He is a Neanderthal man – upright, a biped,
strong and hairy. But intelligent. More so than the rest of his tribe.
A tribal council of some kind is being held. The chief wants to address the group – but the second is getting in the way. The second looks like a monkey, as over and over he repeats the gestures of obsequiousness. He kisses the chief's chin and stands close. The chief warns him to stop but for some reason the second continues this provocation. Perhaps he wants to challenge the chief.
Instead the chief offers the challenge to whoever will accept it. The intelligent Neanderthal steps forward. He is determined. He's had troubles with the second many times in the past and now he has an honorable way to resolve them. His mate holds his arm as he steps forward, removes the towels from his waist and accepts the challenge. He steps into the ring.
But as the cheering
begins he is suddenly afraid and begins to run down the hill. The others jeer
and taunt him. They mock his cowardliness. Even I misunderstand, even though I'm the one
dreaming this story…
He reaches the bottom
of the hill and suddenly a narrator's voice explains that "volcanic activity and plate movement cause
flood waters to rush across the landscape." The hill
he has just run down begins to crumble and collapse.
Suddenly the ground leveled.
It is a large flat plane. The grass
withers and the earth is parched – cracked. The Neanderthal man turns to see
water rushing after him. But he's
smart. He knows that he
can survive it. So he grabs a
large tree branch as the water sweeps him on. As he floats downstream in the
flood, dodging branches and floating corpses, he prays to an unknown god that
he won't hit a body that he recognizes.
Eventually he lands.
Flash – to what must
be years later – the Neanderthal man has found other survivors. They are living in a commune of some sort; in
what looks like an abandoned school building.
He has a daughter now, a new family.
He has drawn a picture of her feeding birds, on a wall. He sprinkles salt by the picture of the birds
in order to "draw them
near" he says.
Again, he realizes a sudden, inexplicable fear. He looks around the corner as four large
bulldozers plow through the water. He
thinks they are monsters. He grabs his
daughter and begins to run… but he is grabbed by soldiers in camouflaged
outfits. He yells at his daughter to
run. "I will never let them get you" he yells.
"Never" he yells as they stab
him again and again. "Never"
The daughter runs.
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