Side Story: Hell on Earth
Chapter 96
The First Stronghold
The rebels "escorted" the boats carrying the evacuees toward the small island. A few minutes later, the boats docked. Maria observed the small village made up of several stilt houses built from bamboo.
It was tightly enclosed by a complex of gardens, ponds, and animal pens, surrounded by green cornfields, citrus groves, and apple orchards.
The branches were heavy with shining red fruit, releasing a soothing fragrance that slipped into the nostrils and mercilessly tormented countless boiling, frenzied stomachs.
Hungry eyes stared greedily at the ripe, juicy fruit. Their stomachs growled, burning like fire; they only wanted to fill their bellies. Saliva dripped from their mouths as they longed for that dense, suffocating forest of sugarcane and molasses stretching to the horizon.
Everyone instinctively wanted to rush forward to eat and drink, but at the sight of Wan's shadow, they froze in place, too frightened to move. Wan sneered as he looked at the starving crowd swallowing their saliva. He took the list and assigned each evacuee family to a household in the village.
As for Maria's family, Wan placed them in an empty stilt house next to his own. Yingming was gratified by this "special" treatment. Later, Wan found every possible way to squeeze out the remaining valuable assets. Yet Yingming never realized (or refused to admit his blind faith, which no one understood): the whole family endured surveillance under a strategy of control and release. He still believed he was contributing to the army:
"Manpower and resources must advance together. Only then can the soldiers end this war quickly!"
Yingming's family sat in silence, unwilling to say a word. Yingming was still cheerful with Wan—the man who always wore a mask of kindness toward every family member. Perhaps it was because Wan had once given them a small pot of fish soup and a bowl of rice mixed with sweet potatoes, especially since Wan's mother treated them sincerely. The old woman often said:
"Poor children, I pity you so much!"
Thus, Yingming became even more steadfast in his faith in the rebels. He did not notice that the old woman seemed to know the fate awaiting the evacuees but dared not speak, for she too was under Wan's watch.
Nine people shared their meager food. This was only one of countless hardships the evacuees had to endure: using moonlight and candles instead of lamps, river water instead of tap water, and walking barefoot.
At six in the morning, the clanging of a bell woke everyone. The village chief's son gathered all the evacuees. Adults and children had to line up in front of the chief's house. By the river near the huts, Maria quickly washed her face. The children woke in fright, crying for milk, but there were no cartons left. Frustrated, Maria scolded her husband again:
"Why didn't you listen to me? Why did you drag us here?"
Hearing the children's cries, the old woman brought a bowl of rice and fried salted shrimp. It was their last breakfast. From the next day onward, food shortages forced the evacuees to eat only two meals a day.
Everyone gathered together, none absent. Wan announced the Ten Laws of the Hive and demanded they recite them:
- Labor transforms everything.
- Theft is forbidden, as is gathering without permission.
- Lying is forbidden; you must always tell the truth to the Hive.
- In all circumstances, you listen and obey orders.
- Showing emotions is forbidden.
- Remembering the past, speaking of the present or future is forbidden; the spirit must not waver.
- Hitting children is forbidden, for from now on they are the offspring of the Hive.
- The Hive educates the children.
- You never complain about any problem.
- Anyone who violates the Hive's directives publicly self‑criticizes during the daily mandatory study session.
After that came the rules on appearance:
- Brightly colored clothes are forbidden.
- On the island, all clothing is dyed black using dried ghost fruit. The method is to crush the fruit, put it in a pot, and boil it with the clothes for one hour.
- Women cut their nails and hair; long nails or nail polish is forbidden. Short hair is required.
- Men are not allowed to wear multiple layers of clothing.
- Carrying machetes, sticks, or sharp objects without orders is forbidden.
- Everyone goes barefoot; shoes and sandals are forbidden.
- Those with poor eyesight have no right to wear glasses, since glasses are not considered essential.
- Sitting on chairs or benches with crossed legs is forbidden.
Wan announced the new lifestyle, work schedule, and daily vocabulary:
- You will work from dawn until dusk, with no Saturdays, Sundays, or public holidays. Women will plant corn and vegetables, since it is the season. Men will cut trees and weeds to clear land and plant sugarcane.
- Abandon titles like 'gentleman' or 'madam.' Everyone must call each other 'comrade.' You must all speak the Mountain-Sea language. Speaking Hexagon Kingdom or the Prehistoric Kingdom languages is forbidden.
- There will be no trade. Nothing can be bought or sold. The Hive will distribute one portion of rice and one carton of condensed milk to each family every day. The rest you must manage yourselves.
- You will eat two meals a day—lunch and dinner—to help the Hive save money.
