Riots were everywhere. Mark looked around with panic on his face. There was nowhere to run. Everything, everyone, was ruined. The world he had once lived in was gone. Just a year ago, this city was still alive, still working. Now, it’s nothing more than a large ash pile. 

These riots had started back in 2020, the year where everything went wrong. Once the riots had started, there was no way to get them to stop. People had just started to enjoy them too much. At first, people were rioting because they believed there was racial injustice, and then it began to spiral out of control. More and more people started to do it for fun. These riots no longer had any meaning. People had even started to kill one other. 

To this day, in 2075, nothing had changed. America had fallen, and there was nothing anyone could do about it. So, people began to run. They ran from their problems. It became a habit and people no longer knew how to help themselves. 

Mark ran into the half-burned forest to hide. He couldn’t take it anymore. The riots were destroying everything. He no longer had a home or family to go back to. All he could do now was run and that’s what he was going to do, but for now, he would hide. Mark sat down at the base of a tree that hadn’t been touched by the flames. He sighed softly, “I can’t… I can’t do this anymore. My life is pure misery. I wish I could escape this hell.” Mark rested his head on his folded arms. The sun was beginning to do down, but there was still so much light in the sky. One couldn’t escape the fires, no matter how far they ran, Mark thought to himself. He smirked and started to laugh. It was a wild sound; like a cross between a cackle and a hyena’s laugh. He laughed and laughed and laughed. To him, this was just so funny. His life was horrible, and he was forced to stay alive. 

Mark slowly stood up and tried to stop himself from laughing. He couldn’t stop; the irony was just funny. He, a thin, brunette who was utterly average in every way imaginable, was alive. Actors, pro-wrestlers, and even the military; they were all dead. And yet, he was still alive. “How ironic is that?!” Mark shouted as if speaking to a god in the sky. Mark was laughing so hard that his chest began to hurt. He couldn’t stop him, but to him, life meant pretty much nothing. There was nothing for him to do, so there was a point in living. He had to live for his family, even though he didn’t want to. He wanted to see the future change. 

Suddenly, there was a rustle in the bush right next to him. Mark jumped to the side and fell. He began to panic, as this was usually a sure sign of death. A girl about his age popped her head out of the bush. She was a small, blonde with a British-looking heritage. “Hello,” she squeaked, “I apologize if I scared you. You look friendly enough, besides for the cackling of course.” She giggled. 

“Oh… you heard that?” Mark opened his eyes wide and became even more nervous. 

“Well, it’s nice to meet you mysterious stranger,” the girl smiled happily. “By the way, my name is Amelia.”

“Uh… nice to meet you. My name’s Mark,” he muttered quietly. Amelia giggled, but she said nothing. 

After a few minutes of silence, Amelia looked over at Mark with wide eyes. She gasped, “Mark, have you heard about the recent announcement?”

“Announce...ment?” Mark said, curiously

“Yeah,” Amelia said excitedly, “Exanic World Development recently developed a new VR system. Supposedly it can transport your mind to a perfect recreation of this world before the riots!” Mark stood up, surprised at this news.

“Wait, are you being serious? How did you find this out?” Mark asked, barely keeping himself calm.

“Yesterday! There was a huge announcement all over the city about this! You can get it for almost nothing!” Amelia jumped up and grabbed Mark’s arm. “Let’s go now! If we can get it now, we can finally be happy and safe! We’ll finally be able to choose who we want to be!” 

“Yeah,” Mark said without thinking, “Let’s do it!” 

“Come on,” Amelia pulled Mark out of the forest and sprinted. 

About 10 minutes later, they finally arrived. Both of them looked up in awe of the huge store in front of them. In the middle of all this chaos. The Exanic World Development store had somehow managed to avoid it all. It’s almost like it had just appeared out of nowhere. Mark shook that thought out of his head. Something like that was impossible. Things just don’t appear overnight. 

Mark and Amelia walked into the store and covered their eyes immediately. The light was too bright. No one had seen anything like this in the past 10 years or so. It was… a miracle. A store attendant walked up to them right away. 

“Hello,” she said brightly, “Are you here for the new virtual reality system?”

“How does-” Mark was cut off quickly by Amelia.

“Yes, we are. Where would we acquire this new system?” Amelia asked just as brightly. 

