There would be no other day like it in the history of Natalos. It only takes a small amount of effort to change the future, and what would happen over the course of this single day, would drastically alter the events of an entire civilisations lifetime. The exact beginning is debatable, but it happened at approximately 8am.


Dane had admired a great number of early mornings throughout his job history, and he revelled in seeing the sun rise from one side of the planet all the way through to its daily descent at the other. It was a simple pleasure he took from his wholly disappointing life.


He had taken the usual precautions on his way up to the roof, and as he heard the latch of the door click he felt the tension fade away. The building was dwarfed on one side by disused tower blocks and skyscrapers, with the other sides free of such visual obstructions.


He stepped towards the drop, resting his foot on the concrete step probably placed to prevent someone in a wheelchair from accidentally rolling over the edge, and craned his neck over to see the height he was at. Pretty damned high, he thought. There was something so unnecessarily desirable about it. It felt like he was tempting Fate.


Dane took a look at his watch. Not time yet, but only a couple of minutes away. However, he noticed little flickers on the display, something which had never happened before, but he knew that the energy that powered it was reliable. Was it a sign?


As he pulled himself away from the edge, he set his silver case down. Here he stood, above a lively city suburb in Calcon, about to do something that was against the law. A breeze floated around him, and because technically it was still winter, it maintained a gentle chill, enough to permeate his thick coat. Staring out across the thousands of rooftops ahead and imagining all the people underneath them, he found himself thinking about the city’s past.


The planet Gaia was still recovering from a period of terror that had lasted for two, and ended eight years ago. It was the work of some cult called the Kad, and they had been led by a guy named Rogan. Like many other groups, it began with a limited number of members, and the origin was uncertain. There were theories that ranged from the ridiculous to the likely, some involving Rogan handpicking Kads from other cults and others involved using some secret technique to brainwash them. Whatever it was, it worked to the disadvantage of the public, and the problems snowballed over time.


The first abduction took place one day in a September way back. A young teenager was taken from his home, when his parents were just next door. The law enforcement group, the Owsla, had no evidence at the time to connect it to Rogan, but suspicion was rising with every day that passed and it kept doing so with eight more disappearances over the following two months.


The Government became steadily worried. It hadn’t managed to discover who was behind it and things were reaching disastrous levels. The next year was when the Kad finally claimed responsibility for its actions, but by then the group was over a million strong and a reckoning force for the General Army. They came close to taking control of Gaia, until Rogan stepped into one family home, attempted to murder one ten year old child and his mother, but something strange happened which shockingly left the cult leader dead. His body was never identified amongst the ashes of the fire, but he wasn’t a problem anymore. The very mention of the death still stirred up memories of the bleakest period in the publics lives.


Things had moved on. That was the past, and Dane had already let that piece of history slide into the recesses of his conscious. He had plenty of experience in moving past things…


Something was wrong. Dane didn’t know if it was the crispness of the air or the hair standing up on the back of his neck, but it was distracting him, and that only meant trouble. His logical senses knew that whatever it was wouldn’t be climbing up the walls to get here, and he suddenly found himself staring solidly at the doorway. The flimsy frame couldn’t contain anything major, and despite his strength Dane wasn’t going to be able to hold off anything for long. Could it be one of the strange creatures so avidly described on the news this morning? The deformed creations of nature that had appeared outside many of Natalos’ major metropolitan areas, seemingly out of nowhere? Big and bloodthirsty, these things called for the Army to be stationed outside even such a large, protected area like Calcon, and had so far steered clear of entering it, but the news bulletin he overheard was twenty minutes ago and things could have changed since then.


Of course, it wouldn’t be them. Weird stuff happened all the time these days, but nothing was sufficiently life threatening, and to Dane they’d be no real challenge. Ultimately though, there was no reason for them to be heading his way, which set him thinking along a different thought path; who would want to come up here?


