A Simple Matter by Edward Drobinski - HTML preview

Now in 2040, every other human on Earth is dead, the result of being “smart,” advanced, sophisticated, and incessantly entertained. But, the Swartzentruber Amish don't know this, since they never had any interaction with the outside world. The internet is still up, though they don't know that either. The AI bots still use it; now their monopoly.

The Swartzentruber Amish, untouched, unknowing, continue their lives in a world that has quietly emptied out everywhere else. No violence, no gore, no apocalypse spectacle; just the serenity fools find strange in a people who never depended on the world that vanished.

In the Swartzentruber districts of Holmes County, Ohio, dawn still comes the way it always has; pale, slow, and without hurry. The roosters crow. The stovepipes breathe out thin columns of woodsmoke.

The horses stamp in their stalls, waiting for the day's work. Nothing is different. Nothing seems different.