Heart of the Future

Heart of the Future

Hope squinted. Her serious grey eyes scanning the barren wasteland of the South Quadrant broken by metal ruins and long ridges of giant red sand dunes. Nothing stirred in this miserable, oppressive heat, except the beads of moisture trickling down her neck. And all there was to break the monotony of the moment was the fleeting rays of golden light kissing the ruins in the distance.

Unconsciously, Hope wiped away the sweat when a movement to her left, caused her heart to pound, her nerves to tingle. Squinting further, Hope waited, watching, her fingers tapping the bugle at her side. Finally, a sigh of relief tinged with disappointment escaped her parched lips as spirals of dust vanished over the dunes. That was relief. For too often the sight of dust meant a raiding party from another outpost had found their way into the South Quadrant, arriving on strange air cycles raiding for food, water, or sometimes just to plunder women. Hope’s disappointment was for the wanted sight of a traveller destined one day to bring news and promise the Fall was over and the cities of Earth were safe to inhabit once more.

It was the soul desire of leaving the wastelands in her lifetime that drew Hope to the lookout on the high cliffs above her home every single day, all year long. It was what kept her vigilance and sanity throughout the enduring heat, sun, and the Big Wind month where you couldn't see your hand in front of your face. What Hope delighted in most was watching the rare violent storms, the mesmerising blue and purple lightning and feeling the touch of rain against her skin. Mind you those precious rains as rare as they were, came less frequently these days just like the scant food supplies the colony gathered. This was something the colony knew would eventually bring an end to their meagre existence. Thus, Hope prayed every day for rain as she watched the sun give way to the pursuit of evening twilight. Today, however like most days, the indigo sky remained clear and cloud-free.

Hope blinked, wondering as she often did with so much time on her hands, what life must have been like before the Fall. Her grandfather, Chief of the South Quadrant for decades before his death, spoke often of the colourful chaotic life of his youth. Retelling endless stories around the campfires of strange metal machines flying across the sky like birds, taking people all over the world in just a matter of hours. Those same metal birds also brought the survivors to the South Quadrant long, long before Hope or her parents were born. Grandfather had said the rusting token of the past in the dunes on the horizon was from a metal bird after it had crashed on take-off killing the pilots.

Grandfather’s storytelling could keep listeners engaged for hours with his enthusiastic relay of adventures exploring primitive jungles, finding ancient ruins and beachcombing pristine sands upon exotic islands. It was hard to imagine travelling was an everyday occurrence for millions of people, daring beyond the sprawling smog-choked cities of glass and sky-piercing steel buildings they called home.

Unfortunately, those same amazing steel birds also spread the Fall around the world, killing hundreds of millions in a matter of months. By the time the scientists found the cause, the disease had reached some of the most remote areas of the planet. The only ‘safe’ zones were the extreme desolate reaches of Earth, such as this desert where Hope's colony currently resided. Those locations were the only options survivors had while the Fall continued to ebb and flow across the planet.

Perhaps, just perhaps after all this time, the scientists who bravely remained in the ruins of civilisation to save humanity a century ago had succeeded. Maybe they had also found a solution to the global warming that ravaged the planet hand in hand with the Fall. Humankind was lucky Hope thought. They had been given decades of warnings before climate change eventually surpassed the tipping point. Unlike the virus that caused the Fall, climate change evidence was spread for more than half a century of the need for civilisation to change their ways before it was too late.

If only they had stopped destroying the forests, stopped polluting the air needed for survival, stopped the over-fishing that caused mass starvation. Simply if they had just stopped all the things that made global warming worse. Or maybe it was the gods, not humans responsible for the devastation. Maybe the gods caused the rivers to dry. Maybe the gods caused storms to become more frequent, ferocious enough to destroy entire cities, flood countries and send millions of refugees in need of safety and food in other countries.

If only humankind had listened Hope thought. How hard could it have possibly been to simply care for your community and the environment humanity's very survival depended on? Perhaps if they had, Hope's miserable existence would not be, well quite so miserable an existence. Perhaps she also might have seen those strange flying machines and travelled the world to see those glorious cities. Perhaps she may have enjoyed visiting malls where hundreds of shops traded wares and people would spend the day buying clothing, eating fancy foods or simply walking around browsing the windows. Although Hope could never understand how one would want to waste precious time staring into glass windows and call that fun. But grandmother said that was a normal part of life before the Fall.

