I watched the sun rise for the first time. My blood tingled again, for the third time that day I couldn’t shake the feeling: something’s not right. As the news explained, the earth’s poles had shifted. This, they explained, caused the dust and the fog to cling to the earth, as the particles had retained their original polarity. This meant that there was a much lower risk of irradiation, and an unlimited view in the dry air. City Council had already called my dad and told him that in three weeks he would either have to move out or pay a higher rent. The rich and the poor were essentially switching places. How exactly we were able to continue using an economic system or even care about money in this situation is beyond me. Our race was supposed to be dead already, so in our struggle to survive and our plan to take over the world, why are we not a military? I was told by my friend Merhgyr that I thought too much, and that, being in a natural world, often it was better to let things fall into place. Hence the reason it doesn’t make sense. There was an old myth that a person called mother nature, who was in fact both nature and its creator, gave and took as she saw fit and grew all things bright and wonderful. She was related to if not was also Venus or Aphrodite, the goddess of love, from whom she received requests and demands from many women, and sometimes men. Asking of mother nature for a thing she did not already give you seems pretty greedy to me. The point is, mother nature is considered the essence of women and nature, which means that a woman is considered to be a bit of nature, and therefore also confusing. Women would say the same thing about men. Breaking out of my reverie, I noted that it was already time to go to school. When I got to the cafeteria it turned out I still had a few minutes. I looked around, and Valleysing was nowhere to be seen, but there was the girl who dragged me into the hangar. She could run ridiculously fast, and she was real eye candy. I couldn’t get over how good she looked. My rule of thumb was that if it’s too good it cannot be taken. “Hey, Bupkus! You got a lotta nerve looking at my girlfriend like that! What you trying to do anyway? Count pores or something?” Bruce was right behind me.  He was a big guy, with a crew cut, really stupid jacket, and an attitude. Unlike others he prosecuted, I don’t give in. I said, “is that a problem?” I knew he wanted a fight, if I present a challenge, then I am considered worthy of fighting, and by winning, Bruce would receive fame and respect, and get his family closer to the top of the system, and possibly even get my room. I would have to pick the place, otherwise he would likely go ahead and smash me into my seat, no rules. He pouted his upper lip like I was being an idiot and said, “I say when you’re messing with my girl, and you’re getting on my nerves.” I turned around as I stood up, having to turn my back to him for a second, so as to speak to him and get out of his way. As I turned there was this sound: SLAP! -Followed by the hush of onlookers. Bruce’s fist was firmly clamped within Valleysing’s hand. Usually Valleysing was very haughty, or lighthearted, but this time his face could have smashed granite.  “He may be an imbecile, but he’s my imbecile, and you’re going to play by my rules” Bruce made a tough grin and looked sour, “fine, when and where?” it couldn’t be far, it couldn’t be long, otherwise Bruce would reject it and go on his own terms. “it will be the south hangar, at six o’clock, nothing but sleeves.” Bruce and Valleysing made the bounding handshake, one in which persons grab each other’s wrist and slide down to the fingers, which lock, and then slip out. In this fashion, I had just been abducted into the tribe of the coolest person I knew, and had been given an opportunity to destroy him at the same time. The bell rang, everyone left. I started walking away as well, but was furiously yanked back. “Welcome to the nazfari tribe, you, my friend, are not going to school today. I instantly had this feeling in my stomach that said I was going backwards too fast. Class is not a good thing to miss as there would be hell to pay afterwards.  “you are going to win a fight, come with me.” I said, “I thought the girl was from your tribe.” He grimaced, “I am very lucky you didn’t say that. Perhaps I wasn’t clear as to exactly how you are an imbecile. Did you ever see a girl in the mirror?” I answered, “no, I mean, why would I? I’m the only one it’s reflecting.” “Because a lovers are spiritually the same person. You, sir, will never get a girl, not in any way. In fact, you will probably die because of one.” I wasn’t sure how reliable this information was, but I felt like beating the crap out of him. Why is he running so fast? Is this a trait of all his kin? Maybe I’m just slow.  