New San Francisco2155 - 4:30 PM

"How the hell is it so freaking hot!"

The workday was almost over, but the heavy uniform and sweat made the heat feel even worse. With a shovel, the boy continued to dig through the remains of the last Wave that had tried to invade New San Francisco.

Obviously, the Orks stood no chance. No bombardment had breached the city's defenses since installing a giant Z Crystal in the city's center. However, it didn't stop them from attempting ground invasions. It left the Wave Disposal team to deal with Ork's remains scattered around the city.

The kid was almost fifteen; still, he shouldn't have been working, but that was the fate of someone without family or money. He needed to find some way to survive, and even rotten Ork parts fetched some good money.

"Oliver! What are you still doing here? Your shift is over. Don't come asking for extra work again!" The foreman screamed.

The boy wanted to make some extra cash, but that wasn't it. His greatest fear was returning home or what waited for him at home.

"Mr. Neumann, no sir. I'm just finishing up. I was scraping some remains stuck near the bay." The boy answered.

"No excuses, Oliver. Leave it as it is and get out. Don't think I don't know what day it is today." Mr. Neumann spoke.

"Yes, sir." Oliver answered.

Oliver had no alternative. In his mind, he cursed the old foreman while dumping the Ork's remains. The pungent odor of an Ork's carcass would have caused anyone to vomit, especially in today's hot and sunny weather. Still, it didn't impact the boy much; he had seen worse things while working in the Wave Disposal team. 

After dumping the body in the nearest truck, he clocked out and started his journey home.

Though he lived far from what was once the Pier, today, he wanted to have more time to think. 

The city has changed a lot in the last 50 years. It used to be more of a tourist center, but today, it looks more like a disorganized cluster of apartments reaching the sky. It had large LED screens in any space that could be thought of, showing new results from the army on some planet or news of new attacks in some distant city.

It was inevitable; humans all needed to live bundled together. There are not enough Z-Crystals to offer protection to just any city.

'It hurts again! It's always like this.' Oliver cursed as he massaged his left arm.

Unfortunately, his arm and leg always troubled him after work. It was one of the unfortunate effects of being frozen for the last hundred years. He had been submerged in the solution for way too long, but it saved his life, made his arm and leg grow back, and restored some organs.

However, he hadn't aged and knew little about this 'new fucked up world.'

It had been four years since he returned to the world of the living, but he couldn't help feeling out of place. He was one of the few survivors of the First Wave.

Oliver could still perfectly remember the day when everything changed. Maybe it was the result of the trauma. At the time, he was almost eleven. He was traveling to Seoul with his parents to celebrate his birthday with his family.

His parents had moved to the U.S. to work at a startup.

'Maybe this term doesn't even exist anymore these days?' Oliver thought while scratching his head.

He perfectly remembered how he hated living here. His parents were Korean but gave him a Western name to help him fit in better. All it did was draw more attention to him, especially with his shining black hair and the fact that he was shorter than the other boys. Either way, it was his chance to return home to see his friends and grandparents.

'Fuck!' The boy felt mixed emotions trapped in his throat. He tried not to remember, fleeing from the memories of a day that should have been one of the happiest of his life.

On the way to his grandparents' house, he was in the car, looking out the window. When the sky turned crimson red, he had never seen anything like it. From that same place, a gigantic ship stood hovering over Seoul.

The image was still imprinted in his memory; it was terrifying. With its triangular shape, it was made entirely of a bizarre dark metal while covered in a myriad of symbols. But what made it so terrifying was its two cannons pointed at the ground.

In a matter of seconds, everything was over. Seoul no longer existed, his parents were no longer by his side, and the life he had vanished.

He vaguely remembers being rescued and frozen and, four years ago, being thrown into the slums of New San Francisco, trying to figure out what had happened.

'Maybe I should just say 'fuck it' to all of this.' Oliver had thought that many times. 

Running away from everything and hiding. But one thing he had learned on the streets was to survive. Always focused on the next day. Running away most of the time would only make you die of hunger. He let out a hoarse laugh thinking about these kinds of things. How often had he almost died of hunger for not getting into fights? Many. But luckily, he found a place to call home.

After a few hours of walking, Oliver was near the mess he called home. The building looked like it would collapse at any moment, but it was what he could afford. 

He shared it with 20 other boys with a similar background to his; still, it was difficult to form bonds when you had to work tirelessly to survive. Obviously, Oliver was grateful to the boys, but it was more of a mutualism. They protected each other, but there was no room for friendship.

At his door, a New Earth Army truck was parked. The tall truck had a space for transporting prisoners or passengers, depending on your choice. The sides were made of one of today's strongest metals, with the New Earth Army logo printed on one side and Atlas on the other. Atlas was one of the big corps that made a bit of everything but were famous for their tanks and cars. 

Oliver had seen this type of truck passing through the city many times; it was never a good sign.

It was just as he feared and why he wanted to stay longer at work. One of the soldiers approached Oliver, looking at him from head to toe.

"Are you Oliver? A Nameless from Seoul?" The soldier spoke while judging the boy.

"Yes, that's me. What's this visit about, officer?" Oliver already knew the answer but pretended to be surprised.

"Oliver, you're about to turn fifteen, or maybe you already have; we can't be sure. It's time to begin your mandatory service in the New Earth Army. You have two options: report voluntarily tomorrow at Military Base 043, or we can take you now." The soldier explained.

Silence hung in the air. Oliver knew he couldn't avoid it and didn't want to. Running from the army was the same as asking to be taken to prison. Besides, he would have to leave the city. Outside the cities, Ork incursions were almost constant; it would be just as signing his death warrant.

'Running away will only make me starve,' he reinforced his mantra.

But going to the Army Academy without money or education would make him become just another piece of news showing on one of the LED TVs that no one batted an eye.

"Humm… Fuck it, let's go now. I'll grab my clothes." Oliver answered, dejected by his options.

"No need; the battalion will provide your clothes and accommodations." The soldiers had already been through similar cases where people seemed to cooperate but decided to flee to avoid being enlisted.

"I see. Then let's go." Oliver spoke.

The boy looked at the dilapidated building where he'd lived for the past three years, with its flickering neon lights and the bustling street. He felt a slight pang of nostalgia for the place he called home, but it was time to leave. Once again.

"Get into the truck's transport area. We're taking you and a few others to the registration center," said one of the soldiers.

As he climbed into the back of the transport truck, Oliver saw two other kids seated. One was a boy with his arms and legs tied up and gagged, and the other was a girl who seemed to be sleeping with her head against the truck's side.

His eyes met those of the boy, who seemed to be asking for help.

"Hum hum hum" the boy tried to mumble something behind the gag, but Oliver couldn't understand it.

He noticed something strange as he walked up the steps into the truck. The second soldier, silent the whole time, was suddenly startled and now completely alert.

Turning his face to where the soldier was looking, he saw two small trails of smoke in the sky.

"Ork reconnaissance ship approaching! It's going to crash into the barrier." Screamed the second soldier.

"BOOM!"

An explosion obliterated the ship. Oliver breathed a sigh of relief, but it only lasted a moment. Two gray figures appeared to have jumped from the ship's remains. Despite being hundreds of meters from the ground, they continued accelerating in their free fall.

Until hitting the ground and creating two large craters, the Orks had landed.