It is now the 100 year anniversary of the most deadly mass shooting in US history. 100 years ago today, 600 students and their parents made their way to Paradise Hill Elementary for back-to-school night. Most of the students were Kindergarten through 6th grade. At 5:37 p.m a gunman walked into the school wearing a school shirt. HIis name was Asher Smith. He pulled his assault rifle out, and began shooting into a Kindergarten classroom full of children and parents. All 40 people in the room were killed. He then moved into the hallways full of panicking people, and opened fire. He stepped over piles of bodies, killing as he went. Three teachers were armed at the school as a result of the Guns for Classrooms inititive passed by President Donald Trump. One teacher fired at the gunman, hitting a seven year-old instead. She died instantly. The other teachers also fired, but missed hitting the body Asher was using as a shield. He then picked up a live hostage named Jamie Lee. The teachers didn't fire again, as he killed them. He tossed Jamie Lee aside, stepping on her head, crushing her skull and brain. She died instantly. As he continued shooting, police arrived at the scene at 5:49. They managed to shoot and kill Asher. He killed 482 people, 317 of them children under ten. In his pocket was a note that stated his motive as being because he could due to gun laws being so lax, and a desire to kill children because his own child had been killed in a drive-by shooting. Asher was a 27 year-old black man. His daughter had been killed in a gang related shooting when she was four. Congress, ruled by Republicans, made no new laws regarding gun control. The next year, with President Elizabeth Warren in office, assault rifles were banned. Paradise Hills was the last mass school shooting in America.

Earth, 2119. It’s the 100th anniversary of human extinction. The gods have taken back the place, literally.

Here on earth, the Buddha is carrying out his daily meditation routine on a fine high chair in a temple.

Just after he closed his eyes, his iPhone rang. Knowing who the caller is, he tut-tutted and picked it up.

Jesus: Hey Buddha!

Buddha: What?

Jesus: It’s 2119 today! Are you going to Zeus’s party? They are taking out the humans for fun!

Buddha: Humans? I thought they were extinct...

Jesus: It turns out that Elsa froze some of them!

Buddha thought, Okay, he is clearly drunk. Shouldn’t have picked up the phone in the first place. He put down the phone and before he hangs up he heard, ‘Drink my blood oh dear!’ and some smashing sound.

When he thought that he could finally focus on his mind, a woman sobbed behind him. He turned around and sighed, Nüwa is standing here. She eyes are swollen as if she put two hard-boiled eggs on her pretty face.

(In case you don’t know her, let me Google it for you: ‘the goddess of the order who created humans and saved the world from destruction in Chinese mythology’. But wait a minute, where was she when the world is out of order?)

‘Nüwa...’

‘Did they do that? Frozen my babies?’ Her silk handkerchief is all wet and when you look closer you can see tears (or it could be snot...) dripping on the floor. The Buddha try to suppress his internal scream for Nüwa ruining the altar wood floor, he looked at her eyes (though he can’t actually see them), and said, ‘Nüwa, you just need to let go.’

She threw down her handkerchief which landed right on the floor, the Buddha stood up immediately, trying to examine whether the translucent liquid is tears or something else. She screamed, ‘Enough! Everyone is telling me to move on! DO YOU GUYS EVEN KNOW HOW THE HELL DID THEY ALL VANISHED! YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND!’

The Buddha tighten his eyebrows, ’Vanished? I thought the nature...

Nüwa interrupted, she is now sitting on the floor, ‘How would you feel when you work really really hard, try to fill up this whole, large land. And your work is criticised not only by other gods but the humans themselves! I know! I know they realised that they are from different gods and separated into different races! Some of the mines hated the others while some of them...they...they tortured each other! What do you expect? DO YOU THINK IT’S EASY TO MAKE EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM UNIQUE! AND THEY FORMED SOME RIDICULOUS HIERARCHY!’

Buddha clarified, ‘You mean they thought some of them were more good-looking...’

She gasped and continued, ‘You try to fix this problem for your whole life...then someday...someday they just... gone...’ Her tears streaming down her face.

When Nüwa is trying to clam down meanwhile her body is shaking, the Buddha texted his helpers to come cleaning the floor. It would take a while for them to walk here.

He got down and patted her shoulder, ‘It’s never your fault, Nüwa. You’ve done your very best.’

She pursed her lips, ‘Did you know what happened to them?’

He shook his head, ‘Honestly, I don’t. No one knows what happened. One day they just disappear. It’s been 1...’

Suddenly someone called him, it’s Jade Emperor. Nüwa stared at his phone incredulously, ‘Is that iPhone 6 I am seeing?’

