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"The Last Game Of Sir Humpty Dumpty"

-Part One- 'TV Screens'

By Chris M RichardsPublished about a year ago 4 min read
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“THE LAST GAME OF SIR HUMPTY DUMPTY”

BY C.M. RICHARDS

PART ONE.

(Inspired by “1984”. “The Hunger Games”, and “The Running Man”.

In The future, not so far away…

The huge televisions that were mounted in every conceivable position surged to life after nearly a decade of disuse. They hung off buildings, bridges, and above the entrance to the town’s main hall. No meetings took place there anymore, it has been overrun by rats and squatters. They ate the rats and when they died the rats feed on their corpses!

It was almost impossible not to see these screens.

Static and snow flicked beneath years of dust and dirt on these large screens. Dust covers everything. It has not rained in years, anywhere. The entire earth has now become a dust bowl and is now all but baron.

There was no image or noise projected from these screens, once used to make the cooperatives announcements and update citizens on changes to the police state that they now lived under, but there had been no messages for over nine years now. Many thought that they would never work again.

This caught the eyes and curiosities of the people that still managed to survive in the neo-primate city limits. Emancipated and starving, people began to stare and point at the televisions, all dressed in rages.

Over the ensuing days, the crowds began to gown below and around these televisions in anticipation of a new message, perhaps one of hope. I have noticed hope often sustains a person just as well as food. And this is what the staving was hungry for hope, the hope of change. As the days passed the crowds got bigger, and open sewers replaced laneways and streets. The only food available was the cockroaches and fly’s drawn by the stench of the people and their waste.

No one knows who named Sir Humpty Dumpty, Sir Humpty Dumpty but they probably did not live long after doing so for he was a nasty horrid man, obese with the body of an egg and a face of a pig with a cannibalistic smile! Either way, the name stuck. Nobody knew if he was even real or just a digital creation of the cooperative. Nobody knew his real name. A frightening face of a more frightening organization. Everybody started gossiping about whether they would see this evil clown or would somebody else be addressing them, or perhaps there was no message to come. Yet they continued to wait.

In short, Sir Humpty Dumpty stood for everything that the people were not. Powerful, greedy, almost soulless. The cooperative only stood for the cooperative, a tiny portion of people. The rich, those that designed, built and paid for their escape from the dying world. There was no care for those that could not buy their place in the space fleet bound to travel space looking for a new planet to colonize.

The cooperative was leaving the poor behind to die. Most already lived in their spaceships that orbited the earth, not prepared to slum it on earth anymore. The space race had now separated itself from the human race. Although the two looked the same they were now almost two different species. The space race has even gone as far as creating its own language to further prove its elitism.

Diseases began to spread through the crowds and at night the air became rancid with the smell of burning people. But they continued to stay, staring at the television screens. Why?

Sir Humpty Dumpty loved to present evil games for the masses to play. Games that could save a person, allowing them to join the people in the Space Race. This was their hope, and this is why they continued to wait.

Sir Humpty Dumpty’s games were evil, and many will die playing them. Those left behind were happy to kill each other for the chance to be saved. It was a cruel situation.

After weeks of waiting the screens came to life. They flashed several times before the digit five was presented and as it counted down to 0 the masses fell silent. When it reached 0, they then cheered as the horrid Sir Humpty Dumpty appeared. The cheering could be heard from all directions and began to hush. No one wanted to miss a word.

Then he began to speak over the noise of the filthy crowds.

“Welcome, welcome” He laughed knowing how many had died before his TVs.

“Welcome to my very last game that I am going to play with you, your very last chance to gain a place in the space race!”

He was evil.

“Like I said there can only be one winner which means those standing around you are your enemies. I suggest you kill them.” He laughed coldly as people began to fight, tear each other apart, drown each other in the urine-soaked mud beneath their feet, and those lucky enough to own a knife began to cut people’s throats even if these people were part of the family. The care people had for each other was instantly destroyed...

Over the screams of murder, the cold laugh of the fat game maker echoed down the streets and allies.

PART TWO “THE GAME” COMING NEXT WEEK!

short story
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About the Creator

Chris M Richards

I have always loved to write. Also I have always loved sex. I’m gay so I’m talkinging about male on male action.

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