The Gravity Doesn't Hold Us Anymore l ONC 2021

8. The Lambs, The Shepherd and The Big Bad Wolf

The man coughed impatiently once more. He had just come into the room with the tray and placed all the plates, glasses, and whatever he brought now, neatly. But, of course, he had to pack and remove the books on the table first. Still, he had finished his job with sleight of hand and stood over their heads. President looked like she had fallen asleep. The man had coughed several times, cleared his throat loudly once, softly called twice, but the President did not seem to have heard any of them. Either she was sleeping or not taking the man seriously at all. The visitor would vote for the second. The old gal did not seem to take all these buffy skilful men around her very seriously, as she thought.The visitor's back was turned towards the man; she could not see his face. Still, she could have guessed that the man's face was bewildered with impatience and anger. When President finally opened one eye and yawned, the man took a deep breath."Food?" said the President, yawning awkwardly."Ready.""Let's have a good meal then," as President gets up slowly, stretching, "Nine-tiny, you get up too. Let something in our stomach." She said, looking lazily towards the visitor.The visitor immediately got up and headed to the table. The President followed her with unexpected agility. The meals were worth seeing, to be honest. Two perfectly cooked eggs on both plates were sliced millimetrically. The whites were excellent, the yolks slightly raw and fluid. Jerkies smelled savouring, cucumbers and sauerkraut shone brightly. What a perfect meal. It was a beauty to be seen in dreams. While the visitor was staring at the plates with her wide-eyed eyes, the President had already set two full glasses of water on her head and started eating."It is a great skill to prepare these meat this way, as a matter of fact, there is a hunter in the camp. He does these things. Great way to keep. No deterioration." she said while she was hoovering up what was in front of her. "He was doing these things by smoking, right?" she said to Hound."Yes, he does it on wood smoke.""Isn't it marvelous?" the President hit the table with enthusiasm, "What a fortune to have such people!" Then she continued eating, grunting by herself. The visitor was still looking at what was in front of her in such disbelief. After the first shock, she slowly threw some meat into her mouth. Her eyes sparkled as the rugged texture of the beef crumbled between her teeth, revealing its intense flavour. Then she threw the fork with great appetite and buried herself in those in front of her. The eggs were soft, reducing the firmness of the meat. When the pickles were chewed crunchy, it slipped down her throat with incredible intensity, then the beef slid again with all its density on her tongue. In this way, she continued to eat everything in front of her with a whim. So much so that she didn't even notice the President had quit the meal and started watching her eating. In this rich savour, in this riot of flavours, everything in her mind faded away. She just opened her mouth, chewed, swallowed and opened her mouth again. The President added her remaining pickles to the visitor's plate with the back of her knife. Everything around her stopped while she was eating with a great appetite. There was only chewing and swallowing sounds. Everything else melted into the cold winter night, all her worries frozen in the heartless season behind the plastic walls."Bring some more pickles." Said the President, without looking at the Hound's face, made a gentle gesture with her hand. "Oh, and... What was that boy's name? You know who took you in?"The visitor had not heard."Nine-tiny. I tell you." The President said, tapping hard on the table with her nails."What?""Who was he that took you in the camp?""Oh... Well, Adam. Scar-faced Marlboro man." Said the visitor as she continued to eat without taking her head off the plate."The one whose face is burned. Get that one here." Said the President to the Hound again. He nodded, then came out again."Do you have any previous acquaintance?""Hmm...""I said, do you have any previous acquaintance with Adam?" the President said softly."No, how would it be from?" "I wonder if there is some water?" Said the visitor, swallowing with difficulty.The President frowned without answering the question and leaned back, "Yeah, how would it be from... Indeed, of course..." she murmured, then tied her arms in front of her and remained silent for a while. Her eyes were closed, yet she was not as limp as she had just slept. On the contrary, all the muscles in her wrinkled face were tense. The visitor thought she must be thinking of something. There must be important things. The face of an important person who thinks of essential items. She had seen faces like this several times before. Regardless of the face shape of the person, if they are important ones and think about important things, they always wear about more or less the same expression. A dull, pale, solid presentation. Body language closed to external influences. A self-abstracted emphasis, a state of focus. Almost like the dead. Even the outer shell is so dead and static, the living meat inside is as lively and bloody alive. The steady rhythm of a pulse. The crust that strained and cracked by that pulse. A state of restless silence.Then and so the President opened her light blue eyes, shrunken with exhaustion. Her gaze was blank and out of focus. In fact, she was staring at a corner of the table embroidered with gold. In a slow flow, loose eyelids were rising and falling over the non-moving eyeballs. She's finished thinking, the visitor thought. She was thinking something, and whatever she was thinking, now, she stopped thinking about it."You are full, aren't you?""Aye.""Isn't it nice for a person to eat until get full." The President