Karan yet again found himself in a boundless dark abyss, floating away into nothingness, when a blue hologram appeared before his eyes.
_________________________________________________
Do you want to enter Dreamscape?
Yes (Won't be able to log out for 9 hours)
No (You will sleep normally)
_________________________________________
Again? Karan remembered what happened when he selected the yes, previously.
For some reason, unlike the previous time, he was aware. He remembered where he was and what he was doing before he found himself in this place. Which was why, quickly, he selected the no option.
When he opened his eyes, he found himself sitting in the pilot seat, flying away in his Sola-Jet.
He looked around and realized that he was in the real world.
What the hell is up with that weird dream? He thought. I dont have any implants, so there is no way someone is messing with my brain. So, what the fuck is going on?
He then remembered the conversation that he overheard the teenagers having in the dream, and wondered whether it could be true.
It was then that the alarm went off in the jet. They were flying over a city that used to be called New York. After the nuclear war, it was obliterated. Now, it was just an old abandoned ruins of a city with radiation that could kill a normal human in a few minutes.
Fortunately, radiation does not work on him, nor on his jet.
Flying over the city, Karan couldnt help but imagine the world before everything went to shit. He had seen the pics of megacities that used to house millions of people, with buildings that literally used to touch the sky. He had heard that these cities had their own water supply, and natural food was available on every corner of every street. Yet, for some reason, humans still went to war.
He had seen pics of those times, and wondered whether someday the earth that he knew today would be able to go back to its previous state…
As his jet had made some distance from the city, his stomach started making noises, which was given as he had not eaten anything since yesterday. Now that he was officially out of the radiation zone, he figured that now would be a good time to eat something.
Karan hopped on his feet and went to the back of the jet. The two stolen crates were lying way back; he had not opened them. He knew that they contained the newest EMP Bomb that Kumegavas had created recently. And he was not interested in getting to know the intricacies of the bomb. He was just planning to give one of the secure crates to his client and keep one for himself for a rainy day.
As he opened the microwave to heat up the processed synthetic ground meat, his ear picked up a noise.
The sound was barely audible, but thanks to this enhanced hearing, he caught it easily.
He followed the sound to the black combat suit that he was wearing for the operation that other night. The suit was by the crates; he just dropped it there as he got to the jet.
What is that sound? He thought as he made his way to the suit. He picked it up and saw that the monitor in his right-hand sleeve was making the sound.
It was weird, as the monitor was a Geiger Counter, which is used to detect radiation.
The jet has a lead shielding, so no way that enough radiation can sneak in to trigger the counter. He thought, remembering that they just flown over a heavy radiation area. Maybe it is broken. He threw the suit on the box nearby.
Karan sighed with frustration as it would be expensive to repair it. He turned around and was about to heat up his meat when the noise coming from the sleeve stopped.
No way.. Is there a hole in the hull? He thought, as that was the only possible conclusion.
He turned around, took the suit, and started pointing his sleeve towards the ship, trying to find the breach. Strangely, the Geiger Counter only made noise when pointing towards the crates. It didnt even make a beep when pointing towards the hull.
Watching the counter flair up when pointing towards crates made Karan very uneasy.
He didnt wasted any time. The crates were locked, sealed with a passcode. It took him a minute or two to hack in and disable the locks. With a hissing sound, the crates opened, and inside, he saw a symbol that made his skin crawl.
At the center of the symbol of a solid circle, extending from which were three identical fan-shaped blades, which were spaced evenly around it. The yellow color symbol is not seen by many in today's age and world, but remains very famous.
It was the radioactive symbol.
The more concerning part was the fact that there were six containers in the crate, all of which seemed to be made of lead, and it doesn't take a genius to understand what those were.
Immediately, Karan closed the containers and moved towards the next crate. He checked it's radiactivity, and sure enough, it was also as radioactive as its counterpart, leaving him very angry…
The nuclear and chemical wars in the past had left most of the Earth uninhabitable. In the aftermath of those wars, twenty-two districts were formed by the former military of various countries. These districts act as sovereign states, and house millions of human which had survived.
With the scarcity of food and resources, the districts go very hard on netizens to meet the quota of birth control and food supply. There was rampant corruption in these times as well, but still, the districts are sustaining themselves. And one of the major things helping in sustaining them is energy.
People have learned to harness solar energy more efficiently, but due to a lack of resources, no new solar panels can be made. Only old solar panels from from wreckages of megacities could be harvested. So, the districts rely on the only old resource that could be used to make clean energy, and that is nuclear power.
Districts have been harnessing nuclear power for decades, and radioactive elements used in nuclear reactors are the most precious materials in the world. And now Karan has two crates full of radioactive elements that could have potentially run District 21 for centuries to come.
This was a major problem.
No District in its right mind would leave this theft go unchecked. Not to mention, with a treasure trove like this, all the districts of the world would be gunning for him to get their hands on these…