It was a calm evening in the lush
forest in Washington State. A group of men and women were spread out on a
hillside, resting. Some were napping in the shade, others talking quietly in
small groups. All of them were decked out in camouflage clothing, but they were
not soldiers, at least not the typical government sanctioned corporate
sponsored killers. Their camouflage was marred with peace signs, psychedelic
swirls and other symbols of their army: eco-warriors.
Off in the distance was a continual
buzz of chainsaws, diesel engines and heavy equipment hard at work. Every once
in a while a loud crash of a falling mighty pine, old growth that took hundreds
of years to grow, brought the quiet group back to reality. It took hundreds of
years to grow a forest only to be destroyed by greed in a few short years. It
was their mantra driven home by their great leader. When a tree crashed down he
looked up from his magazine and made eye contact with individuals of his army,
driving home the point of why they were gathered on this mountainside. It was
time to strike back for the good of the planet.
Their rugged leader sat leaning
against a tree. He was doing “research” reading a popular tech magazine. “This
is a tragedy,” he stated out loud to no one in particular but all those near
listened. “Who would want to live their days hiding in a black box imagining
the world, instead of actually going out into it?” Disgust was evident in his
voice. “We must do something to save the human animal from its own destructive
ways. It is not enough to save Mother Nature and only some of her offspring. We
must be willing to save them all.”
He threw the magazine down. The
radiant woman sitting next to him picked it up. Her brunette hair was bunched
into dreadlocks that fell halfway down her back, green army pants and a brown
tank top hugging her curves. She flipped open to the page the great man sitting
beside her was reading. The piece was
titled “Fantasy is Fiction No Longer: Technology finally delivers the
final frontier where the mind meets reality.” An Op-Ed piece by Frank Church.
She scanned the article for the highlights.
Their leader stood and stretched as
he addressed the crowd, his army. “We are going to need to do something about
this. We cannot allow humanity to go down this path. Someone has to be the
consciousness of the masses. They have been blinded by the mass produced media
driven corporate greed which now wants to turn us all into nothing but
simpletons, slumbering away in dream boxes, in coffins. If that is our future
then we might as well be dead. No, we must wake them. All of them! But before
we can wake them we have to stop the machines that make them slumber.
Technology is the bane of modern human existence. But we are the warriors to rid
the world of this monster and free humanity once more to be human. It is not
enough to stand on the wall and defend the wilderness, we must move the army
into enemy territory and take back what is rightfully ours.”
Passion and life emanate from his
very being as he spoke. His audience was captivated and on fire for action. His
charisma led the way for others to follow and blindly they did, trusting this
great man to reestablish the natural balance of the world.
If it was his timing or just
coincidence as he finished his impassioned oration the last of the chainsaws in
the distance died off. Soon after, they heard the sound of diesel engines from
the work trucks firing up and then motoring off into the woods.
The leader looked across the
hillside at his army, a ragged bunch that had stood by him time and time again.
He also looked over the beautiful natural scene around him, pine trees standing
majestic, brush and flowers dotting the hillside and all of it illumined by the
setting sun. He looked down at the stunning beauty reading the magazine.
“Nadia, when this job is done I have a special mission for you.” She looked up
into his green eyes and nodded. She would do anything for this man.
“Ok Army it is time to go to work.
Today we protect these precious life-giving woods. Tomorrow we move to protect
the feeblest animal of them all from itself, the human animal. You know the
drill: move down in your squads smash anything human made, but do not harm any
humans that may still be around. Move quickly, be stealthy. Meet at the
rendezvous as planned, code word is ‘lightening bug’”
The hillside suddenly came alive
with movement. Small groups of camouflaged troopers moved off towards the
clear-cut area ahead. Half an hour later they converged on the site where the
cutting equipment was stashed. Soon a new sound emerged from the forest floor.
Instead of man against nature it was the distinct sound of man against machine:
metal upon metal, rock against glass. After a mishap that caused a small forest
fire they learned to not burn the machines.
But after the night’s attack of destruction and sabotage they might as
well have been burnt.
With their mission done, the army
slowly slinked off into the night. They would meet up later to toast another
victory and end the night with a bit of carousing at their campsite near a
natural hot springs. The leader watched
from the hillside. It went smooth, as he knew it would. But his eyes were not
on the destruction below but rather on the false sunrise on the horizon, the
lights from the city, which reached all the way out here in the forest. Those
lights would have to be extinguished someday.
All Rights Reserved. Copyright 2011
David Corbet
