Under/Under

Chapter 1

This world may seem alien to you, in your existence up until this point, but I can assure you that it is is not. In fact you are sitting, standing, or running on it right now. You are living on earth, and as far as the future can tell, you are staying right here. Not because of volcano's erupting large amounts of ash that choke out the atmosphere, it's you. You, because you refused to destroy gasoline automobiles, destroy the pollution ridden factories in Asia, destroy genetic research to help improve plant growth, refuse to use renewable energy more often, and refuse to do anything that would create a more stable planet that wouldn't cause the ozone layer to collapse, all because you wanted to keep a little more money in your pocket. Greed drove everyone to the destruction of the planet, and you are the only people to blame for it. You doomed us to live in the Under. You failed to recognize the warnings because the right winged majority refused to believe it, all because a left wing proclaimed it first. Your screwed up politics led to your own demise, with complete submission because anyone who revolted were seen by the propaganda machines as freaks, radicals, taboo. Nobody wants to be considered a freak or a radical or taboo. Those were the people that tried to help, yet you shoved them into your prison towns and never talked about it again, like putting dust under the carpet when your wife isn't looking. But also like this, she discovers it eventually, and you discovered it with a rude awakening.

With the world lit with radiation, people got sick, mutated, and died within a day. Most of the people died, but a few nations were smart. The rich nations, Qatar, Luxembourg, Singapore, Norway, United States, China, Switzerland, Canada, Australia, and so on gave their people an ultimatum of two cities to go, the submerged city of Praecipua, or the subterranean city of Indigni. Both were ruled by a central government and both provided protection from the baleful radiation from the sun. Both provided food and farms from UV lighting. Both provided electricity, one from dams and the other from natural heat vents. Both provided protection in the form of a police force. Both provided for the people's needs, both immediate and luxury. Both provided health care. Both provided, but both did not have the same way of running things. My city is filled with the watchful eyes of the government. Everywhere I turn, I see a telescreen somewhere, looking in on me and listening in on me, and the 10,000 that live here.

Indigni started out as 7,000 people one hundred years ago, and the city can only seat 12,000 people in homes. Faced with overpopulation after the first generation, the government had to solve the problem, and they solved it in the only way they knew how. They first declared a state of emergency, claiming that a pandemic was spreading and that people needed to be checked at the local police station to see if they had become infected. They only first took away the people with defects and mutations, but that was only around 500 people. So they had fake check stations that would beep randomly on random people. They would take those people away until they came out with a population of 8,000. What the government didn't tell you is they killed them or did various vaccine tests on the people they had. What the government told you was that they were being raised, or kept in a contained environment. This way nobody would revolt. How do I know this? My great grandfather was the co-officer ahead of the operation. He once had passion and pride for Indigni for saving him and his family from doom-day.  After the abomination he witnessed, he lost every ounce of hope he held for this city. Others told him that it was for the best, it would help Indigni in the future. Although that was true, it was also the definition of inhumane. The only person he ever told was his son, who passed on to his son, who passed it on to me.

Some others who knew about it told everyone they knew, and the original plan of the government not having to deal with revolts was overturned. And the government overturned with it. It was one thousand armed forces vs three thousand unarmed forces since guns were banned for the safety of the people. The. victory of the rebels were too few and too insignificant to make a difference. They were all killed or executed, to be shown as examples of what a revolution would do. Afterwards, the government issued a decree that only one child per household be allowed to be able to control overpopulation. To enforce this, they implemented trackers into people, checking to see what they purchase, where they visit, and how often they take off work. This tracker is a chip implanted since birth into the wrist. Outside of each and every store, office, hospital, and home is a scanner. The doors will refuse to open if you don’t get scanned before entering. Removal of the chip is nearly impossible, and even then you would be caught on the streets within a day by the Arbitrators. Who knows what they will do with you.