The Void: A Short Story in Celebration of World Soil Day | By Ashley Tan Jeyin
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| Illustration by Sheryl, Vincent & Jessica P Riekert. |
*Trigger Warning: Violence*
It’s been five years. Five years since The Void started, since life on Earth was never the same. For decades, we’ve been warned that the world’s soil supply was depleting at an exceedingly fast rate. Yet when the day finally arrived, everyone shook with utter disbelief and wide-eyed confusion. Chaos soon ensued as food became scarce and fresh air was a thing of the past. In an effort to save humanity, a survival competition known as The Cut was introduced. Each year, 18-year-olds from all regions are required to participate in this life-and-death contest to determine the select few strong enough to carry the human race forward.
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| When cities take over. Photo by Eiman Khazlyn Khairudin. |
The sky is dark. Around me, people whisper in huddled groups as they prepare themselves for what could be the last day of their lives. In minutes, the sun will rise, signalling the start of The Cut. I recheck the contents of my backpack, retie my shoelaces and picture my family’s faces one last time. Eli and Kate, two of my closest friends, approach me and tears fall uncontrollably as we hug and vow to protect each other. The sky turns into hues of crimson red, the city bell rings three times. The games have begun.
The rules are simple.
1) The city is our fighting ground.
2) Only close combat weapons are permitted.
3) Survive until dusk.
Immediately, fights break out. Screams of agony, wails of people begging for mercy pierce the silence only a moment before. Red fills my vision. Blood pools on the ground, splashes out of mouths. Kate tugs my hand, snapping me out of my stupor. The three of us hurry out of the main square and into a narrow back street before anyone can spot us. Our plan: get onto higher ground so that we can be on the lookout for approaching enemies. The highest point in the city is a skyscraper, home to vertical farming. However, that’s not our destination for fear we may be seen at the top. Instead, we head towards the mountains where we’ll have the benefit of watching others while being unobserved ourselves.
Quietly, we scamper past alleyways, keeping our wits about us. Right before we turn a corner, two guys appear in front of us and attack us with full force. In each of their hands are long, sharp blades whose only purpose is to kill. I have my hunting knife to defend myself. Just as the blade swings towards me, I duck. When I look up, I see the guy staring down at me, his eyes hard like steel. I swing my knife at his leg; he screams in pain, crumpling. I scurry forward and position my knife at his neck, and all of a sudden he is not a man who just tried to kill me. He is a teenage boy who would never get the chance to grow up, fall in love, start a family. And though I’ve been training for this my entire life, I just couldn’t do it. I couldn’t kill him. Maybe that makes me a coward. I don’t know.
I tie him to the lamp post with rope. When I turn to Eli and Kate, both of them have scrapes on their faces, hands and knees. The other attacker is lying still on the ground. Kate looks at me, then at the boy tied up. Her look of disapproval conveys her feelings loud and clear. Before an argument erupts, I tell her, “We shouldn’t linger out in the open for too long.”
For the next few hours, we head towards the mountains without much interruption. At midday, we stop for lunch. My meal is a mushroom, bacon and cheese sandwich prepared by my mother. All of us are so famished that we finish in a matter of seconds. I rest my back against the tree branch and close my eyes, imagining a life beyond today. I imagine I’ll be happy, someday. I imagine a world before The Void, back when there was sufficient food and oxygen for the population, back when life was not cut short by a contest.
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| Leaf. Photo by HaarishNair. |
After we’ve recovered, we continue on our journey. At last we arrive at the foot of the mountains. We’re a mixture of breathlessness, relief and excitement. A piercing screech stops us in our tracks. Approaching footsteps get louder. Quickly, we take cover behind giant boulders. My heart beats fast with adrenaline and I feel nauseous. Two boys are dragging a bleeding girl up the mountains, demanding she tell them where the rest of her crew are hiding. The girl cries out in pain. One of her arms is disjointed from her shoulder, bent at an awkward angle.
I think that if the three of us attack the two boys, we might be able to save her. As I’m about to get up, Eli grabs my wrist, pulling me back down. His eyes warn me. “Don’t be an idiot, Izzy,” he says.
“Please, we have to help her,” I beg. Eli shakes his head, looks away from me. Kate, a few metres away, gestures for me to stay down. Though I know their response is justified, a part of me resents them at that moment. I could have gone alone, but the chances of me surviving are slim. So I don’t do anything. I stay hidden behind the boulder as I listen to cries of pain, pleas for mercy and still I remain frozen in place. The guilt is strong, but the drive to survive is stronger.
Once they’ve gone, we wait for a while longer. Then we hike up the mountain, towards the summit. If we weren’t here for The Cut, it might have been an enjoyable trek. Surrounded by pastures of green amid nature, I feel a sense of serenity. When we reach the peak, I drop to my knees. We embrace each other tightly, unwilling to let go. We lay on the grass and watch the sky turn from azure blue to purple-pink and finally to darkness. Firecrackers light up the darkness. It is over now.
Epilogue
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| Supporting life on earth. Photo by Andrea Perng Xin Yi. |
It’s been a decade since The Cut was scraped from existence. When we look back at it now, it seems so surreal and barbaric that it’s hard to believe it happened. At that time, governments were at a loss on how to overcome the dwindling resources and had settled on a drastic reduction of its population. But thanks to a team of scientists, we’ve been able to formulate a new kind of soil that is comparable to the original. One of the scientists that discovered a significant breakthrough was Izzy Gonzalez, who experienced The Cut first-hand. Now, every year, on 5 December, we celebrate World Soil Day to honour those who lost their lives for it, reminding us of the importance of soil.
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| Dirt. Photo by Cheok Hong Jun. |
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