The Overhumans

Prolog

Close your eyes and picture the future. Now, take out all the flying cars and hover boards. Now imagine every natural disaster you can think of rampaging through it, leaving only a couple buildings as if a peace offering. That is what happened to the city of Jalimala.

It was a normal day in Jalimala. The morning commute was treacherous. 30 seconds by Crio-travel. There were going to be reports about that to the head commissioner.

The children were in "the school." It was less of a school and more of a daycare. A daycare that had no chaperones. Parents dropped their kids off in the morning and picked them up in the afternoon. The doors were reverse engineered so that you could get in but not out. If your parent left you, a night in the chamber with luxurious stone beds and vibrant black walls.

The children had formed a kind of caste system. At the top were the bullies. They claimed rule by brute force and scaring people. Then there were the class clowns. They survived the bullies wrath by constantly cracking jokes. Next you had your commoners. They were the kind that would jump off a cliff if you told them to. At the bottom was the smarties.

The smarties were looked down upon, even by the commoners. Their superior intellect came in handy in rare occasions. They survived by confusing the bullies then running away. Confusing the bullies was easy, but the running part was much more tedious. They generally hid out in the cove. The one place untouched by the bullies rule.

The cove was a generous name for a cupboard under the stairs. The cupboard under the stairs was coated with noise canceling reinforced steel. This provided protection from the bullies and a nice, quiet environment. It had a small bookshelf, overflowing with scientific publishings and mathematical theorems. They read up on these in their free time.

However, the children of the important people in society went to "the academy." This was more like a public school where you learned what two plus two was. By government law, every child was taught that in order for there to be peace there must be dictators.

Here the social system had the same groups but arranged differently. On the top, the smarties resided. They ruled by quoting teachings from the gurus. Nobody could argue with them. Next came the commoners. They survived the smarties by basically being their minions. Following that were the bullies. Here they were referred to as the jocks. Although they could probably beat up the smarties, they didn't. In their mind the smarties were the dictators needed for peace. At the bottom were your class clowns.

The class clowns were shunned because of their habit of cracking jokes at the most serious of times. They occasionally made everyone laugh but then they sprinted away. They generally hid out in a place called the cuts.

The cuts was a cupboard under the stairs quite similar to the one at "the school. It had the same noise canceling reinforced steel. There was the same bookshelf. However, this one was filled with joke books

These two places were exact opposites and rightfully so, placed on opposite sides of the city.

You weren't given a name until you turned seventeen and graduated. Then you were shipped off into a predetermined work place. You had absolutely no choice over what job you got or even where it was.

The day of the storms changed this all.