Aran’s shoulders dropped, defeated. He heard the forceful instructions clearly and, obeying the order, he froze. He was now staring down the nozzle of what looked like a laser gun, and a Cynocast, dressed in sleek metallic armor, was positioned behind it.
Aran had seen the laser weapon in use before, but only from a distance when he’d stumbled across a working party of Regulators and Cynocasts.
The rebellious Cynocasts hadn’t lived.
With the laser aimed at him, he had nowhere to run and nowhere to hide. Taking a steady intake of air, he drew in what he thought would be his last breath.
Nineteen wasn’t too bad an age to die, was it?
He’d survived longer than most humans since the Regulators had migrated from their native planet and begun a systematic annihilation of all the inhabited continents on Earth. Earth, as Aran had known it, a planet he’d once freely explored and loved, was no longer the same.
The Regulators, intent on dominating the solar system, if not the galaxy, were now methodically wiping out Earth’s civilizations.
Where houses and soaring skyscrapers had once stood proud and strong, there was now only a flattened landscape of twisted iron girders and distorted blocks of stonework rubble. All around was a panoramic view of barren, desolate terrain.
Like many capital cities across the globe, Washington was no more. A year ago, it had fallen with the invasion, and the land upon which it had once existed had been captured and was now under the control of the Regulators.
Aran had never actually seen a Regulator up close. They stealthily cloaked themselves in a power field, making them invisible. Rumor was, they were lizard-like creatures that walked on two legs, and only when they consumed their victims was the cloak of concealment removed and they became vulnerable to an attack.
When the asteroid erased Washington from the surface of the Earth and a new city was built to stand in its place, instead of remaining on the surface, the construction had gone deep underground.
The new city was whispered to be superior and far more efficient in every way, and stories among surface dwellers were that the new design was nothing like the original metropolis. The reconstructed city was entombed in the bowels of the metro’s subway system resembling a caterpillar’s catalyst, waiting to emerge from its coffin-like cocoon into a butterfly. Washington New Under, as it was now named, was transformed into a hive of sleek white tunnels and vast, lustrous, light-filled chambers inhabited by Cynocasts.
Under the control of the Regulators, Cynocasts had rapidly evolved from the need to merge technology with the humans that had survived the invasion. Programmed to serve, they were people with the ability to perform manual skills and had become a high breed of humanoid and Artificial Intelligence.
Standing before Aran, and aiming his weapon with great precision to a point between Aran’s eyes, was an armor-encrusted Cynocast.
“What are you doing here, and who are you?” the Cynocast asked.
The shimmering heat of the sun bounced off the cracked, blackened tarmac of the disused road. And any main routes heading toward the demolished old city were lined with fire-charred remnants of mature trees that had, in another life, stood the test of time. They were now misshapen and distorted after the Regulators had mindlessly incinerated anything within sight that had been left standing after the asteroid had hit.
Silhouetted against the glare of the sun, the trees looked like shadows of ghosts and ghouls as they stretched endlessly into the empty distance.
There was no one in sight that Aran could call to for help, and escape from his untimely fate was impossible.
Unable to hold the heavy load any longer, he shifted the weight of his backpack from one shoulder to the other.
“Aran Akter. My name is Aran, and I don’t mean anyone any harm. I’m just looking for…”
“Looking for what?”
“Food.” Aran tilted his head and shrugged.
On the day of the invasion, Aran had survived the asteroid hit simply by being in the right place at the right time. He was sure that the morning spent spelunking in the caverns on the outskirts of the city with friends had saved his life. Their adventure below ground that fateful day had saved them from being captured and converted into Cynocasts. Just hours after an asteroid had hit the planet, the Regulators had arrived, and life as Aran had known it had ended.
Within the space of a week, the global world had shut down. Borders were closed, and freedom of movement and freedom of choice were no longer options.
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