A Doomed Future
By: Trann
Disclaimer: I don't own House or any of it's characters, merchandise or affiliates. I am not making any money off of this fanfic or any other. This story is purely for entertainment purposes only.
Warning: POV, not-so-happy future for Earth
The grass is yellow and brittle, and the trees…what happened to the trees? There aren't any. No one walks through the park anymore, the benches are rotting and I see no sign of pigeons.
Dogs are nonexistent and no cats lay curled up in the windows of houses or apartments. People walk around wearing gas masks…what's going on? Is this real? The sidewalks and the streets are all crumbling, the sky is foggy with what can only be smog, the color is an ugly yellow, like the grass.
Tears sting my eyes as I realize that I have no protective gear on. That's why everyone is staring at me so strangely. At least, I think they're staring. I can't really see their faces behind the black masks with only windows for their eyes. My pale pink sweater and jeans are far from the normal attire that these people are wearing, they look like space aliens from another planet. What I can see of their skin is either sallow or an angry red to contrast that of the sallow-skinned people. The red-skinned people have what appear to be warts or hives all over the skin that shows, which is really just their hands and necks.
Why do these people not cover the rest of themselves up? And how do they survive here, anyway? Surely, they have to take off those suits and masks sometime. To change, to use the restroom, to shower, something.
And, then, I see the water as I move to a drinking fountain and turn the knob. It's nearly black. I don't take a drink. I just stare at the water in horror until I notice the stares again. If the water is bad, why do they even keep it on for the drinking fountains?
The smell is horrible, it burns my lung, though not bad enough to make me worried I would be unable to breathe. At first I think the smell is the water, but after I remove my hand from the knob of the fountain, I realize that it's the air I smell. The air smells so horrible and burns my lungs.
That's about the same time that a car chugs by. And that's when I realize where I am. I'm in the same place I've been in for years. I'm in the place that I practice medicine in, just not in the hospital or on the grounds. I am most certainly on Earth and this has to be a vision of the future.
Why am I the one to see this vision? Are others seeing it, too? Why do people do this to their own world? I don't see any children or teenagers. At least, no one that looks about that age, but I can't tell very well. Everyone seems to be older, so maybe no one is reproducing. Maybe they can't…
I wake up in a cold sweat and reach out to the other side of the bed, needing reassurance and comfort, but touch nothing but air and empty sheets.
"Greg…?" I ask the empty sheets, before I stare at my hand in horror. Why did I call out for House? I don't have those feelings for him anymore. He's an arrogant jerk that enjoys playing with people's lives just so that he can solve his damned puzzles.
"Get a grip, Allison…" I say to myself, wiping some of the sweat from my forehead and moving to get up. A shower will do me good, to get the sweat off of me.
"You don't have feelings for him, Cameron, so just stop the lusty stuff." I say to myself for good measure, before heading into the bathroom.