I’m John and I’m about to die. I just turned 18 and I have to fight to the DEATH in boxing. We have been doing this for 40 years and Earths population has declined by almost 50%. I know I will die, even if I win I will fight again and again until I die and there is a 1/100 chance I’m going to win against everyone. My parents are dead my family (besides kids under 18) are dead, and all my friends are dead. I am going to what used to be known as L.A to fight, be we call it the city of no return. I might be able to win because most of the population is under 18 and a lot of the fighters will K.O each other so I only have to fight 100 people and I win so good I guess.

            It’s one day before my fight and I’m going to eat with my siblings, they are acting really weird.

            “Hey John lets go leave!” said Meg.

            “If I leave they will hunt me down and kill me at least I have a chance and if I win I will try my best to save you.”

            “But…” said my younger brother Caleb.

            “I will win and get the secret prize.” I said.

            If you win the robots said there’s a secret prize. People think it’s a house, a car, or a chance to save you friends and family, but I think it’s something bigger. 

            I was about to go into my first match when I heard someone say my name, I looked around and didn’t see anyone. I figured I was just going crazy so I went in… The first match was easy then I got kind of tired. I kept fighting and then I heard a “DING, DING” a robot was on the loud speaker he said get ready and then almost 50 people came running out. We all started fighting, at this point I was so scared but I had to live so I started fighting too. I felt bad killing all those people but I had to live, and finally there was one left and he said something.

            “Your John!” he said it softly.

             He explained that he was running from the robots for years but when he got caught they didn’t kill him and gave him a chance. It was my older brother Chase. Now I really didn’t know what to do I knew he ran and I thought he was dead but he wasn’t, how could I kill my older brother and it’s on my birthday. So we talked but then the robots said we had to fight so I did. And I killed him. He had gotten weaker over the years I guess running from the robots that long must have broken a couple bones. I felt really bad killing him, it was the worst thing I have ever done. The robots promised me anything I wanted I found a way to get my younger siblings to live. A couple years later I was searching the city and I found a weird glowing light. I went in and found a glowing machine it had a door and I went in. I closed the door and looked out the window, everything around me started to glow I didn’t know what to do. It said 2032. I was confused, I got out and there was an old man in there.

            He said “finally it worked, please what happened, please, please, please.”

            I said “ what are you talking about?”

            “You’re from the future right? 2072?”

            “Yeah I am why?”

            “its 2032”

            I was confused.

            “why am I here.”

            The old man said in a very soft voice” What happens in the boxing tournament?”

            I explained what happened.
             “Then I killed my own brother.” I explained.

            The old man started soft, “I told them it was a bad idea, I TOLD THEM!”

            Then I got sent back and it was so different there was so many adults just walking around. The old man changed it. 

 

    It was 2063 and a new year. I didn’t have much luck last year but this year would be even worse. They halved our water supply in our city. Our city chops wood and the more we chop the more supplies we receive from them. By them I mean the dictator and her workers. Basically they work for her and they get rich overnight. No one knows her name, she just goes by “The Leader”. All the men in our city have to chop wood because most of the women are mothers. The women have to take all the other jobs. Our city is very cold and only has a population of around 700 people but somehow we survive.

    Last year most of the trees got infected and died so they cut off half of our water this year. Since I’m only thirteen I don’t have to get a job and luckily I don’t have to chop wood ever. I will probably will take after my mother at the bakery when I turn sixteen. Today I go to the forest to hunt and gather for my city. I usually hunt with a slingshot and about 25% of the time it works, this time I make it. There’s dinner I think. I am saving up for a bow. I love nature and i try to make extra money by selling berries and herbs. There are multiple cities but I don’t know them all because they don’t teach us this in school. I know our city is called “Lumber City”. (creative am I right?) The city next to us digs for precious metals and gems. 

    When I got home, my mom looked at me as pale as a ghost and said, “Someone is here to see you Beth”. There were 3 of The Leader’s workers, fully armed. They set down my grandma’s china glasses, thanked my mom, and told me to come with them. They led me out and into their helicopter...

The year is 2056. The world has changed from happy neighbors,  walking from house to house, asking for a cup of sugar, to dark streets being overrun with bloodthirsty bandits, searching for and stealing pocket change in the alleyways. Ever since the government added the policy, the world has turned to be full of thieves. Sixteen years before, lab experiments were conducted in private, and they found a cure for what most fear, that which is death.  They basically turned life into an injection. This increased the population by a ton obviously, and caused some families to all move into one house because of crowd control. Before, the injection was to be given to all the citizens who kept their record clean, but the government, being greedy as usual, decided that this substance could only be obtained for the wealthy. Thus, everyone who wasn’t high class in society started panicking, and me being a normal person, I was one of the millions. 

Right now, I am writing this next to a fallen dumpster by the torn down apartments, because I can’t afford a holoscreen computer. I believe these apartments were conquered by a group of outlaws; about one hundred and fifty killed those two days. I’m not actually sure if this was the specific one though, there’s so much going on. I’ve contemplated joining some bandits before. One lot promised me one of those fancy tablets, but I heard they steal from each other on a regular. So for now, I’m just a small thief, running like a rat in an alleyway. Finding money is hard work. Most stores have gone out of business due to crime, but there’s been one elderly man who’s given me a couple bucks before. He runs an old hoverboard shop, but I don’t think he gets much business nowadays. I wonder if I can just pay him once I get enough money for one. I’ve asked him to be my lookout, but I don’t expect him to do very good. At least the man knows how to shoot a phaser gun.

