Blue World Order – Chapter 1: Jake

Jake Slater knew he was about to die.

He hung from a cliff.

Not by two hands, just one.

That hand clung desperately to a small clump of roots which in turn clung desperately to the lip of the ninety foot cliff. His other hand hung at his side, balled up in a fist that held tightly to a precious clump of honey. Honey he had stolen.

Although his heart beat was threatening to break his ribs, Jake slowed his breathing. His breath came through the precious respirator of the gas-mask he wore, protecting him from the air outside, and the wisps of bacteria he knew were flowing through it.

The root he clung to gave just a little.
Jake opened his eyes.

It was not the sight of the river below him that caused his breathing to increase again, a river he knew that was also poisoned with bacteria, nor the strange people who stood on the far bank – the first people he had seen in more than a year. His focus was on something much closer.

On the inside of his glass eye-piece, trailing a short, spiked stinger, walked a single, angry honey bee.