Chapter 2 –

The next day Arthur woke up on his bed with a splitting headache, the thin mattress pressed into his back causing it to ache in pain as he struggled to roll over to sit up. The dim sun barely peeked through the thin veiled curtains as he picked up the ceramic mug filled with water he keeps by his bed and sipped it, the refreshingly cold liquid slid down his throat causing him to shiver as it woke him up even more.

He sighed deeply as he looked up at the roof that had a patch of metal stapled to it, he had somehow managed to patch it up in his drunken state, but it certainly wasn’t pretty.

Though, neither was the rest of the house really.

He went over to the sink and ran the water as he looked at himself in the mirror, his dull blue eyes lacked energy and his lengthy chestnut and beard were as dirty as ever, he just couldn’t bring himself to use the shower, he hadn’t got the motivation to do it.

Today he at least splashed his face with water and gave it a good wash, but nothing further, it’s not like he was meeting someone special; Rather he had no idea who he was meeting, but he didn’t care enough to groom himself for a better first impression.

He yanked the fridge open as air not much colder than room temperature leaked out, he reached in and instinctively reached for a can of beer before he froze in place.

‘Right, no alcohol today…’ He wrenched his hand towards a pack of processed meat slices and slid two slices out of the pack before closing the fridge.

He had decided to go cold turkey and try not to drink today since he would be meeting whoever was coming to get him for the unit he signed up for last night, when he woke up this morning he wondered whether his choice was a nightmare he had dreamt up but when the message arrived on his holo-terminal soon after he woke up he knew his drunk self had screwed him over.

‘Do I even have any bread?’ He opened the cupboard and peered into it as a thin layer of dust covered the handle and insides, there were a few cans and jars with small labels but not what he was looking for, so he began rummaging around in the other storage units until he pulled out a cubed packet.

“There…. Ugh.” He peeked at the date; it was more than a month out.

He opened it and looked at the cubed bread, it was clean and white, almost sterile.

“Should be fine…” He thought as he pulled out two slices of the bread that felt more like a block of drywall, the bread here was filled to the brim with preservatives and wasn’t anywhere close to the ‘bread’ that was common in the old-world, so even a month past the expiry date was fine.

…At least, that’s what Arthur hoped as he placed the meat between the two slices and chowed down biting through the thick and hard poor excuse for a ‘sandwich’, slightly frowning as he grabbed some water so he could actually swallow the thing.

Then, he sat back down in his armchair and pulled out his holo-terminal and began browsing the news, he hadn’t checked it much for the past few months, so he wasn’t sure if anything major had happened.

…It hadn’t.

It was mostly just reports of products that the upper citadel has invented, status reports on the ten lower districts, the scheduled weather and event reports, things like power outages, accidents and the such, it wasn’t really of much interest to Arthur.

But there was one type of report that would soon to be relevant to him –

The War Report.

Yes, the Epsilon Citadel, all the Citadels, or rather Humanity itself was at war and one that had lasted nearly a century now, the biggest problem was that the enemies weren’t clear and arrived erratically.

“Where did they arrive from?” one might ask, the answer to that is simple.

Outside of Sol, the solar system that Tera existed in, quite often some alien lifeform will enter Sol and make their way to Tera to attack the life that lives there, they are known as the disaster after the disaster because they struck just when humanity had recovered from the great war.

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They are monsters that have adapted to interstellar travel using their unique racial traits, no one knows where they originated from, only that Tera has become a hotspot destination for their travels.

The War Report details the recent encounters and victories over these mysterious invaders, the detail isn’t great and it’s easy to tell that they rarely ever publicise their losses, but it can at least give anyone an insight as to the state of war.

And that state is as it ever is – a Stalemate.

Humanity is on the defensive, we have developed technology far enough that we can easily travel between planets in our solar system, yet travelling outside of it is still very dangerous and these creatures seem to be coming from much further than that, so we are stuck in a passive position.

And the reason why this is going to relevant for Arthur is because he would soon be entering a unit that battled these creatures, at least he assumed so, normally humans from the lower district would never be used as soldiers, he wasn’t sure why, but it was just the policy, so this recruitment was a surprise to him.

