Elimination

I Want To Remember

I wish I could remember the world before this one, the world before ours had hope, joy, it was liberated and yet it was vulnerable, citizens were foolish, selfish and parasitic. All people wanted was control, from what I heard anyway. They killed this planet. They killed their own species. They killed themselves.
Humans were and still are absolutely revolting.
Now, all most people want is to survive. I don't even know why I'm trying to survive, I'm gonna die eventually, it's very unlikely that it'll be from natural causes. I'm gonna get killed out here.

But I am not like most people, all I desire is my memory. All I have is a photo, which gives me a taste of my past, but the photo leaves a bitter taste on my tongue. It lingers, leaving me with anger, despair and faded faces. I feel powerless and ridiculed without the knowledge of the people printed on this piece of paper.

I take out the photo from my left pant pocket and stare at the three unfamiliar faces. I have definetly changed over the years. In the picture, I have black hair and blue eyes. I look like the happiest man alive. Years of running in fear and drowning in tears has definetly aged me. Now, my hair has grown to my shoulders, my eyes seem to be gray and I haven't smiled in months. I remove my gaze from my past self and look at the woman next to me in the picture. I have my arms wrapped around her, she seems to be happy. She has long brown hair, bright green eyes and much shorter than I am. She's the most beautiful woman I've ever seen. In her hands, she holds a child that seems to be only a couple months old. I flip the paper over, there's a sentence written on the back, like there always has.

"October 16th, 2086." I read. My voice is raspy and breaks a little as I speak.
I put the photo back into my pocket, wiping away a few tears afterwards. I just want to remember, but I can't, I can't even remember my own damn name. This overwhelming feeling causes me to become irritated. I punch a nearby tree in response and wince at the radiating pain reaching its way up my arm. I yell out in pain in response to my earlier response.
After a few moments, I let out a sigh. I stretch my arms and take off my backpack. I take out the long, lead pipe from my backpack and proceed walking to the nearest path. It's already nightfall, which makes us humans more vulnerable to attacks. I can't see a thing, so I need to be ready for one of those things to attack. I've already lost a few comrades along the way from those monsters, I won't let them get to me though.

After what feels like hours of walking, I find a road. A smile spread across my face and I was practically jumping with joy. I haven't seen a road, let alone a trail in weeks, the moment I was lost in the forest I was instantly filled with regret.
Unfortunately, my few moments of euphoria soon came to an end. Down the road stood a tall man with dark brown hair. My grip tightened on my weapon and I began to walk towards him. This man is either normal like me or was corrupt with the vaccine.
Even if his mind wasn't totally warped from the vaccine, I'm still risking the chance that he could be totally insane or could think that I was one of them.

These next few moments could be the cause of my death. But even if it is, I don't think I'd totally mind to be taken from this hell.