Prologue
To me the world seemed normal but to my mom it seemed to be decayed. We’d sit on the wet cement - smattered with acid rain. Our grimy feet as close to our humble fire as they could get without being burned. There was a distant glow to her eyes as she stared off at the “terminal” as they pawed through trash, digging for pieces of food in piles of rubble. “They were once like us” she’d whisper, a forlorn tone in her weary voice.
I was seven when we first saw a guard he was wearing white sleek armor, that’s how I knew he was special. There was no dirt, he looked healthy and vibrant. Meanwhile my mother’s hair was matted with sweat and dirt, our bodies covered with tattered rags. “Mom, Mom” I jumped excitedly grasping at her torn sleeve, “look!” I shouted.
She shushed my gleeful outburst, she rushed pulling at my arm as she hid us behind a pile of garbage. The man scanned the area as if he were afraid and she watched him ready for the chase. The man called to someone in the distance, soon a younger man with lanky limbs sprinted towards the guard in too loose armor. The younger man had a bag of what looked like tins in his arms, he stopped just in front of the powerful guard whose shoulders tensed and he gestured at the direction the younger man had just come from.
The man appeared to chastise the boy who held up the cans in apparent apology, the older guard grabbed the cans, heaved a sigh and pointed at a concrete wall behind him. The boy placed his palm on the wall and the door shifted to the right. Both ran inside and the wall closed swiftly into place.
My mother quickly rushed to where they had stood and inspected the wall. She placed her hand on the wall as the boy had done and when it did not move he heard her growl of dismay as she slammed her fists on the wall.
Later he would regret not consoling her but at the time all he could do was ponder after the guards and his thoughts lingered on the clean and trim golden locks of the powerful guard, he shrugged the thoughts away and watched as his mom sobbed on her knees.