When the World Died: Part 1

based on a dream I had. This story is about how humanity psychologically reacts to the end of the world. We have used up the worlds resources and must survive at all costs

I remember when talk  of the end of the world was just that ... talk. It was only talk of the future. No one actually thought the day would really come, and no one actually did anything to prevent it, at least the majority of the world. Majority decides fate, so we were fucked from the beginning. We, as humans, use what we have till we use it all, and then we find a work around to keep going. We bring destruction with our creation. We have never awakened from our need to be God.

It was no surprise our science revolved around health care. We only think of money, and people never stop dying. add years to a persons life, and you have instant money. Money goes hand in hand with fear, and the fear of death will drive most people to spend their life earnings. We have learned how to grow body parts and  synthetic muscle. This was essentially all we needed. but our brains were not made to last this long. We now had the choice to live up to around 150 and 175. It wasn't a pretty sight to watch the mind at this age. The controversy behind this science lead to laws that forced death at a certain age. Plus we were overpopulating our world. The church was at a constant war with this science and grew in power because of it. Because of the political power this controversy gave the church, they only pretended to care, but they really only cared about the money and control of the people.

Now that there was no more money to make in the health care industry,  technology was fully focused towards entertainment only. The world revolved around nano technology, and everything was nice and neatly compacted. Our TV's, computers, cell phones, video games, and access to the internet was all embedded in contact lenses, and everyone owned a pair. We figured out how to teleport everything but people across the world. Most commercial stores disappeared and were replaced with homes and industrial corporations. Most shopping was conducted via the internet, and products were just teleported directly to peoples homes. With no need to leave the house, most people grew fat and lazy. With access to the internet directly in there eyes, most people could do most jobs with out leaving their house as well. these computers in our eyes were powered by our own bodies electricity and controlled by the thoughts from our minds. we live virtually in a world humans have created. I bet we can't even explain what is even physically real anymore.

Now we are living the fucked up effect from our 1000's  of years of cause. Our world is almost dead. We are running out of resources to fuel our needs of comfortable living. Hell not just comfortable living, but any type of living. We were running out of fossil fuel that powered our worlds. We surpassed this flaw to life with science by simulating a billion year process. We used a bacteria that processed sugar into fuel. The scientists made billions and the world went on as normal. This scientific invention was sold with the idea it reduced the effect of global warming. Our knowledge was flawed and mixed with over-sized concrete jungles and disappearing rain forests, oxygen is now a utility we pay for.

When we learned our world was dieing, we started on a plan to save our race. We called this plan The Project.

The Project is nearly completed. We have been limited to the amount of resource consumption we can use. all our remaining resources are being pumped into giant ships. This started 15 years ago when we realized how truly fucked we were. By the time The Project began, the world was so flat we already had basically a one world government, one world economy, and one source of power.  No matter the culture, we as humans need to feel individual. We were still split up by the names of our continents, and racism never died. We still repeated the history books, and there was always reason for war.

Now that The Project was coming to an end. Everybody received a date to be on their assigned ship. My date has arrived, and it was 6:00 AM in the morning. I didn't take a shower that morning. I saved the little water we had left for my wife and kids. I did however wash my face. I stared at my reflection in the mirror, but my smart mirror sensed my emotion and simulated my reflection as it would be in a pool of water. It then displayed the days schedule.

LEAVE
BOARD PROJECT SHIP 542

the teleportation device to the left of the mirror then generated four boarding passes. I popped in my computer contact lenses, grabbed the four boarding passes, and went to go wake up the rest of my family.

No one spoke one word to each other. The world was engulfed in silence. Before heading outside, the entire family strapped on their oxygen generator helmets. When we walked outside there was no sign off life. The color of the world was sepia, and the only color and movement was from the trash flying around. Plants died years ago, and where ever there was not concrete it was just dirt. The taxi was waiting for us just outside our driveway. We all piled in the back, and the taxi took us to our new life.

When we arrived, we got out and stood in amazement at the biggest transportation vehicle we have ever seen. The machine was hundreds of stories tall as well as wide. How this could be aerodynamic I have no clue. There was a huge line to get on board.  I lead my family to the end of it. We were standing in a vast, endless dessert. This was New Mexico so it made sense, but I heard the entire world was like this. The world's land masses have shrunk. What used to be California is completely underwater. About 50 years ago all of our ice caps had completely melted.

Everybody waiting in line to board the ship was completely silent too. Not a word from a single person.  Occasionally you could hear a muffled cry of a baby inside their oxygen mask. The babies and young kids were the only one's brave enough to look at people's eyes and face. They were the only one's that showed happiness and some sort of life. They still understood that this situation still involved absolutely no talking.

I wonder how it would be like growing up as a child in this day and age. This must all seem normal to them. This dead world is there only comparison to what the meaning of life is. Life is synthetic. Most humans are half synthetic, we are Bio-engineered robots. The meaning of true, natural beauty is lost to technology. We have been desensitized from reality, and now reality is dead, but to a child this is reality. This is how it has been from the beginning of their young lives.

We kept on walking, trudging towards the front of the line a couple steps every couple minutes. It was extremely hot. The overly large, sick sun was pounding heat towards our dry planet. Sweat was dripping off my face and evaporating before it could touch the ground. I was tired of what I was seeing everywhere, Dessert and Death. I imagined being in a rain forest with a river running besides me. My computer contact lenses then kicked in and ran a mathematical algorithm on the world around me. They first divided the world up into geometric shapes, and then a minute later started painting the forest and river to my eyes in a virtual simulation. The simulation had 360  degrees of beautiful landscape from the world when it was alive. The lower right corner of my vision constantly had a copyright date. This meant my virtual reality was based on a picture of The Amazon from 1970.

