A possible future in less than 500 words, if plastic wins. This was my entry for the WattPad/National Geographic #PlanetOrPlastic competition back in late 2018. It reached their Top 10 Submissions which, given that there appeared to be well over 5000 entries, was a very pleasant surprise! The competition itself had a limit of 500 words so, for those who keep asking if I intend continuing the story, the answer (for now!) is no - unless I can find a very good reason for adding any more. Many thanks to everyone reading and voting on this story and getting it to number 1 in the #sciencefiction category in May/June 2020! I did try to thank the voters individually on their pages but Wattpad have a daily limit on the number of times I'm allowed to do that and there are now too many of you (not that I'm complaining)! Here's the top 10 submissions page: https://www.wattpad.com/list/738243473-planetorplastic-top-10-submissions If you want to read the story in Polish please head over to https://www.wattpad.com/story/236405960-m%C4%85dro%C5%9B%C4%87-staro%C5%BCytnych-t%C5%82umaczenie-pl where @juliatlumaczy has done a fine job - thank you, Julia! @juliatlumaczy has now sent me a version of the cover she used for her Polish translation - thanks again, Julia! @alex_sokolova has also translated the story into Russian as well. You can read that here: https://www.wattpad.com/976002417-мудрость-древних - many thanks, Alex! We now have a third translation! @AlfonsoLucassen has kindly translated it into Spanish and you can find it here: https://www.wattpad.com/1063634347-la-sabidur%C3%ADa-de-los-antiguos

After a baby is born, parents are given three years to go to the "Social Security Services" They are implanted a chip that determines their social status based on the parents' IQ test and yearly income. The government kills those who have disabilities, and sends children who have been marked as 'poor' to a five year program after they turn 12-years old. The program is hosted each Saturday and summer in an attempt to give everyone an equal opportunity to life. If the students fail the IQ test then they are lobotomized to serve the country in the army or clean the environment. Those who scored extremely low are killed in domes. In reality, the system is not a fair opportunity. Margarita, a final year student attending the Social Security School knows that the corrupted rich are becoming more and more desperate for the resources everyone is running low on due to the severe climate change crisis. She fears that she will be one of the couple thousands that unfairly fall short in the system. Similarly, like her friend's sister who was killed to keep a scandal quiet. Every day, Margarita faces a war between the rich and poor. The whites and the minorities. Falling in love with a white person is like finding a loophole in the system, and she can't tell the difference between what's real anymore.