Welcome to Omega - Jack Delgado (ebook audio reader txt) 📗

October 23, 2193.

The dull stars glared down on Omega City from their perches in the night sky, watching everything and nothing. Their light barely illuminated the polluted and twisting streets, but there was just enough for their constant watch. Eternal witnesses without hope of testimony, the stars looked on at the spectacle of human life.

Here a murder committed in a lit alleyway, there a man, broken and delirious, living out his last moments in a haze of alcohol and legalized narcotics.

There a journalist being abducted from her home for possession of anti-Corporate opinions, and here deals for the death of another made under the night sky.

On and on they continued, the dramas no one would dare play out in the sunlight.

But not all was done in malice and anger; look there, nestled between the monolithic buildings that served as housing.

Lovers, united in desperation and fear, holding each other tight enough to constrict each others breathing.

Two deserter soldiers, brothers in arms by necessity and by choice, standing by one another as their own platoon of comrades bore down on them.

On and on the stories continued, written between the shadows of the monoliths in blood and tears, stories of loss, corruption, death, regret, defiance, and the desire for freedom in this shattered and black world.

And here on the roof a helioscraper, two of the actors stood above it all and watched through a sniper rifle's scope.

A woman and a teenage boy, both of a unique element of today's society, watching the world around them through the magnifying glass. The boy would have appeared to only be about 14 or 15, with blue eyes, golden-brown hair, and a strong, lean body.

The woman was very much the same; tall, tanned, well-toned, and blue eyed. The woman stood, keeping watch as the boy observed the world around him. They had been up there for nearly six hours now, and the boy had seen enough. He got to his feet and looked at the woman, silent and uncomprehending.

He opened his mouth to speak, but she held up her hand and spoke instead.

"You want to know why it is our way to bring young ones like you up here and have you sit here for six hours, watching the city."

He nodded.

"We must know the world we exist in: we must know the city. You have never seen it as it truly is until tonight. You may have some idea about the danger, but no one really comprehends anything until they take a nice, long look around them."

"You wanted me to comprehend what their life is like: you wanted me to see the world as it is when the sun and the rules are gone." he said. It was a statement, not a question. It unnerved her to see one so young talk this way, with such comprehension, but he had always been this way. She nodded, and motioned him to the edge of the building.

As he joined her, she looked at him, then back at the city. The first tinges of dawn's light were beginning to color the polluted sky, dyeing it a rich orange color, and she knew that they should be getting back to HQ for the closing ceremony. But she had something to say.

She looked at him, and he looked back at her. She spoke in an undertone, smiling down at her charge.

"You didn't like what you saw, did you?"

His eyes were troubled and soulful.

"There was murder being committed down there. I saw men and women being gunned down in the streets, saw persecution of people based on nothing but dislike, saw people's lives being ripped apart with a knock on their doors. You know me. Do you think I liked what I saw?" She nodded, and resumed.

"I didn't think so. But no matter how hopeless the world may seem to you, we're working to change it: keep that in mind. You can't stop every murder, abduction, or enslavement in the world; though I know I would love to be able to. The best we can do, and what we are fighting for, is to stop the source."

"The Corporation." he whispered. Hatred darkened his voice. She nodded.

"If we stop the Corporation, we can change this city. We can end the crimes that you saw, we can dam up the river of shit history has become." He said nothing, but stared at the horizon, watching the dawn and thinking deeply. She looked too, and decided to wait awhile.

It would do no harm to let him see one last dawn in his life; let him see the sun before it was taken from him forever.

And then... it finally happened. The first rays of the sun broke over the distant black plain. Its glory was almost too much for the both of them, lancing into their eyes like sweet fire. And the golden shafts of light illuminated the city in a way neon never could, and for a time seemed to remove the gray and perpetual gloom that hung over the city. She looked down at him, and saw a tear rolling down his face.

She gripped his shoulder gently and squeezed. He looked at her, and understood it was time to go. They rose, took one last look at the rising sun, and stepped out into the open air surrounding the helioscraper. To an outside observer it would have seemed that they vanished without a sound.

When they reappeared, it was in an underground structure all the way across the city: the Omega Runner's Headquarters. As the woman removed the depleted teleportation module, the boy strode towards the man waiting at the end of the tunnel.

The man looked at the boy with a grim expression, and spoke in a soft basso voice. "I hope you're ready, child. Many do not survive the initiation."

The boy looked at him, face empty of expression. He nodded.

The man sighed and spoke. "Then go with my blessing and my hope, Dante, Orphan Initiate. Many expectations ride on your legs tonight." The boy took a breath, and stepped out of the tunnel into the still dawn air, where the other students waited for him.

The woman watched him go, an expression of worry on her face. The man noticed, and spoke softly.

"You've been a good teacher. He's well prepared for the initiation."

"Were any of us?" she said, her eyes troubled and sad. The man nodded.

"Aaliyah Sol-dari, we recognize you as a fulfilled Guide. If Dante survives the initiation, he will be your wingman: there to assist you always until he beats you in the two Trials."

"I understand and thank you, Forerunner."

The figure inclined his head, and the hologram stopped projecting. Aaliyah went to her quarters and fell into her pod fully dressed. She didn't sleep well: dreams of her own trial plagued her. She woke up frequently, unhappy and worried. It didn't help when the medics came rushing in with Dante's limp body in their hands.

Text: Front cover made by Aparna Veema
Publication Date: 10-13-2011

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