The Future After Past

The year was 2045.

The sky turned to a purple hue and the ground was a vibrant red.

The planet let its anger, greed, and chaotic nature get the best of it and it had become utterly desolate due to war, disease and famine.

It all started in the year 2025 when the presidential election broadcast had a glitch in the system.

No one knew that this glitch would lead to a new society that would ultimately destroy the world as it knew itself in 2025.

President Hawthorne and competitor Ronald Simon both had very different ideologies on how the USA should be operated. Hawthorne believed in peace, unity, acceptance and human rights for all while Simon believed everyone should work for everything and that those who were born unable to work had their rightful place in society and should be, as he put it, “starved off”.

Then there was another, in the shadows, that had observed the US’s corrupt system for years. At first, there was a slight curiosity about the inner workings of the government. He once was a NSA clerk and stumbled upon documents that peaked his interest. He found that the government’s election was fabricated and that both sides were on the same team. This disturbed him deeply. How could they fabricate a lie and lie to the American public for so long?

He remembered his mother as he looked at the locket, she gave him as a child. It was a picture of them, him, his father and mother all smiling and full of joy. What happened to both of his parents left him distraught and distrustful of his government. His father enlisted in the army shortly after this photo was taken, when he came back, he was mentally and physically damaged and never recovered fully. His mother, due to stress of taking care of his father fell ill too and currently laid stationed in the hospital with astronomical bills that the son felt overwhelmed by.

Leon, the man who lost his parents to corruption and a lack of loyalty, stared at his locket while a tear welled up in his eye. How could they treat a man who put his life on the line for the country like this? How could they let his mind and body fade into nothingness after defending them? And how could they let the mother, wife, and caretaker of a man lay in the hospital dying with no financial help to recover?

Leon sifted through the documents he discovered one by one. It was a late night at the NSA office, and he had been working over-time for his boss. Everyone was zombie-like in the office, and no one was paying attention to him. He scrolled and scrolled through endless classified documents and emails. Executive orders that were not known to the public, orders where the poor were kept poor, and the rich were kept rich. Emails of human trafficking, alien agreements, and mind manipulation of the army. He found documents about how the army was just market research on how the violence of being on the field and the stress of training effected the individuals that had partaken in it.

Leon sat shocked. Some of this information dated back to the 1930s. He stared at the screen while feelings of rage, disbelief, despair and frustration boiled in his gut. He knew they couldn’t keep getting away with this. He knew that he had to do something to change it, or the world would only get worse and worse while benefitting a small minority of people.

As the shift ended, he grabbed the disc he saved everything to and kept his head held low while walking out of the office. Today would be his last day working for the enemy.

Leon sat in his studio apartment. The only thing he could afford since paying for his mother’s hospital bills and the detriment left behind when his father passed. He sat in front of his mirror; eyes blood shot red with his skin clammy and cold from staying up endless nights. He had to forge a plan to overthrow this corrupt system, but he began to doubt if he was intelligent or clever enough to go through with it.

He wrote pages and pages to no avail, until he realized maybe the solution was not that complicated after all.

Leon was not one to often spend time on the internet since majority of his time was spent reading or working but he figured that his next steps could hopefully work in his favor.

Lots of information was surfacing on the dark web, but physical items were also sold on there as well. He knew he needed manpower as well as a hacker to get into the media databases and disrupt the broadcast of the election.

“So, this was it,” Leon thought, “I’m finally about to disrupt this messed up system and get justice for my family”. He stared at his locket. “This is all for both of you, all of it”.

He dived into the dark web and found a hacker as well as an arms man. They both were on the same wavelength of anti-government that he was. It was not an easy task to find these men to help him but his experience at work helped him complete the task.

They decided to meet that night at 3am and after that the world would not be the same.

Leon walked through a dark alley. He wore a black hoodie and carried a large backpack with him full of his computer gear. He tried to stay as incognito as possible while making his way to the meeting spot. He remembered “Look for the door with the horned 3” in the group message. As he walked, he saw a big grey door with a large red 3 and horns painted on both sides.

“Kind of ominous, I guess. Looks like the door to a club”. Leon thought.

