CHAPTER 1

2050

Caleb found himself watching the ocean again as he did every day during his lunch break. He couldn't help it, since it resulted excessively relaxing for him to admire that vast expanse of water that stretched outside the thick and high walls around the city. It was a beautiful landscape compared to the dry and lifeless earth next to it.

There was only one thing that would improve the view: whales. Caleb wished to see a real whale, not just in documentaries or pictures as he had been all along, but he knew he would never have that chance. No, whales stopped coming to the coast when the first effects of climate change occurred.

A soft sound interrupted his meditative state. Caleb jumped on the noise and realized it came out of his earphones, which meant he had a notification. Immediately, a message manifested in the lens of his smart glasses: his recess was about to end, and his next class was in ten minutes.

Caleb sighed deeply, and even though he wasn't back at school yet, he was already bored. Since delaying the suffering would only make it worse, he turned around, got out of the observation deck, and feeling as if gravity pushed him to the ground, he headed to the academy.

It's a rule that every teenager hates school, but Caleb was not just another teenager. Caleb Smart, as his last name suggested, was the smartest boy in the city, if not the country, despite being only 16. When he was five, he was already reading classic novels and plays. At the age of seven, he taught himself to play the piano, and it only took him just a few months to learn how to play the most famous sonatas. While his classmates struggled to find the value of x in an equation, Caleb was already reading books of calculus.

Why was he still at school? You may ask yourself. The answer is that his parents wanted him to have a normal life. Reality: Caleb hated being around average–intelligent people. Most of the time, he needed to count to ten and include all the decimals to avoid saying all the known and unknown synonyms of the word stupid to his classmates.

The school building was near the lookout, and since it was one of the business neighborhoods, people always seemed to be busy. It was regular to see pedestrians talking loudly through their earphones and looking at notifications on their glasses, ignoring everything but their business.

Walking to the institute, Caleb often felt fascinated by how the light rays broke through the transparent dome projected by the devices located on the walls, and that it protected the city from the pollution of the outside world.

Finally, he walked along the foot of the silver marble steps that led him to the magnificent black doors of the school. The white building had three levels full of classes and laboratories, and it was the only school in the entire city, so every child went there irrevocably.

There were still three minutes left, and half of Caleb's classmates were hanging out at the front, but he headed to his classroom without wasting time for two reasons: he had not the slightest interest in engaging in a boring conversation about tedious topics, and his next class was history.

One of his mandatory courses, the only thing worse was the teacher: none other than Mayor Solomon Carmichael, the ruler of the city. Didn't he have something better to do than teaching the past to a group of teenagers who weren't interested in the subject at all? Apparently, he considered it one of his duties as a leader.

Caleb liked history; he enjoyed reading whatever book he could get that allowed him to learn more about humanity's past, but when a politician taught a class, it tended to become political itself.

He walked into the classroom, and there he was: Mayor Carmichael again waiting behind his desk for the bell to ring.

"Good afternoon Mr. Smart," he greeted him with his characteristic broad smile. The man was no taller than Caleb and had gray hair and beard. Although he was about 40 years old, Caleb thought he looked older.

"Good afternoon, mayor," Caleb answered, bowing his head, and sitting down in his chair in the second left row. A few minutes later, the bell signaled the start of class, and his classmates quickly went in and sat down. When your teacher is the most powerful person in the city, you have to respect time.

"Well, good afternoon, students," received the mayor to the group. "Let's continue where we left off last week. Shall we? If my memory works well, I think we were learning about the circumstances that contributed to the structure of modern society. Am I right?"

"Yes, the climate change," thought Caleb.

Mayor Carmichael began to explain what every student already knew because it was the same story that adults told them since they were children.

The oceans grew first; glaciers melted, and the sea levels rose, submerging parts of some cities–, including his, Genesis.

After that, temperatures increased, and the extreme heat burned down entire forests, leaving thousands of square kilometers of desert land. Of course, the animals had to migrate in search of new homes, and most species never reappeared.

The worst came last. Oxygen became contaminated, and it became lethal to inhale it. As a solution, Genesis and other cities built walls around them, and engineers invented devices that created force fields to protect the inhabitants. There was one device on each one of the four walls, so the force fields formed a transparent dome over the metropolis. At the top, there were oxygen purifiers responsible for transforming the polluted oxygen into a clean one and delivering it to the population.

Other cities were not so lucky, and the countless major disasters devastated them and abandoned them to oblivion. Half the world was gone.

Caleb knew that he was blessed to live in a city like Genesis. People from shattered cities struggled to find a new home, and now they were savages living outside the big cities; outsiders who were rejected and feared by society.

"Very good, class. Who can remember what the name of Genesis was before the catastrophes?

Almost all the students raised their hands, except Caleb; not because he didn't know the answer, but because he wasn't interested in answering.

"Caleb Smart?" the mayor asked him, staring at him intently as he could actually read his mind and knew all his sins. Apparently, he didn't understand the hint or simply didn't care.

"Boston."

"That's right. Thank you, Caleb. Why do you think it's important to remember the past when all this happened years ago?

"So that we humans never make the same mistakes again. We were on the verge of extinction because we treated nature this way. We are lucky to be here today; many do not have that privilege."

