The cafeteria of Marcus Hope Hospital—Asia's third-largest government medical facility, hummed with the usual midday chatter. Patients and their families filled the space, their voices blending into a meaningless cacophony.
"Gulp"
Orion Blake, a 250-pound, 5'4" young man with thick black hair and deep-set eyes, popped the last handful of cherry tomatoes into his mouth. He leaned back, exhaling in momentary relief, his round face pressed against the backrest.
He felt the gnawing hunger ease—just a notch.
"Same old same old... " Orion sighed, scanning the cafeteria.
He glanced around: his bench sat empty, yet every other table teemed with patients, families, and the drone of ordinary chatter. People avoided him, not out of fear, but unease.
Weird how a full room can feel lonelier than an empty one, he thought, handing his tray over. The cashier flinched again—a reflex Orion knew too well.
He walked away, ignoring the barely hushed whispers trailing behind him.
"If you're going to whisper behind my back," he said under his breath, "…at least be good at it"
His footsteps echoed through the long corridor as he made his way to the hospital classroom. Rain lashed against the windows outside, thunder booming above, the sky cloaked in thick, boiling clouds. The storm was aggressive but Orion was unfazed—just another test of the climate control technology deployed by the United Asian Government, he thought uninterested.
He attended the in-house hospital school, part of a special program for live-in patients especially those undergoing long-term treatment for post-war radiation exposure.
"We've come a long way since the war," Orion muttered, his eyes lingering on the fractured sky before turning away.
The year was 2095, nearly 50 years had passed since the great nuclear war of 2049 which sent the world aback many years. Millions of people were killed during the war and billions died afterwards. The consequences of a global nuclear war far surpassing people's imagination. A catastrophic conflict that nearly wiped out humanity.
The lands poisoned with radiation were inhabitable and infertile, and the ozone layer was breaking down faster than ever. Droughts became long-lasting and food shortages were at an all-time high, Humanity was truly at the brink of extinction.
But from extinction came unity, the surviving people came together writing a chapter of human unity like never before.
A worldwide peace accord was formed ushering the world into an era of collaboration and accelerated development. Many smaller countries that were destroyed were merged into other surviving countries. Asia too was unified under a single banner—China, Pakistan, India, and Iran at its core—forming the new Asian Superstate.
Technology boomed, focusing on agriculture, medical innovation, and climate control, fighting the scars of the war.
Yet some scars ran deeper than others.
" I can't wait for dinner" Orion muttered under his breath, his stomach already grumbling again, as he reached the classroom and slumped into his usual seat at the back. Judging eyes followed him—other patients, staff kids but he ignored them, resting his head against the cool windowpane.
Thunder rumbled in the distance.
Orion, 21 years old, had almost lived his entire life inside the walls of Markus Hope hospital.
He had no father or at least that's what his mother, Emma Blake, a waitress who'd given everything to raise him, told him but he suspected the man had walked out the moment his mother got pregnant with him.
He was fine not knowing his father and had no intention of going searching for him, like people do in movies. If someone was willing to abandon a pregnant woman then he held no expectations for such a person.
" I still have to go for the daily checkup in this weather" Orion sighed to himself staring at the occasional thunder in the sky.
Orion suffers from a unique eating disorder where he feels an ever-present never-ending devouring hunger. The doctors classified it as a mutation caused by trace radiation lingering in the environment since the war. Nothing new as there were many such patients present these days, victims of the war as they call us.
But unfortunately, his case was unique.
Advanced medical treatments that had cured dozens of similar cases failed to make a dent when it came to his condition. He was the patient with the most complicated mutation to date.
He was a medical anomaly. A research subject. A freak.
Lucky cases like his, victims of the war, were supported under the relief policy of the governments all over the world, otherwise, his mother wouldn't have been able to support his daily food intake and medical bills. He was also the reason his mother hadn't married again, making him feel grateful and guilty at the same time.
Every day, he spent three hours in the clinic: tests, scans, experimental treatments. Followed by mandatory physical training.
Without exercise, his body would collapse under its own weight. Thus, beneath all his fat was dense muscle, packed on from years of forced training granting him great strength. It being the only reason he hasn't been bullied physically throughout his life and was only assaulted verbally.
He even volunteered for extra medical trials in exchange for compensation. It was his way of easing his mother's burden—his small attempt at being useful.
His value as a research subject after all was immense considering his condition incurable even by advanced medicine.
As Orion was admiring the thunder lost in his world something shifted.
"RUMMBBBBEEEELLLLLLLLL"
The world shook. Not thunder something deeper, as if the whole world was announcing its presence, signifying a great change to come.