...and we began their making!

How they arrived.

They arrived very calmly, and with every business-like aplomb. They arrived quietly during midday or evening while the daylight was their friend. We learned, in time, to not provoke their use of lights; the intensity scorched us if we were close, and they gave no warning.
Their wings were gossamer thin and never used in our thick and dirty air. Their bodies seemed of bone except that a thin glaze of rust grew as we watched. We could see no sign of breathing, though we felt there must be such or else how could they continue?
Few thought to resist, there seemed no violence in them – only purpose. When something became inconvenient it was simply scorched to blackened dust, and questioning was, of course, inconvenient. In a number of days so tiny as to count on the hands, all was ready and all were dutifully paying attention – or gone.
They took their places, everywhere, and began the lesson.

The Lesson

They said the lesson was the hive; we tried but most did not understand and soon many were gone. Some were gone because they did not understand, others because they reacted with terror when, next to them, what was, became scorched and blackened dust. Those that remained could hear and see and knew not to show fear and run.
They taught that none could own things, to think of things as possessions was the source of our lost and misled state. They taught that all belonged to the hive, and money was forbidden because it created inconvenience.
They said that they knew our God, the one God, and that they worshiped all that was God’s hive. They said that they were here on God’s work to teach the hive, and to bring those lost back to the hive’s wisdom. Their term of teaching? fifty years, when those just now born could be raised in the hive and have no other memory. When those raised in the hive had their full strength and adulthood and would teach their young the hive, then their work would be done and we would be taught and saved and brought into the hive; and all would once again be as it should.

The Work

Many starved or died of disease or the cold or at the hands of what few animals were left. We ate what growing things we could find. And some tried for a time to gather and provide for their families and learned that this was possession, that this was the lesson, and soon they were gone. Those that hunted were deemed violent and were soon gone, for violence was a means to possession and possession was the lesson. Bickering always ended the same, as charred and blackened dust, because bickering was about possession and possession was the lesson. Soon what cars remained ran empty of fuel and were left to rust and decay. What more complex forms of transport existed lasted for far less time and soon all travel stopped. Fresh food lasted for weeks before it spoiled, canned goods for months before it ran out. The years of the lesson began, and there was no resistance.

The Years

The strong amongst the very young lived and grew and learned to survive in the hive. Most of the original inhabitants of Earth did not survive the first ten years, though not all were lost. None were harbored or hidden, for this was possession and possession was the lesson. Some were provided for openly and quietly as part of the hive, provided for with silent assent that passed with stealth from eye to eye.
The strong amongst the very young lived and grew and learned to provide for the few that knew. They valued the aging and knew the meaning of the looks that passed with silent assent from eye to eye.
The strong amongst the very young brought younger still into the world and taught them the hive, and the value for the aging, and the meaning of the silent assent.
And so the years of the lesson passed.

How they departed

In time the fifty years passed and the lesson was declared complete. All had now learned of the hive, had been taught and brought into the hive. There was no possessing nor violence nor contention. The hive foraged and slept and lived from day to day, and the aged of many years were provide for and continued.
When the day of departure came it happened quietly, with every business-like aplomb. It happened during midday or the early evening. They gathered and boarded and departed without a word of completion, and all knew they would not return.

The Learned

The first struggle happened within hours, the first dead, Maximillian he was called, died within the day. He would go down in history as the first of the new age. He was killed for a place to put a new found record player that still worked when the crank was turned.
The first of the new coins were minted within the first week, and the first two made were set upon the First Dead’s eyes and he was buried with them. The aged remembered the making of them and said they were one and made of a metal called Silver. And they said that we would make many of them, and that many would possess them, and that many would die to take them from another and to have more than any other; and we rejoiced in our new freedom and our new future and our new age… and we began their making!