Candidate of the Apocalypse

Episode 4: Year 2036 Mid October

A Long Awaited Party

School had been on hiatus for about a week now. Everyone was busy making final preparations. The crops had been harvested and stored even earlier than last year. But that was not the reason for the current activity. After the townspeople finished their last minute assignments they gathered along the westward road, waiting and talking excitedly. Around noon they heard the hooves. Voices followed. In a few minutes a parade of wagons drawn mostly by horses swept by to the shouts and applause of the townspeople. The Fall Fair had now begun.

Victorville was nestled in a valley of the San Gabriel Mountains about 50 miles from old Los Angeles. In the former days highway 15 ran through town, around the Mojave Desert and eventually to Las Vegas. The road had not disappeared, but it's once smooth pavement was cracked and broken. Teams of workers, when they could be spared from other duties, worked hard to clear and repair the damage.

Because of the mighty tectonic shifts at the end of the Great Darkness, Victorville was now one of the western most towns in California. It stood only a few miles from the new cost. From here the traveller turned either north or south. Today the road hosted a menagerie from near and far. Out of the south came a contingent from nearby Lucerne Valley. Citizens of eastward Barstow had started the day before, travelling late into the night, camping under the stars before setting out at the sun's first light. They arrived first. Later, a band from far off Bakersfield arrived. It had taken some three days for them to get here. They came up the northward road with heavily laden wagons drawn by four horses each. The various parades lasted all afternoon with stragglers continuing to arrive into the night.

As the Great Darkness came to an end, the survivors that crawled out from the wreckage realized they had to literally start over again. Now, some sixteen years later the survivors were enjoying a semblence of prosperity. Craftsmanship was coming into its own. The roads were used more often. Not by cars, mind you. The old rigs were all gone, and refineries had not been repaired as of yet. A few vehicles, those whose parts were not plundered for other use, were kept in decent repair against the day when fuel could be developed.

Festival Week. It was time to meet people and renew friendships struck from previous fairs, do a little bartering and gather news from far off places. Everything from crops to clothing was enthusiastically swapped. Victorville excelled in all manner of hand crafts. And their apple orchards were held in high regard by all.

Once the initial greetings and parties had subsided it was time for the various trades to meet with their counterparts to discuss and plan. The teacher was no different. He met with the others to talk about the art of teaching and exchange things of great value; books. It was he who originally found some books in an abandoned home and started the collection that is the school library. It was not very big. Most of the entries were of the romance and pulp fiction type, but scattered among them could be found some literary masterpieces as well as some college textbooks. He longed for some fresh material, expecially since most of his students had already read the entire library more than once.

He and the others were in general agreement about the curriculum. His was put into question only because he was discussing the conditions that led to The Great Darkness. They were concerned he might in some way be glorifying those days. Teacher shook his head. Why glorify something that led to the destruction of every nation on earth except one? No. His one and only aim was to inculcate in his students an awareness of the dangers so they could be avoided.

Evening fell and the growing darkness was filled with smoke and the smell of cooking food. Laughter, song and lively conversation continued far into the night.