was still staring at the corner of the table. She did not take her gaze away from that delicate ornament. Instead, she drones out with a haphazard tone."Aye.""The great blessing, is true. If you found food eat, if you found wipe flee, there was a saying, have you ever heard?""I haven't heard, but I have applied a lot.""You are a smart girl, nine-tiny. You are smart.""Thanks.""No need for thanks.I am realistic. Whatever it is, it is.""You too... How can I say..." said the visitor, leaning back and thinking a little, playing with a small tendon piece between her teeth with her tongue, "if I say you're smart... Perhaps that's not the right word. Something like that.""Consciousness?""Hah, yes that one. Consciousness. An air of wisdom. Wise old lady. The careless attitude of the person who has influance and importance.""Careless?""So it's not exactly like that... Like... Well? Not reckless. It's a kind of economy.""Economy? Look at you.""Yes, yes it is, so the comfort of a person who knows exactly what to do and how. No more, no less. Just right amount.""Oh, look I like it.""Yes, well...""What?""Well, I can't express myself very well by speaking. Because I talk to myself most of the time. There are not many people around to talk. When I talk to myself, I know the answer I will give, I know the question to ask, but when I speak to someone else, I do not know what is going on in their head. So I don't really know what to say. Don't be angry with me.""I'm not angry.""Really?""Really.""Even if I steal?""That's another pair of shoes.""You were angry with the theft?""No dear, why would I be angry? Have you ever seen someone get angry why the scorpion was a scorpion? Scorpions stings. Stings, and poisons. It's what they do. So I was just a little disappointed.""For what?""I thought where I went wrong while protecting this place. Obviously, I made a mistake somewhere at some place. Someone from the outside had came in, did whatever she wanted, and we saved the situation at the last minute. Another time maybe someone will come and set the camp on fire. One should never say never. Well, at this point I was disappointed. Perhaps because of my own recklessness, I trusted all these soldiers too much. Maybe I was too confident in myself.""You got a tough job to to here.""It's difficult, indeed." But, said the President, when she finally took her eyes off the table's corner, voices were coming from outside. First, they heard the outer door swing open. Then a man shouted at someone like batshit crazy."Especially dealing with this mad dog is a considerable challenge." The President said with a sigh. Then the door swung open. The Hound threw another man to the ground as he grabbed him by the neck. The visitor immediately recognized the burn scar of the lying man. Considering the course of events, this was not a strange situation."I brought Adam." Said the Hound, clearing his throat in a more reasonable tone of voice. Immediately after him, the guard, who caught the visitor, entered and stood, closing the door quietly. He didn't look that cheeky now. More so, he seemed like suffering from constipation."Did well," said the President, looking out of the corner of her eye at the figure trying to sit upon the ground. "What's up? How is it going?""Fine—" said Adam, still gasping as he struggled to get up clumsily on the ground. "I'm fine.""Oh, how beautiful. Wonderful. Of course, one should be good. You won't come across anyone who says I'm bad anyway. "Thereupon, the man they called the Hound gave a solid kick to Adam's stomach - which that very moment the visitor decided to call him Lucy as Lucifer. The poor man's burnt face was shattered. Then, whatever was in his stomach, he collapsed and began to vomit."You are working too hard on the boy." Said the President, straightening her knob, "It would be unpleasant if he was crippled or died."Upon this phrase, Lucy bent and poked Adam on the ground with the tip of his finger. "He's not dead" He said in a straight voice, "He doesn't feel good anymore, though.""What a shame! I haven't heard of it! "The president said as she shook her head from side to side, "Anyone who sees will think you are doing a very lovely job." Then she turned to the visitor watching all this fanfare with her eyebrows raised, "Don't get me wrong." she said impatiently, tapping her fingernails on the table, "Don't get me wrong, we are not doing these things here unnecessarily or just because we want to. We just do what needs to be done. You see, the things that need to be done are definitely done by someone. At this point, those people are me with the Hound over there. A nasty job. Honestly, I wouldn't want to see a boy who gets beaten up in the middle of my house in the middle of the night. Still have my marbles! Moreover, how sleepy I am and also tired. Wouldn't you know that all my joints hurt? Old age is hard work. Especially if you have such a heavy job, it is totally difficult.""You are doing what needs to be done." Although, the visitor muttered, on the other hand, she was wondering whether the nickname of the Hound would suit the man who entered the room like a cannonball and rolled Adam on the ground like a bucket of mud, instead of Lucy, "I should have been the one who was beaten then.""No, no!" the President vehemently objected, "Of course not. What did I just say? Scorpion. Did you remember? I am not someone to be angry with the thief for stealing. The killer is the killer, the thief is the thief. A soldier is also a soldier. The soldier must do his service. That poor lad, you see, didn't do his job properly. He took the thief and brought it to the bottom of our noses. He did exactly the opposite of what he had to do. So now we, albeit unpleasant, are doing what we have to do because he is not doing what he should have done. If we hold you and beat you up, what will we get? None. Maybe you die. Maybe you will be crippled. Maybe