Free 2022 by Ken Kroes Page B

Olivia and Hope went
to the trailers to get settled while Richard and Mikhail toured the
construction site activities.
    “Things are looking good, Mikhail,” Richard
said. “You’ve done well here.”
    “I’m glad you approve. Are you ready for your
big pep talk tomorrow?”
    “Yes—I think everyone here is pretty
committed to the cause so I don’t foresee any problems.”
    Diane arrived later than anticipated. The
last twenty-five miles of road was not much more than a temporary
path through the trees, and she had driven painstakingly slowly
through most of it. When she arrived, the security guard at the
edge of the village told her which trailer she would be staying in
and advised her to move quickly before Richard began his
presentation.
    She parked her RV in a parking lot that was
beside the security entrance since they would not let her drive it
right onto the site. She then grabbed her cell phone and put some
undergarments into a bag and made her way to her designated
trailer. When she arrived, she found that she would be sharing the
trailer with two other people. Putting her bag on the unclaimed
cot, she left the trailer and joined the general flow of people
heading towards a large structure she heard called “the town
center.”
    She entered the building, following the crowd
into an auditorium that was equipped with a stage, but that could
also have been used as a gymnasium. She guessed that the
retractable seating would easily accommodate two thousand people.
On this day, however, there was a collection of several hundred
fold-up chairs in the middle of the room, all facing the main
stage.
    She found a chair as Richard walked onto the
stage and welcomed the gathering. “I’m so proud of this moment, and
still find it hard to believe that it started only seven years ago
when a good friend challenged me to solve the ultimate puzzle: How
can we live on this planet without destroying it?
    “You’ve all had a few weeks to see how the
physical structure of Percipience is shaping up. I’m going to spend
the next hour going through the social aspects of the village.
You’ll have already heard most of this, but as promised, we will go
through it one more time and if you still have doubts that you’re
in the right place, you can drop out of the program. There will be
buses available tomorrow morning to take you back to the foundation
headquarters. This will be your last chance to reconsider.
Afterward, it’ll be full steam ahead.”
    The large screen behind Richard displayed a
number of bulleted points:
    Guidelines for the Percipience Way of
Life
    1. Other than for hunting wildlife, no weapons will
be made or built.
    2. Population control will be implemented once a
sustainable population has been reached (roughly 2,000).
    3. Allow expansion only if resources are available
and if it will cause no stress to the environment.
    4. Selective genetic pairing will be done and will
be overseen by the elders.
    5. Everyone must rotate through all routine tasks in
the village for a set amount of time as specified by the
elders.
    6. Everyone must assist in large tasks such as
planting, harvesting, building huts, and repairs.
    7. No currency.
    8. No livestock.
    9. No personal possessions other than clothes and
what can be carried in a backpack.
    10. No elected officials.
    11. No attempts to communicate with the outside
world.
    12. Environment is on equal terms with humans.
    13. Each hut will have one elder, and the elder’s
word is law for the hut. Each elder will select a successor who
cannot be a direct descendant.
    14. One of the elders will also be the leader for
the village and his or her word will be law. The leader will select
his or her successor, again which cannot be a direct descendant
    15. An elder or the village leader can be replaced
only if the vast majority of the other elders agree.
    He paused to give his audience time to read
and then continued. “I’m expecting that during the years ahead,
you’ll