Chapter 1
Hello.
I am Carter Decier, and today’s the day I die. Or maybe not, but really, nobody ever really survives the open lands. Not with the monsters prowling, and stalking, my kind being the right type of meal for them.
I had never seen one before, the outsiders my people called them, the *inhuman* things. Over the last nineteen years of my life, I had been relatively safe, away from the outsiders, never truly safe from other humans but still *safe* nonetheless.
I would like to say the world went to shit one hundred and fifty years ago, but reading all those old world books, and lost videos at the historic archives, it was hard to think we didn’t have it coming.
One hundred and fifty year ago the records say a rift suddenly opened in *old New York,* and there the first wave of catastrophic casualty the world had ever known was born. Monsters, oddities, *outsiders,* emerged from the rift, and they were not kind, nor were they merciful.
We were *food,* just like chickens were drumsticks, just like cows were beef, we were food, and as time passed while we realized they didn’t oppose ti hunting themselves, we were *always,* the best kind of meal.
Humanity fought back, or at least we tried, as the records said, and we mostly lost, *badly,* like Mr. Godot liked to hammer on.
Today only 3 continents remain within human control, Africa, Europe, and Antartica. With the Great Wall constructed, humanity could now know peace, I never really paid attention in class about the construction of the Great Wall. The nations came together, tomato, tomahto.
I leaned back against solid metal, the tumbling of the vehicle made me woozy and car sick.
*You fucking liar,* my mind sneered at me. *Maybe* the containment vehicle wasn’t what made me sick. Maybe it so happened to have something to do with the blonde haired boy, sitting across from me.
*Solace.*
I glanced at him, biting my tongue from repeating his name outloud.
He sat, back leaned against the metal wall, his bottled green eyes looking up above, I would like to take a moment to swoon for my boyfriend, well *ex* boyfriend, but I was too busy being eaten away by worry.
A bunch for the worry of what laid outsider the Great Wall, within the Open lands, and a bunch for the fact that the boy opposite me despised me now.
*Being hated was more draining than it sounded like.*
I might have stared in his direction too long because those orbs descended down to meet mine.
Any other time I would be ranting in my head about butterflies, and how *handsome* he looked, but this time there wasn’t a warm smile, a crinkle around his eyes, or a twinkling gleam in his green eyes.
*Disgust.*
It really was the simplest word to describe it. Pure disgust in his eyes. His eyebrows pulled into a light furrow, and his upper lips curled up a bit.
For a second I thought he was about to say something. Call me a traitor, call me selfish, call me vile, instead somebody placed a hand on his shoulder.
“Solace,” a gruff voice called out.
My luck was really impeccable I must say because besides Solace was another individual that hated me. Dirty blonde hair, mossy green eyes, equally just as tall, with a somewhat resemblance.
Aiyodai. Personally I liked to call him the boy I betrayed, Solace’s brother.
“Something on my face, Decier?” Came the gruff voice, his lips doing a tilt to the upper corner.
My eyes stayed at him for a hot minute. “The same eyes you’re looking at me with, I’m looking at you with,” I responded promptly.
I could tell Solace was disgusted and baffled by my boldness. Well mostly disgusted by what I could tell. What kind of evil bitch would betray someone, and have to guts to keep showing their face around them?
*Not like you have a choice, Carter.* I really didn’t, if I did, I would choose to be far from Solace and the douchebag Aiyodai.
“Careful now, Decier, we’re moving a long way from the Rogue house, daddy’s not here to protect you,” Aiyodai quipped. “Oh wait….” He added.
I felt a rush of steam pervade my blood at the statement.
“I can do fine without my father, *Gacier,* I wonder if you can say the same about the opium?” I fired back, descending to a kind of low that made my stomach knot.
*I don’t give fuck,* I shouldn’t.
I watched as the face that had a close resemblance to Solace began to twist, his mocking eyes clearly showing anger now.
*Good.* Be mad.
He leaned forward, his big hands on the cargo uniform we were handed, “When we get to the open lands, you’re dead, Decier,” he told me like we weren’t in a truck full of people, like it was a secret between us.
“That’s enough, Dai,” Solace hoarse yet calm voice cut through the truck.
I flashed him a crooked small smile. “Liven up, Aiyodai, we both know we’re both gonna die out there,”
“Carter, that’s enough,” He repeated, his green eyes staring right at me.
I felt my teeth instinctively bite my tongue as I struggled to keep a somewhat neutral expression on my face.
*Solace,* I really wanted to call out his name.
Instead I swallowed, clenched my jaw, and looked away without a word.
I thought I would have to spend the next couple of minutes or so brooding melancholically while fucking Aiyodai Gracier bore holes in my skull but it seemed that whatever god that existed was being merciful.
The truck began to slow down to a stop.
Praise the Sun….. Or the Great Fog. Whichever one. It was really difficult to keep track of the influx of “deities” cults at home, *back* home worshiped.
My brooding came to a drastic halt as the sound of thudding echoed outside followed by the truck being opened, and the first thing that covered my vision was….. Red.
Red everywhere. Everything was Red, the ominous color bled into the van, tinting different colors into different shades.
“What the hell….” Someone muttered in shock.
Everyone in the van was in shock. It was hard not to, because when you looked just above, outside the truck, you would see a bloated red orb hung over the sky the sun was supposed to be positioned.
“Great Fog protect us,” a gangly kid with big round glasses muttered, his hand on a pendant of a black swirl.
I too instinctively touched my own pendant, my heart racing fast.
But we didn’t get the chance to be locked in shock for too long.
A towering woman, with a wide frame, and thick muscles appeared before us. Her eyes the shade similar to the bloated moon peered at us, just a hint of a smirk on her scarred lips.
“Ladies, gentlemen, miscreants, and murderers, welcome to the Open Lands,” she announced.
