The Ultimate Choice

Welcome to the world of 2100. The world as we knew it had ended and all that was left was rubble and ashes. That of course was all thanks to my great grandfather James o Reilly. Who was he, you may ask? Only the destroyer of the entire planet of course.

You look confused so let me give you a little bit of context. my name is Andrew O'Rielly and my great grandfather Jimmy was born in the year of 1985. He grew up to be a stud in and out of school. He was what you would call a well-rounded successful person. In fact, by the ripe old age of forty-five he was a multi-millionaire with not a care in the world. He owned three different companies that were growing daily by hundreds of thousands of dollars. That money had eventually caught up to him though, because, he started to think he was above the law. He hired armies to protect him on both the physical and the legal front as he chose to spite the government and their regulations. He built nuclear power plants just for the heck of it and treated his employees like crap.

After about 20 years of this nonsense one by one his employees began to turn against him so he fled to Moscow to escape the feds. Due to his massive wealth, he hired Russian intelligence officers and infiltrated their military. He then hired Russian and German extremist groups to help him start a nuclear war.

Unfortunately, it worked and the United States responded in kind. The destruction that ensued was unlike anything anybody had ever seen before. The casualties were innumerable, as whole cities were wiped out in a matter of seconds. People, animals, plants, and buildings were reduced in numbers significantly. Barely anything survived. After 7 months we had lost over 75% of all life on planet earth.

New diseases arose and people began to die by the age of thirty. Nevertheless, humans began to rebuild what they had lost. My great grandfather and my grandfather died in the war but my father survived he was almost twenty at the time. He ran away under a false name and hid with thousands of other people in a military bunker in Moscow. That's where he met my mother. They got married and procreated to preserve their bloodline. During their marriage, my father had no ring so he gave her what he called “his inheritance.”

Later as they were leaving the bunker the police seized him. realizing who he was they dragged him away as his identity was revealed before all whom had survived. He was executed the next day. My mother fearing for her unborn child forced her birth prematurely. She gave birth to me 2 months before I was due. the birth killed her but I was taken in by one of the ladies she had met in the bunker. the lady’s name was Mrs. Anne and she took care of myself and her own child Benji until we were eight years old, then she died of the red liver virus. Ever since then we have been taking care of ourselves.

This new world isn't half bad though. Other than people fighting and killing each other over food and contaminated water and rabid hybrid beasts eating people at random its quite peaceful.

We have tried electing leaders to help with decision making but if anybody disagrees with them our leader usually dies.

Sure, there's a lack of shelter, clean water, food, and security but at least we’re not all dead right?

I mean there may be fires everywhere but those usually keep the beasts away and everybody is usually quite agreeable until they kill you for something they want. It's fine though because most people are going to die at thirty anyway due to all the diseases and polluted air.

Ok so it’s a rough place to live I can't lie. But we are working toward a better tomorrow. It's like we went back to the stone age, as pretty much everything is destroyed. All I have to my name is that golden locket: my “inheritance.” I’m Not sure what good that will make since there is no such thing as an economy anymore. I guess it doesn’t matter, I tell myself as I help build shacks for people to live in.

I’ve got to say it’s a nice thing, to see a lone straggler walk into a house you just built. Like a bird entering a birdhouse you just hung. That is until someone else comes along and kills them for it.

After I finished building my shack, I said goodnight to Benji and headed down the street to an abandoned dumpster where I sleep every night. As I drifted off, I had the same dream I have every night. It was about a lone figure engulfed in a fog, she was speaking to me in a soft but sweet voice,

“Make your choice dear, me or the world,”

This time the dream was different though, I could see the figure, though not clearly,

“Who are you?” I yelled

“My dear son,” she whispered “I am the spirit of the earth”

“How can I help you? What do you want from me”?

“Alas, your bloodline has been a selfish one, one I intend to destroy, at least until this point,”

“Why is that?” I asked

“That locket you wear around your neck, it is a precious gift I gave to your great grandfather years ago in his hour of great need. He abused the power that came with it and allowed himself to become consumed with selfishness. It seems your grandfather and father were the same, as your grandfather begot a baby boy though his wife was barren and your father used it to coerce your mother into loving him. Now, I am giving you the same choice I gave all of them: take this gift for yourself or return it to the earth where it belongs. If you use it, you will gain anything you want but the world will just get worse”

“What happens if I return it to the earth?” I asked

“Nothing, everything, I cannot say. But an act of selflessness never goes unrewarded.” and with that she disappeared. I woke up to the sound of someone banging on my dumpster. I froze and my blood was as cold as ice in my veins.

