The Forgotten

Droplets of dew still coated the early morning, making every plant look like a sparkling crystal from the exterior of her window. A new dawn shined bright against the wet ground as the sun made its first appearance through thick clouds. Dawn was the Keeper’s favorite time of day, and often she felt as if these moments brought all things back fresh from all that once was. Green sparkles stared back at her in a small mirror on her bedroom wall, a restlessness had overcome her knowing what duty lay ahead of her. She was to meet with the council of The Last and they would discuss the new leaders who were to take their positions; as the time of carrying the world's painful past would become their burden and duty. She knew her granddaughter, Lena was to take on her role as The Keeper, along with eleven other young men and women chosen from other parts of the world.

Those from the East, West, South, and all corners of the earth in between would meet in the North today as had become customary. This was done to keep peace and order in the new world. This would be the third generation since the beginning of the end to transfer power, but not power as the society of old would understand it. This sort of power was of burden and duty. In the new world, there were sacred duties to life, equality, and the care for all living things. Memories of her life as a young girl living in a world on the brink of its end filled her whole body and soul. It was a reminder that mankind was no longer the one in charge, at least not truly, but forces far stronger than anyone ever imagined were.

A flash drive sat on her desk next to a small heart shaped locket. It was one of the only things she kept from the old world before the sickness began. It always amazed the Keeper how the end of the world happened and even more so how its end determined their everyday life now. It was as much a blessing as a sharp hand of discipline that every remaining human relied on as well as feared.

Was it bad that this fear silently kept the peace and balance the world now had? There was no longer air consumed with pollutants, nor food packed with poison. Sickness was a thing of the past, as was economic status. All people were equal in the new world. To understand just exactly how things had become so "serene" meant viewing the contents of the flash drive that lay next to her. The Keeper’s thoughts shifted to the horrors contained within and that its protection would be Lena’s duty. She prayed the young girl could handle it.

Three generations had now passed since the world ended and three generations of healing across the planet had now taken place. Once all the Forgotten had been either taken by the Justice Virus or disappeared into the vast sinkholes that took them away, only a fraction of humanity was left. Those who were spared death from the Justice Virus or natural disaster took to the woods. Every city from one end of the earth to the other was now thousands of feet below the ground. The Keeper had been a small child when the sickness began taking lives by hundreds, thousands, and finally millions. It didn’t stop, or even slow, until the numbers hit several billion.The virus predominantly took the lives of adults, though teenagers and the occasional child would be claimed as victims, and not once was there a recorded case of a new-born or infant death.

At first there was sorrow, but then something strange happened: the people dying all had an evil about them. This could include running big corporations responsible for major depletion of the natural world, to being a child molester or corrupt politicians. None escaped the plague that only seemed fair to its victims.

Soon after, the people left began to call it the Justice Virus, for it took out all that was a disease to mankind and the earth itself. It was as if Mother Nature, God, or whatever those who were left could reason it to be, was acting as an antibody to wipe the earth clean of all its illness. It was an end no one dreamed of, a beautiful means to an end that would soon become the world's second chance. The ones left began to see that all the evils of the world were now gone and if mankind was to live on in this new world all its old ways would have to go, and a new way of life would begin. The world had become consumed with evil from all its parts so very few remained, but just enough to start anew.

After the Justice Virus claimed those who were now Forgotten, was when the twelve heads of each remaining human colony would be chosen to keep hold of the world that had been in order to preserve all it would be and still is till this day. Mothers could let their children play in the streets and never have to worry about demons in the form of men or women taking them. Families could be made and never stress over how they would provide food or keep a roof over their heads. Living a healthy life was no longer a privilege, but a given, as it was always meant to be.

People worked for the better of life in a society whose prerogative was not to grow up and make as much money as you could but a duty to your fellow man and woman. Farming was what many did in their duties. Others had roles as caretakers for the young. Some were teachers, others doctors, though few ever got sick as food was only what we could grow and companies no longer existed, just families and villages.

Gardens existed in every village, schools and education was given to every child and no one's duty was held above another’s.

Our order was Mother Nature herself.

The virus never left and never would because it wasn't something to be cured but to be aware of. If anyone ever allowed thoughts of greed, power hunger, or to change the order of the world's natural balance grow into a plan with an intent to upon the evil growing within themselves. No one needed to know. The earth seemed to know and they would be dead by nightfall before the evil could escape their mind.

Another peaceful morning began to unravel, and the air was always so fresh! The earth was back to her glory and the burden--the guilt--of such a world stared back at the keep from the small flash drive next to The Keeper. The locket from her past glinted lightly as rays of sunshine reflected off. The truth was, it hadn't been some Mother Nature-driven disease, nor was it all too natural of a disaster that sunk the cities by the masses. Twelve men and women were chosen, twelve men and women that descended from what seemed like normal random survivors of the Forgotten. The truth was these original twelve were some of the most intelligent doctors, teachers, technological geniuses, and scientists of that time who came together with one goal in mind to bring about the end of humanity as we knew it. The disease was man-made, the sinkholes strategically planned. They were the bad guys always depicted in stories, mad for justice in an unjust world. With an end of the world plan, except in this story their plan worked and no one saved the day.

Was it wrong what they did? Taking the lives as they had, destroying all of civilization in order to rebuild it from the ground up? Some would say yes, and the Keeper suspected that many would, but in order for the world, for mankind, to exist, things needed to change and no history was ever written without blood. This was the burden each Keeper had to bear, and had to protect. It was a truth too horrible to bear, one that could rip the very threads of the perfect renewed world apart. Would people still live, driven by their duty to one another and the earth which sustained us, respecting all life if they knew it was all built off a lie? It wasn't a question any of the twelve Keepers could allow to be asked, and one she dreaded passing onto Lena. Yet she would have to bear it just as she had when her grandmother passed it on to her. The very life of all that was in the New World depended on it. After all, all good things come at a price and that was a truth that had kept her mouth shut and her heart devoted to her duty.

The Keeper took one last look at herself in the mirror, staring into eyes as green as the grass in the fields. Her top was a light blue linen wrap with basic linen pants to match and woven brown shoes, all people wore the same basic top and bottoms as the other. From this side of the North to the farthest reaches of the South everyone remained as plain and equal as the next to preserve the resources and integrity of their duties to each other.

“For it is the duty of not just I but of all. To look not on the world simply to consume what I will but to tend as I should. As a member of the New World I will let my heart remain in duty to my fellow man and woman, and not as the world of the Forgotten. May I act and live with love as my goal and peace as my companion. For this is the way of the New and not of the Old. We are all in this together.”

She finished the sacred vow given to all people of the New World with tears streaming down her face. The keeper wiped her eyes and straightened her shirt as she slipped her duty into her pocket and prepared to pass on roots of a world once doomed, and now into the hands of one renewed.