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Ch. 4

  I was nothing. Nothing existed. No pain, no memories, no future, no past, no way out, I just was. I could not feel my body, wasn’t even sure if I still had one. It was as if I was lifted straight out of everything I have ever known, and was alright with it, alright with the fact that I may never be again. That I may just float along in nothingness, and be nothing and it was good. The only thing I was consciously aware of was my mind, some part of it was still working, was processing enough to know that I was in nothingness. I don’t know how long it lasted: days, years, only seconds, I have no knowledge. Eventually it ended. I was put back into my own mind, into my own body, and then there was pain. It shot through my ears and into my brain. I couldn’t stand it; it felt like someone had just stuck a rod straight into my ears. I tried to scream but was unable to. Then the pain was gone, as if never there.

  My eyes opened and everything was blurry. It took some time for things to become clear, and even longer for me to acknowledge the control I had over my limbs. I sat up; everything was dark except for a little strip of light on the floor a few feet away. I wanted to move towards it but was afraid of it, of what it could be. I sat there, groggy, wanting nothing more than to go back to sleep, or to wherever I was, but something stopped me. I knew that I needed to stay awake, knew that I was better off conscious. And then all the memories shot through my head, the car, the lights, the humming, and then nothing. What happened after that? How did I get from the road to this place? And most importantly, where was my father? I called to him in the darkness but got no reply. I started to worry. The car had taken off with him inside, it could have done anything, and he would have to hang on. But wait, it already happened, somewhere outside of the darkness I was currently in was my father, dealing with the effects of that night. Was it last night, or one night in the past? And I was here, unable to help, without even an idea of whether or not he was alright. And what would my mother think? I only hope my dad got back to her, then he could explain that something strange happened, and I was . . . was what?

  My head hurt, not from the earlier pain, that was gone completely, but from the possibilities that I was somewhere new, a place I have never been and would never be able to escape. My heart began to ache, and I jumped up from what I was sitting on. My fists clenched, I chose not to believe that I was in a situation I could not overcome. I took to pacing the room, too scared and nervous to call out again. I could be anywhere, and anybody could be just behind the door. I took the small strip of light on the floor to be a gap between a door and the floor. My feet echoed strangely, and I took to exploring my environment. The room I was in was much larger than I had originally expected. It was twenty paces from where I originally lay to the wall at my right. Metal tables, like the one I awoke on, were laid out every five feet or so in the center of the room. The back wall was only ten paces from the table, and fifteen away from the door.

  The door suddenly slid upwards into the ceiling. The room was flooded with blindingly bright light and I jumped backwards, shutting my eyes as tightly as they would go. It happened so fast I had no time to hide or get back on the table. I tried to open my eyes and see who was there, but I could not keep my eyes open. The only thing I saw was a large shape obscuring some of the light. I heard footsteps coming toward me. Now too frightened, I could not move from my spot. The footsteps stopped. I tried to open my eyes, but could still not see anything.

  “So you’re up.”

  I jumped, I had not expected whatever it was at the door to speak, and for some reason I really was not expecting English. A man was talking, he sounded to be no older than forty, but I was a bad judge of age after just hearing someone’s voice. It took some time for me to process what the thing, or person, had said, but once it registered I nodded.

  “Good, we shall get started right away. We will tell you the circumstances together and let you get to work. I’m sure you are as eager as we are to begin.”

  “Begin what?” I said, my voice squeaking slightly from nerves. I could finally open my eyes a little. The man was directly in the path of the light. I could not see him clearly.

  We will all tell you momentarily, for now you can follow me.” He left the room and I followed. I took a look back to see where I had been. It was just a large room with metal tables, just as I had thought, nothing special at all. I hurried behind him, so many thoughts begged for space in my brain, but none of them formulated into actual questions for me to ask. The hallway we were in was brightly lit from the ceiling. The walls were white. The only interesting thing was the man in front of me. It was clear he wasn’t from anywhere I had ever been, either that or he did not own a mirror. He had tried to put on a suit but had failed badly. The shirt and jacket were backwards, facing me rather than the door up ahead. His tie was knotted correctly, but was around his upper right arm instead of his neck. His pants were actually worn correctly, but his belt was wrapped around his upper left arm. And to top it all off he was only wearing one shoe, causing him to limp slightly as he walked. I mentally scratched secret government lab off my list and moved on to what was next. I had a strong feeling of where I was, or at least what I was in, but kept it from my brain. We came to the door at the end of the hall.

  “I will see if they are ready for you.”

  “Where am I? Where is my father?” I asked desperately.

  He looked at me, a little confused. “All will be explained momentarily.”

  He knocked on the door and it opened. He disappeared inside and reappeared a minute later. “They are ready.”

