Author's Note (READ THIS PLEASE): In case you didn't see the title of the chapter, this is non canon, because I realized that if I were to have this be canon, it would conflict extremely with the first chapter. I felt bad for leaving you with nothing, and as such, will give you this while I get back in the saddle, as it were.(Puns) I am now working on the next chapter and will have it out as soon as possible.

“Where should I start? Probably from the beginning, I guess. If you’re to know what went down on Earth, I should start from when my life was pretty average…

It was early on in my life, I was fourteen, and like most teenagers, extremely inexperienced. Living in a city called New York, I could have had a better upbringing. As it was, I was extremely introverted and I only had a few friends. I found solace in the internet and talking with people online. I just looked around for random things that caught my attention. I could’ve had a better upbringing, but didn’t have the chance.

Cut to a few years later, and I was almost twenty. The government decided that guns weren’t in the best interest of us Americans. There was a strict ban, and anyone caught with one was treated as if they murdered someone. People got death row for owning bigger ones. By the time the people started fighting back, it was too late. The government had rid the population of all the guns, and they herded us into megacities. I can only assume similar things happened across the rest of the world, as later on I visited over in other continents and there was no one there besides me, and the group I was with.

I was in one that was pretty alright compared to the other ones. There were at least basic amenities. One day, there was a commotion out in the street of megacity A-11. A man was out in the street screaming about the end of days.

It seemed like I started hearing him in the middle of the rant. “There will be a hail of fire, and all of us will be purged! Just you wait!” I walked up to him. He was alright looking, for being in that shitty city. He was wearing a suit, with red highlights. There were only a few tears. His hair was dark brown, and shaken up. I was a little worried for him, because if people go crazy, the guards have a shoot first, if they live, shoot again perspective.

“What are you going on about? What hail of fire? Do you want to get killed by the guards for disturbing the peace? Do you want us to lose us our rations for this week?” I really hoped he would snap out of it. He looked like he was going to continue, so I said, “Come with me, and tell me what you want to say in a reasonable tone, else we lose our food.” I led him to a dark alley. There was still a camera there, there were cameras everywhere, but no one would interrupt us.

I was originally planning on letting him tell me, and then killing him, because I didn’t want to starve for a week. I gestured at him to tell me. “You are the first person to listen to me, and heed the warning in all of the megacities I’ve visited.” There were many things going through my mind, like- “You’re wondering how I got out. I didn’t. They took me out.” I immediately knew which they he meant. :That just made you want to kill me more, so I’ll get to the point.”

“They want to have a steady population of around five hundred thousand people here on Earth. The way they plan to do it is with these cities. They are going to drop a small nuclear bomb on every megacity to remove everyone in them. I’ve always been slightly appalled by what they do, so they want to placate me. They gave me fifteen positions to fill with people in megacities, so long as they follow certain parameters.” I had no way to process the infodump he put on me.

“So, how do I gain this position?” That’s all I really wanted to know. I knew they wanted a lower population from all of the conspiracy theorists on the internet, but I always suspected different methods. Fucking nukes.

“You escape this city by nightfall tomorrow, because the bomb drops at noon the day after. If you don’t, you’re dead.” Fuck. This is gonna suck. Getting nuked would suck more though. I made myself determined, and set myself to the goal. One thing that I knew would help me was; I knew how they disposed of bodies here. Once someone came in and said there was a dead body, the guards just came in, grabbed the body and threw it in the dump outside the city.

It caused the guards to skip our meal for one week though, and those weeks sucked. I didn’t want to put the rest of them through that, but I didn’t care that much. They would do it to me, and loyalty doesn’t get you far in this world. Had there been anyone who I remotely cared about, I would have brought them with me. So that’s what led me to going to the one person who I thought could lead in my absence, however short it would be.

He didn’t like me that much, but he liked me more than he did most people. He was also a hell of a lot better that all the people who concealed hate for everyone, and most of them were like that. When I told him my plan, he was overjoyed. The plan was a little like he hits me and makes me look dead, then go to tell the guards the code that shows he was to be the next leader. I made that as a contingency plan for if I ever was killed.

Once he got a few swings off, and I wasn’t as recognizable, I lied still and waited for the guards to come grab me. I didn’t know this until I got to the new towns, but here’s what happened as the one went to talk to the guards.

Something I saw later, via some recordings was this. The guy, Dom, ran along, a smart façade of bittersweetness on his face. He ran along to the fence, and called for the guards I described. They turned around and did a double-take. They weren’t used to anyone but me coming to the fence. Everyone else was too scared of them to come near. The guards, Sergeants Newman and Feierstein walked over. All Dominic had to say was, “He’s dead, Choices have been made,” a phrase I’d made for occasions similar to this, and they got into a fury. They actually liked me, because I was a source of intelligent conversation that wasn’t scared of them. There weren’t any guards of higher or equal rank than them, so they didn’t get much conversation chances.

