In 2096, we became ground zero for the Fissures. With the rapid decline of the ocean’s thermocline over the past 50 years, significant shifts in the coastal terrain led to technological anomalies. Sinkholes, expanding fault lines, and most devastating, fissures ripped voids through the land. Uncontained, magnetic fields flurried from these fissures and created massive energy storms across our cities. Hellish mutations took place. Holographic Sprites became one of them.

Since the Fissures of 2096, these satanic shadows terrorize our coastal city. I recall encountering a Sprite. I had just finished shopping for my daughter’s soccer shoes on an overcast day. The bathroom lights flickered and a shadow crept from underneath the bathroom divider. The mall in Ekto, 50km from my town center, was supposed to be safe. Like a baby hungering its first drink from the breast, it lunged for my ankles. I pulled up my legs abruptly and blindly swiped at the shadow with a protected hand. But it had already wrapped onto my ankle and slithered into my bloodstream. I slumped into a nightmarish five-minute stupor on the toilet. The malfunctioning holograph placed me in a strobe-lit world. This Sprite was an old ad for La Colombe’s Triple Latte flavor. Cue the dizzying levels of over-caffeination. My head pounded against the bright reflections of swirling cans around me. The broken upbeat music blasted my eardrums to a fine-tuned tinnitus. A rumble through the ground encouraged me to sprint as I recognized a tsunami of coffee hurdling in my direction. It should have been mist. I cried through the stress of survival and thought of my daughter’s safety. After the Sprite’s toxin wore off, I tasted blood from a sore cheek. With a pounding headache, I hastily clambered out of the public restroom and found my daughter in the protection of a store lady’s metal dorsdren.

We Andolvans do our best to thwart these demon creatures. We develop clothing with metal sheathings as well as metal dome “dorsdrens” for each home and public space. We transport dirt and heavy metals to the fissures in an attempt to close them up. The land that once was mediocre is now a horror attraction, ringing in adrenaline junkies and movie producers worldwide. The citizens just want peace, but the land-spawned demons refuse to give it to us. Each year, Sprite spikes grow in greater quantities outside of Andolva. All we can do is adapt to the heightened stressors of our new lives as world leaders, scientists, and engineers brainstorm to stop the growth of Sprites around the world.

-Masqar Alretta, Andolvan citizen, 2146.