Very Short Peice: The Birth Of Fear
Posted: 2003-12-22 03:32pm
This was written up for a game I take part in, in an attempt to flesh out the backstory a bit. The 'Burning' was a great nuclear war that left Earth pretty much devastated, and set the stage for a particularly grim future in the stars.
Birth Of Fear.
I remember now. 2102, that was the year. The year I lost everything. The year.. We all lost everything. Like something out of an ancient legend about the end of the world, the fires started. For twelve hours solid, missiles tipped with the power of burning stars rained upon Mother Earth, snuffing out the light of civilization that had burned for thousands of years.
Since that day, many have told me the initial deathcount of the Burning was one third of humanity. When I emerged into the ruins of the city, it felt like more. There were no people here. No children playing, no people walking to work. Looking up one street, I could see what had once been the center of a mighty nation, the capital of the United States. I knew it's structures well. The melted, sagging pillar I could see, ravaged as if by a billion years in a single moment of fire, was the Washington Monument.
*****
Several weeks later, I was astonished to find that, as I cleared the top of a hill, signs of humanity. A small town, built of scraps and spare materials, had been made in the mountains. They welcomed me into their tiny community, told me of how they had taken refuge here, to escape the fallout of the ruined cities to the east of us.
Life with the mountain people was hard, but it was fufilling. They showed me how to farm and hunt, how to make food last. And on some nights, they would tell tales about how things were before the Burning. They told me of the soldiers, that would come when flood or fire destroyed a town. How none of them were afraid, because they knew the soldiers would be coming to help them rebuild.
A year and a day after I had found them, I bid my farewell to the mountain people. I had learned much, and they had shown me where more people should be. They urged me to use my strength to find these survivors, and help them find others. Across the mountains I set out, onto the great wide plains.
*****
In the shadows of once-great cities, I found them. Survivors huddled up to the cities they once flourished in, slowly dying from starvation, disease, and radiation. I taught them the lessons of the mountain people, how to find new places to live, how to hunt and farm. When I saw the fear in their eyes, I would tell them tales of the soldiers who were coming. How soon, no one would have to fear this new world, as the soldiers would help rebuild.
I taught, and I was taught. Doctors showed me how to treat the poisons of the fallout, mechanics showed me how to repair the relics of the world before the burning. I urged them to send their strongest out to those I had helped before, to rebuild the ties between people.
*****
Beyond the great rolling plains where I had found so many, I found mountains jutting up into the sky, far higher than those I had trekked across so long ago. Yet, I had grown stronger in my journey, and I had learned many things. I found people there as well, clustered around relics of technology for their survival. I urged them to journey with me, to cross the mountains to the great ocean beyond. Some went with me, some refused.
I told those that travelled with me of the soldiers. In the retellings, they had become as strong as trucks, as kind as fathers. And with each telling, the fear in their eyes would calm, for they knew help was coming for us.
*****
It had felt like an eternity since I had emerged from beneath Washingon D.C., as I looked out over the Pacific Ocean. In the distance, I saw the shapes of warships in a bay. My companions cried out in joy, telling each other they had found the soldiers. The soldiers had come to save them.
As we entered the city, we found that these soldiers were not the rescuers we had told tales of. Anger and conquest drove them, meaning slavery for all those who stood in their way. They rebuilt for themselves alone, and in the eyes of all those who toiled, I saw fear.
As they surrounded me, I thought back to the great rolling plains. And all the people that were waiting for these men.
They had no hope.
Birth Of Fear.
I remember now. 2102, that was the year. The year I lost everything. The year.. We all lost everything. Like something out of an ancient legend about the end of the world, the fires started. For twelve hours solid, missiles tipped with the power of burning stars rained upon Mother Earth, snuffing out the light of civilization that had burned for thousands of years.
Since that day, many have told me the initial deathcount of the Burning was one third of humanity. When I emerged into the ruins of the city, it felt like more. There were no people here. No children playing, no people walking to work. Looking up one street, I could see what had once been the center of a mighty nation, the capital of the United States. I knew it's structures well. The melted, sagging pillar I could see, ravaged as if by a billion years in a single moment of fire, was the Washington Monument.
*****
Several weeks later, I was astonished to find that, as I cleared the top of a hill, signs of humanity. A small town, built of scraps and spare materials, had been made in the mountains. They welcomed me into their tiny community, told me of how they had taken refuge here, to escape the fallout of the ruined cities to the east of us.
Life with the mountain people was hard, but it was fufilling. They showed me how to farm and hunt, how to make food last. And on some nights, they would tell tales about how things were before the Burning. They told me of the soldiers, that would come when flood or fire destroyed a town. How none of them were afraid, because they knew the soldiers would be coming to help them rebuild.
A year and a day after I had found them, I bid my farewell to the mountain people. I had learned much, and they had shown me where more people should be. They urged me to use my strength to find these survivors, and help them find others. Across the mountains I set out, onto the great wide plains.
*****
In the shadows of once-great cities, I found them. Survivors huddled up to the cities they once flourished in, slowly dying from starvation, disease, and radiation. I taught them the lessons of the mountain people, how to find new places to live, how to hunt and farm. When I saw the fear in their eyes, I would tell them tales of the soldiers who were coming. How soon, no one would have to fear this new world, as the soldiers would help rebuild.
I taught, and I was taught. Doctors showed me how to treat the poisons of the fallout, mechanics showed me how to repair the relics of the world before the burning. I urged them to send their strongest out to those I had helped before, to rebuild the ties between people.
*****
Beyond the great rolling plains where I had found so many, I found mountains jutting up into the sky, far higher than those I had trekked across so long ago. Yet, I had grown stronger in my journey, and I had learned many things. I found people there as well, clustered around relics of technology for their survival. I urged them to journey with me, to cross the mountains to the great ocean beyond. Some went with me, some refused.
I told those that travelled with me of the soldiers. In the retellings, they had become as strong as trucks, as kind as fathers. And with each telling, the fear in their eyes would calm, for they knew help was coming for us.
*****
It had felt like an eternity since I had emerged from beneath Washingon D.C., as I looked out over the Pacific Ocean. In the distance, I saw the shapes of warships in a bay. My companions cried out in joy, telling each other they had found the soldiers. The soldiers had come to save them.
As we entered the city, we found that these soldiers were not the rescuers we had told tales of. Anger and conquest drove them, meaning slavery for all those who stood in their way. They rebuilt for themselves alone, and in the eyes of all those who toiled, I saw fear.
As they surrounded me, I thought back to the great rolling plains. And all the people that were waiting for these men.
They had no hope.