He led them to my body, and they called for two of their guards to bring a stretcher. Most of the people that died weren’t given the treatment I was. They did jostle me every so often and I almost forgot to keep my eyes and mouth closed because of how luxurious the ride was. The Newman closed my eyes so I couldn’t see anything anymore. The walk took a lot longer than even the guards took to take a body to the dump. They set me down in a building, I knew this because the sun stopped piercing my eyelids. They set me on the floor and walked away. I heard a familiar voice say “You can open your eyes now. I know you’re still alive. Why would the guards go through that much trouble otherwise?” I opened my eyes to look at the one who led me on this path. We were in a room that looked like the rooms I used to live in, rather than the ramshackle buildings of the mega-city.

I stood up and took a look at him, and he had cleaned himself up. His suit was now clean of any rips or tears, or at least he was in a new suit. “Again, why would you do this Mr…” I waited for him to answer me. He looked slightly pleased.

“My name is Ian Markov. I am the head of the Intercontinental Taskforce.” Wait, I thought he was displeased with the rest of them, not in charge of them. “I’m sorry that I had to lie to you, but it was the only way to get you out of there before the bomb dropped. Your guard friends are alright as well. The rest of them weren’t useful enough. You see, you have a certain thought process that I enjoy, and would bring you out of the deathzone so I could have a conversation partner who I can speak rationally with. Sadly, I can’t always have nice conversations, what with everyone around being idiots.” I don’t know whether I like that. It seems foreboding.

“You want something from me that you’re not telling me. This isn’t just for conversation.” I had had enough experience with people like him, to know he wasn’t being fully honest. His people just have a type about them.

“This is why I brought you out, most people wouldn’t question it because they’d be too happy to be alive and out of the city. You’re pessimistic, probably due to my people killing your… friend, a few years back. It was fun, watching it play out.” When I heard him say that, many thoughts ran through my head, but at the forefront, I was thinking about memories I had blocked off. Why, why her? Why did he do that? What the fuck is wrong with him? What the fuck is wrong with him?!

At that point, all I could see was red. He had fucking pissed me off. I charged at him and punched him in the face. Hard. I was not at my most rational at that point in time, as you can probably tell, and he reminded me of someone special to me. He fell backwards, onto the ground, and guards rushed into the room and grabbed my arms.

I shouted at him, because I was enraged, “What the hell is wrong with you! You fucking bastard!” By this point he stood up and walked over to me. He grabbed a Kleenex from somewhere, and dabbed at his nose with it, which was bleeding profusely.

He stepped forwards, and hit me in the torso, breaking one of my ribs and drawing a pained ‘Oof!’ sound from me. He dropped the tissue in the garbage bin by the door, and said coldly, “Take him to the medical bay. Hopefully once his rib heals he’ll be more cooperative.” The lesson, engraved fully in my mind, circled around my head, as they dragged me to the medical area: Yeah, I’ll be cooperative, don’t you worry, you dick.

Once we reached the infirmary, the people there already had an area for me, they strapped me to the table. I’d looked up how to treat rib injuries in the past, but I still couldn’t tell you what they did, because once they finished I doubted any problems were still there. I didn’t test it, but I’m pretty sure. They then took me somewhere somewhat like a prison.

They sat me down on a bed and closed the cell door. I was still thinking of the person he was talking about and how he killed her. I sat and stewed on things, and planned to do whatever the bastard wanted me to do, then once I was independant of him to just walk away. He probably thought I would just do that, but in all honesty, I didn’t care. He was a piece of shit and if I got the chance I would probably kill him. But, I wasn’t likely to get the chance. He was important.

Fucking hell. I was in the cell for less than a week, getting food three times a day, but I barely noticed the time go by, because I was in a state of half-asleep half-awake the entire time. When I am alone it’s easy for me to sleep continually, and that was probably why they let me out early. They would have kept me in there for a shorter amount of time had I seemed to have broken, or longer had I seemed I was going to break soon, but I guess they got bored of me doing nothing, and came to get me.

Ian came in alongside the guards, and he looked extremely displeased. I stirred, and looked at him. He spoke to me, and I could feel the frustration in his tone of voice. “I wish I would have known that this wouldn’t work when I first put you in here, because it would have wasted much less time.” In response, I just smirked at him.

He gestured for his guards to grab me, and they did. He led the way to another room. We had a conversation