Vivid (BoyxBoy) {Pipe Dream: Book I}

Chapter Twenty-Two: Bolin

A/N: I've finished for the year! and hopefully forever. I'm sick of uni and no money :/

But anywho, I can now focus a bit more on my writing for a bit. I will be on holidays for 2 weeks at the start of december, so I should be putting out updates between then and now. Afterwards, I will be looking at the other works that have been lacking in updates for...over a year...oops.

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Chapter Twenty-Two: Bolin

The first thing I notice in the distance was the pale blue orb of another Fence after flying along an endless expanse of ocean for the last fifty minutes. This one is massive. It felt like it took up most of the sky, like an impending tsunami wave building in the distance. It looked so alive, as the blue energy pulses and swirls. In the very centre of all the high rise buildings and skyscrapers was a twisted black tower that just screams 'Eye of Sauron' and it almost touched the highest point of the Fence.

"Welcome to Bolin." Oz chuckles when he saw my face. "One of the Five."

"What are the 'Five'?" I look back towards the city that was approaching us and just keeps getting bigger.

"Just the biggest of the cities that became prosperous and breathing down the necks of all the other city-states. There's two in America... two in Asia including this one, and one in Europe. But it's not like we go by those names anymore."

"Why not?"

I see his shoulders shrug, "I ain't the one who made the decision, kid. I just follow like everyone else, like the sheep that I am. There's nothing but grave dust of the Old World. Funny how fast it turns around. I don't think we even use 'continents' or even 'nationality' anymore. Just the city-states...and Outsiders."

I stare back out the window, feeling a little heavy. There's no way we can go back to how it all was, can we? I look back to Lady, who was starting to calm down. There isn't any way back. This is my reality. I lean back and shut my eyes, letting out a breath.

As we came into the airspace above the Fence, Fenir flicked a switch and began talking, "This is Hollow Kite returning from a ground run. Permission to enter?"

There was silence until a strange automated female voice comes over a speaker, "Permission granted. Welcome back."

As soon as the voice finishes, a hole expands in the orb energy directly below us and the ship descends into it, down into the city airspace below. I watch through the ceiling as we clear the orb that it closes back up above us, making me feel slightly claustrophobic.

I look at the skyscrapers all around us like mirrored monoliths. It gave that extra surreality as everything is high-tech and futuristic. Everything was piled on top of one another. Shops, houses....living spaces all cramped into the streets and buildings as a somewhat functioning and organised chaos. Neon lines ran along the buildings' sides, advertisements on projections along the buildings...as well as 3D holograms. Even some airships like they were in traffic like the vehicles clogging up the streets below. This is insane.

But it felt wrong. Like life was being choked from it.

'No forest. Only jungle of stone and smoke. Death and suffocating.' Lady presses onto my thoughts.

She was right. As opposed to Bellasera, there weren't any gardens or parks with trees. There was nothing green and it was suffocating. The air almost felt tragic. I frown at this feeling. I didn't experience this in the other city. Sure it was desolate and destroyed but the air, though stagnate, didn't feel like this.