Some fiction… (Part 1)

You grow up as a human in a forest civilization. Everyone around you is happy and content with their hunter-gatherer lifestyle — living for simple things such as finding and eating food together, singing and dancing, and telling stories. They hold their relationship with the Earth and the animals around them to the utmost importance. When they occasionally plant seeds into the ground to produce extra food, they make sure to let the Earth rest every so often, never overworking the soil. They don’t take too much of anything, whether animals or trees or berries. They think that they have the most meaningful lives imaginable. As a child, all of your family members and the elders repeat the same thing to you: “Don’t leave the forest. It is the one and only happy place in the world. There is danger elsewhere, like zombies roaming around who will harm you and transform you into one of them.”

Your family works hard every day to find enough food to survive; spending all day scavenging and pursuing with incredible stamina. However, you have never had much stamina yourself; never been able to spend more than a few hours on one task; unable to provide much for your family. Your family believes that you have potential, but you usually come home empty-handed, with only stories of faraway places where you have gone. You have always enjoyed wandering, having found many various streams and caves and spent many nights gazing up at stars from hilltops since your early days. Your parents have told you of one Forbidden Cave with two large stalactites at its mouth like fangs though, which is deadly to enter. You have never seen this cave, but you think you might know the way there. You believe that there is so much to explore. You haven’t found a way out of the forest yet, but you believe that there exists one. As you grow older, you get a little bit restless; you don’t know if you will ever be able to get used to spending all day finding food for the next. You must see the outside world at some point. You have to touch those stars at some point; see where that stream ends; map out as much of the world as you can. However, you don’t think the other humans, especially your family, would understand this urge, they would only see you as a defect; so you don’t tell them any of this.

One day while wandering around the forest, you meet an interesting stranger, Z. You seem to agree with Z on everything: what you want in life, what type of a person you want to be, everything. You even confess to Z that you aren’t completely sure if you want to spend your whole life in the forest, that you can’t die satisfied without seeing at least a little bit of what lies outside, far away. Then Z reveals that he is a zombie. You are shocked because everyone told you that zombies were extremely intimidating and would immediately hurt you. But Z seems perfectly fine and friendly, and in fact more relatable to you than your family and the other humans are. He tells you that zombies don’t have to be evil; that there’s a land far away where everyone is a zombie and lives happy, contented, sophisticated lives; instead of hunting and gathering, they have huge machines to plant seeds into the Earth and harvest the food for them, and as a result they have much extra time to do whatever they want. The machines expel gas that is unhealthy to breathe and can be deadly to animals though, which does not align with the human values your family taught you of living simply and having a good relationship with the Earth. In addition, Z thinks the other zombies can be kinda lazy, so he is not completely sure he wants to be like them (Z prefers to spend all his time being productive).

“But why are you here?” This question lingers.

“I was just wandering around this place to soak up old memories, since I was born a forest dweller — I used to live here until I ran away at a young age.”

“What do you mean ran away?”

“To become a zombie, you have to drink a particular potion. But you must find the potion yourself. I can’t tell you — or else I’d die by the hands of the zombie God.” The last part was kinda mumbled.

“I’ve got to go now. Best of luck, and I’ll see you around.” Z runs off into the trees. You could have sworn you noticed a mark on Z’s upper arm just as he was heading off, a blurry blue dot, but it could also be the angle of the sunlight, or your imagination.

As you go about life afterwards, something is not the same. A tiny part of you is now extremely curious about the zombies. What Z told you about a whole living world existing outside of the forest lingers in your mind. But maybe it is true that your soul would die if you went there; if you handed off the work to some machines rather than running the loose Earth through your hands every day like your family members. You would not be living the life that you were made to live; not living as close to the Earth as you should be. Maybe these are just selfish thoughts, which no good human should think. So you try to suppress them. But you can’t unsee that mark on Z’s upper arm. In fact, it haunts your brain to the point that if you stare long enough at other humans’ upper arms, sometimes you can make out faint blue dots to varying levels of clarity, although all fainter than Z’s. You’ve seen these humans around every now and then, although scarcely talked to. You’re not sure if this is your imagination; you never used to see the dots. Are you going crazy? Your family would certainly think so. If you told them, they’d probably say that you have been infected by zombies, and ostracize you. So you ruminate alone with your confused, dot-filled, mind.

