Mall Fall: Utopian Ruins

Future Leftovers

Today is the new year of 2045, another year of the same routine of boredom. In a world where your next meal isn't reliable, and people are desperate to collect and steal resources from each other. I'm Dylan, and I live in the small town of Richtop, CA, with my mom Clara and my twin sister Abby.

Our mother told us that in the past the world was a beautiful utopia full of wonders to explore. That you could order what you wanted from a phone and like magic, it would be waiting for you in minutes outside. She thought the future looked bright and maybe she wasn't wrong, yet the ones who had the responsibility of the world didn't do enough to stop what was about to come.

Once people became aware of the super fast delivery services, They went crazy over buying without the effort of going places. Everyone knew this couldn't be good, but they couldn't help themselves. Artificial Intelligence has discovered the customer's weak spots; they exploited enough aspects of the human desires to sell 90% of the time.

It wasn't all bad for the short-term since there were less unemployed people and more efficiency to get places and things were cheaper and better than ever. For the long-term, however, it leads to mass overpopulation and along with it caused the mass resource shortage all over the world. First went Cocoa, then oil, then the final nail in the coffin was the lack of metals used for technology, resulting in expensive to no new electronics at all.

As the year's pass, my mom saw as crime rose to an all-time high due to unemployment from companies collapsing. The services stopped as there was nothing to deliver since resources ran dry. People lost their sanity as they staved to death while the bravest survived by teaming up and collecting supplies together. Some true to their morals but most stealing from malls and stores, even distribution centers.

Worst of all is the news as they are responsible for fear-mongering and earning profits from the last ad campaigns deals they had. Little after they all went belly up and nothing was left broadcasting, nothing but the endless buzzing of what seemed like the end of the world. My mom till this day feels hunted by the memories yet expressing her past helps her calm down.

Even though today is much better than the crises from 2020-2030, This peace came at a massive cost. The human population went from nine billion to just less than two billion. People have their theories of how this new reality happened to be, yet no one knows for sure if it was natural or on purpose.

Government lost power, and thus the conspiracy theorist didn't have anyone left to blame since all of them fell on their own. Now the country is divided into subsections of cities and towns, run by their dictators. Going into battles over who owns the most land, many say it's like going back in time again. The future is sure uncertain, yet I feel like theirs a future for me out there somewhere.

Maybe I'll be a hero like in the movies my family has rescued; I'll sure love to kick some criminals right in the... "Hey! watch your mouth brother," said Abby. "Oh sorry, I didn't see you there,"I said. "Well maybe you shouldn't be hiding from me, Not to mention your language," said Abby. "What are you kids yelling about?" shouted Clara. "Nothing Mom!" we both said. "Ok, you kids better not be fighting over stuff," explained Clara.

Then, we heard a small explosion nearby, me my family got chills and ran down into the shelter. Thankfully, it was just a little bomb exploded near Richtop's abandoned mall. We were out and went back into our usual routines; this pretty much summarises our life. Just a lot of calmness with rare scary moments.

To be continued...