There was a town, a town that was on the brink of a war. The people had not feared the war, they had prepared for it. It was everywhere, the annihilation. People would slaughter other people for joy. It gave them pleasure. Besides, there was nothing else to do. The world was not as it used to be. Nobody knew how it used to be, except for a boy, Janari. Nobody knew who he was. Nobody knew what he could feel as well. Janari, himself, was unaware of what he had. He had memories of a better world. When he was a child, the images that filled his head were disturbing. Every time he closed his eyes to sleep, he would see a world full of trees, a world full of smiling, laughing people. How is that even possible, he used to ask his mom. His mom would look around at the ruins that was left of the planet and would say it was all a figment of his imagination, for she didn't know as well. They were born into a world which had never seen the light of day. Black, stormy clouds enveloped entire planet. There were no trees, no grass left on the entire planet. They didn't even know what a plant was. It had been like this for centuries. What they knew of the planet was it had been a place tough to support life and that their ancestors had worked hard to make it habitable.
The planet, as they knew it, was a pale black planet. A single land mass drifted in between an ocean full of acidic water. People said there were dreadful monsters inside those waters. They never ventured near it even if they wanted to. There were walls on the perimeter of the landmass that were high enough to reach the skies. The ocean had consumed numerous people back then. The land was not a great place to be as well. Small towns with population of not more than 10,000 people used to fight one another. They would fight for anything. They needed something to do and war, somehow, was the only thing they knew. Every child of 14 was an attacker. They were secretly sent to other towns to know their defenses. They would then come back to plan assault with their commanding officers. Janari had been sent as well.
Janari had learned to control his mind. He had trained himself to block the images, the visions when he had found no answer to what they were. After his mother's death, he had tried describing his visions to the elders who had survived previous wars. Some of them said the same thing as his mother had said. One man however had said it had some connection with the city of Zul. The city of Zul had never been defeated. They had thwarted every assault. Nobody knew how they did it. The soldiers that went on attack mission to Zul were never killed. They would, somehow, end up in their own towns days after with no memory of what happened inside the town of Zul. Some said they were magic people, the people of Zul.
Now, here he was, inside Zul. Nobody doubted him. The people of his town, who had previously visited Zul in secret, had told him about everything he was seeing here and it was bizarre. He had seen nothing like it.
There were people taller than any he had seen. Janari guessed they must be around 5 feet tall. They seemed to be busy, though, he didn't know what they were doing. Most of the people he saw were sitting in a circle, their eyes closed, muttering something. Other people stood guard around them. But he had known this. Previous assaulters had seen them as well. They had described this, but he had found it impossible. They even told him about closing in the circle with their weapons. They had said the guard did never attempt to attack. They just stood there. Assaulters didn't remember what happened afterwards. They remembered closing in. They didn't remember making contact with this people. They didn't even remember the faces of the guard.
As Janari closed in, he saw no movement from the guards. They stood there as rigid as stone. Janari had taken a great risk. Nobody had tried coming here alone. Janari, however, wanted answers. He knew the people of this place never killed anybody though there were instances of missing people once every year. There was a chance he would not return back. I am not afraid: Janari thought as he closed in. He was mere meters away from the guard. The guard stood there with serene faces. He braced for something to happen and crossed the ring of guards. The people sitting with their eyes closed still muttered something that Janari couldn't hear. He was surprised. Nobody of the previous assaulters remembered crossing the guard. He surveyed the ring of muttering people. There was one empty spot. He walked towards it. The two men on either side of the empty spot looked up at him. Sit: they muttered. Janari sat and in an instant he saw what they saw. There was a man in the center, working nonstop on a machine. He had not seen a machine like this before. This one had no canons and barrels to throw fire. This was a tall circular machine reaching the skies. The man in question was strange as well. He was at least six feet tall. His hands never stopped working. There was some sort of paddle on the machine which he was moving with his hands.
Suddenly, the man seemed to slow down and the people around him grew louder. The man on his left looked at him and said: CHANT.
Janari didn't know how but what seemed to be gibberish a minute before was clear to him now.
They were all chanting one single line: the men of earth still hope.
He started chanting as well: the men of earth still hope, even if he didn't know the meaning of earth and hope. He chanted and saw the man regaining his speed. He paddled with his hands for what seemed to feel an eternity, when the people around him started to lower their voices and finally stop chanting. Janari did the same. The man in the center had stopped working. He walked towards Janari and grabbed his shoulders with his hands. He made him stand up.
"Janari, we waited for so long." The man said. His voice was deep and reassuring. "I am Zul, a man from early earth." He said introducing himself. He motioned him to follow and without hesitating Janari did it. He took him towards the machine.
"We are the reason the earth survives." Zul said.
"Pardon me but what is earth?" Janari asked.
"The planet on which you live my dear. We live on earth. It is not what it used to be but we still live here. You know what it was like. don’t you?" Zul said and in the instant the visions he had blocked flooded his brain again. Greenery, light, life, the place was wonderful.
"That is earth or we can say it was. We have a small portion of that earth still left. You want to see it?" Zul asked.
Janari nodded. Zul led him to the machine. The other side of the machine had a door. They entered.
They were inside and yet they were outside. The place was nothing as he had seen, nor in his visions. This was a big place. The machine was too small to have a place like this inside it. This place was green. A river was flowing across the vast plains. There were snow capped mountains. There were people laughing and playing everywhere. There was a sun in the sky. Janari had never seen any of this before but somehow, magically, he knew everything. He knew the names of everything he saw in here.
"We are not inside the machine?" Janari asked.
"No. We are on earth. The machine is a gateway to the early earth. I was born here and then when I was your age I made the sacrifice." Zul said.
"What sacrifice?" Janari asked.
"Our planet decayed. All the oceans dried and poison took the place of water. The land on which you live is habitable because I work on that machine. This place is an island near the equator too far away from your land. This survives because of the machine as well." Zul said.
"How do I know this?" Janari said.
"The names of everything you see here? You know this because I told you. I told you this before you were even born. Every man in the circle, every guard is a fragment of my own soul. See, humans grow old and die as you already know. The people standing guard and the people who chant die as well. We need to replace them. I rip part of my soul and send them flying outside of this town. They choose small children who can hope and live inside them. You are one of those children who can hope." Zul said.
Janari now knew what hope was. He had not known it when he was in his town but somehow when Zul mentioned it, he knew what hope was: An emotion, a feeling that things will be better.
"I have to take place in the circle, don't I?" Janari asked.
"No my dear. You have to take my place. I am old. I will come here and you will take my place. You know your duties, I presume." Zul said.
"Create new people with memories of earth, the people who can hope and keep the machine running." Janari said.
"You are ready." Zul said.
"What will happen to the empty place in the ring?" Janari asked, though he already knew the answer.
"Another one like you will come within a few days." Zul said and for the first time Janari saw how tired Zul was.
"And when my time comes, I will come here as well." Janari said.
"Yes. But you will send the people in the ring first. Your guard and the people who chant will get tired too. They will need sending here. You will have to keep on filling their places until your time comes. And when your time comes, you will find another Janari or maybe another Zul." Zul said with a wry smile.
"I understand." Janari said reassuring the old man.
"You are ready then?" Zul asked.
"I am." Janari said.
"Then I will leave you here. You will be transported back within a few minutes." Zul said, enthusiastically.
"I have one question. What happened? Why did people stop hoping? How did people stop feeling any emotion?" Janari asked.
"It is sad, what happened. It killed the entire planet. It was a very slow process. Nobody felt it happening until everything was destroyed. We underwent EVOLUTION." Zul said and bade him goodbye.
Janari knew the course of his life from then on.