Zombies, zerstörte Erden und Planet XA31.80 – Dystopien mit der GYQ2b

Die Klasse GYQ2b des Beruflichen Gymnasiums für Gesundheit hat im Englischunterricht dystopische Geschichten über die mögliche Zukunft der Menschheit entwickelt. Und diese Zukunft wird übel und gefährlich…

Aber am besten lest ihr die Geschichten selbst…

Bild Dystopische Geschichten

Dystopische Geschichten sind in unserer heutigen Gesellschaft stark verbreitet. Normalerweise lesen wir sie in Büchern, schauen sie in Filmen oder Serien. Für die Mehrheit von uns war eine Dystopie sehr weit entfernt und eher etwas Fiktionales. Jedoch ist sie heutzutage greifbar nah. Nicht nur wegen Corona, sondern auch wegen des herzbrechenden Krieges in der Ukraine. Aufgrund von vorherigen Jahren mit vielen Lockdowns, Hamstereien, Panikkäufen, Maskentragen und dem Leben in Angst, haben wir uns dazu entschieden, unsere eigenen individuellen Dystopien im Englisch Unterricht zu verfassen.

Von Welten mit Zombie-Attacken zu Welten mit unglaublichen Geheimnissen ist alles enthalten.

Wir hoffen, dass unsere dystopischen Geschichten spannend zu lesen sind und dass ihr viel Spaß beim Lesen habt.

Mit freundlichen Grüßen

GYQ2b

 

Dystopian stories are common in our society today. Normally we read them in books, watch them in movies or series. For the majority of us a dystopia was far away and more of something fictional. But nowadays it’s within reach. Not only because of Corona but also because of the heartbreaking war in Ukraine.

Due to previous years with many lockdowns, food hoardings, panic buyings, wearing masks and living in fear we decided to create our own individual dystopias in our English class.

From worlds with zombie attacks to worlds with incredible mysteries, everything is included.

We hope, that our dystopian stories are exciting to read and that you enjoy them.

With kind regards

GYQ2b

Direkt zur Geschichte von Justus W., Alaa Meskineh, I. K., Lorena, Robert Klee, Ben Waldhoff


Between the planets

By Justus W.

…A loud explosion. Glass splinters sting into the air. A flash as bright as if you are looking right into the sun …

Another galaxy. 350 years later. The radioactive radiation illuminates Taylor’s polyethylene suit in their space capsule. They are number 568 who have wanted to return to planet Earth since the nuclear war in order to contain radioactive radiation. Every team before them failed in the attempt to do so shattered 3.4 million miles before reaching the Earth. Taylor is the great hope for leading people back to Earth.

They and almost seven billion other beings that were developed with the highest cognitive properties to gently lead mankind back to Earth thanks to the latest genetic engineering of the Radio Force. Only then can they continue to reproduce and win the fight for survival.

Taylor is part of the Radio Force – the most powerful institution on the planet XA31.80 – which regularly sends its genetic tests like Taylor to Earth in the fight against radiation. XA31.80 is a not very large planet whose surface approaches Earth by 200,000 miles every minute. So, there is not much time before XA31.80 has reached critical proximity to Earth and disappears from the galaxy forever. Mankind has already disintegrated to the ground like grains of sand due to the nuclear war. 

In their polyethylene suits, they are standing in front of the window. Earth’s radiation is increasing.

            “How much uranium do you still have?”, Kyle asks from the Radio Force Technology Center.

            “Not much left. But enough” Taylor responds when they look at the display, which shows 298,000,000 cubic meters.

Taylor is approaching Earth. Despite its polyethylene coating, the radiation deforms the capsule into a wrinkled pea.

            “Reduce your speed! You are getting faster and faster!”, says Chief Hayden to Taylor.

Warning lights flash in the cockpit. The energy of the Earth pulls Taylor toward it more and more. They are threatened with what happened to 567 beings of their own kind before. But it works. The capsule succeeds in reducing its speed and falls as a tin can on a destroyed airfield of a military airport. This is exactly where they must be. Taylor looks around the battlefield. Due to the gamma waves, the remains of the ground hangars swim before his eyes. Next to them is a melted wreck of a fighter jet. It must have been here. Taylor manages to store the remains of the nuclear explosive devices in a safe box. Because of the enormous energy that still exists here, the box begins to contract.

