Fools of us All - Chapter 1

Oh great. It's raining again. That makes it, what, fifteen days in a row that it's rained? Frankly, I'm getting tired of it. I can't believe how things have been going lately. My best friend died in a freak elevator accident a few months ago. It still hurts but I've been able to get on with my life. I'm sure not going to forget her, though.

And then I get fired from my job. There was a time where that wouldn't have been a problem, but things have really taken a tumble lately. Suddenly there are no jobs to be had. Everything's automated anymore, and the economy seems to have taken a hit. Now there are more unemployed mooks like myself than there are jobs. I couldn't pay rent, so I've had to move out. Fortunately, I suppose, I had already sold all of my stuff to buy enough food to survive until the end of the month, so by now all I have left is a coat that's getting ratty thrown on over my faded shirt and sweater, and my old camo pants. My shoes are still good, a birthday present from Corana before she died. Every time I re-lace them I start to tear up.

I figured that my one grace was that summer was starting just as this all happened so I would have a comfortable season to try and get things together. But it's been so wet this year. The river that runs through the centre of town is swelling up, overflowing its banks. With all of the technology that was advertised as making life better, it sure hasn't done much for the river. The water is so nasty in general, and now it has been deluged with grass and dirt and other types of foliage from the parks and streets that line the river. People have died in that river recently. A few were accidental, a couple of kids playing nearby getting careless and falling in, unable to swim to safety, their bodies pulled out miles downriver. One made it all the way down to the next town before getting extricated. Other deaths only came about because it seemed like the only way to get out of problems. Mikey, a guy I met who had gone through much the same problems that I have, just couldn't handle it anymore. He wasn't educated enough or respected enough to get any of the available jobs, so he found a bridge over a deep part of the river and decided to jump in, even though he couldn't swim. I tried to save him, but I am not a strong swimmer either, so all I could do was run down the edge of the river, trying to think of a way to pull him out. I watched him slip under for the last time about a mile from where he had leapt. A cop drove by just then, but when I stopped him and told him what had happened he just shook his head. "I'm sorry miss," he said, not sounding sorry at all. "We don't have the manpower to deal with that right now."

Of course, what he really meant was that they weren't going to bother with a dead homeless guy. I got the point and quickly left before he got any ideas about a live homeless girl. Now I'm alone, just trying to find something to eat everyday. I can't even get labour jobs right now because I'm simply too small. It's not even that I'm all that tiny either. There just aren't any jobs, and what few ones there are all go to the largest people they can find. A few Amazonian type women have managed to find some jobs here and there, mostly mining and construction, but by and large it's the muscle-bound guys who get the work.

It's the damn corporations that have done it. That and rampant consumerism. Everyone wanted the latest and the greatest toys, and demand for everything hit so high a mark that the only way anyone could keep up would be to fully automate all of their processes. So they did, finding ways to make everything without using people, and do it cheaply. In the space of about fifteen years, most jobs were turned over to the machines. All office type jobs were taken over by machines that could calculate faster and make better deals than people. Menial tasks were automated. Landscaping, once an relatively steady source of employment, became run by machines that could be programmed for any type of landscape that a person could want. Trash was picked up automatically. Cars were driven by computer, as were planes, trains, and other automobiles. Even movies became mostly automated as computers were programmed to write scripts, cameras operated themselves, and completely CGI actors and actresses were introduced. Humans still do some things, varied from city to city, but it's become tough.

Space exploration, oddly enough, is still an area of human expertise. The news is constantly telling stories of space heroics as we push out further and further. Heck, a colony on Mars is in the works, a deal between a major Chinese corporation and a major US corporation. The government comes on TV frequently, talking about how much they support the efforts, but no one really cares. The past few governments in both countries have been completely run by big business and everyone knows it. I figure it's only a matter of time before we lose all sense of national identity whatsoever and just become land run by companies. It's already happened to Britain and Canada, now both owned by Hong Kong. Russia is still holding out, but that can't last. The severe famine there last year killed a reported two million people, but knowing how their news works, that number has to be at least twice as high. I heard an old university prof who's living on the street saying that his best estimates were that upwards of one hundred million people were sick and dying in that country because they were trying to hold out against the corporations and failing completely.

It is small wonder people are so anxious to get into space. They feel like maybe it's the last chance they have of getting some sort of good life. Everyone is so happy and eager to be allowed a chance for space exploration that no one bothers to stop and ask why more machines aren’t being sent into space to prepare the way. Personally, I think it's because machines are worth more than human life now. People are cheap, let them die. And they have. Space travel is no easy thing. Three quarters of the people who go to space never come back.

This rainstorm doesn't seem to be letting up at all. I pull my coat tighter around myself and hurry along the grungy street. This section of town isn't a good area, and just a few months ago I would have avoided it at all costs. Now it's just around the corner from where I spend my days foraging for food. But eating isn't on my mind right now. I heard that there was a meeting going on around here. A meeting that the authorities would do anything to stop. I'm on my way to try and find it, because I want in. The people living in their nice clean suburbs need to be woken up to what real life is. I don't think they're going to like it. I don't think anyone is going to like it much. I can hardly wait.