Under the Ice

I was born in 2051, after the second Great Depression there wasn’t much to look forward to. Most of the stores were shut down especially the small shops so all that was left was a few big box stores that you had to drive 5 hours to unless you were close to the area. No one was close to those areas anymore, most of the time you can barely get close to those stores. It just seems like there is an endless line of people trying to hang on to the last bit of that society that does not exist anymore. Now, we have an arm band to identify and keep track of our quality, not quite the futuristic chip implants that we all expected. The arm bands do have a tracker, it tells me how many calories I’ve eaten and burned, I can scan it at the water stations, and at care facilities. I barely remember how it was before.

The farthest back that I can remember was the summer that the pond froze over. This pond never froze, even in the dead of winter, I had never seen frozen water that big before. This was years after the clean water ran out and everyone was practically killing each other just for water. It almost came to a civil war or utter chaos before the arm bands were tested. In trade for water, some small food rations, the ability to receive care, and store access, we gave up any idea of freedom that existed. People will do a lot for security and some comforts. Although this was not mandatory It was mandatory in order to travel, even from state to state or city to city. The check points for verification were very stressful. The people who chose not to get a band were treated like they were soulless.

My mother was a healer, we traveled around with many more freedoms than the rest of the people we saw on a regular basis. She treated anyone, even people who were against the law. People without bands were not a part of our society and so she would be breaking the rules if she treated them. But she always treated them. She would help anyone who asked and she was never a big follower of the rules especially before Depression-pocalyps, D-Poc. The apocalypse wasn’t what people thought it was going to be. It turned out to be just a really long depression event. The best part about this was that people started growing their own food and everything that drove consumerism collapsed. We all supposed that the uber rich went under ground or to space but the truth was much more unassuming.

As I traveled around with my mother I started to notice something strange. We always, and I mean always helped the rich first. No matter the distance, if someone was a pre D-poc billionaire the chances were that they had made themselves rich in bartering items as well as money. When it all disintegrated they were completely ready for this phase of how the world would be. We always wondered how they were so well off while most of the world became a huge prison for people treated like cockroaches. I can only imagine what the no bands people have to go through. I helped my mom all my life, but it wasn’t until I was in my mid thirties that she told me something that would change my life and the lives of everyone. My mother was a healer, not a doctor, she wanted to heal the world. She never took her calling lightly and after the conventional medicine system failed healers emerged as if they had been waiting for this opportunity to help the world through this very dark time.

When she finally told me what her true purpose was I did not believe her, I did not believe that my mother was capable. She told me because she desperately needed me to carry on her work, a plan set in place decades before I was born. I screamed at her, I called her a murderer, I went through all of the stages of grief in one after noon and when It was all over I remembered the pond. I remembered being young and happy to see something that to me was amazing. Now with this newly fashioned perspective I realized what was happening that summer the pond froze. From the new eyes she had given me I saw people installing equipment inside the pond, where once I thought they were fishing. I saw body after body and even some bones given to the pond as if it was an offering to some higher power. I saw so many things, that the novelty of the pond freezing was gone, and the harsh reality that she wanted me to continue her work was in the pit of my stomach.

The healers agenda had always been to remove the people in silent power. The people who knew and were prepared for this phase of humanity. The idea was to get rid of enough of the people who could come to power after this long period of darkness. To abolish people who still wanted there to be owner ship of Mother Earth people who would steal from her and hurt her. I could have never realized that the people my mother was treating especially some of the high priority pre D-poc billionaires always left with us. They never even saw it coming, I know because they still never do. They can’t even fathom being taken out of power generations before they may even assume that power.

I usually don’t freeze the pond in the summer as it would seem very out of place these days, but at the time there were forces checking the land regularly and sometimes with out notice. This was at a time when the weather was extremely unpredictable which is likely the only reason she got away with it. She never apologized for that trauma of unloading this secret, but now when I have to give bodies to the pond I see why it always seemed like a ceremonial sacrifice. It was a sacrifice to the Earth herself in the hopes that she would heal from the exploitation that she endured for so many generations. I suppose the process of freezing the bodies each year to crush them into unidentifiable fragments could be refined, but In this world it makes since to continue until the people who want us enslaved are gone and everyone can roam free with clean air and water. The Earth will heal. The work is harsh and unforgiving but in the world we build next there will be no majority who controls the earth with any monetary systems built to oppress and exploit people. My daughter turns 8 today and her future as a healer will be bright.