When I was a child the sky was a murky brown. Sometimes I weep, the way we are always in an eternal night. It's sad, what we did to our home. What we are doing. The streets of the city are clean, the low level air filtered. I wonder sometimes what would have happened if the goverments had listened to those greenpeace guys a couple of centuries ago. At least the hole in the ozone isn't a problem any more. No light gets through the dense clouds anymore. We make our food in underground labs, with specially built light array's, feeding energy into plant seedlings. We live our lives in this crowded city, asphalt for miles. Built on reclaimed land over the atlantic ocean. Right now they call it 'New Refuge', strangely fitting. Sometimes if I drive for days, I can reach the borders of Last life. Most of it's been deserted, power grids failed, so did life. If I drive a little further, I see the black desert, a desert made up of almost entirely Stained sand. And if you look at the streetsigns on that dead highway, they read 'Welcome to New hope.'

"No, Look Maam, There is no reason to be worried about your Dog-tech, if it Fell down that ventilation shaft it's been melted by the digestion plants, What? No, Maam, Don't Cry, look, it was just a Dog-Tech..." There was an audible click, and Jefferson wondered why the hell he got suckered into building maintanance. It payed nothing, if you told the truth you made enemies, if you told lies you made enemies, if you said nothing you lost the job. At least it meant you could stay indoors, be fed and have a safe home. Jefferson shook his head, took the next call. "Uh huh, Yeah... Well look, if your connections been severed that ain't my problem, Yeah? YEAH?! Well you just pull your sorry ass down here and MAKE me you crap head E-Junkie! Yeah, I'm talking to you, ya communication freak!"

I live in an apartment on the seventythird floor of 'Neon castle', AKA 'Mid-city hieghts.' Decent enough place to live, Got a nice apartment too. If I wanted I could fit in an actual bed and maybe a closet, but then I would have to block off the door again. I did that accidently last week, left the wall bed lowered again, took me a couple hours just to open the door enough to command the damn thing to fold back. I don't have a bad life really, Live off what the goverment provides, make a little extra doing odd jobs 'round Refuge.

A young man, in his mid twenties, shoved at the apartment door again, the damned wall bed had interpreted his slamming the door as the open command, again. He sighed quietly. "Damn sound proof doors..." He muttered softly. He looked up and down the hall, all clear. He would have to take the damn door off the wall. Taking out a small toolpouch he set to work. Would have been interesting for the authorities to know exactly why he had A screwdriver, lockpicks, several other, 'tools of the trade' as it were. He manadged to pry the door off the wall enough to voice command the bed shut. He sighed quietly, muttering to himself, and started fixing the door to the wall again. "Damn bed... should get a roll up...."

He stepped into the apartment, throwing a warning glance at his wall-bed. He fastned the manual catch, then slammed his door shut. He walked to his window, and looked out over the crawl of asphalt, steel and bricks he called home. New refuge was fairly large, if you looked from space, and could see through the damn cloud cover it would be like a vast black dot with lights, on a black desert, on a black world. Everything absorbed light these days. Sad really. There were other cities, about five large ones, then about nineteen in a long line down what used to be the americas. There were others, a medium sized one on what had been australia, but all contact had died one day when thier powerplant went critical, and in a few short months all of them had starved... that city had been called 'New joy' after the wars, noone knew much about the wars. Only survivors had died by mid 2030, and the horrors kept them silent. He shook his head softly. Even cockroaches had died out in the wars. Only life left on earth was humanity and a few types of bacteria. Humans were the only race capable of creating their own enviroments to save themselves in, and they made sure nothing they didn't want would survive. 'Let me get online before I go crazy thinking to myself.' He muttered, then pulled a seat panel out of the wall, and sat in front of his supplied PC. At least the governments made sure communication was free, along with food, the right to live, homes and essentail clothing. Anything beyond what had been classified essential you had to get yourself. Almost as if the goverments wanted the remnants of humanity to slip into becoming E-junkies, or killing themselves. A patheric end for a race which manadged to outlive the others.