Life after God
The day you are born, you are a day old; but in our world what is one day to you is a year to us. So if you have been alive for 5 days in your world that is five years in ours. This is how we achieve our "immortality". In the past, a sixteen year old person is sixteen, but in the future that person is 5,840 years old. By the time someone is eighty they will have been alive 29,200 years. These strange ages were normal for us in our world.
Our world is your world. The year is 2,782. By now scientists had discovered that there is no "God". When it was discovered people lost their minds. They lost their faith in the world. Since then all hell has broken loose. The sky is constantly dark and gray filling our hearts with nothing but despair and sadness. The streets never get cleaned; there's always trash and broken glass polluting our Earth. Thugs roam the streets at night, killing and raping women and children and looting from wherever they want. Why should they stop? There's no one to enforce the law. The supposed "Police" do nothing to help us. They just stand by and watch; they're no better. They only answer about half of the emergency calls they deem "worthy" of their services. Nobody cares anymore. There's no one to pray to. This is our life after God.
The only kind of salvation we have is by changing the days to years, it makes us feel more "superior". But that's all a joke. Well, I don't feel superior but those before me did. They discovered this truth almost fifty years ago. Apparently before now the world was peaceful and cars roamed the skies and buildings hovered above the clouds. There's none of that now – only debris and broken pieces rock. Fires burn everywhere in garbage cans. Luckily there were some decent parts of town that were safe and where you could get good food and not cold scraps. I hear the best place to live is a suburb called Paradisio, a small town that resides just outside the city. It offers food, cloths, protection…everything we want. The only catch is that you need the money to buy a ticket to get in and the tickets are crazy expensive. Rumor is that if you try to sneak into Paradisio without a ticket, they execute you site. Sneaking in has never been an option for me. My mother never lets me go anywhere besides school without her.
School. What a joke it was. The lights were always burning out and the windows were cracked and broken, allowing the cold October wind to drift in. I shivered, pulling my red sweater tighter around myself. I couldn't focus on school at the moment; the sound of the car alarm outside was distracting me. I could hear the clouds rolling through the sky. I hoped it didn't rain; I didn't want to walk all the way home in this weather.
"Mitani!"
The noise spooked me and I looked back to the front of this run down classroom, where our teacher was glaring down at me, her hands on her hips and tapping her right foot angrily.
Our teacher was a middle aged woman with brown hair turning gray at the roots pulled into a messy bun. Her hazel eyes pierced me through her crooked glasses; she was wearing a burgundy pants suit with high heels. How could she ever wear those in a place like this?
"Pay attention," she snapped. "For being the oldest in the class you should be setting an example for the younger students."
"Sorry," I mumbled. As she walked back to the front of the class. I looked around the room. The other students were staring at me. Our classroom was an assortment of children of all ages. I was the oldest, at 6,205 years; or seventeen in the "real" world. This future of ours was a joke…the rest of the day dragged on. I couldn't focus; Lately all I'd been thinking of was running away. Of course not to Paradisio but to another neighborhood, a nicer one. I knew it'd never happen though…
Looking up at the grayish blue sky put a weight on my heart as I walked home. The walk consisted of walking down Main Street, the only safe road in the city, then a cut through two dark alleys, and up the fire escape to our apartment. The light was on in our window, maybe my mom had come home from work early? I opened the window and crawled inside, ten shut and locked it for safety.
I turned back to the room, "Mom?" I called. I closed the blinds for extra safety while waiting for a response. Nothing. Why was the rest of the house dark? Had she gone to take a nap? Making my way across the white and yellow tiled linoleum floor I looked around. Where was my mom? She never left the light on when no one was home. It wasn't like her. A chill ran through my body. "Mom?" I called again.
No answer again; but she always answered. I slowed my pace, peaking around the corner of the round opening into the living room. I reached around the wall and flicked on the switch yet no light came on. Crap the power must be out. What was I going to do? I continued through the living room, my eyes adjusting to the darkness so I could see better. Then, the foul stench of death filled my nostrils and I covered my mouth and nose with my hand. God what was that? It was foul. Bile rose in the back of my throat and I forced it back down, my eyes also watering from the odor. Where was it coming from? I had to find the source.
Walking forward I felt my way around the living room and into the hallway. On my next step, I landed in something wet and sticky. I looked down seeing a black trail leading from the floor where I was in the bedroom. I reached down and wiped my finger on the liquid, then brought it to my nose to examine the smell. It was blood. All over the floor...
