Punctuated Equilibrium

It happened so fast that no one could react. In the span of ten years the human race had split into three distinct species: the Erahumans, the Nzihumans and the Marhumans. It was the theory of punctuated equilibrium come true, which means species come about in brief periods of genetic change. Although the brief periods the scientists were thinking about were probably hundreds of years, the human species had changed in ten. Erahuman scientists have come to believe that the depletion of the Ozone caused a speed up of genetic change, unless the calculations are incorrect. Nzihuman scientists think that a former human country developed a nuclear weapon that was launched undetected and spread a disease, which altered all genetic material in human gametes. Marhumans, who have a decreased brain mass, a currently formulating their hypothesis and believe to have the correct answer in year 2075.

This rapid change in human genetics took place between 2030 and 2040, though it is currently year 2050. I, Shanaden Erawanue, belonging the east Mediterranean Erahuman tribe, have taken it upon myself to record my life as an Erahuman. Because I’m twenty, I am one of the first Erahumans and the leader of my tribe. Sadly my human mother died when I was born, just like the other human mothers of the Era. But in the absence of my mother, I have found comfort and understanding in my father and have learned many things.

My father told me that when I was born the doctor had no idea what I was. Erahumans have a decreased head size, about the size of a baseball at birth and a cantaloupe in adult life. But we use both halves of our brain instead of just half. The doctor thought that my blue skin meant I was suffocating but when I took a breath and began to scream no one knew what to think. The scream of an Erahuman baby is not a cry of pain or fear but a cry that alerts the other Erahumans that it has come existence. My father and the doctors had no way of knowing this but with recent Era births our midwives have been able to understand the screams. My mother, during all this confusion, had taken her last breath and drifted of into the afterlife with my cry ringing in her ears. When the doctor handed me to the nurse it was to late to save my mother.

There were already three Erahumans in existence when I was born: Panaka, Rizubo and Helxni. The U.S. government had already seized them so that they could study them. My father had sensed the threat because he took me from the hospital as soon as possible. He then raised me in the country where I came to know many Erachildren. After about one hundred and thirty-five Erahumans were born the government no longer had the manpower to seize them. We were then allowed to enter society but we were watched closely.

Seventeen years passed as I grew before my father’s eyes. During this time Nizhumans began to appear in Europe and Marhumans began to appear in Asia. Each race began to increase, because human children were no longer being born. This lead to a decrease in human populations but in 2047 a horrible event occurred. A terrible plague ran though the world, originating in Australia. It spread quickly to all parts of the world until it killed all existing humans while leaving the three new races alone. It seemed that in anticipation of this plague, whomever was in charge of evolution, had caused a change in the species. During this time, my father and the fathers of all other Erahumans were killed.

In the past three years the races have migrated to areas of the earth where they are best suited. Erahumans have migrated to the earths equator, setting up tribes in the Mediterranean, tropical islands and Central America. Nizhumans have moved into Northern America, central European countries, South America and other mid hemispheric areas. Marhumans have traveled to the far ends of the earth into intense cold regions such at Antarctica and the Artic. Whatever the reason, each species has found a place where it belongs.

I’m sitting in my small room in what was once the south of Italy staring out my small window and gazing upon the young blue children below me. They have come to beg me to play my fathers violin so that they can dance. My father left me many gifts when he died but the thing I will remember most of all it to stick up for what is right and never persecute others for their differences. I recently read through Human history books and have compared it to the short Erahuman history. Things are the same and different but one thing I hope to teach the children beneath my window is that just because the Nzihumans are red and the Marhumans are unintelligent there is no reason to hate them because in the long run it will only bring out their own faults. I will put down my pen and give into the children, whoever reads this book should understand the importance of the future because it is the only thing the past can properly leave behind.