When Fish Rule The World
A fishy premonition.
Putting me on show in a fish and chip shop was the height of cruelty.
Day after day I watch humans mangling my shallow-fried relatives with a fork. I cry out but all they see are bubbles. I weep, but no-one sees the tears of a fish.
I still remember the day we were caught. Something wasn’t quite right. The plankton were quiet, the water was wetter than usual. Then we heard the noise of the trawler, and the weights came down crushing poor Granddad onto the sea floor.
The net trundled forward, trapping everyone and everything.
We floundered around like fish out of water. Thousands of us. Fish, Octopus, Dolphins, Lobsters. Everything from the floor to the ceiling (sea-ling?). Then we were dropped unceremoniously on the boat floor.
Even the big old shark had a time of it. Luckily for him they let him go. If he’d been any further east the fishermen would’ve cut off his fins and thrown him back in to die.
You humans.
You think you’re better than us, with your arms and legs and fingers. Dressing up like oversized frogs to get selfies with us. Then you catch us, eat us and replace us with the plastic bags you bought us in. WTF humans???
Of course not everyone minds it. The jellyfish love you guys cos all those bags you throw away confuse the hell out of their biggest predator – turtles. They’re scared to eat almost everything in case it’s plastic in disguise.
Thankfully I have a feeling you people won’t be eating us for too much longer. I’ve had a feeling in my waters. Perhaps it was a rise in the water temperature, or some kind of acidy tingle. I don’t know but I sense it. Change is coming.
Dear old Uncle used to tell me about The Big Change when I was still a nipper. Premonitions he said they were.
As the old story goes, a day will come when the giant ice cubes melt and water takes over the world. The people who caused it will have to cling to little bits of land, just like all those big white bears do up north. And as habitable land dwindles, more and more people will pile into less and less space till they wipe each other out, through war, famine, and disease.
And thus begins the Age of Fish.
You might say it’s just a fairy fishtale, but I have faith.
So go on. Eat him up. And me next. But when your children are no more, mine will rule the world. And that victory will taste better than battered fish ever could.
Thanks for reading. Would this make a good short animation? Feel free to clap, comment and share, just not with Pescatarians. As well as writing, and a day job as a medic, I make a podcast called the Green Pill (soon to be released) and am a member of Doctors for Extinction Rebellion.
Thanks for reading Writers Guild — A Smedian publication
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