Options....

Pick and choose your poison.

Sitting here looking around the barren landscape, tattered papers laying on the floor. A breeze creeps around the corner emanating from a nearby open window. The corner of the papers lift off the ground showing its delicate underside; the faded words are showing a glimpse as to the knowledge that they contained. The words are bleached from sitting idly on the floor.

The area seems to have been abandoned some years ago, people have fled abandoning everything that was dear to them. Looking at the archaic items scattered on the tables you attempt to understand how people had lived before they had fled. The air is stale and devoid of all scent, dust covers your progress forward and is beginning to hide where you had come from.

It seems like eternity since a person has stepped foot into this area. Large pockets of dust have started to collect on top of the machines that were once the cutting edge technology. They have been forgotten; turned into relics that no one cares about.

After careful observation, it appears as though not everyone had fled initially. Some brave individuals seem to have stayed behind, you notice that there are stains on the floor indicating some kind of struggle had taken place in time after the event. They seem to have attempted to rebuild their society in this location in an attempt to maintain stability.

Looking to the left there is a single pole standing in the middle of a large open area that was once reserved for the most important gatherings. It has been reduced to a scene of desperation and violence. The remnants of a once noble piece of furniture have been reduced to embers in a vain attempt at fighting off the cold that has ravaged this area.

The pole has scene better days as well, once the focal point of presentations it was briefly turned into a sacrificial shrine as desperate people had turned to violent rituals to make the suffering and pain stop. The most revered and important individuals were bound to the pole and ritualistically beaten in an attempt to keep the evil spirits from entering into their new homes. From the state of the surrounding landscape it looks as though this did not help to ease their suffering.

Needless violence was determined to be the cause and the solution to their plight. How can a society take a step back in time in an attempt to solve their problems? Haven't we learned from the mistakes of the past....