after earth

one

I look out my tiny square window at the world below; the trees stand naked and sway in the wind, while angry dark clouds loom ominously overhead casting shadows over what was once a beautiful lush forest, that is now just a grave yard littered with the dead. There's no sun anymore only clouds and acid rain. The only buildings that still stand are military bases and government facilities.

I leave the window and walk back to my concrete slab they call a bed, I sit down, tuck my knees up to my chin and count the cracks in my wall. 197.

The facility I'm imprisoned in is called the tower. It was created after the war to contain the people that got mutated by the radiation from all the nukes. Its a tall rectangular building with over five thousand rooms all containing mutated humans.

I'm one of the 'lucky' mutants that call this place home, I was dumped on the doorstep when I was a baby, due to the weird lumps on my back that later turned into wings. I have ears atop my head that resemble a cats and a bushy tail much like a fox's. I have heightens senses and can read minds which is why I'm in the highest room of the tower far away from anyone else. I can also hibernate which come in handy in the winter months where it drops to minus ten.

I hear the familiar jingle of keys from the other side of the thick Steele door keeping me prisoner in this tower of hell. The door swings open groaning in protest as a guard walks in wearing a grim expression, he reaks of fear and his thoughts reveal he'd rather be doing anything than being up here. He places a tray of food on the floor and shows me the cattle rod in the other hand daring me to move, he eyes me suspisciously before pulling the heavy door shut behind him and locking it again.

I crawl over to my tray and examine the mush they call food, I think it might be porrage but it has no smell or taste.  I drink some of the water and save the rest for later, you only get one cup a day and you gotta make it last.

The great war started in 2020 and went on for ten years till the majority of the world was destroyed. The facility is based somewhere in sector five which used to be Australia. There are only ten livable sectors the rest of the world suffered to much radiation damage to be deemed livable. There are five facilities around the world for mutated people to be held in. And the rest of the population are made up of maybe fifty thousand survivors not to mention all the rich people that hid in bunkers to escape the war. the government fell apart and we are now controlled in a military environment. 

They have a small facility a few hundred yards from here dedicated to growing food and plants to try and stabalise the air, though I don't know if it's working, the facility has it's own oxygen because the air outside is toxic. And anyone that goes outside wears a gas mask.