Prologue - Dystopia

PROLOGUE

The screen fades in from black. Gunshots and shouting is heard.
The camera pans over a rundown suburb, the streets remain lifeless, devoid of traffic or movement.
A flickering TV set is shown through the display window of a deserted store, a news presenter talks inaudibly while scenes of destruction and riot play out behind her.

A dishevelled young man, looking not over 17 years of age strode through his hometown. It didn't look like it did the last time he had been there, but that didn't surprise him, nowhere was the same anymore.

He wore a bulky leather jacket over a singlet, ripped full-length jeans and walked with a noted suspicion about him, constantly tightening and loosening his grip on the metal pipe he held, much like an OCD patient counts numbers.

"What did you do to me? In that… that… place…? I feel… like I can take on…the world." He giggled hysterically at his own words "You know what? I… I will!" He giggled again as he arrived at the flickering TV set.

He swung the pipe, smashing the glass and found himself flinching at the sudden noise. He took a long sweep of his surroundings to make sure no-one had heard him then proceeded to loot the contents of the display window. He didn't dare walk inside, lest he trip the alarm which would definitely draw attention to him. The TV suddenly shut off as he yanked the cord out of the back, banishing the reporter, and threaded it through the loops in his jeans.

"Die! Puny human" he smiled at the lifeless screen "dieee....."

His voice trails off as he hears a loud click. The camera zooms in towards his eye as he looks up. The shadowed figure of an old man is shown cowering behind a glass counter and shakily clutching a shotgun.

"SHI-!" he leapt aside as the girder to his right was shattered, showering him in splinters and debris. He flipped onto his back, desperately searching for his attacker, though blinded by dust.

The shattered support girder began to grind and snap as the weight of the building began to take its toll. In a sudden surge, the rotting pillar gave way, sending out another blinding wave of dust.

He heard a short muffled scream from inside before it was cut off as the building crashes down. The teen sat there, stunned.
This certainly wasn't the town he grew up in