I live in a fairly normal sized house. Your usual run of the mill urban sheltering structure that can house up to 5 individuals, or a small nuclear family. However, in a single room stays a 137 people all crushed together. The lucky ones are those who are able to find a cozy spot by one of the corners where they are able to sit. The majority are standing, occasionally tilting their positions from side to side to gain that extra micro millimeters of space. The house has 2 rooms, one bathroom, a living room, and a kitchen. The second room which is one of two in the second floor houses 151 individuals, and the one neighboring it has 143. The tiny hallway outside the rooms fits 110, the stairs leading to the ground floor 63. 223 people occupy the living room, while the other 94 people live in the kitchen. The only place where no one lives is in the bathroom.
I’m the owner of the house and I stay in one of the rooms located in the second floor. I don’t have any special privileges as an owner, as I’m currently standing between this sea of people. Every part of my body is crushed. It’s hard for me to breathe and supply my lungs with a sufficient amount of oxygen. Most of my body parts rendered blue almost all the time. My fingernails have a bluish hue to them. It’s hard for me to focus and think. Everyone were advised to keep conversations at a minimum and only speak if it was absolutely necessary or in emergencies. By this we can reduce the amount of oxygen per person, and keep the room hygienic. Around my vicinity stands around more than 40 people. We all trying to squeeze some extra space from each other. One moment my shoulder feels so relaxed and light, the next I feel it compressed and numb from the prolonged squashing. The smell isn’t delightful. There’s a deep lingering stench of body odor that can be sensed all the times. Combining that with low oxygen levels and you have a recipe of total organism failure.
The neighborhood isn’t in a better place than here. Every house is the same if not slightly in poorer state. Smaller houses have it the worst. The streets, sideways, ditches, tunnels, alleyways, and every part of the city has the same issue. Intense overcrowding. The state where I’m in promised us a solution soon. We’ve been like this for almost 3 years. No one is allowed to have children anymore and it was declared as an international state of emergency. What caused all of this you asked? It’s simple really. Prosperity lead more people to settle down and start a family. Salaries were rising, houses were affordable, and poverty was effectively eradicated. Everyone had the means and abilities to start their own family once they reached adulthood. While the markets kept producing more and more products that are cheap, healthy, and sustainable. It almost sounds like an utopia, but believe me when I say it couldn’t be farther from being it so.
We’re told we will be like this for a generation or two. Everyone who participates in conceiving a new child will be executed, and their family castrated. The only way to sustain ourselves is by drones shooting food through the windows since it’s ineffective otherwise. It arrives three times daily. Sometimes the food finishes too quickly, and had to sleep on empty stomach on multiple occasions. Sleeping is an another issue for us. Some have to sleep standing on their feet, and many fatal accidents happened while people tried to get a good night of rest. Some get asphyxiated from being pressed unto by someone who fell during their sleep and there’s no way to hear them. Due to that, some corpses piled up in one corner and there’s no way to bury them. May God have mercy on our souls lest I end up like them.
Total population since writing this: 6.3 trillion.