BATTLEFIELD
A short story of 1000 words
© David Lowe, January 1992
When it began the seas were still hot, remembering their birth. Waves churned and swirled. Below, a struggle.
The water scorpion's claws clasped a smaller creature. The sting. A flurry of movement. Paralysis. The scorpion fed. Remnants of the small body drifted to the shallow ocean floor, rumbling with earthquakes. Tiny animals tore and fought over what was left.
Time passed. The earth slept, disturbed.
A chase between fishes. The inevitable finish. A red stain attracting ravenous eyes. Untold generations lived and died. A very few fell undisturbed and were covered by silt.
Time passed. The earth slumbered. Seas receded.
Hopping creatures smelled the sulphurous air. One ventured back into the water hungrily, no longer its prisoner. The snap. A wriggling tadpole was swallowed, its origins unimportant now.
Time passed. The sea became a lake nestled in hollow ground, fed from streams flowing out of jungle.
Giant creatures lumbered out of the forest to drink from mud. One slipped and fell in agony. Birds with teeth feasted on the carcass, tearing through the thick leathery skin.
Time passed. Ice engulfed the skeletons of the birds.
After an age, the earth let out her breath. The lake became a lake again, and the land stretching far around the lake became an island.
A tribe of apes lived beside the lake. Sometimes, far across the water, they heard a sound like their own echoes returning. Two apes fought with muscle and stone for a cowering female. One died and was dragged away and forgotten. Wind-blown dust soon covered his bones.
The lake evaporated. Fish flapped and drowned in air. When the fish were gone, the tribe of apes from the other side of the lake came closer.
There was not enough water. Two tribes of apes, not quite apes anymore, fought over the territory the lake had occupied.
Time passed. The earth dreamed.
Men in sandals and armour came to the place where the lake had been. With swords, the blood of people wearing animal skins was spilled. The gods were re-named.
Time passed.
A city grew.
Where the lake had been, a great arena rose and filled with crowds. Frightened men fought frightened beasts. Blood stained the sand and people cheered.
Time passed. Empires fell and clothing changed.
From far away, yellow-haired men rowed and then galloped to the city. Axes swung. The boats sailed away.
Time passed. Strange people from the south and north battled over the place where the lake had been.
Men marched away from the city chanting prayers.
In their absence, a soldier's wife was slain by his brother.
Time passed. The city fell. Earth blinked. The city grew again.
For a time there was a lull in the battle. From the island an empire spread. One day a new sound came to the city where the lake had been. Gunpowder.
The first victim was a child. From humble beginnings that single death multiplied and grew. It became a greater death.
The next battle began over the sea, but soon Zeppelins of hot air flew above the city. Airplanes filled with bottled anger screamed at the place where the lake had been, tearing at the earth and burying men and women as sirens wailed.
Time passed. Again the machines fought the city, which now stretched far over the horizon in every direction. The city fought back. Finally the machines were silenced.
Out of the rubble, a mighty stadium grew where the lake had been. Coal burned. Wires shivered. Mighty lights lit up the field. The crowd sang as a bomb murdered a policeman in a shop nearby. They cheered, heedless, as another from over the water killed a child.
On the field a white dot arced through the air towards a man who leapt gracefully to meet it. Another man's fist flew up into his eye. Ball forgotten, the first man fell writhing to the ground, blinded. In the stands the song faded away. Men fought one another viciously over stripes and colours. A baby was crushed. In the sky, a new sun suddenly outshone the electric lights. Fists froze in mid-air as the people looked upward.
The sudden fire tore through the stadium in fury, a demon released. Like a child with a card castle, shock waves blew the city apart.
Nobody saw the spectacular afterglow.
Time passed. The earth opened one eye then closed it again. Stars wheeled. Poisoned clouds boiled.
Many centuries later grey ashes still stretched to the horizon. Two silvery spheres stood silently in the place where the lake had been. They were archaeologists. The place looked familiar to them, though they were both a very long way from home.
Out of the ground floated a weathered human skull. It dangled in the air in front of the spheres. Thoughts flickered between the two. They wondered at the fragility of the bone, the size of the brain cavity. Through the sub-strata they examined other, less successful designs. Undoubtedly a wise and noble civilization had dwelt in this place. Great intelligence was shown by the creatures' ability to have supported so many lives in such an environment - many more than their own much larger, and equally hostile planet had ever sustained. Extraordinary. But where had the creatures gone?
The spheres let the skull fall back to the ground. Instantly it shattered to dust.
Each of the spheres extended itself slightly in the middle. They touched. The pair collapsed into two points of light and were gone, leaving two shallow depressions in the sand.
At the bottom of one, something was happening.
A scorpion lunged for an ant. The ant squirmed as the other held it firmly in its claws. A flurry of movement. Paralysis. Having sucked its juices dry, the scorpion discarded the shell. It climbed out of the depression and scuttled away.© David Lowe, January 1992