The Order of the Dark Lands (Wattys2015)

Chapter 1

Hi! Thanks for wanting to read my story. Please don't get confused by it, at the beginning it will be a dystopian story (Like Hunger Games, Divergent, Shatter Me, 1984 etc. It means, it will be community or society that is undesirable or frightening. It is literally translated as "not-good place", an antonym of utopia.) but it will almost immediately transition into a fantasy story (like Harry Potter, the Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, the Throne of Glass etc.). So if you like stories like that, you might enjoy my story, which I hope you do. Again thank you for reading! And tell me what you think after reading. Enjoy!

We are running out of food. We are going to die. I am going to die. To die. Die.. Die Guia. You will die.

I looked at my Mom as she was plucking the thorns off of a wilted piece of cactus. I gulped and it hurts, my throat is dry like the earth. I tried not to panic. We'll be lucky to get two tablespoons of liquid from that cactus. Dad found it after a whole day of searching for food, along with twigs and a cardboard. It was not worth it. The liquid from the cactus will be bitter and disgusting. It will make you regret for consuming it. But what choice do we have? We are already dying of dehydration and starvation. The twigs and the cardboard is not better. I'll have to chew those all night just to get them past my throat. And they will never cease my hunger. Our hunger. Dad, Mom, Billy, Ryan, Vincent, Jonathan, Eric and I. We will die of hunger. My family will die like the rest of the human population. Or we will go crazy and eat each other like animals.

I can't remember when it started. When it all happened. My mind is a bleak haze now. But I remember what happened. The Earth died. All bodies of water evaporated. The ice melted and evaporated too. The Earth just remained moist enough for a few living beings to survive. No one could explain why. Theories upon theories came up but nothing made sense. The water was just gone. People blamed the sun. They blamed global warming. They blamed terrorists. They blamed the government. They blamed their gods. They blamed everything. But pointing a finger at something never solved anything.

Soon after the Great Evaporation, plants started to wither and it never rained anymore, until almost plants are nonexistent now. Without plants we don't have oxygen. But I thank whoever it is I should thank everyday for creating the oxygen mask and the pods. The last existing government provides us oxygen and a liter of water each month. The oxygen is enough but the water isn't, our family consumes it after a week and we're not allowed to ask for more. It's difficult to chemically create water they say, something has changed in our beloved planet and somehow large quantities of water either evaporates or turns poisonous for living beings. It's hard for the government to supply water for the 12% of the human population left after the Great Evaporation.

Really, I don't know if we are lucky to be alive and be part of this 12% of 7 billion. I guess we are lucky, our family is still complete, well maybe minus our pet dog Hamilton. Lucky but suffering.

The government tried to save most of the animals when plants started withering. Vincent thinks they were only able to save rats and cockroaches. I'll do anything to eat one right now. The rest? Extinct. Died of starvation and dehydration. Like what's about to happen to us. Or have been eaten by predators or hungry humans. Which can happen to us too.

I shook my head until I was dizzy. I can't think of food. It will only make me hungrier. Instead I think of the past. Those simple joys we used to have. Those simple joys we used to take for granted. School. Holidays. Crushes. Breakfast. Lunch. Dinner. Snacks. Rats and cockroaches. Shit. Don't think of food Guia!

I don't know which hurt more. The thumping of my heart against my chest or my small intestines as they are devoured by my large intestines. I wanted to cry but I don't have tears. And even if I had, I'd probably gather them and drink them.