Devolved

And she burned as she cried, betrayal hot in her lungs and anger burning through her veins. For she had given and given and all we had done was to take everything she had to offer until she was left with nothing. And still, even then, we continued to claw at her, digging deeper and deeper drawing out every ounce of blood that we could.

We were blind to her tears and deaf to her cries. Willfully ignorant to her pain and her warnings. We ignored her for decades expecting that she would always be there for us to draw from. We claimed her gifts as ours, believing them to be what was "owed" to us thinking them to be things that we had earned and deserved.

When she fought back with her torrential rains, violent winds and catastrophic earthquakes the world stood silent. Despite the many warnings received over the years from both scientist and earth herself humanity forged on, too content with their lives to make the changes necessary to save her and themselves because it seemed that somewhere along the line we had forgotten that it was us that needed her and not the other way around.

It happened all at once and at first nobody though anything of it. There had been a steady increase in abnormal changes in the weather for a while so it seemed like things were just continuing on that same trajectory. But to be honest regardless of whether or not we had realized it straight away or a year further down the line it wouldn't have made a difference. There was nothing that could have been done then to change the damage that we had inflicted upon her, she wanted to be heard and to be seen and for the first time in a long time, she finally was.

In some places it was the unforgiving heat that came first, in others the rain, it didn't really matter what order they happened in because eventually you would experience both. It took a while for the scientists and governments to catch on but they eventually did when the tornadoes started shortly after, along with the snow in places that hadn't seen snow in centuries.

Over two thirds of the human population was wiped out in within the year as earth fought to take back what was hers. A whole new world was created, a world where every breath you took was a fight, everything you thought you knew you had to relearn again and there was nothing left that couldn't kill you. And the earth wasn't friendly to those that survived the first cleansing as it had come to be named. Nights were now longer than days, the temperatures could change at the snap of a finger. Crops became impossible to grow under the new climate and so with hunger and strife came the second cleansing that saw millions to the grave.

And despite attempts to come together the humans left were too far changed by the new world trying to mold themselves to fit the new society. They devolved into beasts, devouring each other and tearing flesh from bone. Every nation was filled with a terror so heavy and dark that the light that we once claimed to see in humanity was snuffed out. It turned into a war between the nations and everyone left to their own devices.

The governments that had been set up were nothing more than false images of a structure that did not exist. There were no rules in the world, no order or reason to why things were done the way that they were. We had lived with the darkness for so long that it had now become a part of us, we didn't try to fight it anymore and instead just let it consume us and birth us anew.

It was after fifty years of that constant terror and havoc that a treaty was signed in an attempt at creating a viable society. They said that to come together meant that we were going to get a semblance of normal back, that we would work together in order to find new ways of living. And for a while it worked, we found new ways to grow crops under controlled environments, worked to find new ways of obtaining our energy source, we began to trade within communities and then internationally.

But as always, human nature took over things began to change again. Many things had changed since the old world but the creeds of greed and power stayed the same in all forms of humanity it seemed. And so the richer you were the more you could afford to buy, and all of a sudden things like joy, freedom and safety were up for sale. The richer you were the more children they allowed you to have and for those that were poor, one was too many but one was all you could have.

In this world freedom has been promised to none but the rich and for everyone else freedom is a dream undiscovered. A concept that had yet to be understood by most. Every surface of our earth is filled with hunger, strife, prejudice and dehumanization. There is no escaping the truth of human nature and yet still we tried. Still we turn a blind eye to the suffering of our neighbors just as they turn a blind eye to ours.

I was born into the new world so I never experienced the old world. But stories were still told at bedtime of a time where we lived in relative freedom, where joy was a thing you could experience and children ran free playing around together. Stories of colorful sunsets and bewitching sunrises. Stories of vast areas of green, fields and forests filled with trees that back then held leaves of all assortments.

The world I was born into was barren, empty and devoid of the beauty of nature, but it still held a certain beauty of it's own. In the darkness of the endless night the start glittered above us accompanied by the moon and acting as our only source of light for the eighteen hours of darkness.

I was born into this world as the second born twin of a poor family, forced into hiding from the early ages of three before my family finally left me to the streets a practice not uncommon in a world where everything was rationed, food, clothes, supplies and apparently the love of a parent. They left me with only a locket, a rusted silver heart shaped locket filled with faces I would rather forget.

I see them every once in a while in the home I spent my early years in, I see the girl with my face staring at me. Brown eyes meeting and holding as if she is trying to speak to me in a language I don't understand. Her mahogany skin free of the dirt and grime that clings to my skin. She smiles occasionally although I'm not sure where or why it comes but she's never tried to speak to me, neither have her parents. I wonder what she sees when she looks at me. Is it the bitterness in my eyes, the hurt or the anger. Or does she see the tears just a few sort seconds away from spilling onto my cheeks?

Today as she stares at me we hear a scream coming from the oval structured building that sits at the hilltop where our community resides and both of our heads turn to the sound of it. We see nothing there and we don't know what's going on but it is a scream not unlike the one from last night and the many nights before that. When I turn my head back to look at her she is already staring at me, something akin to fear in her eyes. Maybe it's because of the fear in the scream we just heard, or the fear of not knowing what is happening or maybe simply just the fear of knowing that my fate awaits me in that same building one day. Whatever the reason I cannot ask so I turn and walk away, back to the barren and broken building that I call home.

They take the ones like us in. Into that oval building but what happens to us after that no one knows, and if not for the screams that come out of there sometimes late at night one might think it to be a welcome opportunity of escape from the dregs of the community. u might notice a friend or two disappearing from the. They are quite in the way that they take you, it's rare that you might actually see them on the streets but you'll notice that the girl you saw yesterday all of a sudden disappears from your life and you never see her again, or maybe you do once you've been taken too. We all know that one day they will come for us and most of us know when that day will be but more than anything we all know there is only one escape from that fate.

As I walk back a scream builds up in my chest but I know that I cannot set it free, it's a scream that has been building up for years built on the fear and anger that I have known for most of my life. It's a scream that tells of rebellion and so it is one that I cannot allow freedom if only not to end up like the many others that were found, blank stares staring up into the sky searching in their last moments of freedom. The feeling feathers itself into every part of my being leaving no place untouched and unable to find it's escape.

It's moments like these I just want to break just to be able to turn my mind of for a moment and find a calm that I have never known. I know my time is soon, based on the preparations I have seen at my old house my eighteenth birthday draws near, and soon it will be my turn to see the inside of the oval house.