Chapter 20: Fifty Years Remain.

2 0 0
                                    

Aaron and Agatha Terra.

The World Capital: Pillar of the World,

The year 2173.

There is a lot the people of The World Capital do not know, and that is personified by their leaders. Down an elevator just behind the shadows of which those who are unfortunate enough to be summoned to The Pillar of the World, that is where their two leaders reside. Down beneath the circle where so many have been impaled, struck with the truth that the dead rule the pinnacle of humanity's cities; Agatha moves the tide of change, and Aaron alone moves the earth. Powers that those who came before could only look to the heavens for, and pray to gain. Grafting machine onto flesh, looking to mimic divine power-

-Without knowing the cost. Oh, the price they pay.

"That's three today."

Aaron swiped the list of the executed to the left of the projection hovering in the air in front of him, names he wouldn't remember. Names families would remember, grieve for, and cry for. Lives he snuffed out with his wife. Countless other windows of information surrounded him, shining in yellow light, encasing him against a cylindrical digital prism, beaming from the floor below him. Faces of the countless slain filled these windows, rendered to mere meaningless numbers. The starved, the massacred, the forgotten. Aaron turned, rubbing his eyes as the pale glow of the projected screens burned into his eyes, each wrinkle against his skin, reflecting off of his clean-cut grey hair. His navy blue suit was tight around his arms. Rations were cut, and water was scarce again within the walls. Closed. A tensing frustration in his jaw. Exhaustion on his brow.

"Armies stretched thin along our walls, inside, standby. India has been inching closer, Japan has been sending ships across the sea," Aaron's thoughts raced, "Korea's fighter jets cutting through the skies. Drones. Surveillance drones-"

People are frightened. People are hungry. People are enraged.

"Arrow systems operational, intercepting a hundred missiles across the second eighth of our borders-"

Moving the earth means little to those with their eyes toward the stars, begging to be saved by someone. Like Aaron did. He turned heel again suddenly, grunting under his breath as he clenched his jaw, his palms clammy. He clicked a button: meeting with active Generals to strengthen fortitude.

Beep!

Beep!

Two indicators, one confirmed, the other another button, large and in a darker shade of navy blue.

"These desperate nations, trying to tear the last chance down."

Aaron rubbed at his eyes with his thumb and index finger, back and forth. He sighed suddenly with exasperation, the humming electric drone filling his ears, like the thumping footsteps of soldiers against the wasteland ground.

"God..." He groaned, "More, more, more-"

Opening his eyes with a sigh, he clicked the navy blue button-

Revelations pale in comparison to the weight of carrying one's daughter's corpse in your arms. A life within inches of your reach, slipping through your fingers-

ESTIMATED TIME UNTIL FOOD SUPPLIES DEPLETE:

Population influx, rising birthrates, a spike in disappearances, ships spotted across the coast of the Atlantic. Heartbeat, like gunfire spraying at the Children of Blight clinging to a life they could never have on the edge of annihilation. Aaron's teeth ground, his face contorting into a fury of frustration.

Mother Earth.Where stories live. Discover now