I relaxed in the back of my car. The day had been stressful, our software had been experiencing major bugs that needed to be fixed. Of course, being the most junior developer, I was the one who had to fix it. You would think that the design team might think that allowing memory leaks would be a bad thing, but they had just labeled it as 'acceptable'. 'Acceptable' my ass, the only thing acceptable about it was that I didn't have to go on the stupid company field trip and I got to leave before any of the senior developers came back.
I checked my watch, the time was six o' clock, and the night was still young. I figured I might hit some bars that night, maybe call that cute chick from finances. I told the car to head back to my place so I could get changed. I heard the magnets underneath the car click as it moved off the super-conductor highway and onto a standard magnet highway. Outside the window, a massive three mile high cement wall loomed, the flood wall, casting its shadow across us as we entered the less desirable part of town. Sadly, the less desirable part of town was where I lived. With the robots doing all the stuff that didn't require any brain power, software developers were a dime a dozen, at least we didn't get hit as bad as the artists, I couldn't throw a rock without hitting a couple of artists.
The car pulled up to my house. It was one of the nicer ones in the area, the company I worked for provided some nice benefits. As I hopped out of the car and approached the house, the car flew into my garage and the door opened, revealing the spartan interior of the house. The door closed behind me as I walked inside, taking a deep breath and taking off my shoes. I looked around, the grey walls that I had chosen this morning seemed ugly and old fashioned. That could be easily solved, I thought, flicking on a screen next to the door. I perused through the trending wall patterns, and finally settled on a nice striped red. Unfortunately, that didn't match the rest of my furniture, so I just downloaded the lite version of the house theme for free, and hit 'save changes'.
The whole room was a disconcerting array of colors, I closed my eyes so that I wouldn't get nauseous. After a moment, I hesitantly opened my eyes. The place looked nice now, nice enough to bring a girl over. The only catch was, this was the lite version of that theme, so I could only use it for a day. No matter, though, I usually changed my house theme once a day anyways. I walked into my kitchen and punched 'coffee' into the drink machine. With a tap of a button on the counter, the television came to life, right on the news channel. "Ocean's rising, coastal…" crawled across the screen as I tried to decide on a channel. I decided to flick it to the art show, always something fun on there. After a couple of moments of watching a statue come to life and take different poses, I walked away to my bedroom.
With a step into a walk-in closet, I hit a button for my 'bar casual' preset, and felt the whir of air blowing around me as I was quickly and smoothly changed from my work clothes to something more casual. As I headed back to my car, I picked up my hot mug of coffee and started drinking. Fantastic stuff, as always, the machine knew just how I liked it. After quick walk around the house to make sure there weren't any bugs in the new theme, you always had to look out for those, I decided it was presentable enough and walked briskly through the door. As I walked to the street, a quick tap of a button on my belt called the car from its garage and right onto the street, door open. The leather interior didn't look as nice as it did when I bought it, and I told the car to remind me to get an upgrade come Christmas time. I sat down in the car regardless, and after the door closed behind me, which bar I should go to went to the foremost of my thoughts. There was always the reliable Big Pebble, a favorite watering hole for poor software developers like myself. However, I wanted something new that night, and as horrible as Sailor and Tack's name was, the drinks and patrons never failed to yield a new experience.
"Take me to Sailor and Tack's Trendy Art Bar."
The car took only a moment to whir up and begin moving, in this moment I continued my contemplation of how horrible bar names are these days and whether the owners just named them out of spite. The car started to really speed up and we left the shadow of the flood wall, and within less than 30 minutes we entered the entertainment district. It was always surprising to think this was New York City not 100 years ago, and that I lived in what was originally Boston. Still, that didn't stop me from being slightly annoyed that my car took longer than all the newer models, I figured the hedonic treadmill was going strong as ever.
The machinery was working fine today!
Jacob adeptly took a leap from the catwalk's bars and swung on the low hanging pipe above him. He deftly landed on his feet on top of a large steel machine, dodging underneath a spinning cog as it whirred to life. He made another jump to the final platform, where he took off running for a group of men at the door to the room. The room itself wasn't anything special, it was compact, grey, and dark, the only light emanating from the electric lantern attached to Jacob's side. The boy made it to the group of men, who quickly ushered him out of the room and locked the door behind them.
The other men were silent as they walked through the steel hallways back to their homes, waiting for one another to respond, unable to decide whether to applaud the boy's wits and bravery, or chide him for his lack of attention to detail.
"That was close kid." The oldest of the group, a gruff looking man named Jason had said gruffly.
So you've written an article. You've gotten feedback in chat or in the forums and the general consensus is that you are ready to post. Here's how you do it.
IMPORTANT NOTE: BE SURE TO ADD A RATING MODULE (Just add the below code above your text when you post.)
[[>]]
[[module Rate]]
[[/>]]
1. Look at the sidebar, see that thing that says "Add a new Page"? Fill in the text box with your title, and hit "New Page".
2. Copy paste your content from your sandbox, pastebin, whatever you used, into the edit area. (Be sure to include all formatting syntax)
3. Do a quick once-over for spelling or grammar errors. (Also add the rating module if you haven't, just copy-paste the above code right above your text)
4. Hit "Post".
5. Your article is now for all to see! But you aren't done yet. Announce your article here.
6. If you haven't already, feel free to post the first comment in your page's discussion thread. Something like "Thanks to X and Y for helping me out so much!" or "First post! Finger's crossed" is fine.
