Chaper I (I)

Night on the wastelands was filled with bitter cold and so nightmarishly windy, that any gap between clothes caused discomfort. Whether because of the goose bumps or the cursed dust mercilessly squeezing in through every opening it could find. Silence reigned, and it was broken only from time to time by unidentified screams and calls, probably made by animals. The area looked more like a desert than a highway it had been in a distant past. There were some witnesses of those times - the remains of lamps, often broken and bent, sticking out from a thick layer of sand. On one side they disappeared inside a thing, which might have been a tunnel. From a certain point, someone stupid enough to be wandering alone and sticking nose in not exactly his business, could also hear the echoes bouncing off its walls - a constant arguing of two people.

Chapter 0

Back then, in a time long forgotten, everything looked completely different. People lived on the surface during the day, in giant cities of glass and steel. Settlements were built up towards the sky, not downward. Like right now, the space was precious. Every square inch was important, but it is really the only common point. Back then, the expansion of residential areas did not cause a threat in the form of a catastrophe. If people were coming in, they just grew. Sometimes to extreme sizes, even thousands of people living in one place. There was no need for control, there were no population limits. Towns just welcomed and absorbed anyone who wanted to be a part of their society. People in cities often united, creating Gigavault, connecting themselves in every possible and impossible way. There have been coalitions and communities of thousands of cities. They formed countries, which took care of their residents. Communication was easy, fast and trouble-free, everyone could at any time connect with any place and any person, to see it and hear it. But not only that, because we still have the possibility of a similar contact with some of the other shelters. In a limited way, but still. People could travel without any danger. And they did it without obstacles, in addition, not on foot but by cars. Apparently every man before the Fall had his own car. People didn't move only on the surface, no. They flew in big metal airplanes, which were able to accommodate all of your parents and carry them to places away from here by weeks of regular travel. Plants were growing everywhere they could. In the centers of these giant concrete cities, which I have just mentioned, people, often simply for their own enjoyment, established amazing parks with grass, trees and flowers. Flowers! They could raise them at home, in small pots. Without any substantial reason! Their lives were full of luxuries, pleasures. They had as much water as they wanted, and it was crystal clean. Same with food. There were special buildings where people could go and take what they wanted. Hundreds of types of mushrooms. Bread, meat, sweets! Just take it, go out and eat.

Imagine, there were endless fields on the surface, in the sunlight. There was no hunger, penury, or poverty. Humanity was driving on the evolutionary highway. And then came the Fall.

You know that sometimes there was a cold, watery dust falling from sky? They called it snow. The whole world was white then. Pure, without defects, blemishes or dirt. And, after some time, the dust disappeared and turned into grass and leaves on the trees. It was like a... soap foam on the skin. How much would I give now for a little bit of that dust... But, all in all, I would not say no to a bar of soap either.

Now I will tell you about two men who should have stuck to the memory of people like a child to sweets, but instead they have been forgotten. Let me tell you about a friendship meant to last through thick and thin, about adventures and quests. And finally, let me tell you about the glass gardens, last scraps of Eden remaining on the sun-scorched earth. Where verdure still exists. You may laugh. You have every right to disbelieve me. But they really exist and their brilliance is blinding.

All that happened many years ago when I was still young and strong. In fact, I was just a few years older than some of you. Those were good times... the food tasted better, women were more beautiful, and little squirts like you were taught since childhood to respect the elders and not interrupt them when they speak. If you do not want me here, I'll just go - sixteen pairs of eyes fixed ruthlessly on a, more or less, twelve-year old boy with a sarcastic smile on his face. Which, by the way, quickly faded like a moth in flame.

-...rry...

The old man smiled slightly, inhaled the cigarette smoke into his lungs and winked at the boy. Apologies accepted. - It was... the age of heroes.