“Welcome to Dendrick!” announced the gaudy billboard built into the crest of the hill just ahead. One of the bolts must have busted off ages ago; the left side of the sign was touching the ground leaving the rusted old thing at an angle that only added to its overall dilapidated appearance. Dendrick was a far cry from the city pictured on the welcoming sign. A dystopian pock-mark on the surface of a more-or-less desolate planet, Dendrick was more like the last bastion of humanity than the golden city on the top of the hill; you, though, would never know the difference. You were born and raised here and, as far as you were concerned, it sure as hell beat being born in the Outlands.

That being said, you always had enjoyed the beauty of the unforgiving wasteland just beyond the city limits. When Dendrick had been plotted, the sign was placed on the top of a ridge overlooking valleys on both sides. In one direction were fields of green, a place where the giant mechanical beasts of old had harvested crops when the land had been more yielding. Sixty foot tall robotic creatures devouring the landscape and spitting out produce, it must have been glorious to see. Of course the land hasn’t had crops in nearly a hundred years and is now nothing more than a desert, permanently clouded by an eternal red-sand storm.

In the other direction, Dendrick, a technologically superior example of what humans can accomplish when they put their minds to it, infested with the most deadly pox the universe has to offer--greed. Roughly four million people “governed” by only a handful of wealthy few. Corporations continuously play chess with the lives of their wage-slaves. Constantly fighting for territory, frequently gaining an advantage just to lose it the following day. Personal armies wage wars in the streets and espionage reigns supreme. As for the layman, there are only two options in Dendrick, become a cog in the machine or risk your life day to day running in the shadows... you have never been sure which was more dangerous.

It is about a half hour drive back down Highway 7 and into the city, but you have always enjoyed the solitude. There is safety in being alone. As you turn the key and rev the engine you take a final look at the sign in your rear-view mirror. “The City of the Future!” the sign exclaims in its subtitle. Your face twists into a grimace, what fool dreamt up THIS future.