Everafter

Chapter 5: The Truth

"So, how long have you known my uncle?" I asked a little worried this was going nowhere because we had already been through the entire house twice and were now sitting on the couch.

"Bubba? He used to watch me when I was little and helped out my mom a lot," Josh responded.

"Oh. That's umm cool? Why do you call him Bubba?"

"I have ever since I was little. I didn't know how to say Kyler because I couldn't pronounce my K's, so I gave everyone nicknames. His was Bubba."

"Okay..."

"What's wrong?" he asked almost concerned.

"Hmm? Oh, nothing. My mom used to call my brother that."

"Where is your brother now?"

"Hey! Guys! I need to borrow Hadley," Kyler interrupted us.

"I need to go check on the doors anyway," Josh responded. And then he was gone.

I followed Kyler to the nearest door and he walked in. This is a coat closet. What the heck? Why is he in a coat closet? Why is he asking me to get into a coat closet? Just as I was about to walk away, Kyler grabbed my arm and shut the door.

"Kyler! Kyler I am not messing around! Let me out!" I screamed.

"Hadley calm down would you? I have to put the key in the lock."

"Lock me in here? I don't think-"I was cut off by a bunch of lights on the wall.

The next thing I knew, a secret door was opening and I was following Kyler inside.

"Okay, I need to tell you how we have gotten to where we are now," Kyler started, "It all began several, several, years ago when very cold and brutal snowstorm killed thousands and thousands of cattle."

"Wait. Kyler, are you telling me a bedtime story?" I interrupted him.

"That was the start of the agriculture plummet. Then California experienced the worst drought in over 1,200 years. This killed most of the agriculture in California that couldn't be moved to new places."

"What are you talking about?"

"To make matters worse, technology started to become the new trend. Kids in school started celebrating 'Technology Week' that the President would put on. Business became paperless. Yes, that does mean that not as many trees were cut down for paper. But, people started to buy out farm land and build businesses and buildings and basically, no one was winning."

"So you're saying everyone is the cause for the famine?"

"Hadley please, just let me finish. Extraction of gas became entirely technology done. Agriculture, well, it went away. Completely. People were too consumed in the latest trend and how many likes they got on Instagram. People began to starve. I was a very young boy at this time. Your dad and I, we were fed more rations then we should have because your grandma and grandpa didn't want your father and me to starve like everyone else. Unfortunately, they died fighting in the Famine War. The Famine War was led on by different groups of people blaming other groups of people for have no food. But really, it was everyone's fault.

"No one won the Famine War. It went on for six years and during those six years, half of the population died in war or from starvation. Nothing happened for the next two years expect a quarter of the half of the population that was left, died from more starvation. Then came the monster herself. The one who could save us all. The one knew what to do. The one who could feed us.

"Well of course you know how teenagers get when rules get set in place. The first sets of rules were as follows;

1. Pay monthly taxes
2. No one may be out of the community passed 11:00pm
3. Everyone must take a weekly drug test
4. A person is allowed five crimes before sent to jail
5. A person can own up to ten acres per household