Allegory

Preface

You don’t know what part of the world you have found yourself in, or even whether this is planet earth. You attempt to recollect the past, but all you visualize are thoughts of struggle and misery in a world bound for catastrophe. You know something has happened to humanity, but what? You find remains of twentieth-century facilities burned down, sights of skeletons that appear to have been there for hundreds of years, yet you find yourself in paradise. The feeling of loneliness hits you as the hair on the back of your neck stands up-suddenly you hear sounds from across the tranquil waterfalls.

From abroad on the hills you see what appear to be little men marching, singing some kind of song, "Whooo eeeeeee whooo." They appear to be the seven dwarfs from Snow White. They vanish into the mountains that overlook the pond you stand directly in front of. You try to bring yourself to believe this is a dream, or maybe that you have lost your mind, but that’s not the case-this is reality! This is the new world of Allegory, where the old world had been destroyed by a nuclear war, and a new breed of humans has risen. The only documents left remaining were those of fairy tales. These new humans believe the people of the ancient civilization (the twentieth century) lived like those in fairy tales: Snow White, Alice in Wonderland, Rapunzel, and so forth. They have built their housing and ways of life based upon these fairy tales. They have misinterpreted the ancient civilization, perhaps as archaeologists and historians did in previous times. Everything operates as it would in a fable; you are clearly contrary to these people’s lifestyle and must find a way of adapting to this New World. Questions arise; you begin to question your existence. How did all of this all come about? Where do I go? Is this real? How is this even possible? Who am I? Enter the land of Allegory.

I have examined this world and I am in total disbelief. There is a pond directly in front of where I stand, and my reflection glares into my face. I am a man in his twenties with medium-long, dirty-blonde hair and a light beard. I wear black jeans with a three-quarter-length black leather jacket, black shoes and a white shirt. While examining myself I hear from a distance a song chanted by little men, "Whooo eeeee whooo." It is an eerie sound that resonates through the mountains, yet I decide that if I am to find out where I am and what is actually going on, the only remedy is to follow this chant.

I leap across the pond, stepping on large, perfectly-configured four-leaf clovers, with frogs gazing at my every move. It seems I appear to be an outsider even to these amphibians that roam the pond. This is strange! The chanting from the little men has stopped.