An undergraduate student sits down at his desk after a long, grueling day of procrastination. He looks at his desk, finally deciding that the time has come when his anxiety over the due date being tomorrow and how late it has gotten is stronger than his annoyance over such an inane paper. Who cares about a stupid creative essay? Not him, certainly. Unfortunately, he needs those points to keep his grade in the class above sea level. So he writes, detailing a bland story of various settings and characters that have little to do with each other. First, he writes of an office worker; a man who knows the true terror of cubes and the abject joy of individuality. This man works his 9-to-5, reveling in any distraction that might lower his productivity. He returns home to a wife and two and a half children with thoughts of a warm welcome, but his wife is out and his children are cooped up in their rooms. He finds a drink and places himself on his favorite recliner, consigning himself to an evening of deadened nerves and sports. He falls asleep to thoughts of his glory days out on the football field, subconsciously dreading his inevitable awakening the next day. Next, he writes of an apocalyptic landscape. A man has a modest existence, trying his hardest to find food and not accidentally choke on bottle caps. In this place, only survival matters. The government fell apart long ago; trade returned to being solely based on goods, since coins were melted for other uses and paper currencies were burned to purify water. For water balloon fights. This man lives a mostly solitary life in the wilderness with his wooden home that he built himself. Besides having to work so hard to simply exist, his only complaint is the bandits that he has to pay tribute to or else die. He drifts into a deep slumber each night, gun nearby, dreaming of a day when he can kill those who would demand such things of him. He wakes up to the sounds of radioactive roosters in the distance, cursing his own cowardice. Finally, he writes of a man who was a slave. This man, along with his master, live in an arbitrary place at an arbitrary time, slavery being such a prevalent thing and all. The master is a shrewd and cruel person who thinks nothing of his slaves and can't be beaten, either in terms of escaping or of fighting back. Those who try, inevitably fail. One day, the master travels along a road with the slave; this was a common occurrence for him on his way to a local meeting on the ethics of governance. Less uncommon is a small, smelly child that is begging by the side of the road. The slave pities the child, because at least the slave could conceivably survive in his own situation. He has seen many children die to poverty in the past. The master, however, is outraged. A demand is made of the slave; he is to kill this child and dispose of the body to preserve the cleanliness of the dirt path the master travels so frequently. The slave refuses this demand, claiming that he would prefer death himself to following that command. When asked if he was certain, he stands his ground. The master shoots him to death right then and there. The slave falls asleep, but his dreams are of oblivion. The student hastily writes his conclusion and places into a folder the paper doomed for a trashcan. He sighs, relieved that he wouldn't have to explain to his parents why he got kicked out of college just yet. He finally falls asleep; he dreams of a place he doesn't recognize. The next day, his teacher reviews the mediocre paper. He smirks at the unremarkable conclusion that the student had arrived at, amused by his lackluster comment on the nature of freedom. He sees little to complain about, grammatically, so he gives the paper a passing grade with some red marks to help the student improve his writing, should he surprisingly decide to do so. The teacher places a stack of similar papers to the side of his desk, happy to have finished. He looks outside his window at nothing in particular for longer than necessary.