The Occult

“It’s still hard to believe that a nutrient block like this can give us the calories and other nutrients needed for a single day given how much we work” I lamented to Bennet, my tagged work partner as we chowed down our ‘lunch’, a tasteless brick the size of a fruit bar yet packed with the nutrients of three meals.

Me and Ben had been friends since we were born, hell we were more than friends I guess. We worked together, ate together and even lived together in the same district. We were partners in this shitty world. 

Both of us were both drone workers for the occult, a cult which worshipped ‘Mother Nature’,  a large tree in the middle of the district which was hundreds of years old. It was so old that the ancient prophetic texts mentioned it and even stated that it would one day save our planet from the after effects of the great Calamity. It was a great disaster brought upon mankind many years ago which had absolutely destroyed our planet. Over 90% of the population had been wiped out during the calamity. 

Now you are probably wondering what is the Great Calamity and why exactly does the occult worship a damn tree. Well according to the ancient texts, mankind was once upon a time, a blessed  green planet (kind of hard to believe right?) with clear skies and crystal blue water. Trees grew everywhere and the plants flowered. Vegetables could be harvested every season and there were livestock available to eat. Blessed with great technological advancement, this led to the slow deplenishing of our resources as more and more land was cleared for buildings and to farm for resources. Eventually wars broke out over the resources as countries slowly grew more greedy and desired more for themselves. This led to bombs being dropped and blood being shed. Eventually, the great God, Global Warming, angry at the people’s selfishness and arrogance cast upon us the great calamity. During this time, fires scorched the earth and after that rain fell and flooded the earth. Earthquakes, storms and other natural disasters were also laid upon the land. 

After all the disasters passed over and the dust had settled, it was said that only a single tree stood and that was Mother Nature which had survived the great calamity. Soon after, the occult rose from the ashes with ancient texts claiming that ‘Mother Nature’ would one day bring about the salvation of humanity. Easily enough, the occult’s influence grew especially since most of the world’s population had been wiped out in the disasters and as time passed, it essentially took the role of a governing body in a post apocalyptic world with ‘Mother Nature’ as the masthead of their cult. Using this they built a large city system around ‘Mother Nature’. These cities were inhabited by what was left of the world population after the Great Calamity and were renamed districts with the overarching location being called “The Great city”. Naturally after so many generations, the Occult had established a system themselves and were the undominable force in the world with various small survival groups also looking to them. 

“Well there is a  rumour going around that Mother Nature is leaving us or dying more like it… last week one of the trunks fell and well things aren't looking great given the amount of decomposition in the trunks from what i heard. The higher-ups are having a field day trying to convince the public that there’s absolutely nothing wrong. But with signs of decomposition and the air becoming much more difficult to breathe, i really wonder how long more before the people realise the occult really who aren't they claim to be and the world truly comes to an end ” 

Unlike much of the population and despite being raised as members of the occult, me and Ben belonged to a small group of individuals who didn't really believe in what the ideals and the history of the Occult were. To us it was just a bunch of ideals and beliefs to give people false hope and to let the inner circle of elites within the Occult live a comfortable life. However, we still chose to stay on as drones, well simply cause there was no other place to go outside this doomed place. Leaving this community would mean guaranteed death as there was no guarantee that one could survive the harsh conditions which existed outside of this place. In addition to this, knowledge of the outside was virtually none to us as the occult kept knowledge of the outside a closely guarded secret and anyone who dared venture out of the borders would instantly be banished never allowed to return to the safety of the Occult. 

As drones, we worked hard to help restore relics of the past hoping that they could one day be useful to us once more. We spent hours digging through the rubber of destruction looking for these relics from a civilisation which existed a lifetime ago. These relics if found would then be transported to the Occult’s base HQ where scientists worked to restore them.

Just as we were about to call it a day, a great tremor shook beneath our feet and the last thing I remembered seeing was Ben disappearing through the cracks of the earth as well. 

“Ah shit, what the heck happened...” I found myself lying in a dark cavern. Unable to see my surroundings, I broke out my emergency light which was an emergency light stick that, when cracked, would emit light for the next 8 hours. I looked around me and it seemed that I had fallen into one of the many cavern systems located below the surface. Many people I had known had fallen into these systems and were never seen again. It was then that at that moment I decided not to let the situation get a hold of me and  well i picked myself up hoping that i would find Ben somewhere in this cavern too. As i explored deeper into the cavern i thought to myself how odd it was that such an area was left unexplored by the occult. Many times, us drones were told not to go near the caverns because of the dangers that the locations posed. However there were rumours that deep within the caverns lied the secrets of the Occult.  I mean all rumours were born from some form of truth am i right? Since i was stuck in the caverns already with the possibility of never making it back might as well just try my luck. 

As I explored deeper, I felt something change. The air was growing less musty and in fact seemed fresher. Going deeper, i heard the rushing of water or at least i assumed it was water rushing considering i had never heard or seen water rushing. It was an amazing sight which I had never seen before. There were green trees and a large waterfall with clear skies. How did such a thing even exist? I had no clue. But it seemed that the world i had always lived in was a lie and here i had finally uncovered some truth.