One name surfaced above others, and it brought his body to a halt. It could only be him, a notion which only became more certain as the seconds went by. Dane wasn’t afraid, nor did he feel any apprehension about this forthcoming arrival, but he was concerned. This was meant to be a time of relaxation before the final event took place, but it wouldn’t pan out like that now that Cam was on his way.


Cameron was just that bit younger than Dane, and the two of them had nothing but contempt for each other, and it didn’t improve things when they both worked in the same place. Not a regular 9 to 5 office, clock in, clock out, punch some numbers into a machine and then drive home kind of job, but something much more unique. Secret, in fact. It was such that whereas most others had the opportunity to go to their home every evening, start up a life with a husband or wife, have children, buy a house and eventually retire, Dane and Cam didn’t.


Underneath the city, eras ago when Calcon was being built up, the Governors, the leaders of Natalos of the time knew that if things were to take a turn for the worse, there would need to be an official transport system to hide the highest echelons of the Government until they were safe or take them out of the city to somewhere protected, so the army could take care of the quandary in the meantime. It was quickly agreed that this would be accomplished using a series of tunnels and passages, laid carefully under the city and leading to certain important locations.


As the town was so small at first, it was easy to hide, maintain and build these tunnels. However, the increase in both size and population soon provided a major dilemma; keep building and hiding them which would take up more time, money, and effort, or find an alternative way to accomplish what the tunnels could do. It was the latter that was agreed upon, and the network lay dead as it were, for thousands of years afterwards, ignored and forgotten by everyone who lived afterwards.


Today’s was a very slightly different story. The tunnels were still there, but instead of being forgotten, they had now been inhabited by a small but private and independent group. Their work was kept covert as was their existence, and each day was a relentless battle to keep it that way. Cut off from society, with only brief reunions for necessary equipment and supplies, this group led a very lonely existence, but as it was the only way for them to survive, they couldn’t leave. They were the outcasts of the world.


This was why the two of them had never been able to escape each other, and when an argument broke out between them over something quite small in retrospect, the fallout had been huge. It lasted to this day, and would probably last forever more.


Concern had now turned to anger for Dane. He dropped the case behind the roofs entrance and climbed atop it onto the small piece of tarmac, lying low with his head poised above the doorframe. No less than ten seconds later, the lock hissed its familiar release mechanism and began to swing open…


With one slick movement, Dane had flipped his whole body over, and brought his feet heavily down upon Cam’s shoulders. Without a warning, he was caught off guard and when hit, his legs buckled underneath him and he was brought down to his knees. Retaliating against the obvious torso hit that was to follow, he rolled to his right. Dane didn’t jump down straight away. Instead he sat upon his platform and watched what his victim did.


Cam still felt pain on his shoulders, but for the most part he was ok. He already knew who it was, but as he was not expecting to be assaulted, he became extremely vocal.


“What are you playing at, you lunatic?”


“You came up here. Yet you knew you’re not supposed to be here.”


“So you attack me?” He yelled, massaging his own shoulders. “I should’ve known this is the way you do things.”


Dane didn’t reply. Instead he gracefully climbed down onto the gravel floor, while Cam remained propped against the side.


“This is uncalled for. If it wasn’t for last months events, you’d be in hell for this.”


“Things are different Cam. They’ll be different from now on and you just have to accept that.” He reached down for the silver case and picked it up. “You are going to have to leave. Now.”


It seemed that Cam was about to think of something to say in retort, but Dane was already standing above him and reaching down to seize the neck of his shirt. Cam swatted it away and climbed up on his own, using the wall and shuffling his whole torso up a few inches at a time. When standing, the two of them were at visibly different heights where Dane was the taller. He towered above Cam.


“I’ll leave, but before I do I want you to know I discovered something about you.”


Dane stared firmly at him. He blinked not once.


“If this is the whole reason you came up here, you’d better start talking quickly.”




This is just a start to a very long saga that I haven't quite written about yet. I hope you like it, if you wish to know the future of this story, please do comment.


UPDATE: Rest of Chapter One here: Chapter One Part Two