a miracle will happen, and you wouldn't even think of coming here again while flying the coop. Isn't that right? So we don't get anything. We would be trying in vain. But if we beat up that lad a little bit, he would come to his mind. He does his job properly. We get something tangible from here. "No, no!" the President vehemently objected, "Of course not. What did I just say? Scorpion. Did you remember? I am not someone to be angry with the thief for stealing. The killer is the killer, the thief is the thief. A soldier is also a soldier. The soldier must do his military service. That poor lad, you see, didn't do his job properly. He took the thief and brought it to the bottom of our noses. He did exactly the opposite of what he had to do. So now we, albeit unpleasant, are doing what we have to do because he is not doing what he should have done. If we hold you and beat you up, what will we get? No. Maybe you die. Maybe you will be crippled. Maybe a miracle will happen, and you wouldn't even think of coming here again with force to the base. Isn't that right? So we don't get anything. We would be trying in vain. But if we beat up that lad a little bit, it would come to his mind. It does its job properly. He is not confused. We get something tangible from here. Cost-benefit. Cause and effect. Simply that way.""Cost-benefit. Cause and effect," repeated the visitor, glancing at the situation on the ground. The Lucy nickname seemed more consistent. At least a bit saner. "So why did you give me a food? All that food, what was its purpose? What's the use? ""We'll come there too." Said the President, rising slowly, slipped into the piles of books and disappeared for a moment. Then she turned around with two bottles in her hand, came up with a displeased expression on her face and sat down again. "Warm ale," she said with a sigh, "It's so tasteless I can't even tell. You probably never tasted warm ale. There is no electricity since the generator malfunctioned. They just couldn't fix it. There is no fridge when there is no electricity. Though it's winter now, the same thing if we keep it outside, but which lunatic would go and leave a case of beer open out there? Anyway, if I don't drink these I can't sleep now. Especially in such stressful times, it loosens my nerves a little. If you asked me, I would prefer wine, and my old bladder would definitely prefer wine. If we can find grapes, we can make. Making wine is not that hard, but there are no grapes. There was barley instead. There is also ale out of barley. What to do? Anyway, what were we saying? Ah, that." Taking a big sip from the bottle she opened, she grimaced and swallowed, "Let's put this on afoot." She said, nodding. Lucy grabbed Adam and lifted him without waiting. His movements were effortless and rapid, as if he playing with a doll. The visitor was amazed at how this big guy moved so quickly. "Commando," explained the President, drank half the beer, waving the bottle in her hand, "Such men do not rise up on a mountain slope like volunteer daisies. It is necessary to find and train them specially. Of course I did not train him don't look at me like that, I have no idea how military affairs work. But take a look at this, isn't there an attitude of performing art while beating? He doesn't even have a single unnecessary movement. Most likely he is last of his kind as the all other extincted. Such a pity."Indeed, he seemed to perform art, the visitor quietly nodded. She could no longer predict the course of events. She flipped her hand into her pocket, the pillboxes were still in there, reassuringly. Nobody wanted her to reveal what she had in her pockets. She cross-legged and leaned back on the velvet backrest of the chair. Things seemed utterly out of her control. She was not in a position to jump and run. As a matter of fact, there was no feeling of being threatened either. Still, she could not tell if she would survive here. She thought with a sigh, what annoying. Now what I have to do is get out of here, she thought, locking her eyes against Lucy's wall-like chest. One piece, if possible, with at least some of the drugs. So she tried to open her mouth. The President had acted before her."Why did you let him in, boy?" she said, rubbing his eyes."Because..." said Adam, breathing with difficulty, and the part of his face that was not burned looked confused, "Because it didn't feel right to send a little girl out in the middle of the night.""I understand. You are compassionate. But emotions... Are dangerous. Of course, one should experience his emotions, emotions are for living them. But how does one live without thinking about their feelings? Is it possible? While experiencing emotions, one should keep logic. What if this little thief was a murderer, what if she had set this place on fire? What would be happened then? They say that the roads of hell are paved with good intentions. Such a wisdom of the old ones, right? Then..."Lucy raised his hand like a shovel and slapped Adam's face with all his might. A mouthful of blood, mixed with spit and vomit, shot out of the young man's mouth and spilt over the piles of books on the floor."Ah ah... no way!" shouted the President, standing up, "how many times will I say to you, watch out for them? Without these books, what difference would we be from animals that eat each other?" Then she grabbed a cloth somewhere and threw it at the watchman who was still standing in front of the door, "You, child, clean that mess."The watchman jumped out and grabbed the cloth in the air. Just like a dog, the visitor thought—well-trained guard dog.Carefully wiping each book, one by one, he made them all clean without skipping a point. Again, Adam was shaken and bent with the slap, but he did not fall to the ground this time. The visitor appreciated this situation on her own and continued to sit still, even though she wanted to give a strong