Forgotten Tales: A Phoenix Dream

“The year was 2210. After years of economic decline and war across the globe, the Earth’s economy is finally rising once more. In the early days of the 23rd century, 2203, one of the eight most powerful nations in the world took to war against a young nation deeming it a war of ‘Peace.’ However the true purpose of this war was the acquisition of oil, the last of the planets reserve. Over the coming years, the peoples of the young nation rose to fight back their invaders. It took a further four years for the more powerful nation to overcome the weaker nation. A year or more later, 2206, the war had ended but with it a rebel group sabotaged the nation’s oil fields. The cost of oil rose and with it the people of the planet began to panic, buying fuel for their vehicles, causing the cost to rise even more. But in 2209, ‘The Wars are over’. There were a number of reasons for war, but there is no longer a reason to fight just for fossil fuels. This was because of a new source of fuel, which gives off masses of energy. Entire cities are being built for the soul use of this new fuel. The fuel is named PHOENIX, because of its colour when burnt, and its ability to burn so long. It’s no longer used as a way to life. It’s the only way to survive.” The voice stops, to search for more words to say. A young man, who the voice belongs to, is sitting in a darkroom. Only one light resides in the room with him and a rattling machine. The light is small and slowly blinking as the machine continues rattling. He sits there and begins to breathe deeply. He then stares into the red blinking light and begins to speak once again. “I’m getting off track here… This is our journey, from the beginning. In the year of 2259. The year that the world changed once more.” Light from the dawning sun is shining into a room, a Childs room. A young blonde haired boy awakens from a nightmare in his bed. The room is neat and organised, there are many toys in the room, but are organised into four piles, each in a corner of the room. The owner of this neat room is Varin Vargon, a seven year old boy with blonde spiked hair and blue eyes. His room remains dark; his eyes are yet to adjust to what light there is. He idly rolls over to look at his alarm clock; it is six in the morning. Varin slowly folds back his blue bed quilt, even his sheets and pillow case are blue. He then begins to lower himself out of his single sized bed, which is a foot bigger than him. He begins to stagger as he finds his legs, he yawns and stretches, feeling the blue carpet between his toes. His blue and white stripped pajama sleeves fall down towards his shoulders, his clothes are two sizes too big. Varin looked at his small cabinet, upon it was the alarm clock and a necklace. The necklace was created by Varin’s Father, who also made a similar one for Varin’s older brother. This is the Vargon Family Crest. Varin places it around his neck and begins to wake more as his Father begins to yell up stairs; ‘Varin you awake? Come down for your breakfast.’ The Vargon family live in the Green Sector of the mega-city known as Karves City. Their Father believes the centre is too polluted for them to live anywhere near it so instead they live in the outskirts of the city as protection for his children, but even on the outskirts of these mega-cities’ the air is still polluted. “I remember well why each mega-city, such as Karves and the neighbouring town of Shenma City, are split into five sections: Green, Yellow, Blue, Orange and Red. They say that the zone Green and Yellow, are the safest for being less polluted, but the real reason is for this sectors isn’t Health, it’s the one thing that makes the world turn… Money. Green, Yellow and Blue are mostly the residential areas of the city. However the truth is, these are the areas in which, what the rich, like Diamond Hillweller call ‘Trash’, the people who have next to nothing. Orange and Red are owned by the wealthy, which can afford to life in the skyscrapers, high above the smog in these high pollution areas. The Green sectors are for the poorest. In the case of Karves, this sector isn’t owned by any Mayor, Politian, or even the nation but by Loan Sharks. Money hungry thugs who like to push people down and aren’t afraid to take another life, just to improve their own.” Varin slowly walks towards his bedroom door. Opening his door cautiously. He begins to stumble out of the door, stepping out onto the burgundy carpet. Varin looks to his right and sees his older brother’s room. The door stands wide open. He continues on towards the bathroom, just across the hall, noticing the cream coloured wallpaper with a simple pattern running down it, a woman’s touch has been placed here. He walks past an old photograph in a wooden frame. The photograph is of his pregnant Mother, his older brother and his Father. All laughing and smiling in a big green park sitting on a checkered picnic blanket surrounded by multi-coloured flowers during the summer, this was obviously their family photo. Varin continues past the narrow staircase, he begins to look down cautiously, quickly remembering a nightmare before shaking it out of his head. He passes the staircase and now approaches his parent’s room, his Father’s room. The door was a jar by a foot, which almost dared him to enter. He has never seen the room. His older brother, Drogun, would tell him tall tales of what it looked like inside, Varin never believed him, it sounded too good to be true. ‘I’ll look tomorrow’ he always thought to himself, but he never dared to ever enter. As he walked past he tried to see inside but no luck. It’s only open enough to see the wallpaper, a peach colour with a red rose pattern on it. Just next to his Father’s room is the bathroom. He steps into the bathroom quickly, closers the door behind him and steps into the walk in shower. He then pulls the curtain across * Downstairs his Father is cooking breakfast in the kitchen. Drogun, Varin’s older brother, is in the kitchen also, playing with his now cold fried egg and sausage. A sudden thought strikes Drogun, he begins to think as he stares down at his food and comes up with a trick to play on Varin when he arrives. He’s done this before, a few times in fact and Varin has fallen for it every time. Varin doesn’t know why he does it; maybe for a laugh or just out of boredom. Who knows? * Back up stairs. Varin steps out from his room wearing a clean pair of pyjamas, they are exactly the same as his other pair white with blue stripes, they’re maybe a few years older and slightly more worn at the knees but practically the same. He begins to make his way down the narrow stairs to the small boxed kitchen. As he gets closer towards the kitchen, the air begins to thicken with the smell of fried eggs and sausage. Drogun is the first to say morning to him. ‘Morning sleepyhead… how’s my little bro today?’ ‘…Morning D… …Drogun’ replies Varin with a yawn. Drogun is the oldest of the Vargon brothers; his hair is short, bowl shaped but sometimes gets in his blue eyes. He uses a red tattered bandanna given to him by his father to keep the hair out of his eyes. His hair colour is purple which he dyes once a week in an attempt to look like his father when he was going through his punk phase in 2221. To Varin, Drogun seems kind of strange because of his clothing. Always wearing black denim jeans, which have a tear at the knees. Drogun also seems to always wear the same black t-shirt. Varin once had the courage to brave an adventure into his brother’s messy room, his quest was to see if he had more black t-shirts, although almost getting lost in piles upon piles of mess, Varin discovered that Drogun has ten similar black t-shirts. Varin took up a seat across from Drogun on the squared breakfast table. The old cooker was now turned off and their Father turned to give Varin his fried breakfast. ‘Here you go Varin’ Varin then politely says ‘Thank you dad’