This is my first work, therefore:
- Please (gently) point out my mistakes
- Don’t rate it just yet: although I have a complete plot in my mind the storytelling may change a lot during the first few chapters (unless it’s five stars, I’ll take five stars anytime ^^).
- If you have time, quickly comment about: what you liked, what you disliked, what you found awkward, which passage you skipped, and what didn’t feel was realistic enough.
I hope you enjoy my small contribution to RRL
---------------------------Prologue: Into a darker dawn---------------------------
“As mankind faces annihilation, we need to entrust our salvation to a greater power. Our history is marked by men of exception, men with enough vision and strength to bring us a better future… Yet what could mere humans do against the Horde? This is why our organization exists! We make sure that people fit to fight against this apocalypse come to be! Ascended humans spreading great wings of blazing red or brilliant white to carry our hopes!
Yes, our methods lack compassion. Yes! We understand how some of you could even call them cruel! Yet what choice do we have? The only alternative to our work is extinction! It is not selfishness that leads us to subject our own children to so much pain and danger. It is hope! This perilous ordeal is not designed to let them save us, it exists to allow them to save themselves!
Answer me, citizens of the Earth! Will you, because of a short-sighted compassion, leave our future generation powerless to defend the planet that is rightfully theirs? Or will you continue to support our battle for survival? WILL YOU HOPE TOGETHER WITH US?”
After those final enthralling words, the spokesman of the Hope Initiative bowed deeply and left the stage. That he had not given any actual fact about the rejects scandal did not seem to bother the fervently cheering audience. After a brief exchange with his security detail, he exited the room through a small door situated behind the stage. As he arrived to the elevator he bade farewell to his bodyguards and pressed the button that would lead him to the roof where the CEO’s chopper would soon land to pick him up. While he waited for the elevator to arrive, he started humming a cheerful tune, anticipating his superior’s satisfaction at his flawless performance.
When the doors opened again to the night sky, he stepped onto the windy roof and nearly had a heart attack at the sound of an unexpected voice.
“Heresy!” yelled a familiar old man wearing a tattered windbreaker.
“What are you doing here again?” he replied angrily. “Are you stalking me? I have nothing to say to you, lunatic tramp.”
“You’ve done it now!” the other continued, undeterred. “Your cowardice led us to our doom! Torturing children… Tinkering with what should be left alone… And for what? Power? Hope? Don’t make me laugh!”
“Enough! As we have already said earlier this week, there is no such thing as rejects! The only deaths occur during training!” The Hope Initiative representative discretely dialed security.
“I know it’s a lie,” the madman mumbled. “But it’s not just about the rejects… Even the others… How could they not hate us when they ascend? Now you’ve done it. You’ve done it you’ve done it you’ve done it you’ve done it….”
He looked even crazier than the previous time he had seen him. Yet he did not worry much, after all, his bodyguards were probably rushing here, and the beggar looked physically weak anyway.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
As he started to relax, he took notice of his surroundings and suddenly froze at the sight of a helicopter on the other side of the roof. Its lights were off and it was completely still but there was no one on the roof whether it be pilot, passengers or bodyguard. Suddenly the darkness gave him an uneasy feeling. It couldn’t be his lift, otherwise it wouldn’t have been left unattended. But then, what was it doing here?
“Hello?” Compelled by an unexplainable anxiety gnawing at his insides, he stepped toward the abandoned chopper and away from the raving old man. Why would he be afraid? He had no logical reason to… And his superior logic was his pride and greatest quality, after all! There, you see? There was even room for a second chopper, his chopper, to land. Nothing to be wary of, obviously!
“Hello?” He had nearly reached the helicopter, and through the wind and the soft rain, the rambling of the beggar had been reduced to a buzzing in the background. He couldn’t even hear his own footsteps. He suddenly recognized the logo of the Hope Initiative on the empty chopper and had to acknowledge that it was the CEO’s. “Nothing serious could have happened, though,” he thought desperately. After all, the CEO, because of who he is, is the only person being guarded by two distinct ascended humans at all times: a Fallen and an Angel! The power of two archenemies, red and white wings combining together for his protection… How could a demon possibly trump that?
He abruptly realized he was walking on something soft that was muffling the sound of his footsteps. He slowly lowered his eyes. Feathers. Purple and ebony feathers everywhere on the wet floor. His mind started to be slowly overcome with terror.
“Why so much dismay?” a gentle voice asked.
He raised his head sharply. At the edge of the roof, so still that he had missed her at first, stood a young woman. She was wearing a jet black dress, the same shade as the long wet curls plastered around her pale face, the color of the night behind her. She couldn’t have been older than twenty. The water dripping from her face and the slightly lost look in her eyes gave her an aura of loneliness that momentarily entranced him. As she imperceptibly tilted her head and returned his gaze, he caught a glimpse of a dark shape slowly rippling behind the girl. The air was faintly pulsing along with the shadow, whirling and pulling him to her. His sight and his hearing dimmed until he could only barely hear the beggar who had started whimpering in the distance, far, far away…
“It cannot come as a surprise,” she continued quietly. “After all, could you walk unpunished after what you have done?”
Alarm bells rang in his mind at those words, but he somehow couldn’t manage to think clearly. A feather twirled in the wind between them. He absent-mindedly looked at it and immediately snapped out of his stupor. Terror stricken once again, he stammered: “This color… It’s not… It’s not possible…” The girl then took a step backward and incomprehension filled his features as he felt he was falling, falling, falling…
The next day, more than half of the Hope Initiative executives and employees were found dead. Most of them were reported to have a look of panic and bewilderment on their faces. The Wester News reported that only a few core scientists of the project seemed to have had the presence of mind to attempt to run away.