Valentina Perez-Rojas

Project Harmony

I looked upon the line in front of me, a seemingly endless serpent of people converging to one singular point, one indisputable goal that united us all, a desire experienced by humanity since the beginning of civilization, one that persisted beyond its end and arose alongside a new beginning. In 2024 the world ended, it was quick, simple, predictable. Since the 1940's the world has been warned about the dangers of nuclear power, yet our greed and ambition messed with a technology designed for civilizations much more advanced than our own. In the end, it was a mistake, what that mistake was we will never know; maybe a wrong message, a rogue general with nationalistic ideals, whatever it truly killed humanity, it didn't matter. Billions died in the first wave of nuclear attacks, millions more from the ongoing nuclear winter, famine, and radiation. However, from the ashes of the old world, the future was found. They called themselves the Harmony Project. An initiative designed to build a new civilization, cradled inside massive domes, protecting the survivors from the winter and radiation. However, Harmony was anything but the freedoms of the past. Its government, behind the shadows of bureaucracy and a promise of freedom, selectively chose those who could enter the dome; the worthy admitted with the purpose of perfect reproductive capabilities and the possibility of bringing advancement to the new world, those who were not deemed worthy, however, were shunned, condemned to live in the wasteland for the rest of their miserable and short existence.