Sector 2

Chapter 1

The air was warm and groggy, and the sun hung ablaze overhead. Cars and bikes passed by in hurried bouts. The buildings here were much smaller than Sector 10's. They were low and orderly; probably to give way for the floating structures. Island-like blocks of metal and earth hovered steadily hundreds of meters in the air, accompanied by lines with cable cars gliding up them. People here called the islands "glides." Spherical blimps and other types of hovercrafts also scattered throughout the cloudless sky.

I sat on a patio-styled area outside a Mexican café. Wooden railing painted red bordered the platform with steps leading down to the footpath. This part of the sector heavily resembled what most of the place looked like before they were "modernised." Three girls wearing school uniform skittered up the steps as they chatted excitedly. I sipped on a coffee, a drink that I had newly discovered as of my arrival to Sector 2.

The voyage here was a journey I was completely unaware of.

I could only recall waking up in a pure white room, in a hospital bed. Tubes were attached to my arms and an ECG machine beeped irritatingly beside me. Cautious of the unfamiliar environment, I ripped the tubes off me and slid out of the bed. I was wearing a pale purple hospital gown and none of my belongings were in sight. The room was empty except for the bed, machines and the flowerpot that rested on the bedside table.

I crept to the metal door and tried to push it open before noticing the button to the side of it. Upon pressing it, the door swiftly disappeared behind the wall next to it.

This room was empty, and white still. A one-way mirror looked into the room I just walked out of, impossible to notice from the other side. When I walked through the next door, I stood in a bright hallway. The wall opposite me was structured entirely of windows that were slanting in from the ceiling to the floor. It overlooked a city that seemed so far away. I also saw floating buildings. Some looked like monuments made for visual effect and others looked like essential service buildings. When I glanced below, I saw more glass, still slanting outwards. Foliage crawled up and clung to the glass.

There were even more doors down the corridor. On the left of me were two people a small distance away. They were in hushed discussion and both pointing to things on a tablet one was holding. She looked like a nurse.

As if they both felt my presence, they looked my way. I instinctively started running the other direction. I could hear them chasing after me. The hallway was long, and it took a while for me to be able to take a right. The windows followed, never-ending. This hall was long also, and I eventually found myself circling around the premises. I could risk a dead end and slip through a door or do something crazy. I chose something crazy.

I took a gamble and snatched a fire extinguisher from the wall, praying the glass wouldn't be impressively thick. Luck was on my side when the glass smashed, but for some unknown reason the noise was incredibly loud, and it caught me off guard. I had to stable myself and glissade down the slope. When I reached the bottom, there was only about a metre of land I could step on. One step forward meant plunging to my death. I was on grass, but the material below it felt much harder than soil. The actual ground lay far below me. The situation was utterly useless. I didn't have my gun to make a swift escape and the pursuers were likely figuring out whether they should follow me down here.

I frantically searched for anything – anything. Then I noticed the steep cable wire close by. There was a round, white cable car descending from above. Its spherical shape made it look like a replica of the moon. In a desperate rush of action, I snuck a look over my shoulder to see the two people sliding down, but the cable car wasn't close enough for me to hold on to. Treading closer to where the cable car was heading, I readied myself to make the most dangerous leap of my life.