Year 2150
The air, the view—it was all suffocating. Surrounded by the metal scrap-made buildings crowded in a small city while the breeze carried the sharp scent of rust and cement mixing in the warm, polluted air. There wasn't a day that didn't make Enear feel sick of them. But the most annoying view was the repugnant statues towering over the plaza from the rooftop view of his school.
Those stone sculptures represent individuals who were once christened as the three Messiahs—the saviors—the scientists who were believed to be the reason humanity continued to survive even after nuclear warfare centuries ago. While they failed to preserve plants and animals, their technology compensated by integrating artificial nutrients and machines into the food chain.
Enear's green eyes burned in hatred as he fixed his gaze on each of their dull gray faces. He wanted to destroy them—see it fall and shatter into pieces. A satisfying idea lingered in his heart with just a mere thought of it.
For him, they will never be heroes. They didn't understand the principle of death. Those nuclear missiles were undoubtedly gifts from heaven: man-made forms of celestial grace to put an end to the sufferings of this world. It was the rapture—the mass salvation—the one-way ticket to a quick, painless death. But those devil spawns manipulated the will of fate which prolonged the agony of living. For him, they invented this new hell.
They were so stupid.
The bell rang, cueing the break was over. But Enear stilled in his position, motionless, unable to find any reason to get up and return to his classroom.
"Want some?" A blonde lad with bright yellow eyes suddenly appeared and sat beside him quietly. It was Dycron, lending him a pack of chips while eyes were glued on the statues, carefully studying every detail: From the intricate crumples of the lab gowns, the poses, and the accuracy of the stone faces for each holy figure, especially how the subtle curve of pride etched on their smiles are sculpted.
"Someday, I'm going to replace those statues," he grinned as he entered chips in his mouth. "Dycron--the greatest electrical scientist that will change the world!"
Those words made Enear's green eyes lie on Dycron. He remembered something like this before. A memory of him in front of the classroom, when he introduced himself and the teacher asked about his dream. But all those who surrounded him just laughed, including his teacher.
"How about you, Enear? What do you want to be?"
What did he want to be?
Enear switched his eyes to the thick gray clouds passing by that had never revealed the blue skies. He hated every inch of this world.
He didn't want to be here from the start.
"A corpse to feed plants," he said, didn't know where those words came from.
"Geez! Is your dream to die?"
"I guess."
"I guess?" Dycron repeated his answer with an unbelievable look. "You should start finding a reason to live, Enear. Take me as an example. When I become the greatest scientist, all my inventions will be passed on to our generations and will be taught in school. Those thoughts excite me to study well every day. Once I get my college diploma, I will apply to an electric company and steal their technology!"
"The break was already over 20 minutes ago, Dycron. What kind of studying well do you plan?" Enear mocked monotonously, still criticizing the clouds that were supposed to shape like pieces of cotton, forming different optical illusions–not a plain thick foam.
"What?" Dycron screamed in disbelief and checked his smartwatch. "How could the school forget the bell?"
No. You were just too busy worshipping the idea of yourself as one of those statues.
Dycron sat up immediately and offered his hand to Enear. "Stop slacking off! We're already late!"
Enear wasn't sure, but he accepted his hand and stood up with him even though he wasn't ready to face the boring lessons he wouldn't even use in his everyday life.
A corpse to feed plants. Enear was serious when he said that.
~
The sun was settling down, tinting orange to Enear's brown hair and pale skin and to every building and floor in the street. Half an hour had just passed when the class was over, and now a group of students circled him. A perfect place in a quiet street where no one could witness what would happen to him.
"I told you to buy me bread at break time, but where the hell did you go?" asked Jonathan at the center.
He tried to ignore them and continued walking, staring blankly at the wind brushing his eyelashes. Those boys in front of him felt more insulted and blocked his way.
"You really have a terrible personality, farmer boy."
Enear stopped, still looking directly his way as if they didn't exist. "Ganging up on a helpless man. Is that the definition of having a good personality?"
Jonathan smirked as his gang giggled. "I knew it. Three people to punish you yesterday isn't enough. What can you say about ten, huh?"
Enear finally raised his emerald eyes at him and firmly answered with his monotonous voice. "A ten times coward."
The purple darkness gradually devoured the world as the hours passed. Underneath was Enear lying on the floor, covered with bruises, and waiting for a light to appear in front of him. But nothing came. That means he's still alive. How he wished Jonathan and his gang didn't give him a little mercy.
He wanted to rest his back against the floor forever. Such luxury he rarely could have. But those lucky times didn't last when his smartwatch vibrated, popping up a blue hologram as the computer read the messages for him through his earphone.