He nodded, ‘You’re right.’

Nüwa’s jaw dropped. ‘How on earth are you still using it? Call Steve Job’s spirit out now and we could...’ The Buddha ignored her and answered the call.

‘Hey Buddha, Jade. We need to have an urgent meeting with Zeus. YOU need to join us RIGHT now.’

’Got it,...

Before Buddha continues, the great glass elevator flew to him.

‘Sir, please.’ Two teenage angels emerged, they are wearing a pink grown, which means interns. The girls came out, bowed their heads and signalled Buddha to go in.

So, What do you think the Buddha is facing?

#justforfun

It has been one hundred years since the day I stood in the doorway with the wind clawing its fingers through my hair and turned, finally, into its hungry embrace, deciding then that I would never look back at you.

It is the anniversary of the day I fled into the woods surrounding our cottage, woods that used to protect me, but now suffocated me, the trees lashing their branches together and spitting water down upon my shoulders as if they mourned for me, but still could not let me go.

I ran until my feet tracked blood behind me along with the remains of my soul, unspooling from me like silver thread still caught between your fingers.

It has been one hundred years since I stumbled through the rain, and the edge of the chasm yawned before me, and I closed my eyes, expecting to feel the fall, but I never did. Instead, when I opened my eyes, the stars swam before me like rungs on a ladder, and I tangled my fingers around their sharp edges and pulled myself upward. Their light lodged beneath my fingernails and my blood stained some of them so red, the astronomers peered up in shock and could not explain their unexpected jump to supernova.

When I reached the overarching dome of the universe, I banged my fists on the glass, crying for entry, but I was just a soul trapped beneath the ice, and I couldn't climb any further. The dust of the cosmos lodged in my throat and with its bitter taste in my mouth, I swam back down towards where you waited.

I lived in the branches of the trees above where you walked, I wove the stems of flowers together into crowns to adorn my hair, just to have something mortal still about me. I watched you grow older from afar, watched the life bleed out of you naturally, not like mine, not like the knife wound in my shoulder the night I fled.

When your soul shed your body like snakeskin and, shaking itself, began its own upward climb, I watched the stars until their molten silver dripped onto my cheeks like paint, allowing me the facade of tears. I saw you swim through the dome that's trapped me for, now, one hundred years. Kneeling above the Milky Way, I knit crowns out of stars, and sometimes, when I'm moved to, I place the stars in the eyes of mortals who remind me of who I could have been.

The town was buzzing, as it always and only did on the anniversary. The world was filled with games, excitement and laughter, much unlike the day before. This day in particular was beyond the normal excitement. It had been 100 years since the discovery of the planet Valtira. The day we needed it most. October 23rd 2019. A day that was remembered as the best day, in contrast to October 22nd.

Every anniversary was special, filled with festivals, food, and people coming together. Most importantly every year 10 lucky people were selected to leave the wrecked planet of earth to live in Valtira. All that stood between being selected was three tests. This year in celebration 100 people would be selected.

Today Danae felt like she finally may have a chance. She pulled her thick curls back in a ponytail and quickly pulled on the competition uniform. She took a deep breath before slipping on her mask and leaving the safety of the glass room, causing the familiar screech of the alarm to go off. She walked down the hall each echoed footstep met with another alarm as everyone left their rooms. People pushed past Danae racing towards the building door, pushing to get a spot towards the front. The door would be opened in exactly 3 minutes, and would remain open for exactly 5 minutes. Miss this chance and they would close again for the next 3 hours. Miss the door opening and miss the contest.

Danae took a deep breathe glanced at the crowd and made a sharp turn left. As she quickly made her way down towards the restroom she kept an eye over her shoulder. Now was not the time to draw attention to herself. She quietly slipped into the small room. Carefully she checked under each stall, before slipping into the one furthest from the door. One more minute. Another breathe, Danae counted the second in her head, and finally slipped the panel away, and scrambled out. She quickly and carefully replaced the panel. Time was not in her favor, but she had practiced. Within second she made her way into the line of people scrambling out of the building and into the even larger lines waiting to be let into the tent for the contest.

Danae skillfully walked towards the front of the line, making sure to move with confidence. When there was only five people ahead of her she smiled and held a conversation with the one of the guys making sure to stay slightly out of line. Before long he was at the front got checked in and she slipped in behind him. No one seemed to notice that she didn’t belong. She learned early on that people rarely questioned what seemed to belong, even when it didn’t.

