"Crazy, crazy, crazy already. >

This is the product of Penana's creative challenge essay titled "Crazy, crazy, already crazy." In short, it is a short story with the theme of madness. It is also posted here on Matters, and some finer essay conditions will be added in the comments

You're in a car, listening to the foreman in the front seat explaining things.

"After you get off the bus, we will work in groups of two. You and you, and you and you..." The foreman matched one by one, and then fixed his gaze on you, "Ah rookie, you and Ah Cheng, understand? ?"

"Understood." You nodded.

The foreman then glanced at you, then went back to talking to the crowd, "Remember, these are extraordinary times. Try to focus on things and avoid extravagance, everyone knows." The crowd then responded, "Understood."

Soon after, the car stopped. When you arrive at your destination, there are several buildings. As for your work today, it is actually to remove the bodies temporarily placed in the building, move them to a transport vehicle, and then send them to the cremator for cremation. It seems to be relatively ordinary labor, but if you put on a full set of equipment to avoid direct contact, it is not too easy, and sometimes it is extremely tiring.

After thinking about it, you check again to make sure that your equipment is not omissions, and then walk into the responsible building with Brother Ah Cheng from the same group.

Inside the building, the huge halls and rooms are now filled with a large number of corpses, all of which seem to be enclosed in bags that look like cloth or plastic. And out of curiosity, you quietly walked to the nearest body, glanced at the label on the bag,

"XXX, cause of death: slip and fall at home."

Well, the home slipped. It's still possible, you've heard that sometimes bad luck, especially the elderly, slips and hits the head, and it's possible. And just when you were thinking about it, and when you were going to look through the label of the next body, A Cheng, who was in your group, stopped you.

"Oh, rookie, don't waste your time, it's almost the same thing. It's not that we have to worry about it anyway." Brother Acheng directs your gaze back to the path of the mission, "Wait a minute, we will start from the one near the door. Drive all the way in, it’s easier that way, understand.”

"Understood." You responded quickly.

"Then let's get started. Be quick, or you'll be scolded if you don't finish."

"OK."

So next, you and Brother Acheng will gradually clear and transport the remains to the car one by one. After a lot of hard work, you finally finished dealing with the hall part, leaving the rest of the rooms. But it was also at this time that Brother Acheng's cell phone rang, and he told you to take a rest first and let him take a call. So for the next short period of time, you just wander around the room by yourself.

And you can't help but want to see the cause of death on the labels of each body.

"XXX, cause of death: chronic illness and world-weariness."

Well, this is quite reasonable.

"XXX, cause of death: Unpaid money."

Hmm, I feel like there's a story behind it.

"XXX, cause of death: street fight."

As for this, you don't know what to say. After all, there shouldn't be many people walking on the street now, so how can we fight like this.

"XXX, cause of death: street fight."

Why is there another "street fight"? A bunch of people in this area died in street fights. But judging by the scale of the fight that kills so many people, it's amazing that something so big hasn't been reported, right?

"XXX, cause of death: street fight."

Well, it seems that it really supports your imagination. So you follow along and look at it, and sure enough, you find the fourth, fifth, and sixth street fights. And just when you were about to look at the seventh body, a cold voice seemed to come into your mind.

"Hi~"

Who, who is talking?

"Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu"

This is not Brother Ah Cheng's voice. And you look around the room and don't see half a living person. Ah, no, it's haunted, right?

Recognizing this, you start looking at the bodies, and the bodies behind those bodies, the corpses piled up all over the rooms and buildings. In an instant, a creepy feeling arises spontaneously. If it's really haunted here, it's over. There are so many corpses here, you can't even eat one if you catch one, not to mention that there may be more than one ghost...

"Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu"

Ah, my God, why is that voice again. Especially when you are still thinking about things, you are so frightened that you are so frightened that you are ready to run out of the room. It can be said that time is too late, just as you rushed to the door of the room with two steps,

"Ah!" A figure suddenly appeared at the door of the room, scaring both you and him back two steps.

"What are you doing?" Oh, it's dangerous, ghosts can still talk and back off. Hey, that's not right, this is a human, not a ghost.

So you raised your head and looked at the passerby:

A well-tended outfit, a microphone in hand, a camera behind — this is the media and journalists.

"Hello, we are Tianhua Daily. Can you give us an interview?"

"No. We have jobs and it's not convenient for us to be interviewed," you said.

"Really, just drop it once." The reporter said so, but at the same time, he saw him start flipping the label of the nearby body, and motioned to the camera behind to follow. "Oh, voluntary death, how can someone's cause of death be voluntary death?" The reporter muttered to himself after opening the label of the first one.

Uh, should you tell them that it was the cause of death that was written on the label? The world is so bad, there will always be people who want to die of their own accord; or can you try to justify it indiscriminately and blur the focus? At least those public figures do. Well, but the foreman also said, to avoid extravagance. If you say it wrong, the more you say, the more flaws you will have. It's time to screw up the whole thing and blame it on the top, and if you make a mistake in this kind of task, you'll be miserable. You don't want to go wrong in this kind of national thing at all, and you don't want to be hacked in a unit like this.