The old man just told me that schools are now being turned into camps. He said they calculate the monthly household income, and if it’s below average, they fly you over to the hospital to basically kill you off. They literally disintegrate you body to be used as fuel for the military’s phasers. I guess it was the only idea the government could think of to control the human population. I mean,The population has now reached 10.5 billion. Good thing I'm a dropout.

I knew this would happen but not so soon. Though there are obvious signs, like the Dodo was back. Though, that was the not the worst of the Cloning Process.  The dinosaurs were back and they weren’t any better than back then than they are now. Everything was going wrong and over the years, the animals were evolving. That wasn’t even the worst of the world’s problems. The Tyrannosaur was taking over world slowly by multiplying his army. But, the good thing is Jamen Woods and Professor Izaac Thombs are trying to stop them with our army. This is how it started.

Professor Thombs:  I was in my house when the cloning started. I woke up to a loud thump outside, so I went outside to see what it was a t-rex. So I quickly ran back inside and hid so it hopefully wouldn’t smell me. Once it was gone I drove to the lab to ask what else they cloned. I, then met up with my partner, Jamen Woods . He said they have cloned all sorts of extinct animals from dodos to vicious, carnivorous dinosaurs. I freaked out and told them that they to try and erase the animals from existence (except the dodo). They said that there was no way to erase them and that they would have to stay. So we had to evacuate wherever the dinos couldn't go (luckily none of them could swim).                              

                As I woke up, I noticed several things. First, the room I was in had no lights. None. As I quickly sat up, a bolt of pain shot through my head. It still hurt from being whacked with the dagger. “Good, you’re awake.” A voice in the darkness said. The voice sounded masculine, with a thick British accent. It must’ve been the leader. He lit an oil lamp in the corner of the room. As the light flickered and got brighter, I could finally see my surroundings. It looked like I was in a cellar or an attic, with wooden beams running along the ceiling. A layer of dust coated the floor. Of course, these rooms were common. They usually belonged to the wealthy, who purchased multistory homes. They had a weird mix of the wooden and stone architecture that was common, and the modern homes that had steam-powered entryways and electric lighting. “Why am I here?” I asked to the man. He stood up and started pacing. Always pacing. “You’re not in much of a position to be asking questions, are you?” He stopped and studied me. I felt like a specimen being observed. “Well,” he said. “You- you’re part of a grand experiment. For the last several months, of course, you have heard of these grand airships. My company, which produces these ships, has an excess. Of course, we wouldn’t want to waste them, as they are fine machines.” He said. I asked, “So what does this have to do with me?” He made large, exaggerated arm movements. “We are gearing these airships for war. And you,” he said with a smile. “Are a soldier.” Suddenly, the pieces came together. We were being prepared for war. The only reward was survival. It made sense, as before I lost my previous job I had studied in the engineering field. “Your job,” he continued. “Will be to man the guns and repair the ship.” I was horrified. It had been years since doing anything mechanical. “No! You can’t do this!” He smiled. “Oh yes, yes I can.” I struggled to get up. This couldn’t be happening to me! I felt sick and wobbly. As I sat up, restraints clamped around my hands and ankles. “You don’t have a choice.” He chuckled lightly. He grinned like a wolf, exposing his teeth. He was moving in for the kill. He knew he had won.

                A day later, I woke up in a small wooden compartment. Where am I? I thought to myself. Suddenly, I slammed up and down. “What was that?” I said out loud. A voice to my left said, “Boy, that’s what we’ve been trying to figure out for five minutes.” The voice sounded old and grizzled. A different voice to my right said, “We’re certainly not in London anymore.” He had an English accent, no different from anyone else. He sounded like the average person. The door in front of me, or at least what I thought was the front, dropped. As I took a shaky step forward, I noticed a while line of these compartments. Apparently, I had to open the other people’s doors.  I started tearing down the others’ wooden doors. Several of them looked tired and sore from being cramped in what was basically a closet. A certain awful smell waded through a small slit at the bottom of a certain door. As I opened it, a body came with it. I checked the body’s pulse, but there wasn’t one. He was dead. We all stared in silence at the body. Several people looked like they were going to be sick. He must have not recovered from his wounds. He had a gash in his head and his side. It looked as if it was from a serrated knife. I sighed. There was only so much you could do. As I took note of my surroundings, I noticed several things. First of all, I was on what looked like the deck of a ship. Second of all, we were hundreds of meters in the air. On the front and back of the ship (I have never been in one before, so I don’t know the technical terms) were what looked like mounted guns. On the sides were Gatling guns that could swivel. In the crow’s nest was a large cannon. The entire ship was ready for war. It had armored plating on the hull. As I descended down the wooden steps that led into the bottom layer, I smelled gunpowder. On both sides of it, there were several slits with cannons in them. There was another set of stairs. I slowly walked down it, not knowing what to expect. A loud hissing noise greeted me as I slowly opened the door. The room contained several large boilers. Pipes ran across the walls. This must be what powers the ship, I thought to myself. It looked very complex, although I knew some of how it worked. The boilers, obviously, made steam which powered almost everything. I trudged back up the stairs to the main deck. The crew greeted me with sullen faces. On the masts were large black boxes. Some of the crew members had gone to inspect the weapons. Suddenly, the black box crackled to life. A voice somehow spoke through it. The voice said, “3..2..1..BEGIN!” I abruptly realized what must happen. We had to take down the other ships that I knew were out there. I took my place at the helm. The crew had already taken their places. I counted 9 people in total, not including myself. 4 would stay up here, and the other 5 would divide between the second and third layer. I grimly said, “Let’s do this.” Already in the distance, I could see bright flashes which I knew must be shots. They must’ve begun right next to each other. I shuddered as I thought about what would happen if we got shot down. We would either burn, explode, or fall to death. There were no other options, really. I was leading my crew to their fate.