Tales from the BNL Star Liners

Sasha Green - The Downfalls of Hyperconsumerism

It was another bright, hot morning in July, and the regular rattling of tracks from the adjacent Buy N' Large transit had begun, signaling it was roughly seven o'clock. A sliver of sunlight sneaked through a crack in the drapes, highlighting the right side of Sasha Green's pale face as she awoke. Over the prior months, there had been periods of hotter weather for several days at a time, and today was another one of those uncomfortable days. When Sasha finally decided to unstick from her mattress, she walked over to the COOL-A air conditioning unit and turned it off, which caused the room to become increasingly unpleasant.

She proceeded to the kitchen, putting on her undershirt, to begin her morning routine. The kitchen units began serving their daily functions after she had pressed a button on the central household command intelligence key, with the SAUT-A cooking unit poaching an egg and the THIRST-E beverage unit dispensing coffee. She checked the small stack of envelopes comprising bills and junk mail while she waited. Some of her expenses were past due, and the payment on her electricity bill had jumped dramatically since the last time she paid it. "Corporate jerks," she fumed, "constantly want me to pay more for expenses while refusing to give me a cent more per hour to god damn afford it." Frustrated, she shoved the envelopes aside and switched on her outdated, almost considered to be ancient, flat screen television. The Buy N' Large news station was the only channel on, as usual, with regular stories on Buy N' Large, its chief executive and current world leader, Shelby Forthright, and the Buy N' Large star liners charting the Axiom's voyage to the Kuiper Belt. It had been three years since the last starliner had departed Earth, and for several months, it had been a popular campaign. They had been cruising blissfully in space since then, while everyone else on Earth was still sweltering in the sun's seemingly ceaseless heat.

Shelby Forthright had emerged on screen unexpectedly, disrupting the regular news. Fortunately, this was a regular occurrence as he recently started regularly interrupting the news when he had an announcement regarding the Axiom. Sasha had learned to muffle his false exuberant tone, however this time he was talking about how the Axiom had taken off to explore the Kuiper Belt once more, and that damage repair was complete. There were no other references of the Axiom being wrecked, so this must have been a slip up. His supporters, though, were unlikely to notice his error due to the fact that he was the global leader, although Sasha did. Her thoughts were abruptly interrupted by the chime of her clock, and she hurriedly continued eating and getting dressed for work.

She dashed out of her apartment, ignoring the recently constructed tower alongside her building, shoving the electricity bill into her handbag and promptly walked through the city. Rushing past several buildings, and trying to avoid the sun's rays of heat, she hurdled over debris and made her way to the Buy N' Large bank, all the while it's cheesy jingle was echoing through the street,

"Buy N' Large is your super store

We've got all you need,

And so much more!

Happiness is what we sell,

That's why everyone

Loves B N L!" 

"Happiness?" Sasha muttered to herself as the jingle played, "how can everyone love Buy N' Large if half of the supposed 'happiness' they sell is out of reach for the rest of us? On Earth, we are the ones who must continue to pay expenses that are becoming increasingly unaffordable, as well as accept the fact that this problem or more importantly, the major worldwide crisis, may take years to resolve or may never be resolved. Nothing has happened thus far, and circumstances have only gotten worse." She stepped over to the postal tube after departing the bank. She typed in the Buy N' Large electricity department's address, placed the money due in the envelope, and crammed it into the tube. The letter was whisked away with a 'whoosh'. It was quarter to eight, and she had fifteen minutes to get to her Buy N' Large branch, according to the holoclock. She resumed rushing to work once more, this time racing across the city centre. The city she was racing through, on the other hand, was not what it used to be.

Once a thriving metropolis, she was now racing through a dimly populated landfill for a street. Strolling past, several holoscreens suddenly beamed into place, sounding a 'shwoop' for every advertisement that appeared, startling Sasha as they always had done. There they were: Buy N' Large advertisements flooding the dusty orange horizon with bright blue, red and white lights; almost hiding the Earth's worsening condition. Sasha paused to catch her breath as she tilted her head to the sky. Sighing, she resumed her frantic pace, dashing down the street once more. "President Shelby Forthright," she contemplated; "If anyone is to be held accountable for inventing this dystopia for a world, it would be him. After all, he treated the world as if it were a ship, and now he intends to save himself and flee; a cowardly captain."

She was once again travelling across the dusty metropolis after a measly three-hour shift at work. Since then, it had become a little darker as more dust had settled in, and her overall visibility had diminished. She could only see what was five metres ahead of her, yet the familiar Buy N' Large jingle was still blaring throughout the now emptier street. Thus, she knew where she was. When she was roughly five minutes away from home, an announcement beamed across the adjacent buildings' windows. This announcement, however, was more alarming than the earlier one made by Forthright, with a continual siren sounding 'bleep' and a warning in bright, yellow letters alerting that a dust storm was imminent and fast approaching the vicinity within the next two minutes, with a countdown ticking down below it. Sasha, mortified, began sprinting home as swiftly as she could. She had known that dust storms were becoming more frequent due to the rising temperatures, but she never anticipated it would happen today.

With approximately one minute before the dust storm hit, she arrived at her apartment door and finally realised that the tower that had developed alongside her complex was made of litter and debris, and that WALL-E trash compacting units were hastily speeding away or hiding in their box configurations to escape being damaged by the storm. She sped through the archway and into the main room after making it inside, turning off the majority of her electronic devices. Then she dashed into her bedroom and did the same thing, clambering beneath her bed in case any of the windows had broken. Sasha, fearful for her life, nestled in the foetal position, closed her eyes and reflected over and over again, "Sixteen years ago," she paused, "sixteen years ago we had the opportunity to stop this. Nobody would have left if it weren't for sixteen years ago. My family would still be here with me if we had acted sixteen years ago." She lay motionless, listening to the sirens outside fade into the dust storm's violet winds. "Sixteen years ago, we had the opportunity to vote that coward of a president out of office, but we ultimately failed ourselves and the Earth as a result of our own folly. It's our fault, and the planet is demonstrating its displeasure." Suddenly, Sasha could hear a crashing sound from outside, and peeking out from under her makeshift bed shelter, darkness replaced what was left of the orange sliver of sunlight that sneaked through the cracks of the drapes.

Several days later, rescue crews finally managed to survey the damage and search for survivors. The waste tower that had been built as a result of people's hyperconsumerism had collapsed due to the storm, blocking any way out. WALL-E units dashed out and resumed their sisyphean mission. It wasn't until four months later, the residents, including Sasha, were discovered. A sliver of sunlight managed to once again sneak through a crack in the drapes, revealing the horror of what remained of Sasha Green.