Batman - Famine

Batman "Famine". 2013. Characters used are property of DC comics.

Introduction- The Planet Earth is a wasteland, most of the trees are dry, or crumbling. The Sun burns hot white and rain is scarce. People have given up wondering whether there will be an end to the drought, and are more leaning towards just the end absolute. Most rivers are evaporating and whatever water that is left is polluted and quickly disappearing-the few animals that are physically able to, approach the large puddles and try to to drink, soak themselves, to rehydrate somewhat. A slender woman dressed in dark blue clothing, leans on her leather clad right hand, kneeling and legs folded away to her left, resting on the ground, her left hand rubs her lower stomach, she sadly mumbles to herself, "Oh, my stomach, aches...", as she feels movement within the insides of her empty belly, a groaning rumbling noise is heard intermittently, she closes her eyes and tries to push away the feeling of wooziness and nausea. In Gotham City, as it is everywhere else, the shop shelves are empty, food has all but run out, the people barely leave their homes or apartments. Hardly anybody ventures into the streets because they have no energy to do so. Electricity is used to the bare minimum, for warmth mostly, and ultimately for defences, although unlikely in current climate. There is little or no communication between people, men and women and children only whispering any comments to each other on the rare occasion. Uptown, a female squats and watches over a mostly empty street, from the ledge of a low rooftop on top of an apartment block which is situated above now closed convenient stores. She slowly places her hands onto the middle section of her tummy, which has been making strange creaking noises, her fingers gently feeling and analysing the uncomfortable shifting inside of her. She groans loudly and dryly, "STARVING!" Her yellowish gloves crease, in discomfort, she turns her turquoise blue coloured form to notice something happening down below her. On the street two young men start to sneak tiredly and nervously towards a motionless male German Shepard resting near a garbage can. The Alsation sniffs for anything of any value and hoping maybe to find an edible morsel inside one of the many carrier bags crammed within the cylindrical tin canister. One of the men wields a metal bar, food is also on the minds of the two male friends and nearly anything that can be hurt or killed can be eaten. The smaller of the two men calls out to the other, suddenly grabbing his own stomach, "Come on man, I haven`t eaten anything in days, I`m gonna go CRAZY!". The other one nods in agreement looking very dishevelled, and with a negative look in his eyes. The dog notices the men approaching but ignores them, it has its thought firmly on food but not much energy or enthusiasm to do anything about it, not to to mention luck! The dog fails to make any sudden decisions to move in any direction, the men now towering over him. The stronger looking of the two men, raises his right arm with bad intent, tightly clinching the metal bar, he hesitates for a split second, a sharp ping noise is heard echoing in the air, then a crashing sound, the dog jumps up and scuttles away down the street with what little energy he has left. The two physically strong men now lie motionless, unconscious but alive on the pavement, flat and serene. A metal bar is picked up by a very hungry, anxious slightly frustrated tired female rubbing her tum area, moaning about "lack of food and energy to be doing this kind of thing", and places the metal bar into the garbage cannister. " Well those two are out of action for the moment!" she chuckles to herself whilst grimacing, "Damn it!, my insides feel like they`re being wound up...", she then runs off into the shadows as her stomach grumbles in low tones.

In a cave, a few miles away from a once busy cityscape, a tall muscular yet highly irritated man wearing casual clothing, is trying to figure out if there is a remedy to what he hopes is a short term problem. The problem is a huge one! He is clearly perplexed by what he sees under a magnifying lens, a small sample of seemingly moving, yet not quite alive cells, his stomach growls loudly then twists suddenly causing him to jolt. A stomach cramp hits him, "Aaah that hurt", he says to him self grabbing the area of his lower abdomen in pain, " Nothing, no nutrition and not looking likely, that doesn`t help me..or anybody else..", his housekeeper slowly approaches him, an older woman, with wizened eyes looks at him, she also feels what he feels, yet with her experience , shows less emotion and just states,"Why don`t you come up and give yourself a rest from all this, you look incredibly tired!". " I cant, not right now, maybe not for a very long time, I`m close to something...?",questioning himself, is he close to something...?

A once agile female, capable of climbing easily through the tightest of gaps, is now struggling to motive her mind and body to manoeuvre her body around any kind of obstacle course. Her belly rumbling, her arms shaking from exhaustion, hands rubbing sides and front of the midsection of her torso, meowing almost in agony and constantly mumbling quietly about food, with dizzy spells hitting her almost every few seconds. The femme feline crouched down looking around, trying to make a decisive move in one particular direction, she chooses to move southwards towards Channel Park. At the park the cat-like woman moves towards Cross Bridge, and heads to go under the bridge to find some shade from the Sun`s penetrating rays. she notices animals are gathering near the shores of river, some are almost perished, others quite clearly passed away. She feels ill, for many reasons, and wonders if Armageddon is really arriving....she moves on towards the underneath sections of the bridge, tired, hungry and aching, now without much energy, she hears a murmur overhead, noises of people on the bridge, she cannot seem to make out what they are saying but their distress is noticeable. Looking up, now in considerable pain, the dark covered woman sees several people huddled near the edge of the bridge, one of which is leaning over, eyes bulging, face straining, and arms and hands moving in an agitated fashion. The young woman nearest to the bridge`s side was trying to climb over, possibly to jump off or nearing the verge of their sanity, the other two women, one middle-aged and one similarly aged(20-25), where trying to find a way to calm her down, holding her, and dragging her away from the prospect of falling into the river. They themselves looked ragged, famished and in pain also, shouting and moaning at each other, whilst tugging at the young woman in panic.

