Jonathan stood up. He had been sitting with his back against the concrete wall for a couple of hours, just to enjoy the last of the sunlight. Now the sun was hanging low above the treetops in the distance and it was time to go home. He knelt down and tied his boots and picked up his leatherjacket. It was getting chilly and the bats was starting to emerge from the surrounding buildings to begin their nightly adventures.

Jonathan put on his jacket and swung his bag over his shoulder. Then he began walking through the alleyways toward his apartment. The wind was playing with old newspapers and discarded plasticbags. He kicked to a rusty beercan and was briefly amused by the loud noise it gave. He paused, lit a cigarette, let his fingers run through his short, black, dense hair and sniffed the evening air. He shivered by the stench of decay that was around him and picked up pace.

The city in which he lived was old and run down. Packs of stray dogs was roaming it's streets by night... along with God knows what other creatures of the night. Weeds were growing through the ashphalt, the trees were withered and leafless, garbage was scattered almost everywhere and almost all the buildings looked like they were about to collapse. In fact; some had already collapsed, the rubble had never been cleared and scavengers had ripped it from everything of value.
It had not always been like that. Once it was a city of prosperity. It's citizens were decent, hardworking folks who cared about oneanother and the future had looked really bright for this small town.

Then there had been an accident. Jonathan couldn't quite remember what had happened. He had just been a young boy back then and he hadn't quite understood the changes that had suddenly appeared around him. He was, however, somewhat certain that the accident had not only happened in his city. The outside world had been effected too, but noone heard about the outside world anymore. People did not dare to travel far these days. The town was surrounded by small fields that provided it with potatoes and grain. It wasn't much and people was often fighting to get just a little. Ofcourse nothing was stolen during the night. Nobody dared to go outside during the night.
Beside the farms, there were also the dropships. Huge silvery, slick-looking aircrafts that would hover above the townsquare and drop some containers with supplies. As far as he knew, noone had ever had contact with the ships... let alone seen it's pilots. Sometimes there was the strangest things in the containers. Mostly it was just food of various sorts. Medicine, vitamins, sweets and on rare occations also fruit. Not fresh, but not uneatable. Usually just a bit rotten. Other times it was weapons and strange machinery that nobody knew how to use.

He was almost home now. He could see one of his roommates sitting in the window, smoking a cigarette.
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End of part one