So you pondered whether you should come forward to disrupt the situation. At the same time, in the face of the aggressiveness of the reporter, you can't find the opportunity to interject, especially if you are afraid that the focus will go to yourself again. So you pretend to think, while you hang on the side at a loss, until the reporter seems to be starting to gain an inch, ready to unzip the corpse bag...

"Hey, what are you doing? The dead are the greatest." You hurriedly shouted, and stepped forward, trying to stop it.

But the reporter didn't seem to want to stop. I saw that he ignored your obstruction and just wanted to open the zipper to have a look. So you stepped forward to set him off, but the reporters were not to be outdone. They blocked you under the guise of being pulled away, and secretly signaled the photographer to move. In the end, you used all the strength of your whole body to stop them from pulling Open the body bag. And in the midst of this tug of war, you gradually fall into a disadvantage. Afterwards, the reporter turned around cleverly, causing people to stumble in an instant. Seeing that you were about to lose weight and couldn't hold the two of them, the foreman came in when the photographer was about to open the body bag.

"What are you doing? State affairs, are you allowed to come in?"

As soon as the foreman came in, he calmed down the scene, and behind the foreman was Brother Acheng and more colleagues who were on the mission together. "Come on, take the people away, roll them out. All the equipment is confiscated." I saw the foreman gave an order, and the group of people behind them acted immediately, and the reporters and their belongings disappeared from the building in an instant.

Then the air returned to the tranquility it was when there were only the remains. For a short period of time, no sound could be heard at the scene, but the condensation in front of the rain also burst into storm-like fireworks the moment the sound started.

"What are you doing to eat?" The foreman grabbed you, isolated you and yelled, "You just let them shoot, let them lift? Did I give any special warnings before I set off to avoid extracurricular problems during these extraordinary times, but I didn't even listen to it. Answer me, it's a perfunctory thing."

As the foreman said, he began to scolded people around him, "Today, the media is the source of chaos. If the news leaks, all the people will not be able to eat and leave. At that time, our entire group will be replaced, and if it is worse, it will be I'm going to be hacked in the country."

"It's better to just knock people to the ground than your trash." While walking, scolding, the foreman suddenly came to you. "Tell me, are you trash?"

"Report, no." You have to respond.

"I think it's very similar. Even if you can't do this kind of thing well, the country is really a waste to support you." The foreman continued to stare in front of you, "The trash is better than you. At least the trash is not on the blacklist. I want that. Being blacklisted by the party, you want to live in the camp? I promise you, if something goes wrong today, I will definitely recommend your superiors to send you to the worst camp. Look at my face, look at me, I seem to be able to talk casually people?"

"Report...report, no." You have to respond again.

"Tighten up a little bit. If there is another mistake today, I will definitely let the superiors make you miserable, and put your family and friends on the blacklist. Also..." The foreman said here, turning to look at Ah Cheng Brother, "Acheng, let the rookie stay here alone. If you hadn't known the news, I would have made a deal with you and the rookie today."

"Report, my fault." Brother Ah Cheng replied immediately.

"Tighten up. You and the rookie don't go into the same group anymore." The foreman said, "I figured out the rookie, do you know who you want to be in the group with? A car full of dead people. You are the material to be in the same group as the dead people. , Understood. Just wait for the car that loaded the corpse, and keep an eye on the corpse. I'll keep an eye on you from the monitor. If something goes wrong again, I won't kill you, understand?"

"Report, understand." You responded quickly.

"Understood?" The foreman pretended not to hear and leaned over to ask again.

"Report, understand." You responded more loudly.

"You said it this time, don't screw it up again." The foreman said, "Okay, the rest will finish the work. After you're done, go to the hearse, rookie. Don't even care about the dead body. action."

"Yes." Then, in response to the crowd, the team temporarily disbanded to complete their respective parts. The second half was fine. After some hard work, you finally finished loading the body. Colleagues return to their original cars and escort the convoy to the crematorium together, while you ride in one of the cars carrying the body.

The car started. In the endless turbulence, you only felt a gust of wind blowing from the corpse cabinet. Although wearing a full set of equipment has preserved the temperature to some extent, the gloomy feeling still lingers. But what's more troublesome is that I thought it was just this, but I didn't expect that when the car was about halfway through, you seemed to faintly start to hear the sound that you heard in the room at the beginning.

"Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu"

"Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu"

God, if it's haunted at this time, you've got nowhere to run.

"Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu"

Ah, why is it getting louder and louder, don't ghosts come to ask for your life.

"Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu"

The voice of the ghost is getting louder and louder, but at this time, I don't know if you have just been baptized by high pressure, or the voice of the ghost is loud enough, and you suddenly realize that you can locate the source of the voice. So when you're brave enough, you finally start looking for the source of the sound, and after a while you find it - it's from a body bag.

Oh, it can't be a zombie, you think, looking at the body bag that seems to be moving slightly. If so, you have nowhere to run. And if it's a zombie, it's up to you to screw it up again. Ah, ah, no matter what, when I think of the terrifying results that may go wrong next, the horror level of what is in front of me instantly drops by a layer. So after a period of precipitation, your heart turned, and you seized the opportunity to secretly open the zipper of the body bag.

"Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu"

You look at the corpse in front of you, not like a zombie or a ghost. The sound seemed to come from the mouth. Well, the corpse will speak, it should be normal... right, no, is this person still alive?

You quickly look at it in detail, from the undulating breathing of the "corpse", God, this is a living person. Although he looks very old and sick, he can hardly move, but he is still alive. No wonder he kept making noises.

But what to do next is to move him out of the corpse cabinet. That's how people can live. You hurriedly thought and calculated, but while you were still judging, the car stopped.

Ah, is it here yet? If you count the time, it's actually about the same. It took a lot of time from hearing the sound to finding the courage to find it. This is simple, just get off the car and report to the foreman.

So you got out of the car, and sure enough, you already reached the cremator. You hurried to the foreman's car, ready to report to him. However, just as you were running, it seemed that in the corner of your eyes, a group of people gathered in front of the cremation furnace and were gradually coming over to watch. Ah, the higher party superiors.

This is not just for inspection. You run to the team car to find the foreman as you think.

"Report to the foreman, I found a living person inside the body."

I saw the foreman glance at you, and then turned to look at the party superiors who were striding forward. His expression flashed various changes in an instant, and then he said, "Take me to see, and Ah Cheng, hurry up and take someone to entertain the superior. He said that I was escorted directly in the body locker, so I arrived late with the car."

"Understood." After Ah Cheng finished speaking, he immediately brought everyone to the party's superiors. And you, the foreman and a few others hurried to the place where the old gentleman was still alive.

"Get him out now?" you asked after arriving at the scene.

"No, the surrounding space is empty. The misfortune will definitely be discovered by the superiors. And what if the old gentleman suddenly calls out?" The foreman said, and as soon as the words were finished, he and you poked out their heads together to look in the direction of the superiors. I saw that Ah Cheng seemed to use various techniques but only delayed his superiors a little. Those high-level executives are quickly patrolling the cars, and they will arrive here within a few minutes.

"It's too late," said the foreman. "We can't let our superiors know that a living person was brought in. Everyone will be killed by then."

"Then what should we do?" asked a colleague who came along. At the same time, the senior management strode straight towards here.

In a hurry, the foreman quickly lifted the label of the old gentleman's body bag and read, "Cause of death: street fight." Then he glanced at everyone present, and everyone seemed to understand. Then the foreman said, "What are you waiting for, dude."

And at this moment, you have no time to think about it, and quickly follow everyone to pick up all the visible utensils at hand.

Then,

"Hit, beat me, beat him to death."

As soon as the foreman gave an order, you and the others acted immediately. The foreman sealed the body bag and covered the old gentleman's mouth. If someone could penetrate the car and see inside at this time, they would see a few people, for whatever reason, holding all kinds of tools and slapping one person frantically as if they were slapping dough and slapping Q bullets.

Boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom …

The sound of human greeting accompanied by the muffled voice of the old gentleman becomes the only sound you hear in that narrow area.

Then the sound stopped. Your movements also stopped.

The old gentleman finally gasped and didn't move, and you all breathed a sigh of relief.

Within seconds, presumably when the foreman quickly pushed back the old gentleman's body bag, the superiors arrived at your car.

"Oh, you are here."

"Yes, sir, we just got off the bus."

"It's alright, nothing happened."

"The report is all under control."

"What about the corpse, the corpse is normal, right?"

"Report sir, yes."

"Okay, then take us to see something else."

"OK."

...

After that day, I heard that your superiors were quite satisfied with the successful completion of your tasks.

For the time being you shouldn't have any major trouble. And for such a "good" result, a few staff members like you held a small party in the dormitory to let everyone have a drink. As a rookie, you are naturally present at the invitation of others.

I saw that in that banquet, everyone was enjoying themselves, it was really like a celebration banquet. The atmosphere is jubilant and festive. You listen to them saying that sometimes there is the wailing of "corpses" in the crematorium, and you also hear them saying that the old gentleman actually confirmed the cause of death in "street fights". "At least we didn't let the old man in alive," said a colleague.

Then, just as the banquet was about to end, you received a call from your hometown mother. She must have seen the news from the news, "I heard that your side has become serious, what, is the city closed?"

You listened to the words of your colleagues, looked at the city outside, and suddenly remembered some rumors. It is said that other people's homes are sealed off, and they cannot get out. The people inside cannot get medicine for chronic diseases, or the rationed materials are simply not enough to eat. Let people die of illness, starvation, or, to put it mildly, jump off the building and die of their own accord. Or, if you lock up a person, all the people, things, and cats, dogs, and cats that the person leaves behind will be ignored. In addition, there are many more, in short, the causes of death of these people are all kinds of bizarre and strange. And now that I think about it, those causes of death are probably as real as the old gentleman's.

So, you raised your head and looked at the city outside the dormitory again, and said,

"It's closed, it's closed, it's closed."

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