This is not the darkness of sleep. Ben's vision focuses on thousands of stars scattered amongst the plane of space. He stands up from his place of rest and orients himself. The shuffle of his feet disturbs the dust beneath him and echoes into the void. Whispers surround him as indecipherable reverberations. They grow louder and louder with each passing second until they roar as a cacophony of all-encompassing sound in a language unknown to man.
Then, all at once, they merge together to create one: "Ben."
He gasps as he's thrust out of his body, his ghost dissociating from his mass. His consciousness fractures into shards that reflect like mirrors, shifting in and out of each other. Memories from his past, glimpses into the future, and now, a vision of himself: scorched, onyx skin etched with crackles like desert earth, and eyes that burn as two bright blue neutron stars.
"What is this?" Ben asks himself as he watches his obsidian body lift a finger to touch his consciousness through the barrier of the mirror.
He snaps back into his body at the contact.
"You are in a dimension beyond your comprehension," a familiar voice ricochets.
Ben looks around for the source of the voice, finding nothing but void around him.
"Step forward. I will guide you," it continues.
Ben does so, walking on ground that is as inky as the abyssal horizon.
"Why do dreams like these keep coming to me?" Ben asks.
"How can you be sure you're dreaming?" the voice questions. "Perhaps you are walking through shards of infinite timelines."
"That isn't possible without advanced technology."
"Isn't it?"
Ben continues on, a thin glow breaching the edge of the orb he walks upon. He slows his pace.
"I don't understand," Ben murmurs.
"You will."
"When?"
"After the end."
Ben resumes a slightly faster pace. The glow beyond rises higher and higher, revealing itself to be a bright, blinding planet. It swirls with violet and magenta, glowing mauve around its edges. Ben looks down at the now illuminated ground: he stands upon a black star. He raises his gaze once more to the swirling giant before him.
"Tread forward," the voice sounds, echoing from the planet.
Ben follows the command.
"Who are you?" Ben asks.
"The same as yourself, dreamwalker. Now... Get up."
"Ben! Get up!" Zeline screams.
Ben flinches as hands shake him awake.
Ben fails to put together a cohesive sentence, blurting out instead, "Ordership?"
"Not here. It's Dannika."
Ben sits up in concern, looking around the room for her.
Zeline continues, "She isn't here; Joaquin is taking her to get help."
Ben's eyes narrow at her in suspicion. Shifting his focus to behind her, he spots a pile of guns left haphazardly on the floor. The run was successful.
"Where are we meeting them?" Ben asks.
"The Western Ternary. Joaquin gave me coordinates, but I know where we're going."
YOU ARE READING
Descension
Ciencia FicciónExiled by a tyrannical government and betrayed by his brother, Ben Anderson is hurled from his status as one of the world's top elites and plunged into a dystopian reality. The clock ticks as a revolution comes to its apex, and the fate of humanity...
