Chapter Text
I don’t want to be here anymore. Grabbing my headset, I left for the long ride. I sat in my car and swallowed the soul-magnet pills so that my transition would be smooth into the future. Afterall, time travel wasn’t a mystery, but arriving safely in future was the key. No one knew that discovering soul-magnets was my ‘Eureka’ moment. 2020 is already depraved, I needed to move onto the right timeline. Driving into a secluded area, I assured myself “It’s just a trip”. Slowly drifting into unconsciousness, I eventually crashed. It felt like dying, it felt like falling, it felt like an endless pit…
Gaining awareness, my eyes sluggishly opened to the sound of K-pop. Did my trip to future succeed? Even with throbbing pain in my head, my eyes were seeking confirmation. People hope for flying-cars and space vacations, but I’m a realist, I knew that we didn’t need those to survive.
Cursing at the side effects of soul-magnets, I moved towards a bright light. Now that my vision was less blurred, I found myself walking toward an auditorium. There seemed to be an event, why else would there be such a huge gathering. Desperate for some sugar in my system, I swiftly stole a few cupcakes. Moving to the central hall, my eyes found the digital banner ‘The grand launch by Giliance Corp.’. Activating my motion-enabled glasses, I searched for the date, it was 17th August 2057, exactly where I wanted to be.
Soon the lights went dim and the presentation started. “Good evening honored guests. Today we are enduring adversities that were not caused by us, but we are suffering.” Intrigued by such a straightforward annotation I continued to listen. “As a response to our earlier generation’s failure in preserving our sustenance, we at Giliance Corp. have decided to revoke our funds for the elderly homecare. Our contributions will now be focused on much important endeavor, towards the survival of our children.” That’s a harsh way to make the polluters pay. I wasn’t very fond of our generation’s greenwashing, so I understood the sentiments our successors held. Moreover, I was fed up of our rudimentary ways of addressing issues and with continuously fronting fake schemas. But surely such a grand event can't be held just for this announcement, so I bought my attention back.
The host continued “Coming to the main agenda for this evening, we are proud to unveil our latest product ‘Oxygenatree’. Considering the past activities, we were able to create a machine that gives out oxygen based on the functioning of a tree, we can achieve recovery! Rejoice, we have solved the environmental crisis.”
In other words, no need to grow trees.
I couldn’t hide my disappointed sneer any longer. Nature is not for man to exploit; they still didn’t understand. I’m not sure if I’m on the right timeline anymore.