A signal reaches the technology center. The attempt must have been successful. Initial measurements show that the Earth’s atomic anergy has decreased by three quarters. Sufficient enough to now return the first people back to Earth. Less than twenty minutes later another capsule starts from the Radio Force Technology Center towards Earth. What initially seems to be successful can be seen a little later in the increasing number of speed indicators.


The wasteland

By Alaa Meskineh

The world is turning yellow. The idea of plants has become very strange. Nature has become a dream. The world knows the color green only through old books and some pictures. No, it is not a desert. We are in the countryside. But there is no nature. Pollution, starvation, disease, suffering, poverty. These terms we hear every day in this world. Even the animals have died. How could they live? No grass... no water. But who caused that? We did. We destroyed the environment. But no one could foresee that this would happen so soon. The survivors are only those who have sufficient financial capacity. Those who own the last plants that have not yet become extinct. Now we are in the future, but not the future we hoped for. It's a terrifying future. Everything works like machines. Even humans have become like robots. No feelings, no emotion, no mercy. But people can't be blamed. They have been deprived of their most basic rights. There is no right to live or to eat. Nobody can talk or give an opinion. It is a complete dictatorship. The strong one is the one who has money and power. In this dystopia, I ask myself over and over again: Is this the future, or has a time machine taken us back thousands of years? I do not know. Are we in the stone age? There are just some types of plants that are considered scarce. The water is dried up and the land is barren. People kill each other in order to survive or to get food. If you look at the numbers, you will find yourself in the year 2060, but it does not feel like that. However, it's the future. Do you know why? Because the future we sought has brought us here, to this situation. The use of plastic, disregard for the importance of the environment, pollution from factories, deforestation and killing animals are the most important causes of our current state. The lack of nature and environmental pollution have wiped out life.  Diseases spread rapidly among people.  The death rate due to disease, famine, pollution and murder has become much higher than the birth rate. People are divided into two parts, not to mention the classes in society, the rich and the poor, but people's motives differ from each other. Some people are motivated to live even at the expense of others without thinking of anyone and this has worsened the dystopian world. The minority tries to change something. They are trying to create the green color in the wasteland again. They want nature back because they know that this is the only way to end our dystopia. What if they don't succeed in changing the world?  The colorless world will collapse.  Yes, it is the end of the world.  Humans are related to nature and they can't survive without it. I mean that makes sense and is logical. Although people are horrified by the end of the world, nobody can change the truth. It's already late. Even the air is no longer breathable. Pollution overpowers everything.  Unfortunately, we now understand the importance of nature. We were busy developing new technologies and changing the world to a more modern one. But we neglected the main part of this universe. It's the end.


Coldland

by I.K.

United Kingdom, England                               Year: 2064

I hear a ringing in my ears and moan aggressively. It’s 5:00 am which makes me want to destroy this vicious little thing. Why do I actually have to live this life?

I leave my lovely bed with depressive and suicidal thoughts, only to go to the bathroom so I can join society without scaring it to death. In the meantime I watch the news on the screen next to the bathroom mirror. Yes, our world -I mean the government- thinks it’s necessary to use screens everywhere possible. I have a little feeling that they might survey us with them. However, I may be a little paranoid about that.

My face begins to shine as I notice the bittersweet smell of Arabian coffee beans, while I enter my tiny sanitized kitchen. My second favourite place in this flat.

I wait till my breakfast comes out of the machine. It’s pretty difficult to explain how this machine works if you don’t know it yourself. As far as I know it makes your meal, which you select on the screen, with healthy ingredients – if you define powder-packs and disgusting-looking liquids as healthy.

Our world is irrationally anxious about diseases, pathogens and anything that can harm people and their efficiency. Unfortunately, this leads to wearing masks outside, having cleaning-robots everywhere and even temperature measurements through camera surveillance. The government, especially Harris Thompson, justifies its actions with an improved society that is healthier than ever. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. At the time you are born, you get thousands of checks; genetics, intelligence, motoric behaviour and everything like that. The schools have a similar system and categorise you accordingly. However, people with low intelligence and health problems don’t exist in our world. They are sent to a different planet named “next opportunity” and you never see them again. Harris Thompson explains, that the world has to be separated into different colonies to exist in peace. Well, personally I don’t think that this is the best way to live. Families get divided and destroyed. Just think about how you would feel if someone took your new-born away because it has a high risk to develop cancer. Sounds crazy and cruel to me.

