Finding Tomorrow

An old woman clapped her hands in joy, in union with children, women and men of their clan. A curly haired, twelve-year-old girl stepped down from a stage. She had them laughing. As the merriment ebbed, the old woman, seated at the rear of the throng, rose with effort. All readjusted their seating, smiling, with rising anticipation of the storyteller to come. The old woman moved steadily through the crowd patting a head here, bestowing a loving kiss there. She picked up a newborn, placed a red love-shaped locket around the baby’s neck. She paused, then presented the baby to the congregation. Amidst explosive applause, many were brought to tears.

Young aids helped her onto the stage. Behind her chair stood an elder male with a massive chest and red and grey hair. He deftly maneuvered the chair with one hand and placed it a step behind where the old woman stood. She kissed his cheek. She sat. A hush fell over the throng.

The old woman sat forward upon her seat and studied the crowd. She settled back. “I've been asked to tell the story,” her voice rung out. She tilted her head in acquiescence. “So, the story I will tell.”

We had left the cities long before events came to pass. My son was a city boy, born and raised. Rushing around, “seeing and being seen” was the thing he knew. Living a hundred miles from anything he “knew” was a “no” for him. But, move we did. In time, he began to like our lives until a traveler told stories of disasters in cities all over the world. We journeyed back to find our people. We found desolation and death. Those left formed clans. It mattered not what color, class or religion a person was because as each woman died, the chances of seeing a new life enter the world grew dim. Women were no longer bearing children. We’d stationed at a small college. We had solar powered generators, because the electrical grid had decayed.

I belonged to a wondrous clan. Basically, we were warriors and scientists. I was a warrior. Our clan had a sentient android, we called Cleo. Cleo, designed to be a composite of all humans, was kindly in manner and treated like family. Cleo was equipped with a power pack that kept it running. Cleo, in hooded tunic and sandals, stored all the knowledge that we retrieved from clan data. By night, Cleo patrolled the parameters of the compound.

We’d stationed at a small college. Everything was solar powered because the electrical grid had decayed. The scientists worked hard to find the genetic sequence, in the databases of women, who might hold the genetic structure to support life. They also had to find the right sequence of steps that could manipulate it. Everyone settled into routines and life went on. The scientists toiled, those designated to feed us did, the warriors drilled. One night, I and one of the other warriors went to patrol an area. We weren't too far out when we heard movement. No one should be out that far. We split up. Our wrist communicators signaled each other’s precise location.

I heard footsteps swiftly approaching me. I climbed a tree. I prepared for defense. I hit the homing signal. It was Cleo. He stopped beneath the tree and stared at me. “Are you alright?” I relaxed, alighted from the tree and, I stumbled. Cleo grabbed my wrist to keep me from falling and in the process, the band on my communicator broke. Cleo retrieved it for me. Cleo frowned and said “I will repair it for you by morning.” I asked, “What’re you doing out here?” He said, “I wanted to check the area.”

Days later, I became ill and was confined to bed. All were afraid for my welfare, afraid one of the plagues was active again. One evening, Cris came to my bedside and whispered they had found the genetic sequence. I smiled and fell asleep. I was awakened a flurry of action. We were being threatened by another clan. We were never to fight to maintain our position. Vehicle readied, I was loaded into a rear car. Everyone prepared to leave. We had found an extremely high tech vehicle discovered in a government laboratory after the disaster; monorail-like except it hovered above the ground.

Just lying there, I couldn't stand it. I had to get up. I stood, but fell; my communicator was smashed in the fall. I began to feel my strength rush back. I looked at my communicator. I thought of Cleo and that I started feeling weakness in my arms and chest after I got it back. I stumbled inside. Cleo was at the main computer that should have been shut down. I yelled, “Stop!” I attacked. The hood of his cloak fell back. A device stuck out of the back of his head. I grabbed it. Cleo swung and knocked me behind tables. I could see Cleo straighten and exit the building.

Cris ran through the craft. Where is my mother?" Carla yelled, "I saw her inside!!!" The doors closed; they would not reopen until the heading was reached.

I threw open the door of the building and stumbled outside. It was too late. I got close to the ship and waved goodbye. I watched everything I loved--leave. I could see Cris screaming, "Momma!!” Darkness descended over me.

I was walking along side of an elder white man. I didn't know where I was. He never talked to me. He’d just motion with his hand and I’d follow.

