By: Roel Reis
The world was cold and gloomy. Today, it was the worst
and most terrible place to live. The oxygen which essentially brought life, now
a
breeze blew gently that
carried it, had been doubted its genuineness
and misunderstood. Even for breathing people were very wary! This was
the most confusing battle so far ... Plague was a real enemy as well as an
invisible foe that could kill anyone at any time.
The streets were so quiet in entire town. Green trees no
longer showed any freshness, but as if they were grim and pale with sorrow. The
silence of the town was like a giant cemetery, where the houses above its cold
soil were like neatly lined gravestones. Every now and then the ambulance that
sounded a loud siren, as if reminding people of the trumpet of death that
terrorized every soul, came and then faded away .... They just passed by. We
never knew where they came from, but we knew exactly where they went ... They
surely ended up at a nearby hospital or even at a funeral.
The busy medical staffs with special protective clothings
that looked like aliens came in groups to pick up new victims in a hurry. Some
others, with the same strange hazmat suits sprayed some parts of the town with the
disinfectant liquid. It was a scary and a sad scene.
The town was experiencing a lockdown. For the safety,
people stayed in their homes. A number of officers were on guard watching the
town, and were preparing to catch people who were stubborn and desperate to
wander the streets. They often met such people and had to play hide and seek,
chased after them ..., but most of them disappeared in narrow alleys and were
untraceable anymore.
Stuart
Bourne was one of those who still roamed in the town’s streets. Previously, Stu
worked in a small bakery. Though it was small, the bakery was quite well-known
and very much in demand. During the plague, the bakery was closed. Stu lost the
only job that could support his family daily life.
When the economy collapsed, Stu’s life started to become
chaotic. He had a lot of debt he could no longer pay. He had to think hard to overcome
his financial problems. Unfortunately..., he should feed his little family
every day, and he had no money!
Then why did Stu’s luck become so bad? Local government
policy did provide a social safety net for poor people. Sadly, Stu’s family
was not included as a group of poor people. It was the most revolting weakness
of the administrative system in the municipal government bureaucracy. There
were many leaks in the system, so people like Stu were always victims. The
system was not able to categorize the new poor people! When they lost their
jobs, the system didn’t care about people who were in debt and running out of
savings. They were not poor people. They were not bums. But, now their lives were far worse
than both.
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