Maybe he’s giving me cardio training. He stopped, and I stood there hands on my knees panting like a steam engine. I wiped off the sweat, and looked up. It was just a room full of broken furniture. Why it was there was beyond me, the city was supposed to recycle all broken things. I walked inside and looked for a reason we were here. He locked the door and came over to me. “Yo! Square eyes, pay attention.” I looked up at him. “I’m not going to do anything to you, but punch me as hard as you can. I hesitated. “go on, try it, your family honor depends on it.” I reeled back and shot four knuckles into his chest. They made a thunk sound. Maybe I wasn’t doing my best, I thought, so I tried again. His stomach just growled, no pain whatever, in fact Valleysing had grinned a bit. “You put me to shame. “  I thought about it later, and it was true. Never in any amount of working out could I possibly compete with Bruce. He took out a vial, attached a needle to it and started drawing blood. I stared, astonished. I said, “What am I supposed to do with blood?” He looked up, drink it, stupid.” In about a minute he had filled the vial, gave it to me, and very carefully stopped the bleeding so as not to stain the carpet. He took the vial back, removed the needle and handed it back. The look he gave me was borderline deadly, so I drank the blood. I have to mention, that blood is often much like rust polluted water, but this tasted sweet and hard. I found difficulty swallowing it, but it got easier the more I drank. I sucked that last drop and looked at the vial. It was small, perhaps 5 cc, but it felt like a liter. “Why the hell did you want me to drink blood anyway?” He didn’t speak, but took back the vial carefully and smiled. For a second he seemed like one of the mythical creatures: the lion, and then suddenly he seemed very black. Perhaps I was looking too close to my computer screen, I thought. Then I ceased to be altogether. I saw the sunrise in a strange land where the ground was green and the sun was yellow and the sky was blue. Why so many colors? Did some strange thing decide that life needed all these strange colors? Who authorized this obscenity? I realized that I had a body, and looked around to find that I was on a road in the middle of nowhere standing by a bicycle. There was a girl in a pink dress on the other side of the road. She smiled and waved. I came over to her and started talking to her. “Hi, what’s your name?” She answered, “its death, how are you, mark?” I said, “Would you like to ride bikes with me? “She nodded and so we began down the street. Apparently there was no traffic and never would be traffic, so we rode as we pleased, eyeing each other the whole way. Wow, I thought, I can go faster than ever. I played around, sped up and slowed down. She kept up perfectly, as if I wasn’t changing speeds at all. What was her name? Death? “I-“her mouth was gaping, full of badly placed teeth of many types and colors. I didn’t even look anymore, I just started going as fast as I could, there didn’t seem to be any limit, but then again there didn’t seem to be any change in the scenery, in fact I wasn’t sure if I wasn’t actually on a track or something. Of course she was right there beside me, closing in with that gruesome mouth. I pedaled faster and faster. I became aware of someone chanting.  She kept closing in, so I started moving away. She kept moving in. Her mouth was like a garbage disposal. Eventually she got so close it actually smelled like a garbage disposal, and her gape covered my view that  I saw only her mouth, and knew only her hunger, which was immense and unquenchable. I moved just a little more when the world ripped open to my right, and caused me to fall and roll very hard. I woke up on the carpet, shaking uncontrollably. There were six people in black robes chanting around me. They reached a haunting climax then fell silent. At first I had felt groggy and my vision was foggy, but that soon cleared up. I looked around me. I had puked on myself and there was blood from my ears and nose. I coughed up more blood and spat. Then Valleysing came into view. After one look at him I launched and knocked him into the wall, where I began pummeling him. I yelled, “you son of a bitch, you tried to kill me!” he pulled one of my ankles and I fell back into my own puke. “Ha ha, you finally landed back on earth! Welcome to reality, does it seem oddly refreshing? Perhaps it is a bit too dreamlike for you.” My stomach was writhing. “I know reality all too well, dark, grim, and unsatisfying, why wouldn’t I?” he was once again playful and dancing in his pants like usual. “Can’t you tell? You aren’t trying to use X-ray vision, you’re actually angry for once, and you make sense, does none of this tell you that I might have done you a favour? Besides, you actually tenderized me.” I was astonished, I pinched my muscles to see if they were any bigger. “So what?; I’ll win the fight now, does that mean anything out to my life? ; Or anyone else’s? Fighting some beef man isn’t going to get anyone out of this shithole!” Valleysing’s immortal grin just got bigger. “You may have landed, but few people fully grasp reality. What about those jet-bikes? Or those cheetah-men, they’re not myths, they can kill, they do know what’s going on, you just won’t put two and two together. The six people in hoods pulled their hoods away, revealing furry feline faces. They were beautiful, and scary. “The world,” Valleysing paused, as if sucking sweet nectar, “is far worse than you think, and you’re its savior.” I was more than a little disconcerted. Me? I thought. “How do you know?” one of the cheetah-men stepped forward,” text and scripture may say what they please, but the sandman does not tease, for he said that