“It’s dark.”

That’s the only thing I could say. The silence around me almost even more deafening than the noise that was there before.

My hoverboard, and crystal that powers it lay lifelessly by my side on the floor. My wrist and side hurting from the 100 foot drop. I’m on the floor but I don’t I have the strength to get up. The only way I survived was the special drop and roll that I’ve practiced at the training grounds.

See the year is 3045 and my name is Ezra. I’ve been going to a training camp to become a National Guard, the people that fight and defend my city. But I’ve never trained for when the world goes dark. No gadget worked. All lights turned off. Even my hover board that I control the electrical system inside has powered off.

“It’s dark.” I repeat again.

A girl runs over to me from what appears to be out of nowhere carrying a black bookbag. She kneels and says something. Her lips are moving but the sound is muffled. Maybe I hit my head on the way down as well.

“Are you alright?” I finally hear her say.

“What? Yeah. I’m fine.” I say while trying to get up.

The girl stops me, “Stop. I saw you hit your head. You shouldn’t get up to fast.”

I scoff and run my hands through my hair, “I’m fine.”

We argue for awhile before my patience snaps and I slowly start to get up. Sure the world spins in an unhealthy shade of yellow but at least I’m up.

I look around and see other people on the floor, hoverboards snapped in half. Air trains broken and on fire. I look up to the dome surrounding our city and almost collapse again. The sky Dome’s protection shield is slowly disintegrating. Like when you put water on top of sugar.

I look at the girl in disbelief. She has long dark hair pulled back into a tight low bun. She’s wearing black clothes with a weird symbol on the breast pocket.

“I didn’t catch your name.” I say suspiciously.

I single tear trickles down her cheek before she shakes her head and wipes it, “I’m sorry.”

Before I have time to react she pulls out a taser from a hidden pocket and presses it to my injured side. Pain rips through me and consumes my body. I’ve never felt something like this before. In the training grounds we’ve been trained to resist tasers and other electrical shocks, but this…this is something much worse.

I may have screamed. I don’t remember. Next thing I know I’m on the ground again and she has my hands and feet tied with a glowing red wire. My mouth gagged with the same thing. Her hands are shaking so bad it makes me think she’s never fought anyone before. Not that this was much of a fight.

She grabs a phone from her jean pocket and presses it to her ear, “General. I’ve found our target. He’s weak and wounded so it wasn’t much of a fight.”

Her voice quivered on the last word. And that’s when I realize what’s happening. An attack. An attack on my city. Someone looking for me. But I have no idea why that would be. I’m not some person from story books that have some unknown power. I’m a soldier preparing for the National Guard.

The girl nods and takes something out of her bookbag. An object that looks like something people used to use to measure their temperature. She’s nodding at whatever the person on other side is saying and then presses the tip of the object to my forehead.

She looks at me with guilt. Like she really didn’t want to do this. But I have no remorse. No pity. She’s part of the attack of my people. My city. And I’m here before her tied up and wounded.

She presses a button on the gadgets and a coolness floods through my mind seconds before the world goes dark once more.