“Just follow me,” the store attendant said. She walked to the back of the store quickly as Mark and Amelia followed.

A few minutes later, they had arrived. The selves were lined with these systems and people seemed to be practically everywhere. 

The attendant waved them over. “Here,” she handed both of them a system, “it’s free of charge today. No one has to pay for anything.” Amelia and Mark looked at each other in disbelief but graciously accepted it anyway. 

Quickly, they left the store. There were too many people in there, and with the climate, a fight was sure to break out soon. They both opened the box and pulled out their systems. “That’s strange,” Amelia whispered, “They look like any old VR system you would see a few years ago.”

“Yeah, it’s really strange. I hope this wasn’t something that will come back to bite us,” Mark said, suspicion riddled deep in his voice. 

“It’s fine… let’s just find someplace and put these on. I want to get out of this place as soon as possible.” Amelia started walking back towards the forest.

Eventually, they got deep enough in the forest to put the system on. At the same time, they put the headsets on. Their world changed into something very different immediately. A loud voice greeted them very quickly. “Hello,” the robotic said cheerfully, “Welcome to your new home, Callisto! Here, you can choose whatever personality you want, and you can change your looks to fit you perfectly. I hope you enjoy this place!” As quickly as the robotic voice appeared, it was gone. Mark looked around at the perfect city in awe. Everything was just so beautiful and bright. The streets were lined with flowers and allergies were nonexistent. The buildings were the perfect shade of gray that just looked perfect to the human eye and they were lined up perfectly. Mark couldn’t even begin to process how amazing this world was. He was so glad that he had left all of his problems behind and entered this new world. “Wow,” Mark said in awe, “This is amazing.” Mark looked down at his body to see it was different. Instead of it being the thin, scrawny twigs he was used to, he was fairly muscled and tall. “I can’t believe it! I’m… perfect too!” Mark breathed. 

After too many minutes of admiring himself, he remembered Amelia. Oh crap, he thought, I need to go find her. Mark rushed off from the place he spawned to look for her.

Within minutes, he found her. “Amelia!” He shouted, “Over here!” Amelia turned her head and waved at Mark. She quickly ran over. 

“Hey Mark, you’re looking pretty good,” Amelia smirked.

“I could say the same thing about you. You don’t look too different, just some more minor changes. Anyway, what do we do now?” Mark looked around, still in awe, but utterly confused as to what was supposed to happen now. 

“Honestly,” Amelia said, “I have no idea. This place is cool, so I think we should look around first, Then, maybe we can try to find a house or something since it seems like we’re going to be staying here for a very long time.” Mark nodded excitedly and gestured at Amelia to follow him as he ran away. 

They explored practically the whole city in that one day. Everything was so perfect. Every store you could think of, every restaurant, they were all there. Even random french clothing stores they had never heard of were there. Mark realized how truly incredible this world was. It had everything he could ever possibly desire and more. This was a place that would never run out of things to do or places to go. 

Hours and hours later, they were so worn out that they knew they needed to find somewhere to sleep before they passed out on the streets. They continued to walk down the street until they saw a beautiful baby blue cottage. As they walked up to the front door, both of their names were written on it, and it almost seemed to be beckoning inside them. They both walked through the door and stopped dead at the sight. Once again, everything was just so perfect. It looked like a small mansion on the inside. The walls were white, and the floors were a light-colored wood. Mark had never seen anything like it, but somehow, it was everything he had ever wanted. His heart felt full, and he had never been happier. For the first time in his life, he was grateful to be alive. He looked over at Amelia to see the expression on her face. When Mark saw it, his eyes automatically began to tear up. The happiness on her face was enough to make anyone cry. He had never seen someone look so happy in his life. Amelia noticed him looking at her, and quickly looked away. “Hey,” she muttered, “Mind your own business. I have things to do.” Before Mark could even respond, she began walking up the spiral staircase to look at the upstairs space. Mark shook his head and began exploring even more of the downstairs area.

Finally, he reached a bedroom. The room was equally as perfect as the rest of the house. The bed was extremely soft and cozy, and the room was like nothing he had ever seen before. If you could feel comfortable immediately anywhere, this room was the place. There was nothing imperfect about it, and it fits every single one of his needs and desires. Mark would never be able to want a single thing again. He had everything he could’ve ever wanted, and so much more. He shook himself out of his stupor and went up the stairs to check on Amelia.

