I.                               Bank of Thor

     Thor Alenda relaxed on the massive porch at the back of his isolated mansion.  A giant eagle soared gracefully in the clear, blue sky.  As the eagle disappeared, Thor's thoughts returned to business.

     Banking had changed drastically from the days of his ancestors.  Historical tapes of the Great Financial Collapse, in the year 2050, revealed worldwide panic.  Not only bankers, but thousands of stockholders and depositors had leaped to their deaths from the tall buildings that dominated the major cities of that era.  Wealth had been their life.  Suddenly it was gone.

     Thor turned to a more comfortable position.  He gazed thoughtfully at the sky and the endless green  mountains.  Fortunately, he recalled, the world governments had agreed to nuclear disarmament prior to the financial collapse.  Their efforts had turned to peace, health, education and the preservation of world resources.

     Another eagle appeared and Thor watched intently until it too soared out of sight.  He thought again of the 2050 financial collapse.  “The World Governments had somehow managed to give financial support to individuals and groups to establish a new banking system.”

     These new banks grew and prospered for many years.  Then, Thor remembered with sadness, a second financial disaster occurred—its primary cause, the sudden death of millions of citizens.  An incurable, deadly virus had swept swiftly over the world.  Bank deposits and loan demand deteriorated rapidly.  The non-existence of major defense and weapons markets had also been a factor in this sudden economic decline.  Although the banks continued to receive government support, they eventually failed.

     It was some time after this second banking collapse that a prominent research physician developed a cure for the virus that had caused the death of a large percentage of the world's population.  Now, nearly a century later, the population was still comparatively small, but intelligent and healthy.  However, there were current rumors of discontent among the world leaders and a gradual and secretive buildup of nuclear weapons and defense systems was in progress.

     Thor stretched out, leaned back in his lounge chair, and looked again at the clear blue sky and the forested mountains.  Even though the weapons buildup had begun, the world leaders feared each other's strength.  “They would prepare, but never attack,” he told himself.  Also, semi-annual summit meetings were being held and because of public opinion against international conflict, their doctrine remained passive.  The world's natural resources were still plentiful and its atmosphere clean.   Business and banking in general also remained strong and profitable.

     Thor reached for a small glass on the table next to the lounge chair.  It contained an ancient drink.  They had called it a Martini.  He sipped it slowly.  As he raised his glass for another sip, a female voice called from the open, sliding glass door behind him. 

     “Thor, darling, business is calling.”

     He glanced back at his beautiful, smiling wife.  He didn't feel like going into his study.

     “Would you bring the portable communicator out here, dear?  Please?”

     She disappeared into the mansion, emerging a few minutes later carrying a small, box-like object that resembled an ancient, portable television set.  Smiling proudly, she placed the communicator on the glass table and gave a remote control instrument to her husband, watching  as he pressed small buttons on the control unit.  A bright light flashed momentarily on the communicator screen and then dimmed to a pale yellow.   A message in red letters appeared. Bank of Thor—need 50 billion loan—purpose—have contract to mfgr. defense system for republic of Angar—is 50% interest rate satisfactory—your friend—Alya Sinco—President—Sinco Corp.

     Thor glanced at his wife, grinned, and rapidly pressed the control buttons. His message: Loan granted—funds available for your immediate use—withdraw when needed—interest rate somewhat low, but satisfactory—your friend—Thor Alenda—President—Bank of Thor.

     Thor placed the control instrument on the table, arose from his chair and approached his wife with outstretched arms. 

     “Well, dear,” he said with resignation as he hugged her gently, “I guess that's life in the year 2200.”  He stepped back, a serious look appearing on his face.  “Do you think we can maintain our way of life with only 25 billion interest profit on that loan?”

     “We shall try desperately,” she said, as they both burst into gleeful, uncontrollable laughter.

II.                            Odie and the Strange Ones

     Odie shuffled along the city's narrow, darkened street.  Rotting garbage and debris, haphazardly piled in front of some of the buildings, emitted odors.  Odie examined each for possible salvage.  He lived like a rat.  As he shuffled through the darkness, a sudden awareness of his surroundings penetrated his mind.  Why was he here?  This was not the place he normally slept.  It was a different alley, one further on up the street.  Finally, he shrugged his shoulders in resignation.  The weather was mild.  He'd find a place to sleep right here.

