*Forbidden Resources

Intro: I am not actually sure I like this story, but apparently I was too lazy to write another one. This idea started out as a title “The Heartbeat of the Earth” and morphed into this. The other idea I had while writing this was to draw on the senses. I wrote this around Valentine’s Day but didn’t post it because I wanted to have something that went with the holiday.

Dark Water paused in mid-step, his head tilted to one side. If he failed now, everything he cared for would be over. The forest remained almost silent. A bird moved through the branches, its claws alighting against the bark in a whisper of a scratch. Small mammals scurried underfoot, their paws pattering on fallen leaves. Satisfied he truly was unobserved Dark Water continued moving, his footfalls sounding extra loud in his ears.

A breeze picked brushed passed him, he could no longer smell the fires but the scent of wet pelts strong strengthened. The no water dripped from the leaves overhead but the smell of mildew was a reminder that the rainy season was not yet over. Only when the sun moved back to the north would anyone, beast or human, feel the damp chill leave their bones.

The calluses on his hands slid up and down the shaft of the spear. Even though the craftsman spent hours working the sturdy wood, only in the hands of a hunter would it become truly smooth. In several places his hands encountered notches, won in hunting expeditions against the beasts of the forest. Though too many notches made spears weak, his still had years left, not because he rarely encountered any beast strong enough to damage his weapon, but because he was fast enough to keep it from them. He was the only one fast enough.

The sound of the birds and the mammals were drowned out. A thumping pulse worked its way up through the soles of his woven sandals. His hand tightened on the spear, the muscles along his arm twitching in anticipation. It took all his willpower to keep his feet from matching the thumping he felt coursing through him. His pace continued as it had been, steady and nearly silent. There was only one chance at this, for the Earth as well as those who lived on it.

Through the trees, shafts of sunlight darted through. Dark Water could see shadows moving, blocking the sun from him for flashes at a time. They were waiting for him and for a moment he wanted to use the beat in his bones to flee. Running did not mean death; it meant panic, confusion, and chaos. Chaos meant death was probable, but not certain. That was enough to keep him moving.

He entered the clearing, hand griping the spear tightly but face remaining calm. The intruders turned to look at him. Their drab clothes mirrored his save for that fact that his had been made by machine and theirs by their own hands. The machines were gone but the clothes still held, patched with clumsy stitches.

“Have you come to negotiate the terms of surrender?” the chief asked.

“No,” he replied and leaned against his spear. “I’ve come to ask you to leave.”

“I don’t think you understand the seriousness of the situation. All humans are to live in government sanctioned camps.”

“No. We will not leave.”

“Your presence alone has caused this forest to whither. Is that what you really want? The factories, the buildings, everything you’ve done has caused problems.”

“Our factories? Our buildings?” Dark Water laughed, leaning on his spear for support. “Tearing the factories down, destroying our homes, that has caused the damage.”

“The forest is dying,” the chief spat.

“Because we no longer have the resources to look after it. You destroyed the factories so we have fewer men and less time to spend tending to things.”

“If you didn’t harvest so much, there wouldn’t be this problem.”

Dark Water picked up his spear and moved closer, ignoring the rifles from the soldiers. A couple of years ago he too would have hunted with a rifle. When the laws passed, he lost his gun because it was deemed hazardous to the environment. No more guns could be made, but they could still be used. Once all the ammunition was gone, that would be the end of it.

“Don’t you get it? Humans aren’t the problem Earth faces. We are the solution to what the Earth has become.”

“What we made it,” the chief said. “It is humans that caused the problem in the first place. If we weren’t here there wouldn’t be a problem.”

“You can’t know that for certain. Take a look around. Can you see the forest? It isn’t here because someone decided to leave it alone. It is here because someone took the time to plant it. To watch over it. Without our technologies the Earth would be nothing more than a wilderness.”

“There’s nothing wrong with that.”

“Are humans worth less than the dirt they stand on? We aren’t here by accident. The Earth survived thousands of years not because humans were ignorant but because we understand our duty. If we listen we can hear the heartbeat and understand everything.”

“We can fulfill our duty without the infernal machines that strip our home of its resources,” the chief spat color rising to his face.

“Whether we use more now or later, it will still be gone eventually. What will we do then?”

The chief merely waved his hand, and walked off in the other direction. “You have two weeks to get your mess cleaned up.”

Dark Water waited until the men were out of sight and breathed a sigh of relief when he could feel the thumping of the ground under his feet. He needed to head back to the village. Two weeks was plenty of time to prepare for the next attack. They would protect themselves and their way of life. The heartbeat of the Earth urged him on. Earth was meant to be their home they took care of not a museum of what they could not have. That was why humans were there and he was determined to keep fighting for using the resources.