Life at 4050
It's a beautiful morning. The sky outside looks perfectly black and smoggy.
Ruvir looks outside and reckons "Doesn't look like it'll rain today. Should we go out to this new place O2 in the evening? I've heard it has got an amazing ambience. The air is also very refreshing."
"Sounds like a plan!" Tree says excitedly. "I've been dying to go to an oxygen bar."
Later in the evening, they head to the bar.
They are smartly dressed and wearing masks. The weather is good so a lot of people have ventured out. It's difficult to identify anyone because all are wearing masks. It isn't a masquerade but a basic necessity. The air quality index is so bad that one cannot survive even for a few minutes without them. Rains aren't normal anymore. It's always acid rains.
Tree and Ruvik enter the bar and Tree immediately removes her mask. "Phew! Finally effortless breathing. I definitely am not complaining. Bless the person who invented these amazing oxygen masks. I can't even imagine how our ancestors lived without them. Just the other day Sunus my colleague passed out due to her faulty mask. She wasn't even carrying a spare one. Can you believe it? She would have almost died had I not loaned her mine." she rolled her eyes.
"Look at the ceiling." She suddenly notices and points up.
"Beautiful!!" exclaimed Ruvir. "Starry blue sky just like the pictures we have seen at the Earth museum."
They admire the beautiful false ceiling for a while and then take a table by an artificially constructed tree. Artificial birds fly above giving the place a forest-like feel.
"Waise tell me do you really think these trees existed? Or are they just myths? Scientifically it cannot be proven that anything can release oxygen. But mum forces me to pray to their idols. Look at my name. It's so old fashioned. Who names their kids after gods?" questions Tree
"True. Even I think it's bullshit. Even that folklore about naturally occurring water sounds funny. The theories of how underneath those plastic dumps there once used to be oceans, sounds unbelievable! How do they expect us to believe them?" Ruvir replies.
Both of them end up laughing. They enjoy the evening completely sure that the stories that they have heard of earth is mere fiction.
*******
Epilogue
Till 3000, people were blessed with naturally flowing water. Trees and plants grew in abundance. Conditions were bad but things took a terrible turn after that. Our callous nature caused these resources to deplete at an alarmingly fast rate. There were forest fires that wiped out forests. People were atheists in that period but they started worshipping Mother Nature in the hopes of survival but unfortunately nothing helped and today's generation has to rely on synthetic resources even to breathe. This is only because our ancestors thought they were superior to all and in the process we, the present generation suffer for no fault of our own. ______[ratemypost]
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