So there I was, trekking through a ruined city for the third day in a row. A few moments after coming through the front doors I was startled as something in front of me grabbed onto my leg.
Standing up, I saw that it was a hole that allowed me to look down into open underground tunnels. Right there, knee-deep in a dirty brownish-green muck, was a newborn baby.
It was a perfectly formed creature. It had bright red eyes, a soft pink cheek, and no defect or flaw that I could see. The young infant was wrapped in a neatly folded wrinkled cloth. I thought that the child looked weak and sickly. I reached down and cradled the infant in my hands. I looked all around and began to wonder who dropped it.
We were staying within the walls of a city that previously contained a population of over half a million. There would have been more, but some of the walls had collapsed and the city had been filled with bottom-dwellers, who were living there because of the abundance of food.
It was my job to find who might have dropped this child and bring it back to our camp. There we would provide it with the care it needed and feed it. We scavenged to survive and it was a task that I had performed many, many times before.
As I looked back over my shoulder and down at the wiggling little creature in my arms I knew that I would do everything I could to help it survive. The next few moments were spent in blissful waiting. I held the infant close to my chest and watched as it nursed from my skin.
I leaned back against a fallen stone and enjoyed the warm liquid from the child's mouth dripping down my shoulder. My senses were overwhelmed with the most blissful and beautiful feeling of my entire existence. I felt strong and invincible.
I almost lost myself in the high I felt for a moment. My mind was in a good space, then I heard it. The feral sounds of a pack of bottom-dwellers. Not the light hearted noises that they make while they hunt, but the cruel and ruthless growls they utter when they kill their prey and feast upon their fresh meal.
This child was in danger, and had been for some time. I grabbed the child, stood up and held it with one arm. The other arm was free to fend off whatever was about to come at me.
I tried to pick a path that would take me in the opposite direction of the dregs of society, but the route I usually took had been filled with stone and debris since the outskirt of the city had collapsed. I had to make a choice, dig my way through, or go deeper into the city where I knew the dregs were plentiful.
The moral question of how to choose between a child's life and my own selfishness had never come to mind. The decision was made for me, when the cries of the savage creatures began to fill the location of the child. It was then that I looked around me. I held the infant in my arms, and was faced with the same choice as before.
I knew that my decision could have dire consequences, but I chose to save the child. I took the fastest route through the city. I ducked into back alleys and room to wait for a few moments for the worst to pass. I just hoped the cannibals wouldn't get me before the child was safe.
The sounds of the feeding grew louder, and I looked down at the infant. It was soft and weak, but it was a living angel of life. I knew that if it were to cry out I wouldn't be able to help it.
The child was too weak to be able to see any threat on its own, so it relied on the hearing of whatever might be lurking near it. The sound of the newborn's cry was filled with longing for the mother it only loved for a few moments before.
The sound of the child's cry, and the taste of the child's milk had made me realize I had nothing left to live for. If I were to die, I might as well die trying to save the little menace. As the cries faded, I was filled with a new hope. I began to wonder what I could teach the infant.
I finally reached a safe place and set the infant down, then took off my gas mask. I could have waited for the child to become accustomed to its surroundings, but I knew it needed help now. I didn't know if the child would live another minute.
I grabbed the cleanest piece of cloth that I could find and tied it about my face and mouth. When the cloth touched my skin, my senses were once again awakened. I looked down at the child and it raised its head as if it were looking directly into my soul. It studied me for an eternity, and then it smiled.
My mind formed an immediate and intense bond with the infant. I looked around and began to wonder who had dropped it in the muck, and why was it there for me to find? I looked deeper into the child's eyes, and I saw the future.
Moments that hadn't happened yet, but would affect the child and myself. I saw cannibalism, and savagery, and deplorable human behavior done to one another. I saw a world in ruin, consumed by death and despair.
I saw the child as an adult living under a selfish king. I saw the infant being bullied by other adults, and suffering illnesses and being ostracized. I saw a host of things. I tried to stop the visions. I tried to see if there was any light in the darkness.
I saw the king tell the child that the only way it could earn its keep was by killing its parents. The king would tell the child that he would spare its life if it could bring it the head of its parents.
