Cold air rushed into my lungs, they expanded, my cancer-less hot air balloon. The city had its usual silent business about it. Sleek white cars sped past us in our glass tubes. Hooded figures slunk through the square, VR headsets strapped on tight, a filter for reality.

Lifts whirred past quietly, skyrocketing upward through the plentiful levels of the sky tower. A pair of slim heels echoed in the tube. The head of the council surveyed her creations silently. Her many, many, modern creations that now brought a new- more sustainable- energy to the entire square. “Tomorrow,” She started, “this madness will end.” She flung her finger in the direction of an alley off to the side of the tube. Dark grey shadow was cast on its opening, metal scraps spilled from a steel tin can.

She sighed to herself and her breath shuddered. An orange tabby stalked along a bleached wall till the alley mouth, where it took a sharp turn, leaping into the tin can and knocking half of its contents out onto the narrow cobbled street. Her eyebrow twitched.