Project: Key to the Future

[Note: This is a sketch: please do not judge this too harshly as I have yet to release the actual novel. This project is still in the rough. More refining is required before I even begin to contemplate on drafting it. Enjoy this in the meantime however!]

...The year is 21XX. Now we live in a time of great recovery… for the first time in so many years, there is clean, running water, there is electricity, we even have schools for our children… and yes we even have cities now… But are we truly alright? Is there more to this story than meets the eye? Before I take you on into my world young folks, let me tell you of our past, of our struggle, and of how we managed to keep the light of hope alive in our hearts, even after all that happened. This is the story of us all, so you had best place your books down, stop your idle chatter, be mindful and pay attention… Now then, shall we begin?

[When reading please listen to this music: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeAJs54Ov8k]

…My name is Hector, Dr. Hector Bernard if you must know. I have lived a long life with many years of learning and experience under my belt. These are my final moments, as I have been deemed an obstructionist of the peace and stability of our fair country, I am about to be executed by the “good and noble Le Directoire”, our “graceful” and “strong” leader who had saved our land from the chaos that engulfed the world In terror. For the most part, he has indeed saved our country. But… it has come at a great cost. For the one who appears in the guise of a friend, is really the most cruel and vicious of beasts! Le Directoire is a man who is bent on conquering this broken world, even if he shatters it to pieces, he is a man only faithful to the laws of strength. Ruling with an iron fist, he quashes anyone who would choose any other way for our fair country than the path he is foraging….War! War! War! This is the path he has choose for us, at his merciless hands it is we that will be the sacrificial lamb. It is we that will have the pay the consequences for the boundless desires of a gluttonous leader. You must understand young boys and girls, I do dearly appreciate all that he has done for us… but I do not want to see one more person die … not one more! …I have lost so much in my life as it is already… but come now, this is not about me, nor is about Le Directoire, this is about all of us… and so we shall begin…

[When reading please listen to this music: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Qqs12OiXLE]

Long ago, the earth had fallen into a dismal age of chaos and despair. Even further back, scholars had projected that overpopulation would cause huge famines, massive desertification, and grave panic amongst nations . These scholars attempted to warn the people, but their words were spent upon deaf ears, why should anyone listen to a few “pesky bookworms”? After all, they were caught up in their world of imaginary numbers. However, it was as the scholars feared… “it” had come to pass. On that year, the year 2061 A.D… on that year, all the bright burning dreams mankind held of the future were suffocated… by The Great Devastation… No rains appeared upon the horizon that year. Instead, clouds of dust came howling upon the wings of the wind… all devouring desert storms swept throughout the earth! In nearly every continent this phenomena occurred, not one city escaped the raging sandstorms! These storms buried more than just cities! With it was buried the last shreds of humanity, of human decency into the sands of anguish and loss…

What followed was a series of catastrophic chain of events, leading up to the Terrible Atomic War, the date of which is lost from the pages of history…What I do know is that, people became desperate, and as such so did their states. Atomic power was supposed to have been exterminated long before that… but I suppose it is human nature to desire immense power. It is a funny thing really, can one really feel safe? Putting faith in the very thing that can destroy them in an instant… a unfeeling heartless machine of war? Well... regardless, the survivors of that war found themselves truly at the lowest point in human history, at the bottom of the barrel and out of luck. Civilization simply had ceased to exist! They were reduced to mindless savagery, senseless violence, and never ending thievery. What hope was there left for mankind? There was no order, all governments had long since corroded in the streets of radioactive wastelands,all morality was lost in the face of the one rule of nature…preservation of the self. Not much agriculture could be relied upon between the deserts and the radiation zones, there was no safe places to grow food… It was then that people turned to hunting sewer rats, raccoons in the landfills, and of all things cockroaches! I hear they are awfully nutritious, but I am afraid that I awfully can’t stand to even imagine eating them. Yek!

And so with all remaining human beings degenerated to hunters and scavengers, it followed that they would eventually band together in groups to fend off the elements and hunt a greater share of game together. It is amazing how resilient the human spirit is. For a time, amidst the deserts and the wastelands, human beings survived, even flourished in a bizarre age of peace... till now I cannot fathom such a life, perhaps the desperate truly understand the meaning of empathy… yes, that would make sense, as I have come to understand it…

It was the next stage in the regeneration of the human spirit that brings us the place we are today… When people prosper, population grows. Once again we were back to the beginning of the problem, resources waned vexed by populations straining to grow! The only solution that humans ever seem to resort to was used once again! The world erupted into all out war, this time we had no atomic weapons, we had no great armed forces, every man, woman and child fought like beasts to murder the next village over, to get just a few measly scraps of food… I concede they were fighting for their very lives. For without food, how long can anyone last...? A man needs food to keep his body and soul together after all… In this renewed age old struggle, humanity came dangerously close to a breaking point. However, we were fortunate to never reach that end. Amongst the carnage and the massacres, in that dismal world arose many great figures… they say only through great perils can the greatness in men and women be known…
Here is the land we now call Masezkt, where our future leader Le Directoire emerged... Little is known of his past, till this day we, his subjects do not know name. What we do know is this...

From out of the shadows of that desperate struggle he came! Little did anyone know at the time, that he would be the towering force which would unite our people as one! As one nation! With his overpowering charisma and unrivaled tenacity, he drew the might of many bands around him, under his direction these united bands of hunters were turned into a professional army, a killing force that was peerless, unlike any other of our age! Le Directoire guided them, sweeping aside all the quarreling bands. Soon many lands lay in his domain... The carnage and mindless wars were finally over. Now we had a thinking brain, a beating heart... we had a leader who would shine before our eyes and give us hope, intelligence and order! It was then that the people gave him his title, Le Directoire, for we had grown so attached to him, his imagine and grace. In our eyes that man was a God! And what he did next would certainly make you think of him as such... but young boys and girls, do not be fooled by this! This was all a play, an act of abject majesty by Le Directoire, he knew how to play the hearts and minds of men like a fiddle! He knew the art of appeal, adulation, and adoration! The grace and charm lifted our spirits especially when he asked us to do "that".

Yes, it was around that time shortly after he was named Le Directoire by the people that I was born. And it so happened that it was around that time he asked of us, his followers the near impossible. We were to do a massive project, which I can daresay the world had never seen before! We were to dig! Dig and dig! Dig till our hearts screamed of weariness and our minds slipped into the dark embrace of everlasting sleep! What Le Directoire asked of us was beyond belief... even at the cost of our own lives, we were to reclaim the land back from the sands of time, we were to dig through the sands and destroy the desert that held us back restraining our true greatness!

At first when we began, we had nothing but our hands to dig, and in the blaze of the hot sun, people easily died within days of such trivial and ridiculous labor. But we didn't care, every man, woman, and child who could walk was assigned to dig, but we didn't think it unjust. For there in the midst of us also toiled our great leader! Le Directoire was with us! Inspiring us with his selflessness, his grace, his nobility! By his presence alone, he inspired our people to work thrice the effort... or so my parents had said to me as they tearfully reminisced on the past with great pride and joy... By their hands, the hands of Le Directoire and his people, they together forged their destiny and saved the nation of Masezkt from falling before it even began. Within ten years, miles of land was reclaimed from the desert! Rivers that were dried up were restored to their former glory and majesty! It was then that the people feel in the deepest spell of awe and reverence with their "noble leader", just as he had wished it to be. When the city council first convened in our new capital, the Beloved and magnanimous leader, the Great savior of our peoples, Le Directoire was elected leader for life!

...And so it was then that my countrymen, of this great nation of Masezkt hammered in the first nail into our own coffin... [still sketching]