The world is a very different place. There are no more prisons, or asylums. No more diseases, or disability, or old age. No more poverty, or war. Death is no longer the inevitable. The population in the United States, is capped at forty-million.
Edward K. Wehling Jr. sits in the hospital waiting room. He is about to be a first-time father - of triplets! An exciting day for any new parent, to be sure. But there is the complication of keeping the triplets. For every new life, there must be a volunteer to die in their place. The Federal Bureau of Termination has municipal gas chambers - and their telephone number is '2BR02B'. The volunteers are memorialized in murals, on the hospital walls, remembered for their sacrifice. The population control is considered highly important, as before it was implemented, humans were forced to survive on seaweed, and didn't have enough drinking water to go around.