The machine makes a weird noise which tells me that my breakfast is ready to eat. Unbelievable how that powder mixture creates a beautifully cooked omelette. I wait about 30 minutes after eating, so I can brush my teeth again. Ugh I am so tired of this routine.

After brushing my teeth, I hand out my swab test to a small machine in my flat, which analyses my health. Each time the test shows a health percentage of 80 to 90 percent, I get a mandatory doctor’s appointment. I don’t think that this is a coincidence.

Well, I have 94 percent. Yey.

Before I leave my flat, I attach my digital sign on my blouse. It’s a screen which tells everyone, how healthy you are. Crazy, right? Even more absurd is the fact, that there are places that you can only enter if you have a specific percentage. My friend didn’t want to meet me, because I had 85 percent on one particular day. I have never seen anyone with a percentage under 70 so far- maybe I just live in a healthy city. I don’t know.

While I close my front door, I see my neighbour looking into my direction. I greet him with a smile and make my way to the university. Every time I walk this path, I feel like something is watching me, but whether I turn around or not there is nothing. As I walk through the forest, I get a strange feeling in my stomach. Have you ever had the feeling that something is going wrong? Because that’s how I feel right now and I can’t figure out why. Normally this way calms me down- but not today.

I leave the forest and keep walking on the footpath. Strangely, I see people running towards me and I frown. What is happening here? While slowly walking on, people run past me with fear in their eyes.

Suddenly a shrill scream echoes in the air and my heart starts to race. I try to go a little further and notice something, which causes a shiver running down my spine. The air gets cold around me and I begin to tremble.

A woman lying on the ground with a man sitting on her while he bites her neck. The woman is screaming for help but everyone is running away. I see how she gets unconscious and decided to walk to her. But suddenly icy hands grip my arms and pull me away. “Come!” yells the man.

I follow him but every second my head turns to the woman on the ground. The man -or whatever this is- is attacking other people now. I see the corpse stand up and run to others. I am frightened. What is this?!

While the man and I are running away from this disaster, the sirens are starting. The helicopters are flying to the crime scene. Explosions, cold dark air and people screaming everywhere. My eyes are wide open and I watch the man pulling me to a red car. Why is he helping me? “Get in the car!” is all I am hearing right now. As I open the car door, I recognize that my university is burning and people trying to escape the creatures.

After closing the door, the man on the driver’s seat hits the gas. “Jesus. Did you see what happened there?!” he asks. “I-I don’t k-k-know. What was that?! Why did they attack each other and why the f*ck did this woman rise from the dead? Like… HOW?!” I yell. I am so confused and scared. How is this even possible?

“You saw that too? OMG. It doesn’t make any sense at all! Where they ever human? Vampires? Aliens?” the man replies. “They seemed to be something like zombies actually. Like- like in the movies, you know?” I stutter. “What are we supposed to do now? Shall we hide?”

“Don’t worry, I have a big house outside of town. It’s safe but we should get some groceries. I don’t know what the f*ck is going on and what happened there, but I don’t feel good staying here,” he says. “Something bad is going to happen and I can feel it in my bones.” , “My name is Grayson by the way.”

“Delilah,” I whisper.

“What?”

“My name is Delilah. Delilah Scott,” I repeat.

“Cool. Okay, I know a big grocery store here. It should be… right here. Look!” he replies and points with his finger to a store. The doors are open but it seems to be empty. “We have to be quick so get yourself a trolley and collect everything that we could need. And hygiene products of course,” Grayson adds.

I walk through the sections and get everything that could be useful.

Grayson and I fill the trunk with everything and drive to his house in an hour.

Everything is so quiet and peaceful here and I note that Grayson didn’t lie about the safety of his house. It’s surrounded with high fences and many cameras.

He parks his car into his garage and the doors close behind us. “Now let us get everything in the house. I would like to see what is going on out there,” Grayson says.

