The world was not uninhabitable, and humanity was not on the brink of collapse. It was the opposite. The world was thriving, vehicles flew overhead utilising our Andemium for mundane tasks. There were so many of them, just flying above me; there were more vehicles than people in our caves. No one was even walking on the ground except for me. They had lied to me, to my people; we were suffering, so many died and suffered for them to live like this.
Above me, gigantic metallic structures reached for the sky, higher than even the fluffy clouds that my grandpa had taught me about; the sun burned brighter than all the light I'd ever seen in my life. Large tubes also connected the structures to one another. As I looked further into the sky, the building became more and more luxurious; meanwhile, the ground beside me was grey and dull, contrasting with the luminous skyscrapers. Here it was dirty, and I could practically taste the smoke and stench surrounding me.
I fell to my knees because of it. How does this make any fucking sense? Why have we been stuck in the shit while these fuckers have been living it good?
Earth has not fallen. How much of what Damaris II said was a lie? Wait, was she even real? I didn't know anymore. What do I even do? I was overwhelmed. I didn't know anything about this world. As I was still reeling from these discoveries, I hadn't noticed that two men had both rounded the corner of the building.
"You! Hands in the air immediately, this is a restricted area!" I lifted my hands up as one pointed a gun at me, and the other stood there observing me.
"Wait, this is a misunderstanding. I don't know where I am. I'll leave and…"
"No, I don't think you will. We've had orders to kill on site, and we're pretty bored right now, so I'd be more than happy to kill one genetically inferior being. You shouldn't have strayed from the pack."
Shit, my instincts told me the smaller, thinner man was about to pull the trigger on his weapon. I quickly rolled to my side as a large, bright light flashed past me faster than I could even perceive; it burned the side of my cheekbone. I had to deal with that weapon if I was going to survive. I charged at him as he jumped to evade. His jump was amazingly high. I barely grabbed his foot before he left my reach and slammed him to the ground. I drew my Talon's Edge and went to stab him, but the man thrashed and kicked me, and so I only cut his side as he let out a scream. As I went to fully subdue him, the large man kicked me so hard that I went flying 25 feet across the alley, barely holding on to my weapon. I felt some of my ribs groan at the sheer force he hit me with. It was then that I realised this was not a matter of killing these people. I needed to escape and survive. Luckily, the brute's kick had put distance between us. I turned and ran down the narrow alleys as the brute picked up the gun that the slimmer man had dropped and fired just as I rounded the corner. I continued sprinting for my life, panting like a beast, not a man. I heard a noise above, and behind me, I turned to look as I turned another corner and saw the slimmer man swinging across the metal tubes to catch up to me. His agility was like that of an animal rather than a man. Shit. He's making ground on me.
I continued sprinting, randomly down different pathways, but they all looked identical to me. I didn't know where I was going, and the slimmer man was catching up, but I had no visual on the larger man. I decided I'd need to confront him and started planning a way to fight him.
"Instinct and adapt," I whispered my grandpa's words like a mantra.
I pivoted to turn the next corner, but instead of running, I jumped and climbed higher. As the agile man turned the corner, I jumped as high as I could and stabbed his foot through his metatarsal. We both fell to the ground and groaned. I thought I had him, but yet again he began writhing madly, kicking and punching without a second thought. I jumped to his side as he played on his back, and tried to cover his arms as I began punching him in the face. At first, I only drew blood, but then I began to feel his face start to give as I beat him bloody; he still continued to wriggle like some sort of rabid animal caught in a trap. That's when I heard it. The stomps of the other man. I didn't have time to complete my onslaught; I jolted up, grabbed my Talons Edge, and as the brute turned the corner and aimed his weapon, I through his partner at him preventing him from being able to fire as I began to run away again, he still managed to let off another shot before I turned again and he caught my earn. My skin boiled and sizzled while I ran, turning a charred colour.
I continued to run like a beast escaping a predator. Luckily, as I rounded the next corner, I heard shouting, and it sounded like a large crowd. I continued, eventually found it, and did my best to blend in with the people. The two men never noticed me after that, and after an hour of searching, they left. However, to my horror, they didn't continue searching for me; they went back to where they had found me to resume patrolling. They were going to cut off my way back to the caves, I wouldn't be able to go home, and I wouldn't be able to find Cora.
I decided that the best move would be to get my bearings and understand the area, so that is what I planned to do. Also, I should wait until I can heal myself a bit more. Luckily, I bought supplies in my bag. I went to grab some food from my bag to eat, and I remembered the book that my grandpa made. I thought about how once I was out of this situation, I should read it.
After a day, I had learnt a lot about this area. It seems this was some sort of "slum of the city". There were many different slums, but this seems to be one full of mainly workers. Many people suffer from addiction, and there is little support for these people, and they are forced to work to get food. Essentially, it reminded me of home. The main difference is that they knew they were being used for slave labour, but could do nothing about it, and we knew nothing. Also, there was a fee to escape this place, even though there was barely any money. They were dangling the bait in front of our faces to make us labour harder. I was also learning more about this world.
It really was Earth, I'd found out when I'd seen a picture of the planet during my research, and it was labelled Earth, Luna and Seline. Earth and Luna, I knew from my grandpa; however, I knew nothing of Seline. I had discovered that Earth seems to have a second moon, slightly smaller and slightly farther out.
I also found out that I was now a criminal for being in that restricted area based on the description of what I looked like and the crime I've been charged with. It seems that whatever I had done was terrible because people would get paid 180,000 credits for me dead and 400,000 for me alive. Luckily, it seemed no one had realised who I was, or, if they had, they didn't show it or care about it.
It also seemed there was discontent toward Damaris II, who, in fact, was real. However, the discontent was not severe, and they seemed to accept her rule.
I also found out the sheer size of the world outside. From what I could tell, multiple planets were fully colonised, and humanity was far from extinction. There were apparently 11 billion people on Earth, although I could not know for certain.
I have also planned my way out of this place, although it was easy to think that it would be hard to execute. I needed to find a way through the containment around this area, which meant either sneaking past the guards or fighting them. Following that, assuming I don't die, I would find a ship and escape. From what I could understand, there were a lot of ships that weren't necessarily monitored, something about being privatised. I would need to steal one, and crucially, I would need to go to another colonised planet, not Seline or Luna, as they would also know that I'm a criminal.
However, the main things I was thinking about were my goals now that I'm in this situation. My family was dead, my loved ones were gone, my people were dust. What was I going to do?
I narrowed it down to a few goals. I would need an income source to survive. I needed to try to find out who those shadows were and eliminate them for what they've done to my people. I also need to learn more about this world to understand how it works. My usual framework of logic doesn't work; some people also seem to have different strengths, like my people did, so I'd need to understand them. I also need to better understand my own abilities, as all I had were vague ideas of instinct and adaptation. If I can, I will return home to try to find Cora.
On top of that, I need to find a way to effect the Legionary Sovereignty for the lies they have told and enslaving my people. Those were the goals I needed to achieve by any means necessary.