{"id":913,"date":"2017-01-10T18:45:09","date_gmt":"2017-01-11T02:45:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jamesfunfer.com\/?p=913"},"modified":"2017-01-10T18:45:09","modified_gmt":"2017-01-11T02:45:09","slug":"dooms-daughter-chapter-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jamesfunfer.com\/?p=913","title":{"rendered":"Doom’s Daughter, Chapter 6"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cMany years before any of you were born, the world was <\/span>filled <\/span><\/i>with humans.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The bonfire crackles, and in its glow I survey the faces of the bright-eyed Kawitzen children, listening intently to Amelia\u2019s story. Although the winter is mild on the west coast of North America\u2019s 49<\/span>th<\/span> parallel, it still gets damp and chilly at night.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey spread out from their home in Africa and covered the planet, until there was no place you could not find them, not even the frozen lands of the north and south poles.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The ratio of kids to adults is off-kilter in the Kawitzen tribe, just like most places we visit. Echoes of The Doom are still felt here. Survivors looking to be fruitful and multiply still have to come to grips with the horrors of their offspring not always inheriting their immunity.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBut these children of the Goddess did not simply spread and multiply. For in their wake they brought with them what they called <\/span>civilization<\/span><\/i>. And what is civilization?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

As a bunch of chubby little hands shoot into the air I roll my eyes and look at Father. <\/span>If I wanted something this heavy-handed I\u2019d read Ayn Rand, <\/span><\/i>my eyes say to him. He\u2019s busy reading something by firelight and doesn\u2019t notice me, but I\u2019m sure he\u2019d have a few choice things to say about The Doom if he wasn\u2019t so intent on being polite to his new girlfriend.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cCivilization is when you think that some people should get more than other people,\u201d a girl says. <\/span>We\u2019ve found the pedant in the group, folks. <\/span><\/i>\u201cCivilization uses the gifts of the Goddess without giving back to the planet. Civilization made the Goddess send the Doom so that the planet would stop dying.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Why did I sit here to get an agenda-driven history lesson instead of going off with the other teenagers? <\/span><\/i>I ask myself. <\/span>You wanted to meet new people, Regan. Congrats. Eight brainwashed thumb-suckers and the Queen of the Hippies.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

I remind myself that I\u2019m trying to avoid Mason. I\u2019m still shocked they let him back in the tribe despite his constant need to betray everything \u2013 up to and including his own dignity \u2013 but then again, the Kawitzen seem to have forgiveness down to Jesus-like proportions. Most post-Doom village cults are a danger to others; this one seems to be more of a danger to itself.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s right Harmony,\u201d Amelia says, bringing my focus back to the present. <\/span>What\u2019s going on? <\/span><\/i>I ask myself. <\/span>Oh, yeah. Back-patting for taking the blue pill.<\/span><\/i> I accidentally laugh out loud at my secret <\/span>Matrix<\/span><\/i> joke that nobody would get.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIs something funny, Regan?\u201d Amelia asks. It\u2019s creepy because she doesn\u2019t sound offended.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s nothing,\u201d I mutter. \u201cPlease carry on.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cNo, please,\u201d she insists. \u201cYou and your father are well-travelled. Do you have further insight into the fall of civilization?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

I sigh, looking to Father pleadingly for support but he\u2019s still reading his book. A lifetime of knowing his habits tells me that he\u2019s actually listening, but he\u2019s not going to back me up on this one.<\/span><\/p>\n

I sigh. \u201cYou were born well before The Doom, right Amelia?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

She smiles. \u201cGuilty; I\u2019m no spring chicken.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSo you remember that The Doom was a human-made virus, right? Not some book of revelations or Gaia hypothesis plague?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Amelia regards me calmly but there is something new in her eyes.\u00a0<\/span>That\u2019s right,\u00a0<\/span><\/i>I think.\u00a0<\/span>This road scholar knows better than your spoon-fed, homespun religion, and you have to respect that, don\u2019t you?<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cAccording to the mainstream media at the time, yes. Sources proven to be less than credible.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The kids\u2019 faces turn from left to right and back again like they\u2019re watching tennis.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cUm, and according to\u00a0<\/span>him<\/span><\/i>,\u201d I say, pointing at Father. \u201cYour saviour-guy. And more than a few well-documented sources. And\u2026\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Father slams his book shut so loudly that it is heard over the crackle of flames, over our argument. He stands and gives me the\u00a0<\/span>you-know-what-you-did<\/span><\/i>\u00a0stare, except I have no idea what I did.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cCan I talk to you for a moment, daughter of mine?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

