Circa 4200A.D.
The war has been raging for thousands of years now, with no clear winner. But it seems the judgment day is near. For, the animals with their heightened sense of predicting the impending doom had migrated to far off places. Even the birds, which are not generally affected by the happenings on land, were changing their habitats. They have benefited no less by the global warming and the nuclear holocaust of South America which changed the face of this earth.
As a result of the nuclear holocaust in 2195 AD, the oceans suddenly became fertile beds for volcanic eruptions. These eruptions along with tectonic shifts in the sea beds connected the two poles with the central land mass called Asia.
It was now possible to travel from one pole to another through land and no sea or ocean separated the two poles. There was a big hole in the ozone layer and a lot of water evaporated from the surrounding seas, never to come back to earth. This was a boon to most as it saved the earth from drowning in the melted polar ice sheets.
As the polar ice melted, Arctic and Antarctica became hospitable regions, so much so that they were the only two places which were actually habitable. Thick vegetation was growing adapting itself to the climate of the region, helping sustain life undisturbed by men’s industrialization and colonization plans.
Men being engaged in their war had no time to conquer the new lands. First he had to establish his superiority over other fellow humans, who too were trying to become the superior force. Now, it was not a question of superiority alone, it had become a question of survival. He had to fight for god’s sake and by gods’ grace, once this war is over, Arctic and Antarctica too will become his abode. The war had never been as intense as this and men knew that it will be over soon. And they also knew that they will be rewarded, for they were fighting for a just cause. Though the cause for each of the warring faction was different but ironically there was no difference at all.
Each faction was fighting for their god or belief. Each faction had a perfectly logical stand which no one could have disputed but disputed they were. Everyone one wondered, why couldn't the others see light?
Christ had commanded his followers to kill all those who didn’t believe in him as they were sons and daughters of the evil Satan himself. So said the priest.
Prophet had asked all the kafirs to be killed. This world had no place for those who didn’t believe in Allah. So said the imam.
Ram had called his followers to kill the rakshas. The demons, who did not believe in the trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh and had to be finished for once and all. So said the pandit.
Every other god big or small had sided with one or the other to wipe off their perceived enemies.
Those who didn’t have any god were enemies of all and friends of none. They believed all the believers i.e. those who believed in god are inferior. Paradoxically, the atheist had their belief to fight for, for they firmly ‘believed’ that there is no god, that the ‘believers’ carry inferior gene pool and in this world only the fittest (with superior genes) can live.
Every man, every woman and every child born was in the war, fighting for his or her god. Everyday there was destruction and devastation, sometimes a whole city, a whole state got destroyed and many were constructed and reconstructed.
Except for the loss of a few men's life no one was losing but was anyone winning?
A sense of the impending end was not lost on anyone. Man who by nature is the least sensitive of all the animals also felt that something major was going to happen. But unlike animals he couldn’t understand his sixth sense, for he was engaged in war and had no time for such trifle things.
So, he assumed that the Judgment Day was coming. His god will be by his side when he wins and he will go on to live a victorious life. Animals on the other hand had already migrated to Arctic and Antarctica.
And then on 1st April 4200, the judgment day came. Everyone saw the light but it was blinding and then there was darkness. ‘Prophet’, ‘Jesus’, ‘Ram’, ‘Buddha’, ‘Abraham’, and all the ‘other gods’ along with the ‘no god at all’, annihilated each other.
There were no winners, only losers, men as a species lost. They have been wiped out from the face of this earth. Only a few survived but not for long, there was nothing to sustain them and their end was worse than that suffered by those who perished in the bombings. The nuclear bombs were so powerful that they broke through the deep underground bunkers and destroyed everything. But the animals? The animals somehow managed to survive the catastrophe. For centuries only the Arctic and the Antarctica areas were habitable.
Gradually, earth healed herself and life sprang from the ashes.
But somewhere far away, the seeds for another war and another judgment day have already been sown. Some apes in Antarctica have developed into apes of higher understanding. They call themselves sons of the moon god. While some who have their roots in Arctic call themselves descendants of sun god.
Now as the two distinct groups move towards the centre of the earth. Will there be another war? Or will they discover the ruins of the past civilizations and understand the futility of wars? Will history repeat itself? Will sun and moon kill each other? Or will these beings of higher understanding, actually become beings of higher understanding?
