The Delicious Phytoanthropes

Part 9. Home

Alma aggressively nodded–secrets to teens are like sweets to children.

The pitiful information Alma knew about the latest history of earth can be summarized into one sentence: Meteorite "Heaven " was heading its way toward earth, most people, billions and billions, were abandoned there, four spaceships left, they are one of them.

Mr.Jimmy revealed his secret:

"When the news about the impact of Heaven first came out, most people didn't believe it. Even after all the countries and the greatest scientists had reached the same conclusion that the meteorite impact is inevitable and is going to cause human extinction, most people refused to believe it. People chose to not believe it. They chose to lie and fool themselves so that they don't have to deal with it."

Mr.Jimmy's sight was lost in his memory, an air of melancholy surrounded him,

"We are not the chosen ones, Alma. The reality was, that most people decided to not come themselves. We are not either the greatest or the luckiest ones. We are barely the ones who have faith in the seemingly hopeless future."

"But, then we are the ones to survive. Humans are powerful creatures, it's not our body or even intelligence that made us great, it is faith. No matter how harsh the situation had been, whether it was a natural disaster, a man-made event, or an accident, people always found their way out. Sometimes few individuals have to sacrifice, sometimes it was the majority, but always, some stand to the end. Alma, I want you to truly believe in the eternal existence of humankind and always have faith in the future, no matter what happened." Mr.Jimmy spoke in a way as if trying to convince himself rather than teaching Alma. He was unusually serious when he said the last line.

The whole camp had entered into dormancy after Mr.Jimmy dismissed her. Since both fire and electricity are scarce, the daily activity of the camp ended with daylight, just like the ancient societies on earth.

Nevertheless, compared to these ancient societies, they have a slight advantage. Instead of a sole Moon, this planet has two moons, one big, one small, providing slightly more light.

Every time Alma looked up into the night sky, she felt hostility from the two moons. They looked like angry eyes monitoring the camp, reminding them that they don't belong here and cursing them to die.

Under the moonlight, Alma found her way to Homefield.

Homefield was the largest building in the camp. It was constructed to imitate a typical earth town though individual houses were condensed into rooms. The majority are dormitory rooms, acting as houses for each family. The other rooms hold functional uses, like the non-emergency hospital and kindergarten. Even some luxury entertainments can be found here, like the "barbershop" and cloth storage. When camp people say they are going home, they mean Homefield.

Alma used to share a room with Vera until Vera got married to Brendon. Alma had kindly withdrawn from the room she grew up in to make place for the new family. This would break Vera's heart but Alma honestly preferred her new room– she got to live with her friends instead, which means more fun and less control from Vera.

Alma entered the building in quiet steps. Inside the building, the moonlight was gone and everything was covered in ultimate darkness and silence. Alma couldn't see her own hands and the only sound she could hear is her own breath. This absolute emptiness would have been horrifying for a stranger.

Relied on instinct rather than eyes, Alma quickly found her room and squeezed in there, closing the door as light as possible.

Her room was a small one with no window, locked up like a coffin.

In the dark, Alma bent down to the floor, felt her hand against the hardened floor, and crawled forward for the bed. The bed was just a thin mattress directly on top of the floor without any metal frame to keep it standing.

After crawling a few steps forward, about the distance from the bed, she naturally reached out her hand to feel it.

She drew her hand forward, saw her own hand lost in the dark: the first thing she reached was not the soft sheet she expected but something cold, smooth, and bony, like a dried piece of flesh.

It's a human leg.