Chapter 1: Awakening

Lets try this again...different story.....same theme....

Chapter 1: Awakening

There will come a day in your life when you wake up.

You wake up everyday, your turn your alarm off. Put on your slippers, walk to the bathroom, you shower with the same soap and shampoo, dry with the same towels, shave in the same mirror with the same razor. You’ll walk into the same closet, put on the same clothes, go downstairs and eat the same breakfast. You’ll read the same paper, get in the same car and drive to the same job you’ve always had. You’ll sit in the same traffic all morning listening to the same radio station with the same DJs. You’ll work your 8 hours with the same people, with the same boss, in the same cubicle. You drive back to the same home, with the same wife, for the same dinner. You watch the same TV shows on the same TV. Then back to the same bed.

There will come a day in your life when you wake up, and you’ll scream.

The monotony of life hits everyone. It’s handled in many different ways. Some people decide to adapt, to change. They find a new job. They get a mistress. They buy a yellow sports car. Some people don’t change at all; they suck it up and deal with their boredom. They hold it in, it builds up. They snap, release the rage, and the cycle repeats.

Today was my day to scream. I’ve let my boredom build much too long. It’s time to release the rage, exhale this frustration. But I won’t let the cycle repeat, no not this time. This time, I’m going to change, something has to be different.

Chapter 1: Awakening

Waking up in a pile of garbage and shit is not the way I envisioned my 30th birthday. But here I lay, a garbage bag for a pillow and the smell of feces in the air, welcome to my 3rd decade on this shit hole planet. I imagine the mental picture you got was me lying in an alleyway; the dark wet pavement reflecting the moonlight revealing some dumpster and the brickwork of some 20th century building. The reality is, I’m lying on the floor of my apartment building, or at least what used to be an apartment building.

I was born on January 1st, 2000 at 12:57 AM. I was one of the first millennium babies. My entire birth was actually planned, my mother and father tried for me to be the first baby born of the millennium. Apparently there was a whole group of people who tried to have their children born the first of the millennium. I really don’t quite see the point.

Sometime shortly after my birth, our society began to crumble. Capitalism began to fail as the rich got richer and the poor got poorer. Inflation sky rocketed as things like gas, electric and other common goods became almost unaffordable. Society grew restless, their entire lives were spent working just to survive. There was no out, no relief of stress. Workdays grew to more than 10-12 hours a day. People could no longer afford vacations, the tourist industry collapsed in numerous places.

Natural disasters seemed more and more common place. Hurricanes, earthquakes, typhoons, tsunami’s, and tornados. You name it, and it’s occurrence doubled, and even tripled. Not only that, when they did occur they were that much stronger. At first scientists wanted to blame global warming, el Nino, la Nina, el whatever. Any excuse they could find, as long as science could blame something. I think the reality of it was, the Earth was pissed at us. It was tired of being shitted on, it was tired of our viral growth and incestuous appetite for material goods and natural resources. The earth was fighting back, it was controlling our population through any means necessary.

The straw that broke the camel’s back came on February 21st, 2011. Somehow, someway, all the oil in our Earth ceased to exist. Every oil pump on every continent pumped up nothing but dirt and dust. The world’s population, now over 8 billion, used up every last drop of oil the planet had to offer. All that was left was what nation’s had in reserve, what sat in the belly of oil tankers, and what was in the tank of your car.

By 2011, you would think hybrid technology would be more commonplace. You would think alternative fuel sources would be available. But capitalism prevailed for the rich, and as the oil companies paid off senators and CEOs, alternative fuel measures simply got delayed and delayed.

It was complete and utter chaos as people scrambled for every last bit of gas. Millions of homes that winter were unable to heat themselves. Cars were abandoned everywhere. It looked as if society was doomed. The governments tried to come up with solutions, but it all happened so fast, the world was not prepared for this. Separatist groups popped up, these groups banded together and fought other groups that banded together. It was survive or die. Street fighting was commonplace. Cities crumbled, people died, the word fell apart.

Wordcount: 583

Setting:

Sometime in the future. Earth has used up all its natural resources. Governments collapsed. Total anarchy covers the Earth as people fight to leave where they live and head to the few remaining areas of civilization.

Welcome

Welcome to the future site of my Nanowrimo entry! More to come in November.