1: New Morning

Zalez woke up in his carjet with no memories of himself. Something was off about everything. Zalez felt awake but did not understand that. He just emptily stared into nothingness as his brain did not interpret the world around him properly. Within him, the black void rose like water, drowning him. Then the gates opened, and data flooded into his mind. Shards of thought came together and formed images. Vague memories from the past.

Floating in fluid.

A man in black clothes beyond the foggy liquid and a dull glass with a hazy reflection of a face.

A name. “Zalez”

Is that it? He questioned the void.

No reply. The man in black smiled before the shards separated, dissolving into the black mist. The vision was over and Zalez surfaced into a hostile reality.

Lack of memories meant that Zalez did not recognize his surroundings. An old carjet, an Endeavor 256, its windscreen scratched, its leather seats torn in places and its chrome exterior faded into a rusted silver peeking from beneath the flakes of red paint. Its interior felt lived in, as signs of the human touch were everywhere. From the withered-down leather of the steering wheel to the faded digits on the control panel. Zalez felt like it belonged to him but he could not remember. He had been told his name in the vision but that was it. The disorienting feeling made him nauseated and he held back the bile. He found the door handle, pushed open the door upwards, and stumbled out.

Outside, on the concrete surface of the garage, he staggered, falling onto his knees and hands. Unable to hold back, he threw up violently. His breath came out in forced intervals. Inhaling and exhaling as if the world had run out of air. Sweat dripped from his forehead and his eyes darted around the messy garage. Spare parts and tools were scattered randomly all over the room. Only way in or out was the shutter.

He tried to think but his mind just screeched like a television tuned to a dead channel.

Who am I? Where? What is going on? He was besieged with questions and no answers came up.

I am Zalez. The man in black beyond the glass. The only two memories stood prominent in his blank mind. Zalez stood up awkwardly, his legs trembling. He brought up his hands in front of his face and looked at them for some while. Terror and despair gripped him as he let his hands fall down limply to his sides.

He could not even recognize his own hands.

. . . . . . .

Elsewhere.

Savexil VorteXia stood at the edge of the roof of the VorteXia Corporation headquarters, looking at the city down below. Ugly buildings towering over the city’s underworld like the stumps of burnt trees, and the VorteXia headquarters stood above the rest. The wind ruffled his blonde hair, shook his tie, and blew away the smoke from his cigarette. He took a puff, held in the smoke, and let it all out with a sigh. Enough. He threw down the cigarette and watched as it fell away.

He looked down at the city, ignorant of the Reset, continuing with its mundane routines. Day after day after day, it was all the same. Like ants walking in a line. Mindless mass of predetermined lives. Whether the people knew it or not, Savexil was present in all aspects of their life. His corporation had completely fused with this city, providing food, estate, medicine, access to cyberspace and so much more. This city was so dependent on the VorteXia Corporation that it could not survive without it.

He had everything he could want. Ever since he was born into his father’s world, Savexil never had to struggle to achieve anything. He always knew of his vast inheritance, the monolith his forefathers had built and now, in its perfect state, it became his dominion. Everything….

Everything is too much for one man to shoulder.

The screech and hiss of a metallic door being opened announced the presence of a visitor. Savexil slowly tilted his head back and saw it was one of his men. The ones involved in the darker side of VorteXia.

“Boss! The Board of Directors has assembled. They wait for you downstairs.” he delivered the message with a mock respectful tone.

It’s not me they respect! He thought. His father’s ghost haunted him still.

“Tell them I'll be down soon.” The man left.

Savexil turned back to his original position, standing at the edge. He took out another cigarette from inside his coat, lit it, let the fire die into a burnt glow, and then took a puff. Not for the first time, Savexil thought about stepping beyond the edge. A fall to death. It seemed like a beautiful way to die.

…….

Zalez had been wearing a brown trench coat with its inside lined with fur. He dug around in its many pockets to look for something and almost gave up on the search when his fingers brushed against something. He pulled it out. A small glass bottle containing clear fluid with a label in neat blocky print that read: “USE ONLY WHEN NECESSARY!”

Zalez placed it back and reentered the carjet, looking for any signs of his own identity. He looked into the rearview mirror and saw a vaguely remembered face staring back. The reflection in that vision. Zalez saw messy black hair that hung forwards, brown eyes, and a sharp nose. A stranger to himself.

He found a pistol in the dashboard and a metal flask containing weak watered-down alcohol. He checked the gun. It was of an antique kind with metallic bullets in the magazine. He sipped the drink. It was watered-down wine but he had to work with what he got. Then he pocketed both and looked for something else. There was a card in that dashboard. One side of it was black with red lettering that stated: “MEMBER” and below it was more writing that said: “The Underland”. He turned it over. Red background with a simplistic logo in black. A human skull with horns.

Huh! What’s this? He pocketed it too.

He sat in the carjet and with his head down, wondered what he was supposed to do. Zalez knew that he was a person. He had lived some sort of life and understood the world around him, but what he lacked was experience. He knew nothing about himself and it made him feel so cold.

Parents? Friends? Full name? Birthday? Favorite food? Who did this to me?

There was nothing. Zalez just sat there, wondering what he could possibly do.

A thought came into his head: Might as well drive.

He opened the shutter and looked out into the city. Bustling traffic in the skies. Carjets were like carrion eaters circling the city. The city itself was a monster of metal and concrete. Massive buildings with their sharp, trigonal tops loomed over the denizens of this world. The garage was on the 4th floor. More garage rooms were visible in the area. The entire complex was garage rooms. Nothing else.

What was I doing here? He wondered as he turned back towards his carjet.

Time to go for a drive.

………

The world itself became a blur as Zalez clicked past each gear. The carjet flew in the skyway. The numbers were rising as the speedometer flashed in a frenzy. Avoiding traffic was getting harder and harder, as the drag force screamed and scratched his car. He decided to get rid of the problem presented by the traffic and lifted his carjet above the legally set sky lane height. Zalez was pushed back in his seat as the world lost all clarity. It was him and the carjet. The engine roared louder. The tail lights left trails of red for those to see. On that day, people who saw the carjet flying would tell how it was the fastest they had seen anyone go.

Inside, Zalez felt the strong push of the G-force crushing his insides, but he kept a firm grip on the steering. It did not click in him that what he was doing was quite insane until he saw the speedometer only showed “ERROR”. But he did not slow down. Above the buildings, he was safe from the threat of crashing. There were no birds in flight. The polluted air had taken care of them years ago. Zalez. The carjet. And speed.

A police jet had been stationed in the city, waiting for anything to disturb the normality of the day. The officer inside had been quite surprised when he saw the carjet leaving only a blurry red afterimage on his monitors. Turning on the red and blue beacon, he prepared to follow this madman.

“Initiating pursuit. Culprit in an Endeavor 256 breaking speed limits and flying outside sky lanes.” the officer announced in his communicator.

………

The rumor had spread soon after the day Zalez had been killed by Udrax. When Zalez had stopped showing up at his usual spots, it had become obvious what might have happened. Friends. Enemies. Acquaintances. Associates. Everyone knew. Like carrion birds, they all wanted a piece. Zalez dying meant that an empty Zalez was out there. Ripe for the taking and everyone wanted the fruit. While Udrax had gotten what he wanted already, the rest of the factions scrambled looking for the new Zalez.

The power struggle between the factions of Antariz had begun with Zalez at the center.