During the next two hours Uretep and Peteru discovered that this group of Men, or ‘mob’ as they called themselves, were one of a dozen similar sized groups that migrated up and down the land. Because of the precarious nature of their food supply, they couldn’t remain in one place too long. It wouldn’t take much over fishing or hunting to wipe out a species, especially as very unreliable weather already made survival a lottery.
Roughly nine hundred years earlier, their forefathers had observed the arrival of a small group of Homo sapiens in gigantic motorised vehicles filled with scientific equipment, tools, earth moving machinery and every implement necessary to rebuild their former lives. An underground bunker was the first thing they built, in which they managed to avoid the worst of the catastrophes that eventually killed off most of their species. The new arrivals were so well guarded and armed, there was nothing the Men could do but watch as they expanded their city.
Rising temperatures, wild seas, destructive storms, cyclones, floods, droughts, insect plagues, and diseases made life difficult for every animal and plant. Violence, insurrection, civil wars, hunger and disease destroyed the few human settlements remaining. Only their mobility and adaptability had so far prevented the Men’s extinction along with so many other species.
‘As we said earlier,’ Fee said with a smile, ‘you’re lucky you visited us this month. In a couple of weeks, if the weather’s the same as it’s been for the last century or so, we can expect floods, hail, lightning strikes and a typhoon or six. That might change your mind about joining us.’
‘It sounds exciting.’
‘How about giant bloodsucking flies, swarms of wasps, battalions of biting beetles and leeches that can suck a healthy man dry in a couple of hours?’ A sleek cautious looking man introduced himself. ‘I’m Ari. You will find life with us often uncomfortable and dangerous, and perhaps boring.’
‘Nothing could be as boring as Oasis! Anyway, if we stay there we’ll be dead as soon as we’ve competed the installation of NumbaCruncha. But I’m amazed about the weather, we had no idea it was so changeable and dangerous. Down in the city every day’s the same.’
‘Dull but safe,’ Rez said wryly. ‘Think carefully before you dump that for a precarious life with us.’
‘We will,’ Peteru replied with a grin. ‘What beats me is that although you’ve rejected all technology—no books, computers or records—somehow you know all these facts, dates and figures? And you’re able to understand everything! Even NumbaCruncha didn’t faze you!’
‘We do what humans did for hundreds of thousands of years before they became addicted to permanent written records,’ Rez explained. ‘We use our memory. The human brain has almost unlimited capacity to visualise, calculate, think, reason, remember and recall. All the important happenings and doings of the last three thousand years is passed from father to son, and updated as we live and learn more.’
‘That’s amazing!’
‘Not at all. It’s a natural, inbuilt mental program that every human has and can use unconsciously. It was no effort for you to tell us thousands of facts about Oasis from memory, and I’ll bet you could build your NumbaCruncha from scratch again without plans.’
‘We could remember the plans and calculations, but we’d have to draw them again to make sure…’ Peteru considered what he’d said. ‘No! I reckon you’re right. If we had the equipment and materials, we could build one again from memory. Couldn’t we Uretep?’
‘Possibly, but I don’t want to.’ He turned to Rez. ‘Tell us about the end of sapiens civilization. We’ve a rough idea from some old videos, but....’
‘OK, but it’ll have to be short. It’s getting late,’ Zen interrupted. ‘Where to begin? Just over a thousand years ago technological and medical advances allowed Earth’s population to increase until twelve thousand million people were fighting for food, water and living space. The by-products of industrialisation changed the climate, and urbanisation gobbled up arable land. Forests were replaced by food crops, whose toxic run-off killed the fish. Crops failed. Millions starved.
‘Urban waste and seepage of lethal radiation from nuclear power plants destroyed water supplies. Dust storms spread toxic airborne particles. The Greenland and Antarctic icecaps slid into the sea creating tsunamis that wiped out whatever remained on the coast. Only the obscenely wealthy one percent of humans, whose greed had been the primary cause of the problems, found refuge in fortified enclaves such as your Oasis.’
‘But how could it have happened? Didn’t they see it coming?’ Peteru asked in bewilderment.
‘They saw it coming, but chose to listen to sloganeers who promised technology would solve all problems, as long as everyone consumed more and had more children. Sensible people who advocated the opposite were ignored. When things failed to improve, wealthy countries sent their airplanes to bomb, invade, slaughter and pillage the food from poorer countries, so they could live a few years longer.
‘Religious leaders added to the chaos by insisting the world’s problems were caused by mankind’s failure to please the gods. All pretence at democracy disappeared and survival depended on how cold-blooded and vicious someone was. Opponents were tortured or burned to death. Life for the non-elite became a living death, and nowhere was safe.
‘Eventually, every coastal city, ninety percent of the food-producing flood plains and deltas, and all the lands at or below sea level were reduced to poisoned salt marshes or inland seas. Millions caught diseases, starved, or were murdered for their food. Cannibalism became the norm.’
‘It sounds dreadful!’ Peteru whispered.
‘It was utter insanity. Homo toolmaker’s childish refusal to share the planet with other species ensured their own extinction; taking with them nearly all other life on the planet,’ Jar replied sadly. ‘For a while, ragged groups of humans eked out miserable existences on useless land; fighting, worshipping their malevolent gods, punishing dissidents—carrying on as humans always have. Poor nutrition meant fewer live births; then even these stopped about three hundred years ago.’
Jar stopped talking and the forest seemed to creep closer. Threatening. A reminder, if one were needed, of the tenuous grip all seemingly robust organisms had on life.
