Disclaimer: Dark Angel and all associated characters do not belong to me. This story does.
A/N: For anyone that's expecting a new chapter of this, I apologise. There are some that have read it elsewhere, but I've never posted it here. It's a short piece that looks at life after the pulse from the POV of a Seattle citizen.
No one just walks anymore
People used to walk. They'd walk for fun, or for exercise. Early in the morning or late in the afternoon. Then this darned pulse wiped out people's lives, their reasons for fun and life, and now nobody walks.
Well, people walk. They walk because they have no cars, or no other way of getting anywhere. They walk to go somewhere, or to leave some place. But they don't walk for the sake of walking. They don't 'just walk.' Just walking could get you mugged or raped or killed, it's simply unsafe, and there are no signs that it will get any better.
Instead of people walking their dogs, nodding in greeting to one another, people scurry back and forth, heads down, avoiding meeting the eyes of others, and the only dogs around are the ones that would quite happily gnaw off an arm for food. Animals have suffered greatly since the pulse. There may even be different dogs on the streets these days – a mix of dogs and people, imagine that! Another reason not to 'just walk' anymore.
I envy my parents for never knowing post-pulse life. Oh they called me the blessed one for being born into such a prosperous country and such a fascinating world. I've seen ideas get born and come into our everyday lives. I've watched my children grow up and grow dependent on technology. I've seen amazing and wonderful things in my long life.
But I've also seen the aftermath- the chaos created by one simple act, the genius action of an evil mindset of people. I've seen my country fall, society crumble, people die- because of the pulse. The pulse that at the time was nothing more than my television set ceasing to receive a signal, but two hours later was a life or death situation. Civilised people streaming through the streets in wonderment, in terror, in confusion. Desperate to find a solution, but having no medium that would bring them one. The truth about what had happened took days to reach us.
The rumours were the worst. Without the communications we'd come to depend on, we had to rely on rumours, some ridiculous and some plain scary. They always talked of retaliation, of revenge, of war. But it never came. After the pulse, people were in survival mode- looking out for themselves and unwilling to die defending the beliefs of someone else, or a country they weren't sure they believed in anymore.
And at some point, people stopped walking.
Now there's this transgenic mess, and people suddenly care about their country again, about those people and creatures that belong in it, and those that don't. We're on the verge of a war that has been building since the pulse, with these creatures as scape goats for wrongs long since committed. It's sad, yet not unexpected of this broken world.
I wish it were as it was when I was a young girl. I wish children played in parks without the threat of death from poisoned play equipment or toxic waste dumping. I wish people could go places without the fear of attack or death plaguing their thoughts.
I wish people could 'just walk.'