The Present

First chapter, sets up the apocalypse future world. Book works backwards up to this point.

Chapter 1: The Present

The smoke drifted away from the end of the cigarette and then hung, like cement drying into place. The air felt as dark as the night was, and dead. But not cold, it was more of an emptiness of feeling the air in this district inspired. It was due to the engineering of the city, of blocks stacked on blocks stacked on blocks, each block a different district with different people, different cultures. In the middle of this mass of blocks there were people who would live and die, never seeing the outside world.

Most people didn't complain about this though. They saw it as progress. At least everyone had food and water. Not a huge diversity like in the past, but still, no one went hungry, no one’s lips cracked from thirst. No one smiled either, but none claimed to be unhappy.

But the air, this dead air, was a result of these blocks. Because so many stacks existed, the poorer blocks near the center of this metropolis didn't have fans and exhaust vents set up, so during the slower hours of the day, in the middle of the night when the only ones still up are junkies and "creative types", the air would hang, empty, missing something, like a flower without dirt. During those hours when nothing moves, the air seeks to replicate the dead of the night. "I just won't move then." the air whispers to itself. During these hours a sneeze will linger in the air for hours, you sneeze at midnight, someone opening their shop in the morning will catch your cold. You can follow someone up and down the entire block just by the trail of their cigarette smoke.

The richer areas of course don't have this problem. Some in fact find the notion of a place such as this mythical. Having been raised in the rich blocks they've never seen poor blocks, and so when they hear of this "dead air" it sounds mythical, like the stuff of legend.

"So the smoke will just hang in the air? Linger white and pale until the first passerby knocks it aside in the morning?"

"Friend, in the dead of night, you could write that passerby a letter in the smoke, and that letter would still be there for him to read in the morning."

The rich would be amazed by such stories, and gasp in startled surprise at tales of the other blocks. Hear of wonders of all these other blocks that sound so much better than their block. The irony being they are in the best blocks. The grass is always greener, especially in a place with no grass.

The rich blocks you could actually find a steak in. Or a cigar. You could buy a fine bottle of brandy, and go on a carriage ride pulled by an actual horse. They had these carriage rides in the poorer areas sure, but two men in a horse costume does not a horse make.

The carriage rides themselves were an oddity. They were an antiquity that fell out of style as things got better, as technology advanced and people began gaining access to more and more advanced electronics. As people began becoming increasingly dependent on technology things of the past fell away. Books, watches, glasses, and of course carriage rides all got left behind to make room for a bigger TV, or a 3d TV. Or a TV you could step inside and become part of the show. Maybe the show became better than regular life, so you never left the TV. Maybe that TV was a bad idea to make in the first place, or maybe this was nature's next form of natural selection. "Well they've succeeded in destroying everything natural, so I guess I'll kill them with unnatural things then."

And mother nature slipped inside a TV inventors brain, planted the idea of this TV. "Eureka!" he shrieked, as he was a fan of words that start with the letter e. And he set to work, and sold the TV, and it sold like crazy. Everyone wanted it, everyone wanted the TV you could step inside. Everyone wanted to be the hero of a story. Even the people with the most high paying jobs in all the blocks wanted the TV, the escape from reality, because the most high paying jobs were also the most boring, or if not boring, then the most stressful. So they bought these TVs, and everyone got sucked in. It was destined though, natural selection. Darwin predicted it. "Eventually TV will kill a lot of people and an apple will fall on someone's head. Gravity." is what Darwin said. Or something to that effect.

Many of the blocks are completely empty and devoid of life now. There's a bunch of TVs left though. So that's something. There are still some people left, the whole human race didn't finally self destruct. That's still coming. There's tons of people left in the rich blocks, or so it is said. It's amazing how many people died to the TVs. Everyone was aware it wasn't real, everyone knew they were living through a fantasy created by this TV they spent all their money on. But everyone bought into it. Some say the TV twisted their mind, created images, told them it was real, but I don't believe that bullshit. I believe everyone who stepped inside that TV realized they had managed to create something better than real life. Inside everything was vivid, brighter. No one needed to eat unless it was integral to the plot. People never went to the bathroom unless there was a clever joke involved. When people drove anywhere they'd either just arrive, or just depart, and then later be somewhere else completely. They could fire an Uzi into a pack of gazelles for six hours if they wanted to, never having to reload, watching gazelle after gazelle fall, and no one would bat an eye. Because it wasn't real, and if it isn't real then why would morals be considered?

"They're adults, they can make their own choices." Official stance. People died by the millions, starving to death without even realizing it inside those TVs. They'd never realize they were hungry, they'd just accept that new reality, a new reality in which they were the captain of a space ship, or the president, or a tribal leader hunting a tyrannosaurus rex. No one ever booted up the TV to be a follower. No one was an accountant in the TV. Is it really that hard to believe so many people got sucked in to this. That so many died because they were never aware they were dieing? Too busy racing a sports car through Germany, being chased by tanks piloted by rhinos, throwing molotovs that exploded into more molotovs and so on. Or just having sex with hundreds upon millions of beautiful women of every ethnicity, with women who don't exist anymore, or never existed as beautiful as they were inside the TV (a large portion of the population used the TV to make more attractive versions of their spouses, some people just made them younger, some would even make them resemble other ethnicities, the weirdest of all were the ones who made their significant others resemble animals.). Or just going back and forth between the two, or a thousand other realities they could create at will.

