Holocene

“Another object telling me how to think” Amari muttered to herself rolling her eyes. Crouching in the mud she scooped up the plastic memorandum to the past and shoved it into her satchel. Looking up through the protective canopy, she could see the sun finally slipping out of the sky. The fading light at the onset of dusk always gave Amari a sense of freedom. Sometimes, she had the urge to burst out from the safety of the shadows. Arms outstretched, turned to the sky, basking in the full warmth of the sun. She knew better. Her comrade, Zakia, made sure she knew it with that ever-discerning look that she too often gave.

“18:00 on the clock, sunrise 05:47, set our alarms okay?” “ We can’t forget this time, okay?” Amari always thought that Zakia stressed too much, always double-checking everything that they did together. But Amari knew it was for a good reason, so even though she grunted a reply, they both knew these rules cannot be broken or forgotten. Taking a glance at her solar watch Amari shifted her weight in the mud and quickly stepped to follow Zakia. Keeping close, they tracked through the trees holding their gaze on the edge of the forest and the ridge beyond. It was Zakia’s idea to extend their geofence to cover this small forest. Amari knew it was the only way they could secure enough food to migrate north, but she had been scared of who else might have had the same idea. These dying forests came few and far between, they were the best source of food for miles. Luckily, they had hunted what they needed for the journey ahead without any trouble. However, seeing the edge of the forest slowly approaching, one fear gave way to another. Zakia began to slow down as the decaying trees around them started to thin. The ridge came into view, and they both checked the UV meter on their solar watches. Pacing themselves and keeping low, they stepped out from the cover of the trees.

At this time of year the light slipped away so fast, Amari could already feel the last tickle of warmth on her skin. As they came to a standstill with the forest behind them, she looked down at another empty sea of baron land. There was silence all around. Like an impenetrable force, the darkness gracefully moved across the horizon. Only in her earliest memories could she remember hearing the hum of nature. In her dreams, she would always hear bird calls or the murmur of insects, the thought brought her sadness, she always wondered if these memories were real or if they were constructed from stories she had heard over the years. Everywhere she looked was a reminder of the dying world. Looking out from the ridge she knew this was once one of the Great Lakes dividing two countries.

“How often do you think of the stories Awta used to tell us?” Amari turned to Zakia,

“Which ones? You know she told us so many? Who knows which were true or just her age entertaining her tired mind” smiled Zakia

“I think about them all the time’’ Amari smiled back, she crouched down, and extended her hand into the mud between them. She felt the familiar cold hard metal orb used to secure their Geofence, giving the golf ball size object a quick blow she stowed it in her satchel. Looking back at the protective canopy of the forest, she could see a familiar sight, leaves with holes burned right through them where acid rain had showered from the sky.

Then, through the forest, something caught her eye, a faint blue dot of light. It had flickered between the trees from the direction they had come. Fear washed over her. Zakia immediately sensed Amari’s tension, and without a word, they found each other's hands in the dry mud. Keeping low, they moved slowly towards the ridge, away from the forest. All of their attention was focused on the now dark patch where Amari was sure, she saw the light. They glanced at each other and towards the ridge, making a quick calculation on how far and how steep the drop was. Another flash of blue light. The hilltop began to crumble under their weight. Amari grabbed at the air pulling Zakia close as the ground gave way and gravity took hold. Together they pummelled down the near-vertical ridge. Round and round and round. Amari’s felt as if her head was going to explode, each turn she waited for the ground below to meet them, anticipating the pain. Silence.

“Amari!… Amari!” Zakia’s voice came to her as soft and as warm as ever. Hanging on to the comfort of it, Amari often thought it was the only thing she could call home.

“Amari open your eyes!” Zakia gave her another abrupt shake and like a freight train, the world came into focus.

“The blue light” Amari gasped! Opening her eyes. Zakia was frantically looking between Amari and the hilltop towering above them.

“Yes the blue light, we gotta move now!”

In one motion, Zakia grabbed Amari by the shoulder straps of her backpack. Suddenly on her feet, Amari took one last look above and stumbled into a run.

Quickly the pair traversed the strange terrain of the Lakebed. Every few moments they would glance back at the moonlit ridge, each time with a renewed feeling of calm in the absence of the blue light. Assessing that it was safe to slow down, they finally stopped running. Amari's shoulder was aching from the impact of the fall, and the pressure of the straps from her backpack and satchel was making her wince with every step. As they adjusted to their new speed the pain lessened. However, she didn’t complain about it. Amari was used to being knocked about, plus she didn’t want Zakia worrying about that too. After the incident at the ridge, it took her a moment to adjust to the new terrain, for the adrenaline to release its hold. Looking up at the dark blue starlit night sky, Amari took a long considered breath in gratitude for their safety and their lives.

“Zakia did you see it?”

‘’Yeah I did, but only when we fell. The light was so bright, and I’m sure my eyes were closed ’’

Amari shuddered at the idea of what could produce such a light. They both knew that old tech and the newer modified tech were only ever powered from solar cells. Solar cells certainly didn’t produce energy enough to power such an object.

‘’Whatever it was it wasn’t far behind us, we were lucky to escape! I don’t think I would have jumped if wasn’t for us falling’’ Said Amari.

‘’Same’’ Agreed Zakia. ‘’ You know, maybe it wasn’t after us after all’’

Pulling a locket out from beneath her top, Amari wrapped her fingers around the smooth edges, tracing the shape of a heart. She didn’t need to open the heart-shaped locket to know what was inside. The image of Awta smiling back at her was imprinted in her mind. She looked back at the stars feeling the warmth that Awta always gave her. Zakia caught the moment in the corner of her eye and smiled the same thought.

‘’She’s protecting us’’ Zakia said to the stars

“She’s guiding us” Amari whispered.

Every story has a beginning, middle, and end. Every story except this one. We join Amari and Zakia at the very end of a long thread that is the story of our species. Surprisingly, not much time has passed since one could recognize the world we call home. A lot has happened in a very short time. A series of events firing off one after another, like a 21-gun salute, each cannon more devastating than the last. A flourish of fanfare saw the systematic collapse of our ecosystems, our economies, and our governments. Our failure is, that we didn’t understand how deeply connected all these systems are, and most importantly how fragile nature is. Our species was balanced on a knife-edge. A whole century of factories churning the land and the seas until our way of life completely unraveled. At first, people blamed the pandemics, three in quick succession. Mutation after mutation, scientists couldn’t keep up with vaccine development and huge swathes of the global population were lost. Then the first ecosystem collapsed. We didn’t collectively care about the death of all the fish, because when it finally happened it happened too slowly. We all knew that that train was going to eventually stop. Scientists from every field worked around the clock trying to figure out how to keep the oceans alive. The great lungs of our planet. Unsaved they quickly turned to an acidic soup, and then it was like someone hit the gas on climate change. The global temperature crept up, the north pole disappeared by 2032. The oceans swallowed up large amounts of land. Natural disaster after natural disaster, and then the animal kingdom slowly faded away. Global UV levels rose, many died from the skin cancers that followed. The scales had tipped into chaos and our systems couldn't acclimate fast enough. By the year 2065, we went into conservation mode. Using our finite resources to preserve the fate of humanity for as long as possible until it was impossible. Technology couldn't save us, eventually, it was abandoned as the planet became scorched earth. Cities lost, towns lost, by 2090 the WHO named Homo sapiens as an endangered species. So where are we now? The year is 2099. Amari and Zakia are on a journey of survival. They are considered to be the last generation. They don’t know it yet, but the weight they carry on their shoulders is much heavier than just the backpacks on their backs.

To be continued...