Another Cinderella Story

April 14th 2079 (Wichita Kansas)

In the year 2038, an all out nuclear conflict on a global scale was avoided when an international pandemic with a high mortality rate plagued the world. With no real cure in sight, and resources scarce all of the countries began fighting amongst themselves and civilization collapsed on itself. Those who did survive this ugly part of human history slowly but surely attempted to bring order back to what was left in the world. The people who would rebuild this world had to adapt to living in a world where due to the virus's very precise mortality rate, the average human lifespan would only in rare occasions exceed the age of 40 years old. In the United States, this came In the form of the 4 zones. The story of Alexa Ridders, takes place in the largest and most dangerous of all the zones, the middle. Where she was born and raised all her life in only one of the 3 towns in the mid zone that had any form of law in place.

It was 8pm and Alexa had just gotten off of work. She was a very attractive young woman. She had dark brown hair, bronze skin with a beautiful smile with perfect teeth. She had grown up with both parents for the traditional full 20 years, and they were both in the medical field making her upbringing in the top 2% for the Mid. At the age of 21 she had already managed to work her way up to being one of the top 5 most popular adult entertainers in the best brothel in Oasis. This was a big accomplishment, the number one source of income for any town in the Mid was sex work. In a town with laws such as Oasis the good sex workers made more money than doctors and chemists. As she walked to her favorite drink spot she began to feel a spell of the mundane. She had already seen all there was to offer in Oasis, and had succeeded in being part of the wealthy class with 19 more years to live.

Growing up her favorite story was Cinderella, and when she was little she had made her mother read it to her as her bedtime story almost every night. Even as a child she loved the idea of being whisked away from the Mid and being one of those fancy pants East or West zone girls. It was not uncommon in places like Oasis for women to find a man passing through from the two zones, fall in love, get married for the papers then live happily ever after in the East or West zones. The problem was Alexa was not the type to settle, and the main types of people who visit the town of Oasis are caravaneers, and 39 year olds trying to empty their bucket list in one of the more lawless parts of the zone. When she was 17 she had thought about running away with one of the very attractive and young caravaneers, but her parents forbade it due to the nature of the job. It was rare to live more than 10 years in that field of work since it was the most dangerous career in the country.

As Alexa went to her usual spot and ordered her usual drink, she noticed a new pair of eyes staring at her. Being arguably the prettiest woman in Oasis, it's not as if she is not used to constantly having men stare at her. These eyes were new, and he was cute. Which for her was a double whammy since she found anyone who was from Oasis to be boring and complacent. After the man saw her, he immediately got out of his seat and approached her. While he was standing up Alexa noticed he was tall, making him a triple whammy. The man spoke in an excited voice “Let me guess, you're not from here either? We both stick out pretty bad around here.”

“No I am.” she replied quickly, “I can say that you stick out pretty bad around here though.”

“Oh wow how embarrassing. Where are my manners? My name is Steve. Can I buy you a drink to apologize for the awkwardness?” Steve replied.

“Alexa, and yeah sure.” Alexa said nonchalantly “ I usually never let men buy me drinks, but because you’re not from here you might be at least interesting to talk to.” The man sat down next to her and two ordered their drinks. After spending some time with each other they figured out they were both 21 and it was both of their first years without their parents. They had found out they agreed on a lot of things. By the end of the night it seemed almost as if fate had pushed the two together. Almost as if right out of Alexa’s favorite fairy tale, Steve even asked her if she would like to see the West zone where he had grown up.

She readily accepted. The only issue was Steve had to handle business first. He had only been in the Mid because he was tasked with delivering something important to the East zone . This had made Alexa skeptical, that he was lying and would never come back for her. As proof of his commitment he gave her a memento. It was a heart shaped locket that had been in his family since before the war. Steve told Alexa he would be back in no more than a week and to be ready to leave when he got back. They agreed to meet in the same spot and seats they met each other that night. Alexa was overjoyed. Every day for that week she went to the same seat in the same bar waiting for him lovestruck and anxious.

Eventually days turned into weeks, and weeks turned into months. Despite everything Alexa would show up in the same positive mood ready for her fairytale to come true. For almost a half a year Alexa came back to that spot before she gave up hope. The reason was because of a troubling rumor she had overheard from some of the local criminals about a score they had on a caravan with a civilian riding in it 6 months ago. Due to the pure danger of the roads in the Mid from the East to West zones Alexa had figured out why Steve hadn’t come back.

Heartbroken Alexa remained single for the remainder of her life, eventually running and owning the very brothel that she worked at. She became very wealthy and powerful. In her 30’s; she brokered deals with the other peaceful towns and funnelled her whole fortune into making the roads to the zones safer. When she was asked why she did all this on her 40th birthday she simply smiled and said, “So that the next time Oasis has a Cinderella story it might have a happy ending.”