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"The Wildcat Clan"
This is what I have always been taught. My father, Mordecai, was 17 when the Earth began to get hotter. He was born in what was then Miami and managed to get out of the city just before it was flooded. There he made his way to Kentucky where he met and befriended my godfather Lucius. He had grew up in the backwoods and knew many survival techniques. He taught my father everything he knew. Together, with a few of Lucius’s family members, they formed the Wildcat clan. They made their way to what was once Ottawa, where there was still some land remaining. Together they were able to fight for a few acres of land. Now our clan has grown and we spend our time searching for food and defending our land.
The day begins like any other. I wake up in my underground bunker and go to the garden, where I check on the various vegetables and pick the ones that are ready for food for the day. All of these are being grown underground, as the extreme temperatures make it impossible to grow above surface. Instead we grow them underground and uses thousands of candles as a source of light. While this makes it longer for the plants to be ready, it nonetheless gets the job done. After I pick the plants, I take them over to my father who then distributes them, along with the meat that was hunted for, to the members of our clan as their daily rations. The meat is usually vulture, as they are the only species that has thrived in the world, due to being so many carcasses to go around. Our clan has about 40 members, so depending on how much meat was hunted and how many vegetables are ripe, these rations can be thin at times. Sometimes if they small, my father will take some out of his own rations to give the rest of the clan members. He is a very generous man and is respected and loved by everyone. They all follow him because all he asks of his members is to follow instructions and not to be greedy. He always tells me it is greed that ruined the Earth and got us into our current situation. He says, “While we all bear some responsibility for what has happened, the majority of the blame should go to the greedy businessmen and politicians. They never cared about anyone other than themselves and were willing to sacrifice us and the Earth to make as much money as possible. In order for us to survive and prosper, we must push the greed out of us and share everything we have with each other. If anyone has any selfishness left in them our clan will not survive.” After the rations are given, I head aboveground to take my shift on the watchtower. When the clan first came to Ottawa, they had to fight other groups for it and then protect our land from raiders and other threats. We have no problem trading and sharing with other clans, but we will defend ourselves against those who want to steal and harm our people. To combat this, we built multiple towers spread throughout our land. We use bows and arrows, spears, and various booby traps. We have guns but, with ammo in short supply, we only use them when there is a major threat of being taken over. I take over and begin my five hour shift. Being on guard duty is not an easy job. Besides the threat of being killed by rival clans, there’s also the elements to worry about. The average temperature is about 120 degrees and it’s always sunny. It has been about a year since it last rained. To protect ourselves from the heat we have to wear these long robes and a head cover. My father says that people in the desert used to wear these for protection in conditions similar to these ones. It’s strange to think that people chose to live in such conditions, when there were cooler places to live. Now it doesn’t matter where you are, the Earth is like one big desert now. I share the tower with an old guy named Slim. He is Lucius’s uncle and one of the hardest guys I know. He fought in Dessert Storm and was part of the original group that secured the land for us. Whenever we share guard duty, we always talk about what life was like before environmental crisis. Slim tells me about how coal was such a big part of Kentucky’s economy and how his father and grandfather all worked in the coal mines. These factors led him to believe that coal was necessary and any attempt to move away from it would be devastating to his state. Now he looks back and wonders how he could have been so foolish. He say, “I guess part of it is I believed the politicians who said that there was nothing to worry about, that global warming was just a myth conjured up by some wacko environmentalists. I didn’t know that they were being paid off to cover it up. I never once realized that there was plenty of evidence to back it up. I was part of that group that was ignorant to everything and boy did that come back to bite us on the ass.” We also talk about what it’s like to kill a man. I first started taking shifts on the tower about a year ago. There hasn’t been any incidents when I’m on duty, but I know it’s just a matter of time before a raiding party or some other threat happens, where I’ll be forced to act. Slim has killed many people through wars and the original fight for our land. He always tells me that there is no way to describe it and that only those that have done it really know what it is like. He also says I just need to keep calm and remember everything I was taught and I’ll be fine. The next few ours go uneventful and we get relieved by another group. I head back underground to get a few hours of rest before I join my father and a few hours to hunt for some meat. We do all of our hunting at night because that’s when it’s cool enough for most of the animals to come out. After I wake up, I eat my rations and meet my father in his room. I wait for him to pack his kit as he makes sure I have everything. “Cole do you have your bow, hunting knife, and camo?” “Yeah dad” I respond back. “Did you double check?” He asks. “I tripled checked.” “Ok then, let’s go meet Lucius and the others.” We met Lucius and a few others near the entrance. My father took charge and divided us into groups of two. I was paired with him and we set off. We head off to the west side of our territory and begin to look for game. All of a sudden we see a group of vultures circling ahead. I was about to grab my arrows to shoot but my father grabs my hand