When I look around me, I see the year 3024. Murky air, gray wisps of clouds higher up in the dark sky than I could ever dream to reach, brown dirt, broken remains of dead trees, and hundreds upon thousands of people that seem to be on the brink of death. I've heard stories of the past, the stories of a world run on technology and overflowing with knowledge, where people made lots of money and lived in buildings that touched the clouds. I wonder what it was like.
After the population of the world hit seven billion, people felt accomplished, after it hit ten billion, they felt like celebrating, but after it hit 20 billion and showed no signs of slowing down, they got worried. Wealthy nations were becoming more and more greedy, while poorer ones were on the brink of death and despair, and they weren't happy about it. War broke out worldwide. Whole continents went up in smoke and over 17 billion people lost their lives, and those who remain might as well be gone too. Less than 300, 000 square miles of habitable land remains, and the people that live there are plagued with cruelty worse than death.
Technology is nonexistent. The only buildings left are made of the shattered remains of the ones that came before them. Nearly every animal has gone extinct and plants are scarce. After society collapsed, the world regressed into a state of killing and taking whatever they had to in order to survive. People live off of whatever they can.
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I woke up to sound of shouting. Again. The thousands of people living in our very, very small town tended to get into heated arguments over what seems like no big deal all the time. The children around here will steal anything they can take without being caught and adults will kill any child they catch stealing. Actually, they'll probably kill anything they can catch period. I didn't move from my spot on the ground where I slept, but I listened carefully.
"You stupid brat! You stole a whole can of food from me! Look at your face! You can't deny it!" I recognized the man's voice. He worked in the ruins. He was never very nice, but he wasn't a liar. If he said he'd been robbed, he was telling the truth.
"It wasn't me! Please! It wasn't!" The girl wasn't convincing me and I couldn't even see her face. The fear was evident in her young voice, but she'd done just what she was accused of. I almost felt bad, she couldn't be more than eight years old, but she knew what she was doing.
"Yes, it was!" As the man screamed his reply back at her, a screech of pain filled the air. He had probably pushed her to the ground and pinned her with his foot. I'd seen him do it before, a few times actually. I knew there were others outside, but none of them watched, none of them stopped to help. Not even the girl's family would come to her rescue.
"You know what happens to little girls that steal?" You could almost hear the menacing smirk that was surely plastered to his aging face. The girl begged for him to spare her life, but I knew he wouldn't. No one ever did.
I covered my ears, I knew what was coming. I didn't want to hear it, but the girl's high-pitched scream and the sound of her neck snapping were loud and unmistakable. The man's family would eat well tonight.
