A foul stench seeped from his mass of matted blonde hair, hinting that something had been long dead in there. His piercing blue eyes started fixatedly at the small desk in front of him. It was quite an ordinary desk, made of a reddish wood, possibly cedar. The desk held four little drawers, each with its own silver latch. The man reached out a slender, slightly muscular arm, opening one of the drawers and removing a plain metal box. He quickly plunged it deep into the pocket of his long coat, looking around anxiously as if someone was looking. He seemed to calm as his eyes returned to their original place, surveying the desk.

He was an orderly man and consequently so was his desk. Upon it in one corner sat a stack of fresh sticky notes, a journal and several spare pens with names of many different hotels engraved on their smooth bodies. A map lay centered on the desk, red and blue pens lines snaking through the maze of alleyways and passages of London. In another corner was a small pistol; it was already loaded.

An ominous click echoed throughout the room as the clock struck three forty-five. The man’s eyes instantly focused on the old wooden clock hanging above the doorway. It was an antique; people no longer used anything so unreliable. A sigh escaped from the side of his mouth as he realized the time. His arm reached back into the desk to retrieve a small identity card with the name Domino Morry printed at the top in bold letters. He pocketed it, taking one last look around the room that had been the expanse of his world for so long. His gaze distracted by the view from the enormous window; staring out at the dismal darkness of midnight London. His reflection stared back at him through the thick glass that had separated him from the worries of the outside world. With one last fond look he slammed the door, leaving his reflection staring back at the closed door.

Domino, as identified by his I.D. card continued down the worn out hallway from his room, pausing briefly at the empty foyer to toss a few coins into an empty ashtray at the front desk. He moved to the exit, placing a and lovingly on the stained glass of the rotating door, pausing for a few moments before pushing them aside and descending into the dismal streets of London. He turned his head to take a last look at the hotel, its neon signs flickering dimly as if waving to him. The window in his room still shone brightly, giving the appearance that someone still called it their home.

Ahead of him stretched the vast alleyways of London. Somewhere in the labyrinth a bell rang out an eerie tone, telling the world that it was finally four o’clock. Domino continued forwards, beginning his trek into the snaking innards of the old city. Clothing hung between narrow buildings, draped across the sky like many colored spider webs. Thick smog covered the moon catching any escaping light. Clouds of moths billowed around tiny lampposts dotting the vacant buildings like many luminous eyes. Piles of rubble lay strewn across his path, telling stories of the lives of the ones who once lived here. A small boney cat darted across his path, pausing briefly to stare at him; its pale eyes seemed to smile sadly at the devastated world.

Domino rounded another corner; a vacant lot gaped out before him. Huge mounds of trash were piled high, rusted cars sat alone unused, just another convenience that someone had abandoned, lying there useless polluting the already weeping world. In the center of the junkyard stood one lonely lamppost, peaking its dim bulb out from a sea of garbage. None of this seemed important to Domino, his eyes were focused on a man standing beneath the lamp, its frame silhouetted against a stray ray of light. It turned its head, tipping its hat in the direction of Domino.

Domino froze, his hand grasping blindly around his belt where the gun should be, only to find that he had left it in the hotel. Panic stricken he bolted down one of the alleyways, not caring where he went, as long as he could escape. Ahead of him a wire fence loomed out of the darkness. Footsteps crunched through the sea of garbage behind him as they drew nearer. He lunged up, grabbing onto the rusted wire fence. Pain ripped through him as the wire sliced deep into his hand. He pushed upwards, the wire thorns digging deeper into his flesh, flipping his legs over and onto the sludge-covered ground, blood leaking from his hand.

Blood, he could hear every drop as it hit the thick sludge. He lifted his good hand, watching it shake as he tore a section of his tattered coat. Binding the deep cut he forced the searing pain out of his mind, he needed to focus. Off in the distance a dog let out a mournful howl, pleading for silent escape from this lonely existence. Buildings rose up ahead, blocking Domino’s path like gargoyles silently standing watch for the return of their long deceased owners. A brilliant beam of light shone down from one of their windows piercing a forest of pink curtains to illuminate this tired landscape of defiled dreams.

