Leo's POV

  I always knew I'd die broke. I didn't think it'd be from a power shutoff.

  The notice on my door read: ENERGY TERMINATION IMMINENT.

  I'd seen it coming. Three months of choosing between night shifts at the recycling plant or attending my engineering classes led to this. You can't do both in a world where everything, even opportunity, costs energy credits.

  "This is bullshit," I muttered, stepping into the bright sterility of the Energy Administration office. The line stretched twenty people deep, all of us wearing the same defeated expression. Just another day in Dome City Eight, where humanity cowers from what we created.

  When my turn came, the administrator didn't look up from her terminal. "Identification."

  I slid my worn ID card across the counter. My photo flashed on the display, grainy and a little outdated. Wavy brown hair, green eyes, a rounder face than I had now. I looked healthier four years ago. The freckles stood out more these days, probably from the lack of nutrients. Too slender, a little short. Like I'd stopped growing before I was supposed to. "There's been a mistake with my apartment. The termination notice…"

  "No mistake." Her fingers moved across the holographic display. "Unit 2187, Block D. Three months of minimum payments. Energy allocation reduced to emergency levels as of today, complete termination scheduled for tomorrow at noon."

  The display showed my balance: -1,750 credits. The monthly minimum was 600 credits just for basic services, lighting, door operation, air filtration. Full service, including hot water, cooking elements, and entertainment access, would cost 2,000 credits. My engineering program cost 1,500 credits per month. The plant paid 800 credits for a standard shift, 1,600 for double shifts. The math was impossible.

  "I work at the recycling plant. I'm a sorter," I said, as if that explained everything. It should have. Sorters were essential, separating reusable materials from actual waste. Without us, the dome's already strained resources would collapse entirely. "I had to choose between classes and shifts."

  Her tapping finger hovered over the holographic display, then stilled. A faint sigh escaped her lips before she met my eyes for a fraction of a second. "Look, I see this every day. You're not the only one with this problem."

  "So what am I supposed to do?"

  "Everyone has to choose something," she replied. "You chose education over energy. The system doesn't care why."

  "So I just lose my apartment access? I can't even get inside?" My voice remained level. Getting angry wouldn't help. It never changed the outcome.

  "Emergency protocols allow door operation for 24 hours. After that, you'll need to make arrangements." She pushed my ID back. "Next."

  I walked out into the perpetual gray of afternoon, though you couldn't tell the difference between morning, noon, or night anymore. The megacurtain blocked most sunlight, shrouding our world in dim murk. Recycled air hit the back of my throat, stale and tinged with metal, like rust and old blood. It coated my tongue and filled my nostrils while the city's filtration systems pulsed with their low, constant thrum. The soundtrack of humanity's failure.

  It started with the resource wars, countries fighting over the last oil reserves, causing environmental catastrophes. Then came the ill-conceived "solutions." Some genius scientists decided that since our dimension was running out of energy, they could harvest it from parallel realities. The Dimensional Collider they built was supposed to safely extract power from other universes. Instead, it tore open massive rifts in reality, Dimensional Fractures that allowed the Nephilim to pour through.

  That was seventy years ago. Long enough for three generations to forget what real freedom, real sunlight, and even real silence felt like.

  The domes were humanity's last bet. Scattered along what used to be the North American coast, they were built to keep the monsters out and what was left of us in.

  The three remaining fusion reactors and solar arrays barely generate enough power for the eight remaining domes. The other four domes were overrun. Twelve million dead. And for what? So we could huddle in darkness, rationing every watt, while those monstrosities roam outside.

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  My parents taught me to care once. They were second-generation dome dwellers, raised on stories about humanity banding together to survive. They genuinely thought things could still be fixed. My mother coordinated community food programs in our sector, stretching rations to feed more people. My father maintained filtration systems during off-hours without extra credits, convinced clean air was everyone's right, not a luxury. They volunteered at the education center, teaching kids about a world they'd never seen themselves but somehow still had faith in.

  That ended when they died during the attack on Dome City Twelve when I was twelve. One of the four cities we've lost. When the alarms sounded, they stayed behind to help evacuate the education sector. The people they'd spent years helping pushed past them to reach the transports. No one stopped to return the favor. Their last act was shoving me onto the final transport while the ceiling collapsed behind them. I watched their faces disappear into chaos as the doors sealed.

