Towards the Light

 

http://thelakehouseoffloverslane.blogspot.com/

"Phototropism: "directional growth in which the direction of growth is determined by the direction of the light source."

Plainly stated, plants grow toward sunlight.
That glowing orb Apollo comprises their whole world, their meaning for living, their life source."

I remember my biology teacher, Ms. Larkins explaining the effect of phototropism and wondering what this could ever mean to me. It seemed like common sense; plants should grow toward that which gives them life, they should grow towards the sun. So what?

Now, walking east towards I have no idea what, towards the rising sun, the irony of that lesson is about as subtle as a smack to the face. It's been maybe 6 or 7 months since the outbreak first reached widespread proportions. A half-year since I lost my entire life. California is completely overrun and there is no way to go back.

I got by for awhile by migrating from one hideout to the next, but hiding isn't the way to survive this apocolypse. I have to keep moving, at least until I find what has become my only hope for salvaging any kind of life worth living, a city in the east supposedly untouched by the outbreak.

I find that I daydream a lot more in this post-apocolyptic world. Anything to keep from focusing on the reality of my situation. Life is good in my brief trances. It's simple, like when I was in high school and my only worries were to focus on my studies and being a good boyfriend. God what I'd give for those days right now.

Life is anything but that now. Complicated, like a book I read in college once, Nadja. In the book the main character meets a woman and becomes infatuated with her, but not because of her looks or because he loves her. He's more interested in her outlook on life and the various values and ideals she adheres to. It used to be that when a man fell for a woman it was because he loved her, just like it used to be that there were people all across the country. I guess things change don't they?