CML - Custom Made Lover [Slow Updates]

CML - Custom Made Lover, Chapter 2

The ride on the monorail shuttle had always been a pleasant one; it offered a good view on New Dallas from far above. The high rise buildings were mostly white in color and the late afternoon sun made the tallest buildings in town stand out clearly against a crisp blue sky. The shuttle's magnetic rail had been suspended high above the city streets for the longer parts of the journey; the glass floor of the shuttle gave a good view of the evening traffic down below. All manner of people were heading home, trying to use the same roads and transport services at the same time. The shuttle Caleb was riding was slightly crowded but ever since his hair had turned gray he had had no trouble securing a seat for himself.

When this first started happening on a regular basis, people getting up and offering him their seat on account of his hair color, he had refused their offers; he felt accepting the free seat was like admitting he was getting on in his years. The denial of his years ended gradually as he found himself caught up in rush hour traffic more and more often. Having an empty seat available whenever he chose to sit down turned out to be quite a luxury. Another thing he noted was that declining the offer often lead to awkward situations; the kind young folks were happiest if you accepted. Declining it was like denying them a chance to show other people how charitable they were.

There was quite a mix of people in the shuttle this evening; people of all classes and creeds took this form of transportation as it was fast and free of charge. Dotted among the crowd of regular commuters Caleb spotted at least a handful of tourists from where he was sitting.

The monorail had come about originally to carry passengers over the...more colorful areas of town safely but had become a tourist attraction over the years so its presence alone provided the town with a source of income.

This change had come about shortly after an ambitious mayor had carried out his plans to level the seedier parts of town in an effort to fight crime. Most of the prized structures that could be seen today had been commissioned simply to fill the bulldozed areas of wasteland that had once been the Slums. The local government didn't care much for the land as it had seriously decreased in value due to its former low-rent citizenry; they were happy to get any money for it at all. The architects and contractors who bought pieces of land were given free reign in whatever it was they wanted to build; whatever design they would come up with would be infinitely better than what had stood there before.

It had been around that time that New Dallas had become the new home to one of the nation's leading schools for architects and you could see some very interesting and daring building designs just by taking the number 3 shuttle from Central Station down to Clear Water, the name referring to the Eco-friendly water filtration system that had been setup there.

Since Ryan Corp drew a lot of water in this town, rather than cleaning it, they too had gotten their own station which was about halfway down this line. The amazing views that people came from all over the world to admire were a daily affair for Caleb; it was just his ride from home to work and back. It often took people's excitement over the view, hands pointing and eyes roving the landscape around them, to remind Caleb how fortunate he was to be living in a place like this.

The last stop before Central Station was Ryan Road, also commissioned by Ryan Corp as it stood in the area where the company had built its luxurious Living Units. These were very tall buildings with their own shopping centers, plazas, health care providers and utilities; almost a city within a city. It was here that Caleb had moved to directly after having taken his first job as lab assistant. Even as a junior employee at the very bottom of the corporate ladder he had been granted a very spacious apartment; this because they were expecting great things from him. He had not disappointed them and so never had to move to something smaller.