Outbreak: Chinatown

A Story by Abishai100

A sobering apocalypto-tale of manga proportion set in Chinatown (USA) presenting a resilience 'adventure' involving plague, crime, merc-cops, and a dowry.

An homage to Apocalypto-manga/comics, inspired loosely by the masterpiece Akira (Japan). Enjoy (and thanks for reading!),

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Two mercenary-cops ride into the darkened city of Chinatown (USA) following the Great Tribulation of the nuclear world-war which has rendered only a few cities as functional!

AMLAN: Being a 'paid cop' in Chinatown these days is all about the cigarettes, right?
MARCUS: The smoke's replaced the cool breath of life itself, but I doubt the real tribulation is behind us, partner.

The nuclear world-war was truly devastating, and it required people to examine what social hierarchical processes would 'fuel' the instinct to destroy on mass-scales despite the fair cost to history and its scars, since this was of course the forecasted 'normalized' insanity implied in Revelation.

AMLAN: Most people will take from that holocaust-energy 'experience' the images of strewn youth.

MARCUS: Children remain the best witnesses of civilization's folly, partner.

As these two loudmouth merc-cops (Amlan/Marcus) made Chinatown (USA) as safe-and-sane as they could, they both equally wondered now if the real tribulation of civilization, punished for its brain-excesses in money and materials, was somehow 'ahead' of them in the near-future, perhaps surfacing as a 'graffiti' form of socialized distancing!

MARCUS: I simply don't always feel like I'm patrolling this city as a man of presentation but rather a 'detective' of horror.

AMLAN: Perhaps this 'itch' in my brain about an upcoming 'greater' tribulation reflects my paranoia about human vice.

Now, stories about 'impending' doom are abound in folk-tales/literature and even in Revelation. In fact, countless modern-day comics-media and manga explore(d) the nature of human experience through hypothetically 'unholy' plague-like conditions, not truly encountered during, say, the Black Death or World War II.

The scientists busy in this modern enduring America, at Wayne-Weyland Firm (WWF) discovered a new tribulation indeed. They found a rapidly growing 'toxoplasmosis' like phenomena in various citizens of Chinatown (and elsewhere in North America!) created virtually by an 'exacerbation' cellular-communication breakdown condition somehow linked to a new 'strain' (much more 'real') of hypochondria/schizophrenia and labeled this 'brain-cell branching-inflation terminal condition' as the CUSP-52 (reference to the multi-method/medicine treatment requiring a 'year-long' focus on complete systems supervision complemented by serious mental/psychiatric deflation.

AMLAN: Man, I knew this was going to get worse, in Chinatown, but I wish now I attended Sunday School, partner.
MARCUS: We keep the peace in the streets riddled by modern gangs, lest this becomes a Revelation of insanity-driving.

The city was now darkened indeed, and Chinatown was the official laboratory of the labeled Outbreak, and no one who didn't have a death-wish or suicide-note really sought the usual 'comforts' of a happy-hooker waiting to offer the paying-customer dividends on inventive escapism.

A young maiden lounge-singer named Linn caught the eyes of Amlan who wanted to 'snatch' her away from this new Outbreak tribulation (of Chinatown) and perhaps flee to an island where sunglasses felt 'convenient' for escapist-imagination(s). Linn was a sullen but talented singer working in Chinatown, and Amlan wondered how to make sure she didn't become afflicted with CUSP-52, a plague/virus/disease that deteriorated your mental ability hold ground with company. Linn was now merc-cop Amlan's 'angel' of darkness!

MARCUS: Now, there's stories of blood-diamond traffic by Chinatown gangs using brothels to fund escapist-bars; raids ensue.

The only working/economic hospital in Chinatown during the 'Outbreak' was suddenly an orphanage-like institution, bringing in new 'near-victims' of CUSP-52 every night, seeming like their brains would 'explode' under the toxoplasmosis-like condition(s) of complete antisocial claustrophobia. Amlan had to bring Linn to the hospital when she was diagnosed with CUSP-52, and he nicknamed the Chinatown hospital St. Elsewhere.

AMLAN: I'm not losing Linn, the love of my life, to this horrendous post-Tribulation outbreak, and I'll be the hospital security.

One victim of CUSP-52 had such a 'complete' cellular branching-explosion and cell-communication 'schizophrenic' breakdown that her limbs mutated from muscular/cellular spontaneous inflammation that she resembled a 'squid' and was even labeled in one 'medicine fanzine' as the Chinatown Octopus.

AMLAN: Linn's on multiple medicines for the condition, and the doctors are saying there's 'hope' her cells will lax again.

MARCUS: As long as medical funding in Chinatown is ensured by continuing urban security-policing, Linn will get the fortune!

CHINATOWN DOCTOR: Linn will be fine, Amlan, and we've put her on breathing-apparatus and are securing her with Codeine.

Amlan/Marcus decided to engage in a seriously vigilante 'vigilante' like raid/mission in Chinatown, posting flyers of Outbreak-awareness artworks/manga/comics for city-dwellers confused and depressed about this urban post-Tribulation tribulation who seriously needed a 'daylight' dose of socialized distancing...and dreams!