The Lower Sector was quiet that evening, though silence in this part of Lord Zeus City always came with a certain tension, like the calm before a storm. The air was thick with smog and dusk-colored dust that drifted down from the Middle Sector's floating transport lines. The broken neon lights flickered in the alleys, their dull glow washing over cracked pavement and rusted out stalls. In the middle of this forgotten world sat a small circle of four friends—or something close to that.
Ely Zoan leaned against the half-broken metal fence behind an old scrap dealer's shack, his arms folded across his chest. At fourteen, he was already taller than most adults in the Lower Sector, standing at 5'10" with a build sculpted by survival rather than discipline. His brown hair was tousled and windblown, a natural mess, and his green eyes gleamed with an unusual clarity—a sharpness that didn't belong in this place.
He glanced up toward the flickering lights above, where the floating structures of the Middle Sector glittered like distant constellations. Beyond even that, the true stars twinkled in the sky. Ely had always been drawn to them. Since he could walk, he'd look up and feel something calling to him—not just curiosity, but purpose. He didn't belong here. His mind had never been confined to the alleys and gangs of the Lower Sector.
"I heard the West Road gang took another kid last night," muttered Kex, breaking Ely's thoughts. Kex was small for his age, lean, with nervous hands and a tendency to mumble. He kept picking at the edge of his old jacket as he spoke. "Twelve years old. Didn't even get a chance to run."
"That's the third one this week," Nora added, her voice bitter. She was the oldest of the group at fifteen, though she was smaller than Ely by a full head. Her face carried bruises that never quite faded. She had once tried to fight back against the gangs. Once.
Slink snorted and spat into the dust. "They only take the weak ones. They don't come near me anymore. Learned that the hard way." Slink was different—wiry and mean when he needed to be, with a nasty grin that scared even some of the older boys. If anyone could survive down here without Ely, it was Slink.
Ely watched them quietly. He didn't say much during these meetings. They met every other night behind the scrap shack, a habit formed over the years out of necessity rather than friendship. Slink, Kex, Nora… They had grown up together, fought together, survived together. Seven years of shared scraps and stolen food. But Ely never allowed himself to get too close. He couldn't afford it.
Still, a part of him worried.
He knew the truth. One day, he would leave. The Lower Sector had never been his destination—only a cage he'd been born into. And if he was going to escape, if he was going to rise to the stars he always stared at, he'd need to enlist in the Human Civilization Army. He knew that. Every sector, every path to freedom, was guarded by the Army. Service was the only road out.
But when? That was the question he couldn't answer.
He looked at Kex's trembling fingers, Nora's hollow eyes, Slink's forced bravado. Kex and Nora wouldn't survive without him. Not for long. They were kind, but kindness wasn't a currency that held value in the Lower Sector. Here, kindness got you killed.
"I'm thinking of joining the Army," Ely finally said.
They all went quiet. Even Slink.
"You serious?" Kex asked, voice barely above a whisper.
"Yeah," Ely replied, though his voice didn't carry the conviction he wanted it to. "Not now. But soon."
Nora looked away. Slink was the only one who nodded, slowly, as if he'd always known.
"I don't belong here," Ely continued. "I never did."
And as he looked once more to the sky, to the distant stars gleaming above the filth of his world, he knew they were waiting for him. All he had to do was let go.
But letting go meant leaving everything—and everyone—behind.
And that was the one thing Ely Zoan didn't know if he was strong enough to do.