‘If a large enough rent could be created, the surface may be turned anew. The world is a cell and at it’s core is the larvae necessary for a new beginning’

Society of the 21st century was in distress and distanced itself from reality. Quietly anxious and confiding all hope in others that would willingly give up their lives to solve the problems and puzzles of the working world. The pursuit of happiness was rife with misuse. Shame hung off humanity like a cape, soon it became the carpet we walked and finally it surrounded us with shadows, when the sun began to lose it’s shine. With itself, humanity pursued a hard line of willful ignorance. The borders of science continued to spread, and with it the factory of consumption. Natural resources feeding transportation, housing and food were squandered in these early times and perpetually grew more scarce in the times following.

Scientists and Engineers of the time explained that we would come up with a means to break down and recycle everything, and in some ways this has become true. Plastic, heavy metals and radiation, as I write this, now cover and infiltrate the global being. As staph infection burrows down through the skin, the litter of humanity has burrowed in, with most of humanity tracking down and deep into the earth. At first we built up towards the stars. But our future was not written into constellations and soon we were digging our cities into the ground. Massive vaults, deposits of humans in lock box graves. More metal, more construction – a fatal last move in a losing game of chess. Burying ourselves in the bosom of the earth, fearing the pregnancy of our own demise. We dug in, or at least… most of us did anyway.

Now, arguments ‘after the fact’ have been something I’ve managed to leave to historians – as we choose to learn lessons and cast our vote in any such direction, it helps to have the guidance of past mistakes. But the argument over what happened and how it shouldn’t have been, is something I will not permit. This is my life now and the dump that marks my living reality of flotsam, jetsam and detritus hails anyone of any society or social class. All are damned through the association of proximity. All livelihood came crashing down in the fallout. While Tsunamis demonstrate themselves in Denver, there is no ice in anyone’s drink. No factory or stable source of electricity that has been established. Now the tumbling waves are scabbed with plastic and poles, floating fabrics and the smell of rot. When the fish died, the famine began and there was a global exodus from the drowning coastal cities. Some societies became nomadic, while others attempted to flee. The irony of a global closed borders policy meant that half of modern civilization was up against the wall or fence, begging for a status they would never achieve.

A crayon image – The world is a dumpsite; flooded and overrun by the oceans. All natural sources of water have the taint of radiation. Rain is acid, the oceans have alkalized. What was once the pacific, is now known as Clagg. The mixing of oil-spill and dense plastic deposits were alighted, burned and fused to create a mass so large it created the largest continent. From above it is a black scab of debris, a smoldering fusion of toxic waste. Similarly in the pacific the failed ‘lime project’ has changed the density of the ocean which in turn has created a malign ecosystem, sickness, mutation, flesh devouring bacteria, radical evolutionary abominations. Some feathered, others milky eyed, furthermore algae covered salamanders that have thrived in the mess and degradation.

Our outpost is North ‘Quarantine nation’ within the arctic circle is all that remains. We are sustained by annual snow-melt as here is the only location uncontaminated water can be found. The cold climate is our barrier from the bacteria, as well as any creatures bold enough to thrive in this era of misery and reclusiveness. Humanity is now but a fleet of military vessels and a small solar powered water-shack that housing 11,900 people.

The junker that we’re using for our mission is the decommissioned ice breaker ‘Renewal’. It was retired shortly before the Meltdown, and was used as a tourist vessel going from Denmark to Greenland. Now my team are tracking a similar path towards mission end – Mariana Trench, south by south-west.