Would you give up everything willingly for a chance to live forever?
No, I always thought to myself.
ACT 1
Ryan, Dwayne, and Gladius Jones were all sent through different portals by VOID the dragon.
I felt my very essence being torn apart atom by atom then stitched back together on the other side.
There was no telling where, or even when I landed. Bloody, bruised, and heartbroken, Ryan collapsed to the ground. Feeling the soft grass on his face was the last thing he could remember before blacking out.
~DREAM~
The cool crisp apple skin on my soft human hand felt refreshing and intense. I picked apples like this every day. 30 apples fill a basket, 5 go in the pie. We make 6 pies a day. Every day we I count 6 pies, 6 pies, 6 pies.
Something calls to me
"Danger, you're in danger, wake up"
~END DREAM~
Interrupting his dream, Ryan wakes up. Guards are approaching him, they look clad in cybernetic armor. Ryan looks around, the pleasant rolling green hills of the Greenlands are all streets and roads. Ryan passed out on a welcome mat in front of an apartment and someone called to have him removed.
Ryan quickly gets up and tries to explain himself to the officers.
"I'm sorry sirs, I don't remember how I got here." He claimed
The guards continued to approach.
"We can't have you here, and since you look injured and disoriented we have to take you to a hospital." They said while grabbing Ryan.
The guards took Ryan to a vehicle against his pleads he was fine and didn't need help.
While riding to the hospital Ryan pondered his options.
'If I get checked out they're going to hold me for a long time, but it's been forever since I had a check, so maybe it's in my best interest...' he thought to himself.
By the time Ryan formulated an escape plan they already arrived.
Ryan was ushered out of the car and sent to inside. Instead of a doctor, Ryan was greeted by a screen, which lit up with a blue face.
An artificial intelligence was acting as the hospital assistant.
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"Greetings! Would you tell me your name and date of birth?" The screen said.
Ryan had a decision to make.
"Hello, I'm Raphael Ambrosias Cousteau. My date of birth? Um... 1/1/1. The day saint Mickey died." Ryan's half truths fooled the machine.
"Greetings! Raphael, please tell me what ails you today?" The screen said.
Ryan was unsure of what to say.
"Just here for a check up, the guards brought me in." He told the screen.
"A nurse will call you in shortly, please wait" the screen said.
After only a few minutes a nurse entered the lobby.
"Raphael?" He asked
It took a second for Ryan to remember his fake name.
"Yes! That's me." Ryan lied.
The nurse brought Ryan deeper into the hospital, where he was sat in a simple room. They performed a standard physical and checked Ryan's vitals. But something was wrong...
"I'm sorry sir, we might have to run a few more tests." The nurse explained.
"What's the problem?" Ryan asked
"I won't know for sure until we run more tests, but there seems to be a drop in blood pressure and your x-ray shows an unidentified foreign object obfuscating your heart." He added.
Ryan was suddenly filled with anxiety.
This was his exact fear, they found something wrong with him and now he'll be admitted for the rest of his life, trapped in this disinfected hell hole.
"No thanks, I'm sure I'm fine" Ryan stood up and immediately began coughing hard, blood sputtered from his mouth. Ryan lost consciousness again.
~DREAM~
Ryan baked 6 pies.
He passed 1 to each of his family members. But 2 pies were left over.
He looked down at the plump apple pies.
"Where are my friends? They should be here by now?"
There were two places at the table set for Gladius and Dwayne.
"Didn't I invite them?"
Ryan waited 6 seconds eagerly, then 6 minutes, then 6 hours.
Something calls to me
"Wake up, they want to steal your heart"
~END DREAM~
Ryan jolts up in a panic. He's in an observation room, lying on a table.
"You can't have my heart!" Ryan screamed.
A doctor walked in the room.
"Relax" she said "none of us want your heart, but something does." The doctor showed ryan a couple scanned images.
"We don't know what this is, but the dark mass is spreading in your body, it looks like it's eating your flesh, and I'm afraid we cannot cure you of it." She revealed.
Ryan was speechless
"There's hope for you, however, with our technology we can scan your entire body and brain, then transfer your consciousness into an artificial intelligence... so you'd be safe, but your entire life would be online." The doctor digressed.
Ryan was speechless.
How much time do I have?
ACT 2
With one month on his calendar Ryan left the hospital.
"I don't trust them. Maybe I can find Dwayne and Gladius, they'll know more about what's going on." Ryan said to himself.
And he began his search for the dangerous metal man and the elf with many swords.
Ryan asked around the Hexlands for information on Dwayne or Gladius, but no one even knows those names. It seems his adventure has been lost to time.
Reaching into his bag, Ryan pulled out a small drone. He sent the drone to East Main Village up on the North continent.
Ryan then packed up and started to move South towards Metroglade.
The roads were well kept, it seems the Hexlands have taken over the entire surface of Gaia. While the sky is filled with dense clouds and giant balloons. Ryan could only assume the Aarakocra have ascended into the clouds.
Filled with determination, Ryan refused to stop for any reason.
But when Ryan reached Metroglade he found a dusty ruined city. The town had fallen completely into disrepair by the addiction and greed of its citizens.
"Live fast, die faster." Ryan said
And Ryan descended into the ruins, desperate to find clues that might lead him to Dwayne.
Without hesitation Ryan walked to Dwayne's old workshop. And what he found was sickening.
Dwayne's robotic metal husk. Torn apart, pieces of Dwayne were hanging from the ceiling, strewn across the floor.
"No. What have they done to you."