The New Ecology of Forest Clemons

The New Ecology of Forest Clemons

day... Tuesday, June 28th 2112

1:17 p.m.

The air humid, annoyingly warm. Dark gray hearted clouds hung low, moving fast over our, empty, almost lifless, now quiet town. The sky a bright blue over our heads, faded-out into the summer air; where at the horizon thunderheads rested in a haze of baby blues and soft pinks.

I balanced myself on broken sidewalk edges, walking home alone. Coming into a five lamppost parking lot clearing, I fixed my gaze on an old library that was to my left, washed-out of color, windows missing, from what I could see its foundation had sunken in dramatically. With my hands stuffed deep in my jean's pockets I approached it slowly. I had walked passed it countless times on my way to and from home but never had the nerve to go inside. And why would I?

Getting a better view, I took off my black baseball cap and shielded my eyes against the sun. Tugging at the back of my shirts, I pulled them away from the inner curve of my spine, from the damp sweat covering my shoulder blades, I took a breath and made my way to the front, walking through waist high tall golden grass I pushed down my inner-fears. Only a few feet away from the once glass entrance I froze, letting the soft wind tug at my tattered dark green plaid shirt.

A smarter person, like my older brother, would have walked right pass not giving this place a second thought. “It’s too dangerous,” I whispered, picturing Ben saying it.

This oddly feels familiar, I thought walking in and looking around, my shoes echoing on the cracked, dirt covered, orange floor tile. Aside from the smell of rain and mold, mother nature had been kind to this place after the great cleansing in 2025, even allowing some plants and flowers that needed little sunlight to grow up from the water stained walls. Born in 2091 I had no recollection of the cleansing that had happened, only what my grandparents and parents have told me.

Leaping quickly from step to step through the stairwell that lead to the second floor, I stoped. My gaze and mind captivated at the sight of countless book shelfs, still intact with books. Forgetting to be cautious, I snapped out of my trance and looked around wildly, hoping no one was watching me.

From the second floor window to my left I curiously looked out and over our now tree covered town. With two rusted light blue water-towers in view, I had a better perspective and could see the old scorch marks on the earth where bombs had been dropped all those years ago, now healing with time it was hard for me to imagine this place in working order. A gust of wind pushing aside my short brown hair, I took in the breath that the sky let out. Looking west in the direction of my house, my thoughts drifted down like white tuffs of cotton to my family, my mom and dad, my grandparents and my two older brothers. They were good people, way over protective at times, but it was nice to break free and go exploring on my own, when they'd let me.

It was almost peaceful here. In a strange way. In a way that surprised me, seeing that we were living in the aftermath and fallout of an apocalypse. Knowing the locations of most of the mass graves that were dug during the cleansing, I have to admit, seeing trees and fields of flowers growing over them, was nice to see. It felt healing.

Turning around, I kept moving forward, hesitantly walking through library book rows. Sunlight peering in from where the ceiling had collapsed in, gave life to countless flowers of purple and yellow, of blue and white. The old books, covered in damp green moss, grew flowers that sprouted from the spines of their bindings, where authors names and titles would have been. With butterflies clinging to bookshelves, a hazy glint, a ray of gold shining up from the floor caught my eye. A locket I thought. Heart shaped, weather worn and tarnished I slowly picked it up, turning it over in my left hand.

9:36 p.m.

Laying in bed that night, I let my eyes adjust to the darkness of my blue moon lit room. The locket around my neck, I had restrung it after the chain had fallen off. Twisting it with my fingers as it lay on my chest I hadn't opened it yet. What if there was nothing inside? What if it was a picture of a random person? Not giving it any more thoughts before I drifted to sleep, I decided I'd try to finish my chores around the house tomorrow as fast as I could, so I could go back to see if there was anything else I could find.

day... Wednesday, June 29th 2112

12:00 p.m.

Washing my face in the cool sink water I rubbed the sweat and grime from my eyes with the end of my faded green short sleeved T-shirt. Quickly washing my hair, I changed clothes, threw my backpack over my shoulders and headed for the front door.

"Hold up! Hold up you're going out again Forest?" My dad said grabbing me by the left arm.

"Y-yeah," I said looking around at my grandparents who were perched in the living room. "Andrew and Ben got to go out."

"To hunt! What if they mistake you for some kind of danger?"

I rolled my eyes, "should I be so lucky."

"Forest I'm serious did you ask your mom?"

"NO! I'm serious!" I said pulling away from him, "I've done all of my chores, I've read all the books in our library, I know all the dangerous spots in town dad, guys I'll be careful!"

"Dan, let the boy go," my grandpa called after us, smiling over at me he dropped his gaze to the book he was reading.

