The Dark World
Dead Village

...DEAD VILLAGE...

...Author by: David Khanz...

...------- o0o---------...

For a moment I looked at the simple little hut in front of it, before rushing away from the place. A very simple dwelling walled with wood and roofed dry weeds. Long nian kudiami since escaping from the village nun far down there. Running away from the threat of people dressed in all white and large boxes that always accompany them every time they come to visit us, in the past, a remote resident named Kedusunan Hegar Asri. A while ago. I don't know how long it's been up to now, I can't count myself.

"This plague is deadly, Zad," said one of my friends, Parna. "If we get infected, there is no medicine that can cure it. Except, waiting for death."

I looked at it for a moment. Look at the face of the twenty-year-old man. Looks jumpy. Like being struck by a very intense fear.

"Do you believe what they say, the village elders and the hordes of town folk dressed in white?" my question was accompanied by a grin, feeling funny, seeing the anxiety felt by Parna.

Answer my friend immediately, "Of course, Zad." He shifted his seat. Snuggle. Closer to me. Then holding this arm as if to affirm the previous speech. "There is no other choice, unless we have to follow their orders, Zad. For the sake of survival. Even …."

I looked back at him for a moment and asked, "What?"

Parna replied, ". other villagers, I heard that I had obtained the anti-plague potion. Everything was. Without exception. There are only a few more of our villagers. Including you and me, Zad."

I smiled wryly.

"No, Dude. I still don't want to accept the potion. Whatever the reason," I said. "I believe our country is sick. The plague does exist. But administering the herb is not the only way to stop the spread of the disease. You know what my reason is to keep resisting, hhmmm?"

"What, Zad?" Parna looked at me curiously.

I poured the warm tea into two bamboo cups first before replying. One was given to Parna, then the rest I scooped up favorably while staring at the vast expanse of gardens in front of the house.

"I heard, there are other villagers who have received the treatment, but fate instead said another," I said miris accompanied by a blank look ahead there.

"What do you mean, Zad?" tanya Parna was astonished.

I'm turning. Staring at the look on my friend's face, then replied, "The meal in question does not necessarily guarantee someone will survive the attack of the plague, Friend. Still, they can still get infected and .. end up dying horribly."

"Yes, God!" exclaim Parna shocked. "... but at least there are more survivors, right, Zad?"

I grinned wryly.

"Sure, Par," I said quietly, "but with a much worse condition than before they received the drugs."

"Yes, God!"

"You still want to accept those bastards' offers?"

Parna did not answer. Anxiety was evident in the dull lines of his young face. Until then he replied firmly, ".. but death and bad events are not directly related to the provision of drugs, right, Zad? I think—"

"Whatever," I said quickly, "if you want to obey orders, please. But for me, no. I would never want to. Until anytime. Remember that!"

"But, Zad—"

"No, Parna!" I stood up and moved away from him. "I won't ask you to refuse as I do, but if you trust them more, please follow!"

"Zad's!"

"No!"

"You've been my friend since we were kids, Zad. We both grew up and live alone until now without parents" Parna said, trying to shake my stance, "I don't want anything to happen to us. Especially you, Zad. We have to fight to stay alive in the middle of that terrifying plague attack."

I turned my body. Staring sharply at Parna while shaking his head in wonder.

"Their minds have also been influenced by the tales of their people, my friend," I said. "It's up to you if that's what you want, but I'll keep trying to hold on to myself and resist at all times."

"Zad's!"

I don't give a shit. I'll leave Parna out there soon. Prefer to enter the house and lock the door tightly. I don't want to hear his call to talk.

I understand what Parna means. He wanted to show his concern. But not this time. My friend's call was scary. I don't want to be a human experiment on something that's not certain. One of them is about the administration of the drug that is recommended to be able to provide immunity to the body from the attack of the deadly plague.

Hhmmm, I don't know what plan they're putting together. Including the Indigenous Elders of Hegar Asri Village. Desperate to ask every citizen of the community to ….

"Zad's! Hazad! Awake, Zad!" I heard a loud call from outside the house the next day. Like the voice of Parna. "I came with the Customary Chief and the people of that city. Awake, Zad! Open door!"

I squinted my eyes, then blinked for a moment before finally getting up from the top of the wooden couch. This backbone still feels painful. Probably because of this hard bed. Only based on pandan mats without a soft mattress made of cotton cotton.

Still with sleepiness in my eyes, I stepped towards the front door to approach the guests this early.

"What's up, Par?" askaku after recognizing the figure who was standing in front of the house. Parna, along with an old man accompanied by two sangar figures on his right-hand side, and also someone dressed in white-white like an urban healer.

"Sorry, man, I'm coming to your house early. Just meant to drive them to—"

"Greetings, Mbah Redjo," I said to the old man in front of me, bowing. "What movement made the Honorable Chief come to my house so early?"

The old figure named Mbah Redjo smiled. He glanced for a moment at the man dressed in all white and the two man with the roar face beside him. "I'm sorry, Hazad," he said as he pulled away a white beard that had been stretched to the chest. "I'm just dropping off my guests from the city, making sure that you've received the potion we're offering. You're ready, aren't you, Zad?"

"A-i ... a-i …." Suddenly this entire chest shook violently. Blood is pumped rapidly towards the headstone. There was a sudden fear.

Kulrikik Parna who looks nervous and avoids face to face. It was certainly he who asked the bastards to come early in the morning to the house.

"You ... Parna?" I was annoyed at my friend.

Parna said in a broken voice, "I'm sorry, man. I just want us both to survive the deadly plague. Hence, I asked Mbah Redjo to visit this early to your house for—."

