CHOICE (On Hold)

Chapter 1

In essence one could equate my situation akin to preparing for a final battle. With the wind calm and the night silence almost heralding the death and bloodshed that is about to follow. Just like any other battle scene, there is the soft music that culminates towards a heart wrenching crescendo, where the stench of blood is thicker than that of the earth, and the fear and need to stay alive is the only thing in people's minds and hearts. Funny though, how then the sense of imminent doom was forewarned allowing men to sharpen their blades and polish their shields. Now, the sense of honour that forced men to call up challenges has dwindled to the point of nonexistence, substituted by stealth attacks and trained assassins.

Assassin. The term has some sort of sophistication to it without the added need for explanation. On its own it is enough to wrought fear even in the bravest of hearts. It held almost a twisted sense of power, one that afforded its beholder a sense of respect: a temptation of some sort that fed right into the feeble hearts of man. Sadly, only a few could withstand its added necessities: the taking of a life. No matter how many times we want to justify the taking of a life, the act is not anything short of murder in any scenario whatsoever. Not even the strong of heart can sincerely escape without losing a part of them.

I would know, being an assassin by profession. I cannot say I was forced into this line of work as most other people, nor can I say that this is what I had wanted to become when I was older. No, this was not what I had envisioned of my future when I was young. Just like every other young girl, I had wanted the whole cliché; grow up, meet the man of my dreams, have tons of kids and live happily ever after. How foolish I had been then, isolated from reality to the point of becoming delusional.

As most all good things in life, mine came to an abrupt end. And with it, those petty dreams seemed like a long lost life that when I think back on them, seem to have been from a different person altogether. No, they were definitely from a different girl. I had long learned the harshness of this world. A truth that left a tangible bitterness in my mouth and a burning stream of hate in me that can only be curbed by an act of vengeance.

Vengeance. It was what had led me here: hurdled on the rooftop of a building, sniper rifle in hand, eyeing my target from the scope letting the soft sound of Hans Zimmer shield me from the outside world. The song was fitting for the scene. From the slow start, to the slight crescendo, to the decrescendo that ultimately led to the final crescendo: the moment where the battle is at its peak. The moment where I have my target in sight, allowing me to gently apply the needed pressure to take them out. A clean job: as always.

Once the kill confirmation was sent to my superiors, I packed up before leaving the building. It would only be a matter of time before the authorities showed up at the scene. I was not looking for a fight tonight, and a run in with the police would necessitate the use of combat. No, I had much more important things to attend to.

The building I had used as a vantage point had been a block away from that of the target in the more upscale side of the city. The lights shone bright in this part of the city, where necessities such as electricity were trivial to the wealthy. Having been born and raised in this world, it's sometimes hard to believe that in a life before this the world was once not isolated under dome-like structures which required intense scientific knowledge for its day-to-day maintenance, or the fact that everyone lived in relative equality when it came to basic needs such as water, electricity, food, shelter and education.

For someone like me who has seen and witnessed the stark difference between in social ranks, found it hard to picture such a world.

Yet it existed, before the war that changed it all. The Great Destruction. According to historians, it was the third world war that sought to destroy rather than win any battle. Standard weapons had long been replaced by nuclear and bio weaponry. The destruction had been severe with more than seventy percent of the world uninhabitable due to radiation. The areas that were radiation free, few as they were, were quickly isolated from the world by large dome-like structures known as Sectors: spread out throughout the world in different continents. These newly established Sectors were since known as the 'New Worlds'.