Principle:S M O K E (ii)

[Prologue]

(Fishers of men, Fishers of sea
Fishers of truth, peace, and glee
Seekers of knowledge and wisdom whole Seekers of past secrets on
old . . .)

Those were the last words Jean-Clary Dumos heard before the darkness enveloped his perception..

but at that very moment in the essence of time's eternal flow...

These were the stanzas of the old fishing tune Charla Simone hummed as the crude fishing-barge waded in long elliptical laps in the little pine and cedar covered bay. Between pole-lines and nets, these were the instruments used by the agents of the barge. Charla was seated, alongside 10 other men and women, sleepily fishing away alongside the dizzy little coastline of the bay. This was normal habit, as not much food could be salvaged from deep within the coastal forest. Seldom did this village group, consisting of about 250 persons, see anything but marine life, this was including aquatic birds. At some points a inland creature would scurry around the outskirts of the port. These animals were either very sickly, or injured in some manner.
"Say Charla, what's weighing on your mind?", inquired Denny Van Zandt a humble boy seated on her right. Denny, like Charla, was among the younger sect with this survival group. What the old world considered teen, in contrast Denny and Charla had been born into an early adult-hood it seemed. Being as they were around 16 now, they had been hard at work from their early age out in this bay fighting to keep their group alive. Life had been dulling on now after the fall of humanity. At some point a war of nuclear effect had happened, and of course there were effects. This is what had run humanity to coastal salt water. Though no teacher from her group could say the exact date, it was speculated that the tipping point of humanity had come and gone some 300 years ago.
Charla then exclaimed: "Denny, I am thinking of our origins, how we came to be my dear friend. How humanity has come to such dire circumstances". Denny couldn't offer much in return. Just what he had learned from his teachers and priests before him. His people had come from the little surviving bits of humanity. What was left of humanity now was just agile thinking people.
Drove to Oceans and the coastal areas, this was out of necessity. The more inland and denser the mechanized areas, the more toxic chemical abrasions were found. Denny went on said, "Well Charla, I guess we are from the lucky few that survived the catastrophe of old". It was a fair answer thought Charla. Those people who had survived the toxic pandemic were stretched thin over this little rural coastal settlements.
The port which Charla and Denny called home had been dubbed 'Port Athens'. Here for the last 150 years had these group of survivors fighting a toxic past. These people kept strictly to their village and the slow coastline. Their life was still thriving.
There was another reason people avoided the dense metroplex areas. Strange phenomenon had occurred and called those toxic areas home. The teachers and priests had taught that the earth and the toxic chemicals had bred there bringing evil beings of physical and mental nature. In short, nothing organic lived in a natural state in those areas, yet these beings moved about there patrolling the areas vividly. The names for these being varied from area to area, but for the region around Port Athens the teachers had named two types. She-Geist's we're described in a more mellow and feminine nature. The electricity they exhibit were either of a blue or purple hue. The experience of them, or those who have survived the encounter, describe it has very cerebral and mind splitting. The onset of coming into an infected area of this sort can be described as purely mental hallucinations. The Brute-Geist's now are much masculine in a keen sort of way. They produce a white and black mist in the area which they infect. Their affects are of a most physical
nature. Like when in a plane of lightning, their presence causes all the hit in one's body to stand upright. This is alongside muscle spasms and body movements. With both beings, the environment around the areas their spatial-temporal locales are of heavy and peculiar decay.
Charla and Denny had heard these stark accounts and they kept the stories tucked away in the back of their minds.
For now, their main focus had been fishing for tonight's dinner meal. They had families and elders awaiting there hard labour. Port Athens had 5 fishing-barges. Only two as of now had been put out in water this very slow fall day. These had been crudely constructed from word and metal scavenged from the surrounding upper Northeast Atlantic area. Soon the winter waters would fill the bay with turbulence causing the fishing to become even more intense. During that time the seawater became a most dangerous marine habitat. The sea life has changed, as so much of the other elements of the new world. Charla, who wondered if the change was for the best, knew those days were coming. She looked on at Denny's face in the late afternoon sun with a hopeful smile as the light sparkled softly off the waves.