his saint shall be the lion, and his strength shall be our blood, for he is both an angel and a demon.” I was laughing, “what, am I Frodo or something? You can go shove that ring up Sauron’s arse.” They were not displeased at all. Another one stepped forward, “many trials await you nonetheless, and surely you shall discover that it is far better be slaying your enemies than running from them.” Valleysing parted the robed cheetah-men and said,” alright, let’s stop with the fancy talk, we have to shove him into the grinding stone from here on. Mark, if you ever back down, we are all going to make you into dog food with our bare hands, got it?” I didn’t feel very threatened, but it seemed he was very serious about it. “What should I do next?” Valleysing raised his upturned hand and said,” rise.” They all laughed. They quicly changed back to human form. One of the cheetah-men gave me a Darkwave shirt and a yellow and black leather jacket. That was a shame, considering Darkwave was a really good band. I thanked him and learned that his name was Eirshagal. Apparently he was keen on having his prayers answered. When we got cleaned up and were finally going down to the hangar, I was told there was nothing I could really do at this point except wait and fight smart. There was a square of canvas laid out, and many of the tribes had set up banners and stands. Wow, I thought to myself, how could one fight inspire this much energy? It wasn’t even near six o’clock, but some self appointed referee just popped in and pulled me to one corner of the mat. Bruce appeared onto the other corner grinning. Just a little schoolyard fight turned into pay-per-view in the time I was tripping on blood. There used to be sports, with little violence and a lot of pride. Perhaps we just took off the kid gloves and got to the point. My blood was tingling again. And my heart was racing. Jeez, I sounded like a kettle drum. The sweating little referee got onto a stand and blew his rusty whistle until the crowd quieted down. Pointing to me he began,” in this corner we have the girl-stealer, the weak self loathing scum of the low Karmine tribe, claimed by the Shamash tribe, Mark.” The crowd booed. I got angry. He then pointed at Bruce, “and here, in this corner, we have the champion of the house Winnester, Bruce.” For whom there was a great deal of cheering. A bell rang from somewhere, and Bruce began marching forward. I had a streak of cold fear in me. Throughout my life I knew I could count on the fact that in fighting terms I was a ragdoll, but I knew I couldn’t back down. I had to beat this guy. So I marched forward as well. I looked a lot less sure of myself, and the crowd was just watching in expectant silence, which was killing me. Struggling not to gulp in the trademark sign of fear I raised my arms and cocked back about to fire a punch when he just pushed me onto the ground. I got up to face him, but he just knocked me down again. Eventually he had pushed me off the canvas, at which point everyone began cheering. Of course, not only was this a horrendous loss, but it was cheating. I had no way of knowing what the rules were. The crowd began surging forward to hug and congratulate the valiant Bruce. A sweet voice breathed into my ear. “Wake up, oh disciple, I beckon you.” Fury became me, burning in my mind like a star. I roared, “You shall die!” when I woke up in an old room, I found one of the robed cheetah-men standing vigil. I asked him what happened, and he said that following my statement I carried out unimaginable violence, and that not only was Bruce now dead, but his head was now a stain on the concrete. I asked him who arranged the rules for the fight. He said my father had, being that he didn’t want me to die. Odd, I thought, and sad. My family considered many of the norms of the day wrong and avoided them as much as possible. The cheetah-man also mentioned that, being a fight whose rules had not yet been processed by city council; the incident had been listed as a “likely result” and therefore did not qualify as murder, but fair play. I went to see for myself.  Up on the catwalk I observed the grieving mother and the janitor, who was desperately scrubbing out the stain. He would have had better luck swimming with an anvil. And sure enough, it was proof that I was a murderer now, dark stain upon my soul. There was a girl in a pink dress beside me on the catwalk. She whispered into my ear,” you did well, bravo.”  My blood stopped tingling for the first time in hours. She left, but my cell phone buzzed. “Who is it?” I asked. “It’s Valleysing, ever heard of caller ID? You screwed up big time; the sun will set on a sad city tonight.” “Yes I know the situation is screwed to hell, what have you got to say about it?” something in the window caught my eye. I got to the window for a full view. I saw something very big, it had only been mentioned before in science magazines.  It was an in-air aircraft carrier. “-and besides that you still have to move out of your apartment in three weeks. Hey, are you there?” I felt that strange flavor of guilt you only get when retribution comes back tenfold. “Valleysing? Some kind of military popped up with stuff that shouldn’t even exist yet.” I heard the phone drop and several thumps followed by a slamming door.