Planet or Plastic Writing Contest

Planet or Plastic

I slung the rope over, trying to get the sharpened hook over the edge of a 15-foot wall. After my fourth or fifth try, the end if it finally hooked to the other side of the wall. Tugging the rope, I decided it was sturdy enough to climb. 

Sighing, I sat myself on top of the wall, looking to the town I knew so well. All of the building were white and pristine, lined up against each other in neat rows. The street lights illuminated the store windows and empty streets. In the center, was The Whale. 

The Whale, wasn't actually the big mammal we lost 10 decades ago, but a big white building with no windows, but still seemed to glow in the night. It was called The Whale because of the sounds it made during the night. The sound would resemble a whale's call, and the call depended on the weather it would predict. But, The Whale was so much more than a weather predictor, it was the thing that created our town, with its god like powers.

Looking to my right, I saw a waste land. One full of plastic and trash and dirt, dark because of their limited light source. Looking at the vast land in front of me, I wondered why they hid this from us, hiding our town away with unlimited resources and leave the rest of the world to die. The reason must be here, I though. With that, I continued my descent into another world.

I walked along the marked pathway, looking at the piece of paper in my hand. On the paper was a name, Rekik. I was supposed to find Rekik, but not knowing what was where, I was hopefully lost. I continued down the path, hoping to find something soon.

I was about to turn the corner when another figure came out at the same time and bumped into me. We both fell, landing on the ground. The person looked at me with a scowl and hurried to get up, saying nothing. Before they were able to stand up straight, I tried talking to them.

"H-hey sorry, but do you know a Rekik?"

Their movements stuttered, almost taken aback by my question. 

"Yeah, what about them?"

"Oh, well can you tell me where they are? I need to ask-"

"Well, I'm here. What do you need?" 

Rekik took me back to their house, which was an underground cellar with a staircase entry way. The inside was small, but comfy with a small bed in the corner and a table with a lamp on top. 

"Why are we secluded from you guys here?"

Because they didn't want others to see who they really were.

"What happened?"

Politics and war, that's what. People were to careless to care.

"Did we cause this?"

Your leader did.

In the distance, we both heard The Whale with it call. Rekik cursed it out, and I asked why.

"That machine was our downfall. They chose that over humanity's well being. That is the reason we're here." 

Our leader knew that we couldn't survive with the already poisoned air and dirty water, but they wanted to make the rich happy. They built The Whale, using almost every natural resource they could find, leaving us with plastic and trash. The town that I had come from was built to save the people who could afford it, leaving the poor to rot in their trash. 

The leader could care less about what was happening to our environment, much less what they were doing to it.