Jack Beecher stood against the rusted metal railing and looked out over the wide Osage River basin before him. He couldn’t see very far due to the dark gray haze that hung over the water and clouded his vision. The sun was up in the east, but it appeared as a reddish orange ball barely visible through the smog that was choking the country and the world slowly to death. The air was hard to breathe now and Jack took time to adjust his face mask so he could filter out the polluted smog particles. On most days, even the air smelled dirty.
“What you thinking about, Jack?” his close friend Hank yelled to him from behind. They both were standing on top of the hydroelectric dam where the water from the reservoir was rushing through the opening one hundred fifty feet below them creating a deafening roaring sound. It was called Bagnell Dam and it was 2543 feet wide. It backed up the Osage River for 93 miles, creating a 54,000 acre fresh water lake with 1150 miles of shoreline.
“Nothing! Just taking a break,” Jack yelled back without turning around.
“Ain’t this great? All turbines are working again!” Hank said smacking Jack on the back.
Jack shook his head. “Yeah, we did it, but I don’t know how long it’s going to last.”
Hank didn’t say anything more. He just looked out over the rushing water below and waited for Jack to say something.
The two friends were oddly matched and looking at them they did not appear to have anything in common. Jack was taller at six feet with dark brown hair and eyes, handsome face and athletic build. Hank was smaller with blond hair, blue eyes, square-looking face and stocky build. In fact, both were twenty-three years old and lived in the same village two miles from the dam. The other thing they had in common was they protected each other from roving gangs that made life difficult in the Ozarks. That was enough to make them trust one another and try to make things safer for their families in the area.
The Lake of the Ozarks was located in central Missouri in what used to be called the United States of America. It was no longer a tourist attraction for visitors that used to come from all over the world to see one of the greatest engineering projects in the world and enjoy the recreation activities that existed here until the late 1900’s. Then the world slowly fell apart due to climate change and the inability of foreign powers to agree on a strategy to stop it. It was now 2098 and the planet could no longer support a vibrant ecosystem.
The atmosphere had become thinner with less oxygen, more carbon dioxide and methane gas. Above eight thousand feet sea level, the air was no longer breathable for more than a few minutes without oxygen masks. It was slowly killing off higher functioning species, including humans. Evolution had paused while natural selection considered its options. Human extinction was a very real possibility now. The fight for basic human necessities had begun decades ago and the fight for survival was nearing its endpoint for those in this country and the world who had survived so far. The outcome did not look good for anyone. People began calling it The Dark Years after the Plague Wars started in 2084.
Jack was not thinking about all the troubles in the world as he looked over the manmade lake in front of him. He was thinking of his family and friends struggling to survive in a world gone mad. He never knew the life his grandparents had spoken about with breathable air, clean water, abundant food and wildlife, safe environment, no plagues, famine or wars. He had a decision to make soon; everyone did. It would be a matter of life or death.
Jack’s father, Bill, had died in the Plague Wars overseas. He left behind four young children, Jack being the oldest boy. He was ten years old when his father was killed in 2085. Jack had to grow up in a hurry and help support his mother, Jill, and his three younger siblings. There was no time to enjoy the world around him. People could breathe without face masks when he was younger. No longer! The air had taken a turn for the worst ten years ago. Something about the level of pollutants had become so high; there was not enough clean air and it had to be filtered by wearing masks. If you stayed out in the open air for more than an hour without the masks, your lungs became inflamed and breathing was difficult. People around the world had begun dying en masse. It was terrifying and people did not know what to do about it.
After much unrest, the local government came up with a short term solution. It began handing out breather masks the military had used in the Plague Wars. It helped for now. The long term solution the government was proposing was another matter altogether. It was causing people to become irrational and violent; either for or against. Jack was going to have to make his decision soon.
Finally, Hank spoke up. He couldn’t stand the silence. “You ready to go back down?”
“Sure,” Jack answered. He took one more look out over the reservoir and turned away from the railing to head back inside the dam. He worked on the maintenance crew along with Hank. Their job was to help the engineers keep the hydroelectric turbine engines operating smoothly. It was essential now that the government had abandoned the Wilderness Areas to keep the large megacities like Utopias operating. The people who lived out here were on their own now and it was essential to keep this old dam operational in order to supply electricity to those who were still alive in this region. It would become a matter of life or death very soon.
Most of the population that used to live in small towns and cities across America had moved to large metropolises or megacities that were scattered by region in the new United Americas Continent or UAC, which is now composed of the former United States, Canada, Central America, South America and Caribbean countries. The UAC was formed during the Plague Wars that began in 2084 and continue to this day overseas.
The new UAC government operated out of the Capitol Building in Utopias, which was headquartered in Old Saint Louis in the state of Missouri. Utopias extended from the old city of Saint Louis, through Chicago all the way to Milwaukee. There were approximately 600,000 residents living in the megacity.
The UAC government had recently announced it was working on a solution for all citizens that may save the human race from extinction. The rumors were true as far as Jack knew. World government leaders had decided to save humanity by building underground bunkers with cryostasis chambers where people could sleep for the next one hundred or more years while government leaders found a way to clean the atmosphere of pollutants. Jack didn’t know what to think when he heard the news. It didn’t seem plausible to him, but then he was not a scientist and didn’t have the experience to know if the solution would work or not. All he knew was if they didn’t do what the government wanted; they all might die in the next few years from lack of food and breathable air. He needed more information before he could make a decision that would affect everyone he knew. He just didn’t know how to get it without risking his family or his own life.