Underground Metropolis of Beijing

 

It was the noise of the underground electric generator, that had woken Zhao Xin from his dreadful nightmare. “What just happened, where is my daughter, is she feeling better now?” Zhao Xin exclaimed, gasping in horror. After a few minutes, he steeled himself and realized it was just another tortuously nightmare about the sickness of his daughter. He let out a huge relief. Since the week she got sick Zhao Xin had a dream continuously – it was also the week that the household to be lack of resource, every family member had sacrificed a few grams of their straw to clutch at– their few amounts of food, to sustain her life as long as possible.

Of course, they knew this is just a temperate plan to save her life. They need to find a doctor, but these days, doctors barely come out to work since they were already lucky enough to survive from the worldwide nuclear explosion – it was indeed unexpected, but what can you do about it. It was a glorious late November sunny day in the year 2050, and all the media were relentlessly reporting the exorbitant price sustainable nuclear energy robbing. No one knew where the gangster was hiding; citizens anticipate that nothing worse will ignite until the special correspondent’s camera suddenly glitched out, and the live transmission simultaneously terminated. It was as if the world for an instant became a bland void in the galaxy. At that moment, no one knew what happened. They just held their breath for 30 seconds in front of their television without even noticing. Before one’s senses could come back, a terrifying explosion burst through their houses and leaving nothing but only dead but not deadish corpse behind, the radiation was as if a reaper silently taking out life along his casually roam. For the lucky ones, they received the dreadful news, either early enough or just in time to give them time to react to what had happened: The operation failed, and the gangster made a lethal mistake in the elaborating of sustainable nuclear energy, which created a catastrophe that almost wiped out the whole human race. Only a few billion survived, the government forced us to live in the harsh underground condition.

Zhao Xin let out a huge relief. He slowly dragged his weary body off the bed and walked into the dim unlighted living room, he sat in the old couch then opened the old dusted T.V. That had not been used for years. It was surprisingly functional. It made him thought for a moment, when is the last time I watched this old crap? But before he could answer himself, the daily news media interrupted him through his thought. “Good morning! ladies and gentlemen, it’s the Ultimate Proxy News, today we bring you the official news from the government,” The journalist said, the tone a bit mournful. “According to the statistics from the government, we’re going to experience a phase of starvation next month, due to lack of resources.”

This information shocked Zhao Xin as if a concussion had just struck him hard enough to make him lose balance off his feet. “Not again!” shouted not aware that it was only 5 in the morning

“This is the second time in the week, my family is going to starve to death. And at last, I wouldn’t be able to see any of them ever again.” At that point, drops of tears were barely hanging on the rim of his eyes. He knew better; he knew that crying couldn’t solve anything. But he couldn’t restrain himself.

He just can’t.

 

The very next day was as usual as always. Until death reached over to him again. The tragedy was the loss of his mom. This dreadful news made him felt guilty. “Why! just why! Why can’t we get enough food!” Even though he knew the answer, he still shouted to the depth of his lungs. This middle-aged-young man stood int cremate factory not know what to do for a moment. The smell of dead rotten bodies made Zhao Xin recall the rancid vegetables, which made him felt anxious about the short life before they moved into the underground. The beautiful ranch splendid suddenly came back to him. He wished so desperately when would he get to see that spectacular sight again.

When Zhao Xin got back home with his wife, the weak and weary voice of his four years old sickened daughter called him, “Daddy, can you come over, please? I want to talk to you.” He rushed into her room, answering his daughter.

“Yes, sweetheart, do you have anything to say?” Zhao Xin said with a warm smile, which seemed to obligate.

“Daddy, when can we have pork again, I haven’t had one for eight months.”

“We will buy you some eventually.” knowing that it is not possible anymore, pork has run out for two weeks by now.

“Aww, I wish we were still living on our farm, if we had lived there now, we would have pork whenever we want. When can we raise a piggy again, huh?” This time Zhao Xin didn’t bother to answer her. Instead, he thought about the conversation for a minute.

She’s right; why can’t we grow our meat?

Later on, that day, the idea kept struggling in his brain, he pondered silently in the quarter circle science lab. The lab was small, but it is full of utility functions. There is concrete made a pentagon-shaped table in the middle of the room, and the apparatus are neatly lined up on the shelves on top of the sink along with the labeled substances, a giant periodic table is hanged beside the massive whiteboard. All the lights were dim since the government notices the consumption of the electricity is exceeding their prediction, they formulated an electricity consumption policy; No electricity shall be wasted on charging anyone’s electric device, it is necessary to reduce the utilization of electricity. From now on, the government will regulate the generator to decrease its standard transmission by 15% percent. And there will strict government-official inspections weekly-basis. If we caught anyone illegally exceeding the boundary of 31 watts per week, they would be severely punished and reprimanded. How do we grow it? Zhao Xin pondered carefully; then, he caught a glimpse of the animal cell picture on the wall left of him. Which promptly gave him a crazy idea.

