Dream Journal

Chapter 3

Chapter Three – Envy

          When she ‘died’ and was brought back to the world outside the dome, Christina got all her memories back from when she was a kid. She said she had learned in one of her childhood history classes that before she was born, the world had what was called The Great War. America and its allies teamed up to fight China and its allies with nuclear warfare. The war lasted only three days before eighty percent of Earth’s population was completely wiped out.

          After seeing the destruction that had been done, American and Chinese leaders teamed up to form a one world government. Under this government, the world was completely rebuilt so that citizens would never have to look at the destruction the leaders had once caused.

          Any and all technology growth was completely banned.

All citizens lived peacefully, and no one broke any of the rules, because the penalty for breaking even the slightest rule was very harsh. Instant death without trail.

          Christina told me all this because the day after we reunited, the bookmark displayed another word, only this time it was two words. It read, ‘Dollar Bill.’ I literally had no clue what it meant, but Christina said it was American currency long before chips were implanted into people’s hands as a world-wide debit card.

          The day the word appeared on the bookmark, we went to the closest museum to get a look at a dollar bill. It was framed up on a wall with a small piece of paper under it giving information. We couldn’t take the dollar since it didn’t belong to us, but we took a picture of it. When we looked at the picture, there were two clearly defined number sequences in it that were not there when the picture was snapped. We took more pictures of the dollar, but only that first picture had the mysterious numbers.

          The number sequences had to be part of the clue, but it was Wednesday afternoon now, a week later, and we hadn’t made any progress in figuring out what it meant.

          “How long does it take to tie your shoe?” Christina teases me.

          “At least I know how to tie my shoes, unlike someone I know,” I wink at her and then stand up after my shoe is tied. “Alright I’m done, le’go!”

          We were still in the city, outside a big store called Amazon Prime. Christina loves reading, and she insists on us going into this bookstore to do something to kill time until I have my nightmare tonight.

          As soon as I step inside I look around and grow very perplexed. “Where’re all the books at? I thought you said this was a bookstore.” I snicker and continue, “Are you crazy? There’s not a single book in here!”

          “Oh yea, you’re used to things inside the dome. Well, out here, in the real world, books are long gone. See all these things on the walls?” She points to the rows and rows of rectangular, metallic devices covering the walls and the shelves in between the walls.

          Spinning in a circle, I notice these devices are the only thing the store has to sell. They come in many different colors and sizes. “Yea, I notice them. They have screens on them, too. Are they some sort of a computer?”

          “Precisely.” Christina grabs my hand and leads me down one of the aisles. Without letting go of my hand, she walks up to one of the devices and uses her free hand to swipe the screen which instantly lights up. “These computers are called Kindles.”

          Before she can explain, I blurt, “What’s a Kindle? Are these the type of computers people use outside of the dome?” I’m staring at the screen watching what she’s doing, but she’s going through the options too fast for me to understand what’s going on.