[ WP ] In the far future after civilization has fallen the people follow the scriptures that the ancients titled EULA .

Sometimes I think of the world in the pictures and in the songs and in the imaginations of the old folks. The pictures now are blackened of course, and the songs have degraded into static and noise. People are dying and that place from long ago is fading with them. I think of it with its blue skies and clean air and safe dirt. It seems like paradise almost. 
 
 
 When the rain comes here the ground sizzles and a smog rises. The winds have a bitterness to them and we do n't live as long as we used to. It gets sad here in this present. I sometimes wish I could go back. I look at the pictures and listen to my songs. But you know what? Sometimes I'm glad I'm here. 
 
 
 This world is beaten and battered. God has left us, whoever God is. Our histories are gone, burnt in war, and our memories are scarred. All we have from the past are the scriptures. The EULAs that must have been important for there were so many made. And they do not speak of God. 
 
 
 I read them. It is almost night and day when you think about it. These things are only from a hundred years ago but they seem to speak to a completely different species. 
 
 
 Men are chained in these writings. Their rights are waived and they are beholden to different entities. They pay for the privilege of being a product, of being herded like sheep and cattle. Is this what the old folk mean by God? Is God so cruel? 
 
 
 I look at the pictures that survive. Those pictures will fade into radioactive black, but by then I will be dead. I look at the pictures and see a pristine world. How nice it would be to live there! But are these scriptures the price? Is the cost of clean living your soul? 
 
 
 The great destruction started with loose policy, I'm told. Bombings without reason. Retaliation without thought. The world was set on fire. Our roofs were collapsing and the war mongers were gleeful. Why did it happen? What caused it all? 
 
 
 Did they not follow the EULAs? Was it that binding document, the commandments of these entities ( God maybe? ) that stopped man from being so self destructive? 
 
 
 I know, I know. What is the point of unanswerable questions? Life is short and shortening each day. The rain falls and kills the grass that is brave enough to grow. The skies are black tonight, a dark grey that just keeps building and building. Outside in the light from the barrels, you can see the rain simmer in a white sheen. The old wood is rotting and I will have to move soon. I hope my mother is well enough for it. 
 
 
 I look out tonight and put away the EULA. I fold it carefully and with reverence that such a document deserves. The cold gets to me. My mother coughs. I think about that world so closely gone, so forever away. I wonder what it would have been like to live there. I wonder what God was like. 
 
 
 But still, I have my doubts. The burning around me is like a fan at night and it helps you sleep. Our world now is gone, dying slowly and in pain. But at least we are free. I am free. No God binds me. I have the right to pursue legal action, whatever that means. I have no deals with the'party'. And so I feel free. 
 
 
 If this here is the price of freedom, then it has already been paid. I look outside at the rain and enjoy my company. Nothing is perfect. I might as well make the most of this bargain.
