Northern Exposure: Episode One

Northern Exposure

  09-07-2030

  Monday

  Diary entry

  My name is Cairo Goodridge. I have been awake for approximately 520 days, and if this book is not in my possession it means I am most likely dead. The reason I have decided to explain what happened, the things we did to each other, the things no human being should bear witness to. Is simply to enlighten your poor soul, hoping this will give you a chance. A chance to survive what is most likely the brink of human extinction. Times are harder now and as the days go by we are less of our former selves. We have become husks floating around in a lost, desolate world, still unsure of how we got here. Our fates are being decided by harsh hand of Mother Nature.

  If you are reading this, you too are probably north and very much aware of what’s going on. I regret to inform you but soon you will most likely share the same fate as I have, or even worse. Now I understand you may be wondering what’s worse than death, trust me in this place death seems like a paradise compared. I still do not know why I feel so obligated to write this, to be honest most nights I think it is just an escape from the madness, like a natural sedative it’s the only way I can fall asleep in this hell. However I do need to clear my conscious and pay dividend for my demons. I need you to know what happened to me; I need you to know what we have become and what we are capable of. I need you to know why we have chosen to kill each other, why the smell of human flesh lingers in the air like slow roast pork on a Sunday afternoon and why bodies litter our streets. Why things that seem to be so impossible happen in front of my very own eyes. Why conformity on this place is the unreal ideas people live their lives by and why I have been included into this group of youthful abominations. All of this might be irrelevant compared to what I am about to tell you. Most importantly I need you to know why I killed her!

  Chapter 1

  Early Saturday Morning I lay in bed listening to the bustling pot of a cultural dilution brewing, continually at a never slowing pace. People intertwining in each other’s lives, affecting each other without the slightest fathom of how they needed one another to sustain the comfortable lives in the city they so much adored. They moved around weaving in and out not taking the time to enjoy what they truly had. Not taking a second breath to soak in the benefits of being able to jump into a cab and drive ten blocks down to the local cinema, being able to constantly stay in contact with their friends and family through social media outlets or being able to stop at the grocery store which had their favourite foods all lined up, packaged and ready to go. But most of all, they never took the time to realise what company meant. What having people brush against your shoulders as they walked past the busy street felt like, or the joyous sound of laughing kids in the green parks. They hadn’t felt alone before, not the type of alone I was about to feel, the type of desertion which starts to feel so physical you could swear someone had put a blade to your flesh. Only hearing what the absolute loud sound of nothing truly sounded like, no birds in the trees, no noisy neighbours, not a howl in the distance or a scream over the horizon... absolutely nothing.

  I can rant, rave and explain the silence, then the chaos which soon ensued. But before we go any further I have to take you to the beginning. To the place it all happened and let you know why it happened. I have to let you know what I went through on that dreadful day and the events which soon followed. You need to how we have survived, being plunged into the bowels of hell yet still we have managed to fight on thanks to the new tools we have been equipped with. But mostly I have to explain the reason behind my drastic decision, the reason I had to kill her!

  2030, the year the world took a curve ball and smashed it out of the park! The year democracy reigned king, the year poverty had become somewhat of a faded idea. The year the Rhino was taken off the endangered list, the year crime had dropped by seventy eight percent worldwide. Humanity had beaten the global recession and was united together in a stand to bring peace and economic sustainability to each and every country on the globe. Apart from the depleting Ozone layer and whoever was responsible for the “all-boy” bands which circumnavigated throughout the media. I would say society as a whole had overcome diversity and taken their lives and planet back into their own hands. If I wasn’t a religious man and believed in the theory of evolution I would say man had truly evolved over the last past decade. Worldwide resolutions had been met, and even the most unstable and financially depleted countries started to see change. Unobtainable goals were becoming more realistic each day and people all over, from the North to the South stood together against fascism, racism and homophobia.

  The control of the seas had been taken back from the grasp of the Somalia Pirates and once more the seas where safe for pleasurable cruises from coast to coast, more importantly for trade between countries. Dictatorship had been abolished throughout all Arab and African nations, giving citizens the first taste of democratic freedom. We had managed to stabilize our fluctuating markets and for the first time in years worldwide interest rates were on the rise as inflation decreased.

  It was also the record breaking year for most adoptions. Becoming aware of overpopulation more people fell into the idea of adopting instead of reproducing. Laws banning families from having more than three children were gladly accepted by most people in countries struggling with over population. This in turn took a lot of pressure off the earth’s natural resources. Integrated marriages occurred more frequently, breaking down the barriers of racial and cultural stereo types. The figures were higher than they had ever been recorded, and even though so much success circumnavigated the globe, it was nothing compared to the success I had individually achieved...Well at least I thought so!

  At twenty four years old I had landed my dream job, I still cannot believe how fast it all happened. One day I was stacking fish for a living in an old coastal harbour. Next thing I had landed a sous-chef job in a four star Italian restaurant called “La Casa”. It had taken me a while to get here and a hell of a lot of internship, followed by even more studying. But I had reached my goals, I moved out into the city, the city of dreams, the concrete jungle was my new home. I had become a New Yorker! In this place anything was possible if you followed through and worked your ass off, that is. Not only had I succeeded in securing my dream job, I had found a gem buried in the city of New York, I had found the women of my dreams, the best girl a guy could ask for.

  It was truly a blissful time in my life; I was in a state of euphoria, a place I never thought I’d reach a few months back. But even though an abundance of self-esteem surrounded me like an invisible halo, and no matter how much I had accomplished through my hard work and perseverance, my biggest achievement was presented by the kind hand of fate. Meeting her was the greatest moment in my life, and many a times I got lost in thinking “’how the hell had I landed such an amazing women?” The reality was, I was an average looking guy, tall, tanned, with a well toned body, but I was no Adonis that’s for sure. I considered myself a C, on a good day a B minus at most, but she was a straight A plus.

  I will never forget the day I met her, but that story starts a little further down our trip into the past. It all starts with me moving to New York from a small fishing town off the coast of South Africa named Mossel Bay. I had just flown in from the South and relocated to the heart Of New York. I found myself standing in the hallway of a rundown block of apartments, bags in my hand and dreams on my shoulders. I was ecstatic about the move out of my parent’s garage and into what I like to think of as freedom.

  ”So Mr Goodridge, the rates are $600.00 a month, no pets allowed, the elevators are out but the stairs work just fine.

  “Oh, and no freaky business Mr Goodridge.”

  ”T
his is a family friendly zone so no nonsense around here.”

  “The Last guy that lived here was some kind of escort male type freak so I kicked his ass out onto the street with all the other freaks in this freaking city!”

  The land lord was a short stocky man, shabbily dressed but stern in his demeanour. He wore a white wife beater covered in mustard stains and had a bold patch which caught the light from the florescent tubes above his head, which shone bright throughout the passage. He had on a cargo shorts as well as a thick pair of socks which he wore all the way to his knees and the oldest looking loafers in the tri state area.

  I stepped back,” I can promise you sir, I’m no gigolo and definitely not into any freaky stuff.’’ I smiled trying to assure him I was a funny respectable guy.

  His reaction was dull and his eyes remained fixed on mine.

  ”You better not be boy or I will have you out here quicker than you can say what the freak just happened.’’ His obsession with this word made me smile wanting to burst out into laughter. He reminded me so much of the overweight foul-mouthed father of my favourite animated sitcom which my dad and I watched every