humans

chapter 1

As he looked at the horizon, James couldn't help but feel sad. He was living here, in a village of 'peasants' as the city on the horizon loomed over the rest of the state. The city was Chicago and anyone living there was a millionaire, everyone else was starving except those who lived in the various cities across the empire. Twelve years before, the United States of America had attacked central and southern America and Canada. Now the Americas were ruled with an iron grip and attacked regularly by the China - Russia empire, not by nuclear bombs, nobody had used them since the state of Pakistan in the China - Russia empire had successfully destroyed New York and Washington DC.
The president lived in her own skyscraper with crystal cups and gold bed frames while the village of seran was starving along with other villages around it. There was a civil war going on between the rich and poor, the poor was losing. It started when someone broke into an army base, stole weapons and C4 and started putting up posters saying that if the peasants weren't given money and their own country, never to be attacked then the empire would not suffer. Of course, the empire disagreed and now there was war. Bombs were being put in drains, there were sometimes even skirmishes in the streets of Chicago.

When James had finished collecting his fishing nets, he looked through them, a rainbow trout thrashed in the net, along with a small mouth bass. This was more than he normally got. Normally he'd be lucky if he caught anything. Watching the river, James thought, was his favourite thing to do. Watching waterweed sway in the current, seeing birds float on the water and see small fish wait in the water, with all the time in the world. Running back home, James was very happy, he could eat and feel satisfied that he'd caught the fish. He would go to sleep on a full stomach.

James walked through the door of the old, previously abandoned house, the fish in his hands. His mother got up from her chair and hugged him, she was crying she was so happy. Her previously pale face was pink and her grey hair looked a little more brown, she looked younger, happier because she knew that tonight she would eat. She called his father through and his face, normally stern looking and serious, was now laughing and looking calm. They sat at the table after James's father had gutted the fish with his old, faithful knife and thanked James for catching, then they ate. James went to sleep on a full stomach for the first time in years. Meanwhile, in Chicago, kill squads were being sent to kill all peasants in the surrounding area.