It’s all gone. A void in time, even a Google DeepWeb search brings up nothing. Nothing. It’s as if the world ended in 2016. All evidence of it, records, pictures YouTube videos. Gone without a trace. When asked, all my colleagues gave me blank stares and vague answers.
“Maybe the data chip was stolen,”
“Maybe there was a fire in The Brain…”
“Why would you ask?”
They were clearly hiding something. Even official government historian can’t give me a straight answer.
“Mr Turner, I’m afraid you’re wasting your time with this pursuit, so I suggest that you abandon it in favour of more…fruitful ventures…” he warned.
Clearly I wasn’t welcome there. We know more about the Stone Ages than what happened in the year 2016. A post searching for answers on Reddit was quickly taken down and my account was terminated. I had the feeling that I wasn’t going to find any answers in the utopias that house Earth’s population, about 100 million in total. The answer to my questions would lie beyond the sheltered bubbles of civilisation. I had to travel beyond the walls. I had to venture in to the Badlands.
“Tucker, you don’t have to come with me,” I say as I stare into the murky distance.
“I know dude, but I want to come with anyway” he says simply. In the pale light of the moon he is visibly shaking. People only journey into the Badlands for two reasons: Relics and as a death sentence. Only the Blue Nets protect us from its unrelenting and vicious sandstorms and radioactive clouds with their crackling bubbles of pure energy.
I take in the pitch black darkness. Below us is a 3 meter drop into the sand. The moon sits high, casting about its pale light in the star-less sky as I look at my best friend. I am putting both our lives on the line and if he gets hurt it’ll be all my fault. But I know Tucker, he’d never leave me and I him. In my Radi-Hazard suit I can feel that small, subtle gnawing of radioactivity. I want to turn back, to go back to my life and forget about it but Tucker and I have spent our entire lives chasing the truth and it was too late to turn back now anyway.
“Well be fine Tucker,” I smile wanly, “well be in and out quickly. It’ll be over before you know it.”
“T-Thats what she s-said,” he stutters out, before flashing his trademark lop-sided grin, although this one feels hollow.
“Now or never then.”
“Now or never, Ladies first then.”
He gives me a nod and I steel myself. I took a deep breath and we jump the Blue Net and billowing darkness rushes up to greet us. I land awkwardly but correct my balance quickly. Looming out of the swirling dust and darkness looms a giant sign. I hear Tucker’s sharp intake of breath behind me as we both realise what it reads.
“Trump for president 2016”