Jonathan is walking inside his garage. He’s been a mechanic in Richmond for over a decade. He has customers who travel across the country to have him work on their cars. He is an Elliott, which is to say he comes from the wealthiest family in the southern hemisphere. They revolutionised the renewable energy market, and single-handedly stopped the upcoming apocalypse in 2050.

A man in double denim towers over Jonathan, and says. ‘Jono mate, I have an issue with starting my car. Can you have a look?’ He is cleanly shaven with tattoos across his arms.

‘Sure thing,’ Jonathan replies.

Jonathan inspects the vehicle. It’s one of those old-school classic Tesla’s. Jonathan is trying all he can not to burst into laughter. Electric batteries are a thing of the past ever since the Elliott family came up with blood energy.

‘You see here buddy, you need to exchange this old electric battery with our new blood engine fuel. I can do the job, but it’s going to cost you a bit. I might be able to help you on the cheap but you know what you have to do,’ Jonathan says and looks to the man in denim.

‘So I have to farm the blood? Is that what you’re saying? But I don’t do that kind of work,’ the man in denim says pleadingly.

‘That is just the way it goes,’ Jonathan sternly says.

The man in denim would have to travel into the blood farms. It’s a part of the country no one likes to visit. The Elliot family may have figured out a new source of energy but it wasn’t without harm. The farms harvest bodies for blood. The site reeks of blood and rotting flesh.

…

In 2022, the Australian government were given a proposition by leading scientist Dr. Edward Elliott to rid the country of its offshore problem. Matthew Jones was the Prime Minister and leader of the newly formed the National Alliance for the Fair Go, or NAFG for short.

But as he was making his way into governance climate change was plaguing the world. Most of South Asia was underwater, while Brazil had become inhabitable. Rural areas of East Africa became so barren nothing could grow from it.

The second iteration of the United Nations met for their first National Assembly of the year. The Western powers voted en-bloc that people from what they called the ‘developing world’ would be used in Dr. Elliott’s experiment to reduce emissions before it was too late. The fate of the world was at stake after all.

…

The man in denim walked into the blood farm. There were bodies all across the floors. If the walls had been painted once, it didn’t matter because now splatterings of crimson rained from the ceiling down to the ground.

He sees someone on the floor, their identification collar reads ‘fuel’.

They shout out to the man in denim.

‘We are bodies not machines. We are alive.’