Well, they call me crazy.

If the world is insane... you know the rest.

ELKON isn't what you think. It's not a nutritional pill. It's not a hunger inhibitor. It literally changes your body chemistry so that you absorb calories and nutrition from everything you touch. You need fiber? Remember that time you washed your Hummer? Remember that towel? It's a little smaller now. You need vitamin C? The "citrus smell" had just enough to keep you from getting scurvy.

But humans can't handle that. They handle starvation better than they handle not NEEDING to eat. So the pills started changing, inducing hunger that wasn't necessary. You'd walk by a cafeteria full of people eating cardboard. Children ate rocks and dirt. And I...

Not yet.

My one dose. I found it mixed in with expired acetaminophen. I almost popped it in my mouth.

But I didn't. It sits in a ring case, like some fantasy engagement ring. Maybe I'll marry scientific progress and we'll have beautiful, needless children. We'll bicker some, but he'll always be right. Because he's got science on his side.

Today, I walked down the street, eyes peeled for things that are actually edible. I picked some dandelions and lambsquarter. The irony is, there's plenty of food for me now. No one's growing food on purpose anymore, but the rock eaters aren't even bothering to eat eat what's edible.

I hustled back home, clutching my vegetables. I needed to find something for the cat.