NOY World: A Futuristic Tale of Devastation and Devolution

By David K. Dodd

Climate change has scorched the planet, leaving an environment that can barely support life. Relatively few survivors live a stark existence in widely separated villages. They are dominated by NOY, the ruling class that controls every detail of their lives—even breeding is regulated. Gone are culture and government, and time is kept not by clocks and calendars but by the sun and moon. Welcome to NOY World.

The story is told by Karina, Roberto, and Daniella, three friends who struggle to survive their humdrum existence. They risk moving to separate villages in order to pursue a better tomorrow. Readers will be captivated as they witness how the human spirit overcomes the nearly total degeneration of the surrounding environment.

• Language: English
• Publisher: David K. Dodd
• Release date: Dec 2, 2013
• ISBN: 9781310121005

David K. Dodd

A former psychologist, David K. Dodd writes books of true crime and fiction that focuses on personal conflict, relationships, and community. He has recently moved from Fish Creek, Wisconsin, to Saint Louis, Missouri.

Book preview

NOY World:

A futuristic tale of

devastation and devolution

by David K. Dodd

Copyright 2013 David K. Dodd

Smashwords Edition

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the

author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events,

locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Cover design by Patrick Fisher

Table of Contents

Dedication

Preface

Part I – Karina

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Part II – Roberto

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Part III – Daniella

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Acknowledgments

About David K. Dodd

Also by David K. Dodd

Dedicated to:

All who work feverishly for the earth’s future,

by attempting to reduce

our carbon footprint.

Preface

Cataclysmic climate change has scorched the planet, leaving a natural environment that barely supports life. The once burgeoning human population has been decimated, and the few survivors live austerely in widely separated villages dominated by NOY, the ruling class.

Readers of this novella will be stunned by the stark human reality. Very little culture is left: Gone are arts and literature, formal education, and entertainment. Political and economic systems no longer exist, and religion is dead. Time is kept not by clocks and calendars but by the sun and moon. Only one language is spoken, and the alphabet has been truncated. Certain numbers have sloughed off, resulting in odd counting that suggests humans may have extra fingers and toes.

This novella is told by three individuals who, along with their closest friends, cope with their humdrum existence and eventually conspire for a better tomorrow. The antagonistic force is always NOY, which carefully controls every detail of their lives and modifies their behavior through food rationing and forced migration. Even breeding is carefully regulated. Yet, NOY can paradoxically bestow limited freedoms that offer a glimmer of satisfaction.

Karina, Roberto, and Daniella are close friends who risk moving away to separate villages in order to pursue a better future. Readers will be captivated as they witness how the human spirit survives the nearly total degeneration of the surrounding environment.

Karina

1

I WANNA HAVE A BEBE. I remember thinking that many lunars ago. It came on to my head so fast and then I could not shake it off. I was not as old back then, almost a kid still. But it took me over. I remember thinking before how complicated it would be, how hard. Yet I wanted it.

I am not so young now. I don’t think I was stoopid back then, let’s just say I am smarter now. It was even more complicated than my mind said.

Daniella looks so much like me. When new peeps see us nesk to each other, like at rashon, they stare. She is less lunars than me. Jeremias says I am probably more than twenty or even twenty-five. Daniella is much younger but more than a kid, I know. But she has my blond hair and is the same tall, about the same around, maybe a little less on upper. Daniella and I get along real great—we talk, play, go to bath together. I call her Dani and she calls me Kari. But Dani is not my best friend, Reina is.

I like work. You don’t usually say that to anyone but I know most peeps do, least I think so. There’s not much else to do but baths. Funny that I work at the baths. And clean mats. I like working baths better than mats.

You don’t gripe about work though. Everyone knows what the worst job is, and if you gripe in front of NOY, you get it. When I first came to this vill, I worked in treens. Jeremias says treen work is a welcome gift but I don’t know what he means. He says a lot that I don’t get—he knows so much! Maybe everything. I usually just nod when I don’t get him, but he knows when I am stumped so he esplains it to me.

When you come to Vill 12231984, they assign you to treens and you’re supposed to act like you really like it, or they will just keep you working there. Treat it like a gift. I knew what he was getting at, I just didn’t know what gift is. Then Jeremias said they give it to you again when you leave 1223, as a going away gift. I nodded again, but he asked me anyway, Didn’t you get treens when you left your old vill? I said, I no remember, because I didn’t. He said, You were too young, not enough lunars," and I nodded once more. He was right—again! I don’t know how long I’ve been at 1223, but it’s been a long time. Later I asked Reina, and she said when she came to 1223, she got treens too. Her gift.

Anyway, we’ve got four bath pools and they all get cleaned two times each sun-moon. Right after first bath and again right after second bath. It makes sense. No one wants to soak in dirty water.

Mats is fun too, but only because I am paired with someone I really like—Dani! We pick them up and hang them, then she and some others start to wipe while I sweep the area. Or I wipe and Dani sweeps. She likes to wipe more, I like sweeping. Jeremias says we make a real team. I just nod. Sometimes NOY decides who wipes and who swipes. Really it’s sweep, of course—Dani and me just made up a little joke like you wipe, me swipe, but you can’t let NOY hear you or they might think you’re griping. Jere says they can be paranoid. I don’t get the word, but I think I get eksactly his meaning and when I nod, he knows it my I know nod.

It’s funny how some peeps like rashon best and some bath. You can ask them at rashon and again at bath, and what they say the first time they say again. Reina says it all depends on how big their rashon is. Peeps only see what in front of them, she says. If it small, they no like rashon. Like bath more. If it big, rashon is better. If rashon just norm, Rei says, your guess good as mine. I nod. Then we play our game. First look at their rashon, then ask them and see if Rei is right. "You got a thee-ree"—that’s what Jeremias calls it.

Rei and me usually go to bath together. I mean to the same pool, because there are four pools at bath. You have to go to bath unless you’re sick and NOY says okay. We like to go to second bath time, not first, but sometimes you don’t get to choose—NOY chooses. Second is better, especially if it’s really hot and dust is blowing. Plus, if you go to first bath, what do you do for the rest of the sun-moon? When I say that to Jere, he comes back with, Look to the foo-chur. I don’t even nod. He just smiles, knowing me.

It’s Rei and me together at bath along with some friends, all together. But at boy-girl bath—we get that just once a kwarter-moon—when the boys get there and climb in, we girls stop talking. We listen to