Tales Of The Future-Part 1
Introduction:
Over one hundred years from now and the world is a very different place….
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The year 2140 and the world is a very different place.
100 years ago strange craters began appearing in large fields, parkland and deserts. People were baffled by them. Some said it was alien life, but such statements were laughed off to begin with.
After some years of these craters appearing, concerns began to grow. They were causing damage to the farmland across the entire planet and the numbers of these craters were increasing dramatically.
After about a decade odd people began to appear as if from nowhere. They were bigger and taller than human beings, with dull greyish skin, but otherwise much the same, if somewhat more Neanderthal in their features and gait.
It didn’t take long for the human race to connect the enormous craters to these strange appearances.
The Governments of the United Nations went on the offensive against these intruders, attempting to drive them out.
The aliens, as they became know did not speak, but communicated in grunts and odd sounds.
They did not attack humans, despite the animosity that they faced. Instead they largely ignored the human beings that abused and attacked them. But they did not move away from civilisation.
Instead the creatures inhabited abandoned buildings, out houses, factories, warehouses, power stations and even garden sheds. In fact any where that humans built or inhabited, the aliens were not far away.
They didn’t appear to feed, they just thrived on man made spaces in cities, towns and villages.
More and more of these odd alien folk appeared.
The more the armies of the world attacked and persecuted, the more the intruders colonised society.
It soon became apparent that it was very hard to kill the intruders, without the use of explosives, which obviously was highly dangerous and controversial when dealing with civilians in ordinary neighbourhoods.
Knives and guns were rendered useless against the intruders. They did not even break the tough hide like skin!
Within 35 years towns and cities were being evacuated and bombed in some of the larger continents in an attempt to rid the planet of these creatures.
But this caused overcrowding in other cities and settlements that started to develop on the outskirts of urban areas and besides the bombings did little to quell the huge numbers in which the intruders were appearing.
They would follow the humans wherever they went.
Scientists began to put forth theories that these creatures were parasites.
Space parasitism was the term that was coined internationally.
Soon, all across the world society began to collapse. Governments were overthrown, schools, universities and colleges ceased to exist. Hospitals stopped running, businesses did not trade. Everyone was looking out for number one. Trying to find their own space in an overcrowded planet, realising that if they lived in very small numbers the intruders would not notice them and they wouldn’t try to colonise their space.
But in a world of billions of people, this was not possible.
The intruders seemed to be matching in numbers to the human race all across the planet.
As human race aged, it was noticed that the birth rate had slowed dramatically because people had become more nomadic, they did not think about, or want to start a family.
Skilled workers ceased to exist as the education system had collapsed and the world population began to dwindle.
One hundred years on and the human population was down to 30 million worldwide. It was a new generation isolated once again to their own continents and islands, as no planes had flown for the last fifty years. No oil was being drilled, a few planes had been attempted to be flown, but did not end well. There were no cars or trains. All technology had ceased.
Some adventurous people had used boats to sail across to larger islands or continents, but many were happy to stay where they were.
Many were nomadic. Walking across large expanses like Europe, Asia or the Americas, they lived in tribes and occasionally joined forces with other.
Life became more simple again. Living off the land, learning skills that had been almost forgotten. Now there was no electricity or gas supplies, people needed to work harder to survive.
Although they had assistance from things that their ancestors had left behind, such as tools, cooking utensils, weapons and basic machinery. Many of these simple things became highly valuable and gangs of looters roamed through the almost empty cities raiding old factories, warehouses, shops and even houses.
They would trade these items for food and shelter with the settled populations that they stumbled across during their travels.
Existence in this new generation was largely peaceful, although the occasional robbery or fight would occur.
The tribes that lived undisturbed deep in the rainforests, or communities that lived on remote islands lived much the same as before, largely untroubled by the invasion of the alien people.
The environment and wildlife had benefited from the decline in humans and once again began to thrive and claim back much of the land overtaken by people in the past.
And what of the alien people in this new generation?
As the numbers of human beings decreased so too did the intruders. They seemed to have a way of colonising places with sheer numbers and once they had taken over, their own population would fall.
Worldwide the population of the intruders was roughly 100 million. They did not come into conflict with the remaining humans.
In general both species lived in harmony, mainly keeping out of one another’s way.
The intruders seemed to just exist. They would stay in the houses or buildings that they had colonised and do very little else.
But it became apparent that they did need the human race to exist and now and again the intruders would go out and capture humans from across their territories (islands, continents or land masses) and keep them together in cages to breed. Then after a few months the humans were released, unharmed.
