Hi, this is a work in progress. Please tell me what you think :) Also, I know a lot of this isn't exactly realistic, like a pregant woman surviving on discarded scraps. Sorry.
Interestingly, life wasn't different in one place or another. I say "life" in a general sense, meaning an intelligent being with more feelings than your average fern. There's almost no difference between a sapling and a 300 year old tree, just as there is no difference between a human, and a robot.
Sometimes in the forest you can hear a hum, just as you can often hear a hum in the city. Really, there is no difference between either hum. They are one. They are hum. No two things are alike. But you cannot say that they are different, either.
Difference is a sensation that we make up from what our eyes see and our noses smell, our fingers touch and our tongues taste. But if you close your eyes and listen... things are really the same, inside and out.
There was life in the city. Oh, yes. There were bustling sidewalks and quiet, buzzing grocery stores. There were open windows and wet newspapers stuck in grates, discarded by the only person willing to pay a few cents for it.
But life comes in different forms than we imagine it in. Sometimes a piece of fabric stuffed with nylon has life. Sometimes it's a budding tulip that's still firmly closed, not ready to say hello yet. Life has many meanings. It's hard to say which is the true definition. Perhaps anything could be life. Anything you want to be alive, can be.
The city bordered an ancient, dirty, brownish-yellow forest that was famous only for one large ginkgo tree that sat right in the middle. There was a famous story of many women being secretly buried there, and they were the only peaceful ghosts of the city. Other than that, the forest wasn't of much interest to anyone at all. There was one quiet path where a peaceful jogger could run if they liked, but that was only on mornings when the fog didn't coat the forest like a bucket of thick milk was turned upside down on the world. People got hoplessly lost inside when the fog was there. That was why the forest wasn't a largely common place with the populace.
Inside the city there were a few places which were dark and empty. Places that had been abandoned years ago. They were useless now. They were shabby corners that didn't mind being left, because there were still rats and bugs and things. But maybe there were still mysteries inside these spots, these hideouts that no one bothered to look at anymore.
Hidden away in one of these spots was a small blanket and a photograph that looked as if it had been dropped in a puddle once, and was now blurred around the edges and wrinkly all the way through. The place smelled of dried up, stale food and dirty air. It hadn't been the ideal spot for her. But it had been all she had.
Young Julia Hitworthy had been 18 years old when the species which had inhabited her planet for so long began to slowly peter out and be replaced by what was called "the more intelligent version of 'smart' life." Julia's family was scared, and they fled to a tiny town with only a shoe polish store and two small houses. They lived in fear and uncertainty for two years, Julia clinging to her boyfriend, mother, and younger sister. She could barely remember a time when her family hadn't been making plans for the fun times that were in their future. Now they hardly knew if any of them would live to see the children become adults. They were certain that there was no hope left for humans.
When Julia found out she was pregnant, she panicked. It was hardly even a wish that her child would see the light of day, and yet so wanted to meeth them. So she devised a plan with her boyfriend to run away and hide. They knew it would be too much to hope that they would both survive on scraps alone, so Julia had to venture of by herself with only the unborn baby to keep her company.
She knew there was no reason to wish that she and the baby would get to live a life together, but all she wanted was that they get to see each other, get to know that no matter what happened, they were still mother and child.
Soon the world became fully rid of humans. Julia found a place to hide on the edge of the robot's main city, and she scrounged for forgotten scraps behind the shops, careful to keep herself hidden. It was the hardest time, and she barely stayed alive.
The day that she gave birth, Julia ran to the forest and found a tall tree to rest under. The baby hardly made a sound when it came alive, probably because it understood the gravity of its place. Julia was so incredibly tired, she hardly had time to see if her child was a boy or a girl before she fell into a deep sleep under the ginkgo tree.
Interestingly, life wasn't different in one place or another. I say "life" in a general sense, meaning an intelligent being with more feelings than your average fern. There's almost no difference between a sapling and a 300 year old tree, just as there is no difference between a human, and a robot.
Sometimes in the forest you can hear a hum, just as you can often hear a hum in the city. Really, there is no difference between either hum. They are one. They are hum. No two things are alike. But you cannot say that they are different, either.
Difference is a sensation that we make up from what our eyes see and our noses smell, our fingers touch and our tongues taste. But if you close your eyes and listen... things are really the same, inside and out.
There was life in the city. Oh, yes. There were bustling sidewalks and quiet, buzzing grocery stores. There were open windows and wet newspapers stuck in grates, discarded by the only person willing to pay a few cents for it.
But life comes in different forms than we imagine it in. Sometimes a piece of fabric stuffed with nylon has life. Sometimes it's a budding tulip that's still firmly closed, not ready to say hello yet. Life has many meanings. It's hard to say which is the true definition. Perhaps anything could be life. Anything you want to be alive, can be.
The city bordered an ancient, dirty, brownish-yellow forest that was famous only for one large ginkgo tree that sat right in the middle. There was a famous story of many women being secretly buried there, and they were the only peaceful ghosts of the city. Other than that, the forest wasn't of much interest to anyone at all. There was one quiet path where a peaceful jogger could run if they liked, but that was only on mornings when the fog didn't coat the forest like a bucket of thick milk was turned upside down on the world. People got hoplessly lost inside when the fog was there. That was why the forest wasn't a largely common place with the populace.
Inside the city there were a few places which were dark and empty. Places that had been abandoned years ago. They were useless now. They were shabby corners that didn't mind being left, because there were still rats and bugs and things. But maybe there were still mysteries inside these spots, these hideouts that no one bothered to look at anymore.
Hidden away in one of these spots was a small blanket and a photograph that looked as if it had been dropped in a puddle once, and was now blurred around the edges and wrinkly all the way through. The place smelled of dried up, stale food and dirty air. It hadn't been the ideal spot for her. But it had been all she had.
Young Julia Hitworthy had been 18 years old when the species which had inhabited her planet for so long began to slowly peter out and be replaced by what was called "the more intelligent version of 'smart' life." Julia's family was scared, and they fled to a tiny town with only a shoe polish store and two small houses. They lived in fear and uncertainty for two years, Julia clinging to her boyfriend, mother, and younger sister. She could barely remember a time when her family hadn't been making plans for the fun times that were in their future. Now they hardly knew if any of them would live to see the children become adults. They were certain that there was no hope left for humans.
When Julia found out she was pregnant, she panicked. It was hardly even a wish that her child would see the light of day, and yet so wanted to meeth them. So she devised a plan with her boyfriend to run away and hide. They knew it would be too much to hope that they would both survive on scraps alone, so Julia had to venture of by herself with only the unborn baby to keep her company.
She knew there was no reason to wish that she and the baby would get to live a life together, but all she wanted was that they get to see each other, get to know that no matter what happened, they were still mother and child.
Soon the world became fully rid of humans. Julia found a place to hide on the edge of the robot's main city, and she scrounged for forgotten scraps behind the shops, careful to keep herself hidden. It was the hardest time, and she barely stayed alive.
The day that she gave birth, Julia ran to the forest and found a tall tree to rest under. The baby hardly made a sound when it came alive, probably because it understood the gravity of its place. Julia was so incredibly tired, she hardly had time to see if her child was a boy or a girl before she fell into a deep sleep under the ginkgo tree.
Comments
Log in or register to post comments.