1 The Beginning and the End
It was our customary trip to the cabin, one of the few family activities that we still had. However, it wasn't exactly a cabin in nature, as pollution had made that impossible. The world had undergone such drastic changes in the past 20 years that it had become almost uninhabitable. As a result, 60% of the human population now lived in domes and shelters.
Mark Jameson, my father, was one of the lucky ones who were old enough to remember how the world used to be. He remembered the sound of birds and the wind, the beauty of nature. Sadly, his family did not value that. Whenever a new phone or car came out, my sister Stacy would demand that he sell the cabin so she could buy it.
He got the cabin on his first trip back from deployment on Mars, where he worked on special forces missions involving high-altitude orbital jumps. My father's new job was as an engineer for military weaponry, where he made everything from tanks to planes. We always had enough money to be happy, but it was never enough.
My mother Andrea and he struggled with parenting. They got married at 24 and eventually realized that they were not as compatible as they had thought. However, getting a divorce was nearly impossible due to the 2036 "new age" laws package. As my father sat on his rocking chair, reflecting on how his life led him here, he heard a scream.
"Dad, come quickly, you won't believe it!" Screamed Stacy from the artificial woods.
"What's going on, honey, are you okay?" he yelled back. Hearing no response, he started running into the forest.
When he finally got closer to Stacy, he saw her pointing towards something over the cliff.
"What is it, honey? What do you see?" he said.
"Bang, bang," he heard two pulse blasters go off behind him. He reacted purely by instinct, dodging the first one but getting hit by the next one. He heard a voice say, "Told you he would be hard to kill. You weren't called the monster for no reason."
Pain shot through his spine as he fell over.
.
He coughed up blood and groaned as another shot hit his leg. Slowly and painfully, he rolled over and heard a voice say, "Bet he didn't expect that, right honey?"
"Tod? What are you doing here? You should be dead," he weakly mumbled.
"I'm here to steal your life," Tod said while laughing.
"Andrea, what is going on?" he asked, confusion etched on his face.
"You're going to die today, honey. Tod and I will finally be free to live happily. It's the only way," Andrea replied, holding Tod's arm. "You will never understand how much he hated having to pretend to love you."
"Why? He gave everything to you!" he screamed, looking towards Stacy, wondering how she was involved.
"That's just how it works. You could never do enough, so he wanted to get my real dad back," Stacy said, grabbing a knife. She saw the horror on his face and said, "Oh yes, so priceless, just how Mom said it would be. I knew from the very beginning. That new car that his 'boyfriend' got for me. It was Tod, all of it was Tod." She then stabbed a knife into his leg, ruining his movement.
"You monsters, you won't get away with this," he declared.
"Oh, we will," said Tod. "General Mercer decided that you were too much of a risk to be kept alive." His brain started to work into overdrive. General Mercer was the person who managed him during his time in the service.
"Apparently, death machines are dangerous when they go rogue," Andrea commented sarcastically.
"You're an agent," he said in wonder.
"Yep, he was sent to watch you!" Andrea laughed.
They picked up his body, and though he was too weak from blood loss to resist, he could no longer contain the fear and despair he felt. They tossed his body off the cliff into the waterfall.
"See you in hell, you monster!" yelled Stacy.
