Tears of Gold

Anything to do with WICKED is bullshit

"This is the place?" I ask, cocking my eyebrows and looking over at Jorge. He clenches his jaw before looking over his shoulder at us, nodding. "You sure you know which building?"

"Don't ask questions, Hermana." He replies, but his voice is soft. "Never question me." I tuck the stray hair behind my ears so that it's away from my face. I look around the city packed with people. 

Kids run around, mothers call out to them to come back. Men and women walk hand in hand, frequently looking  over their shoulders, fear in their faces. Mothers grip their children's hands tightly, looking warily around at the other people walking around them. There are tents set up as people's homes. Tables are set up on the crumbling sidewalks as men and women try to sell their belongings to people for a couple of extra coins. 

Fires burn in tin cans all throughout the street. People cook pieces of meat on the fire with sticks, but it's hard to tell what kind of meat it is that their cooking. I'm not sure if I really want to know. Broken down cars and pieces of rubble are covered by tarps. The buildings are crumbling and broken down. Windows are shattered and walls are covered in graffiti. People are huddled under tents and tarps, sitting in pieces of old, moth eaten furniture, and living in the broken down cars. 

"What happened?" Aris mutters, looking around.

"The Flare." Billy replies. He runs a hand through his hair before looking over at Jorge. "Might as well get going. We're burning daylight."

"Right." Jorge says. He straightens his shoulders and adjusts the bag on his shoulder. "Everyone stay close. No one leaves the group, got it?" He turns around, his hands on his hips and eyebrows raised.

"Aye aye, captain." I say, giving the man a small salute. He doesn't show any sign of humor. He turns back around swiftly before walking forward and into the city. The group all walk close behind him, me following at the back.

"So, all this happened because of the virus?" Newt asks Billy as we walk through the city. 

"The sun scorched the world, burning down cities and creating a famine. Billions of people died all around the world. After that, the Flare started. Cranks were overriding the cities, killing and infecting anyone who crossed their path. The uninfected fled underground. They set up cities down there and built a life where they wouldn't be at risk of infection. They survived for years. They had to send people up here to get food for the people. One of them was bitten by a Crank on their way back. It didn't take long for the boy to go insane. He infected and killed millions all throughout the tunnel system in a matter of weeks, the ones that had already gone insane with him. They destroyed civilizations, forcing the survivors to come back up here. 

WICKED began destroying cities after finding out that some people were completely immune to the virus. No city was left untouched. WICKED captured those that were immune, as well as some that weren't. They called the ones that weren't, non-immune control subjects. They used the non-immunes to tell the difference between people like them and people like the Munies.  Most of the people WICKED didn't take were killed, but some survived. Those that did started new civilizations, hiding in the places WICKED had already destroyed. They found ways to survive without alerting WICKED that they had. Everyone's afraid of WICKED, though. That they'll come back and destroy everything they built. That they'll destroy their families or take their kids. They're afraid of the Cranks and the people, for fear that the people around them might be infected. No one truly lives safely anymore. No one trusts anyone. They live in constant fear. Everyone does."

"Bloody hell." Newt mutters, looking around at the men, women, and children all around us. "I knew WICKED was bad, but I didn't think they'd destroy entire civilizations just to get what they want."