The Racer Ranger

Prologue

The year 5987: 

The oceans turned and twisted with raging whirlpools. Trees cracked and groaned with the growing gusts before being swallowed by the shifting earth. Continents fused and in its centre formed a dome. All of humanity and its creations, citys, technologies down to the smallest trace was trapped within the dome. A prison. Carcere.

The survivors shrunk before the one, the god, who did this. The deity only raised their hand forming a large, stone arch near the northern border. The survivors looked to them for some form of guidance, for some answer. The deity frowned and finally spoke.

"Under the archway there is salvation. Those who make it first are welcome, those who don't shall dye and those in between will be..." They paused. "Considered. And I wouldn't try to escape as anyone who tries to break through the dome will die."

"The first flashback race." The deity sighed as people mindlessly rushed over one another, some lead groups, some helped the injured. In minutes the noise dropped, leaving the whistle of light wind and the moans of dying bodies. A few tried to break through the barrier but simply dropped into ashes, sending a large ripple across Carcere's dome. The deity made to leave for the arch when a small group of children approached them. They raised an eyebrow expectantly.

"C..can...can we wa...walk with you?" The eldest child stammered. The deity thought for a moment then shrugged.

"If you must." They strode towards the arch, the children jogging to keep up.

Through the piles of rubble, occasional buildings and dust, the children and the deity walked. Silence was heavy on the group before the eldest broke it.

"What is this place?" She asked tentatively.

"Carcere." They answered curtly.

"What's it for?" She tilted her head up at them. The deity considered the girl for a moment then answered.

"To prevent humans from harming this world again."

"Oh." She paused in thought. "What are we doing here? What happened to the world? Come to think of it. Who are you?"

"That's a lot of questions. I suppose I could answer." The eldest looked up pleadingly. "Hmm. You are racing the other survivors to choose the Dominant pack, the leaders. The dominant pack has a small say over the other packs and gets access to better resources. It is a competition, albeit an involuntary one. The second question has a simple answer. It was dying so I saved it and prevented the cause. As for myself, I'm just someone who is fed up with the idiots of this world." They sighed.

"I think I understand... kinda. What does involuntary mean? Whats the cause? And what idiots."

"It means not by choice. The cause was Humans, very imbasillic... um stupid humans and those are the idiots that desiced to bring this upon you all. Now enough questions child or you'll waste your energy on talking rather than walking."

"River." She pouted.

"Pardon?"

"My name is River." She huffed, then frowned sadly. "What's going to happen to us?"

"We shall see, River. We shall see." The deity gave a sad smile and with that silence fell once again.

Hours dragged on till the sun positioned itself snug beneath the archway. The deity and the children finally set foot under the grey stone to see that it was void of people. Too exhausted to notice, the children sat in a huddle, the younger ones sleeping. The deity stood by them watching the horizon. The sun sank further before the first of the survivors made their way under the arch and the sun had set before a larger bulk of them came through. Exactly 2 hours after sunset, the deity grunted and spoke with a booming voice.

"The time has come." Several survivors sprinted towards the arch only to turn to ashes. The remaining survivors looked around apprehensively, some in tears and others staring at the piles of ash. "Thirteen of you I shall choose to be leaders of this broken people and between those, they shall choose who they accept into their packs."

"Packs?!" A man interrupted loudly. "We are not some scrounging wild animals!" They deity raised a brow, frowning.

"But you are. I made you so." The man made to shout more but no sound came. The deity smiled. "No more interruptions? Good. Those whom do not want to be in a pack go rogue. Rogues can be killed without consequence. As for the murder of a pack member..."

The deity looked at the silenced man. "They shall not be able to speak for fourteen days. Now for the leaders."

They wondered around the survivors silently before coming to a stop beside the children. With one last glance at the young ones, the deity decided.

"Heydon Jones, Judah Sims, Saionji Yukako and Dhule Misra. You have all lead groups of other survivors, the injured, old and young. You are healers, you each shall be pack leaders. Aziza Skibo, Liao Meng, Addison hunter and Shoji Benji. You have all shown perseverance, smarts and sense. You are knowledgeable, you shall be pack leaders. Leon Eliot, Natsukawa Shika, Gabby Cooke and Chandu Jang. You were the first few here strong of body and agile. You are warriors, you shall also be pack leaders. Finally." The deity turned to the children, offering a hand to the eldest. "River Shores. For your perseverance, keeping up, keeping together and curiosity. you shall be the pack leader of the dominant pack."

That's how things started. As soon as the deity left the wounded were healed, clean water ran beneath the ground in a spider web of pipes and food was pushed up in bags through the earth. Under the arch was left a slab. On its back was the words of the deity and on the front the marks of each pack. With that society began once again.