Jay lifted the VR headset, placed it on the desk with his 3D controller, and rubbed his eyes.  He was putting the finishing touches on a project he had been working on for several days straight now.  Blinking was not something he did often.  Ken glanced up from the book he was reading.
   "Wanna take a look?" asked Jay.
   "Sure," Ken said as he set down his book and pushed his foot against the edge of his desk, propelling himself and his rolling chair across the room.  The chair rolled to a halt only centimeters away from Jay's chair.  It was one of those many useless little talents Ken had and practiced often without really noticing it.
   Ken slid the headset and grabbed the controller.  His eyes lit up (although they couldn't be seen due to the goggles), and he smiled as he entered a world of magical enchantment.  He saw beams of light coming down in misty air from hundreds of giant trees.  Ferns and moss covered the tree branches.  There was green everywhere the light reached for as far as the eye could see.  A bright orange tree frog chirped merrily on the tree in front of him and a flock of brightly colored birds flew overhead and alighted in the branches above.  The enchantment wore off quickly, however, and Ken's smile slowly transformed into a frown.  He removed the headset and sighed.
   "It's not quite like the real thing, is it?" he asked.  He couldn't quite explain it since he had never seen a real rainforest before, but something just didn't seem right.  Jay hadn't seen a real rain forest either.  He had created the program solely from photographs and a bit of imagination.
   "No," Jay said with a sigh, "It isn't.  I don't think any computer program can fully substitute for reality."
   Jay was staring blankly out the small window in the roof.  The place had a stunning view of the Earth.  Unfortunately the Earth wasn't very stunning to look at anymore.  A sinister black cloud hovered over large areas of it, and there was not a patch of green anywhere on it that could be seen.  Most of the land was scorched from the large nuclear blasts during the third World War.
   Jay, Ken, and a few others were sent to the moon colonies as soon as the war became intense.  It wasn't a moment too soon either, for shortly after the shuttle was headed toward the moon, the nuking began.  That was almost seven years ago, and the radiation was still too high for anyone to safely return to Earth and live there.
   "I wish I coulda seen the Earth from this view a long time ago," said Ken looking up in the direction Jay was staring, "when there was still lotsa green."
   "That would have to have been forever ago," Jay said looking down, "way before the war; way before we were born."
   It was true.  There had scarcely been a tree around for at least a hundred years.  The Earth had been stripped of nearly every natural resource.  The human population of the Earth was so great that the Earth's resources hadn't been enough to meet the demands of the people.  Millions of people had died of starvation.  More had died every year.  It was no surprise large weapons were used so early in the war.  There was not much left to be lost.  Perhaps it was the more humane way to die for some.
   "Hey, they're back!" Ken said as a shuttle passed over the window.
   Every so often a shuttle was sent back to Earth to check the radiation level and gather food.  What little food was found was put through a deradiation process and brought back.
   There was a firm thunk and swoosh of air as the airlock sealed and compressed.  Then there was a loud bang, a scream, another bang, then silence.  Jay and Ken jumped up to investigate, but before they could leave the room, the door burst open and there stood Nick.  He looked like a madman: his hair was tangled, he hadn't shaved for days, his shirt was torn and spattered with blood, his face was covered in sweat, his eyes were bulging almost out of their sockets, and he was breathing hard.  There was a metallic object in his hand.  It was a gun – the old six-shooter kind.  He must have picked it up on Earth.
   "What happened?!?!" exclaimed Jay, who finally found the breath to speak.
   "No… food…" gasped Nick, "anywhere!  Earth is… empty!  We're gonna die!  I don't wanna do this, but I can't stand to let you suffer… and starve… to death."
 Nick raised the gun and pointed it at Jay.  He turned his head sideways and closed his eyes tightly.  His finger slowly tightened on the trigger.
   "Nick, you've gone mad!" screamed Ken as he jumped forward and grabbed the gun.  The gun went off, and the bullet went straight through Ken's throat and punctured the far wall.  There was a hiss as the air began to escape.  Nick looked back just in time to see the remaining life drain from Ken's eyes as he fell limp on the floor.
   "Oh, God!  What have I done?" cried Nick as he fell on his knees and burst into tears.  Unable to bear the act he had just committed, he turned the gun on himself and fired.  The gun dropped on the floor and slid to a stop at Jay's feet, who was still unable to move from shock.
   Jay sat down, picked up the gun, and spun the chamber on it as he made a futile attempt to accept the scene before him.  There was one bullet left.  His eyes glazed over in disbelief and a tear rolled down his cheek.  The hissing seemed to fade into nothingness in the background.  Jay just continued to sit there, spinning the chamber of the revolver.

(c) 1999, Nathan "jitspoe" Wulf