“This is not a test. This is the emergency broadcast system announcing the attack of mutated people. According to the police the species is extremely dangerous and infectious. Please stay in your house, shut the doors and activate security systems. May god be with us,” says the reporter on television with a scared face.

Grayson sits down and covers his face with his hands.

I shake my head. “This can’t be true.”

“How do you think did this happen?” Grayson asks. “I mean, something caused this mutation, right? Did they get a virus, consume contaminated food or was this a laboratory accident?”

“I don’t know.” I reply,” My professor in biology talked to me about a project and asked if I wanted to join it for my PhD:”

Grayson looks surprised and raises his eyebrows. “You are doing your doctorate?”

“Yeah. I do research about humans and the effects of viruses on their DNA. But I don’t believe, that this mutation was caused by a virus. I don’t want to believe it:” I confess.

I feel nauseous. This whole situation seems like a bad nightmare. While I am overthinking everything, I hear a ringing sound from my phone. Why does my professor call me?

I take the phone and hear heavy breathing noises from the speakers. “Ms Scott?! Are you there?” he asks quickly. “Yes. I am. What’s going on there?” I respond loudly. “Does this mutation have to do anything with the project?”

“Ms Scott, I don’t have a lot of time to tell you what happened. But yes, the viruses we experimented with, infected another lecturer at the university and attacked everyone. It spreads quickly and most likely via bites.” he takes a break and I hear glasses shatter. “I don’t know how much time I have. The whole city is infected. I-I had the theory that- that people get infected so fast because of their weak immune system. Aahhh-,“ he screams painfully. I panic, “Mister Williams?! Hello?! Can you hear me?”

Abruptly his screaming ends and all I can hear are animal-like noises. I hang up the phone with trembling hands. Grayson looks at me with curious eyes. “You- You were right. The virus comes from the laboratory,” I explain to him.

I want to cry about this awful situation. This is the worst-case scenario I could have imagined. What should we do now? Stay in the house? For how long?

“Grayson, I am so afraid. I-I don’t know you. I don’t know what our next actions will be. I don’t want to die.” I break down. It feels liberating to let everything out.

Grayson gives me a soothing hug while he tells me, that everything will be alright but my brain is so numb that I can’t say anything to him back. We’ve known each other for less than an hour but it feels like I’ve known him for ten years. I am glad he picked me up. Otherwise, I would be dead by now.

We flinch as we unexpectedly hear a crash outside. I run to the windows and see a huge crowd of zombies on the street. The mass reminds me of a tsunami.

I let out an extremely loud scream and move away from the window. Synchronously the creatures turn their head in my direction and look straight into my eyes like an animal looking at its prey.

Shit. 


The Implant Fantasy

Today I woke up like every other day in my little room. I had another dream of running in a beautifully smelling green field. I feel so free but then I wake up in my living nightmare. In the actual world I live in there is no more green or sunshine, there is just darkness. Centuries ago the Third World War ended and the people in power realized they didn’t only destroy 90 percent of the population, but also our beautiful earth. We didn’t have any clear water left or fields to grow food in. Some places of the earth are still not survivable. I live in a city that’s completely isolated from the outside world. Our government built a wall that’s keeping the radioactive air outside and we have oxygen within, so we don’t have to wear protection clothing. Today the population and the humans have changed. We have so much technology that we mostly don’t have to work because robots are working in our factories now. We also have so many rules now to prevent further conflicts and wars with the other safe sections. Our government created a little implant that is placed in your neck we’re the brainstem is. This way they collect our data. For example what you eat, what you think about and so much more. My friend Allison was an engineer, one of the best. She helped to build our wall that keeps us from the outside and the oxygen system. But she was against the implants we all got at birth. She tried to disconnect her own implant and tried to stop the implant from going into the thoughts of the people. But she got caught when removing her own. Within our laws there is one punishment were there is no going back. Allison was kept in one of the government‘s prisons and a few weeks later when all of the evidence was collected, she was sentenced. As we all thought she was brought outside the walls, into a very painful and agonizing death. The radioactive air would take ten minutes to kill her. And these ten minutes were shown on every monitor in our city to warn us about being like her. As Allison was dying the whole city went quiet. After she was finally free, me and the others wanted to use my keycard to the government‘s office where they all had a meeting. What they didn’t knew Allison was successful in being able to disconnect the implant without killing the person. She disconnected all of our implants. As we made our way up the building and one door after another opened, we finally all stood in front of the meeting room. I used my keycard one more time and the final door opened. Hopefully to our freedom.


