the White Cow on the Hillside

"White Cow on the Hillside"

968 words

         Joe Lewis was the head of the Ft Ashland hunting cooperative number ten. After the war, and the fall of the old order after the nuclear war had destroyed civilization Fort Ashland was one of the few towns that had survived the war due to the enlightened leaders who had put everyone to work, so the entire town survived 90 percent of humanity died in those terrible years of tribulations. It was ten years after the fall.

         Ft Ashland was a college town and a center of arts and culture. The Oregon Shakespeare Festival continued, and the actors had useful knowledge since many of them had been involved in various Renaissance festivals and knew a thing or two that was useful. Southern Oregon University was the only university left for a thousand miles and was the center of knowledge, training doctors, lawyers, and engineers and a center of the study of history and culture and was the pride of the city, which was the major city left in the state as most of the other cities were radioactive waste zones, or burned to the ground by criminal gangs including neo-savage cannibal gangs.

         It was a college town hidden behind the fortress that had been built up over the years. Everybody in town had a job as part of one of the various cooperatives that had been set up to manage survival over the years, focusing on food and agricultural production, educational and cultural training, merchant trade in the salvaged goods from the surrounding towns, medical services to the community and visitors, and security maintaining the fortress walls 24/7. The town militia was prepared to defend the town from wild animal attacks,(cougars, coyotes, feral dogs, feral pigs, lions, tigers, and wolves) and the attacks of the neo-savage gangs that roamed the countryside preying on farmers and travelers alike.


         The old cooperatives were gradually emerging as independent companies and a market-based economy was slowly reemerging after years of essentially emergency communism where everything was free but now everybody was working and if there was a monetary system in place, and the cooperatives were becoming companies competing with other companies for the services that they provided
Ten hunting companies were dividing up the land around Ashland into hunting grounds, so each company would be given a particular area to hunt. They had long ago hunted down the deer that used to live in Ashland and so now they were hunting deer and other wild animals further afield from Ashland and since some power had been restored it was a little bit easier than in the bold days in which everything had to be turned into beef jerky because of lack of power after the EMF had wiped out civilization.

         After the war, there was a rumor about a white cow that lived up in the hills that was rumored to be a special cow, perhaps from an alien spaceship that had been seen hovering over the city in the years right after the war. Everybody was always trying to hunt down the White Cow. It was kind of like everybody's favorite thing to talk about was that they saw the White Cow on the hill. By the time they got there the White Cow had disappeared

         Most of the other cows in the area had long since become feral though there were some domesticated horses and cows that had been rounded up and the cows were hunted down by not only the human hunters but the cannibal gangs then pestered the words and the lions and tigers and wolves that were ever-present danger to the hunters and the farmers in the fields.

         Everybody in town wanted to see the white cow but there was controversy about whether the white cow should be killed or brought into town Joe thought that they should capture the white cow, and maybe even worship the cow because several people in town had taken up the new age religion that was a mixture of Hinduism, and elements of Christianity, Wicca, and new age spiritual beliefs. Cows were given a special place of worship so everybody was looking for the white cow, and then they saw on top of the hill the giant white cow they ran up to the hill and surrounded the White Cow.

         The white cow spoke to their minds and spoke.

         “Welcome human friends. We have been watching over you since the fall. We were unable to stop the fall, but we are hoping we can help you rebuild civilization on a sustainable basis, and we can teach you so much if you are ready to learn. take us to your leaders so we can negotiate the terms of our arrangement. Your weapons do not work against us so put them down.” “

         The White Cow led a procession of strange-looking alien creatures into town, where they met with the mayor and town council. The mayor suggested that they be given space at the university and serve as adjunct faculty there, teaching humans their secrets. The White Cow agreed and set up shop at the University and within a few years, Ft Ashland had become the center of trade with the aliens who opened up a portal for interstellar travel in town.

         They also helped restore communications with surviving communities, restored power, and the internet, and set up a state-of-the-art medical center. on the ruined campus of Providence Hospital in Medford, which was being rebuilt as Ft Ashland grew outside its traditional wall. A space and air base were built on top of the old airport.

         A new wall was built north of Medford which became part of the Republic of FT Ashland and Joe Lewis, with the help of the White Cow had emerged as Governor of the City State.