- If you want to say 'eat,' do not use the word makan pengetahuan. You must say makan biasa.
Maria secretly sneered at the last rule, because both words meant "eat." But makan pengetahuan was used by intellectuals and the wealthy when speaking of the diet of the elderly or people of the old era. makan biasa was a commoner's term. The rebels were forced to use makan biasa to erase all social or age differences.
After the speech, Wan ordered the village women to cut the evacuees' hair. Maria suppressed her sobs as her long hair was cut off. Later, she followed the others to the ghost fruit tree to learn the method of dyeing clothes. Nothing was free; evacuees had to bring medicine or rice to get help or exchange information. From that day on, rice, salt, sugar, and food became the most precious currency.
From the next day onward, everyone had to work and quickly adapt. Villagers distributed hoes to the men and led them to the tip of the island to clear land. Women led other women and children to the new fields to sow seeds.
Maria had often farmed before, but she had never worked barefoot on ground drier than stone, nor endured heat burning her skin. Her feet quickly swelled. The women showed no sympathy; instead, they mocked her, imitating her limping gait:
"Look at the city whore. It makes my eyes itch. She's useless filth. She's used to spreading her thighs wide, but she can't endure hardship!"
Maria held back her tears in fury, determined not to give the monsters an excuse to punish her. She glanced at the women of the Floating Kingdom; they were all farmers, skilled at their work.
Maria then took them as her example, telling herself: If they can do it, I can do this hard work too. She finished later than the others, but still completed her tasks before nightfall.
She wearily went to collect rations for her family and returned to share them. After a whole day of exhausting labor, each person received only a bowl of white rice with a little sesame salt and a few vegetables. The evacuees ate every grain clean and then fell asleep in each other's arms.
Maria was exhausted, her body sore, unable to eat the last precious bowl of rice she had received. From the next day onward, each bowl of rice was mixed with corn or sweet potatoes. The Hive lacked rice reserves and had to tighten its belt, prioritizing children.
In the following days, children over eight years old had to do various hard labor. Younger ones like Ange were allowed to stay at home. Two or three times a week, they went with other children to collect firewood. Play was no longer allowed; the Hive forced them to work.
In a short time, the Hive reshaped the children's minds and instilled its ideology in them.
The monsters used children to monitor adults and even their own parents, since adults were considered rotten, corrupt, and beyond repair. The Hive's goal was to use the selected "good seeds" to create a new nation.
About two or three days after arriving on the island, the evacuees received orders to gather at the temple across the shore. Everything was meant to celebrate the legion's victory. Yingming was the most joyful; he cheered and praised endlessly. The soldiers only responded with their lips slightly curled in a sneer.
The evacuees carried baskets woven from palm leaves filled with some food, boarded a boat, and rowed to the shore. The children were certain they would return home this time, so they were very happy. Maria also secretly held hope, though she knew it was unrealistic, because there were rumors that the Hive was bringing the people back.
Evacuees from all regions poured in, instantly filling the temple grounds. The "audience" sat on the ground, patiently waiting for the Hive. A group of three or four people dressed in black, with red-and-white striped scarves around their necks, appeared.
They were representatives of the Hive. The leader read a long victory speech, reviewing the entire history of the Floating Kingdom up to the present triumph.
"Hey, comrades, before victory we advised all foreigners to leave the capital. If anyone belonged to the Floating Kingdom, they should have joined the front. Why didn't you listen? From now on, you are prisoners of war and captives of the Hive. According to the rules, we should have executed you all, but ammunition is very expensive."
He cleared his throat and continued:
"The Hive will use labor and deprivation to filter and eliminate undesirable elements. The Hive needs a new nation, pure and hardworking people. Everyone will become farmers and workers. No more schools, no more books. The forests and fields will be your schools. Sweat and tears are your degrees. The money you brought belongs to the old era… so… it has no value anymore. We will replace it with Hive currency."
He raised his voice:
"But comrades, you will not need money. Everyone will live through barter and the goods distributed by the Hive, relying on the fruits of your own labor. Do not expect to return to the capital; that city is now a giant warehouse. From now on, there will be no embassies, and apart from Mountain-Sea, there will be no other countries! We will replace Western medicine with medicinal plants. We will no longer need gasoline. Machines will run on charcoal. We will not use cars, but our legs to walk. Engines will be used to make agricultural machinery or boat engines. Tires will be used as shoes and sandals…"
Maria suddenly remembered the car Yingming had given to Wan. Her husband had always trusted him, handing the car over to Wan, believing it was kept in a safe place and would help the Hive. The speech continued. Yingming remained naïve, fully believing in this new era, and comforted his wife:
"The Hive makes sense. It will create a strong and pure nation."
