Hambarzum Galstyan

Rim World

As I was unbolting the rusty, decaying door leading to the roof, overgrown with lush, green
plants, I heard the sound of the roaring wind of change. Since I had never confronted a wind
so terrifically overwhelming before, I wavered for a second or two, but eventually pushed
back the door and climbed up onto the concrete roof. For a few seconds I calmly gazed over
what had once been the city in which I dwelled. I then looked away in sheer apathy as now it
was but a hideout for mobs of hooligans and outlaws who had forsaken every last shred of
morality in order to adapt to and survive the harsh conditions posed by an ambiguous future.
Despite the imminent threat of sudden assaults, I absolutely had to maintain a distance from
the urban area, as supplies were usually dropped there by the few remaining functioning
states of the world, the Oceanic Alliance (or OA), which seemingly wished and had the
resources to help those in despair. The sky was heavenly blue and crystal clear that day,
without any traces of the distinctive red smoke utilized by the OA in order to indicate the
location of newly dropped supplies. I leisurely lumbered back into the safe cover of the
shadows and closed off the iron door behind me. Despite the fact that most chose to abhor
this new, morbidly dark world of ours, it was clear to me from the very onset that all current
peculiar occurrences were just another step in the staggeringly cumbersome process of
human evolution.

Whilst slowly working my way down the ladder, I began to ponder the turmoil of the past. A
lot has changed in the land where life was once so perfectly mundane and grandly
monotonous. At first, there was the constantly increasing level of tension among the most
formidable and influential nations, which many deemed trivial, even unimportant. Soon,
people came to realize the magnitude of the mistake that they had made in their little
assumption. One by one, almost all of the known countries plunged into what began as an
incremental display of border military aggression and later evolved into a full-fledged war
involving the active use of strictly prohibited chemicals, biological and nuclear weapons. In
the midst of this war, humanity took another large blow to the heart and mind in the form of a
novel and relatively unknown fungal virus, which utterly decimated the Western Hemisphere,
particularly South America, and quickly began to spread into other parts of the world.
Naturally, a consequence of the gruesome war, and the ungovernable and violent expansion
of the disease, was the complete disintegration of the global economy, as the fragile lines of
trade and transport became almost nonexistent. From that point on, the oddly tiny, strangely
lively and bizarrely blue planet we call earth has been overcome by absolute mayhem and
social disorganization.

At my self-proclaimed base of operations, which consisted of a partially torn, damaged tent

and a few items of value to me, my eyes met with those of another. Those infinitely blue
eyes, which always happened to remind me of the sea, were no surprise to me, inasmuch as
they belonged to a girl called Alaska, one of the four inhabitants of the decrepit, ordinary
building on the outskirts of the city we all called home. She, whose hair was as dark as night
with skin as white as snow, and all the others living inside the old structure had one striking
resemblance. We were all completely immune to the lethal disease. Recently, a rumor had
spread that the number of people who carried a mutation making them resistant to the
hysterics of nature was continually rising; indeed, most newborns had this characteristic and
were immune to the disease. For the time being however, those with this incredibly useful
mutation were at a distinct disadvantage, since those who were not so lucky and who did not
have any protection against the virus had quickly grown envious. Most had become
extremely intolerant and dangerous, which led to the separation of the human race into two
Hambarzum Galstyan

Rim World

camps. It was in any case time for me to go out into the wild and begin my daily search for
supplies. I gently nodded to the girl, who was distracted by the unruly behavior of one of the
dogs, picked up the wooden bow and arrows I had made, my trusty, zippered backpack and
departed into the unknown.

My skillfully fired arrow pierced the heart of a graceful Caucasian red deer. It collapsed
under its own lifeless weight, and I stood up and ambled toward it. I finally managed to
acquire something to eat after three hours of patient waiting and I was incredibly satisfied
with myself. Despite the natural increase in prey, it was still difficult to find an animal to hunt
near the city. Now, I could go back to the others without worrying about anything in
particular, especially the rants of the ones with whom I shared food. You see, living with
others had a number of pitfalls that could give birth to conflict, yet I could never imagine
how I would survive on my own. After all, in order for human beings to survive, a group or a
society is required, since a man or woman alone is too weak to sustain him- or herself alone.
This is why distinct tasks were assigned to different members of my tiny group, so that
efficiency and gain would be maximized by specialization and so that our minuscule
economy would continue to thrive. I was the hunter, the one who was mostly in charge of
getting food and supplies, and for scouting out and alerting others to potential threats. I
lugged the carcass of the animal back as fast as I could, for at the moment I was a sitting
duck. Finally, I entered my base and felt at ease.

As the night cloaked everything in darkness, we sat around our humble bonfire, where the
little, reddish flames were playfully whirling around. As usual, discussions of interest and
intrigue commenced – touching in particular upon the hazy future awaiting us all. Some
argued that conditions would only get worse and that there was no way out, others that the
sole way to live on was to abandon the country and try to find a better, perhaps safer land to
stay in. My opinion, however, was very different. I had to admit that though Armenia, my
homeland, had never played a central role in the grand war that almost annihilated humanity,
the war had taken its toll on the country, making it no different from other countries. Life-
threatening dangers lurked around every corner and survival was difficult. I had to admit that
waiting for the helping hand of others was unreasonable, and that trust was a commodity in
short supply. I had to admit that humanity’s current condition revealed many unpleasant,
hideous truths about life and that it was not easy to be satisfied with oneself. Nonetheless, I
believed that change was near. Despite humanity’s fall from glory, nature had risen up.
Despite the constant threat of a dispute, a sense of brotherhood had united many. Despite the
greener grass somewhere else, the smell of the wind was still the same. Despite the iniquity
and villainy, I thought that I had at last found some small measure of peace that we all seek,
but few of us ever find.