Being born in the South Quadrant wastelands, the only life Hope and her parents knew was one of endless sun, sand and danger. Nothing particularly fun about any of that. Life was bitterly plain, and suffering was just an everyday occurrence. While every breath of fresh air that did not bring a return of The Fall was a blessing. Although strangely, every now and then a small version of the Fall virus would raise its ugly head. No one knew where it would come from since their colony had not encountered another human for years. But it would kill a handful of survivors before falling silent until the next outbreak, sometimes months, often years later. Death, death, and more death. The one constant in her life other than the heat, that was the daily struggle of Hope’s life. Which made it all the harder to imagine those before her had destroyed such a glorious world that now sealed all the survivor's fate.

The only glimmer in the boring saga of life was Hope’s role as Scout. Thanks to her heritage, everyone in her family was born with exceptional eyesight. Even as a child of five, Hope warned the colony of a traveller several hours before the lead scout. There was a buzz of excitement throughout the colony that day, with everyone hoping that traveller was ‘the one’. Unfortunately, the man had died from thirst before the scouting party reached him and he did not carry the pendant. No one else ever had. Seventeen years on, Hope still had the sharpest eyesight of the colony and wanted to be the one to announce the next traveller. She knew though as she grew older that sooner or later, her value would diminish by the day until she would be left to the whims of whoever the Chief would be at the time in her life.

Reaching for the crystal heart pendant hidden in the leather pouch tucked safely at her neck, brought a pang of deep loss. It should have been Hope’s mother who lived to pass the precious gem down to her. Unfortunately, she never got the chance, dying from the sickness, the same year her father was killed in the last raid, protecting the colony’s women. Hope's grandmother had passed on the pendant several years prior extracting a promise from Hope to hold onto the pendant above any life. For this gem was the only key to the South Quadrant’s return and importance in a new civilised world after the Fall. All Hope had to do was wait for the destined traveller to arrive with an identical crystal heart pendant which together would unlock the crossing portal.

Holding the crystal to the dying light, Hope found it alien that this pendant held every piece of scientific and historical knowledge of the known world, including the cure to the Fall. Regardless of whether it was truth or another of grandfather’s glamourous stories, the pendant offered faith to the colony that one day they would return to the New World. Yet, what a heavy burden to give a fifteen-year-old girl. Not to mention, who would call it a ‘Superman crystal’ named after a comic book hero conjured up centuries ago? So many strange and unfathomable ideas from long, long ago.

Regardless the pendant was the most precious and glorious thing in Hope’s life. When held to the sunshine one could be forgiven for thinking they could see for eternity through the crystal’s millions of facets. It almost felt alive, but then surely no simple stone could possibly hold an entire civilisations knowledge. The fact her great grandparents were pioneering scientists before the Fall who had invented incredible technology to create these precious memory crystals in the first place was unbelievable enough. Imagine a glittering jewel that could potentially last for eternity with a promise for one day, civilisation could become a great thing again?

No wonder it was also the honour of Hope’s birth name. That one within her generation who would finally be the one to bring ‘hope’. Hope that after a hundred years, the world beyond the ‘safe’ locked Quadrants had mended itself so humanity could begin its glorious conquest of adventure all over again. A conquest where the lessons of the past generations would ensure no more pillaging of the Earth’s resources or rare treasures for profits, or cause the extinction of animals, ancient forests, and oceans. Hope twirled the crystal pendant feeling its warmth beneath her fingertips as the dying sunlight glittered across the gem’s surfaces. Sometimes, she imagined at quiet times like this as the day ended, that the crystal would answer her pleas of salvation.

‘Just hold on Hope, just hold on’.

Hope could hear the crystal’s whispers at night too. Praying to her that the dreadful history lessons taught from her grandparents era could not be repeated. Humanity had to finally believe it was time to forge peace, not war. To finally embrace respect and not racism. To realise greed, was a dirty word. Memories of her short life and her family intertwined with the sweat beading at her nape and the breath of warm wind. With a sigh, Hope folded the crystal heart back within the soft leather pouch and gave blessings to the evening wind teasing her braid. She offered a wish of hope not just for her family, her colony, but a wish of hope for the future, for the new world. A desperate wish of hope that would one day reach out to the far beyond to bring that destined traveller through the Crossing with a crystal heart pendant twin to hers. Maybe, just maybe as Hope fantasised endlessly over the years, perhaps that traveller was also a handsome stranger. One who would bring a smile to her face, ease the creases at her eyes and raise a flutter to her heart, but most importantly, bring hope for them all.