Peace Is Impossible

short story for May's "nightmare" theme contest, over due.

December 31, 3000

It was a world in which people have realized the mistreatment humans have given animals. It was a world in which people have acknowledged those who spoke for animals.

It’s been 5 years since then. This is the 31st century, revolved around only animals.

It’s a world in which a system has been established against those who mistreat animals in any way--whether by accident or on purpose.

If you stepped on a paw, claw, tail, or any other body part, you paid. If you bumped into any animals, you paid. If you bought or sold any animals, you paid. If you traded any animals, you paid. If you owned any animals, you paid. If you played with any animals, you paid. It’s the price humans must now pay in order to make up for the history of cruelty animals have been dealt; it’s justice and peace--or so the officials called it.

We don’t think so. Justice is about repenting and acting for the good of the people. Killing or abusing, using violence, just because you’ve accidentally stepped on a cat’s tail is not for the good of the people. Peace is about bringing a sense of freedom, a sense of harmony, through humanity. Killing or abusing, using violence, just to bring about fear and trample on people’s free will is not for the harmony of humanity.

In years gone by, had humans been this bad in the harming of animals? Somehow, I didn’t think so. Not this kind of genocide, as I logically like to label it.

It’s time for someone to step up, to stop this. So I’ll speak up for those people in this century who have been laid victims to this “system of peace”, as officials called it.

This world has become hell, not peace. How could they have called a world where humans are automatically sent to slaughter or forced castration peace? This world has become one to fear, one to remain utterly docile, yet downright ghastly. Do people not see this? They do. They just don’t have the guts to say it, much less think of it.

Ever since meeting me, they’ve come to understand it can’t go on like this. I have the guts to do something, so now I’m doing it.

First, though, shouldn’t I list what, exactly, this system does? It begins with the imprisonment. It’s not just jail where people go to pay for their crimes. Harming an animal, even accidentally, is now an entire crime in itself.

System of Peace -- Text to Our Penalization:

(I’ll write in italics what is not printed on the official document. If it’s italicized, I’m just explaining what may need clarification.)

The first offense results in an estimated caging of one month to a year.

They call it caging now! Not just “prison” or “holding cell”. They purposely do this to intimidate all who dare defy the system.

The second offense results in an estimated caging and whipping (like lions or horses being whipped to control them) of a few months to a few years. This varies between 2 years to 60 years, depending on the extent of the crime.

Even confinement like this is sparing to people. The third or addition of more breaches is when there is no mercy.

Effective Immediately “EI”: The third or addition of more than three offenses results in the transportation of extraction. In other words, the slaughter house. You know all those slaughter houses humans in the past have sent animals to meet their demise, just to become people’s food or to make space? It’s the same. Humans now send humans to meet their doom. I won’t spare any details. It’s where people lose a part or piece of their body, as well (next rule stated below). We believe this action is the worst of all, as some humans in the past believed to be the worst for animals. It may even be more than that.

The third offense, should the offender be deemed capable of salvation, results in the castration of one’s permanent body part as a mark for his or her act against the System of Peace. This penalty is included permanently in his or her criminal record. Like the removal of an animal’s tail, legs, or the process of neutering in past records. Becoming an eunuch is most common. Humans now enact these processes on humans.

The rules of the official document are subject to change at any given time. In other words, remember to check back on this document in case there has been anything changed within any period of time.

Failure to comply with the above penal codes will be passed the verdict according to what is stated. All persons (in any nation throughout the world) found in the violation of the codes will be prosecuted. 11111.11111

This is exactly what was printed since the passing of this system. Nothing’s been changed recently (while I’m writing this letter), but in the future, I expect it to be changed! I will not just hope or pray, but expect this change--no added penalties, no added laws, no added cruelty. Just the absolute destruction of this despicable “system of peace” and the immediate, eternal prevention of its--or anything related to it--return to our world.

What am I doing to take action now, even as I write this? First, of course, we gathered a mass of the majority I know to protest the system at several central areas throughout many countries. We hope to expand and encounter those unknown to us but who equally resent this “peace”. We, the rebels, have no name. It is a new world, this 31st century. Currently millions of people are within range of my efforts and aim to remove the system. It’s only a matter of time.

But we don’t have that kind of time. It needs to happen sooner, quicker, or it will be too late. Many have died for this cause, definitely, but we’re not backing down.

