“What took you so long?” Arya’s mom asked as Arya himself trotted in through the front door.

“It’s fine, mom. I got the meat.” He held up the limp bag of meat and half-tossed it to his mom.

She inspected the bag.”Did you make sure to check for mold?”

“Yes, mom.” He replied boredly.

She sniffed the bag.”It smells a little weird. Are you sure it’s fine?”

“Yes, mom.” Arya repeated in that same, monotonous tone.

After more precautious checks, Arya’s mom deemed the meat fit for consumption and, hoisting it over her shoulder, carried it to the kitchen, turning back for a moment to speak with Arya.

“I’ve moved your books back into our room after cleaning it. Be careful to not slip, the tile might still be wet.” She informed him.

Arya stopped dead in his tracks. She didn’t go through his books, did she?

After a moment, he belted out,“ThanksmomI’llbeinmyroom.” and quickly sprinted to his room.

Throwing open his door, he quickly dove to his backpack and ripped it open. Rummaging through it, he pulled out his math textbook with a bookmark in it. Quickly flipping to the page, he glanced down at it and breathed a sigh of relief.

Inside the textbook remained a little pamphlet that the Adanton admissions officers had given him when they came to his school.

Arya had been keeping his dream from his mother for a while now, nearly two years. His mother was strictly against him going out of town. Ever since his dad had been lynched by a group of rich noblemen for stealing food, his mother had been very strict about where he was going. She wanted him to stay local and that was that. Except, Arya had developed a strange fascination with the Noblemen’s Circle. And since he lived at the very edge of the country, extremely close in proximity to the Border, he had not heard many stories about the Noblemen’s Circle. To him, it seemed like some mystical place where, somehow, everyone was happy and peaceful. Where everyone was fed.

Where everyone was alive.

Arya had lost quite a few of his family members. Those he didn’t lose became estranged as they were generally too far away from him and his mom to care.

He had lost his dad to lynching. He had lost his uncle and aunt to a strange fire that erupted in their small home. He had lost his grandparents to old age.

The rest fell to the virus.

It came like a storm. Wiping out most of the human population within a few years, the CRF1 virus was a monster. It was drug-resistant, highly contagious, and highly dangerous. It swept through the world, infecting human after human. Those infected would begin to show symptoms almost immediately. Their skin would start to “crack”, almost as if someone had broken a fragile sculpture. Within a week, the infected areas would begin to bleed. At this stage, they were known as the “Cracked”. After a week, their minds would begin to go. Speech slurred and violent seizures overtook the body. They were no longer safe for society. They became the “Shattered”.

They never died. Just lost their minds.

Survivors congregated in one, relatively contagion-free, area. There, they began to wall off their surroundings, thus beginning “The Border”. The virus spread through contact, so global leaders decreed that everyone entering this new, safe area would be checked for the virus. Chaos ensued for many decades, as the state’s technology was not advanced enough to prevent desperate people from climbing the walls and causing a new outbreak.

Eventually, the infections slowed and death rates dropped significantly, mostly due to the lack of life to infect. The virus infected anything. Rats, birds, cattle. None were spared from it (Curiously, except insects). It was also quite dangerous to kill someone who was already infected. Dead bodies became a huge contributor to infections as they were just as contagious, if not more so, than the living ones. The Cracked Virus, as it began to be known as, lived on its hosts for more than two weeks, feeding off the remaining tissue until they died too. At this point, it was more accurate to call it a cross between a parasite and a virus rather than just a virus as it seemed to have a mind of its own.

Humanity clawed its way back, as it usually does. The population grew again. Thankfully, the virus didn’t stay in the soil or plants, so farming was crucial to survival. Water was also safe, as the virus couldn’t find sufficient food in it. Towns began to be rebuilt. The Border was finished. It was heavily armed with militia men, who were ready to strike down any Cracked or Shattered they found.

Through this disarray and chaos, a clear class divide began to take shape. The rich preyed on the poor, returning society to its medieval times. While technology had advanced far more than ever before, social constructs of older time returned. Discrimination based on where you lived became more prominent than ever. If you were richer, you lived towards the inner parts of The Border, as you had quite a buffer zone, provided by the poor, to prepare for an outbreak. It was also heavily guarded, even more so than The Border. While those of the Nobleman’s Circle (the innermost part of the country) claimed it was to keep the Cracked from infiltrating the nation’s most important facilities, everyone knew what it was for. To keep the poor out and to keep the rich safe.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

To keep the rich on top.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

Arya pushed his glasses farther up his nose as he pored over the vast amount of textbooks in front of him. Finished papers laid stacked on the floor and loose leaflets were scattered about his bed. He was focusing on a particularly difficult statistics problem, one that required almost an hour to get the basic concepts, when his mother called him.

