The leaders of the Shelter
The mayor of the shelter stood gazing down towards the wall within the safety of the capital Ọlọrun-ṣogo; the Lagos shelter was established by his ancestor, who was named Raji Abacha. That was more than 200 years ago, back then, the monsters were weaker, smaller and easier to hunt. Raji Abacha was an ambitious man right from the very beginning; in the old world before the collision, his ancestors were nomads who practised the religion of Islam and owned 90 cows. The only reason why he decided to make the journey to Crystallia was because all of his cows were stolen by a local lord who claimed that they were his and even tried to have him executed, weeks after his arrival to the new mecca (The planet Crystallia) the third daughter of the lord followed and later became his wife. At about 5 years after the earth left, the view of the planet and the gravitational slip-stream vanished forever, and the Ẹbọras began to swarm. Raji was one of the few who had the initiative to build a wall around his property, and as the threat grew worse he fortified his walls and developed new weapons. Over the years, the descendants of Rahji Abacha carried on with their father's legacy, expanding and empowering the walls, and with the discovery of crystal energy and iron forging, they made the Lagos shelter more prosperous.
The mayor chuckled as he sipped down more of his Palm-alu drink, a traditional drink that was once called Palm-wine but exposure to the air and crystal energy of this alien planet had altered the chemistry of the palm tree used to produce the drink. The palace he was staying in was built upon the highest hill in the Lagos shelter, and it was from the highest tower that he had placed his office. This gave him the advantage of overseeing the entire shelter; he had a vague idea of what happened during the Reptile-king invasion. He observed as the three most powerful S-rank Ẹṣọs charged the beast and made short work of it even though the wall guards had already weakened the Ẹbọra. He had purposely delayed the response of the S-ranks with the intent of having the predator flies shave off some of the useless rodents of the shelter. He was wrong, those pests organised themselves like desperate bulls at the brink of death and conquered with unbelievable luck as though favoured by the gods.
"I had hoped that the invasion would at least rid us of some of those peasants." He voiced irritably, "To imagine they would survive the attack, and even more regrettably, they had all reached their Evo-cap"
"Those cursed peasants," He thought with a sign of disgust, there was a sudden knock on the door of his office. "Come in" He commanded.
In walks his daughter, who also doubled as his secretary; unlike her plus-sized father, she was quite slim and beautiful with a little tummy. "The Reptile-king has been vanquished" She began, "Number of casualties amongst the guards of the wall 8 and number of casualties amongst the ground team 3 recruits"
"Only three!" Sani Abacha voiced in disappointment, "Those cursed rats, they can't even die properly. We cannot feed the shelter properly with those rodents multiplying like bugs." He grouched.
"The meat from the Reptile-king will feed the shelter for the next few months so…" She was cut short by her enraged father.
"Shut up, stupid girl, those rodents are nothing but slaves, pests to be disposed of at our choosing; I should have them all…" But then he was silent, "Make sure that the meat of the Reptile-king is taken to Ọlọrun-ṣogo. Every last bit of it, the people of Surulere don't deserve that meat"
"But father, you increased the taxes of Surulere last week they might revolt"
"Let them revolt; that will give us an excuse to execute them," The mayor responded.
"As you wish Father," Rukayat replied,
"And one more thing," Abacha Scowled, "Find out why they survived and tell me, there might be a rear talent amongst that rabble"
"His name is Adewale Alaramide, Skill: Booster, Evo-cap 1" She responded mechanically, "In my opinion, he's trash. But I think he has some leadership potential"
"Summon him here," then he paused for a few seconds, "Organise an award ceremony, who killed the fly queen?"
"The commander" She replied, "He reported that he killed it single-handed"
"That coward!" Sani Abacha mocked, "I'm surprised he even fought at all, I always…" Then he was silent again in deep thought. "That will be all, thank you"
"Yes sir," She responded and walked out of the office allowing her father to continue brooding.