At a civilization gathering a while later, the elders report that several humans — C, S, and J — have gone missing and are most likely dead or have been attacked by zombies. Their names are carved into a log and burnt, so that their spirits may go up in peace. Most of your family is crying, as well as some other humans. But you recognize the names as some of those upon whose arms you saw dots. One of them’s was even almost as dark as Z’s. You cover your mouth as it falls open. Deep inside, you know there is a chance that they escaped safely to the zombie land Z spoke of. That they are not in fact dead, but living their more sophisticated life with machines, without ever having to worry about being hungry. You don’t know how big this chance is, though. In the far corner of the ceremony, you make out a small cluster of humans, all with dots on their upper arms. They are not filled with sorrow, but rather, huddled close and whispering excitedly. You approach them intrigued, but before you can get close enough to hear anything, someone grabs your arm. It’s your aunt looking panicked and close to tears, mumbling something about zombies. Two of your uncles are right behind her, about to lecture you.

“Why are you going up to those infected people? Such a family disgrace!”

“Do you know what family you belong to?”

“Though it might be hard, we live the morally correct life, as close to the Earth as possible.”

“We’ll be watching you in the future.”

They must know. The dots are not just in your imagination, but real. You are not the only one who can perceive them. Your family’s belief in you is already hanging on by a thread due to your practical unproductivity, and you cannot risk them cutting ties to you. You will not be communicating with blue-dotted humans in the near future.

“I was just curious, I didn’t know. Of course I’ll stay away from them in the future.”

Strangely, despite this your eyes grow ever more sensitive to the blue dots, and you can now discern even the faintest ones; as a result, you see more and more of them. You soon realize that a large proportion of the human civilization indeed has blue dots, although none are your family members or the elders. Every day, you check your own arm for the symbol of infection by a zombie, and breathe a sigh of relief to find that even the faintest mark is not there.

One day, your family members give you the particularly difficult task of catching squirrels. According to your grandfather, it is a basic skill that every human must learn at some point. You aim your bow and arrow countless times that day, but keep missing. Dreading going back home that night, you decide to go on a random walk, the only thing that can alleviate your hopelessness sometimes. After a while, you hear voices in the distance. You follow them to the gaping mouth of a huge cave lined with stalactites and stalagmites almost like teeth, with two particularly large stalactites positioned like fangs. There is a single large blue dot where the eyes would be. Several humans stand in the mouth of the cave, listening to a loud booming voice that you can’t quite make out. You instantly recognize it as the Forbidden Cave from your family members’ warnings, but for some reason you suddenly feel a fragment of hope. What has gotten into you? Z’s voice replays in your head: “To become a zombie, you have to drink a particular potion. But you must find the potion yourself.” Could this be what they are all up to? Entering would mean risking death; risking your future as a human. But what future? You can’t exactly see yourself living as your family members do. You plan to return during the night, for you absolutely cannot risk your family members finding you here.

At midnight, when your family should be asleep, you slip out from under your fur blanket, place some bundles of hay underneath to make it look like you’re still there, and run all the way to the Forbidden Cave. Remembering the scene from yesterday, you cautiously step inside, hoping for another human to be there to keep you company. Praying that you will not be destroyed by zombies.

“Hello?” you say quietly.

“HELLO AND WELCOME TO THE PORTAL. THIS IS THE ONLY WAY TO ASCEND TO THE ZOMBIE WORLD FROM THE HUMAN WORLD.” a booming voice echoes throughout the chamber, almost throwing you off of your feet. You look around for a face, or a mouth, but the only mouth is that of the cave itself. The word “ascend” fascinates you, for you had thought before that humans were for sure above zombies.

“What are the chances of me dying?”

“NONE; YOU EITHER ASCEND TO THE ZOMBIE WORLD OR SIMPLY GO BACK TO THE HUMAN WORLD. HOWEVER, THE PORTAL WILL INFECT YOU, BUT ONLY IF YOU TELL OTHER HUMANS THAT YOU HAVE BEEN HERE. THE SYMPTOMS ARE MILD, AND FOR MOST HUMANS MANIFEST IN ONLY A BLUE DOT (THE SYMBOL OF A ZOMBIE) APPEARING ON THE UPPER ARM.”

You sigh in relief at zombies not being anywhere near as deadly as your family members and elders made them out to be, but panic slightly after realizing that encountering another human in this cave will automatically summon a blue dot on your upper arm. You must keep this entire endeavor a secret from your family and all the other humans. You pray that no one else would venture so far from civilization at this hour.

