Thursday 11 June 2009

The PEDs and the Dark Cyclists clash

(More weird creative writing shit!)

There were now frequent clashes between PEDs (pedestrians) and the Dark Cyclists or Darkies as they became known as. Occasionally MOOTs (motorists) were involved but mostly not as MOOTs looked down on PEDs as ever. PEDs were seen as would-be MOOTs who lacked the resources to access a motor.

These disorganised and apparently random battles between PEDs and Darkies led to the now notorious Easter Battles. For those few remaining Post Christians (or Christies as they were commonly called) living in Iona (Islands of the North Atlantic, formerly known as 'Great' Britain and Northern Ireland and Eire) there was something profoundly ironical about an outbreak of communal violence at the time of the most important Christian festival. On the other hand for Christies Easter symbolises the brutal death of their founder Jesus so perhaps the brutal clashes between PEDs and Darkies were not so inappropriate.

Indeed it was always thus. For example comparatively peaceful and seemingly golden age of the 1960s there were pitched battles at seaside resorts between gangs of young people called Mods (who dressed fashionably and rode motor scooters) and rockers who disdained fashion and haircuts and rode motor bikes.

But the violence between the PEDs and Darkies was different. They were lots of injuries and many deaths. This was much closer to civil war than teenage exuberance fuelled by drugs and alcohol. Indeed most of the participants were over 25. Of course mass unemployment played a part, as did the collapse of the eco system and the collapse of modern government. But there was something else here - there was a relish about these battles, they were a focus for creative energies, they gave participants a sense of belonging. In many ways they resembled the warfare between the drugs gangs in LA.

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