Laying down in the tight and rather unkempt spot the boy called home, he pulled the typical fabricated, shoddy blanket – the only one he had – far over his head, and tried his best to get comfy.
It was the boy's sixteenth birthday tomorrow, the 28th of November. Turning sixteen was regarded as a fairly big thing for the youth of the abandoned city, as it had finally allowed them to have another shot at the world, promised through the injection of The Mutation. Theus, the name given to the boy by his adoptive mother, Soteira, was more than overjoyed.
"Finally. Time to get my Desire and leave this place!"
Theus gleefully rolled around on the stone flooring of the alleyway, dust piling up on his blanket as he drifted off to sleep with a smile on his unhealthily thin and extraordinarily pale face.
*****
This futuristic, yet long forgotten city wasn't always like this. Granted it was many years ago in the past, Earth, or as it's called by now, Deceased Earth, still had life bustling all over. The human population lived and indulged in the daily confines of pleasure, typically never wandering outside of that space for years upon years.
Technological advancements slowly came to a halt as the people grew more apathetic and less curious. They'd stick to worrying about their own lives, harboring little wonder as to what could be located outside their planet's atmosphere, and caring scarcely about what the future might look like for their species.
From the time a teenager became an adult, less talked about issues regarding Earth's staggering decrease in its amount of natural resources became a topic that was typically brought up once, then forgotten about the next day.
They knew that, in due time, Earth would inevitably run out of natural resources to consume and use up.
The population brushed this issue aside, choosing to relish in their own selfish desires and leave it up to the next generation to fix.
Eventually, that time had come, and the world had been thrown into chaos.
Countries and Nations all over would ration what little resources they had left, and resorted to turning to fight one another to gain control of each other's reserves. All out war had begun, and wouldn't stop until the Earth had been drained dry.
Thankfully, a benevolent force had interfered with the ongoing conflict, that being the extraterrestrials referred to as, The Messengers.
This group came around shortly after an unknown galaxy had merged with the Milky Way, filling the once decently known galaxy with a numerous amount of unknowns, The Messengers being one of them.
Along with this, an unknown planet entered the solar system's Kuiper Belt. Its intrusion went rather unnoticed however, due to the major crisis on Earth.
The Messengers flew and made contact with the citizens of Earth, offering a trade to the desperate masses. The explicit details of this trade have lost all documentation, seemingly to time, yet the effects of said trade were extremely evident.
Using a newfound biological injection, simply titled by The Messengers as The Mutation, mankind prospered and gained the ability akin to their greatest desires.
The Mutation was a sort of questionnaire, a being that, when inserted into your brain, would read your life experiences and prompt you with questions of your wants and desires, labeling you in the end with a desire similar to the answers provided. Humans used this to develop people with capabilities like the Desire for Construction, with The Mutation seemingly unlocking a hidden potential or ability deep within the depths of the mind, and making that desire into reality.
By harnessing The Mutation to their best benefit, humans had once again entered their prime. They ventured off into the unknown, colonizing at first the most habitable planets and moons, then seeking more and more.
Humans' natural curiosity and drive for knowledge had returned. They established the largest societies on the safest planetary objects orbiting the solar system, this being Mars, one of Jupiter's moons, Europa, along with Titan, a potential candidate.
Mankind flourished once more, with the DNA alteration and power of the Desires given by The Mutation sparking another light of hope in the preservation of the human population.
As for Earth, it had been long abandoned, earning its new title as Deceased Earth. The humans killed it with their own selfishness, and The Messengers were kind enough to take the remaining number of the human species under their supervision.
*****
Theus awoke the next day refreshed from his ample amount of sleep. He got up and stretched, then stumbled inside the interior of the rundown motel, eager to get his breakfast.
A vending machine that produced processed foods.
"Hey ma!"
The middle aged woman, sharing a thin yet alluring physique similar to Theus', had turned around in line abruptly, greeting the running boy with open arms.
"Theus! Are you ready for your appointment, dear?"
Theus, nodding enthusiastically, took his mother's hands into his own and smiled.
"Mhm. Then we're off for Europa, right?"
Soteira solemnly looked at the ground for just a moment, then forced a smile on her face, grabbing his hands tightly.
"Yeah, that's right."
Before giving Theus a chance to pick up on her shift in mood, she continued on.
"Would you like me to walk with you to the doctor, Theus?"
Theus snatched his synthetic burger from the vending machine, and dragged his mother along, whether she wanted to go or not.
"Why wouldn't I? Let's go right now!"
Theus and his mother enjoyed, to the best of their capability, the rubbery texture of their synthetic burger as they passed along the grand shadow of what once was a magnificent city.
Windows were broken into and shattered, with some frames and door frames being boarded up by makeshift scrap metal found off the street. The appearance of natural wood was non-existent, the last of it having been scavenged years ago. Instead, the foundation of houses was typically made out of chemically fabricated plastics that were usually found deep within the confines of the city, where the only workplace for older men and women with Mutations reside, the factory.
This was the biggest, most intact place one would ever see within the abandoned city, solely because the basis of everyday life relied on the manning of this factory.
Theus, however, was destined for far greater than this measly, gloomy factory. He retained his childlike curiosity and wonder throughout the years, something a lot of people stuck on the barren land of Deceased Earth normally didn't have nowadays.
From when he was picked up and found by his adoptive mother, he was garnished with the name, Theus – his adoptive mother being of Greek descent – named after the god of the Unknown due to his questionable birthright.
He was told his unfamiliar origin later on in life by his adoptive mother, Soteira, and wondered who his original parents were. He harbored great disdain towards his biological parents, but also bore questions as to where and why they might have left him.
He was told by his mother to have the grandest of desires and wants in life, and to never lose that side of him.
He was curious about the history of what the deal between The Messengers and the humans was really about, and wanted to know more about the system around him, the origin behind it all.
Eventually, Theus and Soteira came across their destination, a back alley pharmaceutical store with a plastic sign with letters etched into it that read, "MUTATION SHOTS HERE." The sign was dangling half off of its support, showing well and clear the condition that the store was in. Theus sat down in another shabby plastic chair as the "doctor" came in tow, a bothered look evident on his face.
"You came for your shot, kid?"
Theus, sticking his arm out slowly in a mix of worry and fear, hesitantly replied.
"Uh, Yeah, yeah I did."
The doctor took a hold of Theus' arm, and pushed the vial containing the squirming violet colored leech deep into his bloodstream, knocking Theus out immediately.
"Good luck kid, hope that brain of yours doesn't burst."
Right after Theus' body shut down, a question appeared in his mind, read out by a voice similar to his own, yet with vast differences, being garbled..
"WHAT IS IT YOU DESIRE?"