I stare at him from across the flames. \u201cSure.\u201d I grit my teeth. \u201cDad. Of mine.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

As we leave the area around the bonfire I catch Amelia\u2019s eye. She\u2019s got this look like: \u2018how would you know about The Doom, Regan? You weren\u2019t born yet\u2019. I just want to punch her, but I don\u2019t generally throw fists around when I\u2019m a guest.<\/span><\/p>\n

I <\/span>have <\/span><\/i>punched one of Father\u2019s girlfriends before, though.<\/span><\/p>\n

Father stops walking when we\u2019re hidden deep in one of the rows of the Kawitzen\u2019s winter garden.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat do you think you\u2019re doing?\u201d he asks.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cRight now? Being admonished for inscrutable reasons, apparently.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re not going to change their minds, Regan.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

I fold my arms, staring up at the cloudy night sky so I don\u2019t have to look at his stupid accusatory face.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI cannot believe you\u2019re not backing me up on this, Dad. I mean…goddess plagues? Civilization pared down to a concept that a five-year-old thinks it can understand? Hey, we\u2019ve seen our fair share of cults, but…\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBut nothing,\u201d he counters. \u201cThey\u2019re peaceful. You wanted to trade with them and meet new people. Well, here we are. Everyone gets to decide how they rebuild the world. This is how the Kawitzen are doing it, and I\u2019d say they\u2019re not doing too bad of a job.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cDoesn\u2019t the truth matter?\u201d I raise my voice with the hope that someone will eavesdrop and learn something. \u201cOr are you too busy trying to impress your new girlfriend?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s not,\u201d he says, laughing, \u201cmy girlfriend. Civilization was a monster, Regan. You might think you understand what it was, and perhaps you do better than most who remember it, but really it was a juggernaut of destruction. It was the selfish soul of humanity, the manifestation of our biological instincts dressed up in the trappings of fairness and progress. It was leading us toward ecological disaster. It was an arbitrary system of numbers that gave incredible power to a select few and essentially enslaved the rest. It was the pursuit of knowledge above all else which brought us to The Doom.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBut…\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t interrupt. Their goddess is a metaphor, yes, but these people are trying to teach their children not to make the same mistakes we did, so I\u2019d say it\u2019s a step in the right direction. Because the hard truth of the matter, Regan, is that if The Doom hadn\u2019t come to the world, we would have destroyed it anyway, with nuclear warheads or the greenhouse effect or oceans full of garbage.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOkay,\u201d I say. \u201cThanks for not being an <\/span>asshole<\/span><\/i> about it, <\/span>Dad. <\/span><\/i>So you\u2019re saying The Doom was a good thing, now?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He gets that quiet, contemplative face like he does sometimes when The Doom gets brought up. Like he\u2019s remembering horrific things that, to this day, he won\u2019t tell me about. Bodies piled in the streets and burning cities and wanton violence kind of stuff.<\/span><\/p>\n

Then we hear the sound of a fire hall siren.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the League!\u201d someone shouts in the distance. \u201cGet to the towers!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cReally starting to hate this League,\u201d I mutter to Father as we race back to the RV for some firepower.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cTell me about it,\u201d he says.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cMany years before any of you were born, the world was filled with humans.\u201d The bonfire crackles, and in its glow I survey the faces of the bright-eyed Kawitzen children, listening intently to Amelia\u2019s story. Although the winter is mild on the west coast of North America\u2019s 49th parallel, it still gets damp and chilly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,40,6],"tags":[35,43,42],"class_list":["post-913","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dooms-daughter","category-serials","category-writing","tag-dooms-daughter","tag-post-apocalyptic","tag-serials"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jamesfunfer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/913","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jamesfunfer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jamesfunfer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jamesfunfer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jamesfunfer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=913"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jamesfunfer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/913\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":914,"href":"https:\/\/jamesfunfer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/913\/revisions\/914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jamesfunfer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jamesfunfer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jamesfunfer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}