It only got worse. We worked more, but we did get paid more. We still weren't as bad as the last President. No one started to worry yet.

Then ideas started to seep into his mind. Bad ideas. About the human race and how society truly couldn't recuperate. Most of us figured that someone was whispering into his ear, but no one knew exactly who. We feared him, and these ideas were the worst.

There was also the animals. The big brick wall we had built, so sturdy and so proud, with the observation and hunting towers watching over us, was breaking. As the President's mind was dissipating, more and more things were forgotten. The wall was one of them.

The mutants, so different, so quiet, so forgotten, had broken our fences. The sneaked between gaps. They jumped over the crumbling tops. They even paraded through, breaking whole sections. They were bigger, stronger, smarter, and tougher than the previous animals in the Old World.

The hunters gunned some of them down. Some terrorized and killed people until they died, too.

Some animals darted in and out, slowly picking people off. Some jumped out and then promptly disappeared. It didn't matter how they did it, but I know they did. And they killed too many people doing it. The Wall had to be rebuilt.

No one had the money to pay for it. No one had the materials. No one wanted to personally do it. The chances of someone rebuilding it and actually living to tell the tail were over a million to one. And we didn't have 1,000,000 people.

Yet it needed to be done. Or else we would die. Every single one of us. One by one by one.

We notified the President. By now, though, we realized, he wouldn't do a thing about it. He wouldn't care. As long as he could stay President, he wouldn't lift a finger.

So we started to do it ourselves.

Some people were elected to be guards, carefully watching our front and backs to make sure nothing disturbed us, using makeshift weapons to enforce it. They protected us from the President and animals. At this point, no one knew what was worse. At least we could block the animals. Some died. A lot, actually. But it was for everyone. Not just themselves. And it was a brave death.

Once we were about half-way finished, we ran out of brick. And stone. And our flour-water-glue mixture we used to seal it together. We also didn't have money. The government started raising suspicions, and it didn't take much coaxing to get the President to take action.

All groups or meetings that contained over five people would have to get a permit. All soldiers had

Orders to shoot to kill any and every person in an unauthorized gathering.

Several people were caught at such meetings, and very few people managed to get away. Some were killed on sight, with a quick and painless shot to the head. Others were brought in and hanged, burned, or whipped to the death. In public. There wasn't a group that remained hidden for more than a month.

Everyone quickly got the message. There wasn't many over-limit groups after that. But we were desperate. We couldn't focus on silly laws and punishments, no matter how harsh. We buried notes in the hard, cracked earth. We got groups of five together every day. Some people went so far as to move outside of the wall, and work there. No government could possibly control them from out there. But that made them easy pickings for animals, too. Animals that were starved. Animals that had tasted human flesh and wanted more.

Many of those families perished too. But one single person from outside could build more in one day than ten men from inside could. The were not burdened with work and money and families. We were. People could be heard sobbing at times. It wasn't all uncommon to hear gunshots. Maybe it was a death of an animal. Maybe the death of a human. No one ever knew. Life was horrid. People just didn't want to live.

To be honest, I had thought of committing suicide. Many many times. There literally was nothing to live for. But I lived on. I don't know why. Maybe it was the promise of a better future, maybe it was destiny. What came next was worse than anyone could have hoped for.

The President put the end of the human race to a vote.