The Still

Chapter 1

      Life is different for different people, depending on who you are and what you are, what is life like for me you ask?

       Well, it certainly isn't lived one of New York's majestic high rises, or a Michigan lake house. It certainly isn't one of a millionaire, or a student at George Town, that would be better than this. And god knows it isn't lived to the fullest with bursts of confidence, or with a life partner.

         For me, life is a competitive sport, one that humanity has worked long and hard to avoid, and in my opinion, we've done a shit job at it. The perfect example? In my city, if your at the bottom 10% in education, physical fitness, and mental stability, your 'disposed of'.

        Don't you just love America?

      Well, a description of who I am and what I am would be nice I suppose, just to break some conversational barriers. I'm Lillian Ritter, a green-eyed, brawny, brunette from the Province of Washington DC at the top of my age group (New York is the Capitol now, study your post American history).

     But Lilly will do just fine.

       I also suspect you'd like to know what the hell I'm talking about. That's a more serious topic, but the last time I was serious was when I told my brother I was watering the coffee machine to see if it would grow.

         Exactly.

         In the year 2040, the world ended. Almost every living organism was fossilized in what seemed like fucked up tree sap. Only about 3 billion people are alive on the planet earth, or one of 10 space stations. You'd pray it wouldn't touch you, because if it did, your body turned into rock within 10 quick seconds, and the scary part?

          Some people didn't even see it coming.

         If it was in the water, your stomach felt like a volcano in hell until you threw it up and let it consume you, with your vomit still dribbling off your chin.

         That takes about an hour.

          Another example, if you touched a tree with the disease, you couldn't move from it, and it would consume you.

          Slowly.

          Depending on the type of tree of course.

           What do you call this piece of hell? What to term the fundamental killer of millions of human beings? How would you categorize the separation of families?

            You call it the Still, obviously. You'd categorize is it as the rapid fossilization of considerably large organic matter, and the discoloration of matter of a considerably smaller organism. This explanation is brought to you by our lovely U.S. Government, my next point of conversation.

              Whatever you think you know about the government, depending on what you believe, is either the exact description, or a crappy lie. If you think the government is there to serve the people, that it's a beacon of hope to all other countries, and that it's a prime explain of democracy and diplomacy, I have important news, which will be to your dismay.

                Your wrong.

               If your belief in the feds is the exact opposite of what I just explained, then I have important news for you, which will be to your benefit.

            Your right.

            The United States Government is the definition of secretive, and false trust. Its a sufficient example of how to run a country based off of lies and keeping people in the dark. It is still the most powerful country, but the justice part of the constitution is unimportant.

             Seriously, it was removed from the Constitution.

             Free speech isn't respected anymore, speak out against the government loudly and on purpose in a public setting, especially if it's the truth, your not heard from again. The last thing I'll say, because I value my life, is that if the government wants something done, it's done.

            Now on to the societal rankings, its pretty simple actually.

            Because of the current situation in the world, in this year 2070 technological, there are few good food resources, which leads to extreme poverty (thank god it isn't like that Washington), savages (again, not like that here), and rebels (different story). The weakest in the society, according to the government, are a wastage of space. Which doesn't do very well for the Morales of the 'lowest'. The 10% are taken from each age group, which was what I meant when described myself. Each school is a single age group, which translates to 14 schools, since school starts at age 4. Physical fitness is also important, 5 hours is spent on education, while 2 hours is spent on fitness.

               I pretty much described life post-still, except for technology, which, and thank whatever power you believe in for this, wasn't Stilled.

              That's to much.

               But I don't think I captured the essence of the programs here. All of these have the harshest, meanest trainers ever, who I'm sure have the most depressing backgrounds in history.

               But now that you know the system and what its like,its  time to understand my back story, and why I joined the movement that ended the world.