The Writings of Randy Taylor

This was done for a writing exercise I started on my ICCW site, but I managed to break my own rules. So check it out here and tell me what you think.

A harsh wind blows the debris of decades past across the barren landscape. Many years ago this was the hub of world finance, now it is the dwelling place of mans remnants. Tribes of scavengers scrape by with what little they can find to survive. A scrap of clothe to protect them from the elements. An unlabeled can of food which may or may not be fit for human consumption. The carcass of some mutated beast hopefully not long dead so the meat can be salvaged.

Once called a concrete jungle, it’s now more jungle than concrete. Towering structures of glass and steel crumble under their own weight as roots and foliage creep through the crack putting pressure on what is already unstable. These collapsed hulks provide shelter to the indignant population of the once grand city, the children’s children of the survivors of the end of time.

They have no memory of what once was. Only faded pictures and stories passed down of a time when the necessities of life were readily available. Dwelling heated by a source of power which also provided abundant light in the darkness. All just stories most take as myths and wistfulness used to lull children to sleep.

Reality is much darker. Roving bands hate filled half human marauders taking what they want and destroying the rest. Pillaging camps; raping and murdering women; taking children as rewards to be used in whatever twisted way they can conceive, leaving nothing but death in their wake. So the people hide and cower in their makeshift homes, desperately hording what they have.

For all the myths and legends, prophecies and stories, a hint of truth is always the one common factor, a vision of a long forgotten God or a sign of better things to come. Such as a child, born with a mark upon her forehead, in the shape of an old religions symbol that has held no significance for a long time. A woman child able to speak of things she has no business knowing, seeing things yet to come and holding influence above natural human level against others. Not yet physically a woman, she reigns over her tribe as a leader and a teacher, keeping them safe and leading them by establishing a hierarchy of power, organizing them and giving the knowledge to protect themselves.