Nothing much had changed since before the Apocalypse. In fact, if it wasn’t for the desolation that surrounded me, I could have been a paying customer in the cream brick dungeon of my past. There was only one thing missing from my sojourn in the disintegrated motel.

My anxiety increased as I searched for the missing piece of the puzzle, the key to happiness, the controller of my mind. My heart leaped when I saw it on the dusty ground. I didn’t care if it worked-what really mattered was my belief in its efficacy in altering the present reality.

I pointed the remote control at the fractured wide screen television that lay in the rubble and sacrificed my free will on the altar of technology. Although the ruination around me bespoke of the danger of acquiescence, I longed for the chit chat of daytime TV hosts, having been convinced of the paucity of my own thoughts.

The screen came to life and I saw a seething sky filled with ravenous birds and an ugly ogre staring back at me. This was too much to take so early in the day. I tried to switch it off again and again before realizing that I was merely looking at the reflected truth of a dying world.