whistle. There was no need to messing around. Moreover, although the President kept saying it was unnecessary, she still had severe doubts that Lucy does not give her the same slap. So she cleared her throat again."I understand," she said, choosing her words carefully, "they are all good, but why I am still here, I do not quite understand that part. You're not going to hang me in the square or something, are you? ""Hah!" said the President as she opened the second bottle, "that's all up to you.""Up to me?""Sure, though, killing a little girl by beating her up in the square is a bit too much... How can I say.... It would be unnecessarily grotesque. No need for such brutality. Hanginging is the same. But still there must be a consequence of what you do, right? After all, you entered the camp, gained the trust of one of my soldiers, then you went and emptied our pharmaceutical warehouse. You also got caught red-handed. It is necessary to impose a heavy sanction on you actually. I just couldn't decide what it would be like yet. What do we do to get the most out of this business? I'm thinking about how I can get the most out of you. You see..." she sewed the bottle to her head and was firmly in place, her short plump legs were not touching the ground. "You see we're trying to do something here. Keeping a group of people in order, keeping them alive. It's not an easy task. Even an old woman like me may have get in some serious shit. Even though now I want to step back and enjoy, I don't know, I want to take care of children and read lots of books or somewhat. Death awaits at my door, but I ignore it. I have to. How old am I, you know? Seventy eight. I worked hard until the age of thirty-five. I taught philosophy at university, and even taught sociology in high school at one point. Then boom! This disease came and settled in the middle of our lives. How many times I got caught, how many times I vomited blood I don't even remember anymore. We were dragged from that camp to this camp. How many massacres I saw. People chewed on each other, overcame one another. All done. I turned into an overly tired old woman to go back and cry by now. Now this place is on my back with all its burden. I have been in charge for ten years, with this Hound. We share the works. It is not going badly. We did a good job, right, big boy?"Lucy nodded, then shrugged his shoulders. For a moment, he looked drained and bored to the visitor. This huge mountain-like man looked really overwhelmed, for a brief moment."When we met he was just a kid. How old were you then, child? ""Twenty seven." He said, shaking Adam by his collar, who was standing next to him as if he was about to roll on the ground again."Twenty-seven," repeated the President, swallowing the massive sip of her ale and smacking his mouth, "Indeed, you are a brat. At that time it was under the rule of the military. We suffered from those mentally ill whores for three years."Lucy spat on the ground with rage and grimaced. Then, even though the President seemed to say something, she gave up and continued to speak."They were doing things according to their minds. It was better at first; of course, they were hard, but there was also a pattern. Then things changed when people started leaving the camp. You know-" she paused, looked at the visitor for a short while and continued, "Or, you don't know, directing civilian groups in a military order is usually not a long-term job. The lifestyles of soldiers and civilians are considerably different. Somewhere at some point, things got out of hand. That was how it meant to be if you ask me. The head and the body contradicted each other. As people started to growl and stand up, the sanctions got heavier. As the sanctions got heavier, people got more and more growled—a vicious circle. The aftermath was festive of dry humour." she paused and took a deep breath. "Inside the soldier, too, separations turned to arise. Two separate groups were formed within the military, and one was civilians, three groups unrelated to each other. Hah! How many people died in that mess? Fifty-eight isn't it? At that time, our total losses with the deserted soldiers and civilians who left the camp were exactly two hundred and five—a big number for a middle-class camp like us. We are three hundred and sixty-seven people now. Still not bad. Not bad at all." She planted the last drops remaining at the bottom of the bottle on her head and wiped her mouth. She got up and stretched. Troubling creaking rose from her old body. Then she started pacing slowly around the room, with her hands clasped behind her back, without being hectic."I was at the head of the school then. Don't be surprised, we even have a school. If the knowledge is not passed on, what would we be different from animals, right?" she stopped and patted one of the piles of books, "Here is the importance of knowing philosophy; I made the school as complex as I could. It still goes on the same way. We start with the little ones from the basics. We teach how to read and then show philosophy, literature, arts and basic sciences. We provide basic survival skills. They learn planting and hunting. We make sure that we put everything in their minds, from how they should behave in society to what to do when they encounter savages. Of course, it is easier when there are few people. There are grown-ups too, of course, one of our engineers taught a few talented people how to make basic tools: small repairs, preservation of what's on hand, small inventions. The doctor who died of the disease in the last epidemic taught many things that are easy to apply in the same way. The simple drugs," she stopped, pointed sloppily into the visitor's pockets with the tip of his finger, "Like those you stole. You understand it's all-important, right? If they are talented, we can train some of them directly as soldiers. Everyone has a place and importance.