I passed my virtual reality to my family to let them experience the beauty of natural life in a completely unnatural way. They all took a deep breath and held it. They were struck with awe at seeing the world not demolished by humans. I let true reality sink back into sight. The world turned back to a dead, colorless world.  How could we destroy this entire planet. We kept slowly moving up the line.

It is strange to see every race, sex, and sexual orientation march towards one central location. It was even more strange to see us march in unity. It was as if we were one. We were the true meaning of the word "we".  This meaning can be illustrated with the scene I saw next:

The Neo-Natzi American was fallowing suit. He didn't speak a word. He only held his lovers hand, waiting in line behind a large African American family. The father of the black family was carrying his young son. The young son dropped his coat, and the family continued on with out noticing. This event led to the first words spoken in hours. The white man, covered in hate tattoo's expressing his opinion of a white-only America, picked up the young boys coat and said,

"Excuse me."

Everyone turned around to look at the person producing the sounds including the father of the boy. The father looked at the man, and the man, making his tattoo's seem hypocritical, handed the man the jacket. The father noticed the tattoo's painted down the arm of the man but didn't give this meaning. We are all brothers and sisters now.

The father acknowledged, " Thank you!"

We were all slowly one by one piling into this massive ship. slowly the line was shrinking, and the more it shrank the more I realized how scared I was. I looked at my kids and it kept my mind strong. I had to be strong for them.I could see the massive door, and the guards outside with guns frisking every person. I wondered how scared they were. I wondered how much more hard and scary it would be to pretend to that extent. How hard would it be to show utter confidence that we are all safe, that we will find a new home. This terrified me more, but also made me very peaceful in a way. I felt young with no responsibilities and tomorrow being a complete mystery. I felt like a kid again. This made me realize why having a calm, peaceful and confident image was so important.  Maybe we do have nothing to worry about.

We were next and five guards blocked our path. The biggest guard spoke, " All bags on the left. All four of you spread your legs and arms."

We did as we were told. and the rest of the check-in process seemed so fast. We walked past the guards, and I grabbed my family close. There was a gigantic clear door blocking our only path. When we got in front of it, all you could hear were hydraulics as a door closed behind us ending our past. Once that door closed, the door in front of us slowly started falling down leading us to our future. When we finished walking over the clear door, it closed behind us. Waiting for us inside, was a guide to lead us to... where ever the f**k was next.

Today, I was reborn.

Author's Note

This is a rough draft. Give me the constructive criticism please.

Reviews

[Kat-Marie Berti]

Amazing. The descriptions were perfect. The buildup, all the information about the world was down-pat. I actually think this could become a book someday. It really made me think about all the stuff we take for granted in everyday life on this planet. It also made me sad to realize at the things we are destroying, especially in view of the future generations. This is a great piece of writing Siri, you are a master with words.
Simply wonderful

[MOON]

This is a good story.

[Becky C Strukamp]

I definitely want and will read more. You speak so many truths about our society, how we ended up at this turning point and where we are headed. Brilliantly constructed!! Keep writing! I want more!!

[Hayley]

Wow I liked the ending. A new beginning, good or bad? However, you should go back and proof-read a bit. I noticed your sentences are really choppy, especially at the beginning. Make them flow more to get that desired effect you want.
I like the introduction though, of how the world has changed and what state it is in now. I especially liked how you added the act of kindness with the jacket and how old racial opinions did not matter because everyone ends up with the same fate. This is a sad story and pretty scary, because it could happen so easily.
Overall, I think you did a very good job :)

[J.Black]

Hmmm. Interesting. What I like about this piece is more of how it's an idea. And I say an idea as if I'm talking about something that can be expanded much further. Book possibly? A movie? I only say this because you didn't state everything out, as in the cause, effects and the solutions. It was more of just a list, BAM, in your face, but not in depth. I really would LOVE to see what your solutions are to everything. You touched based on technology, how TV is corrupted, we lose image of what is actually real and false. Us humans have brought the evil monster of technology into the world, so what could be a solution to bring it out? ... I always think writing is more fascinating when there are solutions. Like we know the issues, everyone does, but no one discusses the solutions of how to fix things. I like the analogy you used, however no one going to be re-born unless the entire world changes. I think the end of the world is actually the end of the world, there is heaven and hell, but other planets will not be equipped. Possibly because I believe in re carnation, I think we come back to the earth as something else... therefore, no re-born scenes happen. Just my outlook on this situation. Cool dream though Siri! :)

Oh, and one last thing! Hahaha very well written, minus a few errors that I believe others below have picked up on.

[DeathByChoice]

I absolutely love this! I love your perspective of the end of the world and the “new reality” that comes just before it. I actually think this is a pretty good description of how the world will be in the centuries to come – everything is technological but human differences still remain. Your descriptions were pretty good, they gave off more feelings than images, at least to me which is a little harder to do. Hopefully, the farther into the story the clearer things will be, like who are the characters (there's no real explanation in this part), and when exactly this takes place. But so far, great job! :)

[Yari Garcia (Older Prof..]

I'm a little confused as to the time frame of the story. If this isn't the life the main character has always lived, then the changes must've occurred within one lifetime?

Other than that I could follow the story perfectly and I was very interested the entire time! I would like to read more!!

(A couple of spelling errors, like "dieing = dying and Natzi = Nazi. Those are the only ones I caught)

[Emily Filkins]

Im surprised theres no other comments
I really liked it, the more I read the more I wanted to and couldn't stop - something very good to have, with a story like this
Good visualry and the ideas of the technology and everything seemed very true,
good job
100/100