Our Garden of Dismay

Prologue

Life in the Utopia District was not an eventful one, a person could spend their days doing the same boring garbage day after day; still, I found it a suitable way of living. I was in no rush to leave such a town despite my general disapproval of it. Why leave such a cozy place? I would easily sacrifice freedom for comfort. It's a relatively easy way to live, after all I just wake up, greet my parents, meet my cousin and spend the day running around like the rambunctious pre-teen I was. Being a child I never bothered to think of life as more than waking up, attending school, do as I please, and make it home in time for dinner. Nor did my cousin, Dietrich, who I have known for a long time. We were at each other's throats constantly but I think he was just redirecting anger at me. He did care for me but it was also hard not to snap back. When I woke up I would always look in the mirror and stare at myself; not for vanity, but just because in a way I knew there had to be more than the same thing every day. My dark black eyes stared back at my messy yet short black hair, the morning light reflecting brightly off of my thin wire frame glasses. I remember the morning that changed my entire outlook on the world. I had left the small confines of my house that was just at the crest of a long and narrow stone street. All the other houses were built of a similar structure, as were the rest of the city's buildings. Large wooden structures with dark-lined frames and paneled windows; red brick shingles layered on the top of each building. All the houses were a story tall but most others averaged two to three stories tall; and they usually were in unison too, matching with its neighbor. The only building that was different was the large stone castle that sat center and a bit towards the back of the city. Its huge walls rose high above the rest of the buildings and their high-up windows were damn near unreachable. As I had walked down my street to meet Dietrich, like I did every day, I stared at the large stone building with awe. It took me the longest time to finally figure out what the building was used for; which is a purpose not important at this time, but it still gave the building a special bewildering aura to it. As I turned on to the main street I remember being overwhelmed as there was quite a large number of occupants hurrying around. It took me longer than I would like to admit to find my cousin but eventually, I spotted him throwing a rock into the large river that divided the western portion of the town from the rest of the city. The river was large across and probably even deeper but the main issue with the river was the lack of access points to the other side. You would have to travel to one of three clustered and long bridges to reach the other side. A large beam had run down the center of the river and it was used to guide large boats through the river in a strange way. The beam sat high above the water and even connected to the bottom sides of the bridges. A boat would be floating on its own but upon the top would be a conveyor belt that fed through the large beam that would propel the boat forward or backward through the overgrown canal. Dietrich was just under a year older than me but he was no taller than me, standing at roughly 160 centimeters but he was maybe 55 kilograms at the most. He had baggy clothes that did not fit his skinny limbs very well at all; his eyes, unlike mine, were an exquisite greenish-yellow. It was his biggest hit with the girls his age, as he had been quite the flirt at his young age of 11. His black hair was relatively short as well but instead of straight like mine was, he had a small bit of waviness to it. Dietrich had a face that was simultaneously one of the most attractive I have seen while managing to be overwhelmingly punchable(a feature that stays with him to this day). He would never greet me, the stubborn childish mannered person he was, would always ignore me until I said something.

    "Hey, Dietrich, throwing rocks again huh?"

    He simply smiled and lifted one about the size of his palm and pulled it back to prepare to launch it. I tried to snatch it from his hand before he could, as I thought it would get a comedic reaction from him. Instead, I missed and the rock was launched with an outstanding force almost crossing the large river, but falling just short.

    "That's the eighth time I've come up just short."

    His voice shrewd and brass just like mine.

    "How long have you been trying?"

    He scoffs trying not to appear bad at throwing rocks.

    "Not that long."

    I learned not to take what he said at face value as he usually would tell little white lies or merely exaggerate. He lifted another rock and this time I let him throw it unbothered. He heaved it far and when it collided with the water a bell rang out loud. It caught us off guard and even made both of us jump as we had never actually heard the chimes of the castle's bell. When it continued to chime I headed off to go find the cause of the ringing. Being the curious child that I was, anything new or mysterious I often found myself racing towards it head-on. When I reached just outside the castle, a large crowd of people sat around listening to a man who stood on a wooden crate, a piece of paper in his hands.

    "As of yesterday, Shinganshina and Maria had been breached, we do not know the cause or any circumstance but it is fair to assume things will start to change."

    He announced this and everyone proceeded to gasp with wide-open mouths. Even Dietrich had a concerned expression about him, which was strange considering he was never one to take things seriously or even be scared as a matter of fact. But what this man had told us rocked everyone to their core, except ignorant little me. I had no idea what he meant, and lord was I in for a shock. My fragile reality was soon to be shattered into a million pieces in just a mere few days. I looked to the large mountains that surrounded us, they had to be unclimbable as they were an astounding height, or so I thought. They were unbelievably smooth and had pillar-like segments throughout them that protrude outward. I always called it a mountain just because it couldn't have been man-made as the castle didn't even measure up to such a colossal being, but I soon learned they were walls that caged us into the city we lived in.

    "What does he mean?"

    I asked, naive and young.

    "The walls are down?"

    Dietrich responded, not towards me but to himself. He backed up, clearly shaken, and he then proceeded to run towards his house; I chased after slowly, my speed nowhere near his. He burst in through the door to his house and it took me a bit to catch up but by the time I was able to, he was regurgitating all he heard to his mother and sister. They seemed uninterested and waved him off as trying to pull a dumb prank.

    "This isn't a joke this time I promise!"

They turned their heads, quite possibly as ignorant as me, but I don't blame them, they had no reason to believe a trickster. I spent the rest of the day researching at a local library, attempting to read what I could and that's when I came to learn about the real world; about our lives as caged animals. That day when I came home Dietrich was with his mother at my house, both of them distraught as the unimaginable happened. His older sister Jenell, who was a solid few years older than him, had left to join the military. Why she did I didn't know and nor did I even know what the military did; I just remember seeing some around the walls. I ate a plentiful dinner that night, a dinner that was the last of such in a long time, and went to sleep relatively peacefully despite all that has happened. I would never know her departure would lead to a multiple-year endeavor that all begins tomorrow when I begin day one of Cadet Training. Dietrich would join me for the same reason I joined, Jenell was living well. She had never seemed more happy and content with her life, so we decided that it would be only right; after all how bad could the Scout Regiment be?