Earth Restored

Belle opened a can of succotash while sitting in an abandoned house outside of the nearest city. It expired in 2033, but it had been six days since she’d eaten anything more than berries she had foraged yesterday. Food was scarce in 2048, mostly consumed or looted. Settling down to grow food wasn’t an option as being on the move was the only way to survive without joining a culling. Animals were no longer safe to eat, so hunting was off the table. To eat, you either join a culling or keep moving and live off what you can find either growing wild on the land or in some hidden un-looted gem. Those gems were almost non-existent the last three years. It had been 14 years since it all began.

She came close to joining the Benignity Culling. They seemed to only imprison or kill when their survival was on the line. As she watched them over several months, she learned they were the worst of all the culling factions. They lured in newcomers with promises of food and peace. They would then either be chosen to be one of them or become their next meal. This culling of cannibals scared Belle the most. Their façade was impeccably executed. She recorded they took in over 37 recruits in the three months she watched them. Only four were seen since.

As she ate her meal, she thought back on her life before it all happened. She had just entered into high school at an early age of 13. She was the class nerd, strong at math and science. She was always the first to solve a problem, but didn’t have any friends. She had come home from school early the day it happened. It began with the wind. The wind blew so hard that objects banged against her bedroom window. Belle went outside to see if a tornado was coming. Living in the Midwest it was the most likely scenario. As she walked out to the street to get a better view, people were writhing and passing out. It caused some people to suffocate and some to bleed from their eyes. Belle ran back inside, locked the door, and hid in her home until the wind died down. It was three days before she dared look outside. Her parents and brother hadn’t come home. She was alone.

Over the next year, the planet continued to attack only humanity. Animals, insects, and plants were all left unharmed. After the toxic wind came a thick, deep, black fog that killed even more people. Then the rain fell. While the wind and the fog seemed to only affect some people with others being immune, the rain killed everyone who was trapped outside when it happened.

After the rain incident, Belle was running out of supplies. She had cleaned out all of the nearby homes. She hadn’t seen another living human for at least two months. She thought she was the only person left alive. She knew she had to go further to find food. She wasn’t sure if she’d be coming back home, so she packed the basic necessities. She went to her parent’s room and grabbed the heart-shaped locket her father gave to her mother. It had a photo of the family on one side and an inscription on the other saying; “You are the air that I breathe”.

After finishing her meal, Belle laid down to sleep. It was mid-day, but it was safer to move at night. Only a few minutes into her sleep, she woke up and vomited all the food she had eaten. She was already weak with malnutrition. This made her even weaker. She took sips from her water and tried to rest. As she closed her eyes there was a huge bang, followed by what sounded like a mountain crashing, and human screams. She was at least five miles from the nearest culling faction, so she was unsure where the screams came from. Scared to look outside, Belle looked for a place to hide in the house.

She found a small bedroom that had been ransacked and contained a large armoire. She was petite and would fit perfectly. As she opened the door to the armoire, it was slammed shut from inside. Belle jumped back, startled. She slowly approached again. She carefully tried to open the door, but it wouldn’t budge. She pulled harder. It flew opened and she fell backwards to the ground. Staring at her was a frightened child of about 9 or 10. The child jumped on her, screaming, and wailing. She tried to reason with the child to calm down, but nothing worked. They just kept wailing on her and screaming. She was finally able to restrain them. Once the child was restrained, she tried to talk to them. The child didn’t seem to understand her words nor did they seem to be able to speak themselves. Not because they didn’t have a voice, but apparently never learned. Belle had one remaining nutrition bar. She was saving it for when she knew it was the only way to survive. She pulled it out of her bag, handed it to the child, and watch them ferociously ravage it. They ate it so fast they began choking. Belle didn’t know first aide and her only instinct was to stick her fingers down the child’s throat to save them. Once they were breathing Belle gave them some water. The child calmed down and begin inspecting Belle from head to toe.

Remembering the chaos outside, Belle looked out the window. She saw dozens of people walking out of the city towards the home she was in. She grabbed her things, took the child’s hand, and ran out of the house through the woods. To her surprise, the child followed without hesitation.

Belle’s scientific mind compelled her to travel towards the sound of the bang. She travelled off-road through the woods. The child followed her.

