"Fish pigs eat grass and stuff and well the fish love to eat the pigs and that poses a problem to the fish-pig society. Then, the pig mayor proclaimed that all fish should be killed. The fish tried really really hard to kill the mayor, because they didn't want to die."

"But why would they want to kill someone to prevent the killing of someone?"

"Exactly. Anyway, the pig sent his pig army at the fish to save himself. The pig army massacred the fish, and ended the fish-pig society. All fish were dead. The pigs soon realized they really needed the fish in order to live. The fish provided helium, a vital life source for pigs. The pigs soon suffocated and died. The mayor, the last pig to die, did not regret his decision to kill all the fish. He hated their fish-guts, and he was a horrible pig, so he laughed as his body went through helium deprivation. He never learned his lesson."

Lucy frowned.

"Poor mayor."

Michael almost blacked out from the intolerable hatred he felt for the mayor.

"No. He was an idiot. A furious idiot."

"So he was a bad guy?"

"Of course! He killed all the fish!"

"Didn't the fish eat the pigs? The mayor did a logical thing."

"No, there were many more pigs than fish, and the mayor could've done basically anything else to solve that problem. Maybe outlaw their feeding habits and make them eat something else."

"But the fish can't eat anything else, can they?"

Michael sighed.

"They could figure something else out!"

"I think that the mayor did the best solution."

"No, he didn't! He committed genocide!"

"What's genocide?"

"Nothing, sweetie. All I'm saying is that the mayor should've thought before he acted so rashly."

"Isn't this just a story?" Lucy asked. "Why are you getting so worked up over it?"

Her ignorance angered Michael.
"It's nothing. Just go to bed now, okay? I told you a story."

"But what happened after the pig mayor died?"

I hesitated.

"Nothing. Absolutely nothing. The story ends when all the characters are dead."

Lucy looked down.

"But what about the humans?"

"Did I ever say there were humans?"

"There have to be humans."

"Why? Humans aren't the most powerful, most numerous, most anything in this world. They're only the most self-centered. Animals were here far before us."

"But we're the best at thinking, right?"

"When we choose to use our brains, yes."

"What do you mean by that?"

"You need to get to bed, Lucy. Goodnight."

Michael pulled the covers onto her, then left. He walked into his room, not even the slightest bit phased to smell the familiar rotten flesh. He stumbled into his bed, letting sleep take him. In his dream, the world was normal. The temperature got below 70 degrees in Greenland and he cuddled a polar bear. Then, a penguin appeared and the polar bear killed and ate it. The polar bear returned to the cuddling position for the remainder of the dream.

Then, Michael woke up. It was morning. He reminded himself that, because of the incident last year, polar bears are extinct. So are penguins. And there's no way on earth that Greenland would get below 70 degrees, or for that matter, anywhere besides Antarctica.

Michael sighed, got up, and went to go check on Lucy. She was gone. Michael felt disappointed, but that happened when his ex-wife took over the custody every week day. She thought he was insane. She was probably right. Michael didn't work. He lived off of the money he got for partially saving the world. He had no real marketable skills besides for making fire out of thin air. Fire was now almost useless and definitely discouraged for use. The world was already really low on water, and it was getting worse. People died left and right from heat exhaustion. Michael almost wished he'd let Dr. Vituperat destroy the world with his heat ray instead of almost doing it and heating up everything in the process. Then, at least, we wouldn't have to suffer through such a boring "Apocalypse", as they call it. Usually, this referred to some huge event that ended the world, like zombies or a meteor. Dr. Vituperat wasn't even successful. It shouldn't have done anything. I shouldn't be held responsible for this, but Martha definitely blames me. So does the Australian government, or whatever's left of it. Africa's dead. They were suffering from heat strokes and water shortages before this happened. Only a few countries still have enough residents to call themselves countries. Siberians are having a blast, though. In fact, many people from around the equator and the southern hemisphere have moved there in hopes of escaping the heat. Who would've thought people would ever flock to Siberia? Whoever's left at NASA want to get themselves to Mars, where they'll try as hard as they can to live. On Mars, it's colder. I'd suggest Antarctica, but it's covered in dead animals. Also, the ice is melting rapidly. There have been too many floods for it to be considered a functional place for human settlement. Then, Siberia's the place to go. Except, it's full, and they're making regulation laws. No one who is north of the equator is allowed to stay as a refugee. We live in Canada, so we can't go to Siberia. We were going to just stay in minnesota, but most of the lakes have evaporated by now. All except the great ones. The problem with these is, everyone's trying to get to the great lakes or Siberia. Either get away from the heat by going to a moderate-temperatured place or going to some of the biggest sources of fresh water besides for aquifers, which have all been claimed by the SHIS, or the Southern Hemisphere in Siberia. They're trying to support more than two billion people, so no one really disagrees with it. Plus, with the most people, they can actually dig up all that water. Michael would want the water for himself, but he's only in the company of two people: his ex-wife and his daughter. Martha, the ex-wife, is on the verge of insanity. To keep herself mentally stable, she pretends like nothing happens and continues following the custody rules. Lucy, his daughter, makes a horrible one. He is an ex-superhero, but no matter how many times he tries to convince his daughter that bad people are bad, she always sides with them. He's never been able to convince her that stopping the heat ray was the right thing to do, even if it caused a bit of atmospheric disturbances.