Red Hat

Sherri glanced at the bumper sticker and had to laugh. Yes, a giant meteor might be better in this current political climate. It would definitely be better than the two bozos that had been chosen from them… Sherri contemplated a giant rock hitting the earth as she stood outside of the school that had been assigned to her to cast her vote.

She didn’t notice the man until she felt a hand on her ass. She spun around and stood staring at a man wearing one of those stupid red hats, and sporting an even dumber grin.

“What the hell?” Sherri said. She couldn’t believe what just happened.

“Get used to it, sweetie. Once he’s in office things are going to go back to the way they were. The good days, when women knew what they were for.”

Sherri couldn’t stop herself. Her hand felt like it had a mind of its own. It made a loud smack as it connected with the ass-grabber's face. The ass grabber took a step back. The dumb smile was wiped clean off of his face, and his dumb red hat sat askew on his balding head.

The man rubbed his jaw, slowly his expression contorting in rage. “You damn feminists. Voting with your damn vaginas!”

Sherri was the one to be surprised now. She wanted to tell the man that she was actually voting for what she assumed was the ass-grabber's candidate, but she didn’t have a chance. The ass grabber reached out and grabbed Sherri by the neck. Sherri looked around for help, but only saw open mouths and surprised faces. She grabbed at the man’s hands, scratching and prying at his fingers that were choking the life out of her. She would have died by the ass-grabbers hands if it hadn’t been for the meteor.

Many Years into the Future

“What we know about the people who were here before the meteor is very limited. But from what we have gathered from what little artifacts we have, is they lived in harmony with one another.”

The professor looked out into the crowd of students.

“Please show slide 426.” The professor pointed to the large picture on the screen. “As you can see in this slide. The people of the past lived close to one another. These flat rock formations we believe were the foundations of their homes. All of them very close together, making us believe that their communities were close-knit. Almost like families.” The professor smiled out at the audience. “The end of this civilization we speculate was caused by a giant meteor that decimated every living thing within one hundred miles. And later basically starved the rest of the population to death with its large dust cloud. The cloud spanned most of the planet and only a few of our very distant ancestors lived. If they hadn’t we wouldn’t be here.

“Next slide please.” The professor looked up at the screen, and back at the audience. His smile had gotten bigger. “This one is my favorite. It pretty much solidifies my previous statement. In this slide, you can see some of the only human remains we have of the people before the meteor. These two here died looking into each other’s eyes. The one wearing the redhead adornment, that what we believe was a ceremonial headdress, is touching the woman’s neck lovingly, as she holds his hands. Two of the lucky ones. That didn’t have to live in the harsh conditions. They died together and not alone. That’s more than most people get. Next slide, please."

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