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protruding rib cages and sunken skulls. ‘The Purge was a miracle, a
gift. The Earth granted humanity a second chance to survive.
Change is the poison of mankind. Have faith in the Sanctuary.
Thoughts in unison become – ’ A cry pierced the velvety rhythm.
‘
Lies
!’ Nobody turned, all heads angled faithfully to the screen. But
an elderly man in the pool of bodies screamed at the screen again,
his wiry frame trembling but his voice erupting off the glass buildings.
‘Lies! You’re the ones who killed her!’ he screeched. ‘You killed my
Angie!
You Killed Them All
!’ Sanctuary officials swiftly swarmed
around the man, seizing his flailing limbs. ‘You killed the people!
All
Of Them
! The human race is
Dead!
’ The shrieking halted with a
sickening crack. The Sanctuary officials dragged his limp frame away,
disappearing into the alleys. And thousands of eyes watched the
flickering screen.
The old man’s screams echoed in my head for days afterwards,
and the small seed of doubt that had always rested there began to
grow. These were dangerous thoughts to have, and I knew that, and
the words might have been nothing more than the insane rant of a
senile mind. But the notion began to consume me, because
something had always felt like it was
missing
in Elysium. I had always
dismissed it though, because it seemed as though nobody else
noticed or cared. Until now.
The Sanctuary is a lie.
The more I turn the idea over, the more I start to believe in it.
The Sanctuary killed the human race. The Sanctuary killed us all.
And then another thoughts creeps in,
The Sanctuary created the Purge.
They were the ones who destroyed nations, the ones who slaughtered
billions of innocents before shamelessly praising their deaths as a
miracle.
But then, what if the Purge had never happened? What if the
population was allowed to continue to grow and consume? The
imminence of the planet’s doom breathed down its neck, but people
continued to obliviously claim it wouldn’t happen. Not now. Not for
a while longer. Civilisation of the 21st century was on the brink of
killing itself out of sheer overpopulation, the endless want for more,
and the impossible desire for the future. But then… it was gone. The
The Mortal
State
11