Another person continued:
"The Hive needs workers, especially those who worked in the capital. Now, you must tell us everything about your relatives, your past, and your abilities. Do not hide anything. The Hive needs to choose."
Each evacuee received a declaration form, where they filled in their name, their occupation in the old era, and the number of family members.
Some people of the Floating Kingdom realized this was the Hive's trick to identify who were soldiers, teachers, doctors—in short, the intellectuals.
They claimed to be farmers, street vendors, coolies, street sweepers, or cyclo drivers. Almost everyone followed suit, except Yingming. He believed he should not lie to the Hive, so he recorded his family's exact information:
"My wife is a citizen of the Hexagon Kingdom, working at the Hexagon embassy. I am a contractor, and I have cooperated many times with the army of the old era."
In short, Yingming wrote down everything that should have been hidden. The Hive took the entire declaration form and ordered a village to receive five to ten evacuated families each day, especially those moderately wealthy groups whose belongings had been searched and confiscated by the village chief.
There was no calendar, and hunger tormented the evacuees. They did not know how many days or months had passed. From the moment she arrived, Maria had to use charcoal to mark the walls of the house in order to remember the passage of time.
There was no news about returning to the capital. The life of farmers continued: there was no electricity, and people used candles instead of lamps. When the candles were burned out, they had to wait for the Hive to provide new ones, and some even caught fireflies.
There was no running water, so people used dirty pond water or muddy lake water instead. They rose at five in the morning, washed at the water's edge, fasted, and worked hard until dusk before they could rest.
Maria learned to cultivate trees that produced sugar and also learned to plant rice—the most important crop. She had to do all the hard work, without resting for even a minute.
Maria gradually learned farming. She always studied how to answer the guards correctly, how to survive in the enemy's nest, and how to obey orders to avoid destruction.
Maria's nationality was Hexagon, so the farmers obeyed the rebels and treated her as an outsider. Especially the women, who often mocked her as sundal tua Heksagonal ("Hexagon old whore") or pelacur tua ("old prostitute").
But she could not, and dared not, get angry. She only said what they wanted to hear, of course in the Mountain-Sea language.
After a few weeks, both adults and children had lost much weight. The children no longer had vitality, no longer wanted to play or be mischievous. Yingming, once strong, now had a gaunt face that looked terrifying.
After a month, food began to run short. Maria's family had only rice, corn, and salt left. The whole family picked anything edible, including rotten fruit and fruit dropped to the ground after being pecked by birds. Sometimes they exchanged medicine for food.
Dang Khong's once calm heart suddenly wavers, as if someone throws a stone into the lake. He recalls Maria's emaciated figure. In just one month, this mother in her thirties already looked like a skinny, dark-faced old woman.
In the first few months, she suffered a series of psychological shocks, endured miserable food and drink, and worked desperately. As a result, her menstruation ceased. Le, her daughter Ji, and the other evacuated women experienced the same.
As for the wives of the rebels, those moderately wealthy women lived peacefully. Because they ate regularly, their menstruation remained normal. The bastards mocked and despised the starving people, deliberately feasting in front of them, making the hungry evacuees drool, then laughing madly. All evacuees were forbidden to complain.
Every day, a pack of animals leisurely dragged out chairs, sitting in the breeze, feasting, shaking their legs, mocking others' suffering. They divided the evacuees into classes like inferiors: men and youths were first, followed by healthy women, who received just enough rations to survive.
The last category—elderly, children, and the sick—were considered burdens and useless, given only meager food or nothing at all, forced to rely on their relatives' rations.
Ten-year-old Liberte also worked like an adult and received rations. His sister Ange, only seven, could do nothing and received only half. The Hive claimed this was equality.
Each group of workers was commanded by one person. They did not send soldiers to watch, because no one dared to run. Those who fled elsewhere were killed, or locked in cages to die under sun and rain.
Those who escaped successfully died of hunger or thirst in the forest—or worse, were torn apart and devoured by ferocious beasts.
Rebellion was impossible, because there were no weapons, and moreover, the men were taken away one by one. The passive evacuees, within the first two or three weeks, were already exhausted and had no choice but to survive at all costs.
At five in the morning, Maria and the village women rowed small boats to an island east of Danau. There, the water had receded, the river had become a lagoon, and many fish hid in the mud to lay eggs.
People waded knee-deep, using every possible method to catch fish. For Maria, it was difficult because it required strength, but for the villagers it was only a childish game. Thanks to their help, Maria caught many pounds of fish, including a very delicious water snake, enough to feed her family for several days.