She arrived to a bright white fog, so thick it could have been a wall. She hesitantly moved through the fog. The child grabbed her hand and came with her. Once she made it through the wall of fog, the sun shined bright and before her was a great vessel. It was almost the size of the city. Beings who appeared human were coming out of the vessel. They had dark skin, light hair, and were small in stature. Confused by what she was seeing, she walked backwards into the fog, but was stopped by a hand on her shoulder. It was one of the beings from the vessel. She tried to run, but was paralyzed. She couldn’t move nor speak. The child laughed and was excited to see this being. The being seemed to be communicating with the child, but no words were spoken. It was then she noticed that the child had the same dark skin and light hair. The child was one of these beings.

Belle closed her eyes and said “wake up, wake up”. She had to be dreaming. It was then the being spoke to her, though their lips were not moving. She could hear them in her head. They said “Don’t be afraid. I have much to tell you. Please come with me.”

Belle followed the being. She didn’t intend to follow. She wanted to run screaming through the fog, but her body followed without her consent. They entered the vessel. Inside was a city more beautiful than anything she had ever seen. It was clean, bright, and peaceful. The being took her to a room, brought her food and water, and being to explain.

“My name is Cintal. Many years ago on our planet, a great disease began. We had never known disease before as we all have healing abilities. No matter what we did, we could not heal this disease. We were dying by the thousands. Malta was the greatest healer of us all. She used all of her strength to spread healing throughout our world. In doing so, she took all of the disease into herself. She could not contain this disease within her, so she left our world to take the disease to another planet. She intended to land on a lifeless planet, but was struck by an asteroid after a year of traveling and landed on earth. When her ship landed, the disease she carried with her spread over your world. She was pregnant when she left. Bingi was born on your planet two years after she left our world. Malta died three years later of the disease. We can communicate telepathically regardless of distance, but Bingi did not know where he was. We have been searching for him for 10 years. Bingi has shared with us the devastation this has caused your world. We feel shame that we sacrificed your world for ours. We”

Suddenly there was a lot of shouting, noise, and commotion outside the vessel. The being took Belle’s hand and led her outside. Humans were there, the Agony Culling. They were known to kill everyone in their sight without question. They were armed with weapons attacking the beings. The beings were confused as if they didn’t understand violence. They didn’t defend themselves. As quickly as they were shot with arrows, the beings stood and were healed. The Agony Culling fought harder, but nothing they did seemed to work. The beings were invincible. The beings began to bring out food and what appeared to be wine. The culling members, stopped fighting and began eating, some crying, others falling to the ground.

Cintal found the leader of the culling, Rin, and invited him inside along with myself, Binji not far behind. We went back to the room where Cintal explained the story again. Rin began to explain what happened on Earth and how the cullings came to be. “Humans have an engrained need to have a government or leader. There were too many leaders with opposing views, so we went to war creating groups called cullings. We called them cullings because all the groups set out to eliminate the other. I was an EMT before this happened. I was trained to save lives, not take them.” Rin began to cry. “I don’t know how this happened to me, to us, we were good people.” Cintal took his hand, laid it on Rin’s chest, and closed his eyes. A bright orange light appeared around Rin. Rin suddenly looked younger and less worn. He stood up, looked around and began laughing. Cintal laughed as well, out loud, like a human.

Cintal said they cannot recover the loss the Earth as sustained, but they can heal those who are left and have found a cure for the disease to ensure no being ever endures it again.

It was at this moment Belle reached for the heart-shaped locket around her neck and noticed it was missing. She must have lost it at the house when Binji jumped on her.

The beings spent the next few months restoring the planet. When they were done, they found Belle back in the home she grew up in. The other homes in her neighborhood were filled with the Agony Culling members who now just referred to themselves as humans. They were at peace along with all the cullings across the world. Belle came outside to greet them. Telepathically Cintal said “Binji wanted to tell you goodbye and give you something.” Binji held out his hand holding the heart-shaped locket. Belle hugged him and cried. The beings left Earth cleansed and whole again.

Much to her surprise, Belle now had many friends. Friends who less than year ago would have killed her the moment they laid eyes on her. Rin became a father-figure to Belle as she married his son Mik. Belle was elected Mayor restoring schools, electricity, and infrastructure to their city.