Man Unkind

The end of the Holocene age didn’t happen overnight, it was a long torturous process that saw prolonged suffering for humanity and earths wildlife. As we all focused incessantly on leaving our mark on the planet so that future generations would eternalize us, none of us could see the horrific scars and irreversible damage we were actually creating until it was too late.

Farmland and animal batteries dominated the earths landmass to try and keep up with a population multiplying out of control, the sea was overharvested to try and sustain over ten billion carnivores that were adamant that the earth belonged to them. This saw coral reefs shed all their algae and eventually brought on the eradication of all the worlds phytoplankton, turning the oceans acidic, barren and impossible to cross. The rapid melting of the planets ice raised the temperature of the earth and also awoke huge dormant deposits of methane that slowly ate away at the atmosphere raising the temperature even more year-by-year until sun screen couldn’t help us and those who couldn’t afford specialized protective suits couldn’t step outside.

We spent all our resources building bunkers to try and house those who could afford it and those who hadn't already perished to starvation, dehydration and cancer. But it was too little too late, we should have concentrated all our efforts towards biodiversity, sustainability and renewable energy in the new millennium 2000 A.D. instead of instigating a third war.

Hurricane winds tore through the leftover colonies, forcing constant maintenance work on bunkers which proved extremely dangerous and for the most part fatal. Then one day it was obvious things would only get worse, as torrential acidic rains poured down. Leveling bunkers and dissolving scavengers in suits to mere effervesce puddles, only the smart and preemptive survived by digging their homes deep into the soil or seeking out deep cave networks.

It seems ironic that the last hope for mankind as a race resided deep in the mountain caves of Iraq, every scholar and book liquified in the acidic downpours would tell you that this region was where farming began. Some would even argue that it was where mankind began, home of the ancient Sumerian’s. They were said to have invented the farming of the land and cultivation of livestock. This ultimately led to our inflation, the ecosystems decline and in turn our treacherous demise. What's more ironic is the name of our prospective savior.

Summer was born into the chaotic apocalypse, her mother too. Her mother died in childbirth leaving her grandfather to raise her, an old survivor of the rains and the last of a civilization lost. No one knew who summers father was, not even her father. Her mother was one of the last females alive and fell victim to multiple gang rapes by hordes of ravenous pigs that scoured the cave networks for mushrooms to eat and survivors to rape and sodomize. Her grandfather swore to himself and to Summer that he would never let anything like that ever happen to her, he built a concealment where he would hide Summer and gag her mouth while predators came like clockwork to sodomize the old man.

One day would be the last day that Summer watched these ungodly monstrosities through a small air hole in the dugout, there was only so much that her frail grandfather could endure. She was 15 years old when he took his last breath, he always told her that when his time came, she should run for as long as she could and never look back. Once the bandits had moved on, she removed her gag and kicked away the wooden concealment hatch. She tried to stand but her legs shook uncontrollably as she fell by his side, whimpering at the sight of the only kind soul left on earth betrayed by the immoralities of man. She delicately lifted his head to remove her mother's heart-shaped locket before kissing his cheek and softly closing his eyelids. His final resting place would be the concealment that kept her safe for all these years.

Equipped with her grandfather’s antique folding utility shovel, their rucksack of supplies and the heir loom heart-shaped locket which was engraved “chosen one” she began to run in the opposite direction of the heartless bandits as tears streamed down her cheeks. She ran for miles, aimlessly through the twists and turns of vast cave networks. She ran past victims of starvation, victims of the third and final war and victims of the villainous bandits. She ran until she couldn’t run anymore, when she stumbled upon a spontaneous spring of fresh water leaking from the cave’s wall. She immediately quenched her thirst and then filled up her canteen before picking some mushrooms and grubs to eat from the foot of the spring.