Domino approached the building, a fire escape snaking its way up the brick walls. Climbing up, watching each metal handhold go by as he pushed his way towards the light, glowing like a tiny star in this charcoal horizon.

Star, Starlit, soft snow flakes falling, the sky, spotless, clean, his hand reaching to feel the wet caress of the melting snow on his smooth skin. A breath, he gasped in the cold pure air. Warm, another body holding onto him, rocking, rocking, rocking. He squeezed his eyes shut, focusing on the terrible pain that coursed through his hand, drawing his mind off the memories. Remembering could only hurt him.

Domino pushed himself over the ledge and in through the window, the forest silk curtains grasping at him as he fell through. He surveyed the room; pink walls encased the small chamber. Small Shelves hung off these walls, covered in adorable stuffed animals, their smiling faces mutilated by starving moths. A crib lay in the center of the room, bathed in light from the shining bulb. Flies darted in and out of the crib their ravenous bodies searching for any source of food. He didn’t dare approach the crib; he had long ago learned to leave these sorts of things alone. It was a cemetery that was the only future for this once perfect world. A picture caught his eye, encased in a silver frame two people gazed back, their expressions that of pure happiness. A tiny bundle was held lovingly in the women’s hands, a tiny newborn girl poking her head out to examine the world for her first time. Domino grabbed his head in agony.

A woman, screams, pain, a hospital, blistering heat. A hand in his, more screams, crying. A tiny body, its plaintiff cries announcing its arrival to its new world, rotting and poisoned from the greed of the previous generation.

He pushed the memories out of his head, turning his attention towards the door, the exit from this terrible grave. Footsteps right outside the door, Domino backed up, looking frantically for a way out. From the doorway stepped a man, his young face portraying no expression.

The man reached up a hand, flicking his nicely combed blonde hair out of his eyes. Domino stared in terror, backing up against the wall. The man approached his well-tailored suit and coat wrinkling as he moved. Pleading. Domino grabbed his head, cowering from the memories and approaching man. A man, his face serious, a contract in his hand. Domino shook his head, the man frowned, turning and leaving the room. A paper dropped from the man’s hand as he left. Domino picked it, a little girl smiled weakly at him from a hospital bed, a breathing mask over her mouth, her frail body looked so tiny. Domino sighed, there were always casualties that came with progress. Fixing his tie on his perfectly tailored blue suit, he moved to the window, staring out at an enormous smoke stack, billowing revolting black fumes. Each puff saving him and his daughter from a life of misery, each puff spewing fatal poisons into the once pure skies now draped black with his guilt.

Domino forced the memories away, his eyes bursting open to fix terrified at the empty room, the crib knocked over and blankets strewn across the floor where Domino had tried to escape. His clothes were soaked with sweat, each drop reminding him of the guilt that he held deep inside him. It was his fault she had ended up like this.

Voices broke the silence; Domino gazed out the window, seeing figures silhouetted bellow the building. As he looked, a man stepped forwards, tipping his hat in the direction of Domino.

Domino turned away from the child’s room, opening the door to a tiny kitchen its contents spilled and strewn across the room. Chairs lay upturned, newspapers, cooking books and kitchen utensils covered the floor. A spiral staircase led from the kitchen, bending upwards into a tiny wooden door. The door, like most other wooden objects had rotted, infected with moss and eaten away by tiny starving insects. Domino examined, it watching the wood crumble away from his fingers at just a touch. He smashed his fist through it, feeling the satisfying ripping sensation as his hand burst through the wood, the pain keeping him alert. Spots of blood dripped silently onto the rotting carcass of the broken door.

