“Look!” Yong whispered to her little brother as she cracked the door open a little further. Within seconds, Han’s head popped up below her chin as he peeked at the sleeping dog. Its leg was pedalling furiously. He looked up at Yong and giggled in delight. “I wonder what it’s dreaming about.”
“Shhh, you’ll wake it up.” Yong hissed. “Go help Intercom set the table!”
Whilst pedalling on its back in the cramped grey yard, tongue haplessly lolling on warm asphalt, the dog felt all the smells of the cold night wind rushing — as it ran across a wasteland of rotten fields, leaping over dappled pools of moonlight. Nose primed and quivering, it sniffed the bitter notes, the crackling browns of dustiness, the strong alkaline crunch of chemicals … and latched onto a new scent that pulsed in the air.
Curious, the dog bounded home in fits and starts, following the metallic smell, ears cocked in the direction of the dilapidated barn.
“Aish. Heel.” came Master’s low growl. He was pushing a creaking wheelbarrow exuding that metal scent — blood! It padded excitedly towards Master, with a half-bark that immediately faltered under Master’s fierce glower.
The dog dutifully followed as Master began fervently murmuring while sowing his bag of seeds and smearing the fields with mush from the wheelbarrow, until the scent of fresh blood and bone covered everything else.
Then came the sun, piercing the earth in reds and violets, cooking the field of mush. Alone, the dog dug, and gobbled the rust-stained dirt in a frenzy. Then came fear. “It’s not sprouting.” Master warbled and warped, towering above the dog as the wasteland radiated wavy lines of heat.
The dog ran.
Yong and Han ate their pills quietly as Intercom busied with sharing the news. “Environmentalist Cult busted for unauthorised killings — Ha! More like necromancer wannabes think they can resurrect plant life. Global Strain Leaches Nitrogen, Green Famine follows. That’s the true end for organic farmers, but on the bright side, there’s been a breakthrough in lab-grown nutrients-”
A sudden barrage of barking sounded, and the tension uncoiled like a taut string cut loose. The siblings slumped in their chairs. Intercom pinched the bridge of its nose and blared over the barking. “That's it! Override! We never should've allowed a stray canine to-” Yong ran out before it could finish.
She hurried to hush the dog before it bursts a lung, but it fell silent as soon as she came. Yong slowed as she saw fresh turds on the floor, and her brain short-circuited. She stopped in her tracks, stunned. Yong slowed as she saw the dog's fresh turd on the floor, and short-circuited. She stopped in her tracks, stunned.
It was a curious sight. The turd was definitely warmer than it should be — tendrils of heat were clearly rising off it before her eyes. It sported an off, spotty colour, and it had a grainy texture, almost as if-
Yong cried out as the seeds began to sprout.
Comments
Post a Comment