  He held the door open, and I passed into the room.

  Having no ideas as to where I was or what I was doing there, I can’t say that the size of the room was much of a shock. It was very large nonetheless. On the far wall was a long table with at least twenty people sitting at it. They were all dressed in what looked like t-shirts of different colors; the table blocked what else they were wearing. The walls were all painted brown, making the room look much darker than it really was. I took a seat in a lonely wooden chair in the center of the room, facing the long table. All the people were adults, some of them rather old, especially the man directly across from me; he had to be at least one hundred.

  “If member Miggins would please join us we will begin.” The voice came from one of the people off to my right. The man who led me in went up to the table and sat in a chair just to my left. “If everything is in order we shall now begin.”

  At that moment all of the people at the table leaned in close and started whispering to each other. Their voices echoed horribly through the room and I was certain that there were now people behind me whispering as well. Then all at once they stopped. “We have decided to start from the beginning, so you can follow more closely.” This new voice belonged to a short woman sitting to my right.

  “Wait a minute,” I said, “Where am I?”

  They chose to ignore my question. “Ten years ago our nation of Hurdeen came under attack from the barbaric regions to the north, collectively called the Terror Bringers. We resisted, and they let us alone for a while. Our people celebrated thinking that it was the end of our worries. While gone the Terror Bringers conquered more lands. We were afraid, knowing that it was only a matter of time before they came down to attack us. But they never came, they knew that we would fight back and so they conquered more to the north. A few weeks ago we got word that they were finally going to invade, and now they are nearly unstoppable, controlling all of the north. And that is why you are here; we need you to stop it.”

  I had no idea what I was listening to. It didn’t make any sense to me. And worst of all I now knew that I was no longer on Earth. “Stop what?”

  They ignored this as well. “We believe that they will attack in two weeks. For the next two weeks you will be training, and then it will start.”

  I was more confused than ever, but it continued.

&nb
sp; “If you have any questions Miggins will assist you, and remember if you have any secret weapons or abilities, save them for the enemy.”

  Secret weapons and abilities? What did that mean, who did they think I was? “I think you have me confused with someone else, someone stronger.”

  The ancient man directly ahead spoke. “No, our sources say that you are the one. Perhaps you don’t yet know of your true strength. Or perhaps you have not yet found the courage to proceed; you shall find it in the next two weeks. Now, off to train.”

  “Wait!” I shouted, “I have no information on what I am supposed to be doing, and nobody has told me where I am or where my father is.”

  The old man turned to Miggins and whispered something to him. He nodded and came down from the table over to me. “Miggins here will explain everything.” The people at the table all got up and disappeared through doors hidden in the wall behind them.

  I wanted to scream, my anxiety had built to such a degree and mixed with confusion and anger over not being listened to. I followed Miggins out. His bizarre outfit didn’t even make me feel better. Once in the hall I was about to snap.

  “What is this? Who are those people? Who are you? Where am I?”

  I asked a few more things with more expressive language. Miggins waited until I was finished before starting. “I do not have as many answers as you would like. First let me tell you that after you help us we will send you back . . .” he said something else under his breath that I didn’t catch. “But you must first help us.”

  “Alright,” I said, more calmly but still with a hint of annoyance, “I will help you, but first I need to know what it is you want me to do. I heard something about northern people and then something about an invasion. Who is getting invaded?”

  “We are, and we need you to stop it.”

  For the first time it sunk in. “How am I supposed to do that?!” I was once again in hysterics. “Something about powers . . . do you think that I have powers? Because if you do, you’re nuts.”

  He looked taken aback. “You don’t have any abilities? But I thought that you all did?”

  “Who all did?”

  “Your people.”

  “You mean Earthlings?”

  “No that other one . . . humans. You are human aren’t you?”

  “Yes, but what does that have to do with anything?”

  “You’re confusing me.”

  I was confusing him? I was the one who was probably light-years from home being told to stop an invasion. “I think we need to try this over again, from the beginning.”

  “Yes, very good idea. Follow me.”

  He led me down a different hallway then the one we came down earlier. It twisted and turned until it ended at large double doors. We entered and found ourselves in what looked like a small hotel lobby. Everything was a dark brown, from the couches to the walls, and even the desk. Miggins and I passed everything to a tight spiral staircase near the back wall. The stairs ran out on the third floor, we followed yet another hallway to the end and entered through a curtain hung from the ceiling. Inside sat a bed, and a chair, with a small washroom off to the side.

  “Guest chambers.” He said brightly.

  It was a little smaller than most hotel rooms I had stayed in and the privacy was lacking with just the curtain, but it was still very nice. “Do I stay here?”

  “During training? Yes.”

  “Now will you tell me the whole story?”

