Gerald yawned as he
waited for his automatic coffee machine to fill up his empty mug. In his immaculate
dressing gown, he stared out the window with a satisfied look on his face. His
city looked just the way he wanted it to look: dark, depressing, and joyless.
The sun was still absent, but in the darkness, people were rushing to work.
Ever since he had seized control of
the city, or what others might have viewed as a slum, life significantly
improved. Everyone had what he needed, no more or no less. People did their
work and they got houses, food, and clothing. In Gerald’s eyes, he saw nothing
but perfection from his window.
A few minutes later, Gerald casually
sauntered to a building, wearing a dark red suit and semi-polished dress shoes.
The building was quite big and heavily decorated. He did not waste a moment to
marvel and walked right into the elevator. He pressed a button which made
ever-so-cheerful ring, and the elevator glided smoothly and stopped softly as
if the elevator did not want Gerald to feel even a slightest discomfort. When
he entered a room, nobody greeted him with simple “Hey, how is it going?” or “Nice
weather we’re having, huh?” In fact, his staff just simply sat muted, and frozen.
Gerald settled in completely ignorant of the lack of attention he was getting. Then
he broke the silence.
“Shall we start?” Gerald demanded
with a hint of annoyance in his voice. Then an old man sitting next to Gerald
handed him a stack of papers.
“Another mutant was causing trouble
yesterday. He killed two of our policemen at Sector 4 last night. It turned out
that the night before, his parents had been taken away for stealin.”
“So where is he heading now?”
“I believe he is heading straight to
the train station as we speak.”
“Dispatch a few soldiers there, and
they’ll take care of him.”
Over a few centuries, the faces of
different cities had changed gradually. As far as citizens knew, rich people
went to big cities, and poor people lived in smaller ones, like this one. To
many, big cities were considered heaven where nobody was hungry or cold, and
everyone was special in their own way. People dreamed of going to such a
paradise. The only known way was to take a train at the train station. However,
it was heavily guarded with Gerald’s soldiers, who were told to shoot down
anyone who tried to enter the station.
The meeting was over. The first to
exit was Gerald. His face seemed to be full of worry but deep inside, there was
confidence. As he walked through the city, he noticed one rundown house after
another, and everywhere he looked, he saw dirty laundry. He then sighted a
group of kids with brilliant smiles running along the sidewalks. To Gerald, in
fact, the children only reminded him of the childhood he never had.
When he was young, he was abandoned
by parents since they could not possibly support him. from that point on, he
lived on the streets. There, he painfully learned the disparity between the
rich and the poor. One day, he saw a well-dressed kid, presumably spoiled with his
parents’ love, staring curiously at him. It was his smile that I could not
stand. It was his sly smile when he looked down at him as if Gerald were a
nobody. That roguish smile reminded of the screwed up hierarchy he found
himself in. He remembered clenching his fist and attacking the kid. The next
moment, the kid was several yards away from Gerald, lying next to the sidewalk,
and looking quite dead. He felt joy. On his face was a smile, a devilish smile.
Rarely, are people born with
mutations, especially the inhuman mutations. Gerald, however, was born with
one... a very powerful one. With his mutation, he had climbed to the top and
made everyone equal. Yes, everyone lived in poverty, but nobody was superior or
inferior to one another. Although he had convinced himself that the reason
behind this revolutionary change was to make the citizens suffer no more, deep
inside he knew he wanted to make everyone feel how he had felt when he was a
child.
With a hot cup of coffee in his
hands, Gerald was now back at his house, sitting on his leather armchair. He
stared straight into the only fireplace in the city. Rays of warmth embraced
his body as he rested his legs on a foot rest. His expression was stern, yet
pensive. He was wondering why and what led to the young mutant’s rebellion. Was
it greed? Yearning to be special? To show his superiority? Gerald was very
aware that this particular mutant posed a threat to Gerald’s current position. He
imagined how this mutant might look like, and all he could think of was the
smile of that spoiled brat that he punched. Then the coffee mug he was holding
shattered into a thousand pieces as he thought of the mutant’s power. Seeing
the mess he made, he decided to push his worries, or rather his thoughts, aside
and went to bed.
Gerald woke up to his phone’s
ringtone.
“I’m afraid he managed to take down
your soldiers at the train station.”
“Okay. I’ll be off to take a look.”
In a matter of minutes, Gerald was
climbing the stairs of the deserted station. He saw signs of both struggle and inhuman
strength. He hurried up the stairs, only to see a glimpse of the mutant as the
train accelerated. The kid had his eyes closed, and even though his face was
splattered with blood, he wore a smile. It was the smile of arrogance
arrogance! Satisfaction! Pride! The same smile of that he despised so much.
This time, however, Gerald’s fingers stayed straight. No punch was thrown, and
no one was injured. He simply watched the train disappear further and further
into the darkness. He lit a cigarette as a blinding yellowish red globe came
into view followed by a shockwave and earsplitting sound. The train had
exploded.
When he was at the bottom of the
stairs, his phone rang.
“So, how did it go, sir?”
“Yeah. There goes another mutant
idiot submerged in false hope,” Gerald answered. “The train station did its
work once again.”
“That was the fifth victim. I guess
people really believe in the dream city.”
“They sure do. What they don’t realize
is that this is the city of dream and perfection,” said Gerald with a smile: a
smile that showed arrogance, satisfaction, and pride.
