**** ****

Hope

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"I sit in my cubicle, here on the motherworld.

When I die, they will put my body in a box and

Dispose of it in the cold ground.

And in all the million ages to come, I will never

Breathe or laugh or twitch again.

So won't you run and play with me here among the teeming mass of humanity?

The universe has spared us this moment."

-- Anonymous, Datalinks

I couldn't believe it when it had happened. When I heard the truth.

New York City was being evacuated. A large hurricane, the biggest ever, will slam into New York City tomorrow. And then it will be flooded.

The wall that had held the swelled waters of the Atlantic Ocean will not be able to resist Hurricane David.

San Francisco was already partly underwater, having fallen victim to the waters years ago.

Los Angeles had died a few months ago.

And Washington D. C. is predicted to fall victim to Hurricane William next week.

This is it. The End Of The World As We Know It.

And now, with the International Federation of Countries battling the United Nations in a never-ending nuclear war, I know it is all over.

This world was controlled by fools. Fools. Fools who were too blind too see what they were doing to the world. To humanity.

I have never felt like this before. Without hope. Knowing that humanity, the dominant life form on Earth, is dead.

Dead.

And I will die too. Whether by nuclear radiation, or by the military draft, or by the gloabl warming.

Yet I look up now, and I am surprised at what I see.

The United Nations Starship Unity, thought by most to be only a myth.

And as I stare at the sky in wonder, I feel something comforting, something wonderful, something I thought I would never feel again.

Hope.



Author's Note:

How far is this from the truth? Depending on your age, you could be the person narrating. This is a possible future for our world, with our relentless destruction of our ecosystem and development of nuclear weapons. Scientists predict New York City actually will be under water by 2016 if the current rate of global warming continues.

Believe it.