Scorched Earth: A Future History of Planet Earth

by Walter D. Petrovic

"It is time, my love." Brook finally said in a low tone. "It's time for me to tell you about all these things here, with me." He motioned to her the whole room and what it contained: the shelves of books, the cabinet, the small statues, the white screen and the musical instruments beside it, in the corner. "After all our years of marriage, I will tell you about these things that my father, Smith Blue, left for me to use, to keep my rule strong in Phoride."

She dried her eyes with a handkerchief that she took from her sleeve.

Brook guided her to every part of the room and explained to her the uses which every item had during the time of the Twentieth Century, over a millennia ago. He explained to her that the statues were the likeness of the rulers during that time. He told her about how these men's search for wealth and power plunged the whole world into a bloody conflict that escalated into a cataclysmic holocaust, that almost wiped-out every living creature from the face of the Earth. He had let her know of how only a few handfuls of people survived and how they were able to rebuild the world and civilisation, to what it was now.

He disclosed how these people took the best of both simple living and great technology, to make a better and more ordered life on Earth. And he recounted to her how he was descended from a line of knowledgeable men called "scientists", and how the idea of such men was lost over the passage of a thousand years, that eventually became thought of as a royalty. The faction name, "THE BLUE" had become thought of as nobility and so was its adoption for a surname lineage, to which was now his.

Dearborne asked questions about many things. Things that even Brook had long ago asked himself, because he was never able to obtain the answers after his father died, and there was no one else to ask.

All he could do was speculate and read some of the old texts, that explained some questions but never in enough detail to warrant full understanding and satisfaction to his churning curiosity.

Dearborne now understood why Brook kept this room so private, allowing only the two people closest to him, in his life (she and Boy), to enter it. She now knew why she thought it necessary, those many times, to close the cabinets, and drape-over the wall, when Brook fell asleep and left them in the open. Brook was aware that all this knowledge would be misused if it were in the hands of someone like the ArchBishop and his puppet legions.

Brook had mixed emotions about his life and his own power. Although he and Dearborne had been married for thirteen years, this was the first time that he divulged so much dangerous knowledge to her. In Phoride, as elsewhere in the world, the way of life has been one of mistrust and suspicion. Yet, Brook knew that she would tell no one because there were many things that they shared and neither one has revealed them to anyone else.

When Brook finished telling Dearborne most of the important details about the gadgetry, they stood at the window for a long time and just stared at the town, and its people.

The Monastic Guards patrolled the streets while the people went about their day-to-day activity, buying and selling items that they took to the market.