Gorgi

Chapter 1: The Fascinating stop

"Halt!" shouted a member of our tourist group. The rickety blue bus we were using to travel across the continent stopped, causing everyone to bend forward in a heartbeat. When we barraged the young man who was the cause of this unsolicited stop with questions, he remarked that he was perplexed by what he had seen out his window. We all gathered about like honeybees around a hive and peered out.

The images forming on our retinas were no doubt strange. It did not take us long to realize that we were lost. Maybe the driver took a wrong turn or perhaps he read the wrong direction on the map or maybe this was just a pit stop. Whatever it was, the city was so fascinating for all of us that this was the least of our concerns.

The weather was frosty but benign. We ditched the bus, cladded ourselves in our jackets, and set off to wherever our morbid obsessions with mysteries took us. I paired up with my friend, Joy and set out to explore. We noticed that this city(or maybe town?) lacked frondescence. There were no trees in sight just endless rows of dark grey skyscrapers. This gloomy, drab place seemed to have no human inhabitation. I thought people possibly abandoned it due to lack of resources for sustenance.

After walking for around twenty minutes in this cement labyrinth, we were completely stranded, and could not locate our fellow travelers. We started to look for someone who could guide us back. There were no signs, no road signals not even a grocery store around. It smelled as if it had just rained but looked as if it had not rained in ages.

Joy suddenly heard footsteps coming from a few meters north of us. We started walking towards it and discovered a small, brown hut. It stood out from the humungous buildings surrounding it. The door was unlocked so we went in. "Creek" we heard intently as our hyperventilating bodies touched each-others. It looked like an atelier. There were splashes of paint, unfinished paintings on canvases, and crumbled newspapers lying on the floor. I picked one up and read the headline out loud, "Zilch left in the city of Gorgi, all dead!"

My friend opined that it's malarkey but I noticed a trail of red leading to the pantry. Was it paint or- blood?