Before The Year 3333

-3-

“How is it? Are you ready?”

“You even kept yawning several times, tsk! How do you say you're ready, you rat!”

Rafael and Ethan laughed out loud then they both got into a pickup truck.

This car was Ethan's grandfather's car, which was deliberately used as a village operational car to bring some of the villagers' harvests to the city and vice versa.

“Don't forget our order, Ethan! We really need it urgently!”

"Okay, Neni. Rafael and I will look for it!"

"Birthday cake for my daughter, don’t you forget it!"

“Oh my God, are we like couriers delivering goods?”

"The facts is you are, isn’t it?"

Ethan rubbed the tip of his nose again, then he took a deep breath too.

“Wouldn't it be better if we leave immediately? Continuing to stay here really won't be good for your mental health, Ethan.”

"I guess you're right."

The two of them immediately left, the car drove quite calmly through unpaved roads and on either side were still very beautiful and lush fields.

In fact, on every side of the road you can often find pear, apple, peach trees and so on.

Many of the ripe fruits just fell on the ground. Usually the villagers will take and harvest it on every road to make it into jam, or process it in other forms so that at least it wouldn’t go to waste.

"Ethan, can we stop by my regular wonton noodle place for a moment?"

“You want to eat wonton noodles?”

 "Yes. I miss eating those wonton noodles, while we're back in the city. Because we don't know when we'll be able to go to the city. Who knows, maybe this might be our last day in the city."

Ethan immediately looked at Rafael, then he fell silent. Even Rafel's joke this time wasn't funny at all, according to Ethan.

"For God's sake, I don't think your joke is funny, Rafael."

“I was just trying to cheer you up. I'm afraid that if you are in the city and see that humans have returned to normal, you will be hurt."

“I think this is a political game.”

"Thank goodness you know."

“How is it possible that a healing formula can heal all levels of world society simultaneously in one day? Isn’t that crazy? Even just a cold, it takes about two days to recover if we take medicine and rest. I really can't think of it.”

“Are you still annoyed with that Professor Andorson?”

“Why should I? I don't know him. Let him play around with his professorship by making humans his guinea pigs. Remember, how many millions of people died because of this epidemic."

Rafael was silent for a moment then he glanced at Ethan, then he patted Ethan's shoulder perfectly.

"Calm down, you're driving, don't lose focus because of your emotions. Just pray that no more terrible viruses come, so that they are not used as business material by a group of irresponsible people. Understand?"

"Okay."

After traveling for quite a long time, they finally arrived at their favorite market. Ethan and Rafael got out of the car and the atmosphere in the city was completely normal. In just a matter of one day, all people were carrying out their activities as usual, as if nothing had happened.

Ethan's jaw tightened, but he tried not to care about it all. He took a deep, deep breath, then tried to ignore everything that was there.

"Rafael, help me unload these things."

"Okay!"

“Hey, Ethan and Rafael! I've been waiting for you guys for a long time! Looks like you guys are pretty good at hiding. You guys come back when it's safe."

"Of course Mr. Woody, we've always been good at tactics, none of our villagers have caught that damn virus."

The pot-bellied man with the shaved head laughed out loud, then he nodded his head perfectly.

Meanwhile, Rafael had been busy with several plants in the vegetable shop. Then his eyes fell on a cactus whose color was quite strange.

“What happened to this cactus, why is it purple?” he muttered.

Rafael touched the cactus until his hand was hit by a thorn. Occasionally Rafael cursed, then put his finger which was hit by the thorn in his mouth to stop the bleeding.

Rafael then took one fruit that was there carelessly, then he ate it.

"Where are you from?" Ethan asked.

Rafael ate the fruit which turned out to be purple in color, and Ethan was quite confused by the fruit Rafael ate.

"I'm from the bathroom."

"What's wrong with the fruit you eat, what's wrong with the color?"

"Maybe it was the effect of exposure to light."

Ethan just shook his head. After he received the money, he got into the car with Rafael.

“Would you like to try this pear? It is much sweeter than other pears.”

Rafael offered the pear he was eating to Ethan, but Ethan flatly rejected it.

“No, it looks like the fruit you ate was sick and not fresh. Why did you eat it? Just throw it away, Rafael.”

“Ah, you're nonsense. This fruit is so fresh and sweet. How can you say that this fruit is sick."

Ethan shook his head again, watching Rafael eat the fruit until it was finished. Then he threw away the remaining fruit and went to sleep.

Along the way, Ethan often saw several purple plants, and he almost hit the driver in front of him.

 "Oh my God, Ethan!" exclaimed Rafael, who was initially sleeping, and was immediately shocked by Ethan's sudden brake.

“I'm sorry, I just feel quite strange. Why do some plants change into strange colors?"

“You're the strange one, Ethan. You are too focused on assessing whether there is anything suspicious in town when there isn’t at all. You are too ambitious to become a scientist who can change the world."

Ethan was silent, he knew that he was too ambitious. But he didn't expect that Rafael's response to him this time was quite hurtful to Ethan.

*****

“Helena, where are you, darling?”

A woman was looking for her daughter, she kept looking all over the house but she couldn't find her child anywhere. It was already evening, and she had not found her five year old daughter. The woman panicked because of it.

Until her footsteps stopped right in the backyard of the house, her hands covered his mouth perfectly.

She saw her daughter, Helena, squatting in front of the grave of their beloved dog who died a day ago. Maybe Helena was still devastated by the doggy's death. That was what crossed the woman's mind.

“Helena, what are you doing there?”

And how surprised the woman was when she saw that her thoughts were wrong. She saw clearly that her daughter was eating something, and beside her was the corpse of the dog that they buried yesterday.

The woman's body shook violently as she believed that what her child had eaten was the dog's brain. She then screamed hysterically and then ... fainted.