Chapter 3 ( Turn Loose The Mermaids!)

Somewhere in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, Poseidon came forth back to the Oceans of this world. Standing on this side of the portal His trident struck the bottom of the sea and He called forth a long sounding note. The most beautiful resounding note that could ever be heard it woke the Kraken and she came slowly nearer to her king and moved behind him.  Mermaids, mermen and beasts of the ocean came through the portal in droves surrounding the great and Mighty God of the sea. The scales of their tales illuminated by the sun shining through the water refracting in beams of light that showed in rain bowed hues that shone through the stirred up silt and lit the way for many of the beasts who could not see.

“Poseidon began to speak a language never heard by mortal men, Mermish. “ This day we are no longer hidden, go throughout the waters of the world and find a home. No longer will you live in hiding, no longer to be afraid of what man can do to you. If any man steps to harm those of you who would cross their paths, I give you full reign to do what is necessary to break free. “Turning to the long golden haired Lorelei from the Germanic regions of the earth. You will no longer lure men to their deaths upon the rocks of the Rhine River but you will find all the gold you can and keep it trove for those who may one day be in need of it. Including whomsoever needed it from the realm of mortal men on land.

This is an all-important task for you to do. You must find all you can scour the floor of every ocean sea and riverbed and keep it safe. Amranthia! You shall preside over the Lorelei. You and your family will be the issue of royalty among your peoples.” Turning to the young Merman just behind him and spoke,” Shantos you will preside over the rest of the oceans of the world. Send your best regents afar and have them send messengers to report to you. Then you will report to me. This law is pure and sound. Should you wish to mate with a mortal human you may only mate with those who have merit of soul. It is not forbidden. You must choose to live on land and only visit the sea.

The mermaids and mermen flipped and flew and dove in the water spinning up at great speeds water flinging from their hair. The Ocean was their home and they were so glad to be able to swim freely in her once again. There was so much stuff in the belly of the ocean to plunder now. Although the large land mass in the center of the Atlantic was pushing all the water to the north and south of it. All that would be left of the Atlantic Ocean basin would be the Caribbean Sea downward and upwards from England North to the frozen waste land of the Arctic Circle. There was only Gahennah wasteland of the dead, dying and putrefied zombies.

Life began to rebuild as much as a people could after such devastation rocked the planet. A good many things changed and life progressed uneventfully for another hundred years. National infrastructures were never replaced in out lying towns and villages. In the large cities they were able to get the power grids up and running and technology still advanced at a much slower rate than before. They were able to retain the space programs and the powers that be began testing nanobots on the poor to heal the ills but it worked too well and when they died the nanobots would restart their hearts and they would resume living. They couldn't die. some became more primal and a good many still retained their mindset and didn't resort completely to cannibalistic natures. There was one Mayor of a little town on the coast of Rhode Island named Richard Deamonte' He was renowned for his connection with the occult and demonology. And everyone just figured he was demon possessed when he started getting ashen in color. No one realized that he had volunteered for the Nano bot project. 

  People in the outlying areas where the infrastructure was never replaced began using teams of horses to pull their cars and trucks, they punched the wind shields out of the vehicles to pull the reins thru and attach them to the steering wheel. Horses were utilized in gardening again. The Amish would laugh and say they were ahead of the game because they lived this way for hundreds of years.

 People adapted overcame and improvised the best they could. Life moved on and many took the changes in stride. Militias rose up and died out as Time passed. Two hundred years later in the year 2221 the Earth became a quarantine zone. Trade and Barter became the way of earning and survival, even in the big cities. The villages and rural areas used Solar power and even had sparsely dotted bands of internet. Eventually, a majority of metals were smelted down and coins were cast gold, silver, bronze and copper were the preferred metals of trade. Economic systems fell to a cast system as well as a class system. Children were placed according to their proficiencies as opposed to any formal way of training like the 20th century. The intelligent ones were brought to the cities and trained in the Stem trades. the strong ones were trained in farming, blacksmithing, hunting, you name it they learned it. the very small boned weak individuals were trained in Histories and Herbal lore. and those who loved to eat were more often than not trainned to cook.

Twenty years later……2241 AD( After Distruction of the Common Era.

A band of young gnomes were traveling down the Great Danube River to the Black Sea. The leader of the group, Ratchett Millherp all of Three feet 2 inches tall was very handy with tools and making wonderful exploding bombs that fragmented everywhere in a fantastic display of smoke and fire. With their diminutive size they needed some umph power to keep them safe.. So on they traveled the long expanse of the river to the sea. Something kept pushing them to go there.

 Ratchett didn’t know why but he just kept pushing them harder and harder to get to the sea. When they reached the sea they saw a huge ship shoved up onto the shore about a mile inland. Debris and dirt and sand and trees growing through the rudders and screws. The ship was, the Big Stick. AKA the Teddy Roosevelt. These little gnomes shot up ropes and skimmed them up to the main deck and looked around and Ratchet got a brilliant Idea and hopped up on a railing and yelled.

” Every one! Let’s make this baby Fly! We can do it!” The little gnomes set to retrofitting the battleship into a flying ship and worked tirelessly for fifteen years. As the years moved on the gnomes retrofitted The Big Stick every time they came across anything they could use to keep her big ass in the air. Bomb bay here, a bulkhead there, you name it the little ones were tireless in their search right down to a set of a sixteen inch turret they ripped off of a battleship somewhere in the Baltic Sea. They used Harriers, wings from a bone yard in what used to be Wyoming. Nothing went to waste over the years. Each passing age another Ratchett would take the place of the one preceding the last. Also with every passing age, along with every retrofit, The Jolly Rogers skull and cross bones would be painted on her Keel as a sign that gnomes were not to be mucked around with. They might be small and innocent but don’t let them fool you there were legendary songs of how the gnomes were full of venom and spite.