Hope.. or death?
Written By DJ Carter


The dark, unseen wind of the ravaged land blew heavily against my jacket. Usually wind or cold never bothered me.. this was the exception. Probably a week ago, we appeared in a damaged building, which at first was a relief. Hell, we were about to be captured by Gaurdia's finest.

As we walked out of that building, the site was horrible. Trembling yet barren trees lay crumbling barely steps away from us. The dark ground beneath my feet was hard and unyielding. This wasn't life. This was death... in its most definite form.

We spent time at the second dome we came to... and that was the first time I saw it. The people who had some how survived... were starving. So little food.

Sure.. Maybe you can say that you know what starving is. You don't know the start of it. Starving is the feeling that you get when you can't get food in any way. Starving is the realization that no nourishment will come to you, and you will slowly fade. Starving.. is death, in a large, foreboding form.

We left that dome the next morning. Outside it was the exact same as it had been. Cold and foreboding, no sunlight coming from the sky. Just north of us was an abandoned and destroyed lab. There were many robotic type enemies, and spirits.

A scientific mind like my own never would believe in such things.. Spirits don't exist, ghosts are child's fantasies. They are unreal, non-existing. I found out this day.. that wasn't true.

As we fought the robots, I couldn't help but feel sorry. These robots were made by humans... maybe not to do evil.. but now they did.

After fighting our way through the wretched lab 16, we came upon another dome.

As we walked in, we saw many people, looking pale and fragile like the others we had seen at the first dome.. We walked closer to them.. and were greeted almost as a dog greets his master after a long day at work. They were surprised that we had made it through that wretched lab.

As Crono started talking to the people, we kept hearing the same thing. Hopelessness.. despair.. These people had lost the will to live. It was sad.. when you lose the will to live, its like a bird losing the ability to fly, or a knight losing the ability to fight, or even as child losing the ability to play. It was pitiful in its own perspective.

But, then again.. Who am I to argue with them? They live in a world that crosses the barriers of hell. A world in which life has dwindled to speckles in a large picture.

But, something brings light to this group. We went to the food storage facility, and found only spoiled remnants and a rotting corpse. But in that corpses hand, was a packet of seeds.

As Crono handed the leader the seeds, for the first time, we saw something close to a smile. It was improbable that anything could grow here, but for the first time, they felt a new sense of hope, a chance to live.

I guess everyone's life is based on circumstance. But.. then again, maybe not. These people had no way to support themselves, and had given up on life.

Maybe everyone deserves another chance to make a choice at life. Maybe, just maybe, we've changed what this peoples future holds.

I don't know why.. but my opinion of these people has changed drastically. No longer are they statistics. They are helpless people...

Maybe there is hope after all.

-fin-

-Chrono Trigger and its character are copyright Squaresoft
-Story is copyright DJ Carter 2002