chapter 4
Bleak light of dawn touched only the top levels of the sleeping dragon. Luxurious penthouses of the elite nested so high that even the middle-level residents could only imagine what those castles in the clouds looked like. They could only marvel at them from below, raising their heads on a rare sunny day and trying to catch a glimpse of sunshine through the smog of the dragon city.
The megacity was a heartless and arrogant beast, occasionally shedding people like bugs, only to crush them under its dragon’s paws. Residents grew accustomed to the monster and, in turn, became ruthless and cold, hurrying across the bridges between the giant blocks to dive into the illusory safety of their holes. Glued to virtual screens, they consumed as much content as possible to fill the void in their minds. Only now did Ellie notice she wasn’t in tune with them anymore. That day, she did not rush home for a new portion of her favorite content. Instead, she left her safe zone, taking a fresh, timid glance at her surroundings.
She exited the inner space of her block and stepped onto a bridge that connected this apartment building to another. They were gigantic black structures with a range of narrow windows for the fortunate residents, who could afford to rent an apartment on the outer side. Most tenants, like Ellie, had an inside apartment, squeezed by identical vaults with pale people in front of screens.
The bridge led her to a small square stretched between two mega-blocks. It resembled a cobweb over an abyss. A metal tree decorated its center, its rough leaves dripping rusty dew onto the pavement. How much Ellie craved to see a real one! She picked up legends that the highest levels held giant greenhouses and exquisite gardens. Unfortunately, Ellie needed special passes to go there. Well, at least Ellie was here and not lower.
The girl heard a commotion at the edge of the square and stepped back into the shadow of the megablock. Eviction. Guards in dark uniforms circled a middle-aged man, pushing him into an elevator. Black helmets with long visors hid their faces, discouraging any attempt to speak to them. The man’s pale fingers clutched his battered leather bag to his chest. Silent tears flowed down his frightened face, and he wiped them with his sleeves. Except for Ellie, no one from the occasional passersby looked at the evictee. People felt lucky it wasn’t them. But tomorrow, it might be their turn. Eviction became the most dreaded word here because the Bottom, the forsaken land of fog and mud, was only a dozen stories below.
The man made the last hesitant steps toward the elevator and cautiously entered. Horrified, he examined old streaks of blood on the metal walls and rushed back to the exit with a desperate cry. Too late. The guard had already beeped his badge at the elevator’s panel and punched in the code. The metal double doors swished closed, taking the screaming man down to his doom. An aerocar arrived at the nearby transportation hub, spilling some residents into the square. The patrol strolled away.
Mesmerized, Ellie followed the elevator with her gaze. She walked over to the wire fence framing the square. Her fingers clenched the icy lattice as she peered down. Morning fog covered the ground below, hiding the entire Bottom in its gray milk. It flowed between the black monoliths like an eerie river of oblivion, melting anyone who dared to dive. Now she knew what was beneath this veil: horrible creatures roamed the ruins of the abandoned town. Ellie’s throat tightened, making it hard to breathe. She pressed her forehead against the cool wire, trying to stay calm. Whenever Ellie closed her eyes, the images of those abominable critters haunted her. How real were her dreams? She was about to find out.
She shook her head, trying to clear her mind, and hurried across the square. A chilly rain was falling softly onto the pavement, making it sparkle and reflect the neon lights. Ellie took out the tablet from her backpack to confirm the route.
An aerocar approached the transportation hub, using tracks suspended between the mega-blocks. Ellie checked its number and dove into it. The car wasn’t full at such an early hour. All passengers were checking the latest content on their virtual tablets, holograms blinking before their eyes. No one paid attention to her, and she moved closer to the glass doors of the exit for a better view of the vertical city. As the aerocar rode away from the mega-block, Ellie raised her gaze, futilely trying to glimpse the sky, but the morning was gloomy, with leaden clouds shrouding the mega-blocks.
Her stop number flashed on the board, and Ellie stepped out into the rain again. Glancing around, the girl headed across the bridge to the largest mega-block. She entered a yard with multiple exits that led the residents to their apartments. Ellie found the number she needed and dove into it. After fifteen minutes of brisk walking through the tunnel, she entered another yard, littered with counters with foul food she would never dare to try, broken furniture, and cardboard boxes, some of which had people sleeping in them.
Ellie walked through an arch and appeared in the alley where Maria had been murdered. The girl wanted to check the details of her dream that were not covered in the news report. The patrol had picked up her body, leaving no indication that this had been a crime scene only a few hours ago. The alley looked like the one in her dream, including the rough wall where the rapist had strangled his victim and the curb. Ellie’s gaze darted to the white graffiti: We are all sleeping. She saw the same inscription in her dream.
Dread tingled at the base of her spine. Dreams were real. Ellie hoped that if the place of Maria’s murder differed from her nightmare, then she could just ignore her dreams, because they would’ve been just that: dreams. Weird, yes, but happening only in her head.
Now only two options remained: events in her dreams truly happened, or Ellie was still hallucinating. Multiple people from her previous nightmares flashed before her eyes. Could she have warned them? Did she still have time to warn the man from her latest nightmare? Would she risk going down to the Bottom for a stranger? Although he didn’t feel like one.
A gnawing feeling was eating at her gut ever since she saw him in her dream. Why did he seem so familiar? She was sure she’d never met him before. So why was she so restless as if a clock was ticking, measuring the time toward something irreversible? Something she knew she would never be able to recover from.
The girl picked up speed with each step until she was running through the tunnels back to the transportation hub. She exited the block, sprinted across the bridge, and jumped into an aerocar. Her feet hummed with urgency to find a way down to the ground level, from where the dragon city sprouted.
