“Clear Sky”

Author’s Note: This is a Take Ten to Write story and has not been proofread for errors. If I feel inspired or if there’s interest in the story, I’ll post a revised, edited, and extended version at a later date. Happy reading!

Prompt: Sky.

I’ve never seen the sky look so clear before. There isn’t a cloud in sight, nor fog, nor dust. Just… nothing.

I’ll admit: it’s beautiful. I’d love to wake up every day and see a sky like this.

That is, if a clear sky didn’t mean what I know it means.

No clouds, no fog, no dust. A Cleanse. The air was just purified.

But they’re still going too far. The Cleanse is too extreme, just like it was last time, and the time before that, and the time before that.

Once again, the Cleanse will wipe out over half of the population on our planet.

And for what? All they’re doing is experimenting to try to find the most efficient way of clearing the air. But their lab is the entire planet. Their sample is quite literally the entire population.

Of course, they give us ten years between trials so that we can rebuild our population. Yet, every decade, they do the exact same thing. They still haven’t found the right formula for the Cleanse, but that doesn’t stop them from trying.

Their overambitions are costing the entire world. They always tell us that they’re doing what’s best for the world, what’s best for us.

But I can see right through them. They don’t care about us. They never have. All they care about is themselves and their precious lives.

I know they’re down there somewhere, tunneled beneath the ground, breathing in clean, fresh, safely purified air.

I know how much they long to be free, to be able to come aboveground without an oxygen tank. An oxygen tank and a gun, to protect them from the savages who live Above.

Let’s just say that this savage has had quite enough.

Clear sky or not, it’s time to put an end to all this death. Their experiments must stop.

That’s why I’m going down there. I’m going Below.

Final Comments: I definitely didn’t see the story panning out this way when I first started writing it.

Overall Rating: 😬