Little People Armageddon - TIME2024

After crash-landing on alien planet the traveller's noticed there was near microscopic life.  Intrigued she decided to put what she thought was algae into tank with some water.

As she watched her experiment she noticed her algae had grow into a tiny village, compete will tiny field being tended by tiny creatures.

She watched them intently and returned to her ship everyday to check on them.

This is their endtimes story.

******

"How's the field looking today?" Zorp asked his neighbor Bort.

"The figure in the sky is glorious! And you what they say, A shadow up high means the Glorp will rise!"

The response was par for the course.

"Woe be the day when the shadow above no longer has prominence. Sad times indeed."

All was well in the local village. Exchanges were going along swimmingly, albeit heated at times. As always, the local magistrate dealt accordingly per the written code.

Every day the shadow above returned. This led to a comfortable routine. Religion formed around it.

As Zorp walked to the local wares proprietor he heard a voice crying out from the square.

"The shadow has left us. It is the days of the lost! The shadow has not returned today!"

In local custom the "days of the lost" were a prophecy of the end of the vat. They day their enclosure was forsaken and the shadow no longer made its presence known. 

Following the disappearance there would be months of nothing until the "great dumping" occurred.

The prophecy wrote:

The total elapsed and half that duration. From different appearance to gone all together. From half the duration ticks the clock until the end.

It was often interpreted at a certain duration the shadow would change, and then stop appearing. At the halfway point following this, a significant event takes place to start the countdown to the dumping.

They were all to aware of this.

And when the appearance slightly changed for a few day and then disappeared, the little people feared the end.

They kept on mostly as usual. "You don't know that's what's going to happen. We might survive the dump? It may not exist?"

Speculations swirled on what happened to the figure, would it return? The clock ticked closer. The finality was mostly overlooked, but stayed there as an ultimate possibility.

The Little People just didn't know.

A religious sign in the center square read, "47 cycles until the dumping. Absolve yourself before judgement!"

For some it became a point of amusement. We'll survive any dumping. The enclosure may change, but it will still be the same.

Others said it was to be "The Great Culling" of the unwanted, but they were quickly called fascists and told to shut the hell up. The shadow does not ordain infringement of thought. Ever.

Interpretations varied. Worth significantly varied. It remained mostly unnoticed.

The sign could have been right. And it is slowly counting down to an unknown. The ultimate unknown.

The little people carried on without the shadow. 

Endings are interesting though. They exist almost like a superpositioned animal, in multiple states of being.

We'll see what happens in 48 cycles.

The End?

a reply to: Degradation33

Amazing!!!

a reply to: Degradation33

That was layered really well and quite an enjoyable read.

I am also a fan of open endings, so thank you for that.

Being odd, reading it reminded me of Jim Croce's Time in a Bottle.

Which has nothing to do with your story at all.

But I'm odd.

Very well done!

a reply to: Lumenari

Thank you.

I am fan of open endings unless they are Chris Carter open endings. X-Files just pissed me off when they did that. Always bees and clones. Always wanted them to focus on the stand alone stories with conclusions.

For my story, I just hope to write the follow-up here.

a reply to: Degradation33

A wonderful microscopic world and a new slant shadows.

I really enjoyed how you set this up and gave us the juice of the story in bits. I like a story that has a definite ending, however your ending leaves room for a sequel, which isn't a bad thing. Really well crafted tale, with just enough character development to cause us to dream.