He knocked 6 times like he was told to, and the door opened slowly…

It was dark when he stepped in cautiously. He looked both ways, on the right in front of a bright screen he saw two men. One was large and stocky, and the other was short and fat.

Leon cleared his throat.

“Oh, hey man, welcome. This is our little lair where we make things happen”, the larger man smiled. “Come, come, sit sit”, he waived Leon over.

Leon realized maybe this was a bad idea, but he went through with it anyway. His feelings of revenge began to overwhelm him, and he knew this was the only to soothe his pain.

Leon sat with the other gentleman. “So what made you guys want to join in on my plan? We could get in a lot of trouble for this”. Leon said.

The larger gentleman sighed. “Well, take a look at this”, he said as he his rolled pants leg up. It was deformed, as if it had gotten into a bad explosion of some sort.

“Oh shit” Leon replied shocked

“Yeah, that’s from a fall out between US soldiers. I was not even in the fucking army. And you know how they compensated me?” The large man pulled out a letter. “With this, a fucking apology and nothing else” He looked down at it in slight despair.

“Shit, I’m sorry that happened to you man”. Leon replied trying to console his new comrade. He looked at the short hacker man and asked him the same question.

“Well, I got really into conspiracy theories. My thirst for knowledge became so great that I wanted to learn how to hack and see government documents. Once I discovered those, I knew I had to do something about it. So now I’m here planning anarchy with strangers” He smiled.

Leon let out a slight chuckle. “Well, I told you guys my story, so let’s get to planning, shall we?”

They talked all night about what to do the day before the presidential election. They decided to hack the broadcast and reveal all the hidden information on every news channel and live internet source they could find. This would change the trust of the American people forever.

The Next Morning.

Everyone was in position to pull off the master plan. Leon had his speech written and his outfit perfectly curated for the event. They set up the camera room in the lair with a dark back drop to match.

The arms man infiltrated the speech room, with aim towards anyone that would attempt to stop the broadcast.

The hacker stayed in his place making sure everything went according to plan.

Leon was ready.

The American people were ready to hear awe-inspiring speeches from their two candidates. The side false greed and the side of false empathy would battle it out to win the false election.

The two candidates stood at their respective podiums to deliver their speeches in the studio they had televised every fabricated narrative in.

President Hawthorne began to speak when suddenly there was a loud gasp from the audience. She turned as well as well as Richard to see a man on the screen with black eyes and black hair. Everyone sat quietly, scared, intrigued, and curious about what would happen next. Hawthorne played it cool while she was furious on the inside. Simon held a scowl on his face the entire time.

Leon stared at the camera. All the shakiness that had filled him before had now left his body and was replaced with rage. He channeled it into his message.

“American People. Today I must reveal to you how you have been betrayed. You have been lied to and cheated out of so much. This morning I will reveal to you everything they, your leaders, have been hiding from you. This election today is a farse and has been since the creation of this country. It’s there to create more divide so that you all can easily be conquered. The biases based on race, gender, and religion are all made-up narratives to keep you in-fighting instead of coming up with a plan to defeat the real enemy, the rich and the government.” Leon paused.

Everyone in the studio room looked stunned. Some look doubtful because the evidence was not shown yet. Some just had tears in their eyes because they wanted to believe this was a staged conspiracy, but it sounded convincing and that would mean that their existence in this country had all been a lie.

Leon continued, “What I’m about to show you may disturb your reality, but I feel it’s necessary for you all to learn this”. He sighed as he started the presentation. With every slide, picture, and classified document the world took a large gasp of disbelief. Everything had been a lie. Hell, their very existence had been a lie.

After the presentation, the world started to grow and louder and louder. Riots began to break, and people began to behave opposite of how they behaved before.

Leon looked into the camera. “I’m sorry I had to do this to you all, but I would dishonor my family…” He looked at his locket as he took a sigh, “If I didn’t put this information out. Break Free USA”. Leon stood up and turned the camera off.

The world was screaming with anger. Buildings burned. People broke into government buildings and banks. They realized working, serving, and giving to this country was unjust and unfair to the vast majority. The world burned, drowned, and sank for the next 20 years.

And in 2045 with half of the planet gone and mostly ruins left, it could begin again on an honest note.