Inheriting the Apocalypse

Even now, when I watch The Tribe reruns for the 20th or 30th time, the same single thing makes me saddest about children inheriting an apocalyptic world -- the youngest ones. The ones who were born too late. The ones who are too young to know anything else, anything better.

A penetrating theme throughout The Tribe was loss. Loss of adults, of family. Loss of conveniences like movies & pizza parlors. Loss of technology. Loss of structure, government, culture. (The scene of Ebony amassing paintings from the museum, with no appreciation for what any of it is...chilling...)

It's sad when Salene or Trudy confesses they can't remember their mothers' faces. To me, it's sadder that Mouse or Charlie may not remember having parents at all.

The Tribe's 5 seasons took us out less than a year from the devastation of the world. In our tribute KTDARPG, 11 seasons have taken us almost 2 years away from death. There is still sadness, loss & deprivation but you rarely hear anything that harks back to before. You don't usually hear things like "I remember when..." or "I really miss having..."

It's hard to think of apocalyptic conditions becoming commonplace. It's hard to adopt the mind-set of young people, when the harsh conditions of their world has become the norm.

But that's what our game challenges us to do. We're still in survival-mode, but the conditions are more familiar now. This isn't the first hard winter we've weathered. Actually it's...normal.

I imagine it's hardest on the mothers. Trudy & Amber are challenged to build a future for their children. Not just survive. Scary? Oh, yeah. Especially when neither of the fathers is there to help. The whole concept of "family" changed. Without the tribe to support you, what chance do you have? In KTDARPG, Arianna faces the same challenge...and now we know Krystal will be joining her as a post-apocalypse mother.

Maybe the very young are the luckiest. They are more easily capable of taking things the way they find them & just dealing. They aren't troubled by the conventions & expectations of a world very different from the one they know today.

You can't mourn something you've never known, right?

Children are so very flexible. Give them a Christmas present and they're as likely to play with the box as the toy. They don't judge. They just live.

How they live in this strange world they've inherited will be the most amazing story of all.

-Chyna

Photo source: copyright Cloud-9 "The Tribe"