to stop me. “Let’s see if they can lead us to their prey before we shoot them.” We follow them for a little bit and we finally see what they are flying over. Instead of it being food, it’s two bodies. “Stay back, keep quiet, and cover me,” my father says in a tense whisper. He makes his way towards the bodies and starts checking them out. As he’s observing them, I feel my heart pounding. Soon he comes back and tells me what’s happening. “It was Troy and Brett. They were stabbed to death.” Troy and Brett were part of the hunting group that was with us. “The bastards that did this cut their right ears off. This means it was probably the Viper clan did it.” The Viper clan are a terrifying group of ex-convicts who took advantage of the chaos of global disaster to escape prison. They banded together and now they survive by raiding other groups for their supplies. They usually wipe out the entire group and cut off their victim’s right ear for some sick trophy purpose. My father then says, “We need to alert everyone. We also need to get the guns before they do.” I reply, “Dad the fastest way to do this is to split up. I’ll go to the bunker get the others prepared, while you grab the guns from the cave.” “It’s way too dangerous for you to be by yourself with those thugs out there,” he replied. “Dad I can take care of myself, you trained me and you know this is the only way we can be able survive this.” My dad thinks for a few moments and says, “Your right. Just be careful and remember everything I taught you.” He gives me a pat on the shoulder then heads off to the cave. I put an arrow into my bow and begin to make my way back to the bunker. I move fast but slow enough to where I can pay attention to my surroundings. As I’m walking, I hear a tree branch snap from my left side. I stop and slowly make my way towards the sound. I creep around a bush and see two figures with swords arguing about which direction to go. They were wearing black leather jackets with a snake across the back. I hear them arguing, “Their bunker is that way you dumb fuck! I remember what the map showed.” “You were on meth while we were prepping, you shithead!” As they were arguing, I lined up my bow with one of their heads. As I was aiming, I felt my heart pounding out of chest and my hands were shaking. Despite this, I knew I had to take the shot otherwise I join Troy and Brett. I took a deep breath and let the arrow fly. It hit dead in the eye. “Holy shit!” I heard his partner yell. I quickly drew another arrow and hit him right in the same spot. I then crept over to the bodies to make sure they were dead. After I confirmed it, I started out towards the bunker again. As I got closer, I saw there was already a large group of them gathered around waiting to attack. I knew there was too many of them to attack on my own and there was no way to get to the bunker without being spotted. The only way I was going to be able to alert the rest of the clan about the threat was to take on the large group myself and hope that the fight would alert the rest of the clan. I took out an arrow and hit one of them in the back. As soon as it hit him, the rest of the group turned and began to scramble, looking for the person who shot their comrade. They were so discombobulated that it was like target practice. I was taking them out one by one and they had no idea where it was coming from. Soon, however, I ran out of arrows. By that time the Vipers had organized and had realized what directions the arrows were coming from. They began to throw spears and rocks in my direction, trying to draw me out into the open. I knew I didn’t have much time left, so I waited for them to pause and then I would come out with my knife and take as many out as I could before I would fall. When they stopped one of the Vipers called out, “We know where you are! Come out now and we promise we won’t torture you too much before we kill you.” This brought out a big laugh from the rest of the survivors. As I was about to jump out of the bushes to attack, I heard multiple gunshots. This went on for a couple of minutes and soon all of the Vipers were dead. However, I saw out of the corner of my eye an injured Viper crawling away. I went towards him and stopped him from going any further. I then heard footsteps rushing towards me. When I looked up, I saw my dad, Lucius, and a few others with guns on their sides. My dad called out, “Cole!” He came over and gave me a hug. As he was doing that I saw Lucius taking his pistol out of his holster, with the intention of shooting the injured Viper. “Wait!” I yelled out. “He’s injured, we can’t kill him.” “We have to”, Lucius said. “If we don’t he’ll be back with more of them and attack us again.” I then replied, “If we kill him, it will go against everything we believe in.” I then turned to my father and said, “You have taught us the power of being selfless and compassionate. You always reflect on how the world could have been if the generations before us hadn’t selfish and cruel towards both the Earth and humans. We now have the chance to practice what we preach and make a positive difference on the Earth.” My father thought for a few moments and said, “Put the gun away Lucius. Cole’s right. The man poses no threat to us now. The only way were going to change things around here is to not make the same mistakes we made before. Even if he does try to attack us again, we will not go against our principles.” Lucius and a few others took him to the bunker to treat him. As we walked back to the bunker, my father said, “I’m very proud of you son. Not just for defending the bunker, but for listening and practicing my teachings. For a second there, we almost forgot what we stand for and you prevented us from making that mistake. Your mother would have been so proud of you.” As he said that, tears began to roll down his cheeks. We hugged again and walked back towards the bunker. The next day we buried Troy and Brett. The fact that we lost two men was considered lucky shows how precarious the times we live in are. It’s a survival of the fittest type world we live in that was created by that very same mentality years ago. Eventually, living this way will wipe out all living species on Earth. As my father says, once we are able to move past this greed mentality, we will be able to survive and flourish once again.
