2055.
Most of the world is still reeling from the effects of a series of worsening economic calamities that has left currencies devastated, industries in ruin, and entire cities abandoned. The food crisis of the 30’s has come to an end with localized agriculture and subsistence farming taking the place of now-defunct large-scale food production facilities.
Economic experts now agree that the world is in the midst of transitioning to a post-currency era where the demand for material goods and services has all but vanished.
Meanwhile, for the first time in history, the average human life expectancy is shrinking at an alarming rate. The AIDS epidemic is defeated, but a new virulent strain of the Marburg virus is spreading across the planet at rates never seen before.
August, 2055.
In a basement room at the abandoned shell of what was the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories, an aging scientist working on routine calculations in particle physics has just stumbled upon something that has the potential to change everything, and to give mankind control over the last resource he has left to conquer – Time.
September 18, 2055. Phoenix, AZ. 2:55pm
A door slams shut and the man with one bad eye looks up, startled, as an arc of charged air shoots across the room and knocks him backwards onto the filing cabinets against the wall.
“The scientist.” says a voice. “Who is he?”
“I.. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Who is he and who does he work for?”
“I swear I don’t know what you’re talking about! Please.. What do you want from me?”
“Let’s go. This one’s not gonna tell us anything. Finish him off,” says another man at the doorway.
The man with one bad eye screams as another arc, much brighter this time, jumps across the room again, and knocks him down to the ground, writhing uncontrollably. The two visitors leave quietly as the room starts to fill with the acrid smell of smoke and burning flesh.
Team Karim 