Meyer lived a life full of hope and music, unlike many who came before him. Meyer loved the world he grew up in despite how broken everyone insisted it was. People often spoke of an old world he had no chance of remembering. Those people spoke of a bright sun filled sky that would not burn unprotected skin and air that did not need to be filtered through a gas mask. Meyer had no need for sun and sky in his already joyful life.

Meyer was not the only child. Not long after him came others, and there were now four kids for the people to worry about. Meyer was not the healthiest child. That honor went to Edna, the youngest yet, who seemed largely unaffected by the cough that haunted everyone who dared to live on a dead planet. Meyer, however, was the oldest and had the strongest capacity for hope.

People spoke to Meyer like a blessing and a tragedy. He was a burden borne to a dead world. He was the first chance for humanity to start anew. He was doomed to a life of loneliness and he was the future, if he had a chance at living long enough for either fate. Meyer never understood the reverence people showed to him. He thought the only unique quality he held was perhaps that he was the oldest of all of the children he knew.

Meyer loved life. He did everything with excitement.

He went outside with a gasmask on. Four layers of jackets and gloves to keep the fallout from reaching his skin and a bullet proof vest underneath. The air was full of poison and the sky greyed with clouds. Meyer could not care less. It was a sad world and a dead world but it was his world and he was the first born to it.

The people raised all of the children with some of the same reverence and tragedy that they showed Meyer. Meyer brought childish games and much needed levity to their lives. He jumped with excitement in simple games of tag and encouraged the other children to carry the same sense of hope as him.

The people moved from place to place, looking for a store to scavenge or home to take shelter in. They told stories of a dead world, a world that may as well never have existed. They carried white scars from fallout dust and cancerous illnesses from the air they breathed. As Meyer ran excitedly from person to person, singing songs and playing games they saw hope they otherwise would not dare to carry.

And one day the people settled in a place. The dust in the air settled and life began once again to thrive in a dead world. The people chose a small patch of fertile land with clean water to rebuild humanity. Meyer loved the settlement and he loved the people in it. He carried within him the hope for a future the people could build for humanity.

He was the first born to a dead world and the first to have hope within it. He was the first to lead a life of hope and music and he was the first to grow up in a world built for him. He led the generation he was in and the generation after. He was the first to grow old in a new dead world.