Above Zero

by Robert Klee

Jeff, the leader of a huge oil company, looks out of his window as he‘s sipping the whisky in his glass. He takes a deep breath. „Yes Mr. Kaplan. Of course, we can maintain the oil flow under these circumstances.“ The huge wooden door to Jeff‘s Office flies open out of nowhere. „I hate you dad! The entire climate change is your fault!“ Jeffs daughter angrily shouts at him. „Sarrah, be quiet! I got business to do.“ Jeff desperately tries to hold his phone in a way that the man on the other end of the line doesn‘t hear what‘s going on. „Dad you can‘t be serious. Millions are dying of heatstroke and all you think about is pumping even more oil? Don‘t you think you have already destroyed the earth enough?!.“ Jeff seems to get annoyed. „Sarrah stop mumbling about your stupid climate change again. There is no such thing as climate change, it‘s simply getting hotter. And why the hell would that be my fault?“ Sarrah looks at him in disbelief. „It is 40°C outside. We fled to our safe house and you think there is no climate change?“ „Why can‘t you be grateful that we even have a safe house? Maybe people are dying, but you and me, we are safe. Isn‘t that the most important thing?“ „If you and the other stupid oil companies hadn‘t exploit the earth that much everyone would be fine and not just us“ Sarrah ran out crying. „Sarah. Come back!“ He stumbles after her. As they both left the room a voice rang out of the telephone: „Hello? Can we finish business now?“

Jeff arrived at the main entrance hall of the safe house as he heard a soft knock on the entrance door. „Help me please. I‘m dying, I‘m so thirsty.“ Jeff looked at the door in fear and shouts „Who are you? Go away or I will shoot you“ Jeff prepared himself for a fight. „Please sir, just a little drop of water. It’s so hot outside. Not a single plant, a single creature can survive this. It’s all just dry desert now.“ „No I can‘t let you in. This is my property and my water. I have worked for it my whole life.“ „ple-a-se s-ir.“ The man in front of the door colapsed. „Hello, are you still there? Go away!“ Jeff looked through the entrance door‘s peephole and what he saw made shivers run down his spine. Not only saw he a dead man laying at his front door, he also saw hundreds of starving people in the distance, slowly walking towards his safehouse.

 


A night in the Undercity

by Ben Waldhoff

 I wake up to the soothing sound of my mother's voice.

"Good morning dear. Breakfast is ready. Today is your big day and you don't want to be late, do you?" she chirps as she presses a button to open my curtains.

I open my eyes and stretch before taking a look out of the window. It´s a sunny morning and I can see the Citadel shimmering in the morning sun. Today is my big day. Today is my speech in front of the Council to hopefully become the youngest council member there ever was.

I jump out of bed and storm into my closet. I have my outfit prepared already and just grab it before rushing into the bathroom and start my usual morning routine. Shower, drying, teeth, hair, getting dressed. I look at myself in the mirror on my wall. I look good in this uniform, it suits me. I flash a grin and turn around to get to the kitchen where my father and mother already sit discussing the news while having breakfast.

"Have you heard, some gang from the Undercity stole some gear from an academy student this morning. I said it and I´ll say it again, these people are dangerous and need to be stopped." my father then turns to me and gives me a big smile. "Good morning, smartest person I know. Big day to day, huh? Are you ready? You want some breakfast or just coffee?" he asks and raises an eyebrow.

He should know by now that I just drink some coffee in the morning and eat later, but I just shake my head. "I´ll just have a coffee, thanks. And what was that about people from the Undercity? A robbery?"

"Yes, a few kids broke into an academy kid´s laboratory this morning and stole some of his artificial intelligence cores." my mother said as she hands me a mug of coffee. "Seems like the Enforcers got the stuff back though. Except for some unimportant items. They didn´t get the intruders as far as I know."

