Chapter III

Time passed. I was moved from the hospital to another place. It was time for me to make place for others. A week has passed since the earthquake. They came. The plunderers. We used to call them treasure hunters. But they weren’t digging for treasures. They were just thieves. The first ones were harmless. They were just looting food from the ruins of supermarkets. Then the other ones came. Like hyenas, they came to profit from the dead. They were looking through every ruin, searching for money, gold, food, water, electronics and whatever they could sell. They carried weapons with them and they seemed to have divided the city. Each group seemed to have taken a certain neighborhood or a specific area to search.

After I was dismissed from the overfilled orphanage, I could see them. While I was wandering the streets during the day looking for food, I could sense them. I tried to avoid them as much as possible. I heard them at night, fighting for the loot, shouting at each other. Shooting at each other. Most of them were always drunk. This was their way of coping with the smell of decay which was poisoning the air.

I didn’t care. I couldn’t care. There was no other way. I couldn’t have just left the city. I had no money, I had no food and no friends. And I had nowhere to go.

Then he came. Young and charismatic, he only made use of the fear of the survivors. Of course they voted for him. He promised them order. He promised them peace. He promised them the rebuilding of the city, having a place to live, having jobs again, having food and especially having a life again.

And all he wanted in return was their silent, obedient consent.

***

I won’t lie. He did rebuild the city. He did gave the people a place to live in, he gave them jobs again and food. He did get rid of the plunderers. But for all this he took them something away.

Something very important. Something for which I’m fighting now. Free will. The freedom to choose where to live and the freedom to choose what job to do. The freedom to choose whether or not to have children and the freedom to choose the food you are going to eat.