Chapter 1: Regret

A young man opened his eyes, slowly he looked up to see his mother. A frail looking woman with long blonde hair, grey eyes and pale skin. She was in her early thirties and had a pretty face.

Although he recognised that his mother was always pale, he thought it looked as though all colour had been drained from her soft face which had tears streaming down it and some blood on her cheeks. He looked down from his mother who was holding him in her arms on the floor. 

He saw his wrist that was gushing blood being pushed down on by his mother to stop the bleeding. His mothers delicate hands were covered in blood. He looked at his surroundings seeing he was in his bathroom and noticing a razor blade on the floor beside him red from his blood.

Noticing her son moved his head Sarah said through her crying. "Ash? Ash, are you awake? Honey it'll be okay don't worry I'm here, I'm here… you'll be alright okay, the Ambulance are coming they'll be here soon. You just have to stay here with me sweetie. Stay with me please… please stay." 

Asher's eyes felt heavy and his body felt cold. He strained to look back up at his mothers face who is still talking but it sounded muffled to him. His eyes closed slowly and he faded into unconsciousness. 

An alarm goes off in a small room with a single bed. A hand reaches sluggishly from under the covers turning it off. A young man sat up out of bed with dishevelled dirty blonde hair. He had grey hollow eyes, a boyish face, however the most notable thing about his appearance was how pale he was. 

He gets up out of bed and began to get dressed. He was short and frail looking despite having a decent frame he didn't fill it out and was quite skinny. 

Throwing on a pair of black cargo pants, a plain black t-shirt and shoes he opened his door and was greeted with the smell of breakfast being cooked. 

 "Ash? Are you up?" Sarah shouted from the kitchen. 

"I am indeed." Asher said as he walked into the kitchen seeing his mother cooking up a storm. The kitchen was small with a stove, small dining table with two chairs as well as an old looking refrigerator in the corner. It was old-fashioned looking but had a uniquely stylish charm about it. His mouth was watering from just the smell, it had been a long time since he had eaten anything for breakfast aside from oats. Today he had sausages, eggs and toast to look forward to.

Sarah turned to look at Asher who looked to be entranced by the site of breakfast. "Well don't just stand there drooling, set the table. Just because it's your birthday doesn't mean you get it that easy." She turned back, shaking her head. 

"Sorry I was distracted." Asher smiled at her. He was turning twenty one today which he knew was considered to be an important age but he didn't feel any different. He started setting the table while Sarah finished whipping up breakfast. He sat down as his mother began plating up breakfast. Asher began wolfing down his breakfast causing Sarah to look at him with concern. "Slow down for god's sake you'll choke." 

Asher ignored her warning as he scoffed down the last of his breakfast. "Wow I must say that may be the nicest meal I've ever eaten." 

Sarah laughed, "You could have fooled me." She said sarcastically and gave him a warm smile. 

Asher smiled back at her. After a few moments his smile faded and his face became more solemn thinking back to the night six months ago when she found him lying on the bathroom floor close to death. 

You fucking idiot. He thought to himself. 

He could not forget the look on his mothers face that night and it had been haunting his days and nights ever since. Asher had many regrets in his life in fact some of them even led to him attempting to take his own life that night, but none of them could compare to the feeling of guilt he felt seeing the pain he had caused his mother. 

"Ash! Earth to Ash!" Sarah said. "I know my food is amazing and leaves all who eat it in a state of euphoria but you might want to leave or you'll be late." Sarah was pointing at the clock on the wall. 

Asher jumped up realising he must have been daydreaming for longer than he realised. He was going to miss the train to the city if he didn't hurry. He jumped up out of his seat, kissed Sarah on the cheek and turned to leave grabbing a blue jacket with a hoodie off a coat rack. "See ya later mom." 

"Be careful out there the snow is coming down heavy" Sarah said worriedly. 

Asher gave her a thumbs up before opening the door and leaving.

Asher was standing in a train carriage holding onto a railing for support. The train carriage was packed to the brim with people all heading in the same direction as him, the city. Looking around the carriage Asher couldn't help but admire the sheer scale of it, even though he takes this train almost daily it never fails to make him feel a sense of awe. This train, if it could even be called that, was a technological marvel to say the least. Each carriage was about one hundred metres in length, with there being 30 carriages making up this machine behemoth. The outside was made of a sleek silver alloy that looked nigh impenetrable, with windows so thick not even a rocket could penetrate them, and the tip of the train looked as though it could pierce through the heavens themselves. Its name…Mercury. It was named after the Roman god which was no surprise seeing that most living people nowadays worshipped them or more aptly worshipped Venus.

