3. The Farmers Colony
After Humans - Episode 3
We walked through the town. I saw people washing clothes, others pushing and pulling a long saw blade, creating planks and beams of wood.
“So, you didn’t have any useful skills, right?” she asked once more.
I looked at the handymen, who probably used to be plumbers, electricians, or woodworkers in their previous lives. “No, I don’t think so,” I said, while I imagined I should be able to pick up their skills quite quickly, as I used to be amongst the most intelligent people in the country. A country that had ceased to exist.
At the edge of the town, she stopped walking. “You see those rooftops there?” she asked, pointing at some warehouses outside town.
I nodded.
“Go there, introduce yourself, and make yourself useful. I have to get back now.”
I didn’t know whether I should be grateful or worried. I was going to be a part of a hierarchy again, but this time closer to the bottom, I imagined. It caused a flashback to the day I was promoted to team lead, it had come as a surprise. The idea to tell others what to do, many of them my senior, many of them highly skilled, had seemed scary. But I had shown potential, according to Bill. Not only as a developer, but also in terms of charisma and communication. But yes, it was hard at first, but I got used to it. The hardest part was firing people, but even that became easier with time. In fact I started to enjoy it, especially when I already knew about the termination of someone’s contract, while they didn’t yet. Those last days had always felt special.
“John Johnson?” A man asked, probably frowning about the name.
“Yes, sir.” I said, assuming a military hierarchy, as everyone was wearing military outfits.
He looked at me as if I had made a bad joke. A lean man, very tanned, with stark white hair. Probably around his retirement age, my inner manager thought, although looks could be deceiving, especially under these circumstances. “You can call me Peter, okay?”
I nodded.
“How old are you?” he asked.
“Forty four,” I said, instantly regretting my honesty. ‘Keep them away from my real identity’, I had to emphasize to myself time and time again.
“You don’t look strong to me,” he said, seemingly disappointed, “anyhow, harvest season is long over. We are now preparing the fields for next spring. Okay?”
I nodded.
“So get that shovel there, and join the others. Just look at what they do, and copy. Okay?”
I grabbed a shovel, went into the field behind the building, where I saw dozens of men, women, even children, with shovels, digging shallow pits, overturning the land. All of them looked tired, yet tanned. Tanned as if they had been on a tropical vacation. I joined them, and just tried to do whatever they did.
“Been a while since we seen a new one,” a black woman said, looking at me. “Where you from?” she asked with an accusatory undertone.
“The west,” I said.
“The west,” she repeated, “any name?”
“North of Los Angeles,” I said.
“That’s far.”
I sensed her disbelief. “Yes. There was nothing left there.”
She pondered for a moment. “Your story makes no sense,” she concluded.
I had no idea what she was talking about. Other people just looked at me suspiciously, while working. Except for one. “Hey man, don’t worry about Sharonda,” he said, “she’s always a bit careful around new people.”
I nodded.
“My name is Jerry by the way.”
I looked at him, a young guy. He reminded me of some of the juniors we had hired back in the day. Smart, curious, and smiling. I knew the smile wasn’t a sign of happiness, but rather insecurity, at that age. I had seen it fade with others, over the years, turning into bitter resentment. I decided I could use someone on my side, someone I could handle. “How long do we usually work?” I asked.
“From sunrise to sunset,” he said as if proud of it.
I couldn’t imagine the hardship, as within fifteen minutes my arms were already tired. I wasn’t in the best of shapes anyway after the journey and all.
Peter, the overseer, noticed how I struggled. “Let’s have a break guys, okay?”
Everyone just dropped the spades there and then, walked slowly towards the building. Inside there was a long picnic table, with some food. Potatoes with a few vegetables, again. I didn’t want to complain, I didn’t want to be noticed too much. Jerry looked at me in a way that I just had to sit next to him.
“So, how was it in the West?” he asked.
I took the empty seat. “Just like here, but warmer, I guess.”
“But I mean, did you see anything cool, like… I don’t know?”
“You mean the augmented?”
“Yes, was there anything noticeable? Anything mindbending?”
I pictured the view from my villa, over the city. Not Los Angeles of course, but that didn’t matter anymore… How everything had turned into some kind of machinery, how robots and drones were turning residential neighborhoods into… I don’t even know what it was, data processing units the size of city blocks? Industrial complexes, brewing exotic substances that were probably never even named by a human yet.
“Los Angeles was mainly just abandoned,” I made up. “Only the streetgangs stayed behind.”
Jerry raised his eyebrows as if compelled, while it must’ve been a disappointing viewpoint for him.
The food was bland, a lack of salt. And of course, no spices or anything. I realized I had only been here for like an hour, and I already hated it. I should consider leaving, honestly. Maybe go to another town, where I’d pretend to have certain ‘useful skills’, then I’d just learn as I'd go. It would probably be a better life than this. But still. I doubted. Actually, perhaps I would be better on my own, although my journey here had been a struggle, I would just need to learn a few tricks, especially starting a fire. Perhaps I could even return to my villa, try to get food and water sorted myself. Perhaps even electricity. But I doubted. There were many ‘useful’ skills I didn’t have, and there was no more internet to look anything up. Perhaps I should stay here, to observe and learn as much as I could. And then… maybe.
“That guy there,” I heard Peter say.
I looked around to see him, pointing at me, with two tall fellas behind him. I got up. All others had stopped eating, and were just staring at me and at these guys.
“Please come with us,” one of them said.