"Damn it!" rutukku accompanied by teeth grinding withstood the anger.

Mbah Redjo gasped. He immediately gave a special order through moving his two eyes at the sangar figures beside him. I know, that's a bad sign. The two of them will soon hold me. Then the man dressed in white was getting ready to remove an object from the box, a long round shape filled with a certain liquid with the tip accompanied by a small needle and very sharp. Is that the potion that will soon be put into this body? Nah! Don't let that happen. I have to rebel. Counteracts. Refusing. But the two owners of the sangar face, must have a much greater energy.

I slowly back off. Get far. And then, the brain thinks hard. Then a quick whisper sent a greeting into the heart to immediately say, 'Come on!'

"Zad's!"

"Pursue him until he can!"

The sounds continued to resound eerily between the swings of my feet that were moving increasingly fast. Running away and trying to avoid the rough reach of heavy-veined fingers was about to stop my running. Headed ahead. A lot of thickets that grow before the gate of the wilderness.

Nah! Don't let me get caught by them! My chance to escape those evil figures should really work. Just once. Only this time. Until not one breath also wants to stop to restore pulmonary flowers. Run and continue to run through the wild as far as possible, until then unconscious has been so far into the thick of the cold jungle. Then fell down after the vision was completely hit.

I don't know how long I've been out there. Until then woke up with pain piercing the skin. Found themselves full of swarms of wild ants.

Yeah, God!

Slowly I began to wake up. Remembering the previous events before arriving here. Immediately I continued to run deeper, bursting among the thick foliage. Scrutinized to climb the roots crosswise and many times also fell staggered with pain raining the soles of the feet.

Don't know where it is now. But pay attention to the position of the land on tread, can no longer go back down. It would be the same as surrendering yourself to the bastards. Maybe I should choose to stay here for some time. Until the situation is completely safe one day. Not even felt, I don't know how long the full moon has changed. I still survive alone.

There is no harm now that I look around my own village, I thought one time. Now is the time to try to go back down, following the direction of the flow of water there. Who knows, they could lead the way to an earlier settlement. That's not easy either. For days I tried. Until finally ….

"Yes, God!" I cried as soon as I arrived at my destination.

The condition of my village has changed. Since the first time set foot there, greeted silence and the debris of the house no man. It was badly damaged and some of it was flattened to the ground. Unmanaged. Wipe down on termites. Another strange thing, there is a mound of land poking high lengthwise the size of an adult human height. The graveyard? Whose? What the hell's going on?

When I visited my own house too. The slums are full of wild grasses all the way in. Nothing to expect and very dangerous. Worry suddenly collapses to befall with the conditions perforated here and there. The difference is, only my house does not have a grave.

The smoke!

Suddenly I smelled something burning. Yeah, from south there. Right from the small white puff soaring in the sky and instantly leading this foot to immediately come to the source. Not how far. As I recall, coming from a place of someone named ….

"Color!" Slowly I saw a man sitting in front of the fireplace. Riding me. From the shape of his body, at a glance similar to my old friend.

The figure looked. Twisting the body accompanied by a flash of facial expression was amazingly surprised.

"Hazad, is that you?" Sounded like the figure asked. I'll make sure it's Parna. But his condition looked much older and frail watching me from a distance. "You ... Hazad, right?"

"Color!" I immediately ran after him. Then hugging the body that almost fell staggered so try to melanglah. "Yes, God! What's going on with you, man?"

Parna sobbing sedan in arms. His body was so weak as to merely support his own footrest. I even had to help him sit back where he was.

"What happened to you, Parna?" I repeated the question. "... also the people of our village. What's the matter?"

The man who was the same age as me was crying bitterly. His lips seem hard to speak. But I can still hear it clearly even though sometimes it is not understood. He began to tell stories; ever since he and the villagers were given certain herbs at that time, they slowly began to feel a change. Quickly tired and eventually one by one fell ill, until he died. The death pauses of the citizens were not so far apart. Lastly, it is Parnah who remains. Living in such terrible conditions alone in the middle of a dead village.

"Little children I've told you to move, move somewhere else. Because I can no longer take care of them," said Parna whose head is now overgrown with gray hair and aging skin. "The dead, I bury in front of their own house. All I can do is be alone."

I was still in disbelief.

"Then what does this have to do with the potion given by the people of that city, my friend?"

Parna tried to answer with trembling lips. She almost fell out of her seat if I didn't hold her back immediately.

"Color, what happened to you?" I asked while holding his weakened body.

"A-I .. don't know, Zad," answered Parna softly and stingingly. "But it's true that you said before, if only I would have heard your words, maybe I wouldn't have fared the same as the rest of the citizens."

Imbuh the man, "You, Friend, the only remaining resident of Hegar Asri Village and did not experience this unfortunate incident, Zad. Unlike me and those who age faster and die …."

"Relax, Dude. You'll be fine too."

Parna shook her head between my arms.

"I'm no longer strong, man," said Parna, with intermittent breathing. "Si Jahanam Kampung Indigenous Elders have already died. D-there. The body doesn't want me to bury it. But, I beg of you, Zad, bury me in front of my own house, will you? M-maybe I-I …."

"Buddy! You'll be well soon, man!"

"J-don't .. p-never you want to be given the potion of the curse, Zad. I-it .. will just kill you slowly. Like me and .. aaahhh, a-I .. a-I …."

"Color!"

Be late. My friend's heartbeat suddenly stopped. His breath was no longer visible. He has died.

I could only look at him. Very sad with the terrible condition of the man. Skinny dry and old old crumb.

"Yourmah!!!"

...T A M A T'S...