Things Fall Apart

When aged sixteen, Gerard decided he would not live past thirty.
Thirty was not old, not young. A diable-viable age. And he knew life wouldn’t get any better.
As a result, he started propelling himself in the most dangerous situations he could think of, hoping he would die by a fortunate turn of events, because he was not brave enough to take his own life away. Not brave enough to live it either.
Now he was twenty-two and sitting in the translucent monorail travelling over the city. He turned his music up in order for it to overwhelm dark thoughts wandering hopelessly into his brain, and the Smashing Pumpkins blasted in his headphones, drawing disapproving looks from the other travellers.
He could guess their thoughts just by watching their faces. Because listening to your music too loud was one of the many things Better Living Industries would forbid, if ever they got elected at the head of the government.
Gerard annoyingly gazed at their advertisements flashing by through the monorail’s window: a happy-looking black face on a plain white background, simply stating “VOTE BETTER LIVING INDUSTRIES” in bold capital letters, and just under their motto “To create a better world and a better future which is void of negative emotions”.
He wasn’t so sure it was a good idea. After all, “Negative emotions” as they called them, still helped the world move forward.
And what they exactly meant by negative emotions, they did not say.
Today would be the first day of three years of apocalyptic war that would eventually lead to Better Living Industries taking over the world.
But Gerard didn’t know that yet, as he walked out of the crowded public transportation towards his art school which would not stand for long: Better Living Industries didn’t like any form of protest, especially not art.
Because Art was the Weapon.

A story has to start somewhere. It always has to have a clear beginning and an end, because anything issued from a human-being has to be finite. It could start from the birth of a character, focus on his life and end when he dies, but it still wouldn’t be an accurate representation of reality, as many exterior factors can be taken into account for shaping a story. Many factors coming from different people with different stories eternity wouldn’t be long enough to tell. Some dating back to the beginning of the world, even before History started, when the very first human beings decided to settle down the laws of life. The laws that stated how life ought to be lived.
However, for purely practical purposes in a purely practical world, it can be considered that it all started exactly 2 hours and 38 minutes after the Smashing Pumpkins blasted into a young man’s headphones, sitting in a monorail, ignoring the angry looks from the other travellers; at the exact moment when the fire alarm went off in the art school of this same city.

Gerard rushed out of his class along with every other student. In that moment they were all supposing it was yet another training in case of a real emergency. They had no clue on the fact that a civil war had just started. They had no clue that at the same moment, every other art school and museum in every other city were similarly burning.
But when they got out of the building and saw the smoke, they partly understood. It was all clearly explained to them a few minutes later, when the screens of all the electronic devices in the country turned black, then white, eventually displaying the strict and regular face of an Asian lady. All the students looked up at the nearest advertisement screen, only a few feet away.
“Salutations, citizens.” She said, in a melodious voice.
“Allow me to introduce myself. I am at the head of the Better Living Industries. From now on, we will be your Government.”
It had happened. The Better Living Industries had taken the power.
And while she carried on with her concise and polite speech explaining what improvements the Better Living Industries would bring and why their coup was a good event under the incredulous stare of millions of citizens, Gerard ran away. He had to find Mikey, his little brother.
His whole life, he had been protective of him because he was the only family left he had, and the only thing he still loved about this world.
And now was a time when he really needed his protection.
Happily his high school wasn’t really far from Gerard’s location, and he reached it quite rapidly. He couldn’t call Mikey with his phone because of the glitch that had happened on every electronic device.
“We will turn this country into white perfection.” he heard coming from the nearest electronic billboard, while he entered the building.
All the students still were in the classrooms as it hadn’t been set on fire like the art school had been, but Gerard could see through the windows that they were watching the broadcast. He didn’t quite understand why nobody was really panicking about it.
Maybe because the lady on the transmission sounded so convincing.
He carried on crossing the corridor when he suddenly spotted the thin silhouette of his 18 years old brother in one of the classes. He looked at his shy pointy face partly hidden behind his rectangular glasses and locks of hazelnut hair, with a mix of sadness and tenderness in his heart. He felt sorry he couldn’t have a better world to live into.
But Gerard would create him that world if he needed to.
He burst into the classroom without a warning and all the students looked up at him with astonishment, probably trying to put a name on his face.
Mikey looked confused, while Gerard walked straight up to him.
“Let’s go.” He simply said. Mikey complied and got up without questioning. He trusted his brother more than anybody else.
“What do you think you’re doing?” The teacher suddenly shouted, startling both brothers.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Gerard replied on the same tone “You need to put these kids in a safe place immediately!”
“Certainly not!” The teacher snapped “Better Living Industries isn’t a threat. They are going to increase the quality of life of everyone! Now leave this young man where he belongs and evacuate this building.”
Mikey looked up at Gerard with pleading eyes. The latter grabbed his arm tightly in a protective way.
“I am responsible for him, and I will take him wherever pleases me if I think you’re putting him in danger.” He said, slowly backing towards the door, pulling Mikey with him.
“He’s under my responsibility during class time.” The teacher replied aggressively. “Leave this young man alone!”
“Run.” Gerard whispered to Mikey. And they suddenly precipitated through the door and ran through the corridor towards the exit of the building.
“I’m calling the S/C/A/R/E/C/R/O/W!” the teacher yelled. But they were already far away.
They eventually stopped running, out of breath, once they were in an empty street a bit further from the school.
Where could they go?
If the teacher had called the S/C/A/R/E/C/R/O/W, they couldn’t come back home, because they would be waiting for them here. The S/C/A/R/E/C/R/O/W knew everything about anyone, through Better Living Industries’ data. It was kind of scary to know that they owned files about each and every citizen.
This was what Gerard was trying to flee.
Away.
They had to go away. Leave the city.

The desert was the only place left the BL/I couldn’t control.
They could hide here, forever.
They lurked out of the city, going unnoticed in the crowd of confused citizens, looking for their relatives, trying to understand what happened, what was Good and what was Evil.
They silently climbed up the stoned wild trail leading to the desert, gradually moving away from the city they had always lived in.
They hadn’t been here since there were kids with minds full of adventures, looking for a place to play. But now everything looked like a dump, with an unbelievable amount of trash from the city piled up in strange menacing shapes, like old statues from the past in the glory of forgotten gods.
The Waste Lord.
“Won’t you talk?” Gerard asked. Mikey shook his head negatively. Gerard didn’t insist, he understood. He grabbed his little brother by the shoulders and embraced him quickly.
He wanted to promise everything would be fine, but he couldn’t. Because he had no idea what would happen next.
Having no idea about his future was scary; but maybe a bit exciting.
Never before had he imagined his life to be something else than a straight road leading directly to the cemetery.
Never before had something new and unexpected happened to him.
They silently sat on a sandy hill overhanging the city, the dark smoke in the blood red dying sky stinging their eyes and blocking their throat, no matters from how far it came. He could see, far away, the most important buildings on fire and the citizens like ants in the streets. From where they were, they couldn’t hear the whine of the many alarms in the wind. Everything was dead silent.
Statues in memory of the Waste Lord watched silently.
It had never quite felt like home anyways, and they had always wanted to run away. But Gerard knew this was the end of something bad for the beginning of something worse.
And in that moment he realised he had keep on living for Mikey. He had to protect him from the world. He placed his hands over his little brother’s eyes, so he wouldn’t witness their home city burning.
“Don’t look” he said “Things fall apart.”

Notes

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