I felt he was responsible for my safety in the clan we traveled behind. This clan retrieved the chip I’d snatched from Cleo's head. I had dropped it. Stored in the chip was the genetic sequence necessary for generating life. Cleo had copied it except for the very last factors in the sequence. Their scientists worked for weeks to define the last codes. "Eureka!" they found it.

Their elation was not unlike the energy felt when our scientists found it. The last step in the process was to attempt to match it with the women. The match quietly accepted her station. I was designated to bathe her. One day, completing her bath, motioned for me to sit. She said softly, rubbing her stomach, "I am not worthy, something is wrong."

The leader of the clan donated the sperm. I felt a troubled mind and I was frightened of him. Clan members revered him, except for the old man. Everything about the leader was immaculate except for his hair, wild, all over his head. He always wore spotless white clothing. It was rumored he was a genius, but had lost his wife and son in the destruction. He was driven to find the answer for life.

The sexual act was committed symbolically in front of the entire clan. The real process, however, occurred in a highly technical laboratory procedure to ensure fertilization. The fertilized eggs were inserted into the woman to carry to term. For months, each member of the compound was ecstatic. It was hard to deny their excitement and I participated in the revelries.

A cry went up within the compound. Eve was carried ceremoniously outside and lain atop an altar. A magnificent fire illumined the night sky. She continued in labor. When she wailed, women wailed in unison. Even the strongest men looked stricken.

The leader rose. I saw a glint off a dagger he raised. I started forward, but a hand held my arm and pulled me back. The leader screamed, "It Is Time!" He lunged a hand between her legs; he stumbled back holding the baby up. A woman screamed, fainted and everyone went berserk.

The head was human; the rest of the body was a scorpion. The baby cried out in the night as its tail whipped. The leader slashed the umbilical cord and flung the baby against a wall. He reached into the woman and pulled out another. This one had a human head, but the rest was fish-like. He pulled and flung several others, with genetic mutations. Then, with the knife, he used to sever the cords, he used it on their mother. I felt a tug at my garment. I followed the tug.

My clan established another compound. The scientists continued their work. Cris watched the monitor flashing "No Match." He leaned back to stretch his neck. He heard a beeping sound. He sat, up. "Match," flickered in time with the beep. Cris shouted, "We have a match!" "Hit the key and tell us who it is," whispered the lead scientist. Cris' finger trembled. The data ran and a name blinked off and on. Everyone froze and just at that moment the door burst open and Thomas ran in, "Who is it? Who is...?" His voice broke off as the scientists cleared a path for him toward the blinking name on the screen.

We traveled into the forest and the further away from the compound the less we heard screams. The old man tiring, we rested. "Now that was wild." "Yeh, it was. She didn't deserve to die like that.” Took a long looked at him, “But, there was something different about you and him!?" "He is my son." He drifted off to sleep.

The sun shone brightly as I picked up my things. "Don't leave me.” I had no intention of leaving. "No, I'm not going anywhere." I eased him back down. "I’ve been foolish all my life. I don't mind death. I just don't want to die alone."

"Crap, where am I going to go without you? You took care of me.” "I have failed in my love for you just as I failed with my son. I’ve been fairly worthless in this life when it comes to love. I will tell you who I was, before I leave this place!”

He said, "I know you think of me as some kind of a wise man. No, my dear, I am but a man. Ok, let me tell you. The shouting has gone out of my life for there is no longer any need for it--if there ever were. I hated almost anybody that didn’t look like me.’ I hadn’t dealt with racial hatred in a long time. “I’m sorry if my words hurt, but they are the truth of who I was. The truths I saw then I spewed them so that they would burn people and awaken those who were like me and cause those who different to shudder. My words, not only burned those to whom they were directed, but were a backdraft on me. My son was a flame that burned me. In my arrogance and vengefulness I took his mother, a mixed race woman, beautiful and loving and did to her what you saw my son do to Eve.” I couldn’t take his words. I recoiled. “Yes, you are right to be frightened of me as she should have been. I didn’t kill her body. I did far worse. I murdered her soul. I had sex with her, and I left her. I went on with my life. She didn’t know what I was, but she found out.” I couldn’t stand any more. I ran from him. I remembered the horrors of the racial hatreds, the violence on so many levels. I sat long before my anger subsided. He told me who he had been. I found him sitting as I had left him, “Tell me about her.” He rolled onto his back. “I ran full force on the street into the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen in my life. Doesn’t make sense, I know.”

“How is my Momma not here?!” There was silence in the room. Thomas said, “Your mother is strong. She’s OK. We just gotta go get her.

Thomas stood next to Cris. They were preparing for the journey ahead to find the future.