NOVEL NEXT WORLD Chapter 6: Glimmer
As she wandered through the deserted streets, the desolation of the world pressed heavily on her mind. What once must have been a bustling town was now a graveyard of ruins, debris scattered across crumbling roads and broken buildings. Her sharp eyes caught glimpses of the humans that remained, haggard and hungry, their movements sluggish as they scavenged for scraps.
The people moved in small, tight-knit groups, always keeping their distance from others. There was a tension in their posture, an unspoken wariness that betrayed their mistrust of even their own kind. She watched them pick through piles of rubble and broken furniture, pulling out meager finds, bits of spoiled vegetables or roots.
Their desperation was palpable, visible in the way their hands clutched at these meager scraps, trembling as though afraid they might vanish. They ate without hesitation, not bothering to clean away the mold or dirt clinging to the food. Teeth tore into spoiled flesh with urgency, the faint squelch of their chewing carrying through the air. It was a grim, unrelenting rhythm: bite, chew, swallow, repeat. The smell of decay lingered around them, mingling with the faint tang of rust and the musty scent of old wood.
It was a heart-wrenching sight, a stark reminder of how much the world had changed since she had been human. The fragile line between survival and dignity had long since blurred. She crouched low behind the remains of a wall, her body taut with instinctive caution. "I really am lucky for my cat stomach," she thought grimly, though the sight of them gnawed at something deep inside her.
Despite their exhaustion, their eyes darted nervously, scanning their surroundings with a haunted, animal-like alertness. Every noise, a clink of shifting rubble, the creak of a loose board, or even the distant call of a crow, made them flinch and pause, their gazes snapping toward the sound with a mixture of fear and suspicion. They never stayed in one place for too long, always moving, always watching, as though the shadows themselves might reach out and drag them into the darkness.
The streets offered little respite from the eerie quiet, save for the sounds of human footsteps and occasional murmurs. She noticed something peculiar the more she observed: the humans she saw were always men. No women, no children. Perhaps they were simply unrecognizable in their hollowed-out state, but the absence left a heavy void in the already bleak scene.
Her ears twitched as she picked up faint voices ahead. A small group of men had gathered around something, a few roots they'd dug from the earth. She padded closer, keeping to the shadows, her sharp eyes taking in the scene. The men huddled together, sharing the meager food in silence. There was a flicker of humanity in their gestures, a rare tenderness in the way they passed the small pieces to one another.
But even in their kindness, there was unease. Their gazes darted from one to the other, never lingering for too long, as though expecting someone to snatch the food away. The tension in the air was almost suffocating, a constant undercurrent of vigilance that reminded her how fragile trust had become in this world.
She sat at a distance, her tail curled around her paws, watching them. For a moment, she felt a glimmer of hope. Despite the desperation, there was still humanity in these people, still the capacity to care for one another, even in the smallest of ways.
As the sun dipped below the horizon and the wind howled through the broken windows of the abandoned buildings, she turned her focus back to her own survival. She was just a stray cat, an unnoticed observer in a crumbling world. There would be no comfort for her, no shared roots or camaraderie.
She padded away from the scene, her paws silent against the rubble, searching for a safe place to spend yet another night. The memories of the huddled group lingered in her mind, their cautious kindness a faint light in the overwhelming darkness. As much as she tried to push the thought aside, it stayed with her, a reminder that even in a broken world, there were still fragments of hope.