     A faint scraping noise, back in the darkness, caused him to turn abruptly.  Pain surged through him, recurrent.  He staggered slightly to keep from falling.  “It's them,” he told himself.  “They are after me.”

     Suddenly the scraping noise stopped.  He peered through the darkness to the alley exit.  There was no sign of movement.  For the moment, he assured himself, he was safe.  Temporarily satisfied, he moved on, squinting through the darkness, hoping to find an empty building or some place he could sleep for the night.

     Becoming more adjusted to the darkness, he spotted an open door.  He moved cautiously to the building entrance.  The inner door was closed.  He reached for the knob and twisted.  It was locked.  He pushed frantically on the door, using all the strength he could muster.  It didn't give.  “I won't get to sleep in that building tonight,” he muttered to himself.  Before moving on, he turned once more and peered into the darkness.  He saw nothing.  The alley was silent.  After passing several locked doors, he stopped abruptly in front of a huge, metal container.  His eyes were barely above the top level as he peered inside.  A small light, several stories up the side of a nearby building, shined dimly, revealing an old mattress covering the bottom of the container.

     He squeezed his hands tightly on the container top and pulled upward with all his remaining strength.  The pain was unbearable.  His hands remained clenched as his feet dropped back to the ground.  The thought of sleeping on a mattress was overpowering.  Hunching down and giving a push upward, he balanced himself momentarily on his stomach on the top edge.  There was more pain as he tumbled onto the mattress.   He managed to roll over, stretching out.  He was near sleep when the faint scraping noise began.  It became gradually louder and suddenly it stopped outside the bin.  Odie remained silent, throbbing, real fear for his life overpowering him.  “It's them.”  Suddenly and in unison the scraping noises began again, and then gradually dissolved in the darkness of the alley.  Relief swept through him, and almost instantly, he fell into a deep sleep.

     A hazy daylight began to cover the city.  The tall buildings stretched up into an almost invisible sky.  On the streets below, insects swarmed over the trash with buzzing sounds.  Suddenly a loud screaming noise came from the sky.  A huge oval-shaped aircraft broke through the fog-like clouds and glided to the top of one of the buildings.

     On the streets, a small number of strange-appearing individuals walked in pairs in unison.  They paid no attention to the insects or the heaps as they entered the buildings.  A much larger number of more normal-appearing people were moving quickly and in all directions.  They seemed to be purposely avoiding the strange ones.  When one of them reached a building door, he hesitated and looked to see if any of the strange ones were in sight.  If so, he waited, opened the door, and  seemed to bow slightly as the strange pair entered the building before him. 

     “After all,” he thought, “they were sent by the President.”

     Two of the strange ones approached an alley and, in unison, turned in.  They were of normal size and appeared to be human.  After proceeding some distance, they stopped abruptly in front of a large metal bin.  Peering inside, they saw Odie.  One extended a long, silver-colored arm and pointed a finger at Odie.  A thin, bright flash of light surged from the finger and seemed to penetrate Odie's head.  One arm jerked violently and moved to his chest, the palm coming to rest over his heart.  He remained intact and pain covered his face.

     Pulling his arm back, the strange one turned to his companion.  There was no sign of emotion on his silver-skinned countenance as he spoke.

     “I believe there are only about fifty thousand of them remaining in the city,” he said in a low monotone.

     “Yes,” his companion said in the same mechanical tone.  “The useless ones shall go first.  It must appear that they died of natural causes.  The others shall go, one by one, in a like manner, after they have served their purpose.  The city must be clean when our Masters arrive.”

     The first replied, “Yes, we have no deadline.  When the others are gone our Masters will come and take their place.  They will appear to be the same.  No one will know.”

     “And then we will move to city ‘B',” replied the other.

     The two positioned themselves side by side and walked in unison back to the alley entrance.  A scraping noise, caused by the rough, metallic soles of their shoes on the paved alley, gradually disappeared as they reached the street.

iii.                     the Crematorium

     Adam sat erect on the small, padded bench in the cubicle.  He watched the silent movement of the data on the computer screen.  The world's chemical food-producing factories had reached their quota for the day.  Adam glanced at his watch.  Food production was an hour ahead of schedule.  He managed a faint smile.  Each world individual would receive a vital tablet of nutrition, at least for that day.

