The Marked Men (A brief origin tale)
(Disclaimer — The concept of this story isn’t my idea. Enjoy!)
If the phrase “nobody is perfect” still exists in your world, then you live in better times, my friend. Today, in my world, everyone is perfect, and to be anything less than that is a literal death sentence. In my world, there is no room for mistakes, no room for freewill, and no room for choice. It’s a long story, spanning multiple decades, but I’ll tell you how we got here.
We were on the brink of annihilation.
It started with the Sun. The celestial body that catered to the existence of every living organism threatened to put an end to life as we knew it. With each passing day, the rays from the sun grew hotter and hotter, till they reached levels higher than any other period recorded in history. We received no significant rainfall at that time, and water became a priceless commodity. Gradually, the sea levels reduced, and the surface of the Earth dried up.
Luckily, we survived. As if instructed by a Higher Being, the sun rays eased, and the clouds became visible again. The rains also returned, washing away the drought, and giving new life to the remaining trees. Humanity was blossoming again; our planet was healing, and the parched years were forgotten. Then the virus came next.
We don’t know where it came from or how it was created, but it spread like wildfire across the world. We called it the Synth. A nano-parasite that attacked the respiratory organs, eating its way quickly from the lungs to the trachea until it got to the nose. It caused intense agony for its victims, and they were usually dead within the first hours of infection.
It was first detected in South America, and in the two months after that, it spread across the entire continent, infecting, and killing hundreds of thousands of us. After six months, almost every nation in the world was infected. The death toll was rising into millions and the world was again in chaos.
The most brilliant scientists in the world were stranded. Despite the manpower and resources provided by richest nations, they could not figure out a cure for the virus or a way to contain its spread. Within the first year, a quarter of the humans living on Earth were wiped out. South America was declared a dead zone and nations began to build sanctuaries for the non-infected. It seemed again like the end for humanity. But once again, we survived.
Even to this day, many people call it the Tree of Life. Its real name was Verdentia aurorae, a rare tree that grew only in the thick forests of a country once known as Malaysia. It was said that the sap of the tree contained properties that rendered the Synth parasite ineffective, effectively making the human respiratory system fully immune. Governments of the world put together their dwindling resources to send scientists and researchers to Asia to produce a possible vaccine in full. By the time they were done, and it was shipped to sanctuaries around the world, another year had passed. Close to half of the world’s population had been wiped out, many countries had been rendered desolate, and the tree of life extinct.
In the same decade, we had survived two extinction events, and our world was no longer the same. Resources had dwindled significantly, and despite the major decrease in world population, the ratio of humans to available resources was insufficient. And so, the power struggle began. The remaining governments fought for control of the remaining resources the Earth had to offer. Once again, we faced a threat to our survival, but this time it was us.
The wars were brutal. The bigger governments formed alliances to destroy the smaller governments, then they turned on one another for who would gain supreme control of what was left of the world. More lives were lost. By the end of that decade, the world was a shadow of its former self; our glorious empires had been burnt to the ground and the monuments we once held in high regard, destroyed. The human population on Earth was less than half of the number that had begun the decade, and those that survived lived with an air of desolation that rose with the sun and moved around with the wind.
The innate survival instinct that saw us through two plagues and war now further warned of more destruction if we didn’t unite again. So, we did. A single government was formed, the land of the nations left were bordered as one and then split into districts. And we started to rebuild the planet.
As the years went by, the world began to take shape again. The scars of war and disease were still prominently evident, but the resolve of those of us left was to create a new home, free from the shadows of our past.
For the next half-century, we lived in peace. Humanity had triumphed over catastrophe not once, but twice, and the future of our world was hopeful again. But amidst this peace and progress, the dark underbelly of human nature began to stir. That greed and insatiable thirst for power, that had been dormant, was now awakening. Under the united rule of one council, the world prospered, but from different corners arose whispers and rumours of discontent. There was an uprising desire for a return to the way of the past, where nations ruled sovereign in their territorial boundaries, free from external countries to develop as they pleased. District leaders began to discuss secession from the United Order and were slowly sowing seeds of rebellion amongst their supporters. It seemed like we had quickly forgotten the lessons from our past.
In the heart of this rising discontent, an idea was conceived, one that aimed to save humanity from destruction again. Hunter Jodiom was a scientist, a professor of history and psychology, driven by his relentless desire to reshape the world. He studied history, from the Greeks down to the generation known as Z. His entire youth was spent on research and studies, his entire life devoted to answering one question, “why does man suffer?”.
