‘What do you see’. That was what the writer down the block yelled out when she was outside working in her garden when I went biking or scootering by. She’d look up, put her hand over her eyes to block the sun and say, ‘hey Cody, what do you see these days?’

  For the longest time, I shrugged and didn’t say much but after graduating from a two year college in AI, I stopped that first summer and helped her weed while trying to answer her questions. Patti was a retired high school science teacher who wrote articles for a lot of online subscription magazines and had her own Substack commentary site. She wrote mostly about our responsibility towards the health of our planet.

  We talked about the paradox of creating clean energy from dirty energy. While switching over to earth friendly sources of energy you needed oil to create that infrastructure or to take climate scientists to all parts of the planet for climate summits. But like most things humans do, they used that reasoning to prolong turnover to a point that was too late or maybe too late. The paradox existed as an assumption that it was temporary, that it would only exist until we got our shit together then 86 the compressed ferns forever, living happily ever after.

  Ha! We saw that the Oligarchs, damn the melting glaciers and burning forests, became blindsided by the quadrillion’s of dollars they could make from the new exploding tech, which I majored in, while putting off for another day, by ignoring those pesty regs and hiring someone to run the country of like mind. Oh well, we had a good run! Patti became the mom I never had and looked forward to those days she was outside. We were the lost generation, feeling as though our country had failed us in so many ways not the least of which, denying us a future or not the one we had imagined. She understood and talked me through my malaise.

  After that summer she sold the house, sent everything to her ex and joined the Great Science Revolt. She asked me if I wanted to come but I wasn’t ready to leave my father and older sister. Within five months two deadly viruses struck killing my father and sending my older sister across the country to live with a boyfriend who she met on line.

  For a year, I caught up using the money left to me to keep the house and an upgrade to a state of the art computer with super protection. I made it a mission to understand the exact scientific evidence of a planet in default and to actively engage with others, mostly the deniers. Just before spring, I found out Patti had died in a clash with armed Garchs, what we called armed agents of the Oligarchs, and had a resister friend send a note giving directions to an Occupy Earth address to join the revolution. And I did honoring both my friendship to her and Earth.

  All of us are marinated in the facts on how we screwed up. Frustration drove the scientists out of their jobs onto the streets with one message. We quit until you smell the coffee or forests raging across the planet or acknowledge the flooding coastal areas and cities or rampant diseases, a few airborne after a century of being locked in permafrost that are killing thousands a day. And yes, we’re risking our lives for the planet. We welcome anyone with a brain and conscience to join us.

  The diseases killed off millions of our parents, politicians and workers. It decimated the world population, forced countries to choose other countries with resources and moved their military to mountain tops. And it seems now, a consortium or an organized group of wealth, scientists and business, mostly tech, who managed to survive, have pooled resources to do the impossible, a Hail Mary pass that should have been tried decades ago.

  Hi. I’m Cody and I’m still mad! There’s been a lot of talk about karma and Karma, personal and collective. The only thing I’m sure of is that faulty thinking causes faulty actions which have ripple affects either personally or as a family, country or planet.

  They asked me if I wanted to join a small search party that would explore the south eastern quadrant, from a map they found in a plastic tote in storage below. I said no than yes. I should be thrilled to still be alive after what happened on the streets, relieved that I’m part of this Keep with a bunch of really good, dedicated people and a little less jaded now that there seems to have been miraculous unintended consequence of a genomic trial. And even heartened by feelings of desire for another but malaise and apathy still occupies my heart. But something moved me to reconsider so while some of our Keep went on a discovery mission below through a hole in the basement of our other dwelling, that was shown to a ‘V by a resident of, as the thinking goes, an underground city, we, five of us with guns, explored the southern extremity of the road directly in front of the Keep, the poorer section, in contrast, to the other quadrants.

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  What do you see. The neighborhood had once been thriving with wealth since there were so many high priced outlets and places selling thousand dollar bling but all had been ravaged by both human, fire and weather. It was truly a grim site, a perfect dystopian setting for a walking dead flic. But the streets were empty and we all had gunz, our word for what Gillian and Jagger print. I hadn’t been out since I first stepped foot in the library so all this was new. Broken windows, charred remains of anything wooden, crap littering the sidewalks and streets, a few decaying bodies. The three humans were advised to wear masks to which I readily agreed.

  The ’V’s led, moving slow, turning their heads, sniffing, stopping on a dime, holding up hands and listening. Two were spread out in front of us, another behind us. For every scent, sound and sighting that needed clarification, they stopped or slowed down. One time, all three didn’t move for five minutes then continued. I asked later and it was something in the air a few miles away that had no identifying signature that they were aware of but was moving away from us.

  A muffled tick or click from behind a large brick warehouse outlet building turned out to be a beetle, dripping water on plastic, wind through narrow spaces, a screech from the resident security pterodactyl. It was stop and start with little exploring until the sudden stop took longer than expected. After five minutes give or take, we turned down a side street with more of the buildings intact. I wondered out loud why this had been spared and a ‘V said that it appeared to have been protected. By whom, I responded. Aren’t sure she said. That’s when one of them turned down another alley to a small gravel parking lot and a few arched metal storage sheds. One was half as small as the other and both screaming danger, stay away.

  The large one was seventy by fifty feet, two swinging doors cross hatched with bolt cutter resistant chains, twisted around the two bolts and quadruple locked with Danger signs, skull and cross bones, yellow lights that would start flashing red and a horn ready to screech if breached. Or so it appeared. On closer look, said locks were unlocked just appearing locked because the shackles were perfectly aligned with the padlock.

  So, all we had to do was undo the chain, lift the lever that joined the two halves and walk in. Easy peasy, right! This is why all search parties always brings a ‘V with all heightened senses. They weren’t saying what drew them but all seemed to be in agreement.

  In the large one. After the two doors swung open as wide as they could go, we stared at something that at first was incomprehensible. Luckily a ‘V who had grown up on a farm knew. Ditch witch with attachments for one. It was enormous and looked brand new. Next to it a backhoe just as new, both with push button ignition.

  What do you see, a ‘V asked me. What! How did.. screw it!

  I stared for a few minutes, walked around them and the answer came as Patti had said they would.

  ‘I see a pond, no, many ponds with misty fountains interconnected with an irrigation system, and canals running through the city for both travel and drainage. I see ruined buildings razed allowing more room for Nature and the remains of the buildings used for other things.

  ‘And this?’, pointing at the other one just opened.

  ‘Oh’ is all I could say but I knew we had truly gone full circle. This was Karma biting us in the ass. The Paradox. After all that we had gone through to destroy the infrastructure and screaming of it being the source of all evil, we still needed it. It had to be at least a few thousand gallon tank of gasoline with a pressure gauge and pump. I heard Patti laughing maybe thinking something like- well, there you go Cody, the last usable gas on earth, so use it wisely.

  The really weird thing was that when we got back, we began hearing some of the visions the guys had who broken into the underground tunnel and how they sounded a lot like what I was describing, minus the buildings. A group of us were comparing notes on the steps when Dak flew over, looking down than turning towards his favorite roost. Most of us laughed. ‘Well’, Mystie said, ‘at least no monster head carnivorous plants yet!’

  ‘Ssssshhhhh’, yelled everyone in unison, laughing again, longer.

  But, ya know, at the end of the day, it felt creepy like it was all being managed by an unseen entity that could just come out of the shadows and talk to us!