Warning: This first submission doesn't have any sex. In fact, it will be a while before we get to sex (there will, eventually, be sex, I promise). This is a dystopia story.
Love to hear what you think.
Jay
*****
Chapter One
A gust of bitter wind tore through the desolate streets, whipping tiny ice crystals into funnels of rage. Blackened snow crunched underfoot as Kim hurried down the street, his hands shoved deep into his pockets, his shoulders hunched against the gale. The early December twilight washed away the muted colors of the structures and streets in K-Zonei, leaving shades of gray. Shadows lengthened as the hazy sun cast its last rays.
Kim shivered, not only from the cold. His dark eyes darted around, seeking movement in the shadows. He stayed to the center of the street, wary of each alley and dumpster he passed. Zonei did not usually host the random thugs and roving gangs of angry quents that infested some of the lower zones, but wariness was second nature to Kim, especially when the day darkened into night. He was usually safe within his secure unit by the time the sun went down, but with winter solstice approaching, daylight surrendered early. Unless he went directly home after work, he wouldn't make it before nightfall.
Zonei was sparsely populated. By the twenty-second century, the middle class had almost ceased to exist, and Zonei was a middle zone. Most of the buildings in the zone had been built during the twentieth century and now stood vacant, their windows broken or boarded, their facades crumbling. Kim liked to imagine what the zone had been like when it was teeming with people, the buildings new and clean, the days warm and hopeful.
He was the only one foolish enough to be out in the deepening twilight and biting cold. His face, the only exposed area of his body, burned with chill. He slit his eyes against the blowing ice and tried to shift his thoughts away from the bitter cold.
He had spent the last of his credits on a used paperback. His conscience railed that he should have spent the money on food, and that he couldn't afford the charge for light to read by, but he hadn't been able to resist buying a book. He hated going home to his empty apartment. Sitting alone every night with nothing to do, no one to talk to, was slowly eating him away. He felt like he was crumbling, bit-by-bit, day-by-day ... like the ancient buildings in Zonei.
He usually did okay on his own. In the summer he was fine. The light lingered long into the evening and he would sit by the window and lose himself in a book. It was only when the days were short and the holiday season approached, that he began to feel keenly the loneliness of his life. His mother had been gone almost two years now, passing away the day before Christmas. Last year at Christmastime he thought he was going to die of sorrow. He dreaded the holiday this year and wondered briefly if he could ignore it, pretend it was January already.
Noticing something large at the side of the street a little ways ahead, he squinted into the gloom. He couldn't make it out. Whatever it was, it wasn't moving.
He considered taking an alternate route home, but a sudden blast of icy wind clawed its way under his coat, ripping away what little warmth he had left in his core. He clenched his jaw to keep his teeth from chattering. His body shivered convulsively, overcome with chill.
The large dark lump on the side of the road was inert.
It's probably a couple big bags of garbage,
Kim decided. He kept going.
The closer Kim got to the garbage, the less garbage-like it appeared. Even as he strained his eyes to make out what it was, he kept his awareness of his surroundings. It could be an attractive find set out to lure someone close so that quents could jump him and mug him—or worse. His stomach twisted in apprehension.
As he approached, awareness of what the object was suddenly hit him, taking his breath away.
It's a man!
Indeed, it was an enormous man. He was absolutely motionless and Kim wondered if he were dead. He started to veer away from the corpse, but then it occurred to him that if the person wasn't dead, and wasn't trying to lure him into a trap, he could be hurt. In any case with the temperatures well below freezing and plummeting, the man would be dead before morning if he didn't seek shelter.
Kim's brisk walk came to an abrupt halt as he stopped to deliberate.
Make up your mind, Kim! Standing here being a perfect target is the worst possible thing you can do.
Kim knew that if he gave the man a wide berth and went directly home, he'd stress over him all night—likely feel guilty for days. He took a few steps closer to the man. Even lying there in a crumpled heap, Kim could tell the man was huge—of gargantuan proportions.
Then Kim realized that there was something about him that looked familiar. Maintaining a good distance, he picked his way carefully to the other side of the man so he could see his face. His breath caught in his throat as he recognized the man.
He had seen him before. He was an addict who hung out on the street in Zonem. Kim had first noticed him about six month's earlier and had seen him often since, when he dared to venture into Zonem to buy groceries. The man was usually slouched against a building, bottle in hand, sometimes smoking an opisig, his eyes red enough to bleed. Kim had also seen him staggering down the street, weaving back and forth, stumbling into obstacles. He'd always wondered what drove a man like that to throw his life away.
In Kim's eyes, the man was perfect, at least physically. He was everything Kim was not. He was the largest man Kim had ever seen, standing more than two meters tall. His shoulders were as wide as Kim was tall. His coloring was light. His blond hair had been trimmed in a very short, military style when Kim had first seen him, but he hadn't cut it in six months—he probably hadn't even washed it in almost that long. It hung in limp, filthy tendrils around his shoulders. His gray-blue eyes might have been piercing if they were not clouded with drink and drugs. His cheekbones were high, his nose was aquiline, and from what Kim could tell, under his tangle of dirty beard, his jaw was square and manly. He could have been a movie actor, although his great stature might have precluded a leading role.
When Kim had first seen him, the man was not as shabby as he now appeared. His clothes were expensive, expertly tailored to his fit his large frame. Now his fine wool trousers were frayed to shreds at the hem, there was a tear in his overcoat along the shoulder seam, and his once-white shirt was gray and spotted.
Every time Kim had seen him, his heart had gone to his throat. Even in his drunken stupor, the man had an aura of incredible sadness about him, as if he'd lost all hope. Seeing him always made Kim curiously melancholy.
Now Kim stared at him with wide eyes, trying to determine if he were still alive. He could not tell if his massive chest rose and fell under his bulky coat. As Kim eased closer to the comatose man, the stench coming off of him almost made him gag.
The man's color wasn't ashen, Kim observed; his nose was too red. His lips were horribly chapped. Noticing that both his hands were stuffed into his pockets, Kim dared to move even closer.
I need to figure out if he's alive, and if he is, get him out of this wind.
Kim had been so distracted by the man that he'd forgotten about the biting cold, but now he realized he was shivering violently, and in spite of his knit gloves, he could no longer feel his fingers.
He crept up to the man and crouched in the snow next to him, his heart pounding in his chest.
He could kill me with one blow,
Kim thought. He pulled off a glove and reached out slowly to hold his fingers in front of the man's mouth and nose. Was there a ghost of breath? As the wind died down briefly, he felt the warmth of the man's exhalation touch his hand.
He's alive!
Kim almost jumped back in fear, but steeled himself. The man was obviously sound asleep, perhaps even unconscious.
"Sir!" Kim's voice came out a hoarse whisper. The man did not respond.
"Sir!" Kim tried a little louder with like result.
What if I can't wake him up? I can't possibly drag him anywhere, he's too big.