After years of searching, Hunter finally got what he believed was his answer, and it led to the birth of an audacious idea in his mind. He planned to create a new breed of humans, beings who could do no wrong, embodied by perfection in every way. He called them the “Marked Men,” and their mission was to forge a world where we humans would exist in perfect harmony. In his memoir titled Men Marked by Perfection: Our Final Hope, Hunter wrote, “In a world tainted by humanity’s innate greed and malevolence, a dire need emerged. The need for a time when man, freed from the shackles of his darkest impulses, would finally thrive. The Marked Men are not a product of arrogance, but salvation to a world poisoned by its vices. Hope even in the face of our inherent darkness.”
His vision, however, was not welcomed by the leaders of the world and by many of us alive at the time. We scoffed at the possibility of engineering such “perfection” and dismissed him as “another man wanting to play God.” Many scientists and philosophers also disagreed with him. To them, man as a being was too dynamic, complex, and flawed to be reshaped in such a manner. An attempt to create “perfection” in him was an attempt to tamper the very nature of his soul.
Hunter, however, was not deterred by their rejection. He strongly believed that the imperfection in them prevented them from understanding his vision. But he was determined. Willingly or not, they would understand. So, in the shadows, he laid the foundations to bring his dream to reality.
The story goes that he assembled a small, dedicated team of individuals who shared his belief and his desire for a perfect world inhabited only by perfect beings. They were his first Marked Men, who, although “flawed” by nature, possessed exceptional skills and unwavering loyalty. As the years passed, his agents infiltrated key sectors of society, including politics, finance, and technology, intending to gain the upper hand when the time was right. They accessed various networks of power, securing funding, technology, intelligence, and studying the vulnerabilities of the existing power structures. At that time, we were once again facing instability. Hunter saw every day that passed as a step closer to humanity’s doom, but still, he waited patiently for his opportunity.
His moment finally arrived at a global summit, where all the world leaders had gathered to discuss the possibility of secession and the termination of the present world order. The subject had evolved from whispers in the streets and private discussions behind closed doors to a topic of global importance. Some of us wanted the world divided into sovereign nations, while the rest of us fought heavily against the idea. Global demonstrations began, accompanied by both peaceful and violent protests. And before we knew it, unrest settled on the world again. So, the summit was called, a space for all thoughts to be heard and a final decision made.
The day of the summit began with an air of formality. Diplomats, politicians, and dignitaries gathered in the conference hall where they engaged in polite discourse and arguments. As the hours passed, tension rose, with differences of opinion and competing interests threatening to derail the proceedings. But unknowingly to them, and to us at the time, they were all puppets in a larger show.
For years, Hunter’s Marked Men had disguised as loyal aides and trusted advisors to infiltrate the highest levels of power across every government. By that time, his following had grown to hundreds, with many more joining his cause for a perfect human race. His agents were said to have been tasked with subtly fanning the embers of division among the human race. For years, they worked towards this exact moment and it finally arrived.
As arguments flew back and forth in the hall, the Marked Men, disguised as security personnel, infiltrated the conference hall, swiftly incapacitating every opposition. We watched in shock as our leaders were taken hostage and a largely unfamiliar man took to the podium.
Hunter Jodiom’s voice carried the weight of conviction as he delivered the infamous Man is A Disease speech. He laid out his vision for our world, one where all our flaws would be eradicated, and perfection would reign supreme. As billions around the world watched in shock, Hunter and his Marked Men seized power and that was the moment a new order was born.
The Marked Men began to implement their vision immediately, and the coming years were filled with relentless campaigns of brainwashing and psychological exercises. They described it to us as a “chance to be born anew” and many bought into the vision. Hunter and His Marked Men justified their actions with a chilling conviction; man would never again plunge into the chaos that had nearly destroyed him.
We were all given a choice. Those that chose to join the new order were stripped away of their freewill, and molded into Hunter’s vision of perfection; an efficient being, devoid of emotion and burdened by the desire to only do “good”. While the rest of us who refused to conform to this new reality were ostracized from society to live as outcasts.
Many decades have passed since, yet each day we wake up with hope. The hope that one day, the true cost of “perfection” would be revealed, and there would be a future for those of us that refused to surrender our humanity.
So, what do you think?
Follow me Aderinto EbunOluwa for more great fiction stories and non-fiction articles.
