When I woke up it quickly became apparent how little I was prepared for the feeling of pain and weakness that struck me shortly after waking up. The muscles in my arms ached, a sharp pain in the lumbar of my spine quickly shot its way up into my head, fully bringing me to the sensation of the waking world.

After rubbing my crust covered eyes and slowly shuffling my limp form to the breakroom, I heard the door to Thomas's room open up. I looked at my older brother with indifference as he wore the same attire from our little adventure last night. I had opened my mouth to say something about it before realising I too was also wearing the same clothes from last night.

Thomas greeted me with a nod and a groan but I could tell from his hunched back and squinted eyes that he too didn’t sleep well at all. I let out a yawn which forced Thomas to yawn too as he sat down at the opposing end of the table and dug into a protein bar. I ate one too but the taste was non-existent and the texture was like chewing on rubber.

After non-stop chewing for fifteen minutes, he looked up at me once more and said, “So, about last night… I’ll be honest, Michael. I really don’t know where to begin.” he shook his head then scoffed at his own comment.

I looked Thomas in the eye before telling him. “Well, let's just start with the positives? I’ll start: We are alive, we have a truck full of parts and equipment that we need… and we survived a dragon attack.”

Thomas shook his head at that last point. I couldn’t really say I blame him.

“How did we survive a dragon attack? You saw the look on its face, snout, whatever! It was scared and shocked. It had us dead to rights and it backed off when we had all that glowing shit on us.” My older brother exclaimed. “What even was that!? Some kind of hologram maybe?”

I shook my head. “No way, it had to be magic. The way that dragon looked at us. It recognised those symbols… whatever they were.” I said as my voice trailed off.

Thomas brought his hands together to cover his mouth as he looked thoughtful for a moment. His eyes were glued to the napkin dispenser in the middle of the table for nearly a whole minute, it was a lot to take in. Even now as I stand living and breathing, I still cannot believe how lucky I am to be alive. Soon my thoughts turned sour as I remembered the events of last night and remembered the small skirmish that Thomas and I fabricated.

My stomach churned at the sounds of screams and gunfire echoing in my head. I remember hearing somebody scream in agony as I could only imagine what was being done to him. Oh gods, what have I done?? The consequences of what I had contributed to finally weighed on me. I felt like I was going to puke, I looked up to see that Thomas didn’t seem to be bothered by it. Perhaps he didn’t feel it yet. Instead, he continued to stare at the small silver box in the centre of the table.

“Are we magic? Do you think it is somehow possible that we actually possess magical abilities?” Thomas inquired.

“I thought the reason they hated us was because we couldn’t do magic. Instead we use electricity, machine guns, rockets, hydrogen bombs. To them, we use our brains, they just have overpowered reality manipulation abilities and they are jealous.”

“Are they, though?”

“But what do we do now? Can we continue going on as if that never happened, what if that dragon was part of Xareith’s fight and he tells him about us? We got no idea how he would react.” Worry crept into my voice towards the end.

The thoughts of the guilt that I now started to feel lessened their severity under the weight of a dreadful feeling I was slowly becoming accustomed to: fearing for my life. I thought more on how we were going to explain it, what were we to do about it. I could read Thomas’s face as he had similar thoughts to my own. He too was beginning to worry.

After looking around the breakroom, searching for an answer or a clue, my eyes focused on my old history book on The Cauldron. Then it hit me.

“We need to get out as fast as we can! We will call Senator Clarke, tell him to come here and we leave as soon as possible and leave this city. We will find the Dragon Lord and end this. Maybe if we are lucky, he might even protect us from Xareith.”

Thomas looked at me with a raised eyebrow, he rested his chin on his hands that were locked together. “That’s a very big IF.” He said muffled by his hands in front of his mouth.

“We do not know much about what is out there. And if we do go, we may not be able to return at all. And if Xareith knows we are missing then he might come and find us, we would be on his home turf, he would have the advantage.” Thomas continued.

I found myself staring at the spot where my brother’s elbows were resting on the table. Caught in a raging river of thoughts about what to do. I always hated being put on the spot like this, being forced to make a dramatic decision. What would I know about this? I am not some adventurous explorer or an expert fighter. At least if I were either I could stand a chance, but me? I was a nobody, I didn’t even have basic cash register experience.

But we couldn’t stay here either. Continuing to live our lives as normal as we could carve out of this occupation. Just my luck, I grew comfortable with each situation I found myself in and then something has to change whatever I grow accustomed to. I hated how comfortable I had gotten with this occupation. Spending almost every waking hour in these four walls, too afraid to go outside in fear of being mugged by someone desperate or getting to be the amusement of some beast that was bored.

