World-Mart Read Online Free Page B

Climate Change occurred.  For roughly a decade, the oceans rushed in on their shores, creating all new shorelines across the globe, and hurricanes and tornadoes tore across several states at a time.  While the bulk of Europe turned into swamp and marshland, most of Asia became arid and hot.  Like Africa, both Americas became a mishmash of unpredictable weather patterns.  The weather decimated those three continents, knocking out their communications with the rest of the world and forcing them to rebuild all of their countries from the ground-up.
    In the United States, for the sake of efficiency and economy, communities were rebuilt into districts.  Roughly the size of small cities, districts were grouped into quadroplexes that could be self-contained, should neighboring areas suffer structural or socioeconomic hardship.  Which district in a quadroplex one lived in was determined by where one worked, and where one worked depended upon where one’s family worked: typically, Corps begot Corps and Marts begot Marts.
    Core governments still had small amounts of communication between them, but the Internet no longer existed.  Even the closest of family living in different regions eventually lost touch.  Further destruction ensured that communications among most districts dissolved as well, and the people slowly learned to accept their isolation.
    Livestock became increasingly difficult to keep, and before long, large grazers like cattle completely disappeared.  Many species of fish went extinct, and the price of pork and chicken nearly tripled.  Fresh food was rare.  The variety of available fruits and vegetables became limited by region, although the majority of farms now grew genetically modified crops beneath enormous Plexiglas domes.
    Virginia remembered when houses sat on open lots, when people were allowed to have pets, and when a person could take a long, hot shower without receiving a hefty fine.  Much had changed throughout her lifetime, and not for the better.  When she was a child, life seemed to be all about getting ahead while shamelessly living beyond one’s means.  Most Americans consumed excessively, were spoiled by outrageous advances in technology, and left countless landfills with what should have been renewable resources.  Now, life was a matter of survival.  Everything was expensive.  Everything had to be recycled.  Waste was just an old American pipe dream.
    The system was depressing, but there was not much one could do about it beyond showing up for work every day and doing one’s job.  What kept Virginia going was the knowledge that her children would have the opportunity, should they do well enough in school, to find themselves in ruts just a little less monotonous than hers.
    By the time the lunch chimes sounded, no one in the call center was paying much attention to their calls and Robert’s switchboard was flooded.
    Dozens of box lunches came out, and the women in the call center moved around leisurely as they ate sandwiches and apples.  Virginia found that peanut butter was not appetizing enough today, and she closed her lunch box and set it aside for later.
    Jane moved to her desk and leaned against it, sipping cold coffee.  “You okay?”
    Virginia nodded, although she was feeling a little tired.
    “You look kind of pale,” Jane said.
    Virginia smiled.  “I’m fine . . . really.”

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter Four
     
     

    SHELLEY stuck close to her small group of friends as they moved on foot from the shuttle garage to the beach.  Her parents had taken her and Kurt to the beach a few times, but because of the expense, the weather, and the long hike out, the family had only gone a couple of times.  Going to a place like the beach with her friends, where the air felt clean and there was nothing looming beyond but sand dunes and a vast, grey ocean, somehow enabled her to breathe a little easier than she usually did.  The fact that she was going without