The Loneliness

I know, I know...what drew kids like a magnet to "The Tribe" was the premise: adults are wiped out. Kids rule the world. Who hasn't thought -- we could do it better. we wouldn't screw it up the way they did. who needs them?

Reality-wise, that premise has more to do with being alone. And to me, that's a lot scarier. It's probably why Season-1 remains my favorite of them all.

On the show, you didn't just wake up one morning & find a world full of kids. No, each child no matter the age had to deal with their parents getting sick, dying one by one. They had to watch media coverage that told them the same thing was happening everywhere else, and that the adults couldn't seem to stop it. If your brothers and sisters were over 21, they were affected too. Some died in the hospital but others died at home, and the kids were left to deal.

I imagine in those last few weeks it was more chaos than any tv show could've portrayed. It was a slow process, a slow breakdown, a slow realization that this is it. There's no going back.

It was only mentioned once that I can remember, by Bray. He talked about when The Loneliness came.

The Loneliness.

That's how they described the in-between time, after the deaths & before you actually began to deal with it and move forward. The time when you KNEW that you'd lost everything. The whole world as you knew it had turned upside down. A feeling of being alone that was so profound you were paralyzed from it.

Ok, yeah, not everybody felt that way. Zoot and others like him just shot straight ahead. No thinking, just doing. Realizing I'm mixing my metaphors here...As Faith the Slayer was so fond of saying, "See, Want, Take." The world was open, and Zoot took. The ultimate teenage fantasy--everything I want is mine for the taking. If you're strong enough, who's gonna tell you no?

Go back and watch Season-1 sometime. It's truly the scariest of them all. A pregnant Trudy about to give birth in a world without doctors or just people knowing what they're doing? Lex faced with the reality of really, really having to slaughter an animal for food and finding that he just couldn't do it? Salene at the mercy of strangers & realizing there's no police to call, no parents protecting her, no one to rely on but herself? There are lots of moments like that.

It's fun to play "what-if." It's compelling when it's a tv show. But the reality?

-Chyna