The Melancholy of a Dystopian Gentlemen

Well. Here I am again. Seems this is my life now. Rummaging for hours through endless garbage and clutter, looking for something that could just as well not even exist. What a life to live. Five-thousand credits. That’s all I needed to get on that bus and be done with all of this. Avalon is offering maintenance jobs that are hiring on the spot in Waco City and are transporting people by the bus load to take up the offer. Room and board included. I wanted nothing more than to be anywhere but this dreary old city, working for this less than accommodating corporation. A crisis scouring unit. Humph. That title was nothing more than a fancy name for a premium custodian with minimal detective skills. Oh well. Where would I get that kind of money from, anyway? It was wishful thinking… So here I am again. Searching for nothing in a place that’s as good as nowhere. The joy of life. What even is any of this stuff? If I had to take a guess, I would say that this used to be some sort of warehouse or factory, based on the multitude of complicated machinery and the litter of hazardous debris scattered throughout the place. There were bicycle parts, moldy old teddy bears and… wait. What is that? Under a pile of rubble sat something that seemed to stand out from the rest of it. It was a little black notebook bound by a sturdy black elastic strap that seemed to be a bit worn from time but also seemed to be in some sort of good shape still. I would normally look over an item like this one but it seemed so out of place here and I didn’t have much hope of finding anything else. I picked it up and opened it to find that it was mostly empty aside from loggings on the first three pages. I knew it wasn’t long until we would be given our lunch break. There also wasn’t anything more obviously interesting, nor was it much to read, so I sat down on one of the metal stools in the room and began reading the first log. It read:

After months of searching for shelter and refuge we finally found a place for us to settle for a while. It’s an old abandoned factory from a time before Avalon sent the world plummeting into complete chaos. Mother and father say the factory was once used to make toys for young children. You can see the remains of broken action figures and bits and pieces of fragmented bicycles lying about everywhere. I’m just glad to not be sleeping outside on that cold hard ground anymore. Mr. Ipkins said we have to find a way to start the generator that gives this place power for this to be a successful expedition but I think things can only get better from here. I also found this little black notebook and decided I’ll keep a journal of our stay. It seems things are looking up now. Here’s hoping.

Humph. I never understood why anyone would choose to live in such unfavorable conditions. While it’s true that the tyranny of Avalon can be more than overwhelming, it was better than a life of constant conflict and worry. It wasn’t as if things were looking to change anytime soon. Sleeping on the ground outside, though. In the cold at that. I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy. Well, maybe only then… Regardless. It makes me complaining about working a paying and providing job seem much less reasonable. You never really realize the weight of what you hold until you meet a man with no arms. Humph. I wonder what else is written here. The next log read:

Finally. It’s over. No more huddling uncomfortably around that makeshift fireplace to stay warm. We can even see each other at night now. It took almost a week to find a way to get that broken old generator running but it was worth the wait. Lights! Finally. To celebrate our accomplishment we are preparing a meal from some of the canned goods we’ve been able to find while here. It’s a bit of a stretch to call it a meal but the sentiment is there and that’s all that matters. Mikaula even found an old toy jukebox that still works and plays music. Mother has been teaching everyone dances from when she was just a girl. Father and Mr. Ipkins have taken to challenging each other to a dance off. Mikaula can’t stop laughing at the two of them and their terrible dancing. I haven’t seen her laugh like this ever. I’m glad to be having a moment of enjoyment like this. Mr. Ipkins and the other elders have been talking about visiting the nearby city and pillaging what they can from it now that we are more appropriately situated. Some are against it and think it’s too risky a move while others believe we have to make a move like this to survive. I think what we have now is just fine.

Can’t say I’m surprised by any of this. Pillagers are becoming much more common with the rising global temperatures making resources scarcer and harder to come by. It doesn’t help that Avalon regulates those resources as if they were entitled to them just by proxy. These are unfortunate circumstances and times indeed but they are the circumstances none the less. In a better world, things would be freer and fairer. Too bad this wasn’t that world. Even still, these people seemed to have made the best out of the worst of their situation. I wonder what dances the mother could have been teaching them. Or just how bad Mr. Ipkins dancing really was to be so humorous. To smile even when there’s nothing to smile about. It sounded like something my mother would say. I haven’t talked to her in a while. Maybe I’ll call her after this shift… Humph. Just one more logging. This one read:

It was too good to be true. I prayed and prayed we would be able to stay here forever but it seems it just wasn’t meant to be. The elders came back in a far worse condition than they left in. The ones that came back anyway. I don’t know what happened or what they did. I just know everyone is being told to pack their things and to get ready to leave immediately. The ringing sirens outside tell me all I need to know though. Father didn’t return. Neither did Mr. Ipkins. The few that did come back keep arguing over a credit vessel they acquired while in the city. Some of them are saying that we should just leave it as it will only cause more problems now and the rest want to take it and use it to reach the Free City of Josa quicker. It’s said there is a settlement there with enough resources to build a new life for everyone and is a place we’ve occasionally discussed visiting. That doesn’t matter now though. It seems the elders decided to leave the credits in a rusted old lunchbox near that makeshift fireplace. I don’t care either way. We had it. We finally had it and now it’s gone.

“Lunch!”, someone called out from outside the room and right on cue as I finished reading the final log. So that’s what all that commotion was a few weeks back. I’d heard pillagers had come into the city and stolen something of value but it was mostly just hearsay. I would never have expected it to be a credit vessel or to be this close to it at that. A large part of me felt bad things ended so poorly for these people. They really almost had it. However, the rest of me knew there was something much more pressing to consider. I rose from the metal stool and headed to the other side of the room where a large pile of scorched items lay in a tightly formed circle. Next to the pile sat the old lunchbox in question just as described in the notebook. I looked up and scanned the room to make sure no one was watching me or what I was doing and at the first sign of safety, opened up the lunchbox. There it was. In the middle of the lunchbox all alone. A standard issue Avalon credit vessel. I took out my own credit vessel and pressed it next to the one in the lunchbox to see what the weight of what I now held weighed. After a few seconds of waiting, the balance of the stolen credit vessel popped up on its built-in screen. I couldn’t believe my eyes. Twenty-thousand credits hovered above the screen in thick bold lettering. Then, the prompt to transfer the credits to my vessel. Without a moment’s hesitation I approved the transaction and ridded myself of the lunchbox and credit vessel together. Wow. Just like that it seemed things had played out in my favor. I could now afford that bus ride and a new start at life. Or could I? I never really considered it but just how much of this way of life was even living at all? Even with the odds stacked against them and with next to nothing, it seemed these people had found true joy, even if it was only temporary. Something I rarely ever seen outside of people’s pleasure. But this wasn’t that. No, this was something different. Something most never get a chance to see and something that was even less commonly recognized. What now sat in my hand was pure and unfiltered hope. Hope for a better life and better possibilities. Hope that I had to pursue. I had to know what happened to these people. I had to see the world outside of this dull and drab perspective. I had to try to reach Josa and I had to see what else the world had to offer. I had to try. What did I have to lose anyway? So. The only question now was how much would that bus ride cost to Josa.