The Death Sentence — Michael Jasper

The City had never been cleaner, safer, or quieter than it was on Erik Dankelson's twenty-ninth birthday, and he couldn't have been more heartsick about it. The streets were free from litter, refuse, and vagrants. The Downtown buildings rising above the waters of The Lake and The River were pristine towers of concrete and steel, untouched by graffiti and vandalism. Even the speech of The City's citizens was as distilled and pure as boiled water. Before dawn on his birthday, Erik began his last day of life in a secure room at the heart of this seemingly perfect City.

When all you want to do is be able to speak your mind, but all society wants is to keep everything clean, what do you end up with? The death sentence, the last words Erik Dankelson will ever speak.

A dystopian view of our world in the near future, where one man is determined to say what's on his mind.