Some satire is timeless. Others predict the near future with uncanny accuracy.
When you're faced with a violent, dangerous present - perhaps it's some relief to blow it all up into an exagerrated future history. Then you can tell yourself that it's all just entertainment.
...And hope it doesn't really turn out that way.
- - - -
She could still remember the look on his face when they closed the Riot Wall for the final time.
She could barely find him at first beyond the chain-link fence a few hundred yards away. If not for that red-plaid shirt he always wore when he visited her. Standing in the closed "visitor" queue on his side of that wall.
After this day, there would be no more visits. Because this wall was the long-overdue solution to the long-running riots.
Riots meant businesses closed, meant tax payments dropped, meant fewer jobs - even if you worked for the government. And the government jobs were the safest, as they only really depended on sucking up to whoever was in charge at the time.
It was a coward's way of surviving. But at least you survived.
Beyond the walls were more jobs, but lower wages for them. Still, those people seemed to like it out there. They liked working for themselves.
Rob had promised he was going to take her there. And one thing after another kept making him break his promise.
When the Riot Walls shut for good - that was the final straw.
It didn't mean her heart wasn't breaking. And she knew his was, too.
But she had to turn away. Because everyone had to turn away. Someone in power was addressing their "citizens" over the city's PA system. And they had to listen "attentively" -
If they wanted to keep their jobs, their housing, and what they considered a life here inside these walls...
Anthology containing:
Riot Wall by S. H. Marpel, R. L. Saunders
The Panic of 2020 by S. H. Marpel, R. L. Saunders
Our Second Civil War by R. L. Saunders, C. C. Brower
Becoming Michelle by R. L. Saunders, C. C. Brower
A Sweet Fortune by R. L. Saunders
The Projector by S. H. Marpel, R. L. Saunders
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