At the front of the line Danae passed through the scanner, it lit up green allowing for her to carry on. All that stood between her and tent was one more person. She held up her hand, as the man attentively pulled the scanner over the tattoo on her hand. A picture of her face flew onto the screen along with a bunch of info, including her age, 22. Danae concentrated on keeping her heart rate steady. At this point she was used to seeing a fake age felt normal. This was the 4th year, after all. But it always threw her off for a second. She had her tattoo modified when she was 16. It was stupid and reckless, according to most. Danae didn’t care though, it had been worth the risk, or so it felt like it at the time. By the time she had turned 18 the risk of changing it back was greater than leaving it as was. So 22 she would be.

Danae entered the tent and was was whisked into a room. Everything was done in private, that’s how it was always done. Danae picked up the chip and slipped it into the mask. In front of her a screen popped up, the contest had begun. Danae’s heart raced as she went through each task, this was everything.

The contest was over, in a matter of minutes. It was always faster than one would expect for something so important; but no one asked question. It was safest to mind your own business. The world had become a place to mind your own business, unless you were expected somewhere, like the announcement ceremony.

The announcement ceremony was one of few events, that everyone was expect to attend. There were several locations of course. The world population was low, but not that low; sometimes it felt like it should be. The world had been slowly crumbling. Danae only wondered why everyone couldn’t be moved to Valtira, she hoped once she was there she would find the answers.

The crowds gathered and stared at the countdown, only a few more seconds and Danae would know her fate. When the countdown finally finished the screen was filled by a familiar face. The president went on with the usual speech. Danae didn’t listen, she didn’t need to. Finally the names were called. As always they were announced in alphabetical order, so Danae would not have to wait long. It was only seconds before Danae’s heart skipped a beat as her name was called. HER NAME WAS CALLED. She couldn’t believe it, She tried to stay calm as she made her way towards the waiting car. She knew the process she had been prepared. There were no goodbyes, they should have been done before. Everything should be ready. Packing was done. her room would be given to her parents; as she had left in the instructions. Everyone was to write down what should be done. Of they won. Danae had done so she was ready.

It did not take long to reach the launch site. An excited crowd was waiting outside. To Danae’s surprise no one had on a mask. The air wasn’t safe. Danae’s stomach turned, she shook her head when told to remove her mask. The attendants glanced at each other but did not force.

Everyone entered the ship, Danae entered last, keeping her head down. The flight should not have been long, not at the speed that the ship could travel. Not based on where the planet should be. Danae was smart, smarter then she was supposed to be. Smarter then she had pretended to be on the test. She knew she had done well the years before, so she had tried something new this year. That should have been a sign, it was one; but she couldn’t imagine what was worse than earth. Now she knew, this was it. The ship was not going to a new planet. It wasn’t going anywhere.

Danae frantically looked around. The ship wasn’t stopping anytime soon, or so it seemed. She looked out the window and was greeted by, as expected nothing but space. She knew now that no one had ever gotten thru this alive, but Danae was different. If anyone were to survive she knew it would be her. She took a breath, and prepared herself. It was time to make a plan.

Once a upon a time there were cartoons screened

but now at the 100th anniversary of society functions

is the end of all cartoons and children games, oh yes

now earth is celebrating its childrens biggest dreams

by hosting successful young billionaires, oh yes, yes

every children is now a millionaire or billionaire

by their own will or by governments innitiative

some own ferraris, some own porsche, but oh yes

their bank accounts do hold millions of dollars

and even their assests count as billions, oh yes,

gone are the days that children simply went to school

watched spongebob when they arrived from school

now they own tall towers and sit behind leather chairs

they hold a pencil in their hands, or a parker pen

devious are their minds and competition looms ahead

its so exciting to be the CEO and its exciting to earn

millions of dollars and hold billions in assets, oh yes,

there is a huge function and alas, all of them come

better in style than actors or actressess, in black and tie

in silk gowns with matching heels, proud and fierce

the children of earth 2119 are here, pops the champagne

and shouts, “Who dares to be above me, forbes or vogue?”

and everyone yells, “The children of earth 2119, super strong!”

this is when the huge red porsche cake is cut and, oh yes

its party all night and sadly the last of spongebob cartoon

is thrown away in the river Thames, sinking at the bottom!

100 years ago, I became a mother. It's odd now, her being 100 and me being 130. I guess that's what modern science is all about. Yet here we are, two frail, old women that spend our days going on walks, watching tv, and visiting with our grandchildren and great-grandchildren. I never thought that the two of us would outlive my husband and her little sister, my other sweet baby, but we did. So it's pretty much just us now day-to-day, and I count myself lucky to still have her. I thank the stars that she has her children and grandchildren in her life. Sometimes I feel like a burden, the extremely elderly tagalong, yet we take care of each other. Someday, my body will give out and that's okay, because I know that she has a life full of love and that's all I've ever wanted for her. I'm fortunate that I got to stare at her perfect face as an infant, and watch it grow and change and become full of laugh lines, and wrinkles, that mark the days of her life.

