It’s raining again today. It seems to always rain. It’s a funny thing how the weather seems to reflect the mood of the world. Now a day there is not much that can’t be described by the words sad or dark or depressing. Since “The Crash” the world is nothing like it used to be. I remember that time like it was yesterday though I was only twelve. People starving in the streets, people ripping doors off of their hinges just to get at what was inside; people who in the blink of an eye saw their lives turn into times of desperation.
My parents did so much to protect me. My father joined a brotherhood that ruled the streets of my city after all other forms of authority failed to keep control. My mother fell into the world of prostitution after she could not find a job. Life was not ideal, but for a young boy all I saw was two people who loved me enough and wanted me to be free from the horrors of this new world as much as possible. Unfortunately, the evil of this world was not so easily kept at bay. When I was only fifteen, three years after “The Crash”, the unspeakable happened to me. In one day, much like that of everyone else in this world, I saw my life ripped from the very clutches of my hopeful hands.
It started with my mother going about her day as it normally was. It was later, however, that something very out of the ordinary happened. Mother normally never brought her suitors’ home, a part of her life she never wanted her family to see in person. That is why when she walked through the door with a man I had never seen before I was particularly puzzled and scared. It is one thing to know your mother does something, it is another to see face-to-face the very men who use her. I try not to dwell on the emotions felt on that day.
Without need for direction I ran to my bedroom, laid on my bed, and proceeded to read my book. I wanted to keep my mind off of whatever may be happening in the other room. It was not long after that when I heard our front door slam open. I heard my father yell my mother’s name in a winded and angry voice. With thundering footsteps he ran down the hall. He opened my door and gave me a look that, to this day, has been burned into my mind. His face showed a terrible mix of fear and sadness. He told me to jump through my window and run to my aunt’s house just a few blocks down the road. Before I could ask why he hugged me with the firm embrace that only a father can hold someone, and then guided me toward the window. The last words that he ever said to me were that he loved me. After he said those words I climbed through the window and ran as fast as I could to the bushes in my neighbor’s yard. I wish I would have just kept running. All I heard was incoherent yelling, followed by a scream, and five shots. I couldn’t move. Fear froze me in place as my eyes needed to see who came out of that alive. I heard the front door open and my entire body trembled as I witnessed the strange man walk out of our home. After that my imagination took over. I could not stand to see what fate had come to my parents. So I ran.
I did exactly what my father told me to do; I ran to my aunt’s house where I explained what had happened. I’m not entirely sure what happened after that, all I knew is that she took care of whatever needed to be taken care of. The day after my unexpected arrival on her doorstep my aunt left and didn’t return until late that night. It was then that she confirmed the very thing my mind was imagining. My parents had both been killed. Little was known about the murders that took place in my previously peaceful home, only that they were the result of my father’s brotherhood taking what was “rightfully theirs.”
I was taken in by my aunt after those horrific days. It was the years after that that shaped the world into what it is today.
Around the age sixteen a new government came into power. They were a collection of different units from the old military banded together under the banner of rebuilding the new world. At first they cleaned up the streets around the country, everything seemed nice, everything seemed safe. I came to accept the presence of armed soldiers in my street, because their bellies were full and their needs met which kept them from tearing through people’s homes usually. This peace did not last, however.
Under this new government a new economic plan was introduced to the population. The government wanted to create a system that would stop the economy from committing suicide like it had years ago. They did this by rebuilding businesses, manufacturing facilities, and power plants, everything that had once existed. The only difference was under the law you had no choice in where you worked, what job you did, or what you made. With these fixed incomes the government could control what people bought to stimulate the economy in whatever way they saw fit. The only way you got a good job was if you happened to be friends with the right people. When this system was put in place it became obvious, we were not being rescued from our life of chaos. We were being enslaved.
