The interior of the train was claustrophobic, and it wasn't just the stifling heat that made my body sweat; it was the uncertainty of what I would find in Awaniko. It had been six months since my last visit, and my mories of my hotown were vague, almost erased by the years I'd spent away, whether working as an explorer or at the Wushia Teaching Academy. Probably the city had changed like .
The steel train's route through the devastated desert was a straight line, like most railroads today. The curves added to the already enormous travel ti.
The aridity of the desert was punctuated by the ruins of ancient cities, the skeletons of a once thriving civilization. Rusting tal factory structures and collapsed buildings were everywhere.
'How did we get to this point?' The question hovered in my mind with no clear answer.
Perhaps it was a combination of human arrogance and inevitable disaster, a cycle of destruction that no one could stop. The result was right in front of , unfolding like an endless horror movie.
A few hours passed, but the clock seed to be ticking. The car, packed at first, was now almost empty. So passengers got off in the small, forgotten towns along the way, while others remained, lost in their own thoughts, their faces expressionless, the marks of a life worn out.
Finally, after what seed like an eternity, the landscape began to change. The desert gave way to a more familiar sight. The city Awaniko appeared on the horizon, its silhouette marked by tall, compact buildings surrounded by a sea of smaller structures. It was smaller and less grandiose than Republic City, but it still had an imposing air of its own.
As we approached the station, I could see that Awaniko, though smaller, had also beco an incredibly crowded city.
Space seed to be a luxury that no one could afford to waste, and every inch was used as efficiently as possible. The city was a hive of activity, incessant and relentless.
When the train finally stopped, I stood up, feeling the weight of hours of sitting on my tired muscles. The crowd, which had thinned along the way, seed to have suddenly multiplied, and I found myself once again being pushed and carried along by the flow of people. Getting off the train was a struggle, a fight against the tide of bodies that seed to be heading in the opposite direction.
As I left the station, a wave of hot, polluted air hit . The city was alive with noise - the constant sound of voices, flying vehicles passing through the sky, and the clatter of machines and electronic devices working incessantly.
I took a deep breath and tried to calm my heart.
Awaniko was exactly as I rembered it, and yet completely different.
I walked through the narrow streets, watching the people who passed . Tired faces with eyes that seed to look beyond them, as if they were stuck sowhere far away in their own minds. Children ran among the adults, their clothes dirty and torn, playing in an environnt that seed to have no place for innocence.
Storefronts were covered in graffiti and faded posters, empty promises of a better future that now seed like a cruel joke.
Still, there was a part of that found a strange comfort in being there. Maybe it was the familiarity, the fact that despite everything, Awaniko was still the place where I grew up, or maybe it was because my efforts to beco a student at Wushia Academy had made who I am, and the good things that had happened to included not having to live in this city.
Finally, after a long walk, I reached the neighborhood where my parents lived. The streets were quieter here, away from the hustle and bustle of downtown. Their house was a modest three-story building, each floor housing three families, one apartnt for each.
I climbed the stairs leading to the second floor, and as I stopped in front of door number 5, I felt a knot form in my stomach. It was strange how, despite all my ntal preparation, I was still nervous about seeing my parents.
*Knock, knock!*
I knocked on the door. Seconds later, the door opened and after all this ti I could see my mother. She looked older than I rembered, but she still had the sa warm look in her eyes, a look that filled with tears when she saw .
"Leonard!" She exclaid, a smile spreading across her face as she pulled into a tight hug. I could see the worry in the lines around her eyes, but there was also obvious relief.
"Hi, Mom!" I said, returning the hug. "It's good to be ho."
She pulled away just enough to look up and down, as if to make sure I was really there, whole and safe. I couldn't bla her, after all, intercity communication was difficult because of all the radiation out there, so it was only done through terminals, and I used to have the Explorer system, which forced to stay out of the cities, so it wouldn't be whole either if I had died and my family never got any news.
"You're thinner. I hope you've worked up an appetite, because I'm going to make your favorite dish."
"I'm starving." I replied.
She dragged into her old apartnt. The living room, with its antique furniture and worn rugs, was identical to how I rembered it. My father was sitting in the chair and when he saw , a tired smile appeared on his face.
"Leonard..." he said, standing up to greet . His handshake was firm, but I could feel the weakness in his fingers, sothing that worried more than I wanted to admit. "It's good to see you, son. We thought you were dead." He said in words what I had deduced when I saw my mother's eyes.
"It's good to see you too, Dad." I said, pulling him into a hug that surprised him, but he accepted it.
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