Few today are aware, and fewer still are certain, that it was one hundred summers ago when a nearly unanimous decision was reached, by delegates of supracommunal entities known as "nations", at a "supranational" convention named "The United Nations", to dissolve their recognition of what were objectivley ficticious geographical delineations referred to as "borders". For a great many ages, We the Human believed it useful to establish such boundaries for the maintenance of "order", as they could only be crossed by yielding blood or bread to Those on the Other Side. A record of each such exchange was kept, thereby enumerating the yield of Those Who Hold Walls, inspiring an insidious sense of security among them. This "order" however, was not in keeping with what we now recognize as The Natural Way, and so it succumbed to degradation of the violent sort, unlike the gentler Cycles of Being now observed by We the Human.

And so, their bodies weary of struggle with Being, and their spirits humiliated by the Infinite Negations of Arrogance, delegates of Those Who Hold Walls conferenced and conceded the absurdity of endeavoring to strike lines upon the Earth, and upon the hearts of We the Human. Knowing that a death must be spoken in the language of the life which is to expire, they drafted what were called "Articles of Dissolution" so as to be the termination of organizational delineation, recoginized thenceforth by no nations everywhere. Peoples resisted the Articles, and attempted to maintain Nationality in flashes of desparation across Earth, but as it was unrecognized by any reciprocal entities, the Nation, now but a Notion, would collapse in the very instant one would attempt to realize it.

Yes, you know that there is pain in the world today, but it is of the Natural sort, and not that of inexplicable wanton blunder wrought upon whole swaths of innocent or otherwise uninvolved peoples. To rid the Earth of War and the suffering that wreckless leviathan begat, we needed simply to eliminate the premise for which it was waged. Pain now comes from the world that is immediately before us, from the fruits of our own follies, a loose footing or a betrayed lovers scornful visage. No longer is it rained upon us in the name of nonsense, in defense of nothingness. The World is indeed ours, now that we have returned it to itself. Now, for a hundred years, and forever, It is again as it should always be.

Earth, 2119. It’s the 100th anniversary of my death. It was a simple fall; something that I had been doing all my life and that my friends and family had always joked would be my demise. The face value of my death was so insignificant that you wouldn’t have read about it in the history books or heard about it on the news. When they said, “she died far too young,” and “her death is an unnecessary tragedy,” at my funeral they didn’t know how wrong they were. I actually died at the right time, in the right place for the right events to line up that prevented the pandemic that couldn’t be named. We were saved- at least for a little while.

--

If I hadn’t been there that day at that time, a mid-career biochemical engineer would have made it to the conference that they were scheduled to attend. The engineer would have been inspired by the ideas presented at the conference that would change the path of his career. The engineer would have made unprecedented advances in pharmaceuticals that were meant to ease the burden of lifetime ailments. The promise of such advancements would have caused unquellable excitement for those producing the drugs. The excitement would lead to an oversight in disposal safety. The disposal of the byproducts of these drugs would mutate to become the most dynamic and deadly disease that mankind had ever seen. It would move swiftly through the population and no one would be safe from it. The virus would mutate so fast that the defenses produced wouldn’t stand a chance. The time from the day that the virus developed to the day that humankind would end would have been 25 days; it moved so swiftly though the population that it was impossible to establish a name. In the following years, cities would have been overrun with weeds and wildlife. Earth would flourish and by year 2119 it would have almost been as though humans were never here.

--

On the day of my death, a young child flipped a coin into the fountain of a hotel. A biotechnologist that was scheduled to speak at a conference saw the child flip the coin into the fountain and was compelled to intervene. The biotechnologist fished the coin out of the fountain while explaining to the child that it was wasteful and that wishing upon things was not a scientifically sound process of making things happen. Water that was on the biotechnologists hand dripped onto the floor as the child looked at the coin in dismay. As the biochemical engineer was on their way to the biotechnologists conference, they witnessed a person slipping in a small puddle of water and falling to hit their head on the corner of the fountain’s ledge. The trajectory of the fall was at such an angle that the hit caused death almost instantly. The biochemical engineer missed the conference out of an obligation to speak to police about the incident that they witnessed. The inspiration did not occur, their career remain constant, the drugs were not created, there was no byproduct to evolve into the most dangerous disease man ever knew. Humanity was safe- or at least it was supposed to be.

