[The City Of Bones]

Prologue

The year was 5021.

The glass city, the Metropolis of the world, the glittering utopia of shards. The city was called many things; some more glamorous than others. Formerly named New York City it was now known as the largest city in the world. Expanding for hundreds of years, it took up most of what used to be the entire country. Due to its rapid growth space became scarce and soon there was no longer any ground to build upon. The city could no longer build out.

So, the only place to go, was up.

Its numerous frivolous names derived freely from its outward appearance and for a good reason. Various skyscrapers and monuments went so high that they practically touched the stars causing the glass from the structures to reflect upon one another. Almost looking like a thousand glittering stars giving those below soft rays of colorful light and rain that looked like falling diamonds. Of course this beautiful sight was only reserved for the luckiest among the populace.

The already corrupted utopia didn't last long. When the chaos first started the smart ones offed themselves, the rest stayed clinging to what hope and optimism they had left. Waiting out for a positive outcome that would never happen, only to meet a miserable end. The last surviving few only made it out due to pure luck.

In the beginning it was just climate change. But over time the situation rapidly got worse. The temperature reached records it never had before and it was either scolding hot or so cold that everything around frozen to death. Yet it was worse when the polar icecaps finally melted. Viruses and bacteria that were previously dormant for millions of years were released, and all of the worlds land masses were mostly enveloped by water; shrinking as a result. A lot of what used to be New York State was submerged and new waterways were formed when the land became a peninsula surrounded mostly by water. It was still connected to the mainland but the entire city practically sat on the ocean as the floating city of lights.

It didn't take long after that.

When the oceans expanded diseases of all kinds some never even seen or comprehended before, ran rampant. Blood leaked out of every orifice of their bodies as b****y tears ran out of their sunken white eyes. The victims of the plague were consumed by madness and they screamed in horror ferally clawing at their faces until the flesh peeled and ripped off revealing the rotting muscle and bones beneath. Some sicknesses caused what used to be human skin to turn pitch black and peel off like a banana. That wasn't even the worst if it.

The final stages were even more brutal than the last as humans started to shrivel up to a mere skeleton of their former shell and then disintegrate into the air like a thousand bits of dust. So small and thin that what used to be a loved one literally slipped through their fingers like sand from an hourglass. Small black particles floating into the sky like a million crisp little embers from a fire.

Still humanity hadn't learned it's lesson. Radiation and pollution caused mutations, and deformities in those born and unborn. Majority of the deformed were either stillborn or died later as a side affect. A few started to have multiple limbs and hideous misshaped bodies. Some even formed unnatural hair, skin, and eye colors because of these mutations; almost making them look alien compared to the rest of the population.

Mass extinction upon the human populace was unavoidable, and many of the worlds species were exploited throughout the centuries to find cures or simply for cruel entertainment to cull the boredom of staying home for months on end. At first the middle and lower class tried to cut back on the pollutants but most governments and corporations were too greedy to give a f**k. They sat on their fat asses and wealth while the entire world withered from the inside out.

Greedy pigs will always want more.

It was ironic.

All the wealth they hoarded meant nothing.

Because in a measly five years all their money will have meant nothing. Silver and gold no longer had any value when the entire world collapsed. Decaying Mother Nature caused people from all over the world to flee to the city but it only backfired on them. There was a rather brutal reason for its true name.

The City Of Bones.

The reborn city was branded such a morbid title because there were never-ending power grabs for the metropolis. It was now the core of organized crime and these violent fights frequently concluded in blood baths throughout the city. Whoever had control over the city ran the entire underworld.

All this chaos, anarchy, never-ending tragedies, and for what?

It was all for one thing...

Power.

Above all else the singular thing you could always count on was people's greed and selfishness. There was no God to salvage you in your times of impecuniousness and you were a fool to assume anyone else would take up for you. Places of worship, government architecture, and historic monuments were all burnt to the ground and obliterated long ago in turmoil that induced millions to be massacred as laws and authority of any kind became nonexistent. Where was their God or government then? When the people were wailing in anguish from losing their loved ones and everything they knew.

This was the present reality ever since the government failed over four thousand years ago. Everything had been seized by the mafias and gangs. Now, there was no one to safeguard humanity and evil was permitted to run rampant destroying everything in its wake. It was everyone for themselves.

Survival of the fittest; if you will. That's if the acid rain didn't get you first.

In its violent wake the city was split literally and figuratively between the poor and the rich. The lower and upper ring created decades ago were separated by damascus walls that were thicker than regular steel and so high they reached the polluted green smog clouds. The entire city was surrounded by the outermost wall, and the inner wall was in the center of the city.

It was funny really; they always say that the grass looks greener on the other side. Outside the city walls thousands were screaming in anguish their gaunt starving faces begging to be let in the wall forever marred with the scratch marks from their nails. However on the inside beaten and bruised faces begged to be let out. The great walls were one of the most iconic structures built in human history. But it was also one of the most extensive and arduous construction projects. The creation on the walls caused untold suffering for millions of people across the newly unified city. Families were torn apart, and children died hundreds of miles away from their loved ones.

Originally thought of as a defensive structure it stands as one of the most impressive structures on the face of the planet, but it took a great deal of hardship to accomplish its completion. The labor required to build the walls was legendarily backbreaking, there emerged longstanding rumors that workers who died in the building of the walls had their bodies ground up to make the mortar that would keep it together. Others say that dead workers were simply buried inside the wall.

