Gatekeepers Book 1: Darkness

Towards the Stage

"Draycos? Draycos, are you still there?" a voiced asked. Draycos snapped back to reality and noticed that Iris was standing in front of him, giving him a somewhat concerned look.

"You okay?" Iris asked. "You were staring off into space for a bit there."

"Yeah, I'm fine," Draycos responded as he smiled, putting his sunglasses back on his face. "Was just thinking for a moment there. Come on, we need to hurry or else we'll miss our slot for the talent show."

"Yeah, we do need to hurry," Iris commented, checking her wristwatch. "It's already 10:10; we need to hurry before registration closes at 11."

They began walking, and Draycos noticed that Iris's hair wasn't in its usual braid, wrapped around her head like a crown. "Didn't have time to do your hair properly this morning, huh?" he asked.

Iris sighed. "I told you already; my father was all over me till I left. He wouldn't give me a solid minute of alone time, and I ended up running out the door on him. He's not going to be happy with me when he comes home this evening."

"Every time you talk about your father, the more he sounds like a stick in the mud," Draycos said. "Has he never heard of the concept of having fun?"

At this point they had reached a sky rail station and walked inside. Since Atlantis City was only a few square miles, someone proposed the idea of having the sky rails, which were basically sky trolleys, to connect the entire city and would allow the citizens to quickly get to the main area where they wanted to go and walk the rest of the way. Since the sky rails didn't take up much if any ground space and there weren't many roads for cars, the proposed idea was agreed upon unanimously. There were stations throughout the city, and each station had a trolley that lead to a different station, so there were about fifteen trolleys at each station since there were only sixteen stations in Atlantis City. Each rail line had two trolleys on the track that would go opposite directions on the track. The shortest wait was only a couple of minutes, while the farther stations took about ten minutes or so.

Draycos and Iris's timing couldn't have been better when they arrived at the station; the dark green metal trolley linked to their destination had just come in and passengers were unloading onto the platform. The trolley in question had a large G painted in white on the top and next to each of the four doors. A map of the rail lines just within the station showed that the square-shaped Atlantis City had been divided into 16 smaller square sections, lined up four by four. Starting at the top and going to the right, they were labeled letters from A to P in alphabetical order. Henceforth, the trolley Draycos and Iris was getting on was heading to the was Section G, near the heart of Atlantis City. Trolleys that connected to adjacent sections were only usable for senior citizens or those with disabilities; the city council was trying to keep everyone's health in mind as each section of the city was only a half square mile.

They flashed their Atlantis City ID cards across the tech screens at the entrance gate, stepped onto the platform and walked to the trolley. People that lived in Atlantis City were always required to carry an ID card provided upon moving in. These cards are a form of security to prevent people who have snuck inside to do anything and be quickly shipped back to the mainland. It was put in place a few months after the city was opened to the public. There were several thousand people who were out on the streets, waiting for the construction on more homes and apartments to be completed so they can get first crack at them. When the city council finally decided to crack down on the homelessness in the brand-new city, it took several weeks to find and ship out all the homeless citizens. The ID cards were then put into place, so that everyone would know that you had come to Atlantis City through the proper channels and didn't smuggle themselves in. If you didn't have your ID, employers were not allowed to hire you, and you would not even be able to shop at a store or buy anything. If you ordered something online, it had to be through a website set up by the city council that could only be accessed by a computer inside City Hall, which you also cannot get into without an ID card. It was a thorough plan to make sure that only people who had their Atlantis ID cards could stay and support themselves.