Deception of Truth

1- A Dying Planet

Everything we were doing was wrong.

I knew it, the Council knew it, and honestly, the majority of people on this forsaken planet could tell that we were destroying our world, because the truth was screaming all around us. Screaming, "Hey humans, get it together, or you're going to lose everything you've ever known."

The pollution on Mars was at an all time high, and no matter what we tried, we couldn't seem to control it. The average day was over a hundred degrees, and winters only barely made it to the sixties. I used to pine after winter and it's cold snowy embrace when I was a child, but now, knowing we barely ever see a full autumn, there isn't much to look forward to anymore.

Walking the once pristine streets was now like walking through a landfill. We had the smallest of paths woven between the mountains of garbage. Even after eighteen years, I still couldn't figure out how everything accumulated so quickly. When I was a little girl, my city was safe, clean, welcoming. Now, just like every other city on Mars, it was overrun by tons and tons of trash. 

'Less than twenty years,' I thought frequently while staring aghast at the picture around me. Less than twenty years had brought about this destruction.

"Hey, Evaline!" A shout resounded over the chaos around me. I turned and looked to see Luetta strolling towards me, one hand shoved into her baggy cargo pants, the other grasping a piece of fruit. She looked so casually at ease, which just upset me more.

"Hey Lu. What do you need?" I asked, and she shrugged her petite shoulders. Luetta never cared much about what was going on around her. There were so many people like her in Idis that had just accepted this as the norm, and it was infuriating. What was it going to take for people to care?

Lu finished her fruit, looked around for a garbage can, then with another nonchalant shrug, she tossed the core into a much more convenient pile in an alley. I sighed and ground my teeth but remained quiet. The pretty girl ran her fingers through her shaggy dark hair and grinned mischievously.

"Did you hear about the counsel meeting?" She leaned against the light pole while I turned to face her.

One brow rose. "Counsel meeting? Where? Why? When?" I pried.

"Counsel House, tomorrow evening, to try - once again - to come up with a plan for the world. All the other country officials will be there, so they're opening up the grand room for enough room for the public to attend. Good luck, I say. They've been trying for years to get a handle on this and nothing has worked so far. I'm done holding my breath."

My head was spinning. Only legal adults were allowed at meetings like this, and since my eighteenth birthday only a few weeks ago, I'd been waiting for this opportunity. Seems like it's fallen right in my lap.

"You're going, aren't you?" It wasn't really a question. Lu had been one of my closest friends since we were in primary school. She knew I was going without a doubt, but I nodded anyways.

"You bet your ass I am," I replied, a newfound vigor filling me. What had started out as one of those days where I was depressed and enraged, was shaping up to be just a little bit better.

Lu snorted. "Go figure. Well, good luck to you too, friend. I don't know what they can possibly say that they haven't said for the last fifteen years."

I continued to stand in silence. For a moment, I thought about admitting to her that she was probably right. All the past meetings had only brought forth temporary solutions, ways to get rid of the pollution we already had, ways to end wars that were already raging. But no one had been able to come up with a preventative plan. Ansel Gowen, the countries leader since before I was born, was on top of things for a while, but as the population continued to grow, so did the problems. Ansel was the first one to come up with a plan for pollution control, but since the other countries weren't on board, the issues continued on.