Excerpt: Birds in Trees

BIRDS IN TREES

Prologue

The late 20th and early 21st centuries were times of turmoil, strife, murder, lust, greed and any other human vice one could think of. There were well founded worries that the human race would not survive another hundred, or perhaps even fifty years due to global warming, resource loss, overpopulation, and societal breakdown, but none of the great thinkers of the day ever anticipated the actual crisis that ended up changing the world forever. In the year 2015, the plague struck and it struck every single human being living on the planet. (There was a crew of scientists on the ISS that was spared the initial attack, but they eventually had to return to Earth, and when they did, the most elaborate isolation methods ever developed proved to be of no use.)

The plague wasn't a fatal illness per se, although it was painful and debilitating for everyone, the initial symptoms lasted anywhere from weeks to months, but it was the physical and mental aftermath that took many lives, mostly due to suicides of those who were too despairing to try to live on. What this disease did to this once proud and seemingly unstoppable species was at best ironic, at worst the cruel judgement of some higher power. No one knew for sure, but the religious among the populace took the disease as a sign of the “end times” and there were many who simply decided to accept the punishment of their various gods, and gave up any attempt at living 'normal' lives and simply waited to die. Many stopped eating and drinking altogether and just simply sat at home or in their places of worship and withered away and died.

By the beginning of the year 2016, scientists and statisticians and other geekly types estimated there was almost a fifty percent loss of population world wide. In the old days, such a population loss would have been devastating, but something that humankind could rebuild from, but now, now that the aftereffects of the disease were becoming obvious, the goal of repopulation, or just plain species survival became a world wide effort.

This disease had been given a name: the Extinction virus, and the remaining populace of the world who were still allowing themselves the luxury of hope had decided that their new task was to work together to find a way to repopulate. Extinction had broken down the capacity of every human on earth to reproduce. Not only that, but the whole system of sexual hormones seemed to have changed. Men and women both had become less able and less interested in the joyful dance that had been the center of much of the ritual of life. Social scientists began to realize just how powerful the sexual and reproductive drives had been in shaping societies, rules, law and even the arts. Without the drive of the sex hormones, humans had to retrain themselves to even have a reason to get out of bed and do anything productive. It seemed that some societal models worked better for this sort of dilemma and at the United Nations, many meetings and work groups were formed to attempt to make a blueprint for a new way of life for the people who were left, and to find ways to regain the power to reproduce.

Excerpt from the Historical Record of the United World, Book X

CHAPTER I
Holly

Holly skipped down the middle of the road on the way to her first school field trip. Around her, her pack frolicked and played, joyful at this unusual outing without so much as one of the parents. Of course, Holly knew that everyone along the way knew who she was and was a part of her entire family and that all had nothing but joy and pride whenever they saw her. Holly was only one of two of the Cherished that had been assigned to the San Francisco/Berkeley/Oakland commune, and as such she was one of the most prized inhabitants of the area. Her entire life, since she first became self aware was one of feeling loved, encouraged and assisted, but she also felt the burden of the expectations of all her parents. This school outing would be the second time she had ever been out on her own, and at the tender age of seven, she felt proud that the parents had decided she was old enough to take off on her own with her pack and her GPS to make her way to the historical museums in the middle of San Francisco.

The pack was the group of six helper dogs that Holly had been raised with. They were like the siblings that she had read of, that had graced families before the Extinction virus, except that she would always be the natural leader, and the language skills of the pack were rudimentary at best. Most of the dogs could only vocalize a few words, but had a fairly large capacity for understanding. Having lived with them all her life, Holly rarely needed to say anything to the wisest of the pack, Anna, a large collie who seemed to be able to read Holly like a book. Holly could also read Anna without much trouble and the two of them considered themselves sisters of the mind. The pair of Corgis, Benno and Alfie were the clowns of the group....nothing could ever bring down their spirits, and this romp in the city had them almost beside themselves with joy. The largest of the group was Maria, an English mastiff, lumbered along with the group, in good humor but ever watchful for any danger to her pack. A pair of black labs, Willie and Eleanor trotted alongside Holly living in the moment and happy as any of the others.

The ride into San Francisco by BART, which ran on an abbreviated schedule now that the pace of life had changed in the commune, had been hilarious. They had one car almost all to themselves, with the exception of couple of technicians who were going into the city to take a two week shift at the central power and utilities buildings. Most of the population had moved outward from the cities after the die-off, and only went into the cities to keep necessary infrastructure functions going. Holly was aware that many in the greater commune had opted to learn several jobs and rotate between them after the great loss. The theory was that it was necessary to spread knowledge and experience of all essential services in order to keep the new civilization going.

The purpose of Holly's trip today was to give her a glimpse of what the world had been like before she was alive. Several of her mothers had warned her that she would see some shocking things, and that much of what had been lost in the aftermath of the Extinction was no loss at all, but it had been agreed that all the Cherished would be taught of the bad as well as the good in the old world.

They were nearing the main History Museum and Benno and Alfie started howling “Look, look, look, look, Holl!!! new pack! Look!!!”
Holly laughed with joy when she saw Aspen and his pack approaching from the opposite direction. Aspen was the other Cherished in the area and Holly hadn't known that they were going to be meeting up for this trip. It was so like her parent group to let her have a delicious surprise like this. She ran ahead, singing “Aspen, Aspen, here I am, hello!”