Into the Future

I opened my eyes and found myself lying on top of a large hill in a cushion of soft grass. The sky was a beautiful bright azure blue with perfect white, puffy cotton candy clouds rolling around lazily. The sun, like a huge diamond blinded me. I smelled a delicious flowery perfume of daisies, clovers, and buttercups along with the faint whiff of smoke, a strange combination. Looking down to the bottom of the hill, I saw two rivers and in between them, two cities, side-by-side but yet as different as black and white.
The city by the left river was as beautiful as its crystal clear river. Graceful glass buildings rose tall and towered many stories above the ground. There were also many trees and plants in the left river city I noticed. Clusters of little colorful houses skirted the glass buildings, and beyond the houses were many small little red farms and green fields. The flowery perfume, I realized, came from the direction of the left river building.
Then, I turned my attention to the right river city. I wrinkled my nose in disgust immediately. The right river city smelled of smoke, fatty foods frying, sweat, blood, and pee. Not glorious at all. Its city was full of cement and concrete buildings, strong and un-colorful. The right river city's houses weren't much better. They were dark-colored decaying Victorians or small flat buildings with tiny lawns of rock, mulch, and a couple shrubs. Sirens wailed from the right river city. Hundreds and hundreds of factories lined the small gray river. The only colors in the right river city were from neon building signs and graffiti.
Obviously, I turned and walked down to the left river city. The trip was quick and soon I was walking on a neat, cobble stone road through moderately busy traffic. There were two sides on the road. One side was for walkers and the other side had small, bubble-like smart vehicles along with bikes, scooters, etc... I looked at the people around me. It was a diverse crowd and everyone looked perfectly normal to me. But, somehow their clothes were different. Everything was made out of a colorful tightly woven plastic mesh-like material. And it was all very simple. Nothing was sparkly or poppy. Even the shoes were very simply made without sparkles or flashy items. Just simple things like a shirt collar lined with decorative flowers made out of the same weird material or a suit with shiny simple pearly buttons. I looked down at myself and realized I wore a simple outfit consisting of a black skirt, grey leggings, plain brown combat boots, a purple long sleeve shirt and a brown sweater with a single gray fabric flower below the right side of the collar. I looked closer and noticed a few robots in the crowd of people. The robots were simply helping tools, not metal humans: I noticed a table following a man and an umbrella robot shading one woman's every step.
I stepped off to the side of the street and into a small coffee shop. As soon as I opened the door, a small robot greeted me with a promotions card and a menu. I took them quietly and sat myself down on a small metal chair to read them over. Try our new espresso! Announced the promotions card, Made especially for 3013! 3013, somehow that felt wrong to me. I didn't know why but something in the back of my head bothered me. I shook my head, I was just being silly. Dismissing the thoughts from my head, I stood up and decided to move on.
I walked along for a bit until I got to a huge mob of people. Some of them held up signs and all of them were shouting. The people were divided into two groups. One group I realized was dressed all in grays, browns, and dark colors. They held up signs that read, we can eat whatever we want! Along with, you can't decide our future! And, we've been fine for decades! I then looked at the other group, which was dressed in more colorful garments that were in much better quality than the other group's clothes. Their signs read; change for a better future! Eat healthy! Change for the greater good! And, my favorite, LISTEN!
The first group I realized was people from the right river city and the second group was from the left river city. "Excuse me?" I asked as I tapped the shoulder of a man from the left river city, "What is this?" He turned in my direction and seemed shocked. "Little Girl!" he said "You should go home! Don't get mixed up in the politics, they're for the grownups! Go study and be a good child!" I backed away feeling confused. I ran around to the right river city group. Maybe they would answer my questions. I tapped the shoulder of a man from the right river city, and when he turned I gasped. He was a very large man and he had a huge scar running down the middle of his face and his skin was much more worn out than that of the left city man. "Excuse me sir," I asked in a small voice, "What is this?" He leered at me, "Little girl, why do you choose to ask me, a man from the city of Metzowash? You are from the Caronwash city, yes? You wear colors and are a Metzowash opposite! Grown up with sweets and recycling," he said recycling like it was a bad thing. Caronwash must be the name of the left river city I realized. Recycling boxes had practically lined its clean little streets. "Go home," he told me "This is a rebellion; your fancy people are trying to turn the world into a perfect green world with peace and rabbit food. Like that's possible!" he scoffed. "Life without McDonalds? Turn away from trash heaps? Turn away from the easy ways of the TV that our ancestors gave us?" He snorted, "As if!" He shook his head and then realized I was still there. "Well go away!" he yelled. "Go to your precious parents!"
I turned away. That was all the information I was able to extract from the grownups. For some reason I didn't know where my parents were. I thought perhaps, in some other world, that's where they are. I shifted my thoughts to what the man had said and tried to piece it together. There were two cities, Metzowash was the name of the right river city and Caronwash was the name of the right river city. The man had said I was a Caronwash girl because I wore nice colors. He said that the crowd was split up into two groups, the Metzowash and Caronwash. I frowned. Why did the Metzowash hate the nice Caronwash? What had the man said? Wait... He had said that the Caronwash wanted to change the Metzowash. The Caronwash peoples had convinced the world to adapt to a new lifestyle of recycling, being active, choosing the challenging roads of life instead of the easy ones, choosing healthier foods instead of McDonalds and the Metzowash were the only peoples left who didn't agree. McDonalds ... I thought about that. Somehow McDonalds felt familiar to me. I stood there, feeling dazed and confused. I closed my eyes trying to think about my recent experience and why my brain felt so crowded.
Suddenly the ground swayed beneath my feet and I dropped into nothingness. I opened my eyes and flailed, trying to grab something solid but all I could see was bright lights spinning and spinning around.