Aftermath

There were four classes of people after the big blast in 2219. There were Tacticitions. They represented the military who controlled the many sectors, very similar to the old-style police force. Their laws were harsh.

To break even one minor law, they would be killed where they stood. Laws were made to be rigid since the acid rain and dust cleared two-hundred years prior. Those who survived the blast went underground and lived in darkness. When the air had finally become breathable, the four classes were formed.

In the beginning, everyone had to wear protective lenses as it took a long time for the eyes to adjust to the glare of the split sun. It was then the separation of classes began.

Nest, were the Performers. They provided the land with work, restoring what had been destroyed in the big blast. They provided the ideas for restoration and materials. Other Performers were also healers, taking care of the injured and the ill. The Performers did only what was instructed of them by the Tacticitions. They, along with the remaining inhabitants, were also ruled by them. To refuse or decline a directive from the Tacticitions, meant certain death.

Another class: The Drudges. They built what the Performers designed. They earned no money. They were paid in terms by the amount of work completed. The more they finished, the longer they were allowed to stay alive, have a cubicle to share with five other Drudges for sleep, and, if they worked hard enough; their ration of food increased from one meal a day to two.

Tacticitions and Performers were allowed to give birth to children. The law stated only those within a position of power could bring life. Performers were allotted two children, and the Tacticitions, five children.

Drudges were caught and captured every day. Drudges were known as the final class: Outcasts. They were the ones who resisted the Tacticitions and for what they stood for. When any of them were caught, they were placed in servitude as Drudges, and many had died doing the work required of them. Drudges never attempted escape, it was impossible.

The Drudges were granted by law, not by right, to have one child. If the child was male, he would be put in servitude. If the child born was female, she would be used to sire children by either the Tacticitions or Performers, and once she met that obligation, she would be killed.

As to the Outcasts, they had no rules on how small or large a family should be.

The Tacticitions held strongholds across the land and ruled with absolute authority. The refused to buckle under demands from the Outcasts to put away differences, and work as a single unit to make this country and the world a safer place to live, and work as brothers and sisters. No longer harbor hate and animosity, but instead, to love and help one another.

The Tacticitions believed in order to maintain order and keep control of all things, was to rule with an iron fist, and never relinquish their dominance.

To allow one or more groups of people to have independent action without authority was to allow communistic thoughts to pervade the new ideals that had been established. The Tacticitions would not allow this to happen.

They would maintain order, as the Performers would create demanded of them, and the Drudges would rebuild the order forced on them by law. It was the remaining Outcasts who were the problem.

Soon, the Outcasts would be nothing more than a forgotten page in history books reminding everyone that the law is the law.

Of course, the Outcasts had another opinion of the Tacticitions.

The Outcasts lived in the valleys, the mountains, underground; anywhere the Tacticitions couldn’t detect them.

The Outcasts were many small groups from fifty to a hundred in size. They live on their intelligence, and what it could bring them. Some were farmers, others were builders. In each group you would find a healer, and there would always be one leader to guide the group.

Each man had a mate, and some had a family from one child, to several. They had no law to say when a man must work or what should be built. It was law that each man should decide for himself when he should work and provide for his family.

The women; different from the Tacticitions and Performers women, worked right alongside their mate. They worked the land, cooked the meals, mended torn clothing and shared whatever the work might be when work was to be done. There wasn’t any class difference with the Outcasts. It had been agreed long ago, each Outcast was one and the same.

The children were taught how to build things and how to farm the land, and how to hunt for food, but they were also allowed to play and not lose their childhood to rigid rules.

Outcasts thought differently, remembering what they learned from stories handed down to them as children of how things were before the big blast. The Outcasts shared these same stories with each generation of children born

They would speak about a great man who was put upon to large sticks and died for all of man’s weaknesses. Stories were told about the many wars between nations that saw peace come become races of people. Stories of a war centuries ago that freed Drudges. It was a war between brothers that brought their own nation, one once called America, together. There were many stories of great leaders in that America, but history only ever remembers one woman being one of the leaders. Many stories told and retold, but it was the only way the Outcasts could insure the generation to follow them would know the truth.

