Prologue
The Beginning
No-one anticipated the effects of the M3 drug. The tiny tablet should have helped save the world not be the main catalyst to end it. When M3 was first introduced it was supposed to solve a problem, but the small tablet should never have been unleashed on an unsuspecting population.
Starting at the beginning, in the year 2100 the world population had grown to a point that there was not enough land to supply the volume of food to every person within the world. This was a major problem. The first choice to resolve the problem had been to go to war. The country that won the war would get the bulk of the food. However, instead of an act of genocide by wiping out entire nations and risking the frailty of the planet with nuclear action, a scientist by the name of Mason John Creek the Third came up with a revolutionary idea. One tablet was to be taken in the morning that gave everyone their nutritional needs. The tablet was designed to be slow dissolving, so a person didn’t need anything other than this one tablet for food. To put it simply, the use of the M3 was to replace the need for food.
Mason demanded a minimum of ten years testing in which time the government was supposed to put a ban on reproduction. Men and women were supposed to be injected by doctors with enough contraceptive so they didn’t risk increasing the population. Rationing was also supposed to be introduced, along with legislation banning the ability to throw away food. There would be punishment for anyone caught wasting food.
These were all reasonable requests and advice from Mason to allow him the time to test the drug he’d developed. The leaders of all countries refused to take notice and decided the M3 tablet was safe and sound to take. They saw no threat over one small tablet.
Against Mason’s reasoning, mass production of the tablet spread worldwide. M3 suddenly became the cure to starvation.
For the first year everything seemed fine. Mason demanded more tests to be done. At each appeal he was denied.
By the second year there were some side-effects. There was rage in males and lashes of temper, but nothing that couldn’t be explained by a person’s circumstance.
The years melted away until finally after the fifth year the effects were too great to change.
A chemical within M3 that should have dissolved somehow managed to mutate when mixed with a person’s stomach acid. Once the mutations started there was no stopping it.
Mason hadn’t perfected the M3. He’d expected many years of testing to get the formula just right. If the government had given him the necessary time and allowed him to perform the extreme tests that his predecessors invented, he would have seen the effects much sooner and been able to change the outcome. But it was too late for him to do anything.
Placid men became monsters. M3 affected behavioural patterns that soon spread worldwide. The babies born were no better than wild beasts. Men turned on each other. Towns and cities were torn apart in fits of rage. There was no reasoning. The only solution was survival of the fittest. M3 became like any other drug. Addictive. People who were on it refused to stop. Forced rehabilitation saw people killing themselves and each other with their need to escape.
Leaders of countries were no better. They had more weapons at their disposal. The fighting continued for many years. The few people that M3 didn’t affect were forced underground. They survived away from the fighting. M3 never affected their behavioural patterns. Their only survival was staying out of sight.
The wars on the street and between countries raged for over ten years. There was no stopping it.
When everything grew silent above, the remaining survivors ventured up to the surface. What remained of a once great nation was nothing. The sky was aglow with burning flames with many dust clouds blocking out the sun.
There were survivors who appeared dazed by the death and destruction before them. Other survivors tried to kill the rest as their thirst for blood was never sated.
New York City became one of the worst affected places. For the safety and survival of the people the city was separated into four areas. These four areas were ruled by one man in each area. The city went to the strongest four men, and the story of death and destruction was passed on.
The M3 would never be forgotten. The tablet alone became popular for all the wrong reasons.
In order for people to survive they started rummaging around in the chaos that had been left behind. Factories had long since been shut down, but the product left behind was usable. The few glass bottles that remained were kept safe. Plastic became a reliable source as well. Clothing was taken from these finds and used. Everything of any value was kept and used.
The main focus of the areas was to create farms near the outskirts of the city. The farmers were responsible for introducing food back into their environment. Over the years, and very slowly, a semblance of order was brought forward, but nothing was ever like it was before the M3.