My eyes became watery as the pressure in my head grew more intense, forcing the tears out of me. I didn’t know what to do anymore, I had to re-evaluate my options again and after doing so it was as though a switch in my head was flipped and suddenly, I felt no more fear or sadness anymore. I could only feel the cold hard resolve of a decision I was certain of.

“We must do it. It’s the only option we have left.” I said with stern conviction.

After I had given my answer to Thomas, he stared at me and nodded gently before saying “Alright, I’ll let Clarke know and I will make some preparations.” Before walking to his office. I left the break room shortly after and started packing a large bag with things I thought we were going to need. Some pairs of clothes, a tied-up rope, some books and comics for my own entertainment. Thomas walked out of the office shortly and started to pack a bag of his own. It seemed to me he was indecisive on what to pack.

An hour later and a knock on the front door had grabbed my attention. Upon opening it I was met with the friendly, smiling faces of Marco and Kinsler. Our favourite arms dealer with good customer service skills. Shortly after walking inside both the men covered their noses and mouth with their shirts, apparently Thomas and I reeked which after smelling my own armpits and realised how long it’s been since a fresh pair of clothes or shower was had I realised we had reeked and had been blissfully unaware of its rancid presence. It wasn’t our fault we ran out of deodorant over a week ago.

Both men met up with Thomas and he sat them down in the breakroom. I joined in just as Thomas had started talking to them. For over an hour both Thomas and I told the men we were going to leave on a journey. We both deliberately omitted details on the whereabouts in case somehow Xareith ever found out.

As far as the two men knew, we asked them to watch over the shop while we were gone. There was no reason for them to suspect anything, apart from us suddenly departing. Thomas seemed relieved when Kinsler agreed to house sit the shop. Later when night had finally settled on the ruins of our once prestigious city, both Thomas and I had packed our travel bags. My insides felt like they were inside a washing machine with the way they turned in me. I started doubting myself for this plan, it started to seem like a long shot, but then I thought back on the reasons for why I wanted to do this. I had no clue if anybody had attempted to flee but I just knew that Thomas, Clarke and I had to accomplish this.

Another knock on the door of the shop, it was Senator Clarke. He was dressed up in long beige pants and a plaid shirt that looked tacky and unappealing. Similar to Thomas and myself, he brought a hiking bag with him. Underneath it rested a rolled up sleeping bag which was held to the metal frame between his back and bag.

Clarke let out a sigh as he walked in. Even he began to wonder if this was a good idea. After Clarke slid his shoulders out from the straps to let his bag rest on the carpeted floor of the waiting room, he then sat down on the couch as he made a sound of relief. Thomas sat on the couch next to him while I was sitting cross-legged in my makeshift bed, a pile of blankets and pillows staring at the two older men before Thomas opened his mouth to speak.

“You alright?” He asked Clarke. The senator nodded, but his face told a more sombre story that betrayed his answer. He started breaking down, crying before leaning into Thomas’s shoulder.

“They killed him!” he said in between sobs. “They killed my boy.”

Thomas leaned in, he didn’t say anything while comforting the ailing politician. It was a weird sight for me to see a bureaucrat be so emotional, breaking down in tears at the loss of his son. His pain was almost infectious, I didn’t really care for his son based on my only interaction with him but I doubt he deserved this. Before I had even realised it, a tear escaped my eye.

“May I ask how it happened?” I said, trying to hide my own sadness.

Thomas shot a sneering glare to me while Clarke’s face was buried in his shoulder. He eventually rose up and sat himself upright before clearing his throat.

“Well, uhm, we were trying to barter for food and a dragon with copper scales came down and it bit down on him and swallowed him whole before flying off. Oh gods! I can still hear the bones crunching!” After struggling to recount his story, he placed his head in his hands before breaking down once more. He sobbed, sniffled, crying to himself as his body shook from sadness.

Clarke slowly tried to regain his composure after running his fingers through the streaks of his shiny grey hair. His hyperventilating soon transitioned into slow deep breaths which he used to steady himself and regain his composure before letting out a sigh and standing up and straightening his plaid shirt.

“I, um… I needed to let that out, I haven’t really had time to process it yet.”

“Perhaps you shouldn’t come with us, then if that is the case.”

“No,” Clarke exclaimed. He had whipped his head around to face Thomas. “No, I need to do this. I need to make his death matter, so I can prevent this from happening to other parents. I need to do this.”