It wasn't even that the survivors of this were better, or more moral then those who died. They didn't have better values, or stronger wills. Some of the survivors claimed they were smarter, smarter by surviving and disposing of corpses, of eating from cans lit by small fires. Smarter because they're alive while others were dead. Smarter because they didn't decide to experience things far greater then what was possible to experience in reality. But they weren't any smarter. They had just watched people they know fall into the TV and disappear. And it scared them. I was twelve when it happened. I know. Other survivors say they are lucky they never got sucked in. Do I consider myself lucky? Not really. Just saw people fall in and not come out and it scared me, even though I had no idea what lay on the other side. Now that I'm older, less to live for, I'd probably walk through now. Hell if I could talk to twelve year old me I'd tell him to walk through, see what’s up on the other side. Not much going on this side. Other survivors always like to say how “lucky” they are they didn't try the TV. They didn't get sucked in like their loved ones, their fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, and teachers. Although not many cared about their teachers, none that would admit it anyways. I cared, but more so because we never finished reading the novel we were halfway through in class. It was a good story. About a dog who saves Hitler or something. A real fish out of water story. I don't know, I could be remembering wrong. It was a long time ago.

But I watched my father get sucked in. Boy was that a sight. Well not really a sight. He just wasn't around anymore. He brought home the TV, said he was going to try it. Wasn't at dinner that night. Mom and I didn't talk about it. I think I knew what happened, although I can't be sure. I had heard rumors of stuff like this happening at school. I don't know if I put numbers together to get other numbers though. Remembering when I didn't know things is hard, I may have just been happy Mom was making more cookies than usual. I don't think I ever asked what happened to Dad either, not even after a week of silent meals like this. After a week Mom disappeared too. I came home from school, teacher hadn't been there today so we watched “Breaking Bad” on an old style TV, chemistry class of course. When I got home I noticed there were fresh cookies, and Mom wasn't there. Didn't think much of it, to tell the truth. Went upstairs, checked out my social media site, popular one at the time was Facebook. The cookies were still warm, and a glass of milk made it a great way to kill time before school the next day. Flicked over to a news site and skimmed some headlines. Clicked on a couple that sounded serious to feel smart and involved, a couple tabloidy ones that I told myself I didn't care about but for some reason read to the end anyways. Still not sure why I did that. Made me feel good to see rich, powerful, “successful” people making mistakes. Mistakes everyone makes for sure, but still made things a little better. Didn't care so much when they did good things, reminded me of good things I could of done but didn't. Did that for awhile, then played some video games, back when they were still around. Internet too for that matter. A lot of things have just disappeared. Woke up the next day, went to school. Didn't think much of Mom not being there in the morning. Maybe she slept in.

That's the worst part about things disappearing. There's no closure because you are hardly aware they aren't there anymore. You make up things in your head for the first little while. “Maybe she's at the bank. Maybe she took a trip and forgot to tell me.” But before long you've forgotten entirely. I never cried for missing my parents weirdly enough. Just the way it happened. I was very young and they were just gone, but I wasn't, so life went on. Before long you just forget.

I had a dog when I was six. Ran away, parents said must've fought a bear. Didn't cry then either, just thrilled people with the story of my heroic dog, saving us from the bear. As I told the story more and more the dog became larger, more heroic looking. Carried it's head high, walking proudly, and became vicious in a heartbeat. A proud warrior my dog was. At least in the story, but he wasn't around anymore, and no one who heard the story had seen him, so what'd I care? They believed in this heroic dog, and that made it real. In life the dog was scared of its own tail, had to have you stand beside him to go to the bathroom at night. But in death the dog fought a bear and won. The bear also had a rocket launcher. I hadn't told anyone that before now but it's true. My dog killed a bear with a rocket launcher. As stories get told and retold details change. Things warp, became more majestic and more terrifying, more interesting and less real. That's a good rule of thumb, the more fantastic and amazing something is, the less chance there is of it being real. But you want to believe it's real. You just want to go with it, even though every logical rational part of your brain doesn't. That's how the TVs got everyone. Too good to be true for sure, but why not enjoy it while it's there. While you can.

You feel that? Nights coming, the air is starting to settle. It's getting that feeling like something’s out of place, when it knows everything’s in place. Everything's slowing and so the air must settle too. It's getting that odd feeling, that dead feeling.

  “Everyone's quiet, I should be quiet too.” The air whispers to itself.

Anyways, let me tell you about the time my dog saved Hitler from a bear with a rocket launcher. Also my father was the president, and my mother saved Australia from an asteroid with science.  

Author's Note

Any and all criticism welcome.

Reviews

[Kringefest]

"They had these carriage rides in the poorer areas sure, but two men in a horse costume does not a horse make." Either this should be "...but two men in a horse costume does not make a horse." or I am oblivious to the ways of writing!

I enjoyed reading this chapter. It gives an overview of the situation and a little background to the main character. I particularly liked the satire in it and the chapter as a whole. It had me gripped. The last line is great for the first chapter.

I don't know whether having the paragraphs close like this makes me accidentally re-read the previous line. I'm so used to having spaces between the paragraphs. I would say this is more of a personal thing of sorts rather than something that perturbs everyone else so I don't identify this as a problem actually.

[BRed]

It's a parody of the proverb http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/one_swallow_does_not_a_summer_make. I'm not actually that smart, I'm just fairly experienced at comedy writing specifically and made a reference to very old literature in a funny way. You are technically correct, but I prefer it because it's a tighter punchline on the end, and it adds another layer to the joke if you know about the proverb (I didn't know it specifically and after reading the meaning of it overly simplifying a very deep quote).

I'll definitely put spaces between paragraphs to improve readability, a block of text like that can definitely be intimidating.

Thanks for the positive feedback! I'll make sure to check out a few of your things later!

[Kringefest]

I see. Alright. I did not get the reference before. Nonetheless, you are the writer.

And no problem! Keep penning, mate.