She knew that running alone wouldn’t be enough and on what little resources she had the bandits would soon catch up to her, so her only option was to dig. She took advantage of the soft soil by the spring and began to burrow with her shovel, she started with a small hole near the ground then made the opening tall enough to stand up. Using clay from the dig she made her initial opening as small as possible so that only air could get through and it wouldn’t be spotted by scavengers. For what seemed like days she burrowed like a restless mole, although days didn’t exist in the caves and time was measured by the consumption of her canteen. It didn’t take long for her canteen to run out and her grubs to be scoffed down, but Summer couldn’t be stopped as she dug in a trance-like state reliving the dying moments of her grandfather over and over. Sucking on soil for moisture and sometimes even swallowing the dirt to fuel her tiring body and soul, she continued to dig without any certainty of where she was headed or how much further she could go. All she knew was that she had to keep going, away.

Being born into the caves Summer’s body had adapted, less light meant her eyes and ears had evolved to be almost bat-like. This also meant her body needed less rest and nutrition than her surface-dwelling ancestors due to reduced sensory stimulation, her lungs needed less oxygen and a lot of it was sourced from water she drank. Of which she was running out, she was fading.

However, like some sort of miracle, with a stroke of the shovel the wall of dirt in front of her began to crumble away and a breeze of fresh air rushed into her lungs. Summer had made it, unbeknownst, to her final destination. It took a while for her to regain her senses and for her eyes to adjust, when they did, she couldn’t believe what she had stumbled upon. Behold, a utopia of springs and foliage, of which she had never seen in all her life. Flying feathered animal's shrieked through the air, slippery creatures glistened as they ejected themselves from the water to feast on winged grubs. What was this phenomenal sanctuary? Had she passed away in her hovel and arrived in her grandfather's tales of a heavenly garden her mother and now he roamed called “the afterlife”?

She found her feet and descended on the cavern in amazement. She washed her blackened face and skin with the cold, fresh water that poured off huge fan leaves of which she had never seen. She scraped the bark at the foot of huge tree trunks, she felt a sudden urge to embrace the trunk and take in all the glorious new scents. She cautiously trekked through the forest of wet leaves and trees in awe, eating all sorts of crawling protein and listening carefully for predators. She made it to the edge of a sparkling lagoon, filled with drinkable water and stunning new aquatic lifeforms. It was in this moment Summer was positive she had made it to safety and the beginning of her new life, for the first time in her life she wept with joy.

As time went by Summer explored the caves vast bounties, learning how to shelter from the constant downpour of rejuvenating fresh water dripping from trees and stalactites on the huge caverns roof. Using her utility shovel to hack down branches and leaves, making new shelters as she ventured deeper and deeper into the paradise. She discovered wooden spears and eventually even nets for fishing out the tasty creatures of the lake. She discovered invigorating sweet, fleshy fruits to gorge on that gave her copious amounts of energy. Although there was always a loneliness that came from the absence of her beloved grandfather, she felt an overwhelming happiness in her new surroundings superlative to her past existence.

Then, as she continued to explore further from her birth into this heavenly new life, she felt something she had never felt before. An intense presence that resonated to the core of her bones and being, a gravitational pull that determined the direction that she wandered. Until she locked gazes with another being, not a bandit, not a creature of the caves, not anything she had ever seen or heard of. Although filled with terror, she felt an intense euphoria as her body was drawn uncontrollably towards the unknown lifeform, hypnotically. Standing 7 foot tall, taller than any man she had ever observed. The being was bordered with a bright white aura that blinded Summer’s light sensitive eyes to her surroundings as it continued to pull her closer. She found herself halted firm within reach of the being, in that moment, she was no longer scared. She felt a great understanding and without words, she knew exactly what to do next and why.

Summer willingly followed the being to a great pyramid-like structure, masked to her before the presence of the being by overgrowth. The light of the being intensified and after a series of tones emanating from the unknown lifeform, an entrance to the structure was revealed. She accompanied the telepathic lifeform into a great hall of colours and tones she had never experienced. The being turned to summer and placed its hand upon her forehead, filling her with a joyful feeling of life. A new life inside her own.

Then, as the being ushered her towards a pillar in the middle of the great hall, her mother's heart-shaped locket began to glow white with heat. It snapped off her neck with so much force it seemed to become embedded in the pillar. the ground and walls began to rumble, greater than any tremor she had ever experienced. In that moment Summer felt the earth leave her.