"They didn´t" my father answers and stands up. "I got informed about that already. It looks like it´s a notorious group of criminals. I´ll look into it as soon as I am in the office today."

My father is the Chief of the Enforcers. My mother on the other hand is a council member and the head of import and export. I grew up to very high standards, as everyone who lives in the "City of Progress" called Piltover. I have the best grades in my class and applied for council as soon as my mother brought up the idea of me joining the council. I have some ideas to change our city for the better.

My father gives my mother a kiss and kisses me on the forehead.

"Good luck today Smarty, you can do it." he exclaims and waves goodbye as he steps out of the kitchen.

I frown at the silly nickname he keeps using for me, but my mind instantly goes back to what my parents said about that robbery. Why would they steal something from a laboratory, what could they possibly gain from that? Apparently they are all just criminals down there... just like everyone says. We are the city of progress, why do they have to ruin all that by giving our city a bad name through their criminal activities? I will stop that as soon as I get into the council, they have been unsupervised for too long. 

"...go now?" my mother looks at me expectantly. I have been distracted by my own thoughts so I didn't get her whole sentence.

"Sorry, can you repeat that?" I ask and she chuckles.

"I asked if you are finished and if we can go now?"

I nod in response and stand up to put my mug in the sink, where one of the servitors will clean it. I follow my mother out of the kitchen to one of our cars. Our driver bows and opens the back door of the car for me and my mother.

"Oh, hold on, I forgot something, I need to pay Vander a visit first, I promised him I´ll come by today after all the hassle he had last week. Sorry darling, go ahead and drive to the citadel, I´ll be with you as soon as I can, I promise." she looks at me with a guilty expression, but I just smile at her.

"Everything is fine mom, I´ll see you there." I hug her and she looks me deep in the eyes.

"I´m so proud of you, now go, before I start crying." she snickers and watches as I get into the car and drive off.

The way to the Citadel is quite a ride. We live in the northern parts of the City, near the coast, as where as the citadel is located more towards the center of the city. To get there we have to pass a huge bridge, which spans over a canal, the Pilt, which flows inland towards the outskirts of Piltover and inevitably into the Undercity. I look outside the window and see a small fisherman's boat floating down the canal. Two men are sitting in the boat, they look dirty and wet. No one I´d like to share a boat with.

I hear a loud explosion right ahead of us. I turn my head and see a flaming ball of fire burst up into the air. Then another explosion on the other side of the bridge. Then another one on our side closer to us and one on the other. Aphelis, our driver, turns to me and opens his mouth to tell me something but is interrupted by another explosion, this one, right next to us. The car shakes violently and I try to hold on to the seat. A part of the bridge breaks off and falls down into the canal. Our car is so close to the piece that broke off that one of the tires is not touching ground anymore.

Me and Aphelis freeze for a few seconds and wait for something more to happen. 1... 2... 3... nothing happens. I relax visibly and sigh in relieve. Right when another explosion goes off and destabilizes the bridge completely, which causes the part of the bridge where our car is on to break off and we drop. Together with some other cars, we drop into the Pilt. I scream as we fall.

I feel the impact as we crush into the water below. The shock goes through my body and almost makes me lose consciousness. Almost. I try to orientate myself and I somehow have the bright idea to open my seat belt. I fall again, land on my head and back which doesn´t help my situation at all and only now realize that the car is upside down. I turn towards Aphelis and try to tell him that we have to get out of here. I turn... and look straight into his cold, dead eyes.

I yelp and almost jump backwards. He broke his neck... his head is hanging in a very unnatural position and his whole body is shattered... I try to hold back my tears and get back into the situation.

"I have to go, I have to get out of here." I whimper to myself. 

The car is already filling with water and I look at the door. When I open it, water will flow in. I´ll have to be quick.

"Deep breaths, deep breaths" I repeat and try to calm myself down... which doesn´t really help at all.

I lay my hand on the door, take one last breath and push the door open. Water starts flowing in and I push myself out of the car as it starts filling with water and sinking to the ground of the canal.

I try to hold myself up with swimming motions and pray to the gods that someone can hear me.

"HELP! HELP!!! OVER HE-" I try to scream, but the last thing I feel, before everything goes dark, is a sharp pain at the back of my head.

