The Wasteland

Chapter 1: 14 September 2192

Chapter 1: 14 September 2192

No one listens. I don't expect them to, either. All of the evidence points to me. Of course it would. I was always the troublemaker but things eventually went too far. And here I am. Alone in this cell, waiting for my chance to go and be free. But that will never happen. I've lost everything; my family, my friends, my freedom. I have no reason to want to get out of this prison. Not after what happened.

"Blaze Maddox!!!" I jumped out of my cold, hard bed only to find my cellmate standing above me. His breath hit my face like a hard punch. My cellmate grabbed my shoulder and jerked me upward. "What did I do now, Dane?!" I yelled, trying to loosen his grip. Dane only held harder. "What did I tell you about leaving your dirty, old things on my side of the cell!!!" Dane threw me hard on the ground. I'm used to it by now. Dane is never quite satisfied no matter how much he beats me up. I got up slowly and walked over to get my things. As I was going along, I came across an old picture of my family. I smiled at the memory. My high school graduation day. My mother, father, and siblings stand beside me in all the excitment. This was the last picture that was taken before the accident. The terrible, horrific accident that no counseling can fix in my mind. It's like an old record player thats stuck on one line and can't go further.

As I brought my things over to my side of the cell, I saw Dane staring at me. "Why are you staring at me?" I asked. "You didn't hear the rumors?" he questioned with a grin. I looked at him in confusion. He stood up and walked over to me. His intimidating body stood above my smaller but still burly one. "Aero Vox, in the cell next to us, overheard the guards saying that the judge and the jury made a decision about the person they were going to sentence to...." Dane paused as if he was afraid to even say it, "to... to..."

"Oh, spit it out already Dane!!!"

Dane stared deep into my eyes. My mother always used to say that you could learn alot about a person by their eyes because the eyes were the window to the soul, apparently. Well, with Dane's eyes, all you could see was a dark blackhole containing a cold, lonely past. If Dane really wanted to, he could see into your soul and find your deepest, darkest secrets.

"They decided who they were going to sentence to... the Wasteland." Dane cringed as he said it. That was the only thing I knew that Dane was afraid of. The Wasteland is a place that you get sent to if you did something so bad that the prison couldn't hold you anymore. Wasteland used to be inhabited by billions of people and its original name was Earth. But war and disaster broke out and elimiated everyone in their wake. Only about a million people survived but Earth was too destroyed and ruined for anybody to live there. So, the people that were left decided to retreat to Mars, the only place that would be suitable for them. There was water and it was only a little bit chillier there than on Earth. It took about a year for all of the survivors to get to Mars and start again. I was one of the survivors.

But now, Earth stands in the galaxy, alone and deserted, waiting to rise again. When a prisoner gets banished to the Wasteland, it is pretty much a death sentence. There is no food, water and the temperature is 50 degrees below zero. Even if you tried, you couldn't live. But, most likely, you would die of a broken heart rather than starvation or hypothermia. Scattered across the ground, millions upon millions of people lie dead. Adults, teens, children, and babies lie there in the cold, motionless.

"Who are they sentencing?" I asked Dane. Dane sat back down on his bed and started to twiddle his thumbs. "Dane, answer me. Who are they sentencing?" I said a little more sternly. He fixed his eyes on me and said, "You."