Broken Light

a little story that popped in my mind during english class one fine afternoon

[brokenfilament]

The Map

The world as we knew it is forgotten. World War 3 happened 20 years ago. They say it was fought with sticks and stones, but I know better. No sticks nor stones could wreak such havoc, but the people do not know that. This information is recorded, but the records are inaccessible except for the few influential people on top of the current regime. There are no more nations, the governments have all fallen apart, and one collective power now rules all, as the concepts of democracy have been left to rot, and the round table of demons now watches over God’s ignorant men. There is no UNO. The only form of government now, is the Sharded Empire.

Jurisdiction of the world has been divided amongst 4 families of Commanders under the Empire: the Northern, Western, Southern and Eastern Commanders. In terms of past divisions, the Northern Commander controls the Middle East and Europe, the Western Commander controls all of North America, the Southern Commander controls the entirety of Africa, excluding the Middle East, along with the whole of South America, and the Eastern is in charge of the rest of Asia and Oceania. Under each Commander are appointed Generals, given charge of large divisions of the territories. They are referred to with codenames, their actual names unknown to the public.

Northern Commander has appointed 3 Generals: “Slav” for the Slavic Countries, “Arab” for the Middle East, and “Reich” for the remainder of Europe. The Western Commander also has 3 Generals: “Rink” for Canada and Alaska, “Liberty” for USA and Mexico, and “Green” for Greenland. The Southern Commander has 4 Generals: “Macaw” for Brazil, “Pirate” for the remainder of South America, “Kong” for the northern division of Africa constituting everything above the Congo, and “Penguin” for the southern division of Africa. Lastly, the Eastern Commander has 5 Generals: “Khan” for China, Mongolia, Japan and both Koreas, “Kremlin” for Russia excluding the Slavs, “Malay” for the Malay Archipelago, “Kangaroo” for the remainder of Oceania, and “Tiger” for the remainder of Asia.

Under each of these Generals, their territories are further divided into numbered Sectors, each overseen by a Head. There are no more states, naming schemes now remnants of the past. Under this new format, the 4 families reign supreme.

How do I know all this? Well, I am the adopted son of Ember Decepti, the current Northern Commander under the Sharded Empire.

[brokenfilament]

Prologue

It was quiet, as my house usually was, but this was different. The usual quiet was suffocating; this was liberating.

The sound of my laugh broke the silence. My hysterics filled the living room, a full belly laugh, overflowing with emotion, with years of pain and hatred finally let loose. The laughter developed into a bloodcurdling scream, violent and infused with rage. My self was the culmination of my gore-filled nightmares; blood coated my hands, caked my face, turned my white T-shirt crimson, the blue jeans violet. Their essence dripped from the broken filament bulb clutched tightly in my hand, every drop onto the floor resonating in my head, every drop clearing the pool of my tortured mind. My knees buckled, and I fell to the floor, idle and quiet, in the pool of my own parents' blood still flowing from their roughly slashed throats, bodies lying on either side of me, faces distorted in expressions of horror, anger, and my craven, fear. They were afraid of me before they met their demise, and the realisation blossomed a deepset joy within my heart. To me, this was nothing short of pure bliss, and I was content to relive it over and over and over and over again. 

The adrenaline gave way to fatigue, and I let it take over; my eyelids dropped and my body relaxed as the weight of my actions settled over me like a warm blanket in the cold of winter. I thought back to the torturous 17 years that I had spent in the custody of Andrew and Ember Decepti, how I had survived, and how I had reached this very moment, as I let the warmth of the blood-soaked carpet lull me into sleep.