章節 18: Emigrating Life
Along marched the moles on the surface of the scraps, where four distinct clusters could be found. The first and largest cluster trudged along, parting the uneven piles of trash in a wedge like formation so that the rest could follow along.
A mole fell to the side. It lay there, so tense that its muscles had locked up its movement entirely. It shivered under the sun that was beaming down on its skin that was a sickly white that had never touched the sun before. All around it lay pieces of trash. The worker moles marched on, pushing the body of the mole to the side along with the rest of the obstructions. But as each mole walked by, their muscles trembling beneath their skin as it dried and cracked.
The moles after the first group spread out in a line. Their skin constantly mended itself together the moment the dry skin cracked, forming light pink smooth lines in contrast to the dried, crystalline white that formed plates over their skin. They fared much better in comparison to the workers that were ahead of them as they did not have to work. Their comparatively lesser numbers meant that they spread out in a much thinner line, only needing to nudge those in the first group that fell behind.
At times, the moles at the end of the first group fell behind, and the guards bit into them moles that didn't react to their nudge. Those moles sprung like a tightly coiled spring, but only once and they fell loosely, like a sandbag, thrown on top of each other.
Even further behind were the moles walking in leisure. Slowly and steadily, they plodded along through the cleared path. Their skin was perfectly wrinkled, without any hard lumps or cracks, with smooth folds throughout their body. The front may have been noisy due to their work, but the back was deathly silent.
In the middle of the last group was a deformed mole. Its skin was perfectly smooth and taut, unlike the sagginess of the moles that surrounded it. Its two forearms are abnormally long, and its abdomen ended abruptly, immediately flattening off.
This odd sight cleared its way through the wastelands of trash, leaving behind corpses of workers that had run out of energy, bitten to death by guards, and trodden upon by the scavengers and the queen.
--Dumpsite 19--
"Hey where are you going now?"
"I don't know! I'm lost! Henry didn't tell me where that water source was!"
"What! Didn't he trust you?"
"I guess not enough to tell me where it was, or that he was lying."
"Hehehe which one do you think it is?"
"Who knows? Who cares?"
"I guess we can only go back?"
"Hehehe can you go back? Will they accept you?"
"They shouldn't know… right?"
"Hehehe who knows? I guess you don't know do you…"
"Yeah I'll go back now, certain death without knowing where water is or uncertain death if they found out I killed them all. Which one sounds more appealing huh?"
"Who knows? There are problems hidden inside problems… hehehe."
--Sample Cage 458521--
"I. Want. Out!"
"Arghhh!"
"Stupid fence!"
The fence rattled with each successive ramming. The electricity delivered itself, coursing itself around the mole's body. Muscle filaments were torn. The heart spasmed, but it never stopped.
The mole only grew angrier with each successive ramming, as the energy within its body repaired it. The muscles grew with each successive repair, but this energy was used inefficiently and soon began to run out.
But this was not the only source of energy. The walls which had such a high voltage that it coursed through and stopped sample-017999 for so long now provided a source of energy to the mole.
The same substances that had helped the mole and every other animal in the landfills absorb the high concentrations of radiation now stopped the electricity from doing much. In fact, it began to absorb a slight amount and energize the mole, and the energy provided by the cockroach blood gave it a jumpstart to being able to reach a threshold where the energy gained from the electricity was more than was lost by repairing the damage it had done.
This cycle repeated itself rapidly, causing the stores of energy in every street to momentarily dip before all generators fired themselves up an infinitesimally smaller amount.
"I! Am! All! Powerful! Look! At! Me!"
It lay there, peaceful making contact with the walls as it napped, letting the electricity stroke it to sleep.
--Dumpsite 19--
"Hey! What's there! A path?"
"Eh whatever, let's go back in first"
"Yeah sure!"
The mole and mite traveled inwards to discover a cold and still nest.
"Huh? Nobody's there! Not even the guards!"
"Hey! Satan! Where are you! Answer me!"
--In the Walls of the Tunnels--
"Hey guys! Where is everyone!"
"Oh so you're back. Hey everybody! The prodigious son returns!"
"Yeah where were you!"
"What happened to everybody here?"
"They ditched us!"
"They moved!"
"They have no use for us now!"
"What! Where!"
"You didn't see that pathway? We could never catch up!"
"Everybody! I have a solution! There is one mole left! We can all latch onto him!"
"Would he find out?"
"Probably not, but we have to try!"
--Sample cage 505035 + 506000--
"Hey Alejandros, you got an idea yet? You ready to jump out?"
"It'd take too much energy to jump out! Not to mention saving Senny! Why don't you use your acid huh?"
"I don't know how well that would work though… We don't have enough space in this cage! It could splash back at us and kill us!"
"How about you try using your threads then! Just hit the walls super hard!"
"I have no support! Think about it! I'll go flying into the wall dummy! You think it's so simple to just exert force?"
"Yeah! Just anchor yourself to something!"
"How do I do that now genius? I'll get spotted! Besides, there's nothing I can anchor myself to!"
"Just push against the other wall!"
"And then what? I exert twice the force and dent both walls!"
"That's fine! As long as we get out!"
"Why do we even want to get out? There's pretty good don't you think? Free food… so much sludge every day…"
"It's suffocating! You've never moved! I need to move!"
"Yeah, go ram into the walls a few more times then! Maybe you'll crack the walls! That hard brain of yours is sure to break the walls!"
"That's painful! It might crack my shell!"
"Yeah you think hitting the walls with my threads isn't painful? Countless vibrations are sent through me!"
"Yeah… I suppose we're better off here sitting and eating… I just run a few more circles…"
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