Sam Higgins
Period 2
2150
The sun rises over the never-ending skyline on a warm summer morning. The booming metropolis is already bustling in the early hours of the morning as a new day begins. On the roads, cars drive themselves and no longer need to be control by the driver. Sidewalks move in order to speed up pedestrians’ travel. Business men and women use these methods of travel to get from their homes to work. For most people, it was just another normal day. But for one man, it was a new beginning.
“Welcome back James”, said an old man in a white lab coat with a smile on his face. He was standing in front of James who had just woken up from being frozen for 100 years. James, standing at 6’2” with brown hair and a muscular build, looked extremely confused.
“Where am I?” asked James, lying back in the capsule he was frozen in. “What year is it?”
The old man replied, “The year is 2150, James. The world is a different place from when you left it. New technologies, new leaders; everything had changed. I know you have a lot of questions but I need to run some tests before I can answer them. Please stand up James.”
James stood up and faced the old man. The old man had James walk around the room to make sure that he was healthy and could move around safely. The old man started walking and gestured for James to follow him. The two men walked through the building and out the front doors where they stood on a street corner, surrounded by towering skyscrapers.
“Everything’s a lot bigger than it used to be,” said James as he stared upwards towards the sky. “Geez, and I thought New York City
“Like I said, the world is a different place now,” said the old man. “The whole Earth is like this.”
“Wow. Everything seems so fast paced now,” James said as he gazed at the self-driving cars racing down the street and the moving sidewalks.
“Yep, the government thought that the world needed to be more streamlined and efficient. Because of that, there are no longer separate countries and governments. Now, there is one government for everyone. They figured that the world would be a more efficient place this way because they wouldn’t have to waste energy, resources, and people on fighting wars with each other.
“Well, I guess that idea makes sense. But one government for the whole world?” questioned James. “Isn’t there unrest amongst the citizens?
The old man replied, “Not really. The government has complete control so the citizens are kind of trapped into doing what the government orders. And anyways, most of them are too caught up in their non-stop work to even notice. Most of them live quite peaceful lives.” The two men started walking down the sidewalk.
“So there’s got to be a park or something around here. With all of these skyscrapers, the people must need somewhere to get away to.”
“Nope. No parks,” said the old man. “All nature was destroyed because it was deemed as a ‘distraction’ to the citizens.”
“But doesn’t nature provide people with things they need to live such water and oxygen?
“Everyone still needs those things but anything can be made in a factory now so they didn’t need nature anymore.
“So the entire Earth is like this? Just endless cities with people working for the government?” James asked curiously.
“Yes. The Moon and Mars are the exact same way” replied the old man.
“Wait, did you say the Moon and Mars?”
“Yes I did, James. With all of the new technology that has been invented, the average life span is much higher than it used to be and the population soared. Even occupying the whole Earth, there still wasn’t enough room for everyone. So we started sending people to live in space.”
“I want to see this. Can we go there?”
“Yes we can leave this afternoon.”
By the time the afternoon had came around, James couldn’t wait any longer. He still couldn’t get over the fact that the human race was living in outer space. He couldn’t wait to see it. The old man said that it was just another infinite metropolis like the Earth but James refused to believe this. As a child, he grew up always dreaming of one day going to the Moon or going to Mars. The mystery and wonder that lied beyond the Earth’s atmosphere always astonished him. Now, after being frozen at the age of 25 for 100 years, James was feeling like a child again. The old man and James climbed inside the small shuttle and prepared for takeoff. Butterflies consumed James’ insides and he could barely sit still. The shuttle flew through the stars with blinding speed and James zoned out into a daydream. While reminiscing about all of his childhood fantasies about outer space, he had completely forgotten what the old man had said.
This was apparent when the shuttle landed on the Moon and James asked, “Are we already back from the Moon?”
“No, James. This is the Moon. Like I said, its just like Earth. Nothing but skyscrapers and streets all at perfect 90 degree angles to the one next to it.” The two men walked for awhile without conversation. James had a look of disgust on his face. He had finally achieved his childhood dream of exploring space and it had been ruined. All of the mystery and wonder about the Moon that had consumed James’ childhood fantasies had vanished. The whole planet was covered with cookie-cutter skyscrapers and streets. No parks, no trees, no lakes, no beauty.
The two men stopped at a street corner nearly identical to the street corner that they had been standing on just hours before on Earth when James muttered, “I can’t believe this.”
“I completely agree,” said the old man. “I had similar childhood fantasies to yours. I always had dreamed of becoming an astronaut. Outer space astonished me as a child. I hate seeing the universe like this. It breaks my heart.”
“You had dreams of becoming an astronaut? But weren’t there already colonies set up on the Moon when you were a child. A city like this couldn’t have just popped up over night and you’re not exactly young. No offense.”
“Oh none taken,” replied the old man. “But yes, I dreamed of becoming an astronaut. I actually achieved my dream too. I was working at NASA when they decided to freeze me just like they froze you.”
“Really? Why were you frozen?”
“They said that they would need to save some of the great minds for the future because they would be needed when people started to live on the Moon. I didn’t believe them when they said that people would one day be living on the moon but I trusted that they had the technology to freeze me for 100 years so I figured why not. I thought it’d be cool to live in the future but when they unfroze me and I saw this, I discovered I was wrong. I miss the nature of the Old World and all of the personal freedoms we had. None of that exists now and nobody even stops to realize it. They are too caught up in relentlessly working to even notice.”
“What are they even working so hard for anyways? It’s not like the companies are competing against each other since they’re all owned by the government now. Why doesn’t anyone stop to relax and ‘smell the roses’?” asked James.
“Did anyone before? We were blessed with a life on a beautiful planet and many people took it for granted. Even back in our time, many people were too focused and concerned about working that they too forgot to stop and ‘smell the roses’. That’s how we ended up where we are today.
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