The mayor raised an eyebrow as he looked at Caleb like a predator watching his prey as if expecting him to finish the answer. After a few seconds of silence, Caleb felt uncomfortable and cleared his throat to indicate that he was done.

"That's it," the mayor asked him. "You don't want to add anything else"?

"No, that's my whole answer," Caleb replied firmly.

"Well, I have to admit that's somewhat disappointing coming from you, Mr. Smart. Anyone else?"

A blonde girl at two tables to his right raised her hand.

"Yes, Ariadne?"

"I think that we are here today because we deserve it. It is exactly as Darwin said: the survival of the strongest. We have the right to be here, and if we are still learning our history, it is to remind ourselves that we are in control and that we, the survivors, are the best of our species."

Ariadne Carmichael was the daughter of the mayor and, according to Caleb, the most annoying person in the world. She was probably her father's greatest supporter and repeated his words over and over again like an old recorder. The sound of her voice alone was enough to stun Caleb as, despite her intelligence, she never said anything worth hearing.

"Great answer, Ariadne," praised her father, "if there are no questions, we can…"

"I have a question for Ariadne, sir," Caleb interrupted, turning to the girl. "Are you saying that the lives of people who died of inhaling toxic oxygen or starving do not matter? That they simply did not deserve to survive just because they lived in developing countries and poor cities and, unlike us, did not have the resources and money to defend themselves?"

"Well, if you look at it that way, yes, Caleb. You wouldn't live long in such circumstances anyway. Look, the survivors of these cities are now social outsiders. What happened was terrible for all of us, but it showed us that we are more prompt to adapt to harsh environments, which is what we are doing. Social differences exist for something."

"Wow, I think we should respect all the lives, and our rights should all be equal. Instead, we just forget about the existence of minorities and treat their deaths as collateral damage."

"We have not forgotten them! Their deceased have made us stronger, and we honor them every day by surviving."

"Please, Ariadne, if I'd wish to listen to politics, I would pay attention to your father directly, not his spokeswoman."

"That's enough Mr. Smart!" the mayor shouted to Caleb. "I don't allow any discussion during my class, and that applies to everyone without exception. Understood?

"Yes, sir," everyone but Caleb replied.

"You understand, Caleb?" the mayor asked him, bending the upper half of his body to face him.

"Loud and clear, sir," he replied grudgingly.

"Good. Now, what Ariadne was saying is right. Back in the old days, there was plenty of rebellion. The calamities this world has suffered have joined us rather than tear us apart. There is no racism anymore because there is only one society at a time: the survivors, the remnants of humanity. Today, society is finally under control, and it should remain that way.''

"And what about the people from outside?" asked Caleb.

"They're welcome here, Caleb, but they don't accept our offers of help. Reality is they chose their situation."

Living among politicians like Carmichael and sharing their crazy vision of a supposed utopia? Caleb fully understood why they chose to live on their own.

In fact, outwardly, things were only impairing by the day, and no one was doing anything to resolve them; neither Carmichael nor the council in the capital.

Realizing that either no one supported his opinion or preferred not to contradict the mayor and his spoiled daughter, Caleb decided to put up with the rest of the lecture as he usually did. Besides, he knew that people generally did not react well when they heard a different opinion from theirs.

After class, while all the other students hastily went home, Caleb stayed for at least another hour because he had been assigned an important task: correcting calculus tests of upperclassmen. Since he already knew the advanced topics, he had no complaints when his teacher asked him to help her.

At 4, he was finally done and made his way to the exit. The halls were quiet and empty, and the lights were already off. The whole scene reminded Caleb of a cemetery at night, and he was quite sure that a ghost would appear in front of him in any second. It was, though, the only time of the day in which he enjoyed school.

He was a corner away from the stairs that would lead him to the ground floor when he suddenly heard something that caught his attention.

"Is everything under control, Solomon?" a male voice asked the mayor.

"Yes, Chancellor. I have the citizens eating out of my hands," replied Carmichael.

The voices came from the boardroom. Caleb noticed that the door was half-open, giving him enough space to get a good look at the mayor and the holographic projection of the council representative.

"What would they be talking about?" asked himself, Caleb, wondering whether he should stay to investigate or keep walking.

"Good," the Chancellor kept saying, "a population under control means more power for us. You shall keep it that way."

"That's what I intend to do, Chancellor," the mayor replied.

Although Caleb wanted to stop listening and keep up his pace, a sixth sense urged him to figure out the motive for the strange conversation. Eventually, he surrendered and stuck his back to the door, drawing the utmost attention.

"And what about our friend? Have you found him?" asked the interviewer.

"As I told you, he hasn't been seen in 18 years. My best guess is he's already dead," Carmichael said.

Who were they talking about?

"Unless you have found his body, you cannot make such an affirmation, Carmichael."

"I assure you, sir, that our drones are constantly looking for him; they have been doing it for the last 18 years, but there is no trace of The Engineer anywhere. It is almost as if he vanished."

"That's impossible, Mr. Mayor, but I trust you. Yes, he may already be dead, and I am just a paranoid old man. Well, you know what to do if he shows up at some point, don't you?"

"Yes, sir. Of course, I do."

"Very good. We cannot risk losing our power because of some environmentalist rebel. Therefore, we should eliminate all our enemies without hesitation, especially The Engineer."