A story of greedy people, their crime and punishment. The pandemic perished them a century back. Here’s a dystopian tale by Soumya. An exclusive for Different Truths.
Anuk was showing around the visitors in the museum lit by torches. The guide and the visitors were all in their teens. There seemed to be no one older anywhere around. The visitors had just drawn up on sleighs drawn by huskies. There was snow all around. The area was somewhere near the North Pole. There was no internal heating. Everyone was wrapped in voluminous furs. The building looked like it was built from blocks of ice, much like an igloo.
The objects on display were wrecks of items of daily use from our times, like laptops, mobile phones, TV sets, and microwaves. There were skeletal remains of a car, and some bits of wreckage from airplanes.
I could hear the guide explain: these artifacts are from more than 100 years ago. And we do not know what they were used for. Perhaps they were totems. They are all made from rare substances, some are rare metals with which we can make superior spears and fishhooks, or sleigh rails, and some are from some smooth material we have not seen. They were all washed ashore on various high tides.
There were skeletal remains of a car, and some bits of wreckage from airplanes.
Legendary Civilisations
These might belong to the legendary civilisations of the south we heard about when we were young, which the gods put under the sea to punish them for their greed.
… our village elders spoke of them, before they all died, saying that their sickness was also a curse of the gods.
A guest piped in, yes, our village elders spoke of them, before they all died, saying that their sickness was also a curse of the gods. The greedy people of the south brought upon them. Only a few of us children would be spared, they said.
Another added, maybe these are the magic things they had in the olden days, sleighs that went without pulling, even flew, and spears that killed a whole tribe, and horns that could be heard across the sea.
The others laughed at this and said that the old men were very sick when they thought of these stories.
The others laughed at this and said that the old men were very sick when they thought of these stories. Pity they are not around today, as they would be excited to see all this.
Time Machine
I was hovering above in my time machine, sent out to check out the life ahead, as the earth was getting sick of the endless waves of the pandemic unleashed when a biological warfare laboratory developed a leak.
The chill I felt when I heard all this had nothing to do with the weather outside. I flew high above. And saw that a tiny icecap was all that remained, surrounded by an endless sea.
I flew back to our warmer times, my heart chilled at the thought of what awaited our children.
I flew back to our warmer times, my heart chilled at the thought of what awaited our children.
The year was 2121.
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