To Walk in the Rubble

The year is 2783, Earth is pretty much destroyed. It was not a World War like many people thought it was going to be, the world had gained peace. It was not Global Warming either, that was a joke from the start back in the 21st century. No, it was not aliens, there is still no proof they exist. Nor was it the over harvesting of natural resources, we learned to make synthesized materials long before that happened. Not disease or even famine, health care and food preparation were distributed Earth wide by the automated computerized systems. So what did finally destroy Earth?

Well, back in 2635, a computer virus was injected into the world wide health care and food preparation servers. From there the virus spread to the building maintenance systems moving from one system to the next. Even though top programmers tried they could not stop the virus or find who had started it to begin with.

You ask how a computer virus could bring about the downfall of a planet? Over the years the general populace had moved to large cities, as the need for housing and office space became overwhelming, architechs arose in the world. They used computers and robotic components to make buildings capable of having close to 500 floors. There were some buildings where a person would never have to step out of the one building at any point in their life. The architechs were also responsible for converting all buildings into smart buildings, self-contained marvels. Many of the buildings had shopping centers, hospitals, schools, apartments and so much more contained in its walls. Every Smart Building had a few floors with self-sustaining plant and animal life to assist with the atmospheric environment for the building.

When a smart building does not have its brains to function it does not take long for the building to start to collapse and fall into disrepair. Without the computerized maintenance system the buildings fell to ruin within 25 years. Most people have long since moved away from the dangers in the once populous cities. It seemed over the years the buildings had just kept getting higher and higher, but without technology those super tall buildings started crumbling and falling down in the streets.

Not a lot of the world's 45 billion population that survived, maybe 200-300 thousand. With the number that died due to the Virus, it was not really a surprise to the survivors, all but the most basic of technology failed to work. There just was not enough people who knew how the different systems worked. The main clusters of survivors were spread far and wide. The only people who survived were those who could figure out what was safe to eat in nature and how not to be eaten by the overly plentiful wildlife - Wildlife re-establishment causes in the late 2000's was super effective.

The most successful of the survivors formed their own cities, but some still feared too many living near together could cause problems and lived in small communities or as nomads.

Trinka grew up with Nomadic parents, when she was old enough to defend herself and provide for herself she set off. Trinka had heard stories about the vast cities of the past and wanted to see one and to walk where people once flourished .

It had been months since Trinka had left her family and set out all on her own. Ahead of her she could see something glinting in the sun. The shimmer of light did not look like the way water reflected the sun back towards the sky. With excitement Trinka started moving faster towards the reflection.

As dusk covered the land, Trinka knew she had to stop for the night. She could hear the tinkling sound of running water. Finding the small creek she put down her pack. Trinka knew she would need to start a fire to keep the wild life away, but first she wanted to replenish her water supply. Picking up her water jug she went to check if the creek appeared clean. At the edge of the creek Trinka saw some root vegetables she knew were great for eating and if she could find a couple dry stalks the brown top part would contain soft material that would start a fire easily. With a bit of searching Trinka was able to find three soft tops and collected a couple fresh roots to roast on the fire. As she was about to leave the water Trinka noticed something in the sand under the water, setting her roots to the side she reached down and brushed the sand off the object. It appeared to be a metal of some sort, picking up the small piece of metal she realized it was on a chain and shaped like a heart.

Looking closer Trinka could see the heart was decorated beautifully with some raised designs with a dark red stone in the center. Trinka brushed all the sand off the heart and chain. Gathered her roots and stalks and headed back to her pack to start a fire. Once Trinka had eaten her dinner she started looking at the heart more. She realized it must be a necklace from a long long time ago. There was a seam on the edge, with a bit of pring she was able to open the seam, gross creekwater and sand spilled out, inside appeared to be some space for something thin to fit inside. Trinka cleaned the heart necklace one more time and then put it around her neck, this had to be a good sign that going to the old city was a great decision.

The next day it was just after mid day she got to the edge of the rubble. Looking around she could not believe her eyes, there was weird whitish flat stones, metal and glass everywhere. Trinka had always thought the old cities would be like the survivor communities she had been to a few times to trade things with, but bigger. She could tell she was wrong, the old cities were nothing like the communes. There were a few buildings that had only partially fallen down and they were the tallest thing she had ever seen. As she stood there staring without thought Trinka reached up and wrapped her hand around her new necklace. With a deep breath Trinka decided to go see the closest building.

Trinka carefully walked up to the building, she could tell it used to be much taller but the top had fallen off and broke with the rest of the rubble. After searching she was able to find an opening into the building. Trinka knew she had to go inside, she had to see how the people of the past lived. Carefully picking her way over the broken metal and glass she dunked low and went in the entrance caused by broken glass.

Inside was like nothing she had ever seen. Trinka figured the room she was in must have been a place to eat, there were lots of tables and chairs. There were so many tables and each table had 4-8 chairs at them, along the wall were some long chairs with a table between them. Everyone from both of the survivor communs she had been in could sit in here and there would still be tables left over.

Curiosity made her move about the room, she found a door on one side, with some hard work she was able to move the door. It led to a large open room with more chairs sitting about, across from the eating room she noticed another doorway. As Trinka looked through the glass door she could see what appeared to be oddly made clothing. Not interested in the clothing at this time. she moved further into the big room. There were some stairs leading down. Slowly Trinka walked down the stairs, it was getting darker and harder to see.

Just as she was thinking she would have to turn around due to the dark, the hall opened up to what appeared to be a room filled with plants, and there was a lot of light shining in. She had never seen this many plants in one area, even in the forests the plants were more spread out. Tentatively, Trinka started to walk amongst the plants. They were so beautiful, there were flowers, and green plants, and trees and everything she could think of ever seeing outside, but in one large room growing together.

Trinka cocked her head to the side hearing a faint sound that seemed out of place. Carefully moving as quietly as she could she followed the sound. There was another opening to another room, looking through the opening she saw a large animal. What concerned her was that it was chained to the wall. Trinka realized there must be other people around here, but they were chaining animals, that did not seem right.

Trinka decided she could not leave the beast chained up in the dark room, it just was not right. She waited until it appeared the beast had gone to sleep to go and find a way to unchain it. With some work she was able to open the clasp holding the chain to the wall. As the chain hit the floor the beast awoke, it stood on its four feet and let out a large roar. The beast glanced at Trinka, but then took off towards the dark side of the room. Trinka did not think following the beast would be a good plan.

She went back through the room of plants and up the stairs to see what else she could find, she decided to go up further than she had been originally. There was a door that looked like you could go outside and there were short walls, probably so you didn’t fall. Moving to the edge she peered down. Down on the ground there were people running and screaming. She could not understand what was being said, but suddenly she saw the beast she let loose slap one of the people with its massive paw, the person went flying into some rubble. The beast did not stop to look at the person just kept after the others.

Wrapping her hand around the heart necklace, Trinka realized maybe she should not have let the beast free.