Praise the Mutilated World

Chapter 2

LOUIS.

It was the first time Rats had made it into the center of the first neighborhood.

The sound of tires on pavement and gravel crackling beneath tires was loud in the small car as he and four others made their way towards the city centre. Soon, the car came to a slow halt and Louis held his breath. This was the beginning of the beginning. Getting past this would set them up to get past the entire ceremony.

"Identification?" A voice asked when the car came to a complete stop and the driver, Nick, rolled the window down. Nick said something that Louis couldn't make out over the rush of blood in his own ears.

"And the others?" the same voice asked.

"They're omegas, for the ceremony today."

"Right. Apologies. All together."

"All together," Nick mimicked. It was such a stupid greeting, something he never really understood. But after that, the car was back in motion, moving down the pavement at a crawling pace. There were no windows in the back of their car, a standard procedure for Neighborhood One and transporting omegas. For a culture that seemed to objectify omegas so deeply, he'd never understood the point of the 'protection' ALL put in for them.

"Alright, everyone. Remember the signal," Nick says, looking into the rear view mirror to not show they're speaking. "We'll all be at the side stage to help get everyone out."

They'd gone through the plan dozens of times. Time after time, the drills, the processes, every vital detail that could loop back around to save Louis's life in the end were instilled deep into his mind. He didn't need a reminder, now. At this point, if he didn't know it, he wouldn't know it in time to complete the mission.

The car came to another halt before long, the black, tinted-out windows in the front the only thing keeping he and Zayn shaded.

"Ready?" Zayn asked him softly, looking over to him with a soft smile. All he could do was nod, and then they were making their way out of the car together through the back doors, walking down the artificially green grass and towards where the ceremony was being held.

The two of them had dressed in some of the nicest clothes Louis had ever seen, brought back by Zayn specifically for the mission, so they blended in perfectly. Zayn wore a black pair of tight dress pants that clung to his skin, accented with a gold colored thread at the seams. His shirt was a stark white with the same kind of gold threading, as well as a set of gold and silver embroidered flowers on the collar. On his chest there were two pins, one a bright yellow that marked that he had a mate, with a lion insignia in the center. The other was baby pink and was meant to display he was an omega. He'd said something about different colors and insignias being only for those of certain status within ALL, but Louis hadn't listened very closely. He'd never cared much for the politics of evil.

He was wearing all black, a flowing top that Zayn had said brought out some features that were good for a ceremony like this. The same pink pin rested on his collar/ Beside it, a white, blank pin that showed he hadn't found his mate yet.

The unmated omegas at ceremonies like this were barely more than pretty objects, something that alphas gawked at, meant to be looked at as if they were prizes to be won in some kind of genetic lottery. It made his stomach churn with the disgust of it all.

He had no idea why a ceremony needed to be held, for something as ridiculous as the creation of their genetic tampering. A celebration of something anyone who isn't stuck in their own delusions considers the worst fuck up in the history of modern science.

It didn't seem right to celebrate something so horrible and masking it as a good thing, all while ignoring the truly bad thing that had happened. But he brushed that away from his mind and stood behind the stage, looking over at all of the people mulling about, everyone making their way to where they knew they were meant to be.