The upper ring was land claimed and governed by the most powerful and wealthy from the underworld to develop contemporary civilizations out of the rubble. They were the top one percent, the wealthiest of them all. They gave all residents of the city no option but to follow the regulations and laws contrived by them. They were the ones pulling the b****y red strings in the lower ring and silently strangling the lower class for hundreds of years.

The city always seemed so mundane to a certain raven-haired girl. The overly polluted city lights were blinding her unnaturally glaucous eyes as everything flashed, showing advertisement for drugs and p**********n. The bright neon glow shining into the green smog above the city. People got brutally murdered and robbed but no one seemed to mind. Some even paid to see such horrific acts. Silla never really knew why she was here, but this was it. This was home.

This was hell.

As anyone with a brain could already assume from the circumstances, life was already arduous for the young budding girl. Silla was much too young to remain unaccompanied in this callous and unrelenting city. In only a few moons, the young girl would turn eleven. The lower ring where she was born and had grown up was predominantly dreadful.

Majority of it was slum packed and most housing was stacked on one another due to lack of space. It was dirty there and most of the tech they got ahold of was from the junkyards provided by the wealthy upper ring. If you were lucky enough you might find the occasional spare scrap metal and worn mecha. The lower class used whatever they could find; in other words lower ring civilians were scavengers.

The rich would feast and throw out their scraps to the unfed.

The young girl dreamed of traveling to the upper ring, where it was nicer and people led rich lifestyles. Still a very dangerous lifestyle, but better than the alternative. She'd much rather cry surrounded by jewels than next to a dumpster. Everyone knew that the powerful in the upper ring controlled the city. Plans and thoughts aside she was going to have to find shelter for the night and fast. Climate change and pollution from previous factories had made the land colder than ever, even with the new technological advancements.

This season's winter was especially the coldest and brutalist yet...

The streets glistened with a sheet of ice over the pavement, and the wind was bitter and stinging against her youthful skin. When her breath hit the cold air, she could see it float and disperse in the moonlit sky. Even at this inhospitable time of year, there were prostitutes, vagrants, and street-crawlers. There were a few occasional drunks dwelling in the dead of night, hidden from the lives of the rich and elite in the upper ring who thrived like an infection from how corrupt the city had become.

Sudden obnoxious laughter from the bars echoed loudly in the streets, snapping her out of her thoughts as the sidewalk lights flickered their yellow glow onto the frost and ice below. A man, arm slung over the shoulder of his friend, stepped out of his regular drinking hub hobbling, barely able to stand up without his friend's ever-present support. His words were slurred, barely distinguishable from a toddlers babbling. Although there was a mention of having some fun with a local p********e.

Silla was in one of the alleys, watching the drunkards stumble past. Her small body wrapped up in a tattered black coat, hems fraying and sleeves torn. The wind violently tugged at her threadbare clothes and worn shoes. Under the shadow of the young girls' ratty hood. Her dark blue eyes were framed by long black eyelashes that cast a shadow on her thin cheeks. Glancing around she made sure no one was looking her way so she could hurry to find shelter for the night.

The black-haired girl's gloves had multiple holes and didn't keep her small hands very warm. So she desperately started to blow warm air into her shaky hands. "Let's hope I can find a warm place for the night." Tugging the coat closer to her body, Silla reached one hand up to her hood and pulled it over her slim face. Just enough to slightly conceal her features.

Dashing out of the alley, she was in she ran down off an empty street. Her shadow racing through the lights like a dancer behind her. Looking up at the night sky above she saw the protective barrier over the city. It was clear like a bubble but it protected everyone below it. It kind of looked like constantly flowing water and yet not. The night lights reflected off it and onto the midnight sky in a sort of polluted rainbow. Even farther ahead in the center of the city was the upper ring with its own dome inside the city.

Continuing she wandering around abandoned junk yards on the outskirts of the territory. It wasn't long until she finally found a place for the night; an abandoned building, crumbling around the edges with broken windows and piles of debris scattered around. A rotting smell lingered in the air making her wrinkle her nose in disgust. Taking action, the fragile girl tugged her coat collar over her nose and mouth. The first thing that needed to be done was to find an open window. Or at least one that didn't have any glass in it.

Spotting one instantly. It stood high against the structure of the warehouse, going up into the rafters of the roof and standing high over everything below. The height didn't make it easy to climb, so it looked like she was going to have to use the debris as a latter. It was disgusting, but it had to be done.

Adjusting her shoulders, she climbed up, slipping every so often. Silla never was much of a climber, anyway. But somehow she managed to reach the window. Jagged pieces of glass stuck out of the frame, but the gap seemed just big enough. She was slender and could use that to her advantage.

As she was halfway through the window, she suddenly let out a small gasp. Looking down, she and saw a shard of jagged glass ripping into her side. It was right above her rib cage. "Ouch," She silently whispered, hissing in pain while blood leaked from the wound. Once she was through, she found herself on the rotten wooden beams of the rafters. Crawling along the beam until she reached the support beam at the center. She curled up against the wood, using her coat as a blanket, and prepared to get to sleep for the night.

Her goal in running away was making it to the center of the city.

She just wanted to make it the Upper Ring...

The largest zone at the center of the city, surrounded by a wall that held the city's most elite inside. The trip would take months for her to just get there. That is, if she was still in one piece by the time she got there.

Organ traffickers would make one's blood run cold. Literally.

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To be continued...