We are the scavengers

CHAPTER THREE:

Chapter Three:

It was almost daylight. We still haven’t found any food yet to feed our hungry stomachs. As we were walking in the street searching for food, I was wondering about my fellow citizens who are inside the main city. I was curious what they were doing, what they were eating or are they still alive. Ever since they left us, we didn’t heard anything about them anymore.  The memory is still fresh like it was just yesterday. I have witness how they let our lives be miserable as hell. No matter how much I want to resent my mom from leaving us, I just can’t…. no matter how much I try. I was just 12 years old back then and I haven’t fully grasped the full detail about our abandonment.

My life as an outcast sucks.

I looked at Alvis as he was walking ahead of me empty handed. At such a young age he was able to bear everything. I said at the back of my mind. Sometimes, when I feel down; he was my emotional bank account; and I thank him for that. If it weren’t for Alvis, there’s no point living my life here. Alvis is my life.

 I look around the street. Five years ago this street was full of houses and buildings but today there was nothing left aside from abandoned buildings and almost wrecked houses and bins. On one corner, there were piles of dead bodies on Barrio Patay alley. Instead of garbage being piled, it was corpses. The garbages were useful so you can’t see any garbage here left unattended. Everything was messy because of the debris and sediments but not garbages. The buildings looked like an ancient site after five years. Its windows were broken. Some shards are scattered on the ground. Everything was gone. Gone was the once happy country. We lived in a ghost town.

 A shattering sound echoed. I saw Alvis stepping on the window glass.  “Shhh!” I put my index finger to my crack lips to signal to Alvis to be careful not to step on window shards again. It might be the cause of our death if push comes to worst. I walked few steps silently before I was able to catch up to him. It would be a disaster if the early birds wake up. Early bird is the term I created for early outcasts. They’re like vultures sometimes. Because of extreme hunger; some of us turn to a cannibalistic person. They are the vultures. They kill and eat you.

We keep pressing forward until we saw a doughnut box on the street a few feet ahead of us. We hurried to go there; tiptoeing to avoid making sound. Alvis opened the box and close it. I gave him a questioning look.

“What’s inside?” I asked. My stomach started to growl. It is making me dizzy again.

“It is cockroaches this time…. Lucky for us…” he said in a low voice. Well I wasn’t really expecting something from it though; because if there was something in there we wouldn’t have the chance to saw that on the street. I was already immune from cockroaches, rats and other gross creatures so hearing them didn’t make me flinch a bit.

“Could I-”

“Leave it” I said hoarsely. It took me a lot of effort just to say that. My throat was so dry this morning I woke up and it felt like it was crushing my windpipe. It didn’t take me a second to cut him off.  I have pretty much idea what he is about to ask from me. Well I admit that we were hungry but for decency’s sake! There’s no way we’ll eat something like that. The more I think of Alvis eating cockroaches or rats the more I want to puke.

“Alvis, before everything what happened, we were not savage” I told him. If his planning to eat, I would really cut his throat. We’re not that desperate enough to eat some low living creature like that. He was still holding the box. I stare at Alvis. A few minutes passed and I notice something is off with him. He was acting aberrantly.

“Alvis?” I asked but it was as if he didn’t hear me. His expression went blank as his throat started to gulp something out of his dry throat. “Alvis?” I hold both of his cheeks but he was staring at me like a complete stranger. “Alvis!” fear crept into me. Please I hope he wasn’t becoming like I was imagining… I try to shake him off to snap him from reality. “Alvis!”