Scorched Earth: A Future History of Planet EarthPetrovic, Walter D.
Science
Scorched Earth: A Future History of Planet Earth
Petrovic, Walter D.
Science fiction
In the years following the deluge, the surface dwelling survivors died
out from exposure to radiation and to the adverse climactic conditions
that were inherited from the global fall out.
The progeny of the survivors became strange in appearance and behaviour
until they all became new forms of humans, evolved from mutants, to
small hybrid races which soon became as distinct and individual as
those humans that lived in the late Twentieth Century. The
amalgamation of these races found that great tension had formed between
them, due to their differences in appearances and forms of speech, and
so they broke away from the main body of humanity and headed for their
own select areas of the continent.
Many of these new races of humans ventured forth and eventually
established unique civilisations. One race went to the extreme western
part of the North continent. Everywhere, they found small pockets of
survivors and conquered them. They looted their food stores and used
those people as slaves; so becoming a feared band of humans that
resembled upright, and very dark featured, apes. They called
themselves the Teniqués. Those in the east were afraid that the
Teniqués would begin to move back their way but although they were
warlike, they stayed put and were soon forgotten.
Concentrated cells of normal humans were still alive. They were the
ones who lived in the mountainous regions of the continent and although
most became larger in size than normal humans, they were the most in
resemblance to the people living during the Twentieth Century. They
were hunters and gatherers, moving from valley to, in both the eastern
and the western mountains. These were amongst the first people to be
conquered by the Teniqués, in their move westward. In the east, there
was also a race of perfectly normal looking humans called the Sëdash.
They were a group of hermaphrodites that were compiled and exiled by
the rest of human mutants, who disliked them, since they most closely
resembled the previous normal humans. The hermaphrodites wandered for
many years until a place to settle was found. They began to build a
culture that they based on total
equality between individuals.
Yet, the Sëdash soon became intolerant to any other forms of human.
They developed a belief that they were divinely chosen to be "superior
and perfect," and so they enslaved and mistreated those who happened
to trespass on their city boundaries. For mating, only the true
hermaphrodites were allowed to propagate. After several generations of
regulated breeding, a pure-bred race of hermaphrodites was formed.
There was another similar band of humans in the eastern part of the
northern Continent. They called themselves the Palatkans. Their
appearance was much like that of lepers. They had segregated
themselves from the main stream years before the great cataclysm. They
congregated in long strips of semi-fertile land on the floor of lengthy
canyons.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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