The upstairs was just as amazing as the rest of the house. Amelia was nowhere to be found. Mark began searching through all of the rooms to not only look at them but to check on Amelia. She seemed like someone who would get overwhelmed by changes very easily. Eventually, he reached the final room and saw Amelia standing in it. She quickly noticed him, and put something down into one of the drawers next to the bed. This room was smaller, but it was just as cozy. “How are you doing with all of this?” Mark asked.

“It’s quite different than what I am used to, and that’ll be extremely hard to get used to, but to tell the truth, I’m loving it. This place is perfect in every way I could ever imagine and more. I… I just can’t express how much I love this place. It’s just too much to put into words.” Amelia almost seemed like she was gushing about a person, but it was obviously about this house. 

Mark went back downstairs, and as soon as he reached the bedroom, he fell over from exhaustion. Within a matter of seconds, he was deep in sleep, having the most amazing dream he had ever had. 

When Mark woke up, the smell of bacon and syrup filled the house. He was practically frothing, so he got up to eat breakfast. Amelia was standing in the kitchen, holding a large, fresh pile of bacon and pancakes. Even though he had rarely eaten these, they were the fluffiest thing he had ever seen, and they looked perfect in every way. He sat down at the small round table as the food was being set down. He grabbed about five pancakes and ten pieces of bacon. As soon as he had taken the first bite, he was in love. He was never going to get used to this.

He had eaten all of this within a matter of minutes. As Mark glanced over at Amelia, he realized that she had hardly touched her food. “What’s wrong,” he joked, “Are you not hungry?”
“Nah, I don’t usually eat much anyway. It doesn’t matter if I’m starving or not, I just have an abnormally small appetite,” she said, plastering a large smile on her face. Mark shook his head with a smile on his face and stood up to get a glass of water. 

Even the water was perfect. It was the perfect texture and taste. He shook his head again. I will never be able to get used to this, Mark thought to himself. 

From that day for the next couple of months, he had continued the same routine, never getting tired of the repetition. He would explore the city and mess around all day with Amelia. He would go to amusement parks, and ice cream shops. Anywhere he wanted to go that day, he was able to go. It truly was the perfect place. Well, it “was”. 

Mark walked around the city cheerily like he did every day. This time, Amelia had decided to go somewhere else. He had decided to pry as that would cause some tension, and he was not up for that. As he looked around, for the very first time, he felt like something was wrong. There didn’t feel like there were enough people around. The city was normally bustling with people, but today, there weren’t that many people. “Everyone’s probably just having a chill day today,” Mark muttered to himself, not fully believing his statement. He shook his head, trying to get rid of the negative thoughts. He put a huge smile on his face and continued walking. Mark had decided that today would be a perfect day for some fro-yo. 

He had finally reached the fro-yo shop and tried to push open the door. Weirdly enough, the door felt stuck. He peeked through the window, but everything was dark inside. “Huh,” he whispered, “That’s unusual.” This place still felt fairly new to him, so he figured some stores must close down from time to time. That’s what should’ve happened in the real world if everything wasn’t so broken. Mark shook his head once again and continued with his day. 

For some reason, every single store he went to was like this. The doors weren’t able to be opened, and the windows were dark. The more Mark thought about it, the more confused he got. He decided that today should just be a rest day. Everyone else was doing it, and everything seemed to be closed. 

As he reached the blue house, the bad feeling he had in his gut earlier returned. He just couldn’t shake that feeling. He felt like this world was too perfect to remain this way forever. Just as he began to think more about this world, Amelia appeared around the corner. “Hey,” she said cheerfully.

“Hey. Have you noticed weird things happening today? I can’t enter any stores and I’m starting to worry that this world can’t last forever?” Mark asked, the worry showing in his voice. 

Amelia laughed. “That’s not even possible. This world is designed to last forever. Maybe your imagination is just getting the best of you today. After all, people often think they don’t deserve the things they have.”

“I guess that’s true. I think I’ll just go lay down for the rest of the day, and have a relaxing day.” Mark walked into the house after saying and laid down on his bed as soon as he could. The feeling wouldn’t go away. It was only getting worse. Mark forced himself to sleep, but the feeling made its way into his dreams. 

