It’s raining. That was the only thought present in my head as I followed Seth. In and out of alleyways, ducking behind parked cars as moving ones passed by. It’s raining. I’m cold. And I’m tired of running. But that’s what happens when you find out something you’re not supposed too in this rigorous society, you end up running from it. There’s not many people out on the roads, there never is now, they’re all too worried about Beng taken.

It didn’t used to be like this, back before the wars, people were out and about, shopping, driving, biking, or just walking. My grandmother constantly talks about life when she was a child. She said she lived next to the beach, which was clean sand next to the ocean, they don’t have them anymore. I wish I could have seen one, she must of loved it there, you could see it in her eyes when she talked about it, or really anything from the olden days, she got this far away look in her eyes like she was somewhere to far for me to reach.

Seth gestured for me to stay where I was while he investigated the streets ahead. I kicked through the assortment of bottles and cans, before leaning against the wall under a street light. I wish I had a time machine, so I can go back in time and change everything; to warn everyone what’s going to happen in the future, not that a majority of them would listen, but at least I could try.

I’d tell them how stupid their little game of which-country-can-create-something-more-dangerous is, and how it ruined everyone’s lives. How they turned the earth (the only planet suitable for us to live on, in case you forgot) into a giant dumpster. You see, it all started with the bombs. Like they planned it ahead of time, we all started firing at each other at once. It’s funny because no country actually knew if another was going to attack or not it was a simple, “I heard Japan was going to attack, oh we better get them first” kind of deal.

The countries started with nuclear weapons, why anyone would ever invent nuclear weapons is beyond me, but yes that’s how it started. We created them and we knew other countries had them too, but we didn’t know which ones did and which didn’t. Truth is, we were dying to test them out, the only thing stopping us was that exactly, not knowing who had them, if we fired ours then Japan would fire theirs, then Korea would and so on. We must have freaked ourselves out, wondering when they would strike if we should.

They feed us this crap, like they weren’t aware of the reactions of the plants. Don’t let it fool you, they knew, and we never really did anything to stop them. Things started getting reactions once power plants blew or got targeted and exploded. When I say ‘things’, I’m not talking just people, plants and inanimate objects did too. It was weird seeing animal’s evolve and plants lashing out at you when you walked through them. Basically the world is a wasteland. They generating so much nuclear (and god knows what other harmful chemical weapons) that they ran out of space to store it all.

This causes people to change too, the random three armed person is always a treat to see. This ruins their idea of a perfect society though. If they don’t seem perfect then that will only cause riots and protests and who wants that? So people began disappearing, one by one. People who where strange, people who were changed due to the chemicals, people who objected. They all started disappearing.
Then people began to notice.

So no one leaves unless they have too, if they don’t have homes they’re hiding in dark alleyways ready to attack anyone who invades their territory. It’s sad. To see this once great nation end up like this. We were meant for so much more than this, we’re all just one complete race of people, if you take a step back from all of it. Why are we all trying to destroy each other? What exactly is that accomplishing? I wanted to know I still do, so I asked.
Big mistake.
They were after me then, Seth and I talked to people, at first it was only a few then the crowd kept growing, and growing, and growing, until it felt like half the city was there all arguing. The only fact they could agree on was that this is all wrong. Apparently, speaking up for what you believe in is fine as long as it’s the belief of everyone else. They knocked on my parents doors saying they were taking me into custody for “contaminating innocent bystanders with my psychological problems” and that they were going to give me “The help I deserved.”
I wasn’t doing any of that, so I climbed out of the bathroom window. I ran all the way to Seth’s house to find him on his way to mine, the same thing happened to him as well. So we took our “Psychological problems” and fled. We didn’t know where we were going as long as it was away from here. Later on down the road Seth thought we should go to his aunt and uncle’s house in California, apparently the idea of California Beng the best state to start a new life hasn’t changed with the passing of time. I didn’t argue with him, if he wanted to go, then I’d go.
This is a mess. I’m a mess. The world’s a mess. It just doesn’t make any sense. I shook my head tired of thinking of all of it. I saw Seth jogging towards me.
“All clear, hey, what’s wrong?”
“It’s raining.”