VII
The city of Midgar could not simply be described with words such as: big, huge, large or gigantic. It transcended these things in a way which was both awe-inspiring and disgusting. It was a manmade wonder and pinnacle of achievement, people looking upon the city for the first time might on occasion wonder how such a thing was ever built, in a way that one might look upon the sky and be amazed by its brilliance. It was also an affront to the natural world and a paragon of mans destructive nature. The city was built upon a vast plateau of wind blasted rocks and grey dead earth and dust. The wasteland stretched out never ending into a bleak horizon of dust storms, tormented by sunless days and starless nights. In this hopeless desert the city of Midgar was truly a wonder of mans potential, its builders would call it an oasis, a sanctuary where people could exist without the fear to provide for food, water, warmth or safety. It could all be provided.
Midgar was a circular superstructure beyond compare in which all of its millions of people existed in a never sleeping and ever moving megalopolis. The actual city was elevated fifty meters above the ground by a central pillar which was supported all along the circumference by columns of steel which marked the boundaries of the city on the ground. The grand city was split into eight areas which were known as sectors and each was separated by high walls and gates, each connected by an impressive road and rail network which made travel easy and effective. The sound of motor engines and the rhythm of the great trains was a constant aspect of Midgar life as well as in the wasteland beyond; miles out in the bleak desert the haunting sounds of the city could be heard like the pulsating heart of a machine. The city's skyline was dominated by two buildings; the first was the Reactors and the second was the Tower. The eight Reactors ringed the outside of the city limits in an area which was controlled and inhabited exclusively by the security forces of Midgar. The machines were giant structures which loosely resembled pistons which every few hours would discharge great plumes of smoke into the air accompanied by the sound of a high pitched whistle. It was rumoured that the Reactors burrowed deep into the planet where they extracted Mako energy. There was generally little known about this fuel but it was known that Mako energy was the lifeblood of Midgar and its creators. It was the essence of its existence. The second building was the tower which rose from the centre of the city up into the sky. It was called the Shinra Tower after its creator and President and stood like the pinnacle of the crown which was Midgar. The Tower was a palace of glass and steel, it rose from a base of turbines, generators and steam billowing pipes to the dizzy heights of polished glass, elevators and helipads. It really was the tip of the crown.
Bear in mind however dear reader that Midgar was both awe-inspiring and disgusting; a place of perfect duality if ever there was one. Below the raised plate of the city almost in total denial and opposition to the life above was the area below bluntly known as the Slums. There remained the Sectors and the railways but other than that it was the land of the oppressed. A world of abject poverty and misery where the teeming masses lived by the rule of the street and sweated away their lives in the service of Shinra in the vain delusion that they were each working toward their dreams of wealth and luxury, after all the city did provide. And throughout the years the Midgar dream had grown in the minds of millions who would flock to the great city to escape the world outside. There they would be safe and if they worked they might ascend that mighty crown of success, from the base land of the slums to the world above, the star above the smog as it was wistfully known among many below; a place of Mako powered existence where all of one's dreams could be fulfilled.
That was one way to view the world however, there were those who would always proscribe to the Midgar dream and blindly strive to beat the system as so many had tried before. There were also those who would look at the city and its ultimate duality and see the poverty and suffering not as something to be remedied by the Midgar dream. The Midgar dream was the scourge of the people's happiness. And so why Midgars designers and builders would describe the city as the oasis in the wasteland there were those who would disagree; Midgar was the wasteland, a huge void of humanity which the desolation of the landscape around barely compared.
In an ally way of the upper city the girl had bent down to examine a small cluster of pipes and mechanical instruments. It was a small Mako power conduit, it must be reasoned the girl, from tear in the piping which caught her attention there rose tiny glowing embers into the air. She had gotten so close to the conduit that her nose was almost touching the pipe. Around her field of vision the green embers rose around her in the blackness of the alley, the noise of the surrounding city was intrusive but for the girl at that moment she could hear nothing of that as her very being focused on the Mako energy. She suddenly brought her head away from the pipe as if someone had shouted her into action. She stood up and straightened her pink dress and pulled her cardigan a little tighter around her, in one hand she held a wicker basket filled with flowers, their vivid natural colours standing out in the giant urban forest. Looking down the flower girl smartly walked out of the alley to be confronted by the never sleeping beast which was the roads of Midgar. But tonight the flower girl wouldn't dwell on the despair of the city, had she had a premonition? Ahead the streets of Sector One were suffering from the endless insomnia of Midgar.