Tomorrow's Shadow
Welcome to mankind's nightmare and dream. The story takes place after the Fall, a disaster brought on by the foolish attempts of humankind to understand an alien artifact called the Puzzle. When opened, the Puzzle replaced a large area of Washington State with a forest.
It happened sometime during the Second Enlightenment. Everyone wanted a piece of the stars, planets, and other debris up in the sky, and no one cared much for what was going on down below, on Earth. Nobody was there to see the last whale, wolf, or salmon. The skies turned from blue to yellow, and the seas choked on the garbage of a new age. Meanwhile, everyone was looking to space. Some, in awe of its vastness, but most thought of it as a new business. Buy an asteroid, mine it, leech away every precious thing in its depths, and leave for another floating rock. It was only a matter of time before someone found the Puzzle. It is not clear who first found it, but on December 5, 2660, it was brought to Earth, and opened by scientists under the greatest precautions. As the scientists soon found out, nothing could stop the Puzzle. It wasn't just some rock knife, or primitive statue, but a weapon. The lab in which the Puzzle was opened, somewhere in Washington, was completely annihilated. Although, replaced is a more accurate word. Where there was once a military base, there was now a foggy, dream-like world, where strange, new powers lurked, waiting for those foolish enough to come to them. Human beings did not disappoint them. The first expedition that was sent in response to the lab's destruction never came back. The second team managed to survive, but upon their return, all of its members fell to a mysterious disease. Needless to say, due to the foolishness of the governments, the plague spread. That was the Fall. Millions died, and the few who did not went insane, became monsters, or suffered as the only human survivors of the greatest disaster the world has ever seen.
The Puzzle was the ultimate weapon-it brought another world to attack Earth. The plague that came out of the Puzzle-effected zone was quick, and spread by touch, breath, and blood. Few were immune to it. At first, a person would have blue flu-the plague slowly spreading through bone, muscle, and nerves, causing one's skin to change color to a sickly bluish hue. Then, the Changes would start-painful sensations, hallucinations, and other such symptoms as one's body is trying to flow into another shape repeatedly. Most die at this stage, their bodies rejecting their own tissues. If one survives the Changes, one still has to deal with the Leap-becoming the Changed, or staying a human being. Most of the survivors are human, of course, but a few changed, becoming something other.
The survivors were divided into two separate forms of people, humans, and the Changed. The Changed are the insane, the strange, the beautiful, and the deformed. The only law that has ever made any efforts to control them is BCI, Bureau of Changed Investigation, a privately owned Corporation-like Agency.
Its agents, when given Sci-licenses, became the modern-day versions of Inquisitors, hunting the Changed. This soon changed, fortunately. The Sci-licensed agents became the Registrations Officers, Researchers, and Police of the Changed world. However, many still think the BCI is out to destroy all Changed, and people do not trust them. This distrust automatically gave some humanity to the Changed, and people eventually used their new friends to rebuild.
Hospitals, Offices, Factories, and Cafes have slowly re-opened after the Fall, and now, strange new attractions, new medicines, and beautiful art have become available through the Changed and those working with them.
The new world is strange, dangerous, and at times breathtakingly beautiful. Come, join us, in the dreams of the Universe.
Short Stories
Bad Dreams
Chained To Freedom
Dawn
Friends and Enemies
Chapter Stories
Fallen
Two Faces (working title)
Episode 1, Chapter 1
Episode 1, Chapter 2
(!) Episode 1, Chapter 3
Episode 1, Chapter 4
Episode 1, Chapter 5
Episode 1, Chapter 6
(!) Episode 1, Chapter 7
(!) Episode 1, Chapter 8
Episode 1, Chapter 9
Episode 1, Chapter 10
Other
Tomorrow's Shadow, Changed, Critters, the Fall, Flyers, Hunters, New City, Puzzle, Rats, Skinwalkers, Ther, Vampires and Weird © Seren Ooin Vimiank