Levels

Level 1

Without warning, without a sign, and in a seamless transition, my mind exits the nothingness of a timeless void and awakes to existence for the first time.

The sudden exposure to images, my surroundings, is jarring, and I find myself standing on top of a square, 5ft x 5ft, pink, translucent platform floating above a bottomless abyss that stretches in every direction for as far as the eye can see.

The day is uncomfortably hot, and above me rests a bright, cloudless blue sky.

My platform is not alone.

Floating above the abyss, thousands surround me.

They rest at different heights, and there is a wide assortment of different sizes ranging from small 1ft x 1ft squares, to large approximately 10 ft x 10 ft squares.

Each platform is colored one of the seven colors of the rainbow, and, like the platform I find myself on, all are translucent.

There are also hundreds of humans.

Like me, they find themselves standing on the various platforms.

However, not every platform has somebody standing on it, and there are no platforms holding more than one person.

Suddenly, I hear a slow speaking voice within my skull.

It is neither masculine nor feminine, and upon speaking the voice resounds and echoes within my head.

Mystery voice: "Level 1. Grab a ball to pass the level."

It says no more.

The once tranquil blue sky vanishes as thunderclouds form out of nothing and block out the sun.

Many of the humans present begin shouting to their neighbours and pointing to the sky, but the rumbling of still unseen lightning muffles their words.

Others of us remain silent and look upwards with nervous anticipation.

A couple of others, most of them originally on platforms that stood above the others, begin to navigate towards the lower platforms.

I had expected at least one to fall, but to my surprise they are rather agile.

In a start, I realize that I am also located on a platform higher than most of the others, and I feel a knot of doubt in my stomach grow as I begin to question my positioning.

I look to a human standing on a platform nearby.

Like my own, her platform is one of the highest floating.

She is a pretty girl with long blonde hair and blue eyes.

I raise my voice to shout across to her.

Me: "Hey! Do you know what --"

Her body explodes into a cloud of red mist, and her platform explodes into a rain of shrapnel.

The sight leaves me stunned.

What just happened?

I look around wildly, desperately trying to find an answer.

The answer is present all around me in a flurry of chaos.

Brightly colored balls - maybe a bit less than a foot in diameter - are rocketing down from the clouds above.