Visions of the Visor

Visions of the Visor (chapter 1a)

Chapter 1

"This is the way the world is; black as night throughout the day, godless and sunless, without government but with punishment beyond reason. All is ruled by one unseen and we are fearful drones beneath his dark cloak. Decay leads to death, death leads to uncertainty. Many things are forbidden, many things from a life from which there is no record, nor memory. This is the way the world is."

Gospel Manifesto Edification 1:1

Above the horizon, dark, desolate, and lost within itself and beyond, there laid the world in one city. Closed with darkness surrounding, wrapping tightly around its people who have never seen light, but only the darkness of the black, sunless sky above, the city cast shadows of illustrious and contorted images so harsh and fantastic that the people feared to look at them. And with no light the people were pale, seeing nothing of them selves or of the world that lay around them. What once was lost long ago and now faded far memory. Light turned to darkness and a cold silence fell over the world, over this place, this city. Buildings crumbled in disrepair and remained such, some half fallen down, though in desperation were still lived in. And they continued to fall over time, brick by dusty brick, slowly wasting away until brick becomes dust and dust becomes memory, and memory becomes nothing.

Andrameda was the world's end. Years of man's fighting and wars was his undoing and his ultimate down fall. Though it was not all with guns, but with words as well. Should he have thought about the effects generations to come, then this story may never have been told. But man is not gifted in foresight. For his callous actions, the end of the world began and from the fallen rubble and from the ash there arose a new leader, one that was not to contend with. He arose as a dark shadow from the ash. And he was neither man nor god, but a demon with a dark soul to govern all. Though he was never seen in the flesh his presence was a constant oppression felt by all. He was called the Visor and under his rein the world fell into a new age of continual darkness. Almost every act was a crime and crime warranted death or a long life sentence in the Halls of Detainment. Laughter was a crime as was murder. Late homework was a crime as was robbery and rape. Creativity was a crime as was drug use, fraud, and extortion. To enforce his cruel new ways, the Visor had his Vertigo. They were white-faced men dressed in black hooded robes, though hardly human at all. And they floated on the air, silent, with their heads down, often hunting in packs. Things never went unseen to these chalk creatures of the depths.

Here, there were no cars, nor buses. Rail and foot were the only ways of transportation. And the vast majority of the people worked in the old factories towering and lumbering over the crumbling skyline, the smoke from their vents rising into the permanence of night. In this world, there were only blue-collar workers. The only source of light was from dim streetlights and flickering bulbs on chains. Heat came more from wood burning stoves than old radiators. Though some still managed to give off heat. Many appliances and rooms could not have power at once adding to the dim silence and darkness of the city. Fire was strictly prohibited except for in stoves. Coal was lost, petroleum was lost, and propane never stood a chance. The great power behind Andrameda was nuclear. There was a small group of nuclear physicists who ran the reactors, their existence kept under locked guard by the Vertigo, their actions strictly monitored since they had the power of such knowledge.

The dark sprawl of Andrameda was endless. It was the world. Darkness and cold decay had reached into every crevice rotting everything dead. In theory a boundless wall surrounded the city. Its stone was heavy and thick as it was piled high. So oppressive was it that it could not be scaled, broken, nor tunneled under. Though no one tried mostly because no one could find it. Which would constantly raise the question was it built to keep man in or to keep something out?