Among the Founders

The deer bowed its head as it tore stray blades of grass into its mouth. Its tail flicked away at the stray flies buzzing around while its eyes searched for its next snack, though it would not even have enough time left in its life to finish the ones it had just pulled from the earth.

Despite being a typical deer, it was more valuable than gold, and was most likely the last deer in the area for at least twenty miles.

As a result of lethal levels of pollution causing the collapse of ecosystems around the globe, the deer, along with most of the other animals on the planet, nearly went extinct stemming from the Earth’s biggest parasite: the human race.

It all began with an unforeseen major population boom. As a result, people had a dramatic increase in their consumption of energy and other resources that the planet had to offer, draining everything of use. It only grew worse as they realized how much waste they were creating. Ecosystems were now only toxic waste yards and the rest of the soil on the planet was so over-saturated with toxicity, that fruits and vegetables couldn’t be eaten unless they were grown from clean soil. If grown in plain soil, the food contained the toxins that would inevitably kill the consumer.

However, with the human race being brought to near extinction and not causing further damage, in only a few decades the planet was already making large strides in healing itself.

In an ironic twist, animalshad evolved to be able to safely process the toxins from their food and water. Subtle changes to their lungs and liver allowed their numbers to increase again. Humans on the other hand were losing numbers as they faced starvation, plagues, decreased life expectancy from carcinogens in the air and wars as the world leaders began to point fingers at one another in blame for the damage to the planet.

When humanity first realized they were staring at mass extinction, they formed small pods called Communities stocked with their remaining supplies, technology, and the few lucky families that were chosen to repopulate the planet. As years went on, these Communities too collapsed from starvation, war, and sickness. After 120 years of struggling, now in the year 2929, there remains only one barely surviving Community, Community 1049.

And one of its people had the deer in his sights.

The nineteen-year-old man named Lance released the breath he was holding in his chest just as the nocked arrow effortlessly took flight from his fingertips, cutting through the air, and piercing the heart of the deer upon impact. It dropped dead instantly before it could register what had just happened with the half-chewed lump of grass hanging lazily from its mouth. Lance let the soles of his boots slide off the rough bark of the branch from which he was perched. He hit the ground on one knee and gracefully rose to a standing position. He shouldered his wooden bow and approached his kill. He frowned and pulled the stone-tipped arrow from the animal’s limp body. He hated killing animals, but he, his family, and his people needed to eat. It was an unfortunate and necessary evil.

This was the first deer he had seen in almost three weeks. There had been some small game unlucky enough to cross his path, but nothing substantial enough as to what would constitute a “full meal” for everyone back home . This would feed and clothe some at least, but it wouldn’t be enough to feed the three hundred or so people of the Community. Lately, the scraps of food they had been surviving on was barely enough to quiet their growling stomachs. Winter was on the way and the majority of the animals in the area had been practically hunted out, and those that hadn’t been were moving on to warmer places. Those needing warmer clothing would be fighting over the scraps of fur-lined leather clothing that the leather worker would prepare once the animals were gutted, or as Lance preferred, “cleaned”.

Lance believed more and more each passing day that there were more animals beyond what his people called, “the Edge”- which was the edge of the forest cluster in which they hunted within. Even though he had the opportunity to go look for himself every day without anyone knowing, he never did as he knew he had been forbidden to do so by the leaders of Community: 1049- the Elders. From the time he was a child capable of understanding the words of those around him, it was drilled into his mind that there was nothing except death waiting for anyone that dared to trespass beyond the forest’s edge as pollution was supposed to be worse past their borders.

As of late, Lance wasn’t sure if he could believe the Elders, but he had no evidence that it wasn’t safe to go beyond the Edge. But if you asked him he would admit that what was truly holding him back from looking was the possibility that the Elders could be right and he would only be walking into his death, and to him, that was a gamble not worth taking, just yet anyways.

A strong hand patted Lance warmly on the shoulder jarring him from his thoughts. “Nice shot,” his mother, Shushannah congratulated. He shook her hand off with a grunt. “What the hell? I was just giving you a goddamned compliment,” she snarled.

Lance was built to be the perfect hunter. He was quick and nimble with broad shoulders and was silent and methodical when tracking prey. In fact, he took pride in being one of the few people to sneak up on his mother. The only thing holding him back from excelling as a hunter was that he hated killing the animals. In the past, when food wasn’t hard to come by, and would instead occupy himself in a tree with a book, lost to the world around him. His mother had caught him once or twice, scaring him out of the tree and yelling at him until her face was blue.

Lance was well aware of his mother’s disappointment in him as she had always been vocal with her opinions, but she was still proud to call him her son. He was still out there with her day in and day out and doing what needed to be done when it was needed. Despite that though, there was always a sliver of distrust towards him when they came back from their hunts, especially now with animals being so scarce and so many hungry mouths waiting for them at home. She needed to be sure that he was all in just like she was. When they went into the woods, they weren’t a mother and son anymore, they were hunters and needed to act that way. Their conversations on the way home were more like interrogations as she tore into her son making sure he left no stone unturned. Only when he brought more animals back than her did they speak of niceties.

Lance noted to himself that his mother was sporting a belt packed full of small game swaying lifelessly back and forth. Some flies were beginning to gather around a few of the squirrels, landing on their fur and rubbing their grubby little hands together.

His mother’s sandy hair, the same shade as Lance’s, was pulled back into a tight bun to keep the strands out of her face. Oftentimes his father, Marick, would pull Lance’s own long hair back and joke about the two being twins as they shared the same pointed facial features, and sometimes, the same scowl.

“Yeah,” Lance grumbled, “But you know I hate killing animals, yet you still make a spectacle of it, like I shouldcelebrate what I just did.”

“Fine. If you don’t like being a hunter, maybe you should change careers then. Why don’t you go apprentice with the leather worker and makes shoes all day,” she huffed, “What you just did is worth celebrating! That’s less people going to bed with empty stomachs tonight!”

Lance gave her a sideways glare as rage boiled underneath his flesh. He hoisted the deer over his shoulder with an audible grunt. It wasn’t the biggest he’d ever taken down, weighing just under a hundred pounds he guessed, but it certainly wasn’t small. He had half the amount of animals around his belt than what his mother had on hers. He noticed her gaze fall and rise again to his face but she didn’t say anything.