Stepping over the broken door he emerged onto the rooftop of the old building. Before him, lurking in the smog and lightless night lay the expanse of London, once the largest fortress for the mightiest empire. Its streets once hummed with life, trees burst through the soil between buildings and along the lonely sides of crowded roads. Water gushed its purity through the rivers teaming with life. Fish, hurtling themselves out of the water into the golden rays of the sun, letting them dance across their shining scales. It was the one memory he allowed himself to relish, staring out longingly over the lifeless cemetery this world had become.

Movement caught the corner of his eye; he spotted shapes lifting their tired bodies up the surrounding buildings, their faces consumed by bug like gas masks. Domino ran, his feet clattering loudly across the rust colored roof tiles. A bullet burst past his head, its silver body shining with venomous intent. He knew what they wanted, grasping the pocket of his coast as he crossed the rooftop.

Ahead of him gaped a canyon between the tops of two buildings. Down below the two buildings flowed a small river filled with some grotesque thick substance. Ahead of him a tile exploded into tiny splinters as a bullet dug into its coarse stone body. He eyed the abyss before him as he bolted towards it. Feet hammered the rooftop behind him, he glanced over his shoulder to see two bug eyed men only meters behind him, their breath rasping loudly through their masks. Domino bent his knees, lunging outwards, watching the river pass far below him.

It was too far away, his hands grasped at the empty air before him as the ledge of the approaching building flew up past him. His fingers caught the smooth stone of the ledge, pain flowing through his muscles as he clung weekly to his only hand hold. He panted, feeling his arms give way as the ledge slipped out of his grip. A man peered over the edge, his face stern, and his eyes barely visible under the tidy mess of blonde hair. The man bent his clean blue suit, reaching out with a gloved hand, grabbing onto Domino’s slipping arm.

It had begun with greed. Huge factories were spewing black poison into the ear from deep inside their mutilated innards. The factories spread like a virus throughout an immune deficient child. Carelessly they built more and more, watching happily as the sky turned a sickly gray. The atmosphere slowly dissolved and the people began taking notice. In their minds they watched carelessly as the world around them crumbled the blood of millions on their hands. Each time ignoring what they had done, washing the blood off their hands, without a second thought. Each day they happily inhaled their own deadly poisons easily ignoring the carnage and depression they caused. He had been one of them. He had made them build more and more, but to all his wrong doings she paid. With this, his tiny child was clinging to life.

The man’s hand pulled him upwards onto the ledge. Domino struggled against him, against the memories and the terrible guilt.

A bed, a young girl lay there, hairless like a baby rat. She didn’t move as he entered the room, hanging his pristine blue jacket on the coat hanger. He approached her frail body, a corpse with its bones sticking out of the undersized suit of pale skin. She moaned in her sleep, her tiny body rising and falling under the white fluffy bed covers. Mercury. It rained from the sky from those terrible death factories producing useless toys at the cost of innocent lives; His death factories.

Mercury poisoning was not uncommon anymore. There were treatments but the waiting line for such procedures were immense and the chance of her surviving the treatment was pathetically low. Mercury poisoning was highly fatal. She deserved rest from this life of torment, but he was too weak to give such an order. She was all he had left. As he watched she began to writhe, fighting with everything against her, she still valued what life she had.

Domino lunged upwards, his fist striking the man before him. Rage coursed through him at these memories, at this world screaming decay and at what he had done. He knew the man. He had been with him for a while now, his only companion, himself. An undying reminder of what he had done.

Domino forced his eyes open; his body lay shaking on the side of the roof. He pushed himself upright, hearing a tiny click far off across the rooftops. He pushed his legs forwards, feeling sharp steal dig its searing claws into his back. Pain, Domino gasped, lurching forwards. He felt his back, his long coat stained in his own precious blood. He tumbled across the roof, his vision blurring from the constant tearing pain. He pushed his body, it wasn’t far left to go, and then he could rest.

