This is a fun little fantasy/sci-fi tale. Enjoy! |
Bottom of the Food Chain Yeah, the biotech industry created this whole fiasco. âBetter living through science.â After thousands of years, humans are somewhere I thought weâd never be, bottom of the food chain. I live in the community of preyed. The world is now run by predators. They have the weapons, vehicles, and computer systems. The entire infrastructure of earth is held in the hands of the aliens. When I say alien I mean different. These beings arenât from another planet. Humans created millions of clones in the past five years. People all wanted created beings in their own images. Why no one thought about the consequences beats me. Iâm not a smart man; I barely made it through high school. But I know that people want to be in control. Why would clones be any different? Now thanks to us, they have total control. We spend our days hiding from armed predators. Nightâs the only time we can be outside. The predators canât see in the dark. Since cloning is a new technique, one little detail was neglected in DNA processing. No clone has night vision, even with night vision goggles. Youâd think the bozos who invented this wouldâve thought that through. Because of that oversight, thereâs some time when weâre not hunted. My home is this cave; now a haven for hundreds. The predators patrol this area but havenât found us. We venture out at night; using the dark to travel and hunt for food. The days drag, with monotony our constant companion. I use my free time, which is plenty, trying to keep this rag-tag group alive. I sit in my little area of ground, away from others. Iâd rather be alone, but someone always messes things up. âHey, Mike. Howâs it going?â Billy leaned against the dirt wall. âJust fine, Billy. Iâm busy in case you canât tell.â âNah, you ainât busy. You ainât never busy. Some of usâns are goinâ all the way to Butte tonight. Wanna come?â Billy crouched down, level with me. âButte you say? Why Butte?â âWe heared theys got some new women. Got there last week. Me and the boys are tired of these skanks. We goinâ to check âem out.â âWell Billy, I think Iâll pass. You and your hormones have a good time.â âMy what? That mean ya ainât cominâ?â âYep, thatâs what it means.â Billy rose and scratched under the bill of his greasy ball cap. âYa donât know what youâs missinâ.â âI know, think Iâll take my chances here tonight.â He walked away, shaking his head. Billy had exactly three friends in the world. The four of them had no more sense than God gave a rock. Somehow they kept out of the predatorsâ way. I guess no one had cloned the stupid people. I surveyed the cave, wondering what had happened to make us so scared.Why had we ignored all the warning signs? No one had the ability to change the world once the predators took over. Last we heard, they had slowly eliminated over half the humans. With communication virtually eliminated, itâs hard to know whatâs true. Weâre back in the Stone Age. Weâre back to Stone Age living but with Computer Age workers. âHey Mike!â Judy yelled across the cavernous space. âCome and join us!â Judy and another woman sat near some boulders; a small fire lit their faces. They did look skanky. Judy has thin red hair and freckles. Every exposed body part covered in dirt so thick it almost covered her freckles. Her friend seemed cleaner; but her smile revealed rotten teeth. Not two women I usually cared to spend time with. But was that food I saw? âOK, be right there.â I stood and folded my blanket. The blanket wasnât much, but it kept the damp away. You didnât want to sit on the bare ground. âMike, meet Angie, my old friend. We met up last night.â âHey Angie.â I spread my blanket beside Angie, careful to not touch her bedroll. âWhat you ladies eatinâ ?â Something smelled good. âJust some apples we found yesterday. Want one?â Angie held out a wrinkled red apple with several worm holes. âSure.â I bit into the dried fruit; it tasted a little like apple but not juicy. The worms added some unexpected protein. Now I wanted a Big Mac. âNot bad. Whereâd you find these?â âOver near that corner house. Predator family lives there, but guess they donât know that the tree in backyard is loaded.â She showed me a plastic basket full of wrinkled fruit. âSo Judy, any trouble last night? Anyone get taken?â âThings were fine, we had to dodge a few predators. Most of the houses were dark, no lights on anywhere.â âSeems like things are getting quieter. Every time someone comes in, theyâve got the same story. More houses thatâre dark and quiet.â I suddenly had an idea. âAre you going out tonight?â âProbably, Angie and me are tired of being inside. Why?â âItâs my turn to guard the entrance so I canât do this. I need for you to check for predators. Count the ones you see and how many houses with lights on. Can you do that?â âHow much you payinâ me to do this? Itâs kinda dangerous. I donât wanna get captured by those freaks.â âIâll think of a way to repay you.â Judy crawled across the dirt; her dirty freckled face getting closer. âYouâre a big handsome guy. Iâm sure between the two of us we can figger it out.â Jumping up, I shook out my blanket. âWow, look out there, itâs almost dark. Time to go to my guard position.â That was close. I thought for a moment she was going to kiss me. There is only one woman Iâd ever kissed. Mary died a year ago when the predators gained power. No woman can ever take her place. The night proved uneventful. People left, people returned, no problems. Judy reported seeing only two predators. None of the houses were lit. My mind raced, could it be? Could the predators be dying? That would be too good to be true. How could we find out for sure? I called for a meeting before sundown. About thirty of the hundred people in the cave attended the meeting. We were all dirty, tired, and hungry. It took so little to upset us; I was reluctant to share my hunches. âOK guys, you probably wonder why I called this meeting.â Grumbles, murmurs, then a voice from the back yelled, âHey Mike, what the hell is going on? Iâm losing naptime here.â âI have an idea and itâs just that, an idea. Reports are that predators arenât as plentiful as in nights past, and all their houses are dark. We need to know whatâs happening. I need someone to travel to another city and bring back a report. Any volunteers?â No one answered. Then a tall thin woman in the back stood. She was new. âI volunteer. Iâll do that.â âIâm afraid I donât know your name.â âName is Betty, Betty Miller.â She had shiny blonde hair and clean clothes. How did she manage to be so clean? âWell, Betty, thanks for volunteering. You from around here?â âI just got in last night from Michigan.â âYou seem too clean to be a traveler.â âI stopped at houses along the way. Got to take showers with soap, found clean clothes.â The crowd was suddenly attentive, ears and eyes on this woman. âThere are entire cities that are deserted, houses empty and unlocked. I even traveled during the day without trouble.â âSheâs lying!â âSheâs a predator! Kick her out!â More grumbling, a rock hit Betty on the leg. âHey thatâs enough! She isnât a predator! Calm down.â âHow do you know? Can you be sure?â Judy was standing beside Betty, pinching her arm. âI just have a feeling. Ever just have a feeling when somethinâs right? We have to trust her. Bettyâll be our scout. If what she says is true, maybe itâs better everywhere. Maybe we can finally go back our old lives.â Betty left that night and came back two weeks later. She made it as far as Chicago. All the predators were gone. She didnât see any during her trip. All the houses and businesses stood empty, almost like someone left on a long trip but forgot to lock up. We started venturing out, getting braver. We saw trucks and cars on the roads again. Some even started living in their old homes again. Life started getting back to normal, life as it was pre-predator. We never did find out what happened. It was like one day predators were there, the next day they werenât. The only story we heard was that aliens took them all one night. I guess the joke is on the aliens. They took the wrong humans! But since it was Billyâs story, I tend to think it a bad case of the flu that got âem. W/C 1499 |