Tales of the Apocalypse, #2
Ten years since the apocalypse.
The teacher, visibly worn out by the years, persisted.
Teaching not only the original class but now pretty much everything else that should, that had to, be taught, since there was nobody else available to do so.
This was a relatively new class: science.
The teacher had mustered all the knowledge that the survivors had — which was considerable — and all the knowledge from the few books around and concocted this class.
- If it hadn’t been for this man, we wouldn’t be here today. GPS location — if it were still available, of course — would not work if not for this man. Motion sensors, even current models of refrigeration, are all based on his work.
The list went on and on, much like the class, and none of the students questioned the value of such innovations, even if some of them had never seen them in action.
Everyone knew that the goal of these classes was to preserve knowledge, for when they’d be able to be a civilization again.
The students listened as the teacher struggled to describe the scientist physically, given that there were no pictures of him left:
- Most of his photos portrayed him as an older man with white hair but, of course, he wasn’t always like that. It’s just that photography only seems to catch up with our latest achievements when our hair is gray and our skin is wrinkled.
The description was somewhat vague.
The students, nonetheless, all made a mental image of this elderly man with white hair.
And that would be the image that would prevail in the future to come. The original, the look of that man who had been so important, had now been lost.
Years later, with the teacher now gone, the teenagers walked along the abandoned city on a mission.
It was their first and possibly their last incursion in this area.
Suddenly, they realized they were missing someone.
Just a little behind the rest of the group, one of them stood silent, staring at a wall.
- What are you doing? We need to hurry!
Not a word.
The others rushed back.
- Are you listening? Let’s go, we have no time to waste! We can’t linger here!
They all started moving again.
- What were you doing?
- Did you see the graffiti on the wall?
- There’s graffiti everywhere!
- You think that could be him?
- Who?
- The scientist!
- Of course not!
- Why not? There wasn’t any rule that graffiti couldn’t portray scientists.
- No, but scientists were elegant, reserved, well dressed.
- It’s graffiti. It could be him.
And with an expression that could make the face of the scientist be lost forever, the other one replied:
- No, it couldn’t. It just makes no sense to portray a scientist sticking his tongue out!