These cages were erected by humans when they were first captured by the intruders.
They were comfortable places and the intruders kept them well until they let them go.
This suited human beings well, as it was often hard finding other members of their own kind as they were all quite isolated from one another and generally they lived in family groups, or large nomadic groups of young men.
Women did not leave their family groups as often as they were considered more valuable to the small societies.
It was early spring and the long hard winter was now definitely on the wane.
Many young men, ranging from the ages of 18 to 30 years old were packing their belongings into small carry sacks ready to leave their family run land holdings in search of adventure, food and their own land, but most of all in search of women!
As they tramped across the country they would run into one another and form allegiances and continue through the countryside and virtually empty cities and towns together.
One such band contained twelve young men:
Iverson, Luther, Romian, Florian, Gideon, Finbar, Bonnie, Cirian, Berec, Robin, Odin and Noah.
It was now nearing the end of March and they had all known each other for nearly a month and their journey was beginning for real!
‘This is great! I never thought this day would come, when I could finally be free to roam and hopefully set up by myself’ Robin called happily as he sauntered ahead of the main group up the old crumbling tarmac of a former motorway.
‘Set up on your own eh?’ Luther called back.
‘We just here to help you find you woman or women and land?!’ He grinned.
‘Oh- no,no I didn’t mean it like that! I meant away from home, the family.. With you fine gentlemen!’ Robin attempted to dig himself out of his pit of words.
‘It’s ok, Robin. I think our friend Luther was having you on!’ laughed Iverson. At thirty years old, Iverson was the oldest and most travelled of the group.
He was looked up to as the leader and founder of the group, especially by the younger members, such as Robin and his younger brother Odin, also Cirian, Florian, Gideon and even the cocky young Noah.
It had been Iverson’s idea to travel north now that the days were becoming longer and the weather was warmer.
‘Now we have the whole of spring and summer to get there, we are in no rush’ Iverson would say.
And he was right. All they needed was to loot the towns they came across for anything of value and trade it for food with any settlements they found on their way.
Iverson, Romian and Luther were also skilled at fishing and hunting, which the others were grateful for, but also keen to learn for themselves.
‘So where are all these women we were promised?’ Demanded young Noah impatiently.
‘Ive not seen hide nor hair of a female since I left my camp!’
‘You need more patience! The settlers are very precious over their women, they don’t like them to leave the land holds.’ Iverson chuckled.
He remembered being 18 and asking the same question of his elders when he first left home and getting the same answer.
‘It took me nearly five months until I met my first women- well apart from my mother and three cousins at home.’ Iverson remembered aloud.
‘Wow, you must have been desperate!’ Laughed Bonnie, a curly haired skinny chap, aged just twenty he had not strayed far from his land hold but reckoned he had seen and experienced much already.
‘I certainly was desperate!’ Iverson grinned.
‘I just don’t think I could have held out that long!’ Bonnie went on.
‘Well it would be hard to do anything but hold on!’ Finbar retorted.
He was the same age as Bonnie, but a little more wise and realistic in his approach to life on the road.
‘I mean, you just have to keep going and hope that you’re on the right track of meeting someone! How long was it before you met your first. Bonnie?’
Finbar enquired.
‘Time to eat, I think!’ Bonnie said loudly, trying to drown out Finbar’s awkward questioning.
The group stopped and put their baggage down on a weed free spot of tarmac and Gideon, Florian and Bonnie headed off to find dried sticks and leaves for a fire.
Soon a big pot was simmering away on the fire and a meaty stew and fresh baked bread was being handed round.
‘That was a good farm we found. Food should keep us going at least a week!’ Robin piped up between mouthfuls of hot stew.
‘Pity there was no women to be had!’ Noah chimed in.
‘Remember, there will be some women whose family may not like you near their daughter/niece, or whatever.’ Warned Luther.
We had some nomads stay with us who told me that didn’t matter to them. They said the land holders would not be able to find them once they had left!’ Noah replied.
‘Yes, some people are like that, but I stick with my morals and respect those who show respect to me.’ Luther said measurably.
Noah looked a little puzzled.
Iverson chipped in; ’Those kinds of men often end up in bother of some sort, you need to be careful if that is the life you choose. The land holders can be dangerous if you cross them. They have ways of tracking you down.’
‘Tell us about your first girl, Iverson.’ Odin asked, a little shyly.
The others perked up at this request and suddenly all eyes were upon Iverson!
