Prologue

After a few hours of suffering through their mother’s lecture, Elliot was beginning to think that it was worse than the potential of detainment. The rigid scheduling of a society only just beginning to fully reform was beginning to take a toll on them. They hadn’t meant to cause any trouble, but it seemed to follow them everywhere. This was their second strike of the month, and it had only just begun. They wondered if their father would be any less harsh on them for this. Someone had to understand that exploration was necessary, and it wasn’t their mom. The memories of their father were very disoriented and vague, but they all idealized him.

       The rebels had assumed he was against them. They took his life without thought, and Elliot still couldn’t understand what they were rebelling against. Sure, they liked to break a few rules here and there. But those people had an organized rebellion against their life situation. A motto had been made for their force, though it was a shock Elliot could still remember it. The group had been disbanded shortly after their father’s death, and that was many years ago.

"They caged us like animals."

With what?

           The only possibility Elliot could think of was the walls surrounding the city and the colonies. But the walls were only meant to protect them. Elliot knew nothing of what it was they were being protected from, but it had to be quite the dangerous opponent if they were confined within the area with no choice of leaving. Besides, life had always been this way for them. For everyone alive today, in fact. Trying to imagine a life without the safety and moderate comfort of the walls was not only impossible but also unwanted. Without the walls, law and order would fall apart, people with criminal minds could run rampant.

Even so, they were almost curious about what lay outside of them. They were sure it was nothing. The world had to be overrun by something if they weren’t say to exist outside. No one was permitted to know of what could be seen over the wall’s edge. Speaking of leaving was frowned upon, to the point that mild fear arose when Elliot did something as innocent as think about it. The entire city was built with the idea in mind that nothing could be seen over the high and mighty barriers surrounding it. The tallest buildings, hundreds of stories high, branches causing them to look like like artificial, residential trees swung out over the city. Even standing on the hundredth floor of those buildings at the far end of one of the branches, you would not be able to see over the walls. So Elliot tried as best they could to find a different way to see over, to explore the city to some degree. They climbed to the top of the tallest building, they even tried to climb the wall directly. Of course, after scaling only about a third of the outermost wall, they were caught by a bored city watchman wandering the area. They were dragged home immediately, and it resulted in the loss of some equipment to the law, specifically Elliot’s set of high-friction climbing boots and gloves, a loss which would be mourned in the following weeks as they realized how difficult it was to climb flat surfaces without them. The hours after the arrest contained the obtainment of one of their strikes and a firm lecture from an enraged mother.

Being a combination of inattentive, moderately stubborn, and carefree, Elliot hit the streets again. Plenty of times. In fact, it was a rare night that they weren’t scaling the side of a building or sprinting down back alleys in generally successful attempts to hide from the authorities. There was no curfew in the city of D’nor and there never really had been, however being out after dark and climbing city property was frowned upon. The laws were strict within city boundaries, and Elliot would have preferred the carefree lifestyle of living in one of the smaller colonies for the lack of vigilance for runaway climbers. The only problem being that their mother would not have been able to keep them afloat for very long out there, so she dragged Elliot and their sister into D’nor so that she could continue her training in law. A smart move, on her part, because since then a certain Linda Schaeffer, mother of Elliot and Rosie Schaeffer, has become an extremely successful lawyer. In fact, in only a few months they all planned to move out of their small apartment in the outer district into a palatial apartment in Center City. Elliot simultaneously approved and disapproved of this idea, because on one hand, it would mean far nicer living conditions, but on the other, it would mean it would be harder to sneak out at night. Though, that could mean they would be less likely to get in trouble.

     As mentioned previously, Elliot did not receive only one strike this month. The second incident in them receiving a strike was not caused by exploration or illegal climbing, but in fact it was caused by being framed for gambling. In the as-of-yet unused district of the city, with areas awaiting construction and ruined houses awaiting repair, Elliot found a large crowd of people while exploring. Some people were cheering, some were jeering, but most all were making noise. After squeezing through to view the mysterious source of entertainment, they were unsurprised to find a full-on brawl in the middle. The opponents appeared to be a small spindly man and an almost mountainous muscular woman. Unsurprisingly, the woman was winning, and the man didn’t even seem to want to be there. Off to the side was another man taking people’s money, collecting and handing out ballots to fill out for people to place their bets. They were gambling, but what was there to gamble on here? The winner was obvious, even if watching the fight itself made Elliot quite uncomfortable. They had no reason to take a closer look, so they turned around and prepared to bounce. About the time that they reached the middle of the crowd, the authorities crashed the party. People scattered, however a large amount of them were unable to get away. Elliot was one of the poor victims of circumstance, and only avoided more serious punishment because of their age. Excuses about only being there to look weren’t going to fly, regardless of whether or not they were honest.

Author's Note

This is a story written by two people, keep that in mind!

Reviews

[Clayre]

This is excellent. Very nice world-building so far!

[WorldThawing]

Thank you very much!!!
- Aiden