Elsewhere in Midtown, a Commissioner sits in his office, his head facing into his hands one minute, and then his arms folding around his upper waist, writhing, and complaining to himself about the state of things, and repeatedly stating loudly, "WHY?, WHY?, WHY?". His mature frame had withered over the last few weeks, become thinner and weaker, a once strong older male now frail through hunger... His secretary stares at him through her small office window, wanting to do or say something but very much in turmoil herself. The crime levels of the city had shot through the roof as far as statistics were concerned, but the actual crimes were not the usual ones as you would imagine, money not being of any help when the only thing people actually need to survive, is unavailable. The staff within the Police Building were all trying to deal with day to day affairs, but slowly dragging their heels, finding the monotony very difficult, finding little or no energy to push themselves, and finding that their health needs seem so much more important now than any other time, the few energy enhancing liquids were now coming to an end, the shortage of anything of any value to consume, quite far away like a distant dream in an artist`s imagination. Pain and frustration was the only food available, shear will power alone was helping people conquer their struggles. Eyes now red, and getting dark from the malnutrition, straining to see what is directly in front of them, and any thoughts to what was lying ahead had pretty much vanished a long time ago, no long term planning of any kind, just minute to minute survival, if that. Inside a computer filled cave, one man who seems only focussed on one particular thing, forces his mind to figure out different ways to analyse a liquid which so far had confused him, why was this thing he was analysing acting in a certain way? He felt that he had almost figured out why the plants had suddenly begun dying, "A poison?", he thought to himself, as his body started to twitch inadvertently, now with involuntary movements, almost epileptic-al, his nerves hurting in his wrists, fingers, everywhere, people were feeling the effects of starvation, blurred vision, thoughts wondering wildly, hallucinations, apparitions, ghosts appearing in front of them. Bruce was finding it hard to think, but he was forcing his body to the limit-a dangerous limit, a risky place to be at any time, but now he was close...

People were at this point feeling a void, an emptiness inside of them, a pain unlike any otherphysically debilitating, psychologically draining, soul destroying, cell by cell failing to repair itself. This was their fate at this moment in time , and how it had got to this stage, was the big question without an answer. The majority of people were at a loss, those who were surviving, were lost in a life of Hell-like proportions, with some quoting that Hell is on Earth, whist others stated that it was Karma for what the Human race had been doing for the last few hundred years... Right now, the connected consciousness and awareness of most of the living creatures, were somehow linked, despite the agony of each one`s body slowly absorbing itself in order to continue to live, despite the cries for help, clutching of chests, hearts etc., there was something happening, a communication of sorts going on, unconscious to each participant.

Within a dark and cool cave, where Bats sometimes dwell, a man called Bruce finally finds what he is looking for. Staring through a small and narrow steel tube with his right bloodshot eye, he sees within the liquid clearly, deep inside one microscopic droplet-like cell, something which was, seemingly, a living thing, but was actually not replicating, or rather, replicating in a negative form or manner. Bruce saw "Life" travelling backwards, something that he and other Scientists, and many Naturalists had suspected, but did not literally came across in this manner, an Anti-Natural-Cell, which had always existed, but did not trigger off any adverse reactions to other cells, at least not until now. A cell that exists in everything, and everyone, that does not have the power to overcome the "positive-constructive" cycles, but is doing exactly that to plants all over the world-a feeling of agony now dwells within his intestines, he grunts weakly, pushing at the pain in his body with his elbows and arms, he knows that he now needs to inform the many people that may be able to reverse the negative cycle syndrome that is occurring within Nature. He winces and pushes his now weak body to speed up events, and he prayed and hoped that it was not too late. He sets off and starts sending communication message in every form imaginable, the messages travel at super speed to various agencies and authorities, he does not stop until all recipients have been contacted with some sort of reply and verification or confirmation. He felt exhausted, as he falls to the ground, he felt a bleariness travelling through him and finally, within his mind/soul, pure fatigue, and then sleep. People all over were now reaching the end of their suffering-even their hands too tired and almost unable to clutch or to press fingertips into the flesh covering their aching guts within their bodies. Many had passed away, others very close to expiring. A message had been sent about the "Formula" that had been found, not many had heard about this though, and those that had heard about it felt that would not make any difference, while others just some thought strange of thoughts. But, something positive was happening. There was a strange feeling in the air, a change in the atmosphere, the clouds were seemingly moving with some serious intent. A young woman wearing a darkish leathery costume, lying on a gravelly and sandy ground, looks up, she notices the sky, feels an airy wind, a sense of moisture approaching. In anguish she closes her eyes, reopens them,"What`s happening?" she whispers, "is it going to rain...?", the signal had been sent, it had been received loud and clear, all simultaneous reactions had been announced and carried out, an earthquake like tremor was clearly felt to be travelling through the fibres of nature`s creations, and things were starting to change. It would take a few days to notice a dramatic difference, but different it was becoming, plants had started to regenerate, the rain had hydrated them and was infinitely improving everything, in an almost supernatural fashion. The end.