Bel took up the story and explained that the once vast continent was now a long, relatively narrow strip of mountains and valleys stretching from sweltering wet tropics to the slightly cooler, drought stricken south. To the West, seas had invaded from both north and south, triggering gigantic earthquakes and creating a vast shallow sea dotted with rocky outcrops. According to rumour, about a thousand kilometres away on the far side was a chain of rough hills facing a wild sea, but this couldn’t be verified as in all their years of wandering up and down the Men had met no one who had crossed and returned.
Vast toxic swamps blanketed in a miasma of noxious gasses that paralysed then killed, were all that remained of the once extensive coastal cities, and all life in a radius of hundreds kilometres had disappeared. Fish poisoned anyone foolish enough to eat the foul smelling flesh.
Inland towns decayed, leaving rotting concrete carcasses. In most of those places too, a careless visitor could stumble into a foetid bog and be overcome by poisonous fumes.
It had been two centuries since any sapiens had been sighted, apart from Oasis. In the past, when Men had come across refugees they’d followed secretly, leaving them to die naturally. If it looked as though they might succeed in establishing themselves, however, the Men had ensured they didn’t.
A thoughtful silence descended as if everyone had been mesmerised by the smoke and fluttering pale moths swirling lazily up from the fire. The only sound a low buzzing emitted by large brown and green beetles flying through the flames as if it was a game.
‘Thanks...its been incredibly interesting,’ Uretep said thoughtfully, rubbing at his eyes. ‘I know it’s getting late, but what about children—how do you have them, care for them, teach them...we’re ignorant because no sapiens in Oasis has given birth for hundreds of years.’
‘There’s nothing complicated about having children,’ Leo said casually. ‘We carry the developing embryo in our bellies for two hundred and seventy days, then contract our muscles and he pops out the same orifice the sperm went in. We wash him and carry him on our backs or bellies in a sling made of woven plant fibre, feeding him with milk produced by glands in our chests that’s excreted through the nipples, which enlarge for the period of lactation, then resume normal size—like our bellies.’ He pounded his own rock hard abdomen to prove it. ‘About three hundred days after birth the child can walk and is eating the same food as us. By two years he’s able to follow us everywhere. He is educated from birth till death by experimentation, making mistakes, observation, example, teaching and advice.’
‘You guys are so wise, it makes me feel...useless.’
‘We’ll all be useless if we don’t get some sleep. You two can stay with us if you like,’ Leo said nonchalantly as he walked towards the forest.
The other men dispersed silently in different directions while Peteru and Uretep nervously followed Sim and Leo about a hundred metres into the forest to the base of a large tree. A loop of thick vine hanging a metre from the ground was the route to a platform high above the forest floor. After hoisting themselves up, the young men collapsed onto a springy floor of woven palm fronds.
‘My shoulders,’ Peteru wailed, ‘they feel as if they’ve been torn out. I’ve never climbed like that before. Lucky it’s dark or I’d never have dared. How’d you make this? How high are we? And why?’
‘It’s made of branches lashed between forks. We’re about forty metres up because mosquitoes and other night-flying bloodsuckers usually remain closer to the ground where they can avoid the little bats that eat them. Wild boars, wild dogs, poisonous centipedes, scorpions and ticks also remain nearer ground level. Up here we’re safe from a flash flood, and fine unless there’s a cyclone.’
‘Was the smoky fire to discourage pests?’
‘Yes.’
‘What about rain?’
‘Palm fronds keep off most rain; if it’s a deluge everyone gathers in a cave high in the side of the escarpment.’
‘Why don’t you always sleep there?’
‘Eighteen Men, no matter how mentally and physically attuned to life together, need privacy and time alone with their partners to re-establish intimacy, allow their minds and bodies to catch up with recent events, and prepare for another day. A life spent in constant social contact is emotionally and intellectually draining and soon ends in arguments or worse.’
‘Makes sense. Uretep and I would never have survived if we’d had to live a communal life like the Vassals. But how come this nest is large enough for four?’
‘We built it twenty years ago when we had our sons. There were four of us until they moved out last year.’
But you’re only here for a few weeks each year, how come it’s in such good condition?’
‘Everyone makes repairs to their nests each time we return. It’s no fuss.’
‘It’s really good of you to invite us.’
‘No it isn’t. We miss our boys so it’s like old times to have a couple of young men sharing—for a while.’
‘Don’t worry; we won’t outstay our welcome. The first thing we’ll do is build our own nest.’ Uretep peered over the edge. ‘It’s much lighter up here than down by the fire.’
‘More stars and moonlight. Now sleep. Over there against the trunk, so you don’t fall off. If you need to pee, make sure you don’t face the breeze.’
Sim and Leo curled up together on one side and were instantly asleep.
‘I don’t think I’ll ever be able to sleep,’ Uretep whispered with a soft yawn.
‘Me neither.’
They curled together, Peteru tucked in behind Uretep, and within seconds both had tumbled into a deep and dreamless sleep, not waking until Leo pushed them gently.
‘Sun’s up. We have work to do if we’re not to starve, and you’ve a planet to save from sapiens. Breakfast in ten minutes.’ Leo’s smiling head dropped out of vision, leaving his guests to stretch and stare in disbelief at the magnificent sunrise illuminating the forest canopy with fingers of gold. Then they looked down and fear clutched at their bellies. ‘How on earth did we drag ourselves up here? I’ll fall going down, I know I will, it’s too high, it’s…’
‘OK, stay there then,’ Sim laughed as his head too disappeared, and the vine swayed.
Several shoulder aching minutes later they managed a weak-kneed stagger to the pool for a refreshing dip.