The Outcasts spoke of justice, not control. About freedom, not being a Drudge. They spoke of the right to speak freely at any time.

Several groups of Outcasts had pieces of paper showing what they spoke about. Some of the pages had to be kept hidden away as they aged badly with time. They were frail and needed protected. One such page in large fancy scribbling, was one big word: CONSTIT. It had all the laws man had lived under before the big blast, and those laws were better than those of the Tacticitions.

Another pile of papers, badly aged as well, had more fancy lettering at the beginning that read: DECLARATION. About a fourth of the first page was missing, but there was enough there to understand what the rules use to be like.

Then there was: THE BOOK. It explained how the world began. It told how the world would end, and it was almost correct. THE BOOK portrayed many events and the Tacticitions had this book banned and ordered destroyed.

The Outcasts were also planning to overthrow the Tacticitions, but they had very little in the way of weapons, manpower and strength; but they had determination. If the man called, Sampson, could defeat so many with only the jawbone of an ass; why then couldn’t the Outcasts defeat the Tacticitions?

They had decided the time was drawing near where running and hiding had to end. In a statement found later; the Outcasts declared the following:

It is time once more for man to step forward and create one last war to get one step closer to absolute freedom. In order to know peace, one has to destroy those who create destruction. Such a strange way to exercise tranquility, but the Tacticitions must be eliminated. As a people, we vow to fight the Tacticitions to the final man; rather than become enslaved as Drudges.

On the night of the split sun’s rising, in a portion of the valley not yet discovered by the Tacticitions, the leaders of each band of Outcasts, met to cast their option as to who should lead everyone into battle. After the options were decided, three names were picked randomly from all mentioned.

After long hours of debating which of the three should lead, instead, it was unanimous that all three would lead their forces from different fronts. The strength of the Outcasts would not be denied, and their strength in numbers from different angles would increase their chances for victory and overpower the Tacticitions; or so they believed.

All plans were set in motion.

In the Central Government of the Tacticitions, a rule of law was handed down, stating it was time to bring about absolute world domination. The first step was to bring in every Outcast, and those who rebelled, were to be put to death. The Tacticitions could no longer afford to have Outcasts roaming free, believing in old world-order. The Outcasts would become Drudges or be annihilated.

The Tacticitions gathered their troops throughout all cities that were being rebuilt. They came from New York, New Philadelphia, New Boston, and New Washington. The soldiers mounted and all-out assault to the west, and the orders were only the males from those left alive from the Outcasts were to be brought back to serve as Drudges. The women, the old, and the weak were to be put to death, and any female children under the age of sixteen, were to be brought back to the Tacticitions. Over time, they would learn the Tacticitions way of life and provide children for them and the Performers and remain enslaved. It would be the only life they would ever know, until they were no longer needed.

Soldiers marched, tightly bunched together, a full mile long and a mile deep, and began their long trek to the valleys of the Outcasts. The Tacticitions ordered over 800,000 soldiers to put an end to the Outcasts once and for all.

Once this would be accomplished, the Tacticitions would then set their sights on the rest of the world.

The Outcasts gathered every member together in the great mountains of what is now called Old Denver. From there, they would split into three groups. Their weapons were standard fare as those used during the big blast. They spent many long days learning how to use these weapons and preparing different strategies of battle. They also hoped that this would be the last war they would ever see.

Their numbers were less than 400,000 to what the Tacticitions sent, who were now heading in their direction. The Outcasts knew it was freedom or death; they would have it no other way.

The march for both sides continued for several weeks as transportation couldn’t carry everyone. Most vehicles were long ago destroyed and only those in command of the soldiers sent by the Tacticitions, rode, while soldiers marched at a maddening pace nearing a full run.

Like the soldiers, the Outcasts weathered the long journey, but had to battle the elements as well. Even though acid rains and the dust had long since settled into memory, the winds that came from somewhere and went nowhere were of such magnitude, that both Outcasts and soldiers alike were hurled into the air and dashed to the ground, crumpled, and broken.

Other days, the rain would fall, and it would be a hot rain. The Tacticitions and Outcasts had to find shelter until the storms passed. To not do so, the rain would burn your flesh leaving blisters that could become infected. By the tenth week of the march, the Outcasts lost a fourth of their brave men, women and children.