The next day, Mark had gotten out of bed to only want to go right back. He hadn’t slept much the night before since his dreams had gotten so bad. He decided that he should cheer himself up by walking around the town. 

After he had gotten himself woken up enough to walk around, he stepped out into the bright sun. It was almost too much for Mark. He gave up on trying to protect his eyes and just started walking. He didn’t have a destination, he just really wanted to do something. Anything would be better than dealing with his thoughts at the moment. 

Eventually, he decided on a destination. He wanted to go get ice cream. Ice cream always helped him feel better, no matter what was going on. He was already close to the ice cream shop, so he should've been able to see it from where he was standing. But when I looked for it, there was nothing there. In its place, there was a strange-looking black pit. It seemed to be covering the area where the shop had once been. He walked over to look at it more closely, but it was exactly as it appeared. There was nothing there. It was an empty black place. Mark’s mind had begun to spiral at the thought of this place possibly breaking, so he sprinted. He wouldn’t stop running until he made it back to the house. 

“Amelia!” He shouted, “We need to get out of here! Something is very wrong, and I have a feeling that if we stay for much longer, we won’t end up living to see another day!”

“Woah, calm down, Mark,” Amelia said, worrying, plaguing her voice. “What’s going on?”

Mark took a deep breath. “The ice cream shop, it’s not there anymore. Instead, there’s a black, space. Also, a lot of people seem to be missing. I went out yesterday and saw almost no one. Today, I saw no one in the streets. I’m sure you remember how busy this place used to be.”

“Okay, that’s a bit worrying. I do agree that we should try to leave,” Amelia said, sounding unsure about her own words. The two decided that they were going to leave. They weren’t sure how they were going to, but Mark was sure it was very possible to do. 

As they both stepped out the door, the world had gotten even worse. Buildings had started to disappear at an even faster rate. One moment a building was there, and the next it was gone, replaced by a black empty hole. 

“No…” Mark whispered, “This can’t be possible. This isn’t real. I must be dreaming right now. This can’t happen. It’s impossible.” Mark’s thoughts had started to spiral again. This time, he glanced at Amelia and she was smiling. “Amelia… what’s happening here? Why do you look so confident and proud? The world is breaking around us.” 

“Oh, it looks like I won’t be able to keep this up anymore,” Amelia took out a little device and showed it to him. “This is my communicator. This was all supposed to happen.” Amelia smiled and shook her head slowly. “What’s with the horrified look, Mark? Did you think I was a dumb little blond?” Amelia burst out laughing.

“What’s… what’s going on?” Mark stuttered.

“You poor little thing. I was hoping more people were going to fall victim to this. How lame. As I said, this was all planned from the beginning. Many more people were supposed to die though. It’s quite a disappointing conclusion.”

Mark backed away, utterly horrified. “No, no that’s not possible. That can’t possibly be true.”

“Oh you sweet thing, it is. You’re looking at the person who helped design this whole thing. Of course, I’m not an engineer, but you could say I excel in acting.”

“I need to run. Get me out of here!” Mark turned and ran. He jumped into one of the many black pits to escape this hell hole. 

Mark suddenly woke up in reality. The world was still burning. There was nothing left but smoke and flames. As he looked to his left, Amelia was still laying on the ground. Just as a precaution, he checked her pulse. Sure enough, she didn’t make it out. Mark couldn’t feel bad for it. After all, she had gotten what she deserved. For helping kill so many people, it was only right that hers should be taken as well. Mark left her body and decided to walk into the ashes of the once city. 

As soon as Mark entered the city, he wasn’t able to breathe. Every breath felt like he was being stabbed in the lungs. Dead bodies were everywhere, and it looked like there wasn’t a single soul left except for him. The whole city had burned to the ground and its citizens with it. 

Mark sat down on a piece of metal that hadn’t been burned by the fires. There was no way he was going to make it out of this, and he knew that. “If only we had tried to fix this, Maybe we all would've survived.” Mark smiled softly at the thought that death was close. He only had a couple of minutes before he died of carbon monoxide poisoning or suffocation; whichever came first. 

Mark laid down on the large piece of metal for the last time. “Goodbye cruel world. I hope you’re happy with the way everything turned out.” Mark coughed a bit more and felt himself starting to drift. “Well, these last couple of months were pretty fun.” Mark smiled one last time and closed his eyes.