7. Politely get people to read your article in chat. Be polite about it and respect the fact that people are busy, and might not be able to read it right now. Also remember that chat doubles as a social gathering place, so just wait a bit if your article get's passed over. Writing something like "Just posted something guys! Go check it out! [insert link here]" is fine. SHAMELESSLY PIMPING YOUR ARTICLE ALL THE TIME IS NOT OKAY! Don't do it, it will get people angry at you. Remember that people will not always like your article. Respect their opinions and feedback.
8. THIS IS AN IMPORTANT STEP: After your article is up, one of the more senior members of the Wanderer's Library will tag your page. After they do this, you must tag your article with a book. See the tab "Selecting a Book" for selecting the best book for you. To figure out what the book tags are, see the tag guide. If you can't figure out how to do this, ask a senior member for help. It is vital that you do this, otherwise your article will not show up on the listing. (Once tagged with a book tag, it will automatically show up underneath that book)
You have posted an article! Woo! If you have followed the suggestions of this guide, you should be set and all you have to do now is let the upvotes come in! Open up a bottle of champagne, take of your shoes, go scream it to your neighbors naked!
It sat in a bunker, a long forgotten book of poems, the title smeared off and missing many pages.
There was no one left in the bunker, its cold, desolate hallways devoid of all life. The last humans were somewhere else, fighting until the very end.
A bomb had just been dropped, its technology far beyond the time period, the power of this bomb was unrivaled, and would crack the planet open like an eggshell.
Just beyond the atmosphere, thousands of ships dissolved into the grains of sand, falling into the void, their existence wiped out by a paradox.
The bomb set off, doing its intended purpose, and if it had a soul, it would be content in a job well done.
The creators of the bomb, also dissolved into dust, in a world far in the future, where all would be saved if they never existed in the first place.
The book of poems, sitting on a forgotten desk in a forgotten bunker, on a soon to be forgotten planet, was vaporized by the initial explosion. Its words, faded and almost illegible, fell apart as they were ripped from the pages as the explosion reached them.
And so the last book was gone.
Ah, what is this?
A vintage mi-cro-wave, you say? Sounds expensive! Do you mind if I take a look?
Hmmmm. Fascinating! We definitely need to add this to the museum! What did you say people used this for again?
Sounds barbaric and unhealthy, so if I press this button here… oh dear that isn't good.
No I'm sorry let me try to fix it, oh now that just seems to be making it worse doesn't it?
I would consider that an overreaction my good friend.
What do you mean it's the last one, there's sure to be thousands just like it.
Well excuse me! What language!
No I do believe that happened to your mother as well, at my hand!
Ouch! Barbarian! Ruffian! I'll call the police on you, you, you terrible human being. I have no idea where you put those hands.
Oh now I'm the barbarian huh? I hope you don't speak to your family like this, it's a shame that children such as your's should have to live with such an awful man.
No! I will sue you, this suit is worth more than what you'll make in your entire life!
Good day! I'll be seeing you in court and you better clean up the pile of junk that you just tried to give me!
And so the last microwave was gone.
The Word first spread amongst the people slowly, and exclusively in English. To start with, it was sent on chatrooms, and in emails and, and on the flavor text of those little gifts on social networking sites – but soon, people began to speak it.
The Word was first spoken aloud in a public setting nine days after it was created. No-one noticed in the early days – it was just an innocuous little thing dropped into conversations over dinner, and across telephone signals. The Word would find its way into some inane conversation, and only later would people realise how disgusting it all was: violence, war, famine, cruelty… when it reached psychopaths, their illnesses changed. When it reached criminals and policemen, both stood down. Crime disappeared almost entirely within two weeks.
It only took a few months for it to be heard by every politician, general and warlord, even in the most isolated places. By that time it was already being broadcast on all the major news and entertainment channels, as well as on Youtube on all the major video and audio sites of every kid.
History records that the American army was the first to go, then the Europeans. Notices of dismissal, AWOL reports and discharges flew back and forth every which way, but no-one really cared. North Korea took a while to fall apart, but when the Word reached China, it only took a few days for the remnants of the regime to be disbanded and the borders to be opened in full. Before it spread fully across China, the Word had already been heard or read by nearly every person in Asia.
The Writer later admitted the negative impacts of his creation — wild animal attacks persisted without retaliation from the victims, but non-violent responses against them still went on. Forestry continued, and all of humanity became incapable of eating meat, which made famine a good bit worse. But all in all, the human race came out mostly okay, in an apocalyptic sort of fashion. Enough people survived to keep records of the last man to stand down:
Lee Kean, 5th division of the People’s Liberation Army, 12th October 2052. The final man in the world to receive the Word, and the owner of the final gun to be thrown away.
And so, the last soldier retired.
Other entries here
The plants all huddled together for warmth, in the stormy weather, their only hope for survival was for the lost Deadly Moose to abandon the chase, and move on to other prey.
"Call him Pooplord!"
Will smiled at the thought, entered the name into his Pokemon CXIV, and said "Save."
Johnson peeked around the corner of the tree, the squirrel were still there, obviously plotting something.
The squirrel looked innocently at Johnson, its cheeks filled with nuts it had worked hard and long to collect, its dull animal brain vaguely wondered why the man had a shotgun and was looking at him funny, but quickly moved on to more important things, like nuts.
The book monster sat in his fortress of friendship, all alone. He hadn't seen another person in years, and even though he could see perfectly fine in the dark, he found himself hoping they would turn on the lights again. Nothing interesting had happened since he saw them take down the bell that let him know when a victim was coming.