The Tacticitions had the same problem as the Outcasts, but they lost nearly half their soldiers between the forced march, and when not far from a place once known as Iowa; the ground opened and swallowed many of the soldiers from sight.

By week thirteen, the Tacticitions and Outcasts met at the Great Divide, a portion of lands that once determined the center of a once powerful nation. There, among the dried riverbed between what was once two places known as Omaha and Council Bluffs; the battle began.

It started in the tenth month of the eleventh day of the year, 2419; precisely two-hundred years to the day of the big blast.

Screaming, shouting, running, and dying could be heard that day as bodies collided against one another in a frenzy to dominate and rule on one side, while the other side fought to live freely and independently. The dry riverbed filled that day with the blood of the dead.

After three days of relentless fighting, when the gray-black smell of gunpowder disappeared from the air. It was the Outcasts who were victorious.

Bodies laid in heaps from both sides, as many as four high upon the Great Divide’s land. The tightly packed dirt was soaked in blood that turned stale as the remaining Outcasts buried their dead, and the dead of the Tacticitions soldiers. When finished, they continued their journey to where the remaining Tacticitions dwelled.

There number was now under 200,000. The newly victorious Outcasts continued their march which took forty days.

The place they left behind, they now called, The Land of Fallen Hero’s.

When they arrived, the Outcasts defeated the remaining Tacticitions first in New Washington and released 10,000 Drudges. The Performers weren’t harmed as the Outcasts knew how important they were in helping to rebuild a world long ago lost in madness.

New Philadelphia, New York, and finally, New Boston; the Outcasts were victorious. Another 300,000 Drudges were released. In the course of one year, the war, the struggle for freedom was over. There wasn’t a single Tacticition left alive.

Those Tacticitions who survived, were offered to live in peace among the Outcasts, but those remaining cried out in foul tongue’s, refusing to live with what they called, 'scum; not fit for living’. Those who remained, rebelled in their final moments. Before the evening split sun settled, not one Tacticition remained alive.

Within a short period of time, the classes of all the people were then divided into two groupings. The Performers became Technicians, and Outcasts became Liberators.

From their first day of freedom, Technicians and Liberators, worked hand in hand, day in and day out to rebuild a new city where everyone could work together as equals. Those who were Drudges, also became Technicians and helped to build a new life alongside everyone else.

Money never became a necessity. Food, clothing, and housing were provided for every family and single person.

The new laws were put in place, and those who chose not to abide by them, were allowed to go their own way away from the new city called, Freedom. No limits were placed on how many children could be born into a family, and no one was worked unfairly.

The city of Freedom, became a reality for all people and education is provided for all children. By age ten, each child will have learned the beginnings of their heritage.

Tomorrow will begin your education in language and mathematics. That will be disc scan: C2B.

This now concludes audio and visual history introduction disc C1A. Press, end. Thank you.

Epilogue

“What did you think about your lesson, David?”

“Mother, we live in a very organized world compared to what father’s from long ago endured. Can I watch the history disc again?”

“Yes, but dinner first, David. Afterward, you can come back and replay the disc, but tomorrow you must continue your studies and broaden your horizons. Knowledge is what will keep you in a position to always make the right choices.”

“I’m curious, mother. What would happen if we went through another big blast again?”

“That was a thousand years ago, but it scares me to think about it. If that ever happened again, I fear there would be no one left alive. As you will learn in the disc, in regards to science; the lands we live in and have managed to cultivate our foods from, would split into pieces and the lands would be drawn into the split sun.

“This why all weapons were abolished. Long ago, any plans for any form of weapons were destroyed. This is why the Neutralizer was created. Its sole purpose is to rid our memories of any criminal act or purpose to create a need or desire for violence.

“Enough, for now. You will learn all this on the vid-enhancer for your education. Hurry, and get ready for dinner. Your father will be home soon.”

David scampered off to prepare for the evening meal. His mother went back to the kitchen to finish tonight’s synthetic meal.

Things are different than what the ancestors endured, she thought. At least David will live in freedom, in Freedom, and all things will be what dreams, and THE BOOK, lead us to believe; peaceful and a place where truth and love both light the way for us all.