My town used to be full of life before the recent conflict of the citizens. Over the last few months, people have been against eachother over anything they could think of. Most of these arguments and fights would erupt over money.
It was difficult going through this famine since it was always just me and my daughter. I would go days without eating so she could eat the little we had, because of employers not having money to give to their workers, alot of employees went on strike and would shut down the business completely. Only a few families moved away from this hell, but most of us like myself had no money to. On the sixth month, almost every house in the town had no heating, water, or gas. We were left with basic canned foods if we stole from shops. After three people died from starvation, and hypothermia my daughter seen something odd while she was walking home from school.
She told me that she seen a woman dancing in the street, but the entire time she had an unnaturally large smile on her face. I tried to put this aside when she confronted me with this before bed, telling her she was most likely doing some street performance as she needed money. The next day my daughter and I took a walk around town to pass some time and to get out of the house for the first time in awhile. When we passed main street, we seen a group of about fifteen people dancing. They were all in sync with the same smile that wrinkled their cheeks as they danced. Some of them looked physically tired, their smiles distorted from holding them for so long. It was disturbing to say the least, they didn’t look at us as we walked past them. I honestly can’t tell if they noticed we were there, but my daughter found this terrifying. She told me it was like they were robots, following a script. She was afraid that this was an illness.
I kept my street performance exuse that I myself found hard to believe. When she went to sleep for the night, I thought that they would have surely went home and to bed by now, or they were at least getting ready to since it was ten at night. I put my coat on and put the hood up before I walked out of the door making sure to lock it to protect my daughter from the possible intruders that would be desperate for my possessions. I went back to the main street, after a five minute walk from my house. I dont know why I felt the need to hide behind a building and only peek around it, but they were still dancing. This time though, the faces with the wide smiles were all looking right back at me. Even in the dark of the night, I could see their faces droop with exhaustion and fatigue.
After three days of staying in the house, we seen a body on the ground the next time we went out. I panicked and called the police, as they were on their way the group of what was now around forty were still dancing with the same smiles as they had for the past few days. A large number of them were moving slower, and more sluggish.
“What the hell are you guys doing?! Can’t you see that someone has died?!”
Even with my yell, nobody seemed to hear it but my daughter who was now hugging her knees as she sat on the ground. The paramedics came and simply took the body away, they didn’t disrupt the group. I felt like the doctors were more tired than the people that were dancing for days were. They held seldom expressions as they took the body, not passing a glance to us as they left. After that day, I managed to search the entire house for some paper and colored pencils and taught my daughter to draw so she would have no boredom to consume her and I put a radio in her room so it would never be too quiet. I didn’t want her to go out of the house, the only time I did was to scavenge for some food.
After about another week I went outside to the shop, there were a few hundred people on the main street. They crowded into people’s yards, into the road, anywhere they could fit themselves. I seen people who once had an impact on the town. As I looked around a bit I seen the mayor as well, I couldn’t tell who wasn’t in the group. Most of them were still dancing but more than twenty of them were dead. Whether it was from exhaustion, starvation or dehydration they were dead. Some of them were beginning to decay in the street as others leaped over them to continue their routine. The smell was horrible, but nobody seemed to be bothered by it. I walked infront of a young woman dancing, and I waved my hand I front of her face. I hoped she would say something, one word even. But she stared right past me as she didn’t even blink in my direction. Looking closer, some of them had tears streaming down their faces as they watched the people around them collapse in the street.
Soon enough, when I was getting food for my daughter I passed the group to see her face amongst them. She was smiling wider than I’ve ever seen, when I tried to pick her up she clawed and scratched at my face until I put her down. For awhile, I sat on the steps of the town courthouse. I’ve never felt this bad in my life. For some reason, there was something itching at me. A voice that I’ve never heard before, one that felt as if it were controlling my body.
It told me to dance.