It was late at night already. The nightfall seemed to have been anticipated that day. The refugees felt like the sun stayed up in the sky for just some hours, the day seemed to be unproductive for them.
Once the night came, it was usual for them to settle down. They couldn't dare to keep the refuge busy. If they did so, it would be too noisy. The Dreads evolved to become more active at night, so any noise could trigger them.
They were very sensorial beasts. If they couldn't see, nor hear, nor smell the humans behind the walls, they wouldn't care about surpassing them. However, at night their senses sharpened, the thickness and height of the walls weren't able to stop them.
Because of it, once the moon appeared, the refugees should go to their houses and stay inside there until the sun rose again.
Unfortunately, it was counterproductive, and that was why humanity got delayed in its evolution. Since the Crimson Apocalypse started, the sun began to appear in the sky for 6 hours, at most. In that short time, they needed to get things done, which was very difficult depending on the type of work they needed to do.
Nonetheless, not all the survivors respected that curfew. They wouldn't be stuck at their houses for eighteen consecutive hours without doing anything, after all.
They still wandered through the refuge, went to someone else's house, bought some goods in the stores ( although most of the stores already were with their doors closed), and overall lived their lives normally. However, no one was allowed to go near the walls. They usually would talk whispering as well. And since humans got a strong smell once they bathed, they were allowed to bathe just if they were sure that they would stay at home.
Dean was walking through the well-made streets of the Refuge Sarah. He just had left the forge and was heading home.
'Sam sure is a good teacher. Now I just need to memorize everything that I learned today. I should have had brought a notebook, argh!' He was reviewing the content on his mind, mainly the most important points. When he arrived home, he would surely go to his room right away and note things down.
'So, the three refuges had the names of the Three Saviors from 7 centuries ago. One of them had a power that helped to build the refuges' enormous walls and made it safer for the survivors. We don't have the Old Weapons with us anymore, which they called firearms, because they can't hurt the Dreads and the Petroleum-metal can't be mined and forged in mass production to make bullets or complex weapons. We don't have the technology for this yet.'
The boy was finding it pretty tough on humanity. They didn't have time, nor the resources to start to develop better technologies.
'In the end, the best resource that humanity has are on their hearts.' He put his hand on his chest, feeling the continuous beats. He closed his eyes for some seconds. 'Willpower. The mighty power that helped humanity to keep going until now. Something that can't be produced, can't be forged, nor sold, nor stolen. Something that humans are born with, though not all of them can use...'
That subject was one that Sam didn't say too much. However, it was common sense for the folk living on the refuges to know about it. It was the same thing as knowing that you have a right arm, a left leg, lungs, or bones. "Willpower" was an extension of the human body, also known as Aurius, or Flames of Hope.
'I really want to be a forger, but what if I become an Ascendant and start to be able to use my "Willpower", get inhuman abilities, and get called to the refuge's army?' That idea was something that he preferred not to think about often.
Someone could Ascend when reaching twelve years old. That was when men usually entered puberty. Women could Ascend earlier, naturally.
Dean was already thirteen years old, right on his time to Ascend. It was frightening him a lot.
"Hey, Dean." Someone appeared beside him, muttering, which made the boy nearly yell. He was lost in his thoughts, so he wasn't prepared for that.
"Man! Stop to come near me like a ghost!" Dean complained, but not talking as lower as he should do.
A few people were passing through the streets, walking as calmly and slowly as they could. When they heard the loud talk between the two boys, they looked at them with annoyed expressions.
The other sneaky boy apologized for his friend's behavior and prompted him to start to walk again, so they wouldn't get in trouble with the adults.
"You are too air-headed sometimes, Dean. You should have been getting used to the rules already, you know?" The boy said, mocking him.
Dean ruffled his friend's black hair, getting annoyed by his idiocy.
"Don't mess with me, Alan. You should just shut up. It was your fault."
In return, Alan ruffled Dean's light brown medium-length hair as well, undoing the ponytail he had.
They started to fight lightly, first with serious expressions, then starting to chuckle. The survivors passing by looked at them cautiously. At the same time that they didn't want them to make noise, they were glad to see two youths getting along.
Their fight was interrupted when a girl with the same black hair and Japanese features as Alan appeared and separated those two.
"You two should stop being so immature. Frankly..." She shook her head.
"Hmpf, and you should stop to put your nose in men's business, sister." Alan snorted. "I bet your boyfriend here isn't too glad about it as well." That boy was the type to mock others just because.
"Laila is not my girlfriend," Dean stated. The girl agreed but seemed to be a bit down because of his immediate response.
She gave a light knock on her brother's head, making him shriek, but not loud enough to bother the neighbors.
Laila sighed while looking at both boys. She was always trying to show an imposing figure to them since she was one year older, which also made her think that she was the leader.
In the end, however, what united them was Dean. His personality was perfect to deal with others and attract them to his group of friends. He always got along well with the other kids.
"So, how is it going on your apprenticeship on the forge? Since your uncle is a blacksmith, you always wanted to experience it, after all. It might be a dream or sorta, right?" Alan asked.
"It's more like a goal, actually. Something I was curious about and I found cool. My dreams are different, you know?" He smiled at his two friends. "It's interesting to be a blacksmith, but... there are bigger things OUT there."
The two siblings exchanged looks, rolling their eyes. It was the umpteenth time that they heard something like that coming from his mouth. Since they met, five years ago, Dean never changed his dreams.
"You know that to go out of the walls, you need to be an Ascendant, right? Don't you think that it is frightening? You don't even know how it is in the outside world, you never saw a Dread, and don't know how to fight. How can you aim for something so dangerous?" Laila, the most reasonable of the trio, pointed out, narrowing her eyes.
Dean also had in mind all the points she was saying there. He knew that it was dangerous, but he had a wider perspective of things that made him think if he shouldn't take the risk.
People like those two, and most of the others in the Refuge Sarah, wanted to be inside the walls because it was safer there. They had everything they needed. The outside world didn't matter at all.
However, it was different for Dean. He looked at those walls since he was a kid. From then on, he could only think that he needed to see what was going on outside there. He felt more enjailed than safe in the refuge. There was a big world to explore after those walls, after all.
Of course, the price was too high but stay inside their comfort zone was, too. He knew that all the world was lost for the Dreads and the Crimson Apocalypse. What was left for humanity was just a few square kilometers of land where they were stuck. If the humans didn't use their power to retrieve what was theirs for right, anything would return to what it was seven centuries ago.
Dean got a bit pissed off about the sight of humanity hiding for more centuries and got silent.
His two friends showed their support for him. After all, everyone wanted that the world was easier to deal with, just like it was before the apocalypse. But a kid wouldn't be the one changing it, unfortunately. They needed to be realistic about that cruel situation.
"I won't accept it," Dean stated, looking to the walls in the distance. "I won't accept that these flames inside our hearts have 'hope' in their title just for show. If humanity had to lower their heads and accept everything around, we would have gone extinct seven centuries ago."
Dean's eyes kept staring at that imponent structure as if he was challenging it. He was determined to make his dream come true one day, no matter how much work he needed to put into it.