● Disclaimer ●
The religion portrayed in this story is entirely fictional and has no connection to any real-life religion or the beliefs of the writer. It is purely a product of imagination for the purpose of storytelling. Any resemblance or relation to real-life religion is purely coincidental.
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It's been twenty years since humans arrived at Grey Land.
Twenty long years since the great planet Earth was lost to climate change and natural disasters. Humans couldn't figure out any way to survive, and so they gave up hope, accepting their fate-- accepting their death.
But before the extinction of humans, ten entities, known presently as Greyes, appeared to the humans and promised them land, good life, and riches. The desperate humans accepted this and moved to the Grey Land. A planet extremely dissimilar from the humans' home planet. The Greyes granted humans temporary immortality that'll enable them to survive the four hundred years of travel to the Grey Land. Though lives were lost due to conflict on the ship, more were also born.
The Grey Land had five spaces, or cities if you must call it: Graviton, Hydrospace, Satellite, the Inner Core, and the Outer Space.
Graviton, an extremely rocky space of the Grey Land, but currently the richest space on the planet, and the residing area of the Star-Lord, ruler of the Grey Land. It had buildings built on rocks and sometimes, very rarely gets hit with earthquakes and sandstorm.
Hydrospace is a space surrounded by water. The buildings in this space can be found on the small island that is surrounded by water, and also inside the water. The residents of his space were able to breathe, see, and live in water.
The Inner Core, famously called the Forbidden Zone. This space experiences everything terrible to man. Extreme sandstorms, huge rain followed by thunderstorms and frequent lightning strikes, floods out of nowhere, strange deadly creatures, and always filled with poisonous gas.
A few seconds of exposure in this zone could cause a drastic change in a body, be it a Grey Lander or a human, the being transforms into what was called an infected, monsters that kill and infect other living things. A fully infected can only be stopped by being killed.
Finally the Outer space. Location unknown to all but given a hypothetical name. The Outer space is a space where the Greyes are believed to reside.
Humans weren't the sole residents of the new planet they found themselves in. The Grey Landers were there before them, beings able to live in all three livable spaces, though they each rather stay in a particular space.
Humans couldn't breathe the air of the new planet and until they evolved. A chip known as Artificial Intelligence was inserted in every human's spine, allowing them to be able to breathe in only the space they chose to be, while a Bio-suit was needed to travel to others.
Some humans are Exceptions, allowed to have an Artificial intelligence that allows them to live in all the livable space, but this is only done for a qualified reason, mostly work purposes.
Before the arrival of humans, the Grey Landers worshipped the Greyes as gods and creators and so humans picked this on upon arrival, most of them at least, becoming what they call Believers.
The Grey Land used to be a peaceful planet with the only infected space being the Inner Core, and the Greyes helped the Grey landers in developing. But after the arrival of humans, the Greyes disappeared and the Zone suddenly began moving into the closest space (Satellite and Hydrospace), and most of the Grey Landers blame the humans for this.
They called the humans 'world enders' and even picked up arms to kill them but were stopped by the Heavenly Protectors, the military arm of the planet. And so the Star Lord called a truce between the two races, but it only stopped publicly, some Grey Landers still carry on the hate for humans and some humans swore to fight and become sole owners of the Grey Lander, they called themselves the Other Worlders and still operate.
In other to appeal to the Grey Landers, some humans, called Sweepers, were hired by organizations to enter the Forbidden Zone with a Bio-suit to try and cure the infected areas all the while grabbing some important resources.
These Sweepers later came together and created an organization. Though they were still hired by other organizations, they were now organized and had a purpose, to save the Grey Land from the infection, (and maybe grab a few loot along the way).
(Don't worry about this information dumb, just wanted to get everything out. You'll understand it all as the story moves on.)
● Satellite
Exact Location: Mouth of the Forbidden Zone.
Four men in Bio-suit stood inside the infected area. One of them looked up at the red sky and inhaled. "Have you ever wondered what it smells like in here?" He asked one of his comrades who walked up to him.
"Really, Liam? If you are that curious why don't you take off your mask and find out, I bet you'd have enough time to tell us what it smells like," she replied while passing one of the two devices as long as a stick she was holding to him.
The third man laughed through their communication device as he was a few distance away from them. "It seems entering the Forbidden Zone fucks people's heads, it should be illegal to have those thoughts," the man said.
"Come on Thomas, Liam is allowed to have those thoughts, it's fine to be curious so don't pester him, you too Zara."
"Thank you, Mister Jenkins, glad to see at least one person thinks like me," the man named Liam smiled.
"Again Liam, just call me Cole, you make it seem like I'm an old man by calling me Mr. Jenkins, please, just Cole is fine."
Liam smiled underneath his mask and slightly bowed his head. "Sure thing, Mr. Cole," he laughed.
Zara rolled her eyes and continued forward. She groaned as she stabbed the device into the ground. "The sooner you realize you are an old man the better for everyone," Thomas chipped. "I think it's about time you drop the suit and live your final days loving Mrs. Jenkins."
Cole shook his head and also plunged his device into the ground. "Who will keep an eye on you three if I drop the suit? Plus I can't have you two bully Liam."
"They don't bully me."
Zara walked up to Liam and slapped the back of his head. "Attach your device already."
He groaned and started away from the two others to set the device. The crew were to attach the device they were holding, the luminaire stick, a few distance from each other to enable the device to work.
Liam plunged the device into the ground. But before he returned to his team, a glitter in the sand caught his eyes. He curbed and cleared the sand to see a necklace with a diamond pendant. "Whoa," he exclaimed before picking it up.
"Come on Liam, hurry it up," Zara yelled.
"Sure…" his words trailed off as he noticed a sandstorm approaching his location. "Sand… sandstorm! Incoming sandstorm!" He yelled and quickly veered around, running back to regroup with the others.
"Sandstorm!" Zara yelled, relaying the message to the others. They all quickly rushed to where she was standing.
She hurriedly typed into her watch before looking up at Liam who was still a few distance from where they were. "Come on."
His breathing was unstable, and his mask was starting to get coated in the heat vapour that exuded from his body, causing his vision to become blurry. He almost tripped but managed to regain his footing and continued running. He quickly pressed a button that was on his chest region and a fire burst out from his shoes, throwing him forward.
Cole swiftly grabbed his comrade and pulled him down just in time for an energy shield to cover them from the sandstorm.
"Are you okay?" They all asked the moment the storm cleared.
He nodded yes before exhaling deeply. "And this is another reason why I can't drop the suit just yet."
Zara shook her head and rose to her feet. "We need to activate the luminaire stick now, it looks like the Zone is moving again."
Liam narrowed his eyes at the direction the sandstorm came from. He was sure he saw something in it but his mind doesn't want to believe it.
"Right."
....