Hearts of a Phoenix

The sound of chickens clucking away were the first sounds that woke me. The sunlight streaming in through the open window kept me awake, tossing and turning to get back to the sweet realm of dreams. My body aching from the past few days of non-stop trudging, through the muddy plains from the Ruined Lands to my quaint little village.

Nature had reclaimed what was left of our ancestors' sprawling cities and technology. Now we start the cycle anew. Like a phoenix rebuilding from their ashes.

To aid in our rebuilding efforts, there were a select few members who were tasked with scouting the Ruined Lands, and bringing back items that would make our lives easier. Simple items whose knowledge had been retained through the Elders of old, like simple handheld tools, and other tools that we could reverse-engineer to pass on our knowledge. That was how Charles and I met.

A knock sounded at my door.

I stood up, hissing from my rusty joints. My dwelling was a small one room, with the cooking stove and my bed sharing the same space. It was quaint, and it was all I needed. Not much need of space when you're out exploring for days at a time.

“Just a minute!” I answered, scrambling to find my clothes.

The worn linen shirt slid back on as if I had never taken it off. Grabbing some shorts, I paused at my locket. Charles had given it to me for our third year anniversary. Were it not for the safety of the village, we would have run away long ago and made our own little village. Made a family of our own and settled some other corner of Mother Nature for ourselves.

I was distraught when the village Elders accused him of weakening parts of our safety wall. The man I had known and still love, was a lie. Rotten from the inside out, like a bad apple. I couldn’t bring myself to believe the accusations however, and I still love him. I buried the pain of losing him into my scouting, hoping to chance across him one day. I never do.

Another knock.

The locket sat nicely on my chest, a feeling of security washed over me and warmed me to my core. The rest of my clothes on, I pulled on the door and was met with Wayne. A shorter man, who liked his head shaved, Wayne was always quick which made him the ideal candidate for the Elder’s messenger.

“ Hey Cindy. The Elders want to speak to you as soon as possible.”

“Oh, ok. Thanks Wayne, I’ll be right there. Just going to eat first.”

He nodded and walked away, presumably to deliver other messages across our village. I strode across my living area, and grabbed some oat bars left in my make-shift pantry. Tucking them into a small sack and slipping on my sandals, I left the house.

Through my walk to the Elders building, I wondered why they wanted to summon me in particular. Scouts were almost never summoned, and only if new places were needing to be investigated for new resources or threats. We were in a good spot for resources, and there haven’t been any reported threats. Maybe this was about the metal people I found scouting in the Ruined Lands? No-one had come across them before, and time seemed to not affect them. While the stone buildings crumbled and the metal cores inside them flaked and shed, these people seemed to be pristine. They were silver/grey in color, and reflected the sun brilliantly. When I reported them to the Elders, they seemed startled but dismissed me without any concern in their tone. Now, a few days later, I hope to at least get some answers about this.

As I strode up to the entrance, the sun was still rising. It looked to be early morning. Chewing the last of my oat bar, I walked into the antechamber determined with each step. If they couldn’t tell me why they exiled my Charles, they could damn well give me answers to this! Entering the building, The guards immediately stood, and stopped me.

“Stop. We need your name to check against our list of app-”

“Wayne sent for me, said I was to come asap.” Hearing this speal one more time would make me sick.

“Oh, you must be Cindy” says the man whose face I don’t recognize, “Go right on in, they’re waiting.”

Both men opened the doors, and as they slid open, I was met with the familiar warm glow of the Elders’ council chamber. Their eyes turned to me and as the doors closed behind me, I could feel the tension in the room. There they were: Gregory, Thomas, Taylor, Harold, Jessica, and Daniel. They sat at a half-moon table to be able to properly address those who needed their guidance, or who needed to inform them of events and news. I had been here before, but most recently when Charlie was exiled, and when I came back with my report about the metal people.

“Hello Cindy,” Taylor addresses me, “we are pleased to see you. You look well.”

“Thank you Taylor, I’ve been taking it easy since my last report.”

“Speaking of, that’s why we called you here today. Your talent with scouting and your find of the metal ones have helped us make this decision, however hard it was.”

My brow furrowed, “Decision? What decision?”

Taylor takes a deep breath, “This has been a long time coming for you. Allow me to explain.”

