The most stable societies around the world were no match for the wave of destruction that swept across all the major cities on Earth. The connected way of life that had spread across the world made it seem so enticing to mimic what your peers were doing as the riots turned deadly. A sense of urgency had arrived and people went into survival mode. Work was scarce, food was becoming limited, everything was more expensive than anyone could ever remember, and things were not getting better. When the flames died down, the people crawled back to their ravaged cities and demanded that the governments fixed it. The same political offices, police stations, and local national guard were expected to mend the destruction they tried to stop. It never worked as the people who fled could and those that couldn't tried to keep living. They were left with no hope of ever rebuilding, as there was no help coming and no one was brave enough to try again. The people who still remained tried to make do with the scraps that enticed only the desperate, but the economy had vanished within a few days. The civilized nature of humanity soon began to deteriorate just like the buildings that people had called home. Europe was hit the hardest and no matter how hard M Corp tried, they could never bring stability back to this part of the world. Some countries refused to maintain there allegiances, as they went into hiding to try and protect and isolate their people. Other countries completely abandoned their people as it became a free for all to save yourself. People were able to adapt and still find a way to live, but life was not like the way it used to be. Gangs of people joined together to take things by force, sometimes even turning on their own members just to guarantee themselves another meal. Camps of people tried to band together to make survival easier, but it only made them an easier target for people looking for the helpless. The dwindling resources and the resistance to M Corps control allowed them to be left to their own devices. There was no running water, no electricity, no grocery stores, and the only person you could truly trust was yourself.
All it took for Marilyn to run was just hearing the group come up behind her. She knew it wasn't worth engaging and the few seconds it would take to turn around and see who was approaching was time that would be wasted on trying to get away. She was helpless and all by herself in the deserted street, but this was nothing new for her. The only things around were a few abandoned cars and the piles of trash that seemed to keep growing everyday. The group yelled at her as she raced away, but she didn't understand what they said and didn't care to find out. Turning a corner at the next intersection, Marilyn took extra precautions as she ran past the apartment building she had claimed as her own and circled around back to wait for the group to run by. Crouching behind an overflowing, rancid dumpster that was in the alleyway, Marilyn watched as the group of young men ran past. She waited until she could no longer hear the pattering of their footsteps and then made her way to the door she used to get inside. Marilyn glanced all around before slipping quietly inside.
When the protests boiled over into riots and the world was set ablaze, almost all the jobs were lost immediately. Some people clung to their professions with an unfounded moral obligation, but even the military and law enforcement officers soon began deserting their posts as they put their family above the country. The governments tried to do whatever they could think of to regain the control that was slipping away, as people lost faith in the system they had worked so hard to destroy. Their last ditch attempt was to offer a program to any able bodied citizens to join a newly formed restoration effort similar to the national guard. It was touted as a peacekeeping program, and the intention of it was to try and bring peace and stability back to all of the people who had lost it. Volunteers flocked to the recruitment areas, and it seemed like it really had a chance of working. Only government sanctioned businesses were still in operation at this point, and the government rations and housing was barely maintaining all of its consumers. Anyone of legal voting age was allowed to join and in return they would be paid, fed and housed for the duration of their deployment. They would be sent to the most devastated areas around the world to help rebuild infrastructure, provide security and re-establish whatever form of governance they could. It was an amazing catastrophe to see the world blossom into one of instantaneous knowledge and communication, all to be wiped away in a matter of years. No one saw it coming, even though all the signs were there. Things had gotten close to disaster before, and it was only a matter of time before all the cards lined up. Inflation had grown out of control and layoffs cascaded through every sector of the world's economy. People were entrenched in online idealogic wars that manipulated their views of reality, and companies made billions off promoting it. Financial disparity was all too transparent when people began to get hungry. Fights broke out at grocery stores, as families and friends were ripped apart as people became envious of what others had. The government could only keep printing money out of thin air for so long before the system lost its balance. The rich hoarded their money and continued to pay the exorbitant prices as the poor began to wash away into the streets in a flood of foreclosures and homelessness. No one could blame the people for attempting to stand up and make their voices heard, but as soon as the first rock was thrown you could not stop the destruction it started. People needed help and this program offered people a chance to restore what had gone wrong in the world. It never worked and instead of trying something different, the same program was attempted again. The second round of recruitment was not as fruitful as people had begun to further distrust the governments they used to rely on for their livelihood. Rumors about where these volunteers were going and what they were being to do began to spread. No one knew how true these rumors really were, because none of the volunteers had ever made it back to where they came from. A mandatory draft was enacted to pull the last remaining able bodied people into the ranks of this new army. Families were ripped apart, leaving kids wandering the streets alone. The second attempt failed as well and a whole generation of adults had vanished from the face of the Earth. The only people who might know the truth about what happened were either dead or were keeping a secret while working for M Corp.
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The Greatest Lie
Science FictionIt was a game of chance, with equal odds for everyone. This brilliant idea was the last hope for bringing humanity together again. It had seemed so fantastical when it was first proposed, but over time it had grown to the point it was impossible to...