“Arya! Dinner!” The woman’s voice echoed throughout the house.

Arya sighed and began to clean up his deskspace, shuffling his papers into a neat pile and organizing his textbooks alphabetically. When it was all done to his liking, he responded.

“Coming!”

Dinner had an unusually pleasant air. Normally, there would be some feeling of hopelessness as the two sat at the table, but not today. Perhaps it had been the amount of meat that Arya and his friends had managed to procure (READ: steal) from Butch, or maybe it was relating to the fact that Arya’s mom had just received her monthly check. She, being surprisingly good at arithmetic, worked as an accountant for some rich business magnate. While you’d think that would pay better than $1,500 per month, just the fact that his mom lived near The Border instantly made her expendable. In fact, she was probably one of the lucky ones, considering she still had one. Most people leaving near The Border had to resort to underground drug deals or black markets in order to survive. Of course, these were heavily monitored by the aristocracy which led to many drug busts and police arrests.

Kicking a man while he’s still down. So is the aristocratic way.

Arya brought out two, slightly grimey metal plates. Using a bit of soap and tap water, he carefully picked away at the scraps of food from the morning’s meal. He couldn’t afford to damage these. Once they were clean, he dried them and set them on the table.

Arya’s house was quite small. From the entrance to their house, you could walk barely fifteen feet without hitting the back wall. The kitchen was about five feet in both width and length. Separated by a gate was the living room, which really was just a dining table and a small drawer of games that his mom and him would play every Friday. Nearby was a tiny bathroom with a sink and a toilet, with the shower being a faucet in their backyard.

This house only had one bedroom, so Arya and his mom shared that. His mom slept on a woven reed bed while he slept on the hard, cold tile. He had gotten used to it, and it was necessary since his mom had been wracked with terrible back pain for several years. However, that never stopped her from offering to sleep on the floor whenever she could. It goes without mention that Arya refused. He couldn’t let his mom suffer that much pain simply because he woke up with a cramp in the morning.

Arya’s mom served him and then served herself. She seemed to have seared the meat on all sides and sandwiched it with two thin slices of bread. Arya took a bite and was met with a flurry of flavors and spices. His mom had always had an affinity for spice balance and grew many of the spices in their garden, albeit very slowly due to the poor soil quality in their small backyard. Nevertheless, the spices always came out alright due to his mom’s attentive care.

“It’s amazing!” Arya exclaimed softly, not wanting to say much, lest he let the juices leak out of his mouth.

His mom smiled.”Of course it is. You know I wouldn’t let you eat something disgusting.” She leaned in closer.”Besides, I have some fantastic news and can’t exactly pair that up with bone broth, now can I?”

Arya nodded knowingly. Bone broth didn’t exactly scream “We’re doing AMAZING!”.

Arya’s mom paused, took a deep breath, then spoke.

“I got you a full-ride scholarship to a local college! How is that for news!” She beamed excitedly.

He almost dropped his food. He stared wide-eyed at his mom and didn’t move a muscle. He couldn’t think, couldn’t act. His mind had gone blank.

“Well? What do you think?” She asked in expectation, still beaming.

It took Arya a while to register that she was still talking to him.

“Y-Yeah!” he spluttered. “Fan-tastic! Thanks, Mom!”

His mother’s eyes fell a bit and she knitted her eyebrows.

“Arya, I can always tell what you're feeling. Why are you unhappy with this? You won’t have to pay for college at all!” She asked worriedly.

“N-no!” Arya blurted. “I’m happy! Really mom. Trust me, I’m just a little shell-shocked, that’s all. I did not...expect this at all!” He lied.

Arya’s mother’s eyes lit up again. “Really? In that case, I better start planning. It’ll take some effort, but I think I should be able to get a promotion at work. That adds maybe one hundred to two hundred dollars to my income per month. You usually get all the food so this should cover it!” She was practically jumping up and down.

“Wait, but what if you don’t get that promotion. We all know how they feel about us!” Arya contended, trying to temper his mom’s expectations, but it didn’t seem to work.

She leaned forward and kissed him on the forehead.”I’ll make it work Ari, don’t worry! It’ll be fine, I’ll figure something out.” With that, she skipped out of the living room and into their bedroom. Her fading voice reverberated from the room.”PLEASE CLEAN YOUR ROOM! WHAT IS ALL OF THIS?”

Arya said nothing. He had nothing to say, anyway. Anything he said would probably just dig himself into a deeper hole.

He had so many questions. How did his mom suddenly get this scholarship? Why hasn't she told him about this before? Who was rich enough to fund some Edge Dweller’s mundane college dreams?

Arya remained contemplating these questions as the day drew to a close and the sun dipped below the horizon.