     The computer's flashing data continued.  The total square footage of space for each individual on Earth had declined by nearly one square foot.  A puzzled expression appeared on Adam's face.  The cremation rate had decreased slightly.  Some, whose cremation date was five days after their thirtieth birthday, had decided to go to the Central Zone instead.

     The Central Zone, a sizeable section of Earth's only remaining untouched land, was located in Central Africa.  It had been nationally agreed that any of Earth's individuals who wanted to avoid cremation could go to the Central Zone.  The Zone had been selected a hundred years ago and only those who were there knew what it was like.  They were not allowed to return.

     Adam watched the computer screen as other information appeared.  Most of the important facts for that day had been noted.  He reached forward to push the OFF button.  A familiar honking noise blared from the speaker.  Large red letters appeared on the computer screen.  OPERATOR—ADAM—REPORT—TO CREMATORIUM #10—5 DAYS—FROM—TODAY.  Adam hesitated, made a mental note of the date and pushed the OFF button.  His expression did not change.  He arose slowly from his bench and stood up in the cubicle that had been his workplace for ten years.  He looked around the massive building that contained several hundred other cubicles similar to his own.  There were only a few people standing.  Their expressions reflected only mild curiosity as they looked at Adam.  He left his cubicle, walked slowly toward the office exit and out into a narrow hallway that led to the elevator.  He punched the DOWN button and stepped back.  In several minutes the elevator door opened.  It was jammed with silent young men and women.  They smiled briefly as Adam squeezed into the remaining space.  The trip was a hundred stories down.  He stepped out into a small lobby.  Glass doors opened automatically as he approached the exit.  He passed quickly through the opening and out onto the sidewalk.  Outside, the one hundred story buildings stood like white giants with their huge, oval tops extending above the city's smog and up into a hazy blue sky.  The skyscrapers stretched out to infinity in all directions, causing the narrow streets to appear even narrower.  The people had not yet spilled out of the buildings.  Soon they would flood the streets like a runaway canyon river.  Adam walked briskly down the street and turned into a building two blocks away.  The one-room efficiency on the twentieth floor that was his home, and also Mary's for nine years, cheered him.  It was small and a plain white couch pushed against one of the walls served as a fold-up bed.  The kitchen area contained a sink with only a cold water faucet.  Light from a large, square panel in the ceiling flooded the room.  A small, paneled closet contained his clothes and on a dresser located against another wall was a large white candle and a picture of Mary.

     He walked over to the dresser, picked up the picture and stared at the beautiful lady who had been assigned to live with him ten years ago.  It had been a wonderful nine years before she received her summons to the crematory.  She was a year older than Adam and reached her cremation date a year earlier.

     They had never had the one child allotted per couple.  They had a conversation the day before she left.  She wanted to know his opinion about the Central Zone.  “We know nothing of it,” he'd said.  And she said, “If I go there perhaps you will also come.”  He'd never seriously considered the Central Zone.  She watched as his expression changed.  She knew nothing would change his mind.  And she had walked quickly toward the door.

     He'd followed her, saying, “Wait, I'll go with you to the transport area.”

     She'd turned gently and said, “No, I'll go alone.” And he watched sadly as she disappeared through the door.  He knew this was the last time he would see her.

     A buzzing noise from the television screen on the wall brought him back to reality.  Red letters flashed the words, YOUR—DAILY—NUTRITION—RATION—WILL—BE—TRANSPORTED—FOR—YOUR—CONSUMPTION—IN—ONE—HOUR.  He glanced at the small cubicle door on the wall next to the sink.

     The crematory summons again entered his thoughts.  He had five more days.

     The Crematory was a small, sterile room in a building just two blocks away.  The dissolution procedure was simple, quick and painless.  He would walk into the room, sit on a comfortable, padded bench and look at a large red square on the wall.  After ten seconds a colorless cloud would come out of the red square and float slowly toward him.  It would envelop his entire body and a feeling of extreme tranquility would occur.  That would last ten seconds and then a bright yellow flash would appear before his eyes for a fraction of a second.  There would be no feeling of pain.  This was the end.  A very tiny pile of fine ashes would then be gently and quickly absorbed from the bench and into the air by an invisible vacuum.  All of the world's citizens knew this procedure and were not afraid.