--

Instead of humans being wiped from Earth, they continued on as they always had. There were too many people using too many resources causing too much strain on Earth. Over the following 100 years, famine, illness, and man to man brutality extinguished most of humanity. There are a few left sporadically around Earth- those who had prepared for this type of thing and have done everything that they could to fight for their little slice of Earth. They won’t last much longer, no one will.

Earth 2119. It’s the 100th anniversary of my death.

“good morning.” I say to no one as always while I run my fingers through my black mess of curly hair and roll out of bed. The dull sunlight seeps through my blinds hitting the wall opposite of it directly in my small apartment I can barely categorize as a home. I drag the thick blanket along with me as I trudge to the small nook of which I call a kitchen, make myself some cereal, and check the calendar. I’m not sure why I checked, I knew exactly what day it was, june 17, the anniversary of the day the darkness won. On this day 100 years ago some crazy deity rose out of the earth and just took over, everyone started calling her the darkness but her real name is Erebus, im pretty sure it’s greek or something, anyway, when that happened, some people decided to become her servents, others joined the rebellion, but most people, like me, chose to lay low and hope they don't get in her way. Now you may be thinking,

“Cayden,” (thats me) “how could you just sit there while there is literal darkness destroying life as you know it?” but that's not right, in fact I don't think she’s actually killed anyone in the century she’s been here. Imprisoned for life for simply looking at her funny,... well that's a different story. The point is shes not as bad as people thought she would be, instead of being a total monster, she acts more like a power obsessed dictator, barking orders and acting out if they aren’t obeyed immediately. But I live with this, besides, the only time i’m ever forced to be ordered by her anyway is today, when Erebus holds her annual festival to celebrate her reign on our world. I hear a knock on the door and look out the peephole to see an outline of one of Erebus’ goons, he’s probably coming to tell me about the festival, as if I didn’t know, they call themselves kathara, which in greek means pure ones, but trust me, they are anything but. I know you think im judging too much, especially because serving her is all they’ve ever known, but I only kind of hate them because they serve her, I mainly dislike them because they are all complete jerks! I have yet to meet one that had the capability of showing any amount of real empathy in my 18 years of being alive. I really want to ignore him and stay inside, but if I do that i’ll probably get imprisoned for life, so I guess I have no choice.

“Hello?” I murmur as I crack open the door and rub my eyes, emphasising that I just woke up.

“Sorry to wake you sir” no he’s not ” I have come to remind you that erebus is hosting another annual festival, and all who fail to attend will be thrown in jail till the next millenia.” he stated bluntly.

“Wouldn’t miss it for the world.” I say as I slap on the biggest smile I can. Apparently that was all he wanted to say because in a matter of seconds the door was slammed in my face and he sauntered off to the next house. In all that I almost forgot I was meeting my friends before the festival so we could go together. I throw on some clothes a rush out the door, darting through alleys and climbing fences. When I get to Ethan’s house I see jake, layla, and darwin are already there, Darwin is younger than all of us, but that’s never held him back from doing anything. We all talk about how our life has been, as usual, all our lives are pretty boring. When it’s time to leave we all walk to the festival. Like every year, it starts off with some guy giving a long speech about how great Erebus is, but this time, it’s different. At the time he usually dismisses us to go see the attractions, he adds to his speech.

“This festival will be a bit different than the past ones,” He explains “ Every 100 years Erebus must be given 10 human sacrifices, and at this time I will be telling you who they are.” Everyone’s faces go pale, and chatter spreads throughout the crowd. “Silence!” he shouts “ the names are, Parker Berry, Cedric Sharp…” He gets through nine of the ten names and I started to relax a bit, me or nobody I knew had been called and there was no way we could be next. “ and finally, Darwin Hale” My heart sunk as I watched my friend stand up to be sacrificed. There is absolutely no way I could let this happen, so I grab his wrist and whisper

“Run.” He stared at me for a moment, then nodded, I glanced at my friends to see they got the message, they nodded too. Each of them knew exactly what was about to happen, and in unison, we ran into the crowd, trying to stay hidden from Erebus or any of her kathara. Somehow we all successfully made it out and head for the forbidden town lines, no going back now. A rush of exhilaration spread throughout my body as we passed the line, marking ourselves as wanted criminals in this town for eternity, I guess we’re apart of the rebellion now, I wonder how that’ll turn out.

charisma in a bottle. They finally figured out how to capture and sell the magnetic essence of the famous movie star, the beautiful cheerleader, the successful sales guy, the head of the PTO. No one can stand out when everyone stands out. No one can find someone to love when everyone is so loveable. We all willingly paid extravagant prices to chase away the FOMO forever.