The Antidote to Insanity

Carla found herself in a corner holding on tight to her children. As she slowly regained consciousness and became more aware of her whereabouts, flashes of what had happened came back to her. There were other survivors, looking just as confused as her. Suddenly the door flew wide open and someone came stumbling and crawling in. He slammed the door shut behind him and frantically looked for pieces to make it impossible for anyone to get in. Then there was frenzied banging on the other side and you could hear loud angry roars. Those who were closest to the door threw themselves at the door to prevent what was outside from coming inside. Eventually whatever was outside gave up and everyone inside relaxed.

It was slowly coming back to her as she sat there frozen almost forgetting that she was holding her breath. Humanity as she knew it was no more. There had been waves of various pandemics over the years and now all that was left were cannibalistic instincts shaped in the form of man. She knew little of how many survivors were out there and her first thought went to her husband. Carla and Jim had been separated in the mayhem. She was fortunate enough to have her children by her side. Pangs of hunger started to hit her body as she looked around for her purse. She thought it was good that she was in a grocery store. At least she could buy food. Almost in a state of panic, at realizing she had no money; she began to laugh. Everything was free. There was no one to pay to nor was there anyone that would stop her from eating anything she wanted. It was a surreal feeling. Aldous Huxley had put it very brilliantly, "Technological progress has merely provided us with more efficient means for going backwards."

An old man approached her and asked if the children were okay. He started engaging with the children and they seemed to feel comforted by each other. There was only one thought on her mind. Jim. Where is Jim? Should she go looking for him? How will she find him? Is he himself? As far as she could remember she had never been without him and his absence was disturbing her. They had been neighbors since childhood and had eventually married. There was not a single event that she could recall that was without him. She had to find him or at the least she should know what happened to him. She made the old man swear he will keep the children safe and headed towards the unknown in search of her husband. She nervously touched the heart shaped locket that was around her neck. The only reminder of any existence of her past life.

As she stepped out onto the street her heart stopped. It had never been so deserted and full of blood. There was blood everywhere. On the walls, the windows, the cars… it was as if the whole street had been painted with blood and there was no one in any hurry to clean anything. As she walked through the puddles of blood on the street her mind was racing. Which way should she go? Where could she find jim? She couldn’t even find someone who she could ask. She started retracing her steps and tried to go back to the place she remembered she had lost him hoping she would find some clues. Her instincts were screaming to run back to the grocery store her children need her, but she continued. Every second apprehensive of being sniffed out by the cannibal creatures. She walked slowly, in the shadows, as to not draw any attention to her.

She stumbled upon a field and stood still in horror. What she saw send shivers down her spine. There was a hill of these cannibalistic creatures trying to climb on top of each other to get to a human bar tied to a string 20 feet off the ground. It was well known that prior to the last wave of pandemics the governments had gotten all the physically and mentally handicapped individuals in a facility under the pretense of quality care and they had all mysteriously died. Then shortly after the human bar was introduced into the market. An addictive ingredient was added to it that made all the infected humans feel relief, along with human flesh. Slowly they phased out food and the only diet was the human bar. When the scarcity of humans hit and there were no more left to hunt down and eat, these cannibalistic creatures turned to the government who were the sole possessors of the human bars. They enslaved these creatures who were once human and offered them human bars as rewards if they exhibited the desired behaviour. They were all watching from a distance as these cannibalistic creatures tore each other apart to be the one to eat the human bar.

As she looked in horror at what was done to these poor souls for the sake of their own goals she was jumped from the back and pinned to the ground. She struggled to break free as she tried to stop the creature from tearing her flesh apart. She managed to turn herself around to defend herself better and who she found staring down at her made her gasp in horror. It was Jim. She called out his name. She tried to tell him who she was. "War is what happens when language fails." Margaret Atwood's words echoed through her mind. He was beyond comprehending or recognizing. He just wanted her flesh. She fought to save herself and tried not to hurt him in the process, all the while trying to talk to him hoping that maybe if he heard her he would stop. Maybe he would care. The struggle was fruitless. He was a lot stronger than her and eventually he had her where she could protect herself no more. She closed her eyes and waited for the inevitable.

It seemed like an eternity had passed but nothing had happened. She finally opened her eyes and found him staring at the heart shaped locket which had rested in the exact place he was ready to bite. He snatched the locket from her neck and fell back. She cautiously got up. Couldn’t decide whether she should make a run for it and she should keep trying to make him realize it was her.

He had been blinded by a bright light when he had laid his eyes on the locket and was shocked into a frozen state. He ripped the necklace from her neck to get it out of the way but as he held it in his hand he saw flashes of him and her together. For the longest time he could only remember wanting to eat when he saw a human. The emergence of memories was disconcerting yet very familiar. He started convulsing and his whole body tremored. His eyes rolled back in their socket and it seemed like he was having an epileptic seizure.

Carla forgot her fear of him and ran to his side. Knelt beside him and put his head in her lap. She slipped her fingers into his, until their palms sandwiched the locket. She stared at him sobbing not knowing what to do when she felt an unusual warmth between their hands. When she looked, she saw an orange glow spreading slowly until they were enveloped in it. He had stopped shaking uncontrollably and seemed unconscious. The only thing she could think off was to get him to breathe. She pumped his heart, tried forcing oxygen in through his lips. All the while in a desperate state. This could not be the end. This should not be how their story ends. What if he does wake up, will he even remember her. A thousand questions ran through her mind. Is this a permanent state of mind? Is there a cure?

She saw his eyes slowly try to open through the wetness in her eyes. She smiled through her tears and hugged him so tight. He grabbed her face with both his hands as he regained strength. Fear gripped her and she tried to break free. She could feel his searing stare as he dug the locket into her cheek. She screamed his name, “Jim, it’s me Carla!!! Let go.” He pulled her close and held her tight.

They stayed like that in each others arms until he asked about the children. They stared at the locket and he put it around her neck again. Was it the locket or the memories or the past that connected them; that cured him? They wondered if the locket was an antidote to insanity and held a cure for the human race. George Orwell said in a time long forgotten, "If you can feel that staying human is worthwhile, even when it can't have any result whatsoever, you've beaten them."