Readers' Favorite International Book Awards 2013 Gold Medal Winner — Short Story — FictionWelcome to the not so distant future. Human beings have pushed Mother Earth to her breaking point—mass wildlife extinctions, global warming, widespread resource shortages, over population—and the Department of Homeland Security is offering stimulus packages to the children of American citizens who volunteer to be euthanized. This short story about a chance encounter between two volunteers serves as a warning to a self-destructing human race. Voluntary is a tale of sacrifice, passion, and emotion between complete strangers who realize that time is of little importance to their feelings for each other in an inevitably dying world.