Fiction: Group 4
It was a vast, lifeless and inert piece of land. Nothing other than scattered rubble and piles of debris can be
seen. It was like a living infernal. The whole land was devoured and engulfed in darkness, and the warmth
of the sun was never seen or felt again.
“Zeng, you finally came.”
I recognised instantly that the one speaking was the mysterious voice I heard in my dream.
“What do you want from me? Where is this place? Take me back to my original country!” I yelled at the
top of my voice desperately. I could not see any signs of living creature, nor the owner of the voice.
“You shall not return until you have gained. The time will eventually come.” The voice said once again.
“Take me away from this place! Please!” But there was no reply. I was all alone once again, standing on this
piece of deserted land. This was the first time I ever felt despair.
I started wandering around to ease the hopelessness overflowing my heart. I realised that I was in Yuancheng
District immediately after I saw the Dong River. It no longer gleamed, but was dull in colour and
contaminated.
“Clang!”
Full of alert, I turned around to search for the source of the sound. To my surprise, I spotted a young girl
dressed in torn and ragged clothing. Her face was covered in dust, however, her eyes glowed as she stared
through me.
I noticed her picking up tiny pieces of rubble from the collapsed infrastructures. Just as I was about to ask
her about what was happening, she darted away from the site in a hurry.
Confused, I followed her. As we reached a building, I halted to observe it. It was the Central Building,
however demolished. As I made my way into the destroyed ruin, my intuition guided me to the staircase
leading to the basement of the building.
I heard voices. Many furious voices. Quickening my steps, I saw two men arguing, while the rest of the
small group sat at the corner of the room. They all had hollow eyes and were emotionless, as if they did not
care what was happening. Among them was the young girl whom I followed into the building, who was
using her own battered shirt to wipe the dirt off an old lady’s face. She stroked her hair and whispered words
into her ear, comforting her.
“Why should we waste our resources on someone who is on the verge of dying? We don’t even have
enough clean water for ourselves!” One of the men said. He was taller than the other man and had a strong
build.
“No matter how harsh and forlorn the situation is, we should never give up any lives! It is immoral to watch
someone die without doing anything! That is just like killing someone indirectly! You are going to be a
murderer!” The other said, full of rage.
“What about being a murderer? Nobody is going to arrest you. Laws don’t exist here anymore. Moreover,
you can’t even keep yourself alive. How are you going to save others?” The tall man sneered.
“At least I haven’t turned into a heartless and selfish beast yet.”
“How dare you!” The tall man grabbed the other man’s shirt and clenched his fist.
