The reserve is one dreadful place to spend all your life in.
All roads are weathered,which get worse when it rains. They become sticky and impassable. Houses here are made of iron sheets,mud or thick transparent polythene bags joined and held up to thin planks of wood. The houses are congested,waste papers which were gathered in heaps are distributed unevenly across the reserve and small trenches draining waste water out of every homestead. It is one hell of an unhygienic area ,but after all, we are human beings,we all have a certain characteristic in our genes;adaptation. We can adapt to almost all environments.
Food in the Reserve comes from the Reserve farm.
That's where everyday,in the morning,the women go to work. It is a large extended area inside the firm.
Before anyone can enter the farm,there is a large thick metal gate where two muggles stand,heavily armed. They hold scanners on their hands where they scan the boel,a flat and shiny electromagnetic bracelet.
Everyone in the reserve has it to keep track of us.
But once they are in,there are two shifts: the first shift work from morning to midday with an occasional break and another shift would take over from midday to evening. The farm is surrounded by an electric fence,preventing anyone from trespassing into the farm
The reserve has its own currency,a reserve shilling,a coin designed with a very strange,intricate carvings on it. Before you get out of the farm,one is issued with one reserve shilling. With the coin,one would go to the market,controlled entirely by the muddles then purchase the same food one farms in the farm,but this time, in limited supply. Other stuffs like clothes and furniture are sold every first day of the month. Their demand are high and thereby in those days, the market is crowded.
On the other hand,the men are forced to work in the industry. The procedure was the same,using shifts from morning to midday and another shift from midday to evening. However, the daily wage is two reserve shillings.
Well,as for is children,we are just there,confused,waiting for our parents and so on.
Like zombies.
Although this was not the life we chose,life had to move on. We had to push the wheels of life,no matter how heavy or tractive they were.
But for me, in the past few days, I've been trying to understand the layout of the reserve. First,the reserve is not in an open area, it is surrounded by a wall about 20 metres in height.
"It is said that its thickness is about 5 metres, making it almost impossible for anyone to go into or out of the reserve." My friend Fang told me as we made a stroll. Fang was Chinese,living only with his dad. His mom never made it alive during the Zoom attack.
"Before you even reach the wall,there is a strip of trees about 300 metres surrounding the wall. The trees are densely packed,and the muddles work day and night,guarding the area,looking for anyone trying to escape."
"All night?All day?" I asked shocked.
"Well,not actually. They take shifts. They take four shifts per day,each taking six hours,from six am to twelve pm to six pm to twelve am. These guys,are organised,but not very. When time to shift comes,they all move in their headquarters in the reserve then others get dispatched,placing themselves at strategic places where they are supposed to guard.
Hmmm....not so clever after all as I thought.
"And where did you get information about all of this?" I asked him suspiciously. You possibly could not know all of this unless you are one of them.
YOU ARE READING
The Reserve
Science Fiction*Won 2nd place in the Royal Awards* Brian Watt is a seventeen year old kid living in the reserve,fifteen years later after invasion of the Muddles. His father escaped three years ago to join the rebels in the Ruins. He escapes in search of his fath...
