Present day.
Everything was white. He had white gowns on. His surroundings were white. Above him was white. Unnaturally white. Lleyton was on his back, looking skyward. But there was no sky. Only whiteness. But the whiteness was not due to a sky bustling with clean clouds. Above was nothingness which extended seemingly in perpetuity.
He stood and standing across from him was the woman. Her white dress flowed, but Lleyton felt no breeze. He looked down at his hands. They were clean, but he knew they were not. He expected to see his hands of mud and blood and dirt and sweat, yet they were spotless. Confusion set in.
"What is this?" He called across, perplexed. "Where are we?"
"Exactly where you're supposed to be, I'm guessing," she said back to him. She started to walk towards him slowly, but something about her pace scared Lleyton. She had purpose, and conviction.
"Thank you for saving me. With the Field, lights, and the elevator. Now I want out of whatever this is, please."
The woman continued and quickened her pace. She wore glasses, her hair was tied back. She was incredibly pretty and older, the lines in her face unable to hide her beauty. Her dark hair poked through the whiteness of the odd world Lleyton found himself in.
"I saved you, now let me test you. Yes?"
Lleyton was tiring of the mounting debts he owed people who saved him. "Tell me what this is first. What is your name?"
"This?" she said to him, motioning to their surroundings. "This is how we destroy the devil. It's my greatest contribution to mankind. I'm Maeve. What's your name?"
"I'm Lleyton and please, no more riddles," Lleyton pleaded.
"It's no riddle. Who gave you that name?" Maeve said, her face contorting in genuine curiosity.
Lleyton continued to watch the woman. "Am I asleep? Have you drugged me?"
The woman shook her head. "You're in my lab, right where you remember being. The material on the bar you grabbed, when I grabbed it myself, we enter this world. Together. A world of will and imagination, the great Equalizer. A neural connection the two of us are a part of. Now ready yourself."
Lleyton could tell the woman was done with explanations. But how he was to ready himself, he did not know.
With a flash of unimaginable fury, a bolt of golden lightning rocked Lleyton in his chest, throwing him through the air and landing on the white ground behind him. He gasped for air, his skin burning as he gripped his eyes shut, his heart beating as fast as the bolt that struck him. The burning finally stopped and his muscles twitched.
"It's all in your mind but it still hurts like hell, doesn't it?" Maeve whispered in Lleyton's ear, inexplicably crouching right next to him. He crawled backwards away from her frantically. She stood and smiled at him, her arm in the air, bringing it back down and pointing her index finger at Lleyton to his horror. He looked upwards.
A planet impossibly came crashing down on him, appearing out of nowhere. The burning, massive ball approaching him with breakneck speed. It was beautiful and terrifying. Lleyton raised his hands out of desperation, his eyes closed and bracing for impact.
Could he die in this world? Would he simply wake up? He couldn't take the chance. He came too far already. And he still had so far to go. And so many people to fight for. He wanted to fight. He wanted to fight for them, he wanted to give Aimos answers.
His eyes reopened, and to his shock the planet was suspended above him, no longer moving. He was holding it. He looked over to Maeve, a cocked eyebrow and eyes wide with surprise.
YOU ARE READING
The Boy with No Name (Part 1 of 'A Tale of People and Apples' Trilogy)
Science FictionThe first instalment of 'A Tale of People and Apples' trilogy. Saved and given sanctuary within a wondrous walled city by a young woman named Eeva Alva and her people called the Orcas, the boy with no name must journey to discover his lost identity...