Earth Keepers Chapter 1

CHAPTER 1

Our being

I guarantee that your job isn’t as tedious as mine. I guarantee that it isn’t as a pain as mine. Why? Because my job lasts for the rest of eternity, and your job last for a mere lifetime, but that’s just the job of an Earth keeper. Earth keepers are immortal beings that are designed to roam amongst the humans and clean up the Earth after you’ve destroyed it. The creator made us so he can get a few helping hands in redecorating the Earth after a set of humans are done with it and yes I’m an Earth keeper.

I’ve only got to do my job once though; the last set of humans killed themselves off due to overcrowding and over building. There where buildings built in the seas, every piece of land dominated with ridiculous skyscrapers, and when an apocalyptic earthquake hit, well, it’s obvious what happened when masses of building material plummeted to the ground. That was not a fun clean up for us. The creator got us to put in a little more sea, just in case you guys decided it would be great to dominate the water with your massive skyscrapers again. You haven’t so far, which I guess is a good sign.

My set of Earth keepers who all have the same region assigned as me, all live in the United Kingdom, in a secluded countryside. We all live in a big house, and we look like normal people really. We don’t really need jobs, but to mingle in society we all have hobbies I guess, I like painting, sometimes I sell them, another guy farms cows in the big field and sells the milk. I asked him why he would choose such a thing as a hobby and he simply replies, “It’s therapeutic and satisfying” I don’t get it. There are 10 of us in total 5 girls, 5 boys. You might think its great living this lifestyle, it’s not.

The creator has set strict guidelines for us to live by we’re not allowed any close mortal friends or any relationships with mortals (or with other Earth Keepers). Step out of these rules and you will be stripped of your Earth Keeper status and become a normal mortal human being. I really don’t see it as being that bad to be honest, you get to have a normal life. Better a good short life then a long never ending boring life. However, I never like change. I used to know one guy who got tripped of his status, Strummer we called him (he played the guitar and sang). He fell in love with this mortal girl and after being a banned as an Earth Keeper he seemed to be living a happy life with her, though we weren’t’ allowed to speak to Strummer, he died happy I guess.

We’re not meant to have names but we end up giving each other first names at least.

One girl, who has a particular obsession with flowers, garnishing the house with pots of various handpicked bouquets, claimed the name ‘Dandelion’. The farming boy I was talking about was practically given the name ‘Angus’ because of his cow thing. I was also given a name ‘Olive’ obviously a common colour I use in my paintings, I objected a little but it didn’t matter because it would only be used outside the house, in the house my peers will end up referring to me as ‘paint girl’. I liked paint girl, although it’s obviously not considered a legit name in your society.

I don’t see eye to eye with most of the Earth Keeper girls in this house, we tolerate each other. Dandelion the flower girl is okay but she’s mostly in her own world, she’s going to have to get back to this one if she’s going to help clean it up. The girl I’m the friendliest with is ‘Flare’ or camera girl. Flare and Angus are down to earth; the rest can be a bit over the top. Normally it’s Angus, me and Flare who go outside everyday, I sketch a bit, Flare takes a few pics and Angus tends to his animals. Sometimes Dandelion tags along picking at the grounds blossoms and roots, she’s easy company.

I suppose the rest should be explained too. The two girls left ‘Threads’ and ‘Chic’, they’re practically the same person. They both think there going to be some fashion designer and model pair who have ambitions to be world famous. It’s silly really; they’re forgetting the task as hand. The one guy who hangs out with them thinks he’s some sort sport pro, he’s not, and he’s pretty rubbish. He chose the name ‘Kicker’ to go with his ‘talent’ of football. It’s sad really, what makes it worse is that he’s loud and arrogant, Thread and Chic only encourage that.

There is a boy with a proper sporting talent though, he doesn’t talk to me much but Angus talks to him. He’s the fastest runner I’ve ever seen, he competes in local races and things, wins every time. Without fail every morning he goes off running in the field to train, sometimes when Flare, Angus and I walk out for our little outdoor time we seem him running back to the house, always greeting us with a smile and a wave. He called himself ‘Swifty’, I personally think there shouldn’t be a y, but hey.

There’s a guy whose absolute pro with computers, gadgets and machinery in general, he can also fix anything, so Flare talks to him a lot about her camera. He wanted to call himself ‘Screw’ which makes sense because I think he actually has a loose one, but the rest settled on ‘Mender’ and he’s still not happy with it, so he’s definitely still called  ‘Fixer boy’ to me.

The newest member of our team is ‘Motif’ as he calls himself. He reads and writes and only really talks to me, Kicker crew have dismissed him and the rest can’t find a reason to talk to him. I asked him what his name meant and he told me, it means extended metaphor, “For what?” I go, “Maybe my whole being is an extended metaphor, my job as Earth Keeper” when he told me this I couldn’t help laughing but he shook it of with a good natured shrug. “It’s ironic isn’t it? That we’re earth keepers, recyclers of the earth but we just sit here and watch it destroy itself, doing nothing about it” he said. That I agree with. We do sit here and do nothing. There’s no satisfaction with watching everyone kill themselves eventually and cleaning up their mess. Surely we should help them maintain the Earth before they destroy it, but we can’t intervene, until it’s all over. We’re not ‘Keepers’ as such, more observers.

That was the first and last time I talked to Motif. You’d think 10 people living in a house for the rest of eternity would get close, but we’re not built to be social really, it’s not in our nature. We’re built for a mission.