"Mom!" I cried running down the hall. I slipped, feeling my feet give out under me, my body falling forward and smacking my chin into the wood floor, biting my lip hard as the blood soaked my clothes, darkening my jeans and getting into my long mess of brown hair that trailed off my back and into the blood. The pain in my chin hurt – I could feel a gash there and most likely a bruise now. Quickly I got back onto my feet, ignoring the pain from the fall and darted into the bedroom.
"M – Mom…?" I stuttered approaching her body sprawled out across the bed. My eyes wandered then stopped at her throat where the veins and jugular were protruding lifeless from the bloody wound. I choked back my sob, the tears falling down my face. How could this happen! My mother was dead and I was all alone. I had no siblings and my father had left us all alone eight years ago. I couldn't survive alone in a world like this.
And where was the killer? Was he still in the house or had he left? What if he tried to kill me too? I was so frightened. The fear ran through my veins and I wiped my tears away with my sleeve. I had to be quiet. I couldn't let him know I was here. I wasn't one of those stupid girls in the horror movies who can't stop screaming when they find a dead body. My mother kept a pistol in beside table. I had to get it for my protection. Walking around the left side, refusing to look at her body, I opened the drawer and saw the silver pistol gleaming in the darkness. I reached in and grabbed it, pulling back the barrel to see a bullet already loaded in the chamber. Good, I wouldn't have time to load it myself if something happened – I was lucky she taught me how to use it. I sniffed and wiped the goo dripping from my nostril, then backed away from the drawer and retreated out of the room. Calling the cops would be the best thing to do, they usually responded to murders.
I slipped the gun into my pants, letting it rest tightly between the hem and my skin to conceal it. I ran into the kitchen and fell to my knees. I was dizzy. My stomach turned from the horrific sight I'd just seen. I reached up weakly with my hand, fumbling to find the phone before pulling it down to the floor. I dialed 911 and held it to my ear. Nothing, the power was out.
"Dammit…" I sobbed, burying my face into my bloody hands. I had to get help, but where go in a place like this? No one would care. I took in a deep breath, trying to calm myself and think rationally. Did I have any neighbors who would help me? Actually I did, Mrs. Norris above us - the old redheaded lady who invited me over for tea and cookies every month would help. She was a nice lady. If her power wasn't out I could call the police, but then again what would they do? They were only still around to omit an aura of "safety" for us. Yeah, right.
I stumbled back over to the window, unlocked and forced it open. I climbed out, my sneakers hitting the cold metal of the fire escape. I found the ladder and began to climb up.
"Give me your money!" a gruff voice from below stopped me. I climbed back down and peered over the edge to witness a mugging going on. A large muscular man was holding a scrawny fellow against the brick wall, aiming a pocket knife at the younger man's widened left eye.
"I – I don't have anything!" the young man whimpered.
"Liar!" the thug howled. He grabbed the man's coat and shook it creating a jingling noise. "Then what's this?'
"J - just my k – keys!"
I scowled. I couldn't let the young man get hurt. I climbed down the fire escape and felt my feet hit the concrete before running over to the thug.
"Let him go!" I commanded, gripping the thug's arm.
"Get offa' me bitch!" the thug roared glaring at me with his pearl blue eyes before pushing me down onto the filthy ground.
"I don't have anything! Please don't hurt me!" the young man blubbered his voice cracking now.
I sat up, watching as the mugger put the knife to the young man's cheek. He cut a thin line into the man's skin making him wince.
"You don't do ya'?" the mugger asked smirking fiendishly.
Without thinking, I removed the pistol from its makeshift holster and aimed it at the muggers face, then squeezed the trigger. His brain exploded all over the alleyway, blood spurting on me and the other man – before his body fell lifeless onto the ground. The young man wiped off his face before backing from the wall and returning a pair of glasses to rest on his nose.
"W – Who are you?" he stuttered looking at me. Now that I got a better look at him, he had a mess of brown hair and didn't look any older than me through what I could see of his baggy brown pants and red puffy jacket.
"Mitani," I answered, getting to my feet. With shaky hands I put the pistol back in its place. I'd never killed anyone before. I felt numb inside like I'd just been outside in the snow for hours and had come back into a warm house.
"Are you ok?" he cried. "You're bleeding!" He gestured to the dark red stains on my clothes.
I wiped off my bleeding chin and nodded. "My mom…she's been murdered …" I stuttered.
