Taming new wilds

Life on earth

Welcome to earth, the land of the fucked and over. The world was dying, almost everyone but engineers were unemployed, famine was rife in the streets, Storms blew through towns hard enough to kill. But hey everyone had a high school education! That's good enough right? Fuck the Government.

Mika, a hazelnut skinned woman with rough grown out cornrows, twirled ballerina style on her piece of hot pink B-plastic, a mostly degradable plastic made from something similar to corn except the product they were made from was inedible, it was the best 200 creds she ever spent. It had her tip QR code, and her bowl for paper creds, all and all a perfect bussing station. Her leg extended and hooked bringing her in tight fluid circles, making it easy to forget that she was in ripped up clothes and a medical mask. She moved with the fluidity and grace of an experienced dancer dropping into breakdance blending her moves together seamlessly. The world was perfect in just that moment. No smog, no taste of dirt in the air, no masks making it hard to breath, just her music and her movement and her grand stage in her mind. A perfect moment that would last only a little while. She clung to those seconds desperately willing them to last eternity.

But alas her music ended, taking away the sweet world of music that kept her sane. She opened her bright brown eyes, the golden flecks catching the street light. She began stretching and arching, working her muscles to avoid cramps. Her earring beeped loudly in her left ear. It was two pm on Tuesday, September 2nd. Time for the Dust Storm, "Alarm off." she said as she grabbed her mat and her tip bowl, whoa that's full today. She booked it inside, barely making it inside before the wind started. She grabbed the door and shut it firmly behind her pulling against the gusts. The door clicked shut and the lock fell into place. Roy, a pale scrawny man with raven hair was standing inside and waved at her, "hey Mika. Any luck?"

"Yeah you won't believe how much I got! We've gotta count it. The bowl is heavy!" The other person in the flat cheered with excitement. That was Michael, a perfect carbon copy of his twin, except the eyes. Roy had blue and Mike had brown. Amazing how fraternal twins can look so alike.

"Lets count! I got extra on my GP too." who knew she could make such good money with just tips. Her GP, government phone, alone held a thousand credits! With this much they could eat potatoes for a few days! They could eat!

They sat counting for a half hour. Coming up with 60,000 credits total. The most any of them had seen since high school. About 4 years ago.

Roy was the only one with a real job at this point, scribe, for people too important to write their own emails and notes. Too cheap to pay for an A.I, or maybe they just wanted to support poor people with a few credits an hour. Roy made about 5 credits an hour. One pound of potatoes is 30 credits.

"Oh yeahhhhhhh, enough to get a thing of proy-lent for dinner. Maybe even some scimeat!" Mika claimed with a smile of pride. They were all in their twenties but the 3 of them felt like excited children just then, it had been a while since they could afford any kind of protein. And the idea of anything near meat, even laboratory grown cells injected with false fats and flavors, made their mouths water.

Michal piped up, "holy shit you serious?" his face was aglow with excitement, he was the biggest eater among them. Even though he weighed a meager 150 lbs. Scrawny at his height of 6'4. The mad man could eat 3 potatoes in 1 sitting and then still have room for a slice of proy-lent.

Mika nodded "yup, and maybe even some veggie meal!" The three of them practically drooled at the idea. Mika flipped her long cornrows from her face and hummed, "we'll go once the storm is over. Come on, let's clean the kitchen a little bit so it's not gross to eat in."

The "kitchen" was actually a small corner of the room, with an old time microwave and a bucket turned upside down for an improvised counter. It was small and sad, but it was theirs. They also cleaned their meager living space while they were at it, shaking out the blanket they all shared and brushing everything into a pile with an old broom from the late 1900s that Michal found in the trash. An antique but broken, so they used it.

After that quick clean up they sat down and played a table top roleplaying game, while smoking some GovSoother. Cannabis in a very mild form given for free to keep the masses calm. This last batch had a seed, they added it to their collection, vowing to get a set up some day and have more than a gram per week. For each of them, but hey it was free.

"The troll swings at you from the left!" Mika yelled

"Dodge and stab!" Mike was excited about this wow.

"Roll it!" Roy said in an almost excited kind of panic.

Mike rolled. It spun for a painful amount of time before it landed. On 20! "FUCK YEAH!!" mike jumps up and cheered.

Mika nodded sagely before pointing back at the dice app "now roll your damage. Double dice."

This kind of energy and excitement lasted till the end of the storm, time for them to get ready to leave. Mika slipped her feet into her beat up shoes and put on her medical mask. Doing her hair up in a high ponytail. "Time for you boys to do my rows again.

The boys followed suit, slipping on a matching pair of gray t-shirts. "Yeah we do. And we need a shower tomorrow. So we'll do it then.'' Roy replied with a soft smile. They really enjoyed Mika's hair days. They were rare but nice bonding times.

The three of them heading out into the newly cleaned world. Stepping over the blood outside their door they began walking to the supermarket, not knowing their life was about to change forever.