Project Damien: Lord of Shadows

Chapter 1: The Day

The day started like any other, like a running hamster with no way to stop. The wheel turned and turned in the same direction.

Terrible.

The mornings were hard. Hovercraft powered by energonite raced noiselessly and silently through the streets - night patrols alternated with day patrols noiselessly and silently.

Silence.

Everything was covered in undisturbed silence, except for a weak vibration on my wrist - it was a powerful computer stretched on my forearm, which indicated to me that I should be at the lecture in half an hour.

Terrible.

I turned to the other side and stared at the blue sky, covered with white stripes. The energonite barrier pulsed and glowed, drawing energy from the sun's rays that refracted from it or were absorbed by it. I got out of bed and clicked the cancel button, unplugged the computer from my forearm and threw it on the table.

Not today.

Why am I risking the possibility of being conscripted into military service if I don't attend the last lecture?

I don't need to listen to speeches, lectures, conversations and efforts to encourage us on the day when our future will be decided. And I already knew where I would be assigned.

I quickly dressed, threw my hood over my face, picked up one of the most valuable things I owned - a hardcover book, one of the few that could be found in this cage - and headed out.

I unlocked the door with my finger and went out into the street.

Have you ever been in a dome?

In short - it's horrible. At every step there were robotic sensors that monitored every movement of people. Freedom? She didn't exist here. Once you made even one wrong move, it could lead you down a one-way road to hell - out. Or worse, to Arrax. I saw a couple of documentaries, a couple of lectures about a race that comes from lizards and they were strangely reminiscent of ancient dragons that I read about. And it was definitely not something I wanted to face, let alone fight against. But people learned to live with fear and did everything to avoid doing anything that was forbidden. The corporation has no room for people who don't know the rules.

Hovercraft hovered high above the ground silently and moved swiftly through the air, landing as silently as they took off. Sometimes a person didn't even know that a Corporation hovercraft was landing near him.It happened a few times that people, believing that they were outside the robotic sensors, were caught by patrols that hovered high above their heads and landed in front of them within a few seconds.

Be careful...

I know how it goes here. My best friend? He was drafted into the army a long time ago, and now he's fighting the Wildlings somewhere outside first, if he's still alive.

Who are the Wildlings?

People. Or at least they were people, thousands and millions of people who were infected during the first months and are now roaming the world, mutated, unthinking and eternally hungry.. They resembled zombies from old movies, and when I saw them I felt a strange mixture of amusement about it , how close some people were to the truth. Or how well they predicted the future.

I walked through some empty side streets that were tight and empty, a labyrinth between buildings, as space was limited, such streets were full. Most of the place was covered by buildings, houses upon houses, every part of the place was used.

Do you want to go sit in the park and relax from everyday life, just you and nature?

Probably difficult, but you can go to the center where they have virtual reality. At least you can think you are there.

I entered one of the dark alleys and looked up.

Now..

I quickly lifted the hatch, got in and quickly closed it behind me.

Sewerage. The city I lived in was built on the ruins and rubble of the old city, and the old city was built on the sewers. The corporation used the whole part only as a system of pipes and hoses to supply energy to the force energonite field that protected us from the atmosphere, which was poisonous. No one came down here.. well, at least they shouldn't have. People often come here, especially those who don't quite belong to those who want to live their lives as dictated by someone else. People belonging to the Resistance often came here, rescuing people they were supposed to take away.

However, it was forbidden to go there, and every time I did so I was aware of the risk. But I'm not afraid anyway.

Why?

I climbed over the wall where one of the drains poured water out into the lake of filth and sh*ts and looked at a piece of nature. The trees were tall and thick - the trunk could be several meters in diameter and it was so tall that the highest branches reached the level of the dome. The sky was purple, with swirling clouds that had something of blue, red, purple, and black in them. Clouds, at least I thought they were clouds, since I didn't learn about that at school.

About the world.

People knew very little about the world we live in, since one had to know how to survive outdoors only in the army. And even then, he only got a crash course at first.

After climbing for a while, I found myself at the bottom, in grass that was about knee high, and I sat down on a stone where I opened a book and decided to read for a while before the System enlists me in the army..

I was immune.

That was the reason why I hated school, it seemed useless to me and the reason why the life I lived meant nothing to me and I had no hope like others who believed and hoped..

I knew where they would put me, I knew where I would end up and that I wouldn't survive it in the first place.