Taking a deep breath my dad rubbed his eyes, "what area of the town are you going to be in so we have and idea where you're at?"

"The north side of the old college," I said walking backwards, feeling for the doorknob, "I just want to grab some new books, I'll be safe I promise."

12:32 p.m.

Hitting the ground hard I had lost my balance walking over a fallen tree and had cut my left inner arm, not too deep I pulled a rag from my bag and wrapped the cut as firm as I could. Only half away to the library, I pushed the minor pain to the back of my mind and kept walking.

A voice from my right startling me, I froze in place, "that looked like a pretty bad fall?" Coming into view a taller man, with short brown hair and soft earth brown eyes from under a baseball cap, he smiled down at me.

"Derek?" I rushed him, putting my right arm around his waist.

"Hey, Forest," he laughed "I haven't seen you in some time."

"Derek!" I looked up at him confused, "what are you doing out here?"

"I'm hunting with your brothers, hold up," he lowered his right eyebrow, "do they know you're out here. Alone?"

"I'm 21 Derek, anyway it's what, Wednesday, they're hunting on the east side of town, I'm out of their way."

"What happened to your arm?" he asked reaching for it.

Pulling away from his hand, I looked up at his face "I cut it, when I fell."

"Here follow me," walking just a few feet away from him I watched Derek with intent. He had been Andrew and Ben's friend for as long as I could remember. Slightly older then me by 2 years, Derek handsome tall, had a great smile and often hung around the house. Looking at him now, things felt different, a jump in my chest that caught me off guard, I almost started to panic being next to him. Getting to the old loading dock of the library he directed me to sit, where he moved in front of me.

Slowly I followed him with my eyes, pulling out a small gray box from the bag he had, he reached for my arm again, this time, I let him. "D-derek?"

"Yeah?" he smiled to himself as he removed my makeshift bandage and inspected my arm.

"Have you always lived here in the heart lands?" I asked watching his fingers move over my skin.

"N-no," he stated. "You guys have it lucky, I'm from the east coast we weren't so fortunate, you want to experience a real dystopia, try going to New York or California."

"How bad was it?" I asked grabbing tight to his left inner forearm as he cleaned my wound with small dabs of alcohol.

"Well," he started "there were five nuclear bombs that were dropped, one on the upper west coast," he said using his fingers to count "the lower west coast, on the heart of Texas, the lower east coast and the upper east coast, they knew the heartlands would suffer the fall out. All of that on top of the plagues, the forest fires, the tropical storms, I would say the population around the 2080's was around 92 million, but that was about thirty-five years ago, it has to be well around 115 million by now. People are starting to feel safe again."

"What, what did they do to each other?" I cautiously asked.

"Almost anything to survive," he whispered.

I tried meeting his eyes, "you're not like that, are you?"

"Your in luck," he smiled, his eyes deep from under his baseball cap "no, what's that?" He asked pointing to the string that lead under my shirt.

Pulling out the locket I blushed, "I found it in the library yesterday when I was exploring."

"What's inside of it?" Derek grinned, "the name of your lover?"

"I, I don't know," I said in all honesty, "I found it, but I never bothered opening it. Taking it off from around my neck I handed it to him.

"C-can I?" He asked.

"Yeah," I said watching his hands move slow, he paused for dramatic effect. Clicking it open, his eye's widened. "Derek, w-what is it?"

"Ah, nothing," he said dropping his shoulders, showing me the empty locket.

"Well, just as long as it wasn't some random person, I guess it's ok." I smiled.

Finishing up, Derek cleaned my arm and bandaged it up properly, "I'm gonna tell your brothers you cut your arm, so you better tell your mom, we wouldn't want it to get infected." Still holding the locket in his hand Derek looked around, "do you have a pen and a piece of paper?"

"I-i might," I said pulling my bag around.

"That's ok, I found it," he said holing them up with a smile. Writing on it he folded it gently and clicked it into the small heart shaped locket.

I reached for it.

He grabbed onto my hands quick, "no, don't open it, not when I'm around, open it whenever you're, feeling lonely or sad." The skin under his eyes glowing red, he let go of my hands and stood straight. Taking a few steps back he smiled, "see ya later Forest."

"Hold up!" I called after him. "You're gonna leave, just like that?"

"Your brothers are waiting for me," he called back, looking at his watch he kept walking, "I told them 1:15 p.m. by the old SouthLand Bank, anyway don't you have a library to explore?"

Feeling the locket between my fingers I stuffed it back into my shirt and hopped down. The noon air warm, but not annoyingly warm, I softly smiled to myself.