Chapter 1

Looking through the bars of his cell window, Dante sat there fully entranced by the moon, hanging in the night sky, shimmering in a beautiful blue color. Dante loved watching the stars ever since he was a child and would spend his nights in an open market place or some other spot where he could see the sky leading to him often getting yelled at by the night patrol for breaking curfew.

Of course the 'Watch Dogs', as locals called the inner district police force, never bothered arresting a known orphan, due to the fact that they couldn't extort any credits from said child's parents. The most that would happen would be that the child would get a beating, depending on the mood of the team leader of that particular patrol. No one would actually arrest him because it would just cause unnecessary trouble and extra paperwork for the whole patrol team and in the end the kid would just end up back in the streets because no one had the money to take care of another person.

Unfortunately for Dante, he was old enough to be working, so as soon as the patrol saw him this time, they didn't hesitate to arrest him. Normally Dante would be able to get away, with his carefully thought out escape routes but this time he really outdid himself. While watching the moon earlier, he slightly dozed of and as soon as he heard the patrol getting close, he hurriedly got up to find himself surrounded.

Of course he didn't just give up and let himself be arrested. Bolting in the direction of where two Watch Dogs were standing a bit farther apart than the rest, but failing miserably to escape, as he tripped over his own feet due panic. The moment Dante hit the ground, the Watch Dogs took the initiative to relive some stress by beating Dante into the ground, at which point he blacked out. Afterward he woke up to find himself in the cell, with bruises, possible a fractured rib or two and a nasty gash on his forehead, that thankfully isn't bleeding into his eye anymore.

Depressed about the implications of getting caught by the law enforcement and knowing that his embarrassing escape attempt would quickly become known to his circle of acquaintances and his 'work colleagues', Dante was trying his best to distract himself by admiring the what little of the sky he could see through the cell window.

Seeing the vastness and beauty of the sky had always gotten his heart to start pounding in excitement, as he felt the urge to see more of the world. Of course until now, he hasn’t left his district, much less the city his district is a part of. Not that he hadn’t tried before. He had only stopped trying right before he officially became an adult at the age of fifteen and only then because he realized that rashly attempting to escape, with no plan or preparation, won’t get him out beyond the borders of his district, much less the dark looming walls, that cage in the people of the city.

Although Dante was never much of a planer, he had come up with a simple idea, or at least the beginning of an idea, on how he could one day leave this city. Of course his plan had one tiny flaw, his best friend James. Considering that his plan may or may not be a tiny bit dangerous, his friend James vehemently rejected his plan, going on and on about how the government kills escapees on sight and that there was no way for Dante to bypass the security on the city walls.

As Dante reminisced about James’ nagging, with a sigh, he waited for his friend to eventually show up and pay the watch dogs the required bribery. The watch dogs had probably already searched him for any loose credit coins or credits for short, usually plastic coins with a number on it, and after not finding anything on him, contacted his registered residence.

Considering he and James where still both registered at the orphanage, due to James wanting to help the children who still ended up there after both parents died to overwork, and Dante’s overly complicated line of work, James would have likely already been informed about his situation.

Of course because of the curfew that is still in effect until about four-thirty in the morning, James probably won’t be here for another four to five hours, if you include how long it takes for someone to get here from the orphanage.

So until then, Dante had a nice splintery wooden board to get some sleep, that was dearly needed in order to survive the endless nagging that James was definitely going to subject him to. So Dante made himself comfortable, utilizing years of experience from sleeping in similar circumstances and slowly drifted of to a somewhat peaceful sleep.

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Hearing the suppressed jingle of keys and the sound of metal softly grinding against metal, Dante was instinctively jolted awake just in time to see a slightly haggard man in a blue and gray uniform, slightly slumped over, obviously trying to sneak into his cell.

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Startling the watch dog slightly with the suddenness of him waking up, the watch dog gave him an annoyed look, disappointed that he can’t wake up his peacefully sleeping prisoner with a nice punch to the gut. The unhappy dog whined a little under his breath, before he abruptly turned around and left with the cell door wide open.

The watch dog gave him one last annoyed look, before telling him in a mocking voice, “It seems like your mommy has come to pick you up, please do come again. Next time me and my buddies will spend much more time with you. And don’t forget to bring all your playmates along, street scum like you doesn’t need any credits. You’re all better shipped of to work in the mines anyway.”