Certainly not a utopia, there are still crack voices in between. It does not come off. Though, even in the most ideal world order one can think of, you cannot satisfy everybody constantly. You have to be realistic. Not everyone is unhappy, even in dystopias. It goes like this. The important thing is to keep people alive. If possible, in accordance with reason and logic, without allowing them to lose their humanity. Because losing humanity is also easy, it only looks at a bad moment. To a moment of madness. We keep them under control. We prune, shrink, and neutralize madness as much as we can. Because of all these, we tried to establish the most effective system we could manage. Efficient, functional and economical. Like you said. " Said the president, still pacing inside. While talking, he picks up the book from time to time. He shuffled it a bit, sometimes paused and read a place that caught his eye, but whatever he did, he skillfully chose all his words."I still don't quite understand what all this has to do with me," said the visitor, and while listening carefully to the president, he forgot that he was cross-legged and both legs were numb. He dropped his legs and rubbed his tingling flesh, making his face grimace. "You are talking about the inner workings of your camp, but I'm not included in it. I am completely an external factor. I am an irrelevant, irrelevant individual irrelevant, not even remotely related. A separate phenomenon. It's a marginal factor. It's a free radical. We have no ties. At best, you explain all this to someone who is going to get out of here. Isn't that wasting your time? Isn't it the opposite of that economic attitude? " he said one by one. Maybe it was the first time in his life that he spoke with that much thought. He was surprised by what he said and finished his sentence. The President had stopped as he spoke, locked his gaze on the floor and listened calmly. Then he looked up at the visitor, his gaze that the visitor had trouble identifying. He squinted sharply, almost triumphantly. He smiled lightly."I'm telling you this kid's head is working. Look at these words! Not bad for a slug whose whole life has been dragged here and there... Not bad at all! " he said with the tip of his head, pointing the visitor to the demon."Patience," he said, "is a virtue that must be acquired. I will come there now. But first you need to hear all this. Anyway what was I saying? Oh yes. We are a small but influential group that you will understand. We were able to establish a management style that would be effective in some way. If you are kind enough to ignore an old woman boasting a little bit of herself, I can say that we owe all this a little to my genius. I guess you clearly see it, there is a two-headed management style here. The first is the soldiers. " He said, pointing at the demon with his hand. A trace of expression came and went on the man's face. He bowed his head slightly. "It is very important to protect the soldiers. Responsible for all kinds of protection and law enforcement work against the outside. The balance with civilians is very important, for example, they have no sanctions on civilians. We banned him from getting out of whack and getting crazy. It is one of our strictest rules. If there is a civilian who is the most outraged, they can calm the situation with their arms. It's that limited. In addition, an expedition team was established recently. On the other hand, I step in. Naturally, the person you call the soldier is responsible for protecting what is produced, not from production. So the main part is working. President. And under me, there is a council that serves civil affairs. Though, ultimately, every decision comes and depends on me. A primitive view of democracy. It is necessary to make civilians feel that their opinions matter. Although we don't have things like human rights and the court... Yet, I mean, "he chuckled in an unexpected way," Of course it will too. The bigger we get, the more complex a system will be required. We will need to include situations such as finance and law. But these are probably not my problem. If possible, I want to die and go until the job gets there. My head is cracked now.Anyway, if you need to end up with you, the nineteen "said, finally turning to the visitor," Let's call the community that has to be managed by primitive methods for now, a flock of sheep. At this point, I become a shepherd, and that bloodhound is the shepherd dog. So what are you going to be? Do you have an idea?""So..." said the visitor, snarling, "The big bad wolf?""Bingo!" shouted the president, banging on the table, grinning in his mouth and ears. "I told you this little thief is pretty smart, right?" he said to the demon. Then he came and stood in front of the visitor, "What do you say, should we make a slight change in this naming? I have an offer for you."