     He smiled and thought, “This will give another world citizen access to my daily nutrition ration.”  Almost immediately another thought entered his mind.  He could not believe it.  If he should decide to go to the Central Zone, the citizen would still receive it.  He felt a strange weakness surging through him.  He went to the couch, unfolded it and lay down on the soft mattress.  He didn't even look to see if his tablet had arrived.

     On Day 5 Adam left his cubicle for the last time.  He hurried to his room and rushed to the nutrition cubicle.  There were two tablets.  One was yesterday's and the other had arrived early.  He swallowed one quickly and dropped the other into his pocket.  He sat on the couch, glancing around the room.  He looked at his watch.  “Plenty of time to meet the deadline arrival at the crematory.”  He saw Mary's picture.  He got up quickly, glanced at his watch again, and went over to the dresser.  The central zone transport pad was nearly twice as far away as the crematory.  Without hesitation, he rushed through the door and down to the elevator.

     The Transporter was a ten by twenty foot missile-like capsule, remote-controlled from the Central Zone.  It was locked onto a launch pad on top of one of the designated hundred story buildings.  He arrived at it, pushed the elevator button and waited.  Within several seconds the door opened.  It was empty.  He hesitated briefly and then rushed inside.  He stared at his watch as the elevator moved swiftly and silently upward.

     When he reached the top he saw the Transporter, majestically perched on a launch pad, its silver body glistening in the late afternoon sun.  He hesitated momentarily and glanced at the tall white building surrounding him.  This was his home.  The only landscape he had ever seen.  He shook those thoughts from his mind and walked toward the transporter.  A small flight of white steps led to its door.  O-P-E-N was in white letters on a large black button.  He pushed it and watched the door rise and disappear into the top of the transporter's frame.  He went inside.  There were no windows, but a pleasant light illuminated its interior.  The walls appeared to be covered with a pale green upholstery.  He had never seen many colors except the black, red and white shades of the city, his office cubicle and his home.  A comfortable lounge-like seat, padded and with a high-contour back, was located at the front of the craft's interior.  He walked over and sat in the seat.  He'd never experienced this kind of comfort.  A large panel in front of him began to flash.  On the screen the letters P-U-S-H appeared.  He reached for the flashing panel with an open palm and gently applied pressure.  A slight feeling of movement occurred.  He reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out the picture of Mary.  He looked at the smile on her face, leaned back into the contour seat, placed both of his feet on an elevated pad in front of the seat and settled back further into the chair.  A smile appeared on his face.  He had never felt this content in his entire lifetime.  Finally, the continuous, vague feeling of movement and a low-level purring noise lulled him to sleep.

     He awoke suddenly.  The silence inside the transporter and the absence of movement were somewhat disturbing.  He remained seated, not knowing what fate he might meet outside the ship.  Suddenly, the transporter's main door began to open.

     Adam blinked rapidly as bright rays of sun gradually flooded the cabin.  Cautiously, he arose from his seat and moved toward the now-fully-opened door.  As he approached it, he stopped and briefly rubbed his eyes.  He opened them slowly and as he looked out he saw the sky.  He had never seen it so blue and clear.  He lowered his eyes.  Large green  objects that he had never seen covered the huge rises of land as far as he could see.  These were the forested mountains of the Central Zone.

     He stepped out of the ship and cautiously made his way to the ground.  It was soft and green.  He turned and froze with fear as a crowd of people approached the ship quickly.  Their arms were outstretched as they gathered in front of him.  Adam turned toward the ship's entrance.  A loud, clear voice from the crowd called his name.   “Adam, welcome to the Central Zone.  Do not fear us.  We are your friends.  One wishes to talk to you.”

     Adam turned again toward the crowd of several hundred people.  They were scantily dressed in plastic-like clothing and wore no shoes.  All appeared to be smiling.

     Suddenly, one of them emerged from the group and came slowly toward him.  Adam squinted again in the bright sunlight.  As the person came closer, he heard a clear, happy-sounding voice.  “Welcome home, Adam.”

     A feeling of peace and extreme joy enveloped Adam  as he rushed forward.   Mary was dressed as the others, but her smile was different.  It was as he had remembered it.  He gently put his arms around her.

     “Mary,” he said happily.  “I am home now.”

     They walked slowly toward the happy, smiling crowd.