Watch the World Rot

3 | TAKEN AWAY

"Good morning, Chukotka! This is Lev and Jelena with an update on the recent Japanese epidemic."

"Medical sources made a new discovery: the severity of MJSV heavily increases as the days go on. The illness has been shown to cause a blackening of the limbs and large pus-filled boils in later stages."

"Victims may also lose consciousness, lose the ability of speech, feel numbness through their body, and smell a sickly odour of burning flesh."

"Records show that the virus has now spread to South America and Europe, as well as to multiple countries in Asia. There is still a lack of evidence in Africa and North America."

"When asked for information about the origin of MJSV, the Japanese prime minister has refused to comment."

"This was Lev and Jelena on Chukotka Radio."

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A few days ago, I had asked Sofiya what she thought about the recent predicament in the world. She had laughed me off, saying that she didn't believe in it.

"My mum says that they're juh-just trying to scare people," she had said. "We have nothing to worry about, and the rad-dio makes the illness seem much worse than it is."

I wonder how somebody can live in such blissful oblivion. How they can only see exactly what is presented in front of them, like they're living life with their face pressed against a brick wall. All they can see is the funny pores of human skin, bumps and freckles, hairs on the head and the body, the disproportionate faces of others as oblivious as them.

I think that Sofiya chooses to have her head against the wall because she is scared. She's scared to consider the fact that things may be much more serious than they seem and that we are in danger because there have already been signs of MJSV in Anadyr.

I'm scared too.

Nonoka's symptoms have worsened, and for the last two days she has been bedridden. Her frail body lies in the bed and she looks tiny in comparison - a thinning corpse with jutting bones and blue veins leaving inky lines through her skin like dripping stains of dyed blood. She's so pale that I'd wonder if she has any more left in her, was it not for the slow rising and falling of her chest.

Rising... falling... rising... falling. Nothing. A few moments of excruciating silence as her unconscious body struggled to take a breath. Then her chest begins to rise again, and we repeat. Nowadays she sleeps a lot, and when she wakes up she stares at my mother like she's seeing her for the very first time.

I don't dare approach her anymore. I stand in the doorway as my mum feeds her. I tremble and have to grip the doorframe to stop myself from falling because I'm so scared. I'm so scared that if my mother continues putting herself in danger this way, she'll catch it too.

My mother gave her the bed in her own room, while she herself sleeps in the living room each night. I truly admire her compassion at times like this.

Asa and Sakura Watanabe come over at times, offering their help and to switch places with Nonoka so she isn't a burden. Ever so kind and caring, my mother foolishly refuses. It's like she's been handed a shovel and is digging her own grave.

I wish I could also press my face against the wall like Sofiya and only see the great foreheads of other people as I examine the only interesting thing I could then look at. I'd like to switch places with Sofiya, though as soon as I think that I want to strike the thought out of my mind; a life like hers isn't something to be wished for.

As I walk through the streets, I see horrific zombie-like creatures. With skin as white as paper and eyes that seem to bulge from their waxy faces. Some have missing eyes with live maggots spilling from the sockets, and others have missing teeth. Teeth sharper than a polished razor. They have crackly skin caked in a thin layer of brownish blood. Boils and burns lace the surface of their skin, some round and red, while others burst open with yellow mucus piled inside.