wobbling down to the ground in shock. And after that, hell unleashed.

It only took a few seconds for the rest of the villagers to join, glad the useless talking was over and they could get down to business. It was like a volcano had erupted inside everyone's minds and they could do nothing except destroy whatever and whoever was near. The origin of their anger was soon forgotten and everyone just kept fighting because they wanted to fight. It was like they were rabid, the edges of their eyes wild and frantic. They ran around the village picking up weapons wherever they could and fighting with anyone who passed by, always intending to kill. Many were just running around blindly without direction, screaming like scared dogs. A man slit his own throat with a smile on his face and people tripped over the corpse as they ran after others like blood-thirsty lunatics. Of course powers began being used as well because who cares about rules when you're a raving maniac. People were making things explode or breaking bones with their mind. More than one person was burned alive, so the spine-chilling shrieks of those burn victims were added to the already loud screams of the rest. The whole scene was a nightmare directly from hell, made worse by the amount of laughter that echoed around in the air. They were all enjoying it.

And the girls could only watch, speechless and from as far away from the scene as they could, how these human beings —who were once people that lived in Earth's modern societies— reacted to an unexpected problem with a wave of raw and blind violence.

Anna, Nati and Meiko had been moving from corner to corner, trying to make their way towards Zoe's house after catching a glimpse of her behind a high window. They ran around with their heads low like soldiers do in war movies, with their hearts in their throats, tears in their eyes, and the sinking, horrifying feeling that any misstep or slight noise might end up getting them killed.