"You live in that house?" he asked, pointing up to the light in our apartment window. "That man was darting from there when I walked by."
I blinked. Had I just murdered my mother's own killer? "Did he say anything to you?"
"Only what you heard."
"What's your name?" I asked.
"Zampano," he answered. "T.J. Zampano – but you can just call me Zampano. Or Z, or T.J…" He shut his mouth and pushed his glasses back to the bridge of his nose.
"Why are you here?" I demanded.
"I was just passing by," he answered, rubbing his hands together from the cold. I could see his breath in the air like a dragon's smoke coming from its nostrils.
I frowned and then stormed over to the mugger's body ignoring the bloody mess of his exposed skull. I got onto my knees and began to dig through his pockets. I felt something crumpled and paper like. I pulled it and a long photograph from his pocket. The photo was of the man whose brains I'd just splattered and a beautiful blonde woman. Both of them had large smiles on their faces as they huddled together.
"I will always love you, Jane," Zampano muttered. I looked up at him. "That's what it says on the back…"
I turned over the photo to see the words written elegantly in black pen in the corner. This must be his girlfriend. They looked so happy together; I sighed and unclenched my fist to see the two crumpled papers. Carefully I opened the crumpled pieces of paper and then my eyes began to water.
In my hands were two tickets to Paradisio. And they were both signed by Claudine
Kyle, my mother's name. I had no idea she'd bought these tickets.
"Oh geeze - you're crying!" Zampano cried. "What's wrong! Is it something I said!"
I shook my head at him. "These tickets…" I sobbed. "There for Paradisio…my mom was going to get us out of here!" The sobbed violently, tears running down my face. I couldn't believe it; we were going to get out of here! And then that stupid mugger had to come and ruin it all…
"Do you have anyone else?" he asked.
I shook my head. "No…"
"I uh – have a ride down the road…want to go to Paradisio together?" he asked.
"What!" I cried. "I don't even know you!"
He jumped back. "Oh no! I'm not a creeper – I swear! I'm only 6, 207! I swear!" He licked his lips. "I don't have anyone either. You and I are in the same boat."
I looked up at him and then back down at the two tickets in my hand. Would doing this betray my mother? But she would have wanted me to be happy. And Paradisio is the happiest place any of us could be right now. I looked back at him. "Alright…" I whispered. "Let's go."
"Ok," he replied. "My ride is just around the corner – I'll go get it." I watched him run out of the alley and then I buried my face into my knees and cried.
"Here we are," he said, putting his car into park and turning off the engine. We were outside his house, a small ranch outside the city in the direction we needed to go.
"You're all alone? Out here?" I asked, following him out of the car and up the lawn to watch him fumble with his keys to unlock the door.
"My parents died in a car accident two years ago," he replied. And three months ago my sister was murdered by a gang."
"I'm sorry," I mumbled.
He shrugged. "I'm over it," he replied and opened the door.
"The bathroom's over there," he said, pointing to a closed door. I nodded and walked to the door, opening it and closing it as I entered the bathroom. His house was pretty normal as far as I could tell. I removed my clothing and got in to take a nice hot shower and warm my cold body. The pain had numbed itself again after my long sob that I so desperately needed. Afterwards, I got out and dried myself off, then noticed the change of clothes Zampano had slipped under the door for me. I smiled before changing into the white jeans, tan tank top and black leather jacket. I dried off my hair before walking out of the bathroom and into the dimly lit living room.
"They were my sisters," he said, getting up from his seat on the couch.
"Oh…" was all I could say. I didn't know how to respond to wearing a dead girl's clothing. In truth, it gave me the creeps.
"We better get going," he replied. I nodded and followed him out of the house. We got back into the car and began to drive off down the road. I stared out the window and put my hands into my pockets, rubbing the two tickets to assure myself that they were still there. I closed my eyes remembering the morning. Just before, I'd woken up, eaten breakfast and kissed my mother goodbye and then come home only to have my life turned upside down. Now I was traveling with some guy I hardly knew; I only hoped he was as innocent as he seemed. What would we do when we got there? Would they reject us because our tickets were crumpled?
"Mitani, wake up," Zampano nudged my shoulder.
I opened my eyes.
"We're at Paradisio," Zampano said excitedly.
I rubbed my eyes and looked out the windshield. I sat up farther inside my seat; the sky above us was bright blue with waves of pink as the evening set in. And before us were two golden gates, each one appearing so heavenly breathtaking I couldn't believe my eyes. Before me, were the gates of Paradisio.