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Description

Scorched earth... you know the term right? Thought you did. Yeah, that's

me, precariously perched on top my male gigantoceros. I- oh? What's a

Gigantoceros? I'll get to that. Where was I? Ah, yes, scorched earth.

We did this. Not 'we' as in myself personally, or anyone alive today for that

matter, no... but... we as in humans. Yeah, we screwed up good. Well, no,

that's not quite right. They. They screwed up good.

See... a people... as a general rule will only rebel when the cost of revolt is

less than doing nothing. Or, to rephrase, when the cost of doing nothing is

worse than revolt.

They started it. They pushed us. They pushed us harder, a thousand times

harder than our ancestors would have allowed. A thousand times further

than our ancestors would allow. We snapped. We fought back.

And when an entire population of millions... billions... rise up as one, well,

you can imagine.

But there was one thing, one thing we could... never hope to stop in time.

Devastating weapons... unspeakably... just... horrendous. They used 'em.

Scorched earth policy. If they couldn't have it... no one was going to.

Billions died. A shattered sky, raging, boiling without end, covered the planet.

Ground evilly spitting out toxic sludge, which came dripping down the trenches

and gullies to form bubbling pools...

Someone much have known something like this was going to happen, because

the survivors, those few who possessed a rare extraordinary immune system that

managed to keep them alive, began to see.... odd things...

Creatures resembling those that once lived appeared in the hands of... them. Our

scientists, the few that survived, when they had finally received a sample of one of

the beasts, all found the animals to be genetically manufactured, some from what

used to live... some from..... somewhere else.

This Gigantoceros for example. At first look, a muscle-bound combination of an elk

and a moose. At closer look.... well, if the glowing flesh and fiberoptic lookalike antlers

are earthly, I'll eat my hood. And it's not entirely due to nuclear radiation either. When

they first came out, as it were, they looked a lot different. More like, well... a muscley

elk-moose. But their cells must have been in a state of rapid flux or something, because

they developed quickly into creatures easily able to survive in this... living hell. See,

you notice the ground has got little glowing fungus stuff growing all over it? They

eat it. And their antlers, instead of being annually dropped and regrown, became

fused to the skull, and grew in such a pattern that they seem to blend in with the

landscape.

Even- now what? You don't like his nose ring? Oh, I know it looks bad, but... these

gigantos are dangerous. Very much so. The ring keeps him in line, and no, that

silver chain will snap long before it rips the thing out of his nose.

He's blind, you know. Totally blind. Not that eyes do any good in this dark ugly

world. Actually most of the animals nowadays are. Eyes, being the most sensitive

organ, usually the first to go in any situation. The very air eats at the corneas, and

a single drop of acid rain 'll black an eyeball out for good.

Half the kids now are born blind; not even in their mothers wombs are they safe

from the poison. But... eyes aren't everything. I'm blind too. Don't act like it, don't

look like it. Wouldn't even know if I hadn't told you, right? Humans are an adaptable

bunch, and that's a fact.

I don't know if it's the same way for Moose here... I think he must 'see' in some sort of

infrared, maybe his antlers channel the whatever waves into his brain, I don't know. But

humans... I guess you can say we've developed our atrophied sixth sense into a powerful

working... well... sense. Not so much instinct as.... feeling what's around you. Like that

feeling you KNOW someone is there when you step into a dark room. All people have it,

you know.... it's there. Just doesn't.... didn't... get used.

Anyway... yes, there are still a good many of us... dangerous individuals around. Not

gonna tell you where. Don't know where you stand. But one thing is for darn sure - we

haven't lost yet. And as long as even one of us remains, we ain't gonna.

Hope you can run fast, fella; cause unless you're with them, it ain't gonna be no good

when they find you. As for me, heh, I'm already gone.

TalonV

Description

Scorched earth... you know the term right? Thought you did. Yeah, that's

me, precariously perched on top my male gigantoceros. I- oh? What's a

Gigantoceros? I'll get to that. Where was I? Ah, yes, scorched earth.

We did this. Not 'we' as in myself personally, or anyone alive today for that

matter, no... but... we as in humans. Yeah, we screwed up good. Well, no,

that's not quite right. They. They screwed up good.

See... a people... as a general rule will only rebel when the cost of revolt is

less than doing nothing. Or, to rephrase, when the cost of doing nothing is

worse than revolt.

They started it. They pushed us. They pushed us harder, a thousand times

harder than our ancestors would have allowed. A thousand times further

than our ancestors would allow. We snapped. We fought back.

And when an entire population of millions... billions... rise up as one, well,

you can imagine.

But there was one thing, one thing we could... never hope to stop in time.

Devastating weapons... unspeakably... just... horrendous. They used 'em.

Scorched earth policy. If they couldn't have it... no one was going to.

Billions died. A shattered sky, raging, boiling without end, covered the planet.

Ground evilly spitting out toxic sludge, which came dripping down the trenches

and gullies to form bubbling pools...

Someone much have known something like this was going to happen, because

the survivors, those few who possessed a rare extraordinary immune system that

managed to keep them alive, began to see.... odd things...

Creatures resembling those that once lived appeared in the hands of... them. Our

scientists, the few that survived, when they had finally received a sample of one of

the beasts, all found the animals to be genetically manufactured, some from what

used to live... some from..... somewhere else.

This Gigantoceros for example. At first look, a muscle-bound combination of an elk

and a moose. At closer look.... well, if the glowing flesh and fiberoptic lookalike antlers

are earthly, I'll eat my hood. And it's not entirely due to nuclear radiation either. When

they first came out, as it were, they looked a lot different. More like, well... a muscley

elk-moose. But their cells must have been in a state of rapid flux or something, because

they developed quickly into creatures easily able to survive in this... living hell. See,

you notice the ground has got little glowing fungus stuff growing all over it? They

eat it. And their antlers, instead of being annually dropped and regrown, became

fused to the skull, and grew in such a pattern that they seem to blend in with the

landscape.

Even- now what? You don't like his nose ring? Oh, I know it looks bad, but... these

gigantos are dangerous. Very much so. The ring keeps him in line, and no, that

silver chain will snap long before it rips the thing out of his nose.

He's blind, you know. Totally blind. Not that eyes do any good in this dark ugly

world. Actually most of the animals nowadays are. Eyes, being the most sensitive

organ, usually the first to go in any situation. The very air eats at the corneas, and

a single drop of acid rain 'll black an eyeball out for good.

Half the kids now are born blind; not even in their mothers wombs are they safe

from the poison. But... eyes aren't everything. I'm blind too. Don't act like it, don't

look like it. Wouldn't even know if I hadn't told you, right? Humans are an adaptable

bunch, and that's a fact.

I don't know if it's the same way for Moose here... I think he must 'see' in some sort of

infrared, maybe his antlers channel the whatever waves into his brain, I don't know. But

humans... I guess you can say we've developed our atrophied sixth sense into a powerful

working... well... sense. Not so much instinct as.... feeling what's around you. Like that

feeling you KNOW someone is there when you step into a dark room. All people have it,

you know.... it's there. Just doesn't.... didn't... get used.

Anyway... yes, there are still a good many of us... dangerous individuals around. Not

gonna tell you where. Don't know where you stand. But one thing is for darn sure - we

haven't lost yet. And as long as even one of us remains, we ain't gonna.

Hope you can run fast, fella; cause unless you're with them, it ain't gonna be no good

when they find you. As for me, heh, I'm already gone.

TalonV