SABIS the SURVIVOR

Part One: AFFLICTION

The landscape changes almost every week to month─from a frosty and flat skating rink to a burning and rugged obstacle course. The bone-chilling cold can break one's spirit in that it is relentless in its ability to penetrate even the thickest musk-ox body poncho. The hairs inside of my nose freeze to where it feels as if they will break off at any given moment. If it were not for my wife and children and the rest of the Survivors who depend on my leadership, then I'd likely curl up into a ball and let the wind blow me away into the arctic-like terrain, where I'd ricochet off the stony crags and bluish ice-floes just like a metal pinball would bounce off the rubber guards inside an arcade game.

The sun remains low in the sky while we search for a natural heat source. As we huddle together to retain our warmth, I have observed that there is a push and pull to this new world and I need to find my sweet spot inside of it. Mother Earth has plans for me, I know that, and I need to face that fact. How can I learn to embrace the omnipresent tension that binds life and death, without running from it? I'm stuck between my fear of losing my family and numbing myself so that I don't suffer at all.

Living my life with meaning requires that I honour my saviour, Mother Earth. If I honour all living things and stay in that mode, then I can protect the ones that I love and be the best warrior that I can be.

Excerpts from the personal journal of Gadi Reyes, leader of the Survivor tribe, @ 2053, three years after the Earth had its orbital path altered.

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"Drink this. It will ease your wandering mind and help regain focus."

As warrior Domis sipped the cedar tea infused with the bone marrow of a snow lynx, Shaman Hurlis reached for his prayer pipe, adorned with the feathers of the wild condor and the hair of a musk ox.

Inside the long and narrow pipe, Hurlis placed a collection of herbs collected from the Sea of Fertility, also known as bone lake. Then he offered the mouthpiece to Domis.

"Once I ignite the pipe's contents, you will repeat after me the prayer for good health. Then you will inhale long and slow, and with each breath of smoke, you will cast away your sins into Mother Earth."

Domis nodded in acquiescence. His once robust personality and muscular frame had been reduced to an anemic impostor of his former self. The sallow shade that he wore on his face resembled the sickly colour of those who had developed an addiction to smoking the resin of the Scots Pine tree. But this 'warrior affliction' that had gutted the inside of his brain and vital organs, did not result from any addiction. Warriors were dying in greater numbers and Shaman Hurlis remained powerless to prevent their 'passing into the stone.'

Hurlis lit the pipe with the embers from his bone fire, kneeled on the muddied earth floor, then chanted his low and throaty plea:

"Mother Earth, have mercy on my tainted heart and soul, I have transgressed so many times, I have dug a deep hole.

I have filled that hole in my soul with dastardly deeds, the type that can tarnish and stain the memory of the Ancients.

Mother Earth, with your loving arms and immeasurable love, I ask for your help this one more time, for I have sinned, seriously wronged those that I love, I have deceived and lied and even shoved.

As you have the power of Forgiveness and Creation and Love, I ask that you bestow upon me the ability to forgive and love myself, and heal the sickness that has gained a grip on my dedication to you.