Hearing about the mines made Dante shudder, as he ignored the provoking words of the government dog was practically throwing at him. As he gingerly got up and followed the watch dog to the exit, he thought about the mines. Unlike the many rumors about the government and the things it did, there was no room to doubt what happens to people that go to the mines, as the government made sure that everyone knew. As a punishment to troublemakers and criminals, they would be sent to work in one of the multitude of existing mines to work eighteen hour shifts of intense manual labor. Any signs of discontent or even slaking would be immediately be punished with an electrical beating of the high powered electric batons that the mine overseers carried around.

“Dammit Dante, I had to use my savings to bail you out this time! That money was going to be used to help repair the orphanage, you dimwit. Why can’t you just get a normal job in the factory like everyone else?” Dante, still slightly groggy from the events of last night, wasn’t really paying attention when James suddenly started to lecture him, yanking him from his musings.

“Oh come on James, I wasn’t on a job last night. I was just stargazing. And don’t just start talking about those kinds of things here, or do you want me to stay?” Dante complained to James in a hushed voice. Grabbing his oversized friend by the arm, he hurriedly limped out of the station without letting James say anything that just might get him an extended stay in the locally hated ‘dog pen’.

Noticing Dante’s less than healthy condition, James gave him a concerned look before saying in a much or subdued tone, “Fine, but when we get home we need to talk about getting the money back as soon as possible. The orphanage really needs to be renovated if we expect the younger kids to survive the winter.”

“Thanks for bailing me out.” Dante said, as a feeling of guilt wormed its way into his heart.

“You would do the same. Just like when found me in the street back then.” James nonchalantly replied, reminding Dante of how he found James around fourteen years ago.

Dante had been wandering the streets aimlessly at the time, having just been dropped of by his father at the orphanage, who wasn’t capable of taking care of his son alone anymore with his weakening body, now that his wife had just died. It was then that Dante had found James, who had no memories of who he was and where he came from. Feeling a strong amount of empathy for James, he simply brought him back to the orphanage with him. Considering how this was a usual occurrence, that a child would wander in himself after the death of his parents, or when they were simply abandoned by their guardians in order to save money, the older kids, who at the time were in charge of keeping things running, simply accepted James and let him stay.

“Yea, I would. But still… Thank you.” Dante said, trying to express how grateful he was to have a friend like James. Back when they where younger James was actually much shorter than Dante and would quietly follow him around all the time, which led to them both getting into trouble all the time. It was only a few years ago when James went through a freak growth spurt that made him into the lumbering giant that he was now. The younger kids nowadays even liked to call him the friendly giant to tease him.

Thinking back, Dante realized that it was also shortly after the growth spurt, that James stopped following him into trouble and started to actively try to prevent him from being reckless, always worrying about what could happen to him.

Silently walking through the streets of the district, both Dante and James kept quiet, as they observed the place that they grew up in. They saw how the people were suffering, the houses falling apart, the people were malnourished and broken, most with a dull look in their eyes as they went on with their life.

The place that they were in was the lowest of three sectors in the 8th of 19 districts that make up the city. A person can, with exceptional talent and luck, be promoted into a higher sector, which means more pay and an altogether better life than before. Leaving ones district is considered impossible by most civilians, but can also be done, even if it extremely rare, but leaving the city is impossible for any reason.

Most people that live in the similarly built districts, work full time in various factories or production lines with workers in the higher sectors taking the roles with higher responsibilities.

Other than work, there is next to nothing that the standard person can do in the very limited free time a person has. Most children after birth stay in the hospital for their first year. After that the parents, if they haven’t died, take the child home and then immediately register it for the orientation facility, where they learn basic knowledge and language every day, in synch with the job schedule of the parents. The children continue to go there until the age of fifteen, which is considered the age of when a person can start working. The exceptions were orphans, because there was no one to enforce the children to go and due to the fact that they weren’t required to go in order to later work in the factory, most orphans spent their time doing illegal activities to earn some credits.

Leftover credits, which are rare enough as it is, can mostly be spent on extra materials that are used in the orientation facility, such as paper and various writing utensils. Some people use it in more illegal ways, such as bribery, alcohol, prostitution and drugs meant to enhance productivity.

And it was all these things that both Dante and James saw as they made their way home, despite how early it still was and that most inhabitants were still at work. But as James felt sadness and helplessness at what he could see, Dante felt disgusted and angry. He had always thought, even with the lack of evidence or known precedent, that life could be better.

It was for that very reason that Dante wanted to leave the city. He wanted to explore, he wanted to see more than this dreary place in his life and he wanted to find out if life has more to offer than he hopeless and gray world that he grew up in. And with only two things holding him back, the wall and James, he was nearly ready to leave.