The Elementals

Chapter 2: The Rules

Darkness surrounded me as my mind seemed to float nowhere and everywhere in the infinite blackness. I wanted to scream, I wanted to cry or shout for help but nothing came out, nothing wanted to obey me. I imagined myself reaching forward into the dark with a hand that wasn't really there. Trying to grasp something in the unknown. I almost gave up as I floated through the darkness, thinking of the things I had done and how unfinished my life was. What seemed like a lifetime had finally come to an end as a noise flitted through the darkness. A slow beeping sound resonated around me, getting faster as the seconds flew by. A feeling overcame me as I felt as though I was falling. Falling through the dark, the beeping becoming louder by the minute. I gasped as light surrounded me and my body was back to normal, yet it didn't feel like my own body.

The bright white light around me focused becoming blue like the sky and clouds appeared out of nowhere. I looked below and screamed loudly into the air. Mountains of earth floated idly in the air, long wooden bridges connecting between each mountain of earth and atop of each was a magnificent city or town. The bad thing about it though was that I was falling right on top of the biggest city there was! Soaring towers came up to meet me as I fell, just missing them by an inch. The most cliché thing though was that I was falling towards the town square, which was the middle of this massively intricate city. I screamed as the ground became closer and closer, that I could make out the small detailed carvings on the tiles below that a builder would mark to say it was his own. Then suddenly I stopped. I opened my eyes an inch awaiting the darkness I had been in before. But before me was that same builder's pattern of swirls and lines.

I yelled as I was dropped to the ground. Even though I was only inches from it, it still hurt as my nose and forehead cracked upon the hard tile. A small crack appeared upon the tile as though proving to me that this was definitely not a dream. I looked around and noticed other people were having the same experience as me, being left screaming their heads off as they suddenly stop inches from the ground. Others falling flat on their faces as I had. It would have been quite funny if I hadn't experienced the same thing myself. I got up off the ground swaying slightly as I felt taller than last time. As well as lighter, I look down to see that my body, was not my own body and something in the chest area was definitely missing. I felt around and the realisation hit me, I had no breasts! I was a boy! It was amazing how light I felt, yet I also felt quite distraught. How was I going to pee! I reached up touching my face, it felt almost the same, but a tiny bit slimmer. I breathed out slowly, if I just focused on breathing for now I won't panic like some of the people around me. That was when I started to analyze my unique surroundings. Massive tall buildings in the old 17th century roman style rose above me, all shaped differently and made in all kinds of unique ways. It was beautiful to say the least. I wanted to explore every inch of it. I walked towards the edge of the square intending to go towards one of the tallest buildings, but almost immediately I was stopped by a barrier. An invisible wall was in my way, my hands were saying they were touching something but my eyes said differently.

I looked around and saw the other people were having the same problem. I sat on the ground, watching as more people fell and others started to panic. Just by listening into a few conversations they all had the same experience as me when they were brought here. Thinking that their life was going to end when their body was vanishing before their eyes, one piece at a time. 'We're in the game' I thought to myself. All of us, uploaded to a massive hard drive. Dr. Franklyn had jumped the wall of impossibility. I sat down on the ground staring up into the sky, watching the people fall. No one ever fell on the other floating isles, everyone was being taken to this square and already near two thousand people stood around me. Even more were still falling. I noticed the beeping sound that I had heard was louder and faster now. I looked straight upwards to find large red numbers floating in the air counting. It was 2802 now.