Chapter Fifteen

"How?" I am dumbstruck! 

How can this even be possible? And if it is possible, this can save the city a lot of trouble. If it can be done on a larger scale, then a lot of people will have food. 

"You will show this to the city officials right?" I ask getting excited.

"No," he replies looking sad.

"Why? Why not?" The pitch of my voice starts increasing due to anger. 

"Why not? Why can't you show the officials? You are from compound three right? Isn't that suppose to be your specialty?" I fire at him my cheeks burning with rage. 

Compound three's duty is to experiment and work on technology which aids different activities in other compounds. Like the chemical compound two uses to treat water was designed by them. There are also builders who are sent there to learn new ways of reinforcing old structures or constructing new ones and so many other things. 

"I can't. Because they already have the technology," he says looking straight into my eyes. "How else did you think I got the resources to make one?" he asks.

"Wait. They have it? How come the food rations are never enough? What's going on?" I push on now completely confused. "What is going on? How does it even work?" I ask more to myself than to the young man in front of me. 

"Here, have a seat." He directs me to one of the seats by the window and when I am settled, he takes the other one.

"What do you know about the old world?" he asks me with a very calm voice. The happy boy I met a few minutes ago gone completely leaving behind a man who has gone through a lot in his young years on earth.

"Nothing. Only that it was destroyed and left behind this hell hole we live in now." I shrug.

"What about your powers?"

"What about my powers?" I ask getting defensive. Nobody has talked to me or asked me about my powers. Well not exactly nobody but those who did are all dead now.

"I am sorry if my question came out wrong but do you know how you got them?" He tries again.

"Well, my mother said it was a gift I was born with. She never said anything else." I finally say while playing with my fingers. I can not even look at him now because my eyes are already getting misty. One will think all the tears I cried this pass days will dry up the source but here I am with a fresh supply of them.

"I am sorry if my question brought back sad memories, I just needed to know what and what you knew exactly." He gets up and goes somewhere in the room probably to give me time to pull myself together. He returns a few minutes later with a tray and offers it to me. There was that bread again with a cup of water and a bowl of soup. I receive it gratefully from him and start eating as soon as he confirms his filled stomach status. He returns to his seat and continues.

"A long time before the war, scientists in America tested possibilities which could mitigate the worst consequences of climate change by cooling the planet and limiting the potential for extreme weather. They released large quantities of sulfur, calcium carbonate and other substance into the atmosphere. These substances created a chain of reactions which blocked a large amount of sunlight. Little did they know the consequences of their actions. Not long after plants started dying due to insufficient sunlight and subsequently few animals started dying too because it meant no food for them", he pauses to be sure I am still following and continues.

"This caused arguments among world rulers and people. There were riots here and there asking the American government to stop the experiments but all warnings and arguments fell on deaf ears because they thought they were working on a good cause. The riot soon turned into a full blown war. Russia, France, North Korea and the rest of the world decided to destroy the facility so as to end the whole program but the American government did not take it easy on them." He pauses again to stare at me. 

"You see, they retaliated and there you have it, the world became what it is. Destruction everywhere, radiation struck harder than the ones that happened at Hiroshima. You know the rest of the story, the survivors regrouped and formed little settlements trying to find any soil not affected by radiation to plant and live in with time things got better for them I guess and they built Amazon." He stops to look at me, I had finished eating and was thinking hard my brows furrowed. "Do you have something to ask?" he asks.

Half the things he said didn't really register but I did have a question.

"Yes I do. When I was much younger the ground was very fertile. There were birds and trees around. Healthy trees. Now, there are all dead, it is as if the situation has worsened which isn't suppose to be the case if what you are saying is accurate," I say.

"You are right. With so many years gone by the world should have gotten better, the air should have become clearer and the forest should be green and not muddy and brown. In fact about twenty years or so after the war, the world started recuperating, the air cleared out completely, the soil started returning back to its normal state. That's why the forests were greener when we were younger," he says.

"What happened? Why are we back to dead forests again?" I ask.

"Few years ago, the compound assigned people to go in search of the original vials of that substance and it was found. They have been releasing those substances again, that's why the forest died again," he says.

"But why?! Don't we all need the sun, the plants and even the forest for survival?" I ask him. "I don't get it! Why would they try blocking the sun again? I mean; the earth have had enough time to rejuvenate, we don't have to worry about global warming for a long time now, do we?"

"For power Eden. For power." I could see the sadness in his dark brown eyes. 

"Think about it Eden. If everyone knew they could grow their own crops and make their own food without the Amazon's technology, they would all leave the city and what is a king without a kingdom?" he says and I start seeing sense in his words.

"So they are blocking the sun. So people would be dependent on their technology for survival," I say more to myself now.

"But if they need the people why are they letting them leave?" I ask him.

"You think they left," he says looking into my green eyes with pain in his. "Nobody ever leaves, nobody would want to leave knowing they can't survive out here, nobody plans to leave when there is no hope of surviving out here."

"What happens to the missing people then?" I ask scared of the answer I have always wanted to get.

"Murdered," he says through clenched teeth.

"Why?" I whisper, almost breathless.

"Lack of sufficient sun rays means unhealthy or dead plants. People need plants to live. When green plants make food or photosynthesize, they give off oxygen. This is a gas that all animals must breathe in order to stay alive. Without plants, animals and humans alike would have no oxygen to breathe and would die. That's why they need to kill people so the oxygen left can be sufficient for the rest of them."

I turn my attention back to the glass cage behind him. "What about that, won't it produce oxygen?" 

"The oxygen produced by this artificial farms are insufficient. Hence the need to reduce the population."

"How does it even work?" I ask.

"They are LED lights and unlike the old models, these lights are run by gases extracted from the human body."

"You mean they are using people to- oh my God!" The realisation making me nauseous. 

"Yes Eden. They are killing people. The less privilege, those without duties or functions in the city. It is a win-win for them, less people means less oxygen to share and then dead people means more fuel to their machines," he tells me.

"Oh my God!" I repeat, trying hard to keep the food in my stomach where it is.

"That's why we need your help." He finishes.