“Hey, sleepyhead, open up,” it was Benji. “Look what I found!”

Benji was sitting there skinny as ever with his left eye permanently squeezed shut due to a mutated form of pink eye. He was about five feet tall with brown hair and blue, well, eye. He was smiling with the five teeth he had left. In his hand was what looked like a leg from a dog. “I already cooked it,” Benji said. “Happy sixteenth birthday to us,”

“You scared me Benji,” I laughed.

“Well, that was kinda the point. Otherwise, you woulda never woke up. C’mon have some birthday food we haven't eaten since last week.”

“What is it?” I asked

“I dunno,” he said taking a bite. He handed it to me.

I took a bite. It was slimy and tasted like it had been dead and rotten for a year. It was delicious.

“Where'd you get it?”

“I saw it lying dead by a shack I made.”

“It's good," I chuckled

“Hey who were you talking to?” he asked

“Well, you remember those dreams I'd been telling you about?”

“You mean the one you have all the time?”

“Yeah”

“Yes, I remember,” Benji wiped grease from his lips. “But, you’re lucky, I don’t get dreams.

“Maybe, I don’t think luck is involved though”

“So, what about it,” he asked impatiently.

“Well, she said the locket I have...”

“Your ‘inheritance’?”

“Yes, anyway, she said it could grant any wish that would benefit me but if I did that, I would make things worse. She also said if I returned it to the earth, it would be an act of selflessness and that maybe nothing would happen but selflessness is always rewarded. So whaddya think?”

Benji looked at his hands silently.

“It's true isn't it.”

“I think so.”

Benji suddenly jumped on top of me.

“Gimme the locket and you won't get hurt, Andy.”

“No, Benji! What are you doing? Get off me!”

Benji began to choke me, so I picked up a broken bottle and stabbed him in the side. Then I ran as fast as I could to the old shack where Mrs. Anne had lived.

A couple of hours later I woke up on the floor of the shack and went outside. No sign of Benji. Good, I don’t know what he was thinking. I walked back into what we called ‘town’ looking for him. Maybe we could talk things out. But when I got to town everybody stopped what they were doing and looked at me. I was frightened as I walked down what was left of the road.

One of the other shack builders stopped me,

“What's your rush big fella, where you off to?”

“Nowhere, sir just Tryna find my friend Benji.”

“Oh, I know Benji. Lemme show you where he is.”

“I'm good sir I think I know where he is.”

“Nonsense, I'll show you the way.”

I kicked the man in the shins and ran

The man swore and ran after me

“Gimme that locket!” he yelled,

I cursed Benji under my breath as I found myself back at my dumpster.

To my surprise, Benji was there waiting for me. He was bandaged up and smelled like something minty. In his hands was the best-looking food I'd ever seen.

“Hey,” he said, “I'm so sorry I don’t know what came over me.”

“You told them about the locket?!”

“I had to! They were going to kill me and feed me to their animals. they said 'Why not? He’s already dying.’”

“You look really upset about it, Benji,” I said gesturing to his food.

“I swear I am. They know that you stay here. You need to leave.”

I turned around and saw a crowd of angry people

“We’ve been looking for you,” the builder said advancing toward me. He had a sharpened stick in his hand. “Our new leader told us exactly where to find you.”

I looked at Benji

“I don’t wanna be your leader, take it all back” he said throwing the food at the crowd.

“Ok then weakling, I'll be the leader. That locket’s mine.” at that moment he threw the stick at me.

No Benji yelled jumping in front of me. I watched as the stick impaled his chest.

His body went limp and with his dying breath he whispered “I'm sorry.”

A single tear fell as his eyes closed for the last time.

I sat there in shock as I held his lifeless body. Nobody dared come near me as I began to dig a grave for him.

Nothing mattered now, I thought as I took the locket and placed it in his hands.

I buried Benji with the one thing he had ever asked for: the locket.

That night I sat by his grave crying until I was too exhausted to move. I guess I must've eventually fell asleep because my dream had come again.

“What have you chosen child?” mother earth whispered.

“I have returned the locket to the earth, along with my best friend, my brother: Benji”

“I have seen the events that have transpired. I will keep my promise to you: no selflessness goes unrewarded.”

The next day when I woke up there was a full-grown oak tree where Benji's body had been. the branches had shaped themselves into a heart as the grass began to grow and life seemed to begin anew.

I knew that Benji was still with us and he always would be.