8

Aiden didn’t know how long he was out for, but the sky was still dark when he sat up. He felt a sharp pain in his foreheads, used his fingers to check it out, and felt a large bruise. He tried to stand up but feel down again as his orientation was still unbalanced. Aiden sat on the floor for a little longer, and finally got up and took a detailed look around him. Apparently, it had been snowing while he was knocked out, and Aiden felt very gold.

Whoever assaulted him did so with a blunt weapon, probably a baseball bat. In addition, that person decided to Aiden’s sidearm as well as his jacket, leaving Aiden freezing in the cold November winds. However, Aiden did feel lucky for the fact that at least the person didn’t aim to kill. He is only suffering from a light trauma, instead of a completely broken skull. In addition, he still had his knife in his boots. In fact, thinking about it, he felt a bit sorry for the thief who found his victim to be penniless.

Aiden kept on walking towards the center city, but the cold was getting him. Without his jacket, and with the decreased temperature, the winds bit into his bones like needles. Aiden wanted to fall asleep and found himself face down on the ground multiple times. However, every time he fell down, he got up, aware that he was fighting for his life. He looked around him and wondered what the probabilities were that he would be allowed in if he knocked on a door. After a few tries, Aiden decided to shout for help, but the street, filled with pack residential building, responded to him with silence. Aiden concluded that he was wasting his time. In this part of town, people didn’t answer to unannounced strangers. A few times Aiden saw some windows opening, and he looked up. However, those windows all quickly closed. The deprived environment has turned people against each other, and the duty of mutual aid was no existence.

Aiden struggled on and interesting thoughts started entering his head. He wondered how could it be that if he was to fall down here, with all the residents around him watching, that no one would come to his aid. Once again, the situation felt surreal. It was ironic that humans can watch their fellows freeze to death, perfectly capable of helping, but not doing anything. Then Aiden asked himself what he would do and suddenly felt ashamed as he realized that it was likely that he would do nothing as well. However, Aiden felt that when he was small he would certainly come to a stranger’s aid. It was his years as an adult which has purged his innocence and goodwill. Perhaps such evil was part of growing up, but why should it be?

If society was not so individualistic and if all did not need to fight for mere survival, would citizens still be able to watch while their fellows died? If children in this neighborhood had all the resources of kids in the light zone, would they grow up to be the adults who now watch Aiden struggle on while doing nothing? Aiden’s mind started speeding up, leading him to more and more reflections. Aiden, being from the dark zone, was well aware of the discrimination he faces when trying to work in the light zone. People looked down at him when they were aware of his place of origin, but are they really right to do so? It is a common generalization that people from the dark zone were heartless monsters who had no humanity, but how could they retain their humanity when the cost of doing so was their very survival? In addition, although the generalization did apply to a sizable group, it wasn’t even accurate in most cases. Aiden, for example, grew a conscience while he lived in the light zone, and according to George, has apparently “forgotten where he is from.”

These thoughts made Aiden feel like a philosopher, and he laughed out loud when he imagined himself sitting in a room with peers discussing the nature of reality or the purpose of life. It would not matter, no one who hears that laugh is going to matter to Aiden’s life anyways.

The continuous snowing has thickened the snow, which was now at knee level. Aiden slowly started to feel the heat leave his body, but instead of cold he actually felt warm. Aiden realized that he is experiencing the early stages of hypothermia and thought that he should probably be fearing for his life. However, he was too exhausted to feel fear as he reached the end of the street turning to another he fell down. From the ground, he tried to lift himself up but could barely do so. And every time he got up, he fell down again as his body was simply too cold to move. Aiden looked forward and saw a guard standing in front of a gate of a fenced community. For some reason, the whole scene looked familiar. Aiden called out to the guard, who also looked strangely familiar. The guard turned to him but stood still. He probably thinks that Aiden is just another beggar freezing to death in the cold November. But Aiden didn’t care because his mind was dulled and numbed from the cold and because now he was feeling comfortable and warm. He closed his eyes.