They take me to a room where they promptly tie me to a hospital bed. I was gagged in transit but now my wrists, feet and neck have been firmly constrained as well. I can barely move my head to see my surroundings. All knowledge of the room I am being held in comes from the brief glance I got of it before getting tied down. The lack of information makes me uncomfortable, I can’t form any kind of plan without more data.
I close my eyes and try to visualize the room. Five years of unforgiving memory exercises have left me with a near eidetic memory so I can do a pretty good job of it. The room has eight, no, nine other teenagers strapped to beds similar to mine. The three remaining guards tied their captives and are leaving. There are four other people in white lab coats. They look like scientists.
This must be the digitization room. Most likely, they will be taking in the Undesirable applicants in groups of ten and systematically performing what, in my opinion, is basically murder.
About every two minutes I hear the sound of a bed being wheeled, a faint muffled noise and then the sound of some kind of liquid gushing.
My fear builds every time I hear that sound. I’ll be dead to this world in about twenty minutes. I let that thought sink in. I don’t know what to do.
Should I be struggling? Should I be fighting for my life? I haven’t done anything wrong, have I?
Or should I trust the system? It’s never been wrong, has it?
Before I can make a choice my bed is rattled. Someone pushes my bed forward. I struggle to make a sound, just like the nine before me. And just like them I am injected without remorse.
My eyes, still closed, take on a different kind of blackness. No longer are my eyelids simply blocking the light, my eyes as a whole have stopped functioning. The strange lack of sense spreads all throughout my body till I can no longer hear, smell, taste or feel a thing. I become distinctly aware that I have stopped breathing but I feel no panic as I would expect to. The stillness becomes so profound that I feel my own heart slowing down; still there is no fear. I am forced to simply observe my body give up while my mind screams in helplessness.
And now there is only vacuum.
Nothing can describe existing without a body. The time between my body dying and my digital sub-consciousness being transferred to my new digital body should be a matter of milliseconds.
It feels like an eternity.
In this time – though I don’t think I can really call it time – I feel every moment I have ever lived. I am no longer one person, I am an infinite number of Kyrians, each living through an instant of our lives simultaneously.
To say that we are the aggregate of every second we’ve lived seems obvious but we can never truly understand that sentiment till we experience it, independent of time.
Then suddenly like a glass shattering, the blackness falls away and I find myself standing in the middle of a ramshackle room. The first few beats of my new heart reintroduce me to the concept of time. The first few breaths from my new lungs, to a new existence.
Perhaps I can do nothing now but accept my fate.
I look around as discreetly as I can manage, if I’m not standing out I’d like to keep it that way. If I had to guess I would say I’m in a cottage, or some kind of hunting cabin. The walls appear to be made from cobblestone with wooden supports, a very traditional construction.
The fact that I am not currently in a jail cell or a straightjacket gives me hope. No matter where I am, if it’s not Purgatory I think I can make it work.
Only seconds after I gained my bearings something strange starts to happen. Chunks of matter start to materialize from thin air. They appear and arrange themselves faster and faster until finally, standing before me is a girl around my age.
More fragments start to appear around the room and in seconds the room is populated with another seven people.
Before anyone has time to voice their confusion another person begins to appear, a little differently this time. A bright blue circle forms on the ground in front of us and begins to rise. As it rises more and more of the person become visible.
It was the Suit.
“Now I know you might be confused, that’s perfectly understandable but I assure you there is nothing to fear. All will be explained in due time.”
Despite her assurances almost everyone in the room bursts into action; demanding explanations, calling insults, voicing concerns and even physically lashing out.
The voices all die down however when they see the boy attacking the Suit get thrown into the wall with barely a flick of her wrist.
“If you’ve all calmed down, I will now explain your situation,” she gives us a meaningful look. Some of the louder teenagers shuffle nervously in their place, but remain silent.
“You had been selected by the Examination to be sent to Purgatory. Some of you were to be in jail cells, some of you in psych wards, some of you were sentenced to hard labour,” she looked at us in turns.
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
“I have saved you from that.”
“The Government is corrupt as I’m sure you have come to expect. Only the upper class can get into Elysium, therefore when people like you – who actually tested high enough to get into Elysium – come around, you are dealt with. Most of you are simply given lower scores however the best of you are shipped to Purgatory because you are potential threats. You are smart enough to figure out why.”
Of course. They’d need the public to be weak and dumb if they want to control them.
“But don’t get me wrong. You are dead. Who you were before no longer exists,” she says slowly as if to drill it into our heads, “From now on you are all citizens of Elysium. You are nothing more than NPCs. You have no influence in the real world.”
She walk to the wall and taps it twice. The wall then ripples and turns translucent. Through it appeared a video of a man and a woman with, presumably, their child talking to a the Suit in the room she interviewed me in. The video was taken from an odd perspective, almost like a security camera.
“That’s me parents,” said a short boy in wonder.
The Suit in the video then handed them some papers and after a brief dialogue - that we couldn’t hear - the mother started to cry and the father started to rave. Eventually guards had to come in and restrain him.
The wall then shimmered and showed us a new pair of parents.
Eventually it changed again and showed a lone woman. She had platinum blonde hair and a remarkably blank face. She simply came in, signed a few papers, shook the Suit’s hand and left. It was the shortest one yet. There was no mistaking who it was though.
The other kids gasped as she left. Some of them commented on how a parent could be so cold.
I felt no inclination to defend my stepmother.
Some of the girls in the room were audibly crying while the boys did their damnedest to not make a sound. The reality of the situation was only just hitting us. But the Suit carried on.
“Now the more cynical of you lot is probably wondering why I am helping you,” she looks at me. “Well, let’s just say that I’m a good samaritan who has the backing of people with enough resources to pull this off.”
She waits a good two minutes for someone to question her, and then continues. Nobody wants to get on the wrong side of their benefactor.
“I hope you don’t need me to tell you why you need to keep your identities from the Players in Elysium a secret.”
“So you’re telling me we’re in Elysium and all we get to do is sit around and tend shops for the rest of our lives?” says a gruff voice from the back, choking on the last word.
“That is not what I’m saying at all. You can do anything a Player can do. In Elysium Players and NPCs are identical, there is nothing available to you that is not available to a Player and vice versa. Go slay a dragon for all I care, but do so without letting anyone know that you are from Earth.”
“Right on!” the boy lets out a half hearted cheer.
I roll my eyes. What an idiot. It’ll be next to impossible to do anything so heroic without the resources of a Player.
“On the table behind me are Teleportation Crystals. Each of you are to take one and crush it under your feet. They will take you to a random city and from that point all you will be on your own. I suggest feigning amnesia and figuring out how the world works as fast as possible.”
Nobody moves.
“Quickly now! I don’t have all day,” she shouts.
The group begins to walk cautiously to the table. I wait until the first person has used their Crystal, you can never be too careful. I approach the table but before I can pick up a Crystal my arm is grabbed from behind.
“We’ll be in touch Kyrian,” she nods sharply while giving me a stern look, daring me to refuse.
More than a little terrified of the scary lady with the scary friends I nod and pull away from her.
Without a second thought, I grab the last Crystal and crush it under my boot.
While an odd sense of vertigo courses through me from my feet, I idly wonder where the leather boots came from.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I would really appreciate comments, opinions, reviews; anything really. I'm not a writer so I have no idea how I can improve.To be honest, at the end of the day, taking time out to give me your opinion will probably be a waste of your time because this series is going to be far from consistent (upload wise) but I would still appreciate it.