Cut-throat; Mouth Fed

Gas Mask? Check. Knife? Check. Tape? Check. Teddy Bear? Check. Alright. Now, her backpack is set for school. Back when I was in 3rd grade, my backpack had lunch, books, and pencils. Her backpack has a doomsday kit and an “How to Survive Pamphlet”. She looked at me with dim, yet puzzled eyes.

“ Why do I need a knife?” she said.

“To kill your lunch.” I said.

“Why do I need a gas mask?”

“So you don’t breath the chemicals and smoke”

I hoped she would not ask about the teddy bear, but she did.

“Why do I need the teddy bear?”

“...if you die, you will have something pretty to be buried with”

“Oh” she said dejectedly.

We put on our gloves, our gas mask and our boots. She will be going to school and I will be looking for “food” for the family. As we walk outside, we watch our step as we walk over corpses and blood on the street. Masks are not mandatory, but if you take off the mask, you literally die within seconds. The air is so toxic, that it is as if you can touch and see it. I dropped off my sister.

“Alright, if I don’t see you, I love you. Good luck.” I said.

“I love you too. Be safe.” she said.

All of the children have their gas masks on clothing that is hard to depict who is a girl or a boy. I walked into what used to be the mall. People have already destroyed the building and stolen everything. I go to see what I can find. Money doesn’t have value anymore. You find dinner, kill your dinner or become dinner. Walking into the store, I had to be careful not to touch things. I got the UV light to make sure the contaminant is not on things. Nothing that is to any use. My stomach was growling. I needed to eat something. Anything. Walking through the mall, I see an old pretzel. I devoured it within seconds. I have not eaten in three days. I began walking all through the mall and looking for other things. As I scrimmaged through all of the garbage I spotted something shiny. It was a heart shaped locket. The locket was 24 karat gold. It was engraved with “Heaven on Earth Means Having You by Me”. Looking at the locket and sitting in an empty mall, made me burst into tears. This is not the world I remembered. I remember the malls being packed. People were happy. You could buy food in stores and not hunt. Parks had green grass. Beaches had blue water. All of that was gone.

The Year was 2057. While the average citizens all over the world felt that life was not the best, we were just doing our best. However, world leaders knew the truth. The world population was 14 billion. Rural places were overcrowded. Some children could not go to school due to overcapacity. Food was scarce. The trees in the wilderness were chopped. World Leaders suffered approval ratings under 50%. There was nothing that could be fixed. The world was on its last string and barely holding on. Then, the chemical meltdown occurred in Canada. The chemical was so disastrous that it moved to the West Coast. Fire season was already occurring which made it unbearable in the Western part of the U.S., then traveled and caused massive fire that mixed the fumes with fire. The air was contaminated and traveled all over the world. Anyone who breathed it, would automatically die. It affected wildlife, plants, and buildings. That is when chaos occurred. People panicked and began attacking and becoming feral barbarians. The population was drastically declining and eventually, life as we knew it was never the same. The World Leaders got caught in this controversy and were punished. People broke into all places and stole everything.

All I could think of was what happened to the world? Why couldn’t we get back to where we were? Was it too late? I wiped away my tears and looked for food to collect for dinner. I took the heart shaped locket with me, for it gave me hope. I kept walking until I saw a dead cat. While it was cute and I loved animals, I had no choice but to take it for me and my sister. Before I could take the cat, two men approached me at knife point. They wanted the cat. I reluctantly agreed but as I began to leave, the heart shaped locket dropped. It was then the men saw what it was and tried to fight me. One guy held me down and tried to choke me. That is when I kicked him and as he turned to get his gun, I slit his throat and he bled to death. The other guy backed away. I tried to grab the locket and the cat, but then he cut me deep into my arm. We wrestled for a good minute. Looking at him, choking me lifeless. Until, I had seen one of the hooks on his mask was not fully latched on. I grab my knife and I cut open his mask. The mask fell off and he breathed in the air. Within seconds, his eyes were bleeding, his face turned blue and he dropped dead on the ground.

I looked inside their bags. I took whatever was available: A can of corn, a skunk, a hammer, three water bottles. This will be enough for the week, but I am exhausted and hemorrhaging blood. It’s three o’clock. It is time to pick up my sister. I walk through the hazardous waste, the fire and the blood. I am exhausted. The children walk and look like zombies. They aren’t allowed to eat all day and must fight and guard themselves all day. We finally arrive home and it appears that she has been crying.

“What’s wrong?” I said.

“I hate this!” she said. “Life is awful and exhausting”

“I know.”

“I just can’t do this anymore.”

I showed her what I got. The heart shaped locket. She looked amazed.

“Heaven on Earth Means Having You With Me?” she said.

“Yeah. While life here is hell, as long as we have each other, it isn’t that bad.” I said.

“You’re bleeding. Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I just got into a scuffle.”

I was not okay. However, I could not tell her. She would be devastated. I made dinner and while it was cooking, I looked for any kind of medicine. I was weak and I just couldn't find anything. I am close to death, and I couldn’t leave her by herself. There are no longer plants, water, and even the nice neighbor who would give us candy is now a deadly psychopath. We slept in the living room. I gave her a kiss, her teddy bear and I opened the window a little. I hold onto the heart shaped locket and I lay next to her, we sleep and I dream of utopia. A long sleep that we never wake up from for we are now in Utopia.