A Day That May Come

The stone people were a group of ancient beings, forgotten for centuries until recently when we all realised that they had never left. The ancestors of our ancestors used to say they were the recorders of time and the passers of knowledge.

A disease broke out in pockets around the world. At first, a vague stiffness entered the bodies of disparate populations. In reaction, the government began scrambling to create campaigns encouraging the stiff to be more active outdoors, hoping that exercise and fresh air would be the cure. Although, this was made difficult after decades of unregulated construction and destruction, every nook and cranny was tarred and concreted. In another effort, the government restricted access to the metaverse to weekends only, forcing people to turn their attention back to their physical bodies. Land values in the metaverse plummeted, wiping out generations of wealth.

A band of teenagers calling themselves the Children of Spring began rioting in the streets and across government-owned land to protest the loss of the natural world. They wanted to return to nature, but it was too late. Natural ecosystems had collapsed long ago, so the Children were angry because they had no way to work toward a solution. One by one, the group members caught the stiffness disease, and soon the Children would lose the ability to move. The group became a scapegoat for the authorities and were ridiculed for their extreme values. The rich, famous, and influential then began to catch the stiffness. A billionaire’s son bought a ticket to space to avoid the disease. He was up there for months before it was realised that he had died soon after launch. His fingers were well-preserved thanks to the stiffness, so access to his bitcoin was easy. His wife and children fought over his wealth in a highly publicised case that was put on hold when they caught the disease. The billionaire’s son was the first official death of the stiffness disease. His illness was hastened because he was in a confined space; however, researchers think there had been earlier deaths due to a ten-fold increase in drownings in the past few months.

Soon, cases exploded. People with the stiffness disease were moved into isolation centres built decades ago for the frequent pandemics that occurred during the time. It was quickly discovered that there was no pattern to the disease. The symptoms simply appeared in people, and it didn’t go away. People who could no longer move even an inch were placed in a warehouse and wired up to feed and waste tubes. This cost the government an excessive amount of money, money they could not waste after generations of over-spending. An announcement was made that the preservation of commoners with the stiffness disease could no longer be sustained; therefore, it was up to the public to keep their loved ones alive. The governments preservation program only cared for those it deemed worthy; those over 60 years of age, those with positive mental health, regular gym attenders, and the highly skilled. The government sold off public assets to fund its program. At the same time, the wealthy bought up those assets, turning some of the spaces into private preservation centres. Many centres promised to slow down the stiffness or even reverse the symptoms through alternative holistic healing methods.

Those that still had the means fled to space, underwater, or underground vaults. We may never know what happened to them as their cloud network stopped being accessed shortly after their departures.

Bodies began to flow out of ungated communities, each taking four men to carry. A cash-poor woman agreed to donate her family’s bodies to researchers. The examination blunted the surgical blades, so masonry tools had to be borrowed. Doctors were clueless but were fascinated with the stone-like substance that was once bone.

Emergence of a religion came about from the phenomena. Based on ancient texts from the Native Americans, the religion revolves around beings that had the knowledge and changes of the world since time began. The ancient beings are known as the stone people.

The stone people never went extinct. They were simply hiding until they felt the need to return. Maybe the melting of the ice caps brought them out. For now, we are the stone people. We are the recorders of time and passers of knowledge until somebody or something will know what to do with the world better.