Over the course of that day, the elders, led by Taylor ,explained that we were direct descendants of the people of the Ruined Lands. How they used to live like we do now, but as they grew so did their knowledge, and also their reckless use of it. They made better houses, better tools, and the pinnacle of their knowledge: Machines. This invention manifested, in time, as metal reflections of ourselves. All the knowledge we had was stored in them, and they were to serve us. Make our lives easier, our crops more plentiful, all so we could focus less on surviving and more on thriving.

This was how life went for our ancestors. Thriving in artistic expression, creative meaning, and constant improvement. One such improvement was to make the machines think like we do. It was glorious, and all life thrived more vibrantly than it ever had before. Together, we started fixing the problem that would plague both of us for all time: Death. We toiled to make bodies of metal for our minds to inhabit, that would not wither with time. An experiment was ran with the machine minds in the new bodies, as we could save their minds and put the host body through the toughest conditions nature could offer.

Taylor looks at me, seemingly waiting for me to process ALL that information “We must have been excited about the outcome, because that is as far as the records that have been uncovered state. We do not know what happened to them, only that they just ceased to be, and the metal ones are frozen in time.”

Blankly, I stared at them all. A slow burning rage began to seep into me. “You’ve been keeping this from everyone? The true nature of our past?? Feeding us all that bullshit about 'coming from another land' and making sure we just blindly accept it? How far does this rabbit hole go? Who else knows what I've just learned?"

Taken aback at my outburst, they all fall silent. after a few moments, Taylor speaks up once more. "Only those which we've deemed essential to the survival of our village. Before you get all worked up again," She cuts me off before I can start questioning them again, "let me explain what that means. We are always watching everyone in this village, scouts too. When we think they have grown into the ideal candidate, we bring them here and inform them of our true past, like we are with you. After that we send them off on a quest to reactivate the metal ones, so we can bring them back to help us and to fill the gaps in our historical texts. To keep the true nature of the quest a secret, we fabricate some lie to explain their absence from the village. We do this once every year, as none have ever come back."

Shocked, I could do nothing but stare in dread at the Elders, no, the monsters I was looking at. Tears started streaming down my face as I thought of all those who gave themselves up, knowing that those they loved would never get the closure they needed, just more lies. I opened my mouth to say something, but nothing came out. My throat swelled shut, and all I could do is cry. I stormed out of the room, running back to my house.

The sun, now setting, cast its vibrant colors across the sky and the shadows of trees and other buildings across the roads. The street lanterns weren't lit yet, which made it all the more difficult to see with my tears streaming from my face. A few bumps with lampposts later, I arrived at my home. Slamming the door shut behind me, flopping on my bed and sobbing until I passed out.

I woke in the night, to a soft knocking at my door. The warm light of a lantern could be seen creeping in from the cracks of the doorframe, slightly illuminating my floor. "It's Taylor. Just Taylor. May I come in?" said the voice on the other side.

I hesitated, not wanting to see any of the Elders for a long while, but Taylor was the kindest of them all. She was the one who people would treat her like their grandmother, and them her grandchildren. Sniffling, I stood up and opened the door. True to her word, it was just her. No guards, no other Elders, no Wayne. Wordlessly I beckoned her in and gestured to the padded chair I had at my dinner table. She entered and after closing the door, sat down.

" You must think of us as something terrible, don't you? It's ok. To some degree we are, and we have come to terms with that a long time ago."

"Why the secrets?" I asked. "Why keep everyone in the dark? What is there to gain?

"There is no selfish reason we keep this from people. We just keep a secret that was once kept from us, and try to find those better than us to solve our dilemma. You saw how you reacted, imagine if everyone found out. The village would dissolve into panic and fear, and we would cease to be. Everyone's way of life is a lie, but they don't need to know that until we can find out how to wake the metal ones. When the machines are awoken, we will know why our ancestors left no record of their collapse. We don't want to follow our ancestors mistakes. We cannot let people find out until then"

It made enough sense. They just kept the status quo, if only to keep us from rioting. "You want to follow our ancestors? To what end? How do I fit into all this?"

"You are the next one we have chosen to seek our salvation." Taylor smiles softly. "You are our next hope, and our most promising one yet. Even passing Charles."

My heart stopped, my hand drifting to my locket. Chills ran up my back, as I started silently weeping once more. Could he still be out there? Finding a better life for us all? These thoughts swarmed my mind, blocking out all other thought. Taylor led me to my bed and sat with me until I was calm enough to sleep again. As darkness took me, all I heard was her gentle lullaby guiding me.