Author's Statement:
My name is David Codispoti and I’m a sophomore from Akron, Ohio. I’m a political Science major, who plans on going to law school after Xavier.When I think of green art, I think of art or literature that takes an environmental issue and creates it to where the audience can see it as being a real possibility instead of just being a story. For example, my story deals with how the Earth has been heating up and how we have chosen to do very little to change it. A lot of people think that an apocalyptic future caused by an environmental disaster is the work of fiction, but the reality is that it is entirely possible a future like that can happen, especially when we continue to ignore the problem. When I was thinking about a story to write, I realized the best way to write this was to use my own views on the subject and facts. I researched to find how bad the Earth will get if we continue to ignore climate change and continue with our harmful ways. Everything that I wrote about that describes a specific event is not something I just made up. All of it was information I found when I was doing research. These were events that would happen if the Earth’s temperature would rise by one, two, and even three degrees. If any of these were to happen, it would mean global catastrophe. The other parts of my story deal with my personal beliefs. A big part of the reason why climate change isn’t as big as an issue as it should be is because many politicians choose to ignore it. Most of the time it’s not because they choose to ignore it or that they don’t believe in it, it’s because they are being financed by the oil and energy industry who can’t afford to have laws pass that help curve climate change. They pour millions of dollars into the politician’s campaign and in return the candidate tells the people that global warming is a myth and that it would be a waste of time and money to invest in helpful ways to improve our environment. I believe this is a major reason why the government doesn’t seem to care about global warming. There really isn’t any other explanation as to why a lot of politicians continue to ignore all the scientific research. Like most things in this world, it all comes back to money and politicians need a lot of it in order to keep their careers alive. This also goes back to how selfish the world really is. This is because we are dealing with oil and energy companies, like the Koch brothers, who are more concerned about making a profit, rather than keeping the Earth safe for everyone. Then there is the politicians who sell themselves out just to make a quick buck. I incorporated this selfishness into my story, by describing how the politicians and lobbyists destroyed the Earth. Even the forming of the clans could be considered selfish because everyone is only looking out for themselves, instead of working together to survive. It’s this type of selfishness that will cause the global disaster. This is why I believe green literature should expose these types of problems our society faces. The reason I believe this is because if green art and literature won’t expose these terrible truths to the people, then what will? As I stated earlier, most people think that it is not possible that an environmental disaster can happen. It is green literature’s job to show the people that it is possible and that it will happen if they don’t change their ways. Green art can’t always be about how beautiful nature is or how great it is to be outside. Green literature sometimes need to be gritty, blunt, and telling hard truths. If it was just describing how pretty nature is, then many people wouldn’t take it serious and they wouldn’t listen to the message that was being told. Overall, I would say I have done a good job of implementing my views on green literature into my story. This is because I tried to show the audience the reality of climate change and how it is a real possibility that we could experience some form of disaster. I also tried to show the audience that the main cause of this is human greed and selfishness and that if we continue our ways, we will destroy the Earth.
Laurenson, John. The sun rises over the desert. Digital image. The Power for Minds. N.p., 1 Jan. 2004. Web. 13 Apr. 2016.