~
A smell of dust from cement fragments, rotten garbage in the trash, and burning rubbers welcomed Enear at the midnight clock of the dark alley. The air might be a little colder than daylight, but the sun's heat was still stirring from the metals, making the place warm, and his black suit made him sweat more. Only the oxygen production from his smart mask at least cooled his hidden face.
Enear quickly leaned against the edge wall and yanked a knife from his hips when he heard a scratching sound. He carefully listened: crumpling plastics, gentle clanks of metal, and a crunchy chewing sound. It must be coming behind this wall.
He peeked silently and saw a cat digging up the trash under the white blinking lights from the broken lamp post. It shone its peeled skin, revealing blue and red wires connected to the metallic skull. It devoured everything that touched its mouth when it was only supposed to consume gas bites–a biscuit-looking food filled with gasoline designed to fuel robotic pets. But the robot cat had been broken, eating anything it could see just to survive.
He let himself be distracted by the mixed feelings in his chest. He can't understand why he felt bad over a lifeless thing.
Enear sensed a sudden change in the air. He quickly grabbed the wrist of a hand about to pat his shoulder, pulling it to lose the stranger's balance, and dropped her on the floor, together with her briefcase. The spontaneous lamppost light blinked over her petite body in a black suit matching a black gas mask.
"Chill. It's just me," a calm voice of a girl whispered while her body was leaning against the floor. Her hands were cuffed by his tight hand.
"Do you like potatoes?" Enear asked, even though he had never seen one.
"I prefer cassava," she replied, and Enear freed her. They have no idea what they are talking about, but those were the passwords they memorized.
"I'm Jiya. Your boss hired me as your scout for tonight." She handed the briefcase and Enear started to assemble the sniper rifle inside. A mercenary from other groups, or might be working independently.
"Q1," Enear replied.
"Real name? Like, Kyu Wan?"
"Combination of a letter and a number," he replied as he loaded the rifle with cocking sounds of metals. He then tapped his wireless earphone five times, notifying Jiya's earphones to pair. When they were done, he started to walk.
At day, Enear was just a regular student who slacked off on the rooftop to escape from the boring lessons and was beaten up by the bullies in the afternoon. But tonight, above his favorite spot, in the peakest position of the abandoned building, the warm breeze of night brushed through the seventeen-year-old's brown silky hair. Standing his elbows on the railings of the rooftop, gripping the rifle with his green eyes kissing the scope, he saw a green view of a man in a lab coat running in the middle of a devastated alley.
"The subject is now moving to your station, as you predict–," a woman's voice reported in his wireless earphone stopped in the middle when he pulled the trigger and fired a shot. Instead of splattering blood, white dust exploded in the air. The man continued running while holding his blood-dripping decapitated arm that was intact before.
"What just happened?"
"He turned his arm into bone as a shield," he replied, cocking the rifle to reload a bullet while following the man through his sight. Once again, he zoomed it into the head.
"So it's a classification, I see. I thought all they could do was melt themselves by secreting too much acid by accident. I never thought some of them were useful for self-defense as well."
"Not this time," he claimed and fired his gun. The head popped, splattering blood through the walls and floors. The body dropped to the ground.
"Leave the mess to me, Q1. Your job ends here now. Two hundred pesos will be paid to both of us in 2 hours upon confirmation. What a lame reward for such a dangerous job."
Enear pulled out his green eyes from the sight. "All you did is to watch and comment." He packed his things up.
"Don't be cold. We'll work often from now on, so at least let's be buddies."
Once he was done packing, he left down the stairs and routed back to the alley. Enear's body could finally rest from today's hard work but his mind would never be at peace with his conscience. Another soul died in his hands; another cast in his nightmare would come.
He might have wanted to find another job, but prostitution was the only option if he hated killing. It's not that he chose to commit sins over his dignity, but he was raised like this since he was young, programmed to obey all the orders endlessly, just enough to afford breakfast and lunch but had to omit one to save some for school expenses.
If he resisted or quit in the middle, the organization would hunt him just as he did with the subjects.
"Who dared abandon this adorable creature?" The sweet voice of Jia echoed in the alley while Enear was passing through the blinking lamp post. She was petting the broken cat no matter how it ignored her to chew garbage.
"You worked too hard, biting every opportunity that came in touch with your mouth. In the end, you're just a broken puppet by the error system without any direction in life. Wow! You and I have something in common, huh?"
We, Enear corrected in his mind.
"They're lucky, though," he said, pertaining to the cat, as he passed by the broken bulbs, lightening the old dirty walls and Jia's face masked with black metals. Her eyes glared at Enear's trailing shadow popping and vanishing through the inconsistent lights, waiting for his next words. His footstep stopped, as well as his figure.
"Robots have no emotions to suppress. And they don't need your sympathy."
Quintessence Nightmare | Huniyango