Inside Of An Empty Collective (Prelude)

The World As It Now Was

In a year unknown far after what is currently now, existed Earth in a state that was never mentioned. It was never in any history book, nor would it had mattered if it ever was. Citizens of the sphere had just awoken from a chemical blackout that had spanned nearly six generations. Much had been done, but more had been forgotten. While the state of the world can never be attributed to one man, Alan Meyers was much to blame.

In the time before the blackout, what some referred to as “when the devil walked the earth” was one of the darkest periods in human history. Most of the world’s energy-related natural resources were drying up. And rather than working together to explore new methods of energy production, the world leaders fought against each other, trying to control the last little bit of this and that. The world was full of children racing to suck the last bit of liquid out of a cup, making that awful sound with their straws. Greedy, greedy people. Fighting over something that barely existed!

Ex-president, oil and pharmaceutical tycoon, Allen Green was quoted saying, “With the vicious world demand [of resources] at what it is today, it is utterly irresponsible not to fight for control. We must take advantage of the extreme demand in these markets. Giving America a leg up in the race to develop newer, cleaner technologies. Ensuring our leadership in the global market moving forward.”

Soon after that speech, word had spread about oil completely running out. War ensued shortly after it became major news. Countries immediately declared war against rival nations. But, it didn’t turn out to be war in the traditional sense. It wasn’t these guys vs. these guys with their respective other guys back home cheering them on. Those protesting the madness of their respective governments had no choice but to turn mad themselves. Most of the countries involved had to deal with guerrilla-style uprisings, while waging war . It was a war of divided nations against other divided nations. After five or ten years of ruthless bloodshed, the war had stopped being about natural resources and more about survival. Lines were blurred to the point where people didn’t even know who their “enemy” really was anymore. The whole thing had morphed into a worldwide barroom brawl.

The information matrix was shattered. Most of the physical structure of the internet had been destroyed and the idea of “reporting the news” was, at this point, an unthinkable waste of time. The “news” was now just everyday reality All of those terrible stories that people used to watch from their snugly cotton paradises had been brought into their backyard. Being born in war was no longer some abstract concept. People were just born now. In war But no fights last forever. Nor do they ever stop. People just take breaks.

After the nukes hit people seemed to cool out. There was no nuclear winter, no groups of three-eyed people eating canned beans underground. Just a lot of fucked up people walking around dying of terrible diseases that no one had never heard of. Those who survived migrated as far away from the devastation as they could. Nationalism had died down because most people didn’t even know what country they were living in. They just kept on moving, looking for a place to live.

The great diaper of Civilization had been snatched clean off of the human race’s collective ass. People had to relearn how to survive “in nature”. Which is odd given they had been living in nature the whole time. Though modified with roads and buildings, nature is still nature and to think that they hadn’t been living “in nature” just goes to show the schizo-disconnected view that humans had had about the world before moving back into where they already had been. Nature.

One has to admit though, it is very hard appreciating the natural world when you have been told as a child that somewhere, far off above the clouds, exists some other world. A dimension of angels and spirits, ruled by an utterly all knowing/creating/caring/loving God, who cares about you and wants you to get into his or her kingdom of heaven, where you will have plenty and never want. You will be connected with all of your relatives and live forever in a state of supreme bliss.
Nature, when stacked up against this place (although no one’s ever seen it)--kind of sucks.

Two-thirds of the population were killed during the war, leaving the remaining third scattered around the world. One small group of survivors formed around the young ethno-botanist, Allen Meyers. Having an extensive knowledge of plants and their medicinal properties was now akin to being able to predict the stock market a hundred years or so before. The people of his little clique revered Alan and Alan screwed them. Maybe it was the radiation. Maybe it was all of the different substances that he was testing on himself at the time. But no one could argue the fact that Alan had created the compound to make everyone blackout for hundreds of years. And he made it with the intent to organize and control the remaining population. Little did he know what his “medicine” had done to the world hundreds of years later.

He would have just rolled over in his grave.