Irradiated

Chapter 1: The Lowest of the Low

Somehow, this didn't bother me anymore. Maybe a little, but not like it did about two years ago. It had to be two years since I had a decent meal, decent clothing, a decent home, and a decent living. Now, all I had was a hunted deer or two for a meal, old clothes I had worn way too much for clothing, an old RV that was barely stable for a home, and stealing supplies from thieves themselves for a living. Of course, I couldn't complain. Compared to others of my kind, I was living the good life.

Right. I smirked at myself as I shuffled inside the vehicle, digging through heaps of various items I had collected over the last six months. Weird corkscrews, a metal chain I often used for traps, and among that mess, was a large Great Dane.

"Get out of there!" I scolded as it scurried away from the pile. It was a good thing this dog could understand my emotions. He knew when to get out of my way, especially right now, while I was particularly angry. Why? I really had no idea.

The thing was, people were careless. Not careless like smoking and drinking to wash away their worries. Not that this wasn't careless, just that it had nothing to do with nicotine and drugs. With every passing year, we decreased what little water supply we already had. I had never known that only about ten percent of water on Earth was actually usable. Scientists wasted their time trying to invent new things, like radiation panels and new versions of stuff they already had and definitely didn't need. Things like "new and improved" phones, game consoles, and computers. In reality, we were all being lied to.

Soon, we were left with nothing. Polluting everything. What more could you expect? Dirtying the world with our new technology, and for what? To end up like this. Most of the human population died out from the inhabitable places and terrible living conditions. An unidentified pollution wiped out the human race, quicker than cancer ever did. It was foolish for everybody to think that advancing technology would be for the good of the human race. Apparently, we were lied to about that too.

Still, there was quite a good amount of us left standing. The remaining people all migrated to Europe, the last standing continent, aside from Africa, but even the Africans moved more towards north to escape the heat. It was a mystery as to why Europe and Africa were able to survive this pollution. It still remained questionable.

Each race that had ever existed - Arabian, Asian, Indian, African, American, Hispanic, Caucasian - the list was endless, merged into one large population, as if Pangea had formed all over again. Here, we created the smallest civilization we could, separated into 5 groups. However, they weren't really known as groups. They were more of a class, if you will.

The first class was known as the Rich class. The name said it all. They had the things they needed, the little bit of water they reused and reused, food to last a lifetime, and from what I had heard, everything. Not only that, but they practically lived like royalty over there in Western Europe. I hardly ever came into contact with them, considering the vast distance between our two classes. I wasn't one to talk when it came to the Rich. I barely even knew who they were, yet, it felt as if they were a threat to everyone, whether you knew them or not.

Then, were the Moderates. They were like the Rich, except they weren't as bad as them. They were slightly worse. The only difference between the classes had to be that the Moderates had a moderately limited supply of all the life necessities, hence the name. Oh, and that the Moderates had slaves. Hear that, Abraham Lincoln? World destruction rebelled against all of our treasured beliefs and drove us to do the unthinkable - relive the past. History always seemed to repeat itself.

Middles were in between the Riches and the lowest class, like you would expect. They lived a fair life, mostly unbothered by the surrounding mayhem around them. I always pictured them as the people who hadn't lost their minds. They were never mentioned among the other classes, because they weren't really all that important. Sure, they did have a few conflicts here and there, but it wasn't ever anything extreme.