Either way, the reason didn’t matter to him, he closed the news app and opened the archive.

‘Maybe I should check the miliary records from the old-world…’ he thought as he searched for a way to kill time until his meeting was scheduled.

…

A few hours later Arthur walked through the streets of Lower District Four as he squinted his eyes trying to fight the hangover, the bright artificial sunlight wasn’t helping at all nor were the loud noises coming from the masses yelling at each other or calling out.

Such was normal here though, during the day the streets were chocked full of people trying to find a way to make a living while by night it was barren, only alcoholics, druggies or the ‘homeless’ were wandering around at that time.

He passed by the holographic projection of a tree as he eyed a large gate in the distance, that was his destination – the North Gate of Lower District Four, it led to the ‘Gap’ which was a large tunnel between districts that also led to the upper and central districts.

He eventually arrived and looked up at the titanic structure, the gate itself was easily twenty meters tall and thirty wide, it was a ridiculous size that made him question why a gate this big was needed, but he would never receive an answer.

He sat down on a bench near it as he pulled out his holo-terminal and double checked the message:

[ Be at the North Gate by 10:00. A guide will come and take your to your assigned unit ]

It was simple and lacking in detail so he couldn’t do anything but wait for this supposed guide to come, it was 9:30 right now so he was half an hour early, but he couldn’t help being tardy, he was actually nervous after all.

10 minutes went by.

And another…

Until someone arrived, but it wasn’t the guide, rather it was a young blonde man that seemed like he was ripe for fresh picking, barely into his twenties with clean peach skin and wearing a simple T-shirt and jeans.

“Hey! You here because you signed up too?” He asked Arthur with enough energy to power a city.

“Uh… yeah, you too?” Arthur replied, slightly off put by how energetic he seemed.

“Yup! I was so surprised when I saw that advert! To think they’d want to recruit us lower dwellers! I had to take the chance!” He happily spoke as he took a seat next to Arthur who slightly shifted away instinctively.

“…” Arthur stared at the man, slightly disconcerted by how happy he was.

‘Why is he so happy to be joining this unit? It seemed like something only desperate people would do’ he thought.

“What’s your name?” The blonde man asked, holding out his hand.

“…Arthur” he said, clasping the man’s hand; He wasn’t anti-social, he knew he’d likely be working with this man in the near future so being courteous wouldn’t hurt.

“I’m Pace! Four, of course” Pace chuckled as he shook hands with Arthur, it wasn’t really necessary to say last names after all, people rarely moved from the district they were born in.

It was 9:55 so there were still some minutes to space, so Arthur decided to ask the question that was sitting at the back of his mind –

“Why did you sign up for this unit?”.

“Huh? Oh that’s simple, I want out of this place” Pace stated his answer without an ounce of hesitation “What’s wrong? You seem surprised.” He then said, seeing Arthur slightly wide eyed.

“Sorry, you seemed like a bright kid, I didn’t expect that kind of answer” Arthur replied honestly.

“It’s because I’m bright I want out” Pace looked down the streets at the bustling but desperate crowd “In this place you’ll only get as far as the cages walls allow you to, no matter how much I struggle I’ll just end up with clipped wings” he then glanced at Arthur, more specifically at his missing arm “Though, I’m sure you know that well”.

Arthur was slightly shocked, but then he chuckled lightly “Unfortunately”.

“Then we’re two sides of the same coin! I look forward to working with you, Arthur” Pace grinned cheekily, Arthur couldn’t help but return a wry smile “Sure, but don’t forget I’m your elder”.

“Okay gramps”.

“Too far!”.

They both laughed as a small section of the North Gate opened up, and out rolled a metal can on wheels with a screen that said:

[ New unit applicants, please follow me ]

“Seems our ‘guide’ is here” Pace scoffed as he glanced at the robot.

“They can’t even send a human to guide us… what did I expect?” Arthur shook his head slightly as he stood up “Seems like it’s just us two, let’s go”.

“Right, to our new future”.

They followed the robot that guided them through the opened hole which then slammed behind them, they took their first steps towards their new future.

And had taken their last ones in Lower District 4.