Ahead stretched a large plaza, overturned tables and strewn garbage covering it like a multicolored coat. In the center stood a desolate subway station, its escalators lifelessly descending into the depths of the grotesque earth. He focused on it, he had told her to be there. He had promised her a way out of this ruined city. He lunged forwards, his feet plunging off the side of the building. Clotheslines grabbed at his plummeting body as if to save him from the fast approaching ground. His body hit the ground, the sea of garbage cushioning his fall, his joints buckling as he struggled to stand. It was so close, barely one hundred meters away; he staggered forwards on his protesting legs. A man stepped from the shadows into the glow of a Neon sign, tipping his hat. Domino grasped the pocket of his long coat and ran. The man watched Domino limp away, and after awhile began to follow. Domino stumbled down the useless escalator, watching giant neon advertisements flash as he descended into the depths of the station.

Domino emerged onto a small station platform, completely dark except for one flickering light to signal the arrival of a train. A tiny plaintiff cry echoed around the station. Domino moved towards the sound, spotting a little girl in a small blue dress lying moaning besides the glow of a dim fire, exactly as he had left her. Abandoned her here in this pit, her body only kept barely alive by a small intravenous which lay upturned somewhere in the shadows. Domino bent forwards, embracing the girl. He had finally found what she had craved for so long, a chance to escape from the world shriveling around them. He looked out over his shadow-strewn surroundings, listening to the wind as it threw waves of trash against the side of collapsing buildings above. The Subway station had been his last hope to get out, but he had always known the trains no longer came here.

He held the tiny girl in his arms, feeling how light and feeble she had become. Her body shuddered as she fought uselessly against the poison slowly eating at her body.
A tear dripped off Domino’s cheek, landing on the top of her hairless head. She was the last person in his world. From his pocket Domino bought out the tiny metal box. He opened it, withdrawing a small syringe filled with a thick opaque liquid. Her body writhed as it fought weakly against the terminal poison coursing through her veins, still fighting for the chance at life she never had. He held up her limp hand, sliding the needle into her arm. Tears poured off his cheek plopping onto her face as her eyes fell shut and the body of his daughter sunk against his, her heart beat slowing as she fell further away from him into the cold embrace of death. They could finally escape. He picked a second syringe from the depths of the box. They were priceless, it was what they were all after, people would kill for them, kill for this painless blissful release. There was nothing left in this world, slowly deteriorating from the lethal poison that now coursed through its once perfect landscape. It had begun with greed; the more things you had the more you wanted. It had continued, they turned a blind eye and forced themselves to be oblivious to what was going on around them as poison incased their world. Domino plunged the needle into his arm. His eyes fell shut and his thoughts dimmed as he embraced the warm release of the fatal chemicals.

The station filled with air as a train burst out from the gaping jaws of the dark tunnel. The doors slid open, showering the rundown station in golden light. Domino stepped forwards into the light, the polished insides of the train consuming him in blinding white brilliance. The train began to move, slow at first then gaining more momentum as it burst into the tunnel. With each mile his memories slipped further and further away. He slowly fell into a dazed state of relaxed semi consciousness. The conductor stepped into Domino’s carriage, tipping his hat in the direction of Domino. He pointed back towards the end of the train. Domino stepped towards the back where a door blocked his path. The conductor moved to open it, allowing Domino out onto the back balcony of the train car just as it burst out of the tunnel. Light blinded him, but he forced his burning eyes open. Off in the distance he could stop the polluted carcass of London. He squinted his eyes at the nearest building. A man stood atop it, his blonde hair billowing in the wind. He straightened his tie, bending forwards in his tailored blue suit to step off the side of the building, plummeting towards the ground.

Domino turned his head away from the sight. Rushing past him by the side of the tracks trees soared up to greet the magnificent cloudless blue sky. Water gushed its purity through rivers teaming with fish hurling themselves into the air as the glowing rays of sun danced off their brilliant scales. Off in the distance mountains stood watch to the flocks of birds that painted the sky with their many colors. Through the forest of trees appeared a small house at the edge of a pristine lake. A girl sat out in front of the house, her long hair flower off her healthy head. She smiled waving at him as he passed, her blue dress billowing around her in an autumn breeze. She had finally won her fight.