Once When We Were Human is a surreal, highly metaphorical dystopian novella that explores total state control, the erasure of freedom, and the tragic consequences of societal apathy. Set in an alternate reality where a ruling class of “Wolves” has subjugated the general populous of “Dogs,” the narrative charts a chilling devolution. It acts as a powerful allegory for human history, specifically touching upon totalitarian regime tactics, social classification, and the systematic pacification of the working class through a curated “carnival of desires”

Swan utilizes a unique anthropomorphic framework to evoke the psychological weight of a classic Orwellian dystopia. The prose reads with a distinct blend of dark satire, psychological tension, and creeping dread. This book is an excellent match for readers who appreciate speculative dystopian fiction, sociopolitical allegories, and psychological thrillers in the vein of 1984, Brave New World, or Animal Farm.

Chapter 1

There I was lying stretched out in my hammock – A Molotov cocktail in my hand, two shots of vodka, a slice of lime and a dash of lemonade.

And just for luck a shot of dark rum… don’t forget the ice.

Life was good for me.

A dog’s life one might say.

The cold concoction slipped down my throat quickly and drowned out the troubled thoughts of my mundane life. These wolves thought they had it all, but I knew that just as empires rise, they will also fall.

I was about to nod off when my nose started to twitch then came the low buzzing sound that reminded me of a beetle in mid-flight.

‘Here’s trouble.’ I thought to myself.

I jumped out of the hammock as the neighbourhood drone hovered into view. Anger rose inside me followed closely by fear as I reminded myself to keep my mouth shut. The drone hovered twenty feet above my head, in a strange way, it reminded me of a gigantic button. The kind my Mother used to keep in a sewing tin. It had a playful appearance despite that fact that its shadow filled half the garden.

The drone flipped and swayed nimbly like a ballet dancer, it was trying to figure out what I was thinking, but not even I knew that.

I opened my eyes waiting for the blinding flash of light to hit me.

“IDENTITY CHECK PLEASE”

“Justin. Justin S Serch. Come on you know me already. It’s the same shit every week.” The drone shifted once or twice in the air as if it was sizing me up.

“The state would like to remind you that disobedience against authority is not permitted. The term ‘same shit’ is an aggressive term.”

I dropped my head and looked away. I knew the consequences of my actions so I played the game. I had spent too many nights trying to fall asleep with the names of missing friends running through my mind.

I remained motionless, stiff with fear, the lights flashed, and I was momentarily blinded. The bug transferred pixelated images back to HQ to verify who I was, and made sure I was not on the list.

The list consisted of anyone who had attacked the State whether by word or by bullet.

The bug suddenly hovered up into the air and zipped sideways to the next garden. My body relaxed briefly as I quickly ran back into the house hoping to avoid any further detection. The drone was hovering in the neighbour’s garden and I could see Beauvoir and Heidi quivering beside each other. Their legs were visibly trembling, and their heads were tilted towards the drone in obedience, but the drone was not looking at them. It was questioning the neighbours next to them. They had been growing their own food.

This was against the law.

Although there was an abundance of food, it was strictly regulated by the state to ensure everybody had enough, food to eat. I quickly ran upstairs to get a better look but knew what was coming; the neighbours didn’t stand a chance.

As I peeked through the bedroom window, Beauvoir and Heidi had run up to the fence and were protesting. I felt like shouting at them to get away but I couldn’t. I took two steps back into the dark shadow of my own room, and sat down in the corner, holding onto my knees.

Feeling ashamed.

The brightness of the blood-red laser lights filled my room along with the sounds of the neighbour’s screams; I stuck my head between my legs and hid in the darkness.

The large bug swooped down and sucked up the perpetrators into its belly, and then flew away. I waited a few minutes before going downstairs and poured myself another drink. I looked at myself in the mirror, staring long and hard at my fearful face. I flipped my tail round solemnly, whisking it from left to right as if it was a tail belonging to someone else.

I tried my best to remember what it used to be like before we all became animals, a brief image of a long, slim, naked and hairless body came to mind; flat faces and mouths that smiled and sometimes frowned.

The ease in the way we used to walk around and talk to each other, carefree and careless. Unconcerned as the wolves of the world slowly became more powerful. Shrugging shoulders as more and more laws were passed against our freedoms. I think that’s when we first started to notice our own skin changing, the first thick hair trying to poke through.