"Hey, wake up." I hear a faint voice with an interesting accent.

I am surprised by myself that I can still appreciate voices and accents in my current state...

"Wake up. Please, don´t die on me on this gods forsaken day... not you as well." again this voice.

I try to open my eyes... and it works, although barely, I open my eyes and see a seemingly young man bend over looking at me with a worried expression.

"Oh thank the gods you are awake. What happened to you?" he asks as I sit up and try not to puke from the stinging pain at the back of my head.

"I... honestly don´t know. There was an explosion... on the bridge... I fell into the water and then I think a rock hit me... wait, who are you, where am I and why am I telling you this?" I now ask trying to get away from the stranger.

"Hey, relax please, I won´t hurt you. I just want to help. My name is Victor, you are at a shore of the Pilt in the undercity and I don´t know why you are telling me all this, some people say it's my charm."

He says the last part in such an ironic voice that I almost have to laugh, almost. I look at him closely now, he is wearing a brown suit with a white shirt underneath, he has pale skin and a slim, almost bony figure. I just now realize he is holding a crutch. Not for me, he is leaning on it himself. His leg seems to be in a bad state.

"Are you okay? You don´t looks so well either." I ask him worried. He turns away and sighs.

"Yes, it´s just a sickness, not curable. It´s fine." He answers. His accent still amazes me, it´s so smooth yet so rough. I could see a muscled man from one of the colder regions have an accent like this, but hearing it on someone like him is... surprising, not to say odd.

It slowly dawns on me what he said just a second ago...

"Hold up, I am where?!?" I almost scream and he jumps a little at my sudden outburst.

"I-in the Undercity... at one of the Pilts shores. Why?" 

I follow Victor, who is moving surprisingly fast for a man with a crutch, through a few streets in the undercity...

Me, in the undercity. What is wrong with this day?

I barely accept his offer to guide me back to the entrance to the upper city, after I calmed down from my minor outrage. And by minor I mean almost punishing a wall and a cripple in the process.

Now he is actually guiding me through some dark streets and past some even darker alleys. The sun is already going down... I must have been unconscious for quite some time.

"Come here. We should first look at your head wound." Victor says and holds a door open for me. I go in without thinking, which I don´t do a lot today apparently and find myself in the middle of an undercity pub. I turn around instantly, but Victor is blocking my way back out.

"Why are we here?" I whisper scream and impale him with my glare.

"As I said, we need to take care of your wound and we should probably find some clothes for you..." he says first gesturing towards my head and then down my body, which makes him blush a little, if that's even possible with his pale complexion.

"I want to leave!" I whisper again.

"Not until you wound is taken care of. Or you can find you way back yourself." He insists with a similar glare which I gave him just a second ago.

"I... You... Ehhh..." I sigh in surrender. "Fine, but why here?"

"Because the owner is an old friend of mine." he says and starts slowly pushing me towards the bar, where a Bulky man is "cleaning" a wooden mug, with a towel that doesn't look all to clean.

I look left and right. Everywhere I look I earn nasty looks and vulgar gestures, especially from the male customers, but there is also a few people sitting in darker corners, coughing, shivering, alone.

We arrive at the bar and Victor looks at the bartender.

"Hey Sett, is Silco in the house? We need his help." The bartender looks from me to him and back to me. He looks me up and down and signals us to follow him behind the bar.

"Thank you" Victor says and goes around to follow Sett into a backroom, I follow shortly after.

"Victor! Old friend, what are you doing here? I thought you weren´t gonna come back that soon",

a man, apparently Silco, greets Victor and gives him a long hug.

"Hello Silco, I didn´t think so either, but I ran across a person in need and you know how I am." He gestures towards me and I step a bit closer.

"Ahhh, yes, typical Victor. Whaddaya need?" he asks and flashes a smile. 

"I-ii need a bandage, I think. M-maybe some disinfection... if you have something like that..." I say and instantly cover my mouth with my hand.

"I´m sorry, I-i didn´t mean..." I try to apologize, but get cut off by a laugh from the bear like man.

"No worries kiddo, I know what they tell you upstairs about us down here, no wonder you´re scared to death. You probably think we´re gonna kill ya, huh?" Silco laughs again and turn around to get something out of his desk. A bottle of a clear liquid and some bandages.