The inside aesthetic was much more soft looking than the exterior with rows of comfortable white vinyl seats either side of the train, with white tables in between each row. The carriage was so wide that between the rows there was still ample room for the railings which were bright gold. The train's floor and ceiling were the same gold colour making the train look like a futuristic palace with its contrasting white seats and tables. 

 Ever since he was a child Asher was fascinated by Mercury. It was perhaps humanity's single greatest engineering feat as far as he was concerned, being capable of reaching Mach 3 speeds, whilst being so intricately designed that those inside it wouldn't even be able to notice the speed at which they travelled if not for seeing the world whiz by through the windows. It had been created for one purpose and one purpose only, to connect all of humanity to one another… all of it that was left anyway. Mercury was responsible for connecting each of the remaining bastions of humanity to one another, and it was the only way to travel from one to the other, unless you were someone of venerated status. It dictated when working days started for people in the single remaining country humanity resided in based on when the train would reach them. So each district started their days at different times and slept at different hours than the others to accommodate with the schedule of Mercury. However each of the districts pointed to one place and the closer the district lay to that place the better the district was. Asher was from the district furthest away.

Lost in thought for a few moments Asher was late to react to the doors of the carriage sliding open, realising he was about to miss his stop he promptly exited the train onto the railway station platform. He turned to look as the metal titan continued on its journey to its next stop. 

Asher turned back around and followed the crowd as they walked away from the platform into the station. Inside the station there were a number of closed barriers guarded by small automated turrets. Each of the turrets fired non-lethal paralysing energy rounds, but nevertheless Asher imagined they would hurt to be hit with. As he approached the barricade doors he pulled out a plastic card that had his face on it, he swiped the card on a small scanner just in front of the turret which beeped and flashed green prompting the barrier in front of him which Asher walked through. As he passed through the barriers a red light scanned over him, flashing green and then the barriers closed behind him registering that he posed no threat. 

Asher continued on through the station which was filled with people who, like him, were heading to work. Asher exited the train station with the crowd stepping out into the streets of the City of Light, otherwise known as Elpis.

Elpis was one of the five great Cities of the world, being the second largest one at that and having a population of twenty million. It was massive in scale, being able to comfortably contain its large population, teeming with colossal skyscrapers as far as one could see in any direction, and buzzing with life as people went about their daily lives. The city of Elpis looked like a city made out of light itself, with almost all of the buildings being essentially giant solar panels harvesting the sun's energy for their own. It was an ocean of seemingly infinite metal interconnected by endless streets, populated witty hovering automated vehicles. 

Asher looked across the city horizon seemingly indifferent to the sheer scale of it, before he looked away covering his eyes from the reflected light all around him. He sighed, his breath leaving condensation in the air. It was cold in Elpis that day which was of no surprise to Asher as it was always cold no matter where you were in the world nowadays, with snowfall being an almost daily occurrence. The reflected light from the solar buildings melted most of the snow but the ground always had a thin layer of snow and ice. The world was in an ice age of sorts after the collapse of human civilization. Asher always wondered if it was just the earth trying to erase humans for good this time. 

Asher walked to the nearest bus stop where one was already hovering over. The hovering vehicle landed on the street and opened its doors for the small group of people to get in. It, like most things in Elpis, was completely solar powered. Asher followed suit, stepping in, scanning his card and sat down looking out the window with a dull expression on his face as the bus hovered off around the streets. The vehicle moved at surprising speed around the streets of Elpis landing at stops, collecting and letting off more people. After ten minutes it came to a stop outside a gargantuan dome building easily encompassing a few million square feet. A marquee across the front of the building read "Elpis Robotics". 

Asher had always found it amusing that the city of Elpis was named after his company's founder's family. While it was understandable when one put into consideration what the man's family had achieved. The Elpis family were the heroes that had brought humanity back from the brink of extinction after the collapse happened. Asher did not know all that much about the world before the Collapse or the dark times between them and the foundation of the five great cities, all he did know was that if it was not for the Elpis family there would not be any humans left at all. The Elpis family over generations had reclaimed civilization creating the country of Elpia with the city of Elpis as its beating heart. 

It's a bit egotistical to name a country and city after yourself if you ask me. I mean I've never named anything after myself… maybe I should. 

He got off the bus and grumbled to himself " Another day in paradise". He walked towards the ginormous Dome ready to start his day at work.