A wallpad ORANGE

Chapter 2. This Is My Lucky Day!

London, 21st June, 2191

JULIE CHANG-BURNS-XIV WAS an old age pensioner now. A widow, sixty-six years old. The world had changed at a rapid rate during her life, and it was hard for her to keep up with things. Government cutbacks and high unemployment rates meant she was living from hand-to-mouth—literally. The attritional World War Infinity had been raging for over four decades.

The soup queue in a nondescript London East End slum that Julie found herself in, was shorter than usual today, because just yesterday wallpad ORANGE had conscripted anyone under the age of sixty for the anti-Filipino Alliance war effort. Julie didn't know whether she was lucky or not. She didn't give her prospects of even short term survival much chance, as the laser bomb attacks in London's skies were more frequent and heavier now. At least the conscripted could die with a weapon in their hands.

As Julie mused at the queue of destitution ahead of and behind her, she started to reminisce of days gone by. Days when she was young ...

I wonder what happened to Sally. I'll never forget that day when we heard that wallpad ORANGE went English. Fat lot of good that did. It was supposed to unite the world, but did the opposite. So now we all speak English. And now we can kill one another in English. Oh if only I had a friend like Sally. No, not a friend like Sally, but Sally herself. She ran off with that American boy. Just sixteen and got herself up the duff. Ran off to New York. Fat lot of good that did. New York was the first peacetime city to be flattened by a nuclear bomb. Suicide job of a Filipino terrorist cell that heralded in a chain of retaliatory nuclear attacks on this troubled Earth. 'Course wallpad ORANGE eventually got rid of dem nasty rotten nuclear bombs. But now we're in an age of nasty rotten laser bombs! Cylindrical-shaped bright-red-tipped laser beams bursting with energy. All you see is the bright-red tip, but the energy of the entire length of the beam is delivered to the tip when it hits a solid mass. Oh Sally, what a mess we humans have made of our world!"

Julie decided to immerse herself in more pleasant memories. Why ruin what few years, possibly days, possibly hours, she had left on this Earth?

Eventually, after only an hour, the glacially moving queue had delivered Julie near to the soup distribution area. She could smell the cabbage and tofu. Boring, but filling; especially when you're hungry.

Minutes later, she was next in line to be served when suddenly the sound of a wailing siren blared out.

"Sod it!" she cried.

Amid the cries of fear and the undulating wail of the siren, the noisy sound of chains being pulled and steel shutters falling, filled the air.

The soup distribution area shut up shop within a minute.

Everyone around Julie had already started to charge for the nearest underground station. And now the soup servers were fast on their heels.

But Julie was fed up running. She just stood her ground and didn't know whether to laugh or cry. She watched the receding panicking exodus with a sarcastic smirk.

"Mugs!" she cried. "Don't you think the underground stations will be especially targeted! This isn't World War Two, sunshine. This is World War Infinity. Laser bombs can fire through ventilation shafts and station entrances with ease. Yeah, some of them can change direction in mid-air just like that nowadays."

When everyone had all but disappeared, Julie turned about and noticed with great surprise, a huge steel canister and six loaves of packed, sliced wholemeal bread.

"Aha, left behind in the rush. Well worth dying for!" She rubbed her hands gleefully.

She examined the huge canister.