“How does one reach the zombie world?”

“TAKE ONE OF THE FLASKS FROM THE BAG OVER THERE. YOU MUST MAKE THE POTION BY COMBINING EQUAL PARTS OF SEAWATER, MILK, AND SOAP. IT WILL TURN BRIGHT BLUE WHEN MIXED, AND THEN YOU WILL DRINK IT.”

“Where do I find the ingredients, in the forest?”

“YOU MUST FIND THEM ALL IN DIFFERENT PARTS OF THIS CAVE. THIS CAVE EXTENDS FAR AND WIDE BENEATH MUCH OF THE FOREST. NOW START PROMPTLY, FOR YOU HAVE ONLY THREE DAYS TO COMPLETE THIS, STARTING NOW.”

Your mind switches into overdrive mode as you grip a flask and scan the cavernous room that you are standing in. There seem to be three openings apart from the gaping mouth that you entered through, supposedly correlating with the three ingredients. Upon entering the first, you find yourself in a maze of stone tunnels. Your experience exploring the forest has given you decent intuition; you traverse the maze, sticking to the right wall. Once deep into the core of the maze, you hear the faint crashing of waves in the distance, and soon arrive at a large fountain containing seawater. To your relief, there is no human in sight — only a booming voice saying “CONGRATULATIONS”. You fill your flask one-third of the way, and exit how you came. Back in the cavernous entry room, you notice that the sky outside is already beginning to lighten.

“Can I leave this here? I’ve got to go, but I’ll return tomorrow.”

One of the stalagmites in the ground shifts slightly, revealing a small hole in the stone ground. You put your flask inside, the stalagmite moves back into place, and you rush back through the familiar forest to human civilization, just before the break of dawn. You slide back under your fur blanket, heart pounding against your chest. Checking your arm, you find that there is thankfully no blue dot. Many thoughts swim in your head — images of the maze, what the other parts of the cave could possibly hold, the terrible yet tantalizing possibility of “ascending”, and the other equally terrible possibility of being discovered and exiled by your family, who is unfortunately one of the most conscientious and rule-abiding families in all of human civilization. You have just committed one of the worst sins in your family’s eyes: betraying basic human values by expressing conscious desire to be a zombie. You spend the entire next day mulling over conflicted thoughts while half-heartedly picking berries and tending to the family garden — and also strongly anticipating nightfall.

When midnight strikes again, you return to the fanged cave like the previous day. Instantly upon your arrival, the stalagmite in the main chamber shifts, revealing your one-third full flask the way you left it. You hurry through the second opening, and enter a huge cavernous room with a ground is much lower than in the first, and where you have full view of everything: 30 elevated stone pillars, one of which you are standing on and another of which holds a large basin, connected with countless bridges made of thin rope each bearing the words “you can only cross once”. After much deliberation, you work out a path from the pillar you are standing on to the one holding the basin and back to the one where you are standing, that does not require crossing a bridge twice. You quickly traverse them, obtaining milk from the bowl in the middle, and then return back to the entry room where you deposit your two-thirds full flask.

Again, you return back to human civilization just before daybreak, with no blue dot on your arm and no sign of anything suspicious. You cannot think about anything other than how close you are to the most amazing thing and the most terrible thing that can ever happen to you: becoming a zombie. Only one more day remains for you to complete your quest; only one more day of judgement, whether you are successful or not. Part of you wants to internalize the excitement and anticipation, and believe that the sophisticated world Z described truly awaits you on the other side, if you put forth your utmost effort and prevail tomorrow night. It would be an opportunity for you to start anew. Maybe over there, your wanderlust will be seen as a good thing. However, the other part of you cannot believe that you have ventured so far from your moral principles of desiring a simple life close to the Earth; that you would even consider descending to such a society. You cannot imagine the disappointment and grief on your family members’ faces if they realize what you have done — and part of you mischievously hopes it will happen soon; that today will be your last day living in the forest. But of course you must not grow attached to this possibility, for tomorrow night’s quest will likely be the hardest, and there is a large chance that you will remain a human for the rest of your life. A multitude of mixed feelings brew about and contradict each other inside of you, and you just wish you had someone to talk to… someone to explain it all to… somewhere to write it all out…

…and that concludes Part 1. Part 2 will be released soon… when it’s time…