The Twilight Zone: A Bold Choice

     In the real world the fear of the unknown is a powerful force that can bring out the best in some people and the worst in others. One thing is certain and that is that the fear of the unknown does show what each person is really capable of.

       Tough choices are a part of living. Each human being goes along making many tough decisions every year. No one knows what the future might hold since one day you are alive and well and then further down the road you die in an unexpected manner. One day your health is in great shape and further down in life you find out that you are dying and that you should get your affairs in order. For the Fisk family in the year 2270 they have adapted to a new reality of how the governing bodies had contaminated the environment to such a degree that it was not safe to go outside and breathe the harmful contaminated air that was in the outside world. Julia Fisk, Greg Fisk and their 14 year old deaf daughter Melanie Fisk had adapted to the new way of living. After two years of living inside of their home a weird phenomenon had occurred as a green fog had begun to appear which seemed to make people disappear and their whereabouts were unknown. Part of the people that were exposed to this were the oxygen workers from Air Incorporated that wore suits with oxygen to deliver and install enough oxygen for many years to the different homes that acquired their services. With the contaminated air peril worldwide the company had everyone as their customer. To get food the world had been doing it through the billion dollar company Wholesome Food Delivery whose delivery drivers were also risking their lives to get their job done. All of the modern repair companies had evolved into this new reality. 

       One day there was a severe level 5 hurricane that had damaged the power grid in many states and it had done a lot of damage to the oxygen tanks that were in many homes. The modern set of homes had technological panels that protected different types of properties. Julia Fisk and Greg Fisk had found out that they only had enough oxygen for 2 people to survive before the power grid brigades could arrive because the hurricane had damaged many of the oxygen tanks. Both parents communicated through sign language with their daughter Melanie about what was going on. The family had to make a bold choice and Greg had suggested to Julia that he could poison himself so that Julia and Melanie could live yet Julia did not want that to happen. Unbeknownst to them Melanie was reading the lips of her parents and knew that a tough choice had to be made. Julia told Greg that there had to be another way and told him to analyze any other set of solutions that could be available.

      All of them went to sleep that night and were tense because of what had to be done. Julia had woken up early the next morning and then she went to check up on Melanie who was not in her room. Julia found a letter where it stated that she was glad to have two loving parents who went the extra mile to raise a deaf child and she had decided to go outside and risk her own life so that her parents could survive. Julia was crying as she went to wake up Greg and tell him what their daughter did. Greg had bought 5 oxygen contamination suits and put one of them on. Greg went outside to look for Melanie, but she was nowhere to be found. Melanie had been taken away by the green fog a few minutes after she had gone outside. After some time the power grid brigade arrived and fixed the power. Later on, they were able to get more oxygen to survive. For the remainder of their lives both parents went to look outside for Melanie yet they were never able to find her.

      The fear of the unknown is the worst enemy that a person can have since it can enhance the sense of distrust and the paranoia that can overwhelm human beings. In a way the fear of the unknown is something that can keep people together or apart depending on how their minds process what they cannot comprehend. All that is needed is a single percentage of doubt to make a person hesitate to follow through with what has to be done. The Fisk parents have just learned the hard way that they had raised a good loving daughter that wanted for them to be safe and who was grateful for the support that she received from them while they were together. Now the family is apart and they will remain apart because of the sense of fear that clouds the judgement of the human mind. This is the sense of fear that comes from one of the darkest corners of The Twilight Zone.

                                                              The End