The Race to Freedom

Dante 1

The lost boy woke upon the shore. Eyes rupturing open, and an explosion of light flooding inside. Momentarily, he was relaxed, feeling the regular grogginess from having just woken up from a nap. But the powdery soft sand that he wriggled beneath his feet was different. He turned his young, brown-haired head as he began to turn and look around. This was not the gravelly stoned seaside of the British South Coast. This extremely irregular scenery was far different. 

Sprawling in front of his eyes, an ocean of blue sky and water sparkled and shone ahead of him, a lot brighter than the whispering winds of Brighton & Hove whose grey clouds shone like a stone. No land could be seen posted upon the horizon, so he turned around while scrabbling to his feet.

A wall of green jungle, dark and mysterious, faced him blankly, its wide spacious branches as still as statues. The chilling unknown locking itself inside this community of nature was drowned by an unnaturally cold breeze tingling his side. 

"Hello Dante". 

Immediately his head  whipped around, searching for the voice. His vision rested upon what looked like a hovering figure, the image of a man being crystal clear. He was smiling, a blank smile which  tugged weakly at the creases of his face and released never a drop of real emotion. His face was as real as his presence, and Dante was confused even to respond.

"...Hello? What, who is this?" 

"I am Nobody. But Everybody thinks I'm Everybody" the man replied with the same emotionless tone, as if he were a voice coming from a robotic phone app.

But then a lightning bolt fluttered across his eyes, a sudden flash that hinted some form of mysterious intent which sent ricocheting lightning bolts of unease down Dante's spinal cord. "Interesting that you haven't asked why you have been transported halfway around the world and almost a thousand years into the future" he stated blankly, his voice remaining neutral.

"Uhh.." was all Dante could say, his hands resting on the back of his head, his mind spinning, trying to process the unbelievable information. "Why...?"

"Welcome to 3000 AD, Dante. I think at your moment in history, this area was called California". He said, pronouncing the letter I in the name the same way someone would say 'eye'.

"Well this place certainly isn't East Sussex..." Dante muttered, looking about again. "Okay" he sighed. "Tell me".

"Currently I am having the same conversation with thousands. You and all the others have been brought here for a race".

"A race? A running race?"

The man uttered a quick laugh. "Not exactly. It is your challenge to travel across the entirety upon the land you stand upon. Once you reach the Ocean of the East, at any single part of the coast, the race finishes. The winner receives a prize".

"And the prize is...?"

With a smirk, he informs "that is a mystery even I do not know"

And then he was gone, faster than lightning and without not even a blip of sound. Only the echo of his words lived on, each wave loading more and more confusion into his mind.