Day 275 - Feral Story

Feral Story

Matthew Ryan Fischer

The recession continued, and the economy perpetually worsened, so the city was thrown into a state of disrepair. Businesses failed. The government failed. Money failed. People were left to fight and fend for themselves. The city fell apart, inch-by-inch, day-by-day. The population dwindled, the people that could, left, taking the dreams and hopes of the city with them. This meant the city would die an extra and extremely painful spiritual death. Something in the soul of the city grew dark and became corrupted.

Those that were left behind were a broken and disillusioned type. They were ghosts – barely there at all, hardly human anymore. They were lost and without hope, trapped by their failures, unable to envision any potential there or anywhere else. They couldn’t imagine a world outside of what they had once known. They could see it was over, but they didn’t really know it or believe it. They could tell that to remain would mean their slow death, but yet they couldn’t bring themselves to move. They were wrecked inside, an empty rot replacing what should have been dreams and aspirations and desires. They accepted a failed routine, an existence slightly less that life, unable to cope or adapt to the new world around them.

As the city dissolved, nature took its course and reclaimed what man had once built. Buildings fell. Homes were left empty. Yards were unmaintained. City maintenance ground to a halt. The wild slowly crept back into the city. At first it was few and far between – weeds, wild plants, growing insect populations, increasing numbers of rodents, things of that nature. But the longer the collapse lasted, the less the city was maintained, and the more things became overrun. The wild animal populations skyrocketed.

The citizens that remained became a cruel and hurtful people. They showed no concern, had no empathy, and never went out of their way to be helpful or do anything pleasant. They treated their fellow man as subhuman. Their negative behavior towards one another reinforced and increased the callousness. The people were out for themselves and that was it. They began to give into their baser desires, and once they did, their descent snowballed. The people became hurtful and disgusting inside and out. There were increases in crime, increases in vagrant populations and a spike in drug use, gambling, prostitution and murder. The people were becoming less and less like people.

The city became overrun with animals. Leftover pets devolved and embraced a state of nature. As the forest crept closer and closer, the many wild things returned to the land that would never have been part of the city before – mountain lions, deer, and many other things. Packs of wild dogs terrorized various neighborhoods, there numbers in the thousands. They were beasts, hunters, destroyers. The vast number of abandoned homes became a safe haven for rodents and insects. Disease proliferated.

It was a tortured existence for anyone left in the city. There was a sickness on the streets, violence in the hearts of the people. Life was cruel and brutish and short, and so were the people. Blood was in the proverbial water and everyone could tell. It became a “me first” “look out for only yourself” sort of life. The city became feral, and it grew difficult to tell who had become worse – man or beast.