  Their caring didn't save them. My caring wouldn't save me.

  My phone buzzed with a shift notification. Plant Manager Torres asked if I could cover another night. Double pay. The timing was almost funny.

  "Yes," I typed back. Not that I had a choice.

  A warning message appeared: "Battery at 8%. Connect to power source." I swiped it away. The apartment's charging ports were all dead, another "non-essential" system the Energy Administration had shut down. Even if I went to a public charging station, it would cost me 50 credits for a full charge. Fifty credits I didn't have.

  ***

  The recycling plant sprawled beneath several residential blocks, with sections extending from Block A through F, a labyrinth of conveyor belts, sorting mechanisms, and workers. I worked in the section beneath Block C. I'd been here four years, since I turned eighteen and aged out of the orphan housing program. At twenty-two, I was already considered a veteran sorter. Torres had hired me because I didn't talk much, didn't complain, and showed up.

  "Leo!" Torres called from his elevated platform. He was a large man with artificial lungs, a common upgrade for plant workers. "You're early."

  I nodded, hanging my jacket on the hook and grabbing my protective gear. The gloves were worn thin, but requesting new ones meant paperwork and questions.

  "Listen, I put you on the electronics line tonight," Torres said, climbing down to my level. "Chen called in sick again. I need someone who knows components."

  Electronics sorting paid better. If I could stay on this line, I might make enough to cover both the energy bill and my classes next month. It was exactly what my electrical engineering program focused on, salvaging and repurposing old tech. I was only two semesters away from certification, which would let me move from sorting to actual repair work and double my income. "Fine."

  "Still a man of few words, huh?" Torres laughed, clapping my shoulder. "That's why I like you. No drama."

  The shift began, and I lost myself in the monotony. Separate the copper. Salvage the rare earth elements. Discard the useless plastics. My hands moved without conscious thought while my mind wandered.

  The electronics line was more dangerous. Nephilim junk sometimes slipped through. Those creatures were bio-tech hybrids; bits of them stayed active, or just plain weird, after death. Found a shard last week, thick as my thumb. Looked like standard bio-casing, but where it had snapped off, the break wasn't rough. It was smooth. Perfectly smooth, layered like cut metal, not shattered bone or chitin. Strange. Didn't fit. Dumped it in hazardous. Another day, another piece of dangerous scrap Admin wouldn't pay out for if it took your hand off.

  Last month, a worker on second shift lost three fingers when a piece of Nephilim neural tissue encountered his bare skin during sorting. The tissue latched onto his living cells, causing rapid necrosis before they could amputate the affected area. The Administration denied his injury compensation claim, saying he should have identified the contamination and worn proper protection.

  Six hours in, my phone died. I hadn't charged it, couldn't charge it, at my apartment. Maya noticed me checking it and slid her charger across the station.

  "Here," she said. "Can't have you completely off the grid."

  I hesitated before connecting it. "Thanks."

  Maya was the closest thing I had to a friend in this place. With her electric pink hair shaved on one side and the constellation of piercings adorning her face, she stood out among the drab uniforms of the plant workers. She was attractive, objectively speaking, though not my type. My type involved broad shoulders and hard chests, not curves. Not that it mattered. Relationships were just another luxury I couldn't afford.

  She'd been here longer than me, starting at sixteen on a labor exemption after her parents died in the Dome City Ten collapse. Everyone knew she gave half her credits to support her younger brother in the education sector. Some days, she looked as tired as the rest of us, dark circles under her eyes, fingers bandaged from where she'd been careless on the line. Still, in a world where most people would step over you to grab an extra ration, Maya actually noticed when others struggled because she knew exactly how it felt.

  "No problem. Heard about your building. Block D's having all kinds of issues."

  Of course, she knew. News traveled fast in the dome. Everyone scraping by, watching who fell next. The UV lamps in our sector had stopped working months ago. Those pale imitations of sunlight were supposed to prevent vitamin deficiencies but only managed to bathe everything in a sickly blue glow. Administration said they'd fix them. They never did.

  "It's fine," I said, turning back to my work.

  "If you need a place to crash…"

  "I don't."

  She backed off. Smart. Even with Maya, I kept barriers up. Caring too much always ended in attachment, and attachment was a weakness I couldn't afford. If something happened to her, I'd probably worry, and I couldn't afford that kind of mental energy. Nothing in the domes was free, especially not caring about people.