I licked my paw and tried to push the memories of ‘the change’ out of my mind. Some had said it was God’s retribution, others say nature’s revenge for messing with the DNA. All I know is that I no longer gave a damn.

Pushing all thoughts of what had just occurred out of my mind I fired up the games console grabbing the controls.

Citizens Watch and Crush thy Neighbour were the latest titles on the block.

I was pretty good at blasting my way through the hypnotic maze and levels. Reaching the top and starting again at the bottom. I was so distracted by the game that I did not hear the front door open and my wife walk through the door. The next thing I felt was her cold nose as it nuzzled my neck. I quickly jumped back from the games console, startled, before realising it was Karen. Sheepishly I rose again onto two legs attempting to reassert my dominance, but it wasn’t working.

“What is it? Are Beauvoir and Heidi ok?” asked Karen.

“Sure.”

“You look scared. What happened, who was taken?”

I grabbed the console and tried to get back to my game.

“Just leave it.”

Say nothing, that’s how it went in this world. I tried my best to ignore my wife and flipped the entertainment device to the news. It was the usual news about austerity measures and further sacrifices. The war on terror seemed to have expanded, and everyone was a potential terrorist these days.

Karen was busy searching through the cupboards to see what food was left. The usual tin’s stared out at her. Rabbit and lamb and my greatest enemy of all – Vegetable mix.

There was plenty of food these days, but the choice was limited. Food was bought via stamps and any other luxuries that needed to be haggled for were found outside of the food system. Natural food was a delicacy and could get you killed. Of course, some dogs were more equal than others and working for the right wolves came with benefits, but Karen had something I lacked.

Honor.

While she didn’t exactly rock the boat. She didn’t sit comfortably in it either. I had met Karen at an office function where I worked. I wrote the news she broke the news. The media HQ in London was where my eyes were first opened to the strength and the power that the wolves had obtained.

And the funny thing was that it all came from words.

They told you how and what to write and you never questioned anything. It wasn’t worth losing your job over. Karen was different. She argued more. She often complained about truth and justice. In the end, she was retired and was informed to remain at home until further employment could be found.

Just then the doorbell rang.

“Honey. Can you go and get the door. I invited Beauvoir and Heidi around for tea.”

“Why on Earth did you invite them around? You know I can’t handle their conversation. They speak a strange language.”

She patted me on the head in that condescending way of hers.

“Stop feeling insecure your opinion is still valid. Just smile and be nice to them.”

Beauvoir and Heidi were a couple of fancy academics who kept arguing with each other about complex philosophical ideas which I barely understood. They were also into art but not the kind of art that I would consider art, I preferred a Monet or a Vermeer. Something you could sink your teeth into and appreciate.

The last time I went to one of their art shows we all sat there staring at a urinal, this was followed by an impromptu performance by a Norwegian sound artist which I thought was hilarious. Until of course, they told me that the burps and farts coming from his mouth were an ode to his dead mother.

They both looked a bit shaken – understandably after their earlier incident. Not much was said for the first five minutes while Karen poured out the drinks and placed some nibbles on the table. As you would expect they drank wine which was not easy to get a hold of these days but Karen loved to invite them round and listen to them talk or should that be argue.

“Heidi, please. You keep going on about the same thing, again and again, and again. I cannot teach you if you do not want to see. It is beyond space and time.”

“Oh, Beauvoir please. Beyond space and time is a convenient excuse you religious people employ as a weapon against empirical evidence.”

Beauvoir and Heidi’s eyes locked while both their paws grabbed onto the final snack.

“I told you before: Meditate – Do retreats, and then all will be revealed.”

Heidi sat back a little and was smirking at Beauvoir. Clearly, this was a game they loved to play.

“If all the hippies who sat meditating actually got involved we would not be in this mess in the first place.”

Karen came through with the wine at the right time to distract the warring couple and started to pour. I loved to watch Karen pour the wine, she had grace, strength and humility. Three qualities I lacked.

“So how are you two today after your altercation with the drones?” asked Karen.

Heidi and Beauvoir looked at each other and then away.

“What’s there to say? These ridiculous rules, people being taken but nobody does anything about it.”

“Why even bother to grow your own food, there is enough around,” I said.

“It was a statement, Justin. Some people make a stand. You cannot grow anything yourself unless you pay a fee, which is so high that it can only be afforded by the wolves. Hence why they own production, they were martyrs.”

