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Alpha and Omega - Part 1
By Marie Ellen Pacha
Did God know Armageddon would be manmade? Did He plan it that way? In the many years since North Korea set loose their atomic weapons and Pakistan retaliated the few members of humanity who survived must have asked those questions a few thousand times.
In many ways it seems almost just that humanity be punished as a whole for its excesses on the planet we called Earth.
And yet Armageddon was supposed to be a total devastation and as I said, a few survived. As nearly as our communications can be relied upon none of the survivors were world leaders. Oh, some of the leaders survived for a couple of decades in whatever facilities they had made their way to before the missiles struck, and before the planet was poisoned by radiation, but then their food supplies ran out and no longer needed to stand as figureheads for non-existent nations no one would leave the safety of their enclaves to bring them aid.
There was no one to mourn the President...no rider-less black horse or procession. Indeed there were no horses living on the entire planet when he died some 23 years after. Even those nations not hit directly by weapons were so contaminated by airborne radiation that entire populations had slowly and painfully died.
The billionaires who had so carefully manipulated politics for so long, and played nations as pawns had no one left to buy. And it didn't matter, their money was useless too. Unless they had food supplies to last over 100 years and shelter, and the knowledge to survive they too have long since died.
We are the descendants of a research group. Our ancestors were funded to test the viability of raising crops and sources of nourishment in underground facilities. While nuclear war had never ceased to be a concern in the early years of the 21st century super volcanoes and mega tsunamis were the specials viewed by the populace on television. The public was alarmed at the possibility of all food sources being wiped out, and the possibility of mass starvation.
The facility was self contained; construction in this hollowed out mountain took well over a decade. It was designed to refresh and re-circulate the air already present, and with the number of growing plants far outnumbering the people breathing the air, the cycle was effective. As an added precaution a heavy lead shield surrounded the entire structure.
In an effort to make the facility self sufficient we had all the personnel present that one would find in an average city; including doctors, pharmacists, geneticists, and teachers not to mention a whole slew of technicians. The bulk of the population was scientists: chemists, botanists, biologists and even geologists. And those men and women brought their entire families here. The work, although it was not considered top secret was considered to be in the national interest, at least that's what our ancestors were told. To that we owe our survival.
Every person here has a role. Mine is historian, and for the period of my lifespan I will record all relevant events; births, deaths and my observations as objectively as I can make them. I will interview each and every citizen of our community and record that information for posterity as my predecessors did. Someday perhaps, if our species survives and flourishes, they will learn from the mistakes made by us and our forefathers.
Our very existence depends on maintaining a status quo. Everything is restricted, but especially anything that might throw our new society out of balance and not by law, but by the overwhelming urge to survive. We chafe at restrictions; we gripe and complain, and in the end we surrender to them.
Among those restrictions is procreation. Additional bodies mean additional mouths to feed, and pregnancies are permitted and even encouraged, but only at specific times and in regulated numbers. While sexual encounters are not restricted and many couples have paired up by choice our geneticists decide who will produce offspring.
In our monthly excursion to the surface to gather data our technicians discovered two naked adult humans in one of the tunnels. They were unconscious, although initial reports indicate they are in good health. And the female is pregnant. How they arrived there is a question that must be answered. And where they came from bewilders us.
Today's events have created a situation that must be evaluated. And decisions must be made based on those.
This article is © copyrighted by Marie Ellen Pacha. Any use of this article, in full or in part, is strictly prohibited without written permission from Marie Ellen Pacha.
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