Sani Abacha slowly walked towards his Table and picked up the small paper, it was the paper that Rukayat had left behind containing the information of Adewale Alaramide, his picture and the names of all the members of his family.
"So, you are the one who ruined my plans." Then he squeezed the paper, "I will turn you into my dog; it's time for you to know your place, filthy rodent!"
******
The Lagos shelter was divided into two major districts, Suru-lere and Ọlọrun-ṣogo. The district called Ọlọrun-ṣogo consists of the elites within the society, the rich and the powerful. They were the first to consume the resources brought into the shelter, they are the ones to make the decisions concerning the shelter, and they are the ones giving preferential treatment when it comes to the benefits of the shelter. Their children are the ones most protected and the most treasured. They consider the other residents as mere pests consuming the resources that they do not deserve. Suru-Lere, on the other hand, consists of the working class citizens, the ones who till the lands and worked in specific industries within the shelter; they were impoverished and exploited. As usual, the population of the working class citizens was vastly five times more than the population of the elite, yet they were the ones who drew the short end of the straw. The system within the Lagos shelter was such that there were measures put in place to prevent those from the district called Suru-lere from revolting against the upper-class citizens, and that system was known as the local godfather system or the area lord system.
This system allows for the warring factions to claim specific regions within Suru-lere as their private territory and then send tribute to the elite of a Ọlọrun-ṣogo. Thus, the godfathers are obligated to the elites. The system also allows them to manage the population, especially when two warring factions battle within a territory and many innocent bystanders get caught up in the fight; with this, the local godfathers will always be out for stronger soldiers to improve their standing. And one of these local Lords is the person of Goroso, the sadistic tycoon who had been in charge of the Ọwọ area for more than 5 years.
Goroso was a fearsome warrior with a unique ability, like all fearsome warriors in Suru-lere. He was an A-rank a Ẹṣọ, with an Evo-cap of 78. he had managed to retain his territory, and he even conquered two other areas that tried to encroach his domain. Goroso had built his home in a well-secure part of the Ọwọ area, and he would always scout out talents to recruit to his band of thugs. He needs those powerful enough to help him retain his position yet weak enough so as not to be a threat to his authority in future; he was, after all, an A-rank. To compare his power to an S-rank was next to impossible; he remembered the day he foolishly challenged the authority of Sani Abacha without thinking about his action; Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu, the strongest S-rank warrior within the Lagos shelter, stood in his way. Goroso was beaten to a pulp and then humbled into a loyal dog. He gnashed his teeth in frustration "Curse you Kaduna!" he exclaimed silently,
The only solution to a problem like this one, he taught with a sinister smile on his face, was to seek out a new talent, the kind of talent that would destroy all his enemies in one fell swoop. There was a knock on his door, which broke his concentration, "Come in!" he grouched; he was not in the mood for company.
In walks one of his subordinates, his skin was of a darker shade than others and he had several tribal marks on his face. The man was from one of the more traditional families who have kept the old ways. "Why are you here?" Goroso demanded,
"Ọga I hail you," the brute greeted, "E get something wei I wan tell you (there is something I want to tell you)"
"Out with it," Goroso whispered, now thinking about how he was going to punish this subordinate if the news was unsatisfactory.
"Na im one big Ẹbọra blast us yesterday (An Ẹbọra attacked yesterday)," he began, "Na so plenty people die but they no plenty (Not many died from the attack)" As soon as he mentioned that not many died in the recent attack he had Goroso's full attention. There couldn't be so few casualties without a defining factor, and Goroso needed to know how this was possible.
"Na so one boy tell them say make them fight bakan bakan, (Someone organised them)" the subordinate continued,
"Did you get the name of the person that organised them?" Goroso inquired,
"We never Know" the other replied,
"Find out and get back to me" He shot the command with a smile. "Good work", he nodded in approval.
"Yes! Ọga!" he replied with a salute,
Goroso smiled at the taught; There's a saying in the Lagos shelter that once every five generations, there was always a unique talent that can shutter the organization of the shelter. If this charismatic person has a Talent that can change the nature of the shelter, then he must obtain it before anyone else has the chance to use it against him.