Zhao Xin spent the whole night thinking about how to grow meat. He hadn’t slept for 8 hours, his head felt like an upside-down, his eyes were barely opening, red stripes covering his spread out in his eyes. But the hard work didn’t vain off, his effort finally paid off, when it was 17 sketches, Zhao Xin drew of the animal cell diagram. He took a deep breath, hoping this time the formula is correct. If he had calculated everything with an electronic device, it would have been much quicker, but in reality, it is always that harsh and indifferent. After Zhao Xin ran a check on the formulas and calculations, he concluded with such excitement, “Finally, it’s time; finally, I have a piece of visual evidence, this is the key to survive underground.” Before he even had his breakfast, he dashed out of the science lab, veered toward the threshold, and sprinted down the main street determined, no matter what happens.

 

Meanwhile, Zhao Xin arrived at a residential area near the grand city hall, and he strolled on the sidewalk, eyes scanning on the house number as he slowly murmured 1123, 1124,1125, 1126, 1127. Then he stopped at the apartment labeled 1128. He hesitated before pushing down the doorbell. After a moment of consideration and pondering, he finally found the courage to push down the doorbell, “I think this is it.” Zhao Xin talked to himself as the sequenced doorbell ringed relentlessly. Before the wave of ringing ended, the door abruptly opened. A man wearing a black supreme T-shirt and a pair of coffee color toned shorts appeared in front of him. Looking at the external features, this man looks like he is at least 48, but in reality, he is only 39 – one of the miracles which were lucky enough to survive from the devastating explosion. Neither of them said a word for five whole minutes. It was the sound of a child inside the house that broke the silence and made the visitor remembered what the purpose he came here was.

“Hey, Liu Ci Ren, long time no see, huh? Do you still remember me?” Zhao Xin asked hesitantly.

“Yeah, man, long time no see, do you want any help? Or let’s just come inside and talk, my family and I haven’t had any company for a long time, you know. It’s always good to have one, especially one as noble as you.

“Sure, why not.”

They walked into the apartment, all rooms are dim lightened and same for Liu Ci Ren’s apartment there were no windows, as he was getting familiar with the surroundings, he heard a hollow sound traveling in the air, even though the voice is fainting he still can identify it was a females voice, or to be more specific a young girl’s sobbing. It made him feel uncomfortable; the sobbing reminded him of his daughter. He cannot help but filing his eyelids with crystal-like tears. He purposely turned his head away from household members, pretending to look at the ornaments in the apartment, but he knew that all the furnish settings are the same for every household.

After a while, he finally can’t endure the brainwash sound of weeping; he held up the courage to question Liu Ci Ren, “What’s that sound? Where did it come from?” although the tone was a bit accusing.

He was caught off by surprise, but he still answered back, “It was the snivel of my daughter; she was struggling with sickness for two whole weeks.”

Zhao Xin hadn’t forgotten the pain his mom had brought to the family; this recall only made him more determined than ever. “What terrible news to hear, to be honest with you, my daughter has the same sickness as her.” Zhao Xin sighed. This commitment rendered the room to a dead silence; both of them sat in the lavish gray couch with a jet-black cushion that comforts their sour back. If Liu Ci Ren’s wife had not heard the cracker-like crunch sound, the visitor would have slept in the cozy couch. Because of the tiredness that had hoarded up last night since and the relaxation couch that hypnotized him, he couldn’t help but closing his eyes just as the only tiny crack on his eye that still received a vision. The silhouette of a woman sketched out on the harsh metallic floor. It looks like the women were coming toward them, as she turned around the corner, the tragic snivel became louder.

The brainwashing sound suddenly waked him; it was as if a bucket of ice water has just dunked all over him. The housewife gently carried the sobbing boy to the living room with full of mercy. She paced toward the two-person sofa, elegantly putting down the children in Liu Ci Ren’s arms. “Can you take care of him for a while, I’m going to cook dinner for all of us.” Before she left to go to the kitchen, she briefly introduced herself to Zhao Xin “Hi, nice to meet I’m Laura; I’m Liu Ci Ren’s wife. You must be the friend that Liu Ci Ren was missing.

“Yes, nice to meet you too, Mrs. Laura, I’m Zhao Xin.” He replied.

After the short conversation, she left and went to the kitchen. Then Zhao Xin realized this was probably the only and best opportunity he can explain his plan to him, so he straightened out his clothes and coughed intentionally. It caught Liu Ci Ren’s attention on purpose, and he turned his body around him so they can see each other’s faces. Perhaps it was because of the separation between their friendship for years, that made Zhao Xin felt extremely uneasy about this. Before he laid out his cards about what was the purpose, he visited him, he paused and decided to beat around the bush.

“Did you try to consult a doctor near your residential area?” Zhao Xin asked, even though he knew the answer – all the community and residential doctors were hired by the government to prevent the administrates from sickness.

“No, all the doctors near my neighborhood had been hired by the government.” Liu Ci Ren sighed.

“But we still have to find a way to cure her, right?”

“I know, but how, nobody is going to appear and solve the hunger suddenly, and gave us the cure?”

“Here, listen, I got a plan, but I don’t guarantee it’ll work,” Zhao Xin finally laid out his cards. He pulled out his latest draft of the animal cell and showed it to Liu Ci Ren. It was drawn on a piece of tissue paper, that had been rubbed and crumbled at least ten times and the wrinkles spread throughout the paper. “take a look at this, what do you think, I think this is the only option left for us. Are you going to help to conquest hunger?” Both of them carefully scanned the plan one more time. Then there was an eternity dead silence as if the time had paused.

What choice are they going to make? Sacrifice themselves or keep struggling?