I looked at Thomas, I felt uncertain, if his mindset was really in the best place for the task at hand. We were already underprepared for the journey. Last thing we needed was to worry about him losing his mind and going crazy far from help. Clarke slowly walked over to his bag and reached in, his hand shuffled the contents around before pulling out a small revolver with a snub barrel that was longer than his pinkie finger.

“I wasn’t sure if you guys had any weapons so I was able to get this from my office.” He said holding the gun in his open palm.

Thomas responded by standing up and going behind the receptionist desk on the other side of the room and pulled out his Magnetar submachine gun. “I think we are covered with weapons.”

Clarke put the gun back in his bag and zipped it up once more.

“So when do we leave?” He said standing up.

Thomas rested his weapon back on the desk while looking at me for a moment. We never really discussed the time to leave but we had agreed on ‘the sooner the better’ I think he knew I wouldn’t object to whatever he said.

“We leave tomorrow at night. Once it is completely dark, we will try and squeeze past through the hole those dicks made in the Barrier in Sanctuary Hills.” Thomas proudly declared.

I suppose this is it. I bit my lip while my insides felt uneasy.

“Once we get past the Barrier, Michael here will use his knowledge to get us to the Cauldron. And assuming all goes well and we get an audience with this Dragon King-“

“Dragon Lord!” I interrupted. Thomas quickly glanced at me with a flash of anger and frustration in his eyes. It disappeared quickly before he returned to face Clarke.

“Right… Dragon Lord, then that’s when you can use your political skills for good and negotiate a ceasefire.”

I nodded when Thomas concluded his plan. My hands slid under the blankets and felt around the assortment of blankets for my book on The Cauldron which had poked my hand with one of its sharp hardcover edges. I pulled it out and studied the drawn map of the area. Showing the divide between the ancient human kingdoms and The Cauldron itself and the impressive geological features in between ranging from lush forests with veins of rivers snaking throughout the lands before coming to an end at the foot of a pointy mountain range. The mountain range almost ran down the length of the continent, which explains why it was called the Great Dividing Mountains written in an old font on them.

“However,” Thomas had said with a low voice. I looked up to see he was facing me. My eyes darted between his gaze and the book I held in my hands, unsure of what was coming next. “To stand a better chance out there I think it would be wise to gear up.”

I cocked an eyebrow as I stared at Thomas. Did he mean armour, explosives or tools of some kind? I voiced my question and he merely shook his head and said “Cyber gear.”

The blood inside me froze solid after hearing those words. Eyes widening into dinner plates, there was no way I had any intention of letting him install gear in me.

“Nope! No, no way. We are not having this discussion!” loudly did my words voice themselves.

“Michael, listen to me-“

“NO. I won’t let you do it! I’m your brother for fuck’s sake, how can you even think to suggest that!?”

Thomas extended his arms out to me in an effort to calm me down; however, I was enraged, angry, offended at the mere suggestion. I didn’t want to listen to him. He suggested I take a breather to calm down and think his proposal through. Instead, I screamed at him expletively before angrily storming out of the clinic through the service tunnel. I hated him.

The moment I dreaded all my life, I had to have been the only human in my age group with no synthetic replacements in me. No unnecessary gear, no modifications, just plain organic me. It was bad enough I had to watch my brother butcher people and help them upgrade themselves away from being human. But the fact my very own brother had just tried to push them on me for the journey. My breath was still ragged and short, my breath felt hot from the anger I was experiencing while my pounding heart had me tightening my fists in a ball, I almost didn’t notice my fingernails digging into my palm.

After storming off into the echoing concrete tunnels for what had seemed like five minutes, I halted my advance in the centre of the tunnel with only my laboured breathing to be heard. Feelings of hurt and betrayal swirled around me while my saliva turned venomous inside of my mouth. My whole body shook with anger that almost made me ill.

This whole journey was important to me, important to the rest of the people of Balko. People unknowingly depended on us to undertake this journey, whether they knew it or not. To make the effort to end the violence and return peace to my city. The pressure was too much for me to handle, I didn’t want to deal with it, the corner of the corridor gently cradled my shaking form while I sat down and pressed my back against the wall. The bright tunnel became a blur of greys and whites as colour shifted and distorted. I closed my eyelids to let the tears out, the anger that had once burned fiercely, threatening to consume me was replaced by sadness brought on by the mounting pressure. The countless lives of people counting on me to make an effort. The families of the people who died from the hands, paws and claws of these creatures. The families of the people I killed.