****************
They had just finished one of the usual drills, and they left to take a shower before dinner; Adewale noticed that there was a kind of unspoken hierarchy amongst the recruits in their dormitory, Ajani a level 8 local bully decided to oppress the rest of the occupants of the dormitory. Considering that his Evo-cap was 8, it meant that he was the one with the highest level in the dormitory and this gave him the boldness to establish dominance above all the other residents in the dorm. He ensured that no one dared to pass before him, and when it was meal times he ensured that he took more than a double portion for himself and then gave the rest to share amongst his thugs thus the smaller weaker boys were unable to get a portion for themselves some of the weaker recruits had even gone two days without eating because of Ajani's greed. Adewale had had enough of this; if he did not do anything about it, it might lead to the death of some of the boys in the dormitory and from what he observed, the commander and others in charge of the recruits were not concerned with what goes on in the dormitory of the units. They were all considered as trash because of their low evolution cap Adewale greeted his teeth in frustration. "Everyone deserves to be treated equally he quoted, I'm going to end it here"
As usual, for the dinner for the day, everyone's meal was delivered in small polythene bags, one portion for each person. Since there were about 20 in the dormitory, they delivered 20 bags. Ajani boldly walked forward as usual to grab his triple portion, and his thugs followed behind with a mocking smile on their faces, but then Adewale intercepted him, and Lakan stood by his side.
"Get out of my way Evo 1 trash!" Ajani ground threateningly,
"It's unfair the way you're treating everybody," Adewale said as he stood his ground.
"Is it my fault that you are all weaker than me?" Ajani mocked,
"Many of the boys haven't eaten for 3 days because of you, I think it's time you allowed them to have something to eat," Adewale said,
"look, I appreciate that you helped us during that fight with the reptile King. But here in this dormitory, I am the one in charge. I don't care about anybody else; step aside; if they want to die, they should blame it on their weakness." Ajani mocked.
Now Adewale was visibly angry and frustrated, he looked at Ajani with the eyes of someone thirsty for revenge. "it seems you want a fight!" Adewale growled visibly preparing to land the heat.
"And what can an Evo-1 like you do in the face of overwhelming power" he growled in preparation for the fight,
Ajani had completely forgotten that Adewale was a booster and he had the ability to boost anyone closer to him by 200%, he was so drunk with power that he failed to see the possibility of defeat. Lakan was an Evo-level 5 but Adewale boosted him all the way up to Evo 20 with his unique skill of boosting. Lakan was able to make short work of both Ajani and his brutes in less than 5 seconds one hit was all it took.
"Thanks for the support Lakan," Adewale said with a smile,
"You saved all of our lives" Lakan responded, "It's only fair that I trust you with mine"
"Hidden requirements met (2/5)", the prompt announced; this startled Adewale a bit; he had not quite caught on to what the system meant by 'Hidden requirements'. It might mean that his cheats are yet to be manifested.
"Besides," Lakan continued, "The moment we graduate from this training, we're going to be on the same strike team," then he paused with a serious look on his face. "That is if we survive."
"Survive?" Adewale inquired with a puzzled look on his face.
"According to record," Ọsẹ said as he walked towards them, "No one has survived the training camp from the unit dorms" Adewale looked at Ọsẹ in shocking surprise, "After all we are all trash, it's a miracle that we've survived this long"
It took a while for Adewale to digest the shock of what Ọsẹ had said, they had managed to survive one danger only to fall into the claws of another. Now what was he going to do?
"The only way to escape this hell hole" Ọsẹ continued, "is to be scouted by some of the major strike teams"
"Indeed" Lakan voiced in an exasperated tone, "But they never come to the unit dorms, we are useless after all"
"This time might be different", Adewale voiced hopefully; he observed the activities of the dorm and hoped that all his newfound friends would be able to be recruited with the stronger strike teams. Only time will tell.