A Better World

This world is tainted. All that's left is hate and fear and greed.
We'll create a better world someday, and everything will finally be right.

The old man groped around in the darkness for the door - the matches he had been carrying ran out minutes before. His hand met a cold steel handle and he let out a sigh of relief. Summoning all of the strength he had left, he managed to spin the wheel, eliciting a deep, satisfied click from the massive door. It groaned as it reluctantly swung outward, exposing the surface of Earth for the first time in decades. It was morning, but still the sun shone brightly through the clouds.

Something was wrong. The fluttering green plants the old man had read stories about were absent. There was no beautiful, lofty music in the air. The sparse water that still lay on the ground was a foul green. All that stood before his eyes was a grey, pockmarked landscape peppered with the remnants of missiles and piles of ash that served as the only reminders of the world's previous inhabitants.

The old man realized that the better world his grandparents had told him he would find was finally sitting before him. He dropped to the dust and died crying.