  “Ah, yes, let me begin.” He took a seat on the chair and I sat on the bed. “As the council said, it all started ten years ago when the Terror Bringers, they are the ones living in the north, started attacking us. Usually they wouldn’t bother because they know we would fight back, but for some reason they decided to.”

  “Wait, why are they called Terror Bringers?”

  “That goes back to our ancient past, our ancestors gave them that name when battles were frequent between the two societies.”

  “Oh, ok.”

  “So anyway they attacked us and we actually won. Our nation has never been one to fight; we’d rather spend time inventing things. But we did win, and they backed off. Shortly afterward we got news that they were fighting with the neighboring tribes to the north, they were nowhere as big as the Terror Bringers, so it wasn’t too much of a fight. This continued, and once it was over we kept on expecting them to come back sooner, but they never did.”

  “Why not?”

  “No one knows, not even today. They conquered more land to the north, creating the largest empire in the world. And then, just half a month ago, or two weeks to you, they sent a message that they were going to invade, it didn’t make any sense. Why now? The council did not know what to do, and so they decided to use the Tekogoly to find someone who could help.”

  “The what?”

  “The Tekogoly, we were told that is what you called new inventions where you are from.”

  “Close enough. Who created it?”

  He hesitated for a moment before answering. “I was not an assistant to the council when it happened so I only know the stories.”

  “It would be nice if I knew the stories too.”

  “They say that the inventor was out of his mind, but he invented many useful things. And then he created the Tekogoly, about twenty years ago, and began to disappear for months at a time. Nobody knew what he made or where he went, only thing the council knew was that the place he went to was great, much better than here. It had everything anybody could ever want, and more. The people were stronger, the food better, and the advancements unbelievable. In the stories he told to the council the hero’s always won, and the brave were always fearless. And then he was exiled. I never found out why, all I know is that he wanted to do something crazier than usual, and possibly dangerous. It took time to figure out how the Tekogoly worked; as it was so near to him he never bothered telling anybody else how to use it. But in the end, and not too long ago, someone figured it out, just in time to, because that is when we went looking for you. It took several tries but we finally got you here, and now we sit here and talk about it.”

  I had to process everything, and so I sat there on that comfortable bed thinking it over. When it finally started making sense I asked the question that I wanted to know the answer to most of all. “Why me?”

  “As far as I know, and I don’t know much about the council’s decisions, they needed any human.”

  “You said they went looking for me.”

  “I meant that as in, ‘they went looking for a human’ not ‘they went looking for you specifically’.”

  “I still don’t get why you think I can help.”

  “Because you are a human.”

  “Which means?”

  “Didn’t you hear me, you’re stronger, able to win battles, have powers.”

  “Humans have powers?”

  “Yes.” He said slowly, questioning his certainty.

  “That’s news to me.”

  “You mean you don’t?”

  “I mean that if we had special powers I think I would know.”

  “Perhaps you just haven’t found yours yet. The stories say that powers sometimes come late.”

  “Are these stories written down by any chance?”

  “Why yes, they were all transcribed and now rest in the archives for all to see.”

  “Could you take me there sometime?”

  “First thing in the morning if you like, right before training.”

  “That sounds good.”

  It was evidently night now. We said our goodbyes and he left. I sat in the same spot on the bed for quite a while, thinking over everything. I sorted all of the information into mental columns, from needing to remember, down to not necessary. This helped me reflect on what I heard, but some of the things were just too bizarre to actually fit into my head comfortably. Aliens were real, and not just real, but they really could travel around the
universe. But why Earth? If this planet has so many people then why didn’t they pick a different planet? I didn’t realize it at the time, but sometimes there is no answer for “why me?” type questions. I could just as easily ask, “why not me?” It made little difference. What mattered now was that I was on a different planet where . . . English, they all speak English, or wait! No, they put something in me, some sort of translator, that’s why I felt pain before waking.

  I had thought once or twice about aliens, but what I learned that day was so different, so amazing, that I was forced to believe in many things I didn’t think possible. Maybe time travel is possible, or inter-dimensional travel, maybe every galaxy has a few planets with people-looking beings. That would mean an infinite number of civilizations as this one or my own. And to think Earthlings can hardly stand each other sometimes, imagine what would happen if they found out about this? The Hurdeens, or whatever they are called, must be new at space travel; they don’t seem to really know much about Earth, seeing as they think humans have powers. How am I supposed to break it to them that I don’t? By the time I felt tired enough to go to sleep, all I could think about was reading the stories of Earth. My father entered my thoughts right before I nodded off, and I knew then that I would be seeing him again soon. All I had to do was help stop an invasion, it sounded tough, but at that moment between consciousness and dreams, I felt like I could do anything

  .