Somebody approached me, their footsteps echoed off the walls far down the corridor alerting me to their presence. I jumped when I felt their fingers brush my shoulder and pull me closer into their chest while my sobbing continued. Tears flowed from my eyes and formed a small puddle on the smooth floor, soon my saliva mixed with it as it dripped from my slack jaw. I looked up to see it was Thomas holding on to me. His quivering lip and watering eyes betrayed any sense of control Thomas tried to display in a poor attempt to comfort me. He muttered softly into my ear which I missed the first time he said.

“I know… I know it's not fair we have to do this.” Sadness consumed him too, we both embraced each other firmly. “But we must do this. I cannot get any modifications myself since you are far too inexperienced to do it on me, I can upgrade the senator but if we are to maximise our chances… I need you to do this. Please”

For a few tender moments the world around us blurred out of existence leaving only Thomas and myself alone with only each other for support. There was no sound to be heard amidst our quietened cry’s of distress. I was the first to pull out of the embrace and tried to look at Thomas behind the tears that trickled from my eyes and down my cheeks.

“I don’t… I just want to be different, completely human. Why is that not good enough?” the words came out in between heaves.

Thomas pushed himself up and looked down at me. “Do you know the secret to how people can get extensive body mods and still recognize themselves in the mirror?” His voice was smooth and warm with sympathy.

“What really matters is what is inside '' Thomas tapped the centre of his chest. “Doesn’t matter how much gets pulled out and replaced, it still doesn’t change what’s on the inside, Michael. You’ll still be my brother no matter what. Besides, mega-corps haven’t invented a replacement for all the cooky stuff you do anyway so it's not as if something will be missing” Forcing out a laugh in a desperate bid to make me smile.

I did manage to look up to him, unable to hold back a smile that forced itself. He helped me up off the ground and I looked at him struggling to say the words. “Okay…D-do what you need to. Give me mods.”

Staring at the operating chair in the eyes of a patient rather than a worker or as a piece of high-tech furniture was a different sight to behold. I was never one to get pre-operation jitters before and yet here I was about to sacrifice my own beliefs on the chances of maximising our success on the journey. Thomas was nervous too, even if he wouldn’t admit it openly. My older brother was probably second guessing his decision to make me undergo the procedure. His attempts at trying to make this operation calmer and more relaxed had mixed results from him trying to remind me I will still be who I am on the inside. Or that I could have my pick of the top end cyber gear we had available and by the time we came back, I could be looked at favourably having expensive implants.

Trying to find the will to move my legs and sit in that chair as the last remaining organic human frightened me. But I had already picked my list of gear from the Neural-processor to my optics and the weaponised gear embedded in me. Clarke sat on the chair next to mine, Thomas had asked for his help and he willingly agreed. Shortly after taking a deep breath, I placed one foot in front of the other and walked myself to what felt like an execution of sorts. The deep blue faux leather chair creaked and groaned under my weight, which then settled as I got myself comfortable and relaxed.

The corner of my peripheral darkened by my brother’s frame inching his way into view looking like a butcher in the blood covered surgical mask and plastic apron that he wore. Looking up at him like that sent a cold shiver up my spine while I wrestled with the fear in me from festering. Looking at Thomas like a butcher covered in gore from a sadistic practice of butchering men and women alike, his surgical loupes; those magnifying glasses attached to his forehead gave him glowing red eyes. From where I sat the intravenous pole rack jutted outward like horns behind him. The irrational part of me, the fearful me that was slowly growing strong didn’t see my brother for that, it saw him as a demon coming to take away my humanity for its own malign deeds.

After a slow approach toward me, blocking the light from the surgical lamps and surrounding me in darkness. I couldn’t take my eyes off that baleful glow behind his loupes, it was so malicious, so evil. Thumping hard in my chest my heart was telling me to get out and run from the demon.

“Are you ready?” the words sounding more sinister than they should have.

I nodded.

Thomas’s hand rose from under the chair, carrying with it a mask that he began pressing against my face. “Breathe,” he said softly. But I couldn’t, my lungs ached and burned, refusing to take in another breath. I need to do this; I need to increase our chance of survival and the only way to do that is if I go ahead with this surgery. My lungs expanded, drawing in one breathe and with-it relief from my burning muscles. My throat felt the frigid yet chemically sweetened air enter my lungs, my surroundings blurred and started to melt away. A lingering bitter taste dominated my sense of taste but it didn’t matter to me anymore, the smell of the gas was oddly pleasant and I wanted more of it. Darkness slowly encroached on my sight as my lids drew heavily to a close. Soon I will be peacefully asleep.

Sleep… Such a strange concept, but at least the demon will keep me company.