The Gaia Protocol

[Bookwyrm]

Haven't done any writing in a while, and I know I have a bad habit of not following up. But this time I'm really going to try to keep going. Really



Prologue

I didn’t mean to cause the end of the world. Honestly I didn’t. Now I truly understand the phrase about the road to Hell being paved with good intentions. And now I’m living there, along with everyone that’s left.


It was so innocent, in the beginning.

I was an environmentalist. I know in many people’s eyes, the term brings up images of Greenpeace ramming boats, but I was a moderate and not the raving, foaming at the mouth type.

I made sure almost everything I bought was recyclable or reuseable. I reduced my electrical use. I even put up a small wind generator, which supplied a good part of my needs, as long as the wind blew.

I lobbied for better treatment of farm animals, and even in that I was no radical. PETA’s methods and ideals annoyed me. I just wanted the creatures to be treated like animals again, not factory produced food. I was no vegetarian, but I refused to eat meat from the store. I raised my own animals and I supervised their slaughter, wanting to know that the meat I ate had lived the best life I could provide it.

I also grew my own garden, and canned my own vegetables, making sure that my food had no pesticides and was not a GMO. I saved some of my own seed, and bought the rest from small organic seed producers that I triple verified had nothing to do with Monsanto.

Here I am, trying to justify the unjustifiable. But how was I to know? Oh, God help me, how was I to know?

[sssarawolf]

Okkk how in the world did he help end the world? Keep it coming please.

[debralee]

The prologue looks good. Now we need to have some story time please? Thank you for sharing.

[Deena in GA]

Good start! Hope we see more soon.

[Bookwyrm]

Chapter 1 Hook


It all started with a message board. That’s how I found them. Or, really, how they found me. It was a simple, innocent looking environmental message board. Sure, a few of the people were a bit more radical than me, but that’s true most of the time. Probably would have been more of a red flag if there hadn’t been any of them around. As it turned out, it wasn’t those people I had to watch out for…


Zero Point says:
Hi

The PM popped up in the middle of my screen while I was scrolling through the “What Can I Do To Help” section of a message board called “The Enviromentality.” Usually I don’t bother to answer such brief messages, but today I was bored. I'd finished working on my "Girl in the Gully" blog where I (attempted) to make some money writing about my daily life on my microfarm and I had a few minutes to spare before I had to head into town. I wish I’d never answered it.

After deciding to answer, I wasn’t going to be outdone in brevity, so I clicked the reply button and answered with the terribly unique message:

Hi

A few moments later, while I was reading about controlling the invasive mustard garlic another PM obscured my view.


Zero Point Says:
How are you?

I rolled my eyes, wondering if I should just pretend that I’d lost the connection and go invisible, but decided to keep the scintillating conversation going for a bit longer.


Fine. You?



It wasn’t long before the answer came back.


Zero Point Says:
Good.


Well, how the heck was I supposed to respond to that? Creating conversation was not my problem. Zero Point had started it. Just as I was about to close the conversation and go find something else to do another message popped up.


Zero Point Says:
Just came in from feeding the chickens


That caught my interest, for there weren't really a huge number of people who raised livestock on this board. In fact over half of the members were vegetarian. Quite the coincidence that this person happened to raise chickens as well. Or so I thought.

What kind of chickens do you have?



Zero Point says:
Banties. But the hawk got one today.


I commiserated and we began to discuss ways to discourage hawks in free range chickens and from there the conversation drifted from one topic to another, touching on many of my interests. How amazing, I thought, that there was someone who thought so much like me out there. That was the hook. Line and sinker were yet to come.

[sheilab15]

Nice start, keep it coming!