I stir awake to a beeping at 7:00 AM. Curfew is over. Curfew is their way of showing they still have control over us. I roll off the creaky bed and change into the clothes They, or the Government, supply us, a beige t-shirt and beige pants. Everyone must wear the clothes they are given, as we aren’t given any other options.
Stretching my arms, I walk the few steps to my small kitchen and eat my breakfast - today it’s gruel and a strawberry. Produce is rare these days, after the drought and the huge flood that followed. I also receive a gallon of water for all purposes each day so I have to conserve it. I eat the gruel and some water, but I open the tiny window to set the strawberry outside. Interaction with animals is prohibited, but after I discovered the baby bird barely alive on the small ledge, I’ve decided to try to nurse it back to health. According to recent studies, if a human spends more than 10 minutes outside a day, they could get ill because of all the toxins in the air. Today doesn’t seem bad, the air is only a slight tint of red from pollution. On the worst days, it looks cloudy and you can’t see 5 feet into the distance. I close the window before I get too much of the poison inside.
They give me an assignment every morning I have to complete. As I reach out to open the letter, I glance at the morning news. A newscaster is talking about how things will get better for us by 2150, in 30 years, but I know that our government hasn't been making changes lately. It’s been 6 years since I’ve seen my friends, my family, and it doesn’t seem like change is coming. I don’t even know where I’m living right now - they say it’s for safety purposes but it’s really just so we don’t try to escape. I look at the assignment - another essay on what I think They could be doing better. Like every day, I type out a fake, likable response on my old computer and submit it a while later.
For now, it seems, this is what I’ll be continuing to be doing every day until They find us a way out of the problem that they caused. Things never should’ve gotten this out of hand. I could’ve taken more action when things started getting this bad, but by allowing it to happened and not speaking up, this is where we have gotten to. I hope that Earth forgives humans for treating our home like this.