This is my attempt at writing a short story.
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I got out of bed as usual when i was waken by the central alarm which goes off every morning at 6 am but i’m still tired from yesterdays outing, but its time for me to go out for another days hunting. I’ll have a shower, put on my uniform and head down for breakfast to the canteen. When i say breakfast i mean pills and water we do not have food. The shower by the way uses no water, it sterilize’s the skin.
My name is Arcon, i am a relic hunter. There are ten of us in the dome and we go out once a week and only for two days, this is the length of time we are allowed outside to work in order to be safe. We search the land and remains of buildings for any relics from the past when earth prospered.
It is the year 2517, earth has been ravaged and nearly destroyed by mankind in several ways, 90% of the population has been wiped out and there are very few animals left and the land mass has been halved with continents lost.
Let me tell you how it all started.
From about 2130 global warming had really set in and melted both ice caps which in turn caused vast flooding with hundreds of small islands being lost to the sea. Major towns and cities on the continents were rendered useless and left to the elements, which meant millions of people had to be accommodated else where. The people who could be and were lucky enough to be saved were moved to other countries or to high ground and tried to settle down but this caused trouble.
There were so many in the world and with so little land to grow food people starved to death and fought over what food there was. The governments brought in strict rationing but still millions died, this seemed to be alright with the governments as it meant there was more food to go round for the living.
But this was only the start. Earths resources where running out very quickly and countries moved to secure oil and gas for themselves leaving other countries with nothing. Wars broke out all over the globe which got so bad, out right nuclear war started between every nation, tens of millions of people were killed and countries totally destroyed and the vegetation in those countries was virtually nonexistent.
People had to shelter from the nuclear fallout underground in caves or by any means they could find. About three years after the wars ended, it started, and earth delivered its wrath on mankind. Earth-quacks, volcanoes erupting, earths crust faults opening up, tsunami’s two hundred foot high.
This was nearly the end of mankind, only the strong survived and they were very few. By what means, no-one knows, but our ancestors started over again and built domes for the humans to live in expanding each over the centuries. Water is collected inside from condensation running down the glass walls and roof and all waste water is recycled, electricity for light and heat is generated from solar panels outside.
They banned religion, governments, money and all weapons as these were seen as the four things that started all wars, also the domes are run by a committee of elders. Over the centuries they have been able to contact and set up a chain of domes or underground shelters all over the world run on a similar bases.
Population was controlled, when a person reached 70 or could not work any longer they would be terminated, which meant a child could be born. Children were put into a separate dome and they never knew their parents and they never knew their children, which meant termination meant nothing to any-one.
Now to-day we are able to have twenty babies born every year as we are expanding and need workers because we can see signs of earth starting to come back to life with small bits of grass and shoots appearing, we can also see small animals but no-one kills them as we want them to breed.
My job as a hunter takes me far and wide to try to find anything from the past but some of the things we bring back, no-one knows what they are for. We have found a few books, but only a few can can read, maybe some day everyone will learn.
And maybe the earth will come back to full bloom again, the air and water will be clean, animal life might start again all over the planet and we can all live outside where we are meant to be.
To-day three of us are setting of to buildings discovered five years ago but never investigated because they could see lights flashing. Does it mean people live there or is there a power source we don’t know about.
We will all carry on as we are, living for the future for the children and let the planet repair its self through time, for us.
