RE:JUVE
Gideon
In the year 2025, a virus devastated humanity. It was believed that the virus was manufactured as a biological weapon and released in the eastern continents. It swept through the world quickly and didn’t take long to leave in ruin, all the great cities. Corpses were left in domiciles as the sick fled the cities. They all perished in their journey to safety. The only thing that saved humanity was the invention of a mysterious serum known as “Rejuve.” It is said that somewhere in middle America, in a place that lost its name to time there were scientists and researchers working around the clock. A pharmaceutical manufacturer, Christopher Benneker, partnered with the scientists and in their final days, they created a factory and trained workers, even those infected. Just before the biological terror could stamp out humanity, a cure was created and Benneker had the means to distribute the cure immediately to every living person in the small town created by the research facility and factory.
The rest of humanity was dead. They found that the cure, not only made them insusceptible from the Virus, now referred to as “The Purging Plague.” But it also made them impervious to disease and aging. When taken in large quantities, it would heal wounds almost instantaneously. What survived of mankind were immortal. As a new society, under the leadership of a businessman, the makeshift town, became a city with the Rejuve serum the currency. Immortality was only possible, with regular Rejuve treatments. The scientists discovered that if one were to stop taking Rejuve for a prolonged period, the consequence was not aging. It was deterioration. While some parts will retain their youth and glow, one would be quick to lose tissue and even limbs. If the Rejuve stopped coursing through any part of the body, it’s likely that the part will be lost to “Rot.”
The people of the newly named city of “Gideon”, after Benneker’s pharmaceutical company, happily worked in exchange for Rejuve. President Benneker had an unlimited supply. Scientists explain that “Rejuve is the product of isolating the DNA of a genetically modified starfish.” They took advantage of the species regenerative reproduction, to create an ever-growing supply. All this work is of course, done at the “Gideon Research Center.” Which offers tours for anyone curious about how Rejuve is made. Some received more Rejuve than others, but for the most part, everyone was happy with immortality.
The population continued to grow. This created a phenomenon among mothers, who offered their children Rejuve. The child never reached maturity and were stunted at their age. The working class began to receive less Rejuve, and as a result, some deteriorated partially making up a class of Gidoneans known as “Shambles.” As they were unsightly, they were kept in a small district, which kept growing, affectionately referred to as “Shambleton.” To add to these new problems in the year two thousand and seventy, humanlike creatures, more animal than man, but humanlike nonetheless, began to attack the city. Gideon’s scientists worked day and night again, to figure out what the creatures were. The explanation offered by Gideon was that “The Purging Plague” which they survived, must have genetically modified the wildlife, mixing the dead human DNA, with the living animal DNA. These creatures were known as “Splycan.” Benneker commissioned for a wall to be built around the city. He also placed Andrew Drake, a Military Veteran and husband to one of Gideon’s top researchers, in charge of weapon manufacturing and create a military to defend Gideon from the new threat. His children, Byron, Delta and Greyson Drake proved to be talented inventors of bionic technology. Which offered an opportunity to upgrade the limited human body. Drake paid well and a new class of “Recovered” and “Police” were created and created a province which sat between Shambleton and Gideon proper. This province was Seifhelm.
The President also decreed in the year two thousand two hundred that no one add to the population without proper authorization. Children became a rarity in Gideon. In Gideon Proper, most children were stunted and permanent dependents. Seifhelm only reproduced with proper authorization, and those children would become wards of the military. Shambleton reproduced illegally, but Seifhelm barely paid Shambleton any mind. To them the derelict rotting place, was just a gateway to the wilderness; the only way out of the city, without falling off a ten story wall, was through the massive five story door which shook the ghetto whenever it was raised and lowered. Patrols comprised mostly of Recovered who didn’t mind getting scarred, chased off Splycan from the wall’s perimeter, suffering a casualty here and there. With that, the wall itself was home to Wall Snipers. While Wall Snipers were residents of Seifhelm, most lived out of hotels and bars located along the top of the wall. They would circle the city from above, taking shots at anything that was furry. Four three hundred years, Gideon has stood tall. Except those in Shambelton, they were happy with their immortality and comfortable within the confines of their walls. It was a paradise to most, everything they could ask for, could be found in Gideon.
The Wall
In the light of day, a small monstrosity frantically bounds through a seemingly never-ending forest. The creature leaps from treetop, to the ground and scurries back up the trees fleeing certain death. Giving chase are other monstrosities and while the victim of the chase is more rodent in his features, the pursuers are canine. Some of the predators sprint on all fours and others on two, all slightly different, some have twisted dog legs and others snouts. Both the prey and his pursuers appear as animals molded from the body of a human. The victim of the chase is panting, beady eyes wide open and dilated in fear. The only thing he hears is his own exhausted breathing and his fast beating heart. He pauses for just a second to scan his surroundings and before he knows it, he finds himself alone. He scans the area assuming the hunters regrouped, and they are attempting to sneak up on him or plan a better attack. He hops into a tree and climbs to the top for vantage. He looks down and sees the doglike men have turned back into the forest and he stares on puzzled. He looks around himself from the top of the tree and notices a great concrete wall; and himself resting between the wolves and wall. He is taken back by the sight, the building style, the material and the color are all completely out of place and otherworldly unfamiliar to the squirrel man. As he looks up at the large wall, something comes shooting down and catches the strange creature between the eyes. His fast breathing stops immediately, and his already dilated pupils take the rest of his bright yellow iris. Falling from the treetop he plummets lifeless to the ground.
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