The fire glowed in the dark and one could see the bodies sitting around it. The tall figure was an old man, a beard dropped to from his face. The small figures, surrounding him and the fire, were little boys, but to the old man they were not little boys anymore. Some of their faces were haggard, some had beards, others were balding, but most of all, what distinguished them from the usual little boys, were their worn, stretched and wrinkled faces, that looked like an old person. The children of today were deformed. One child had a mask because his face was too difficult to look at.
“Tell us a story Lord.”
Lord. They call me Lord now. Back when civilization still existed, they called me doctor or scientist.
“Tell us a story Lord.”
“Tell us a story Lord.”
“Tell us a story Lord.”
They all began murmuring in together.
“Ok-ok.” The old man’s voice felt weak. He knew it was weak as the years had taken a tool in him.
He closed his eyes for a moment and let thoughts filter him by.
“Do you know how you are built?”
The small children shook their head.
“You are made of flesh, bone and blood, but it is more than just that. How does a cell in your body take the form of a bone, flesh, heart, hands and head? There is a being in your cell that is called DNA. Ha. You have not heard of this, have you? A DNA dictates the way your body has been built.
But, you children, you old men, the incident has forever corrupted your DNA. Whatever the human race was before, you are not. Your DNA has been… corrupted. That’s why you don’t look like children, you don’t sound like children.”
The old man reached inside his torn coat and removed a metal bottle. He unscrewed it and took a sip of precious water.
“All of you-all of you, all of your DNA, 99% of is the same of every human being, or at least it was. I don’t know what your DNA is now. Once upon a time, your DNA carried millennium of human data, how to eat, how to sleep, which colour to be, which mate, man or woman to like, your immortality was to pass on your DNA. And now look at you. All that data is gone. Vanished, in a blink of a year.”
“What are you doing girl? Don’t you shouldn’t play with fire!” The old man scolded the child who grabbed and shook a burning stick from the fire in the middle of the camp.
“If you had the same DNA as I had, maybe you would know.”
“We grow tired of you Lord. Perhaps, we will have you.”
“Wait, there is more yet. There is hope for the human raise. Up above, high up there, in the sky, far beyond what you can see, is the immortality drive. The best of human DNA remains, hidden and unspoiled.”
“We will have you. Your stories make our head hurt.”
Together the children got up and surrounded the old man.
“Now, now, now”, the old man’s voice grew weaker.
The girl opened her mouth wide, showcasing sharp teeth and she bit into the flesh of the old man.