I wasn’t buying it, but admittedly I had spent too many years writing and reading pro-wolf propaganda. I was no longer sure what I believed.

“The wolves have managed to build a system that feeds all people equally. We go to the shops and are given our quotas. We have enough. If we start bucking the system, it will all collapse.”

I sat back uncomfortably. I knew they had their views, and I had mine. I never understood the people who complained about things. Everybody was being provided for.

“It’s about control Justin – they own everything. And soon they’ll own you.”

The conversation continued down the usual lines about how ‘the wolves control everything’, and is the ‘State taking too much control’. I knew the only way to steer these two away from the heavy conversation was to pour them more wine and feed them salty snacks. Within a few minutes, I had managed to get them more drunk than they had ever been. They were now beating each other on the Super Brain Quiz Challenge Game.

Unfortunately, Heidi had won by a mile, and they were back to arguing again.

“Don’t start Beauvoir with that form behind the form crap, or the one true table. I suppose you see two of me do you?”

“Two of you is too much for anyone.”

I tried to drag them back to the table and hint at going home time.

“Hey, this tree behind the tree. Can I take a pee against it?”

That produced a few laughs being intellectually inferior had its benefits. Talk about the odd couple but I didn’t mind except for the wine of course; that stuff was expensive.

A wolf’s drink.

Luckily I had contacts – you had to have contacts these days. Even if it could get you killed.

Karen came through with more wine just as there was a rap at the door, everybody fell silent. I looked at Karen, and she looked at me. Shame flooded my body, and my legs went weak, I watched her walk to the door with her dead face on.

“Is there a Beauvoir and Heidi here?”

The wolves were at the door. They came walking in with their guns pointed towards us, we all dropped onto all fours, as was expected when a wolf entered the room.

My heart was trying to escape from my chest, punching its way out.

“Beauvoir and Heidi. Come with us.”

Heidi being the more assertive one went to protest.

“Please. We work for the University we have many wolf friends.”

One of the wolves came forward and swung his rifle butt round, Heidi fell to the ground.

“What the hell are you playing at?” Beauvoir moved to see if Heidi was ok but she was unconscious.

The other wolf stepped forward to read out the crime.

A wolf never looked at you, their eyes were covered with tinted glasses, new-tech. These glasses projected the internet using visual cues from the mind onto the eyes.

They got New-Tech – We got Lo-Tech.

“Heidi and Beauvoir. You are under arrest for crimes against the state. This includes the writing of subversive material, and the entertaining of a degenerative art gathering within your community. You are both requested to visit the commissioner at his office now!”

The two wolves stepped forward and grabbed them both by the arms. Karen protested but knew it was useless, I stood there with my eyes fixed on the ground, unable to move.

The door slammed shut, and my eyes were still transfixed to the floor. Karen turned around to look at me.

“Why didn’t you do anything?”

“They have guns are you insane?”

I went straight to the fridge and pulled another beer out.

“They’ll be fine. They’ll be out in a day or two.”

“And in the meantime, you’ll go back to your beer and video games.”

She was right. But what could I or anyone else do? The world was becoming darker, dogs could only go out at certain times. Dogs must stick to a certain area while curtailing our activities they also increased our wages and introduced measures to make our lives much easier. Every dog was entitled to a home by law, we were given the goods but expected to shut up. Such was the price of freedom.

A freedom of sorts.

“I’ll go to the Police Station tomorrow.”

I flipped on the television set and watched the news. Jobs were on the increase, manufacturing was up, Fiscal rules were being tightened. Riots had broken out in some of the cities caused by the hippies, it was always the hippies who had to spoil it for the other dogs.

The funny thing was they didn’t even have a cause, they just occupied a space and sang terrible songs.

The wolves would move in on them firing shots, the other day one of them was killed. The news program called them agitators. It made me feel uncomfortable that people were willing to die for a belief I didn’t understand.

I switched off the news. It was better that way.

Let the video games occupy my mind while they occupied the squares. Karen tidied the house in silence, she was worried for our friends and quite rightly so. Soon she would pad on my shoulders and head upstairs to bed, I soon joined her.

Karen was out cold. I reached over to scratch her back, but she moved away so I lay there in the dark. Four paws in the air, my thoughts spinning around in my mind. I felt bad for Heidi and Beauvoir, but I had to agree with the Wolves. Their art wasn’t just degenerate, it was nonsense.

I turned onto my side and tried the cold nose on the top of her head trick, but she moved away again.

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