Time isn’t just running only out on us due to the outcome of the system, but also because of the rapid rise in animal population. Soon, they’ll rule us, and all will be lost. I’ve already come to dream of this nightmare.

January 1, 3001

It was last night that I dreamed it.

It was a world in which animals lived, and humans fought for survival. More animals exist than humans. Blood and gore splash the interior of homes, or what was left of homes, wash up the streets, spread out all over the continents. Violence reign over the land, no end to it in sight. Organs and body parts are strewn all about the grounds. Dominance over the weak, weaker, and weakest. Dominance over the strong and the stronger. But most of all, the animals’ dominance over humans. Animals evolve more rapidly than ever before. Should this peace system be so effective completely, animals would become the humans--and the humans the animals, except they will become extinct. There were theories of humans becoming extinct, of course, but that was far, far away in the future. If this continued, it would come sooner rather than later.

Cities were destroyed. Ruins collapsed. Buildings, weaponry like guns and crafts like planes and boats, caved in, and millions of people died. Blood overflow changed the water of the seas, oceans, rivers. Added to other humans and animals, thirst and hunger also become more than just enemies. Will this nightmare ever end?

It all explains the leading up to this letter. I type this with my own two hands, and I’ve already written it as well, for copies, just in case.

At any rate, we’re organized enough to make up a major plan for the future, one I’m hoping that will get results. It begins with this letter. Okay, so writing this and preserving this paper--with the story--to save for future generations to find it and come to our rescue isn’t exactly what I planned. You know, like those “time capsules” or whatever people did in the past. Actually, we’re preserving it not just to get the story out and make certain all of the future knows not to do it again, but also to print for the books, the journals, the press... A story that will spread and expand and become known, a story that will bring more people to our cause--in the here and now. A story that will last not just in the future, but also in the present. I hope I’m making sense.

A note to readers: Understand that I write this by myself, no editing and no proofreading or fixing. I don’t wish anyone else but my cooperators, the ones who read and see it my way, to see, touch, work on it. If I allow someone to edit it now--someone who might, deep in their heart, actually be a supporter of the System of Peace and not our cause, and believe me, there are!--the full story will be changed and it will no longer seem real. I have a great many of those devoted to me who encourage me, and they even say not only am I a good leader, but also a good writer. I am not becoming arrogant. I won’t allow it.

And so I repeat, I expect this System of Peace to go down. It must fall into a pit from whence it will never be seen or heard from again, annihilated and even conserved for future benefits--lessons the future can learn from, if you understand just what I mean. Eyes of the officials, eyes of the system, find your mind on these few pages, and you will discover the full extent of our determination--well, determination might be an understatement. We are resolute. Words do not even begin to describe it. I make all this dramatic to contribute to this emphasis I’m attempting to point out.

After I have completed this paper, I will have it sent immediately to be officially printed, and therefore documented. We, the rebels, will parade the roads of the central region of all nations--Washington D.C. in the United States, as it turns out--to distribute the story to those who have yet to see our way, or even heard of us. Strange, isn’t it, that throughout the entire world which is effected by the System of Peace, there are yet still more people who have not discovered our existence? That will change. It will all change very soon. That nightmare I had, it won’t happen. I will not allow it.

And I confess, my nightmares, not my dreams, are fairly accurate.

No gore, no guts, no bodies, no stain will come to the streets of our cities. Water will be as clean and pure as it once might have been. Food will be not just in our hands, but on tables, in cabinets, refrigerators. Hands and feet will be not just intact and whole, but precious and untainted.

And once we have spread the word, this will bring about the time of evolution--or in this case, re-evolution. The evolution after the evolution in which the calls for animal’s fair treatment were answered in the form of peace.

When we have gathered at the ending of our march on February 1st, 3001, the millions of people will surround the very government that has brought to light the System of Peace. We’ll negotiate initially, like any good movement does. But then we trespass. They’ve broken the rules of peace, of justice, so now we break the rules they’ve created.

You may think me foolish, those who have not heard of us. Those who read this for the first time.

Not foolish. Come to Washington D.C. on the 1st of February, and it will be anything but foolish. The mass will be so numerous, you will believe yourself hallucinating.

It will happen. Nothing the known government can do about it.

It is now the 32nd century, as of today. And as of today, our world will change once more. For the better.

Remember... Remind yourself of this movement, of this system of peace, of the 31st century--and you will see peace is not as it seems. Don’t ask for the impossible.