"If you´ll allow, I´ll apply the alcohol and the bandage." Silco offers and after a second thought, I nod.

Victor has been nothing but kind and this Silco seems to be one of the most warm hearted people I ever met... How come there are so many bad rumors about the people from the undercity?

After my wound got cleaned and patched by Silco, he gives me a coat to wear over my still wet clothes and let us out through the backdoor.

"He was kind..." I say hesitatingly, while pulling the coat tighter around me.

"He always is, unless someone makes a mess in his pub." He snickers and keeps moving.

We walk in silence for the rest of the way. I get to have a good look at how life is down here...

There is so much poverty, so much sickness and so many homeless people and I am pretty sure I saw three drug dealers giving out wares. No wonder, when you live here, there is not really any other way to have an income. I see some armored looking men every now and then, but they move past us without giving us another look. They seem to be more of a protection unit rather than a ravaging unit.

It´s not the people who are bad... it´s the situation, the rumors and the inexistent opportunities that are bad. How can there be such a big difference between what we own and what they own, yet such a small difference between our and their behavior and kindness...

I have to get back, talk to mum and dad and get the council to change the situation down here. It will take some time, but if we can change what´s happening down here, maybe we can stop the crime as well. I hope.. at least.

I am so deep in my own thoughts that I bump into someone.

"I am awfully sorry Cupcake, are you okay?" the woman I have bumped into asks. She is dressed in very little clothing and her hair is partly wet, yet perfectly styled.

"I´m fine, thank you, but I should be the one apologizing. I didn´t look where I went. I am sorry about that." I answer and nod my head in apology.

"Ah, don´t worry about it, my fine Cupcake. Have fun, you two." She turns and leaves with a wink.

I blush and keep on following Victor who is also blushing a little bit as far as I can see. 

Finally, we arrive at one of the gates which are the pathways between Piltover and the Undercity. There is a somewhat long row of people standing in front of the gate. They are trying to get into Piltover, but the enforcers are checking everyone thoroughly. Probably because of the explosions. Victor turns towards me and smiles.

"There you go. Piltover right in front of you..."

I nod and turn to look at him.

"Thank you. For everything." I said and pull him into a hug which makes him stumble a bit.

"OH, I´m sorry! I forgot!" I help him back on his feet and hold him for a bare second, before letting go and fiddling with my own fingers.

"I... would you like to come with me? To Piltover I mean. I could really use a person who can explain first hand what´s happening down here. Two voices are always better than one." I ask uncertainly.

His eyes widen as I ask this question and he visibly thinks about it for a moment. I am getting more nervous by the second and I don´t know why I am so relieved when he nods yes.

"I´ll come with you, maybe it will help the situation. And I´ve always wanted to see how the Uppercity works." he smiles after he says that and points towards the gate.

"Should we then? I bet your parents are worried sick, because of you" he smiles reassuringly.

"Yes, let's go." I said and walk towards one of the Enforcers.

"Excuse me officer, I..." I try to start a sentence, but as soon as I get close enough to the Enforcer his eyes widen and he grabs me by my shoulder.

"It´s you! Oh thank the gods, the boss will be so relieved. Come, follow me, we will bring you home right away." He tries to drag me towards the gate, but I stop him.

"Wait! He´ll come with us." I order and the Enforcer looks confused from me to Victor who waves with his free hand.

"He´s a friend and he´s helped me a lot today. He and I will talk in front of the council together." I continued and gestured Victor to follow us.

The officer shrugs and brings us through the gate and towards one of the Enforcer cars. We get in and drive off towards my home. We cross a different bridge on the way and as I look to the side, I see the still blocked off bridge and my heart stops for a moment.

Aphelis... he died, I lived... I lay my hand on the glass between me and the outer world. I´ll make the best out of it, I promise. I will try to save this city, this whole city, and the people within. I hope me and Victor can convince the council to make some strongly needed changes to the politics and the treatment of the people in the undercity.

"Oh, I just realized, I never asked for your name. What is it, if I may be so rude?" Victor asks me.

"Right, I never told you either, sorry about that. My name is ..." We get interrupted.