Somewhere on the U.S, Earth 2024 Cletus an old man of about 40 is scavenging for food through an old supermarket. Like many refugees of the collapse from ten years ago he sports tattered clothes, a scraggly beard, flies buzzing all around and a belly full of cramps. These days a person is lucky to find some scraps of food let alone some canned goods, those are worth more than a person in some circles. He's hungry alright and it's been days... As he walks through an aisle he suddenly hears giggling and laughing. Cletus now curios as to who's making the noise decides to investigate. He locates the sound of the noises, as he gets closer he hears [i]"no! I found it! It's mine and no one else's!"[/i] they seem to be kids it seems. Old memories begin to stir in Cletus's mind, he pauses and sheds a single tear...quickly he wipes it away, [i]"Those days are over"[/i] he says quietly, still he needs to get closer. Three kids are huddled in an aisle, murmuring something...suddenly something pokes him from behind and he hears [i]"Watcha doin mister?!"[/i]. Cletus jumps about five feet in the air and lands near the kids, surprising them as well. All the kids huddle up now and surround the old man, [i]"He stinks"[/i] says a little girl, the boys all snicker. Cletus gets up and composes himself, he then looks around. The small group consists of a young girl and three boys. The girl and another boy seem to be around the same age, the other two seem older and mean looking. The oldest boy says to him [i]"Hey old man shouldn't you be dead by now? You better get out of here, I found this place first, it's mine!"[/i] Cletus shakes his head and says [i]"You kids never learn do you?"[/i]. The little girl then turns to the older boy and asks if they can share it...[i]"Share what?"[/i] asks Cletus. One of the older boys then smacks another and tells him "Shut your sister up, now he knows!". Out of the corner of his eye Cletus spots something on the far shelf... The kids all get quiet now and surround the older boy as if protecting him, he then says [i]"Y'all get off me now ya hear?! I ain't sharing none with any of y'all anyways!"[/i]. The little girl then goes near Cletus, tugs at his ripped pants and starts to cry, [i]"Mister he won't share any food, I'm sorry, I'm hungry too"[/i]. Cletus drops down to one knee and looks at the little girl, [i]"Where's your momma and Pappa sweetie?"[/i] He asks. The smaller boy comes over and grabs the girls hand [i]"They stopped moving a long time ago mister...were really hungry, you have any spare food?"[/i]. The older boy then says [i]"You guys aren't gettin my food, I earnt it fair and square, I worked hard to find this can o'weenies!"[/i] the other boy near his age then says [i]"Yeah you tell'em! That's our food!"[/i]. Both of the smaller kids now start to cry and grab Cletus by the legs. The older boy then shoves the other kid aside and makes a run for it while yelling [i]"The hell you mean our food?! This is mine stupid, I'm outta here!"[/i]. The kids are all crying now and Cletus begins to shush them, [i]"Hey hey don't cry now you hear, it's not all bad I got something that's gonna make it all better, I promise"[/i]. The kids stop crying and Cletus begins to walk them to the end of the aisle, he then points at something and the little girl asks [i]"What are you pointing at mister? I can't see up there"[/i]. Cletus then reaches up to the top shelf and removes a small tarp covering something and throws it on the floor. [i]"Wow!No way![/i] says the boy that was shoved. Cletus then grabs a huge packet of canned weenies and sets it on the floor next to the kids, [i]"I saw this earlier before you kids got here, I guess one must of fallen out"[/i]. [i]"You kids are welcome to eat as much as you want, but first let me share a story..."[/i]. [i]"C'mon mister were hungry says the older kid"[/i]. Cletus then tells him [i]"Patience my boy is a virtue, now hush up..."[/i] [i]"It was ten years ago to the day when the aliens attacked, I remember because Xur had just brought Gjallarhorn to the tower and the forums were on fire"[/i]. The little girl laughed and said [i]"Your weird mister and what's a Xur?[/i]. Cletus laughed with her and patted her on the head. [i]"You see kids, my friend Xur would bring things that were rare and special to acquire. Some things we could get by being lucky, but mostly we relied on Xur for those times where luck wasn't on our side. Now the thing with Xur was that he was hated by many, let's call them "Special Snowflakes". They had gotten these special things through luck and felt more special then the rest of us with bad luck. They argued that they had earned these things fair and square and that we didn't because Xur brought them to us. Now, whenever Xur offered these things, you had to pay for them with coins which you earned through hard work."[/i]. [i]"That's silly"[/i] said the younger boy, [i]"Either way, everybody was special because they could all have the same things right?"[/i]. Cletus patted the little boy on the head and said [i]"You'd be surprised at how many people just couldn't see it that way kid"[/i]. [i]"Like I said, Xur brought us Gjallarhorn, a very special, very unique item and people started to go crazy" [/i]. [i]"Some of the people who had gotten it through luck started saying rally mean things to people who bought it from Xur, soon the whole world was doing the same thing..."[/i]. [i]"That kids is why the aliens attacked, all because we couldn't be nice to each other over a video game, such a petty little thing. You see, the aliens had been watching us from outer space for a long time. Everyday they saw that we were getting meaner towards one another. Eventually they decided on not helping us at all and on that day they saw the worst of humanity. When Xur did what he did, he brought the wrath of the aliens with him, all because we didn't want to share with one another..."[/i]. [i]"So kids, what's the lesson here? Can anybody tell me?"[/i]. The kids all raised their hands, Cletus looked hard at each one of them and picked the older boy. [i]"The lesson is that if we would not have been selfish then the world would not have been attacked by aliems?[/i]. [i]"Close enough kid, close enough, if we would not have been selfish, if we would have been more accepting, more supportive to each other then we wouldn't be living the way we are now would we?"[/i]. The kids all shook their heads in agreement while Cletus let out a hearty laugh and said [i]"Ok kids enough talking, dig in and eat your food. Like I said, patience is a virtue and you all have shown that if your still here, now enjoy those Gjallarhorns I mean weenies."[/i] [i]The End![/i]