Endymion

a sci fi dystopian

The purple leaves swooped downwards, draped onto the ground as the none-existent breeze touched my skin while sitting at the base of the tree. The orange sky broke out as the burning red sun sank, sore from the time spent toiling, being the very center of humanities every movement. However, I knew that this wasn’t the real world, that this was the dream world.

Ever since I could remember, I would drift to this constantly changing landscape where my fantasies of living the kind of life that one could only long for, the stories of heroes or adventurers, what is only told in ink and blood bond by the gritty hands of man. That is where I escape, without any one person to take notice, or to care for that matter, causing this to become my safe place. 

Until mom entered my bedroom, the electrical discharge took place as the virtual imagery vanished into the ether drive, buried in all that data. What remained was the mess, clothes strewn across the floor, the dresser filled with random wires and circuit boards, to this thing or that gadget. Cans of Watt energy drinks were randomly crushed in odd places.

“Get up, you got school to go to,” mom yelled at me as I crawl deeper into the dark room. “And get this room cleaned. If you don’t by this time tomorrow, I’m gonna go through this place, and the changes that will happen in here you may not agree with. So get into shape and get the f**k a move on, you don’t want to be late,” adding the jab in as she left, the disgust in her voice hung heavy in the room like a morning fog.

Heaving upwards, I scavenged the room in search of any surviving clothes from the last experiment that had fried many of the scrap clothes that were old outfits no longer. The images came back slowly, creeping in around the room as a woman stepped out from behind the willow that I have been sitting underneath before mother had disturbed. She silently crept to me, gracefully avoiding the objects scattered about, as if walking like Jesus had supposedly done on water (according to mother.)

The woman figure held some clothes up, forest green sweatshirt and black slim jeans, before wrapping arms around from behind, her head setting beside mine. Taking a hold, with a whispered ‘thank you,’ before she whisked away into the ether drive that ran the virtual program. Not before what I thought was a tear in her eye along with a silent ‘goodbye’. 

Jumping across, did you exit the room, with the sound of the coughing motor turning the turbines within moms hover car before she ascended on off to her run down job at the dead end dinner, located at the other end of town where the highway was.

Cautiously heading downstairs, you peak to see if dad was around. When you snuck to the kitchen, I find no cars in the driveway, signaling that dad left long ago. Good. I can eat alone in peace.

Grabbing a bagel and moving to the toaster, I prepare my food ready as the TV continues to run from the solar powered charging port mom had begged dad years for before finally receiving last Christmas, only to learn that the word solar meant that at night, it would run low in energy. Shocker, I would laugh as she complained about the flaw of the device. I knew, however, that it was made that way, to waste ones’ wallets contents. 

The bagel soon popped up, grabbing it, I look out the window to see the line of hover cars all in line, waiting to go to the school that towered across the road, not even a quarter of the mile down. 

Taking one last breath, I went to put on my air suit before stepping outside, heading to school.

First period was so I thought as I exited the classroom. I followed the normal stream of students as they filtered on off to their lockers, meeting up with friends to share a laugh or two before going to the next class. Slowly, I took the straight path on down to the next class, located at the other end of the hall.

Entering the room, with the many tables that would slightly hover over the carpet I make my way to the back. It’s advanced English, the class I like the best. The one I wait for all day, an escape from the rest of reality.

The rest of the class slowly enters the room, first a group of four to five girls, all giggling sit towards the front side corner. Next is a group of guys. They share a chuckle about yet another joke of some poor girl that they got their hands on from the night before. They sat in the middle of the room, as that was their approach in life with where they felt they belonged.

The teacher strolled on in, today dressed up in black pencil skirt and a white dress shirt, complete with the killer heals that seemed way too thin to be real. However, she seemed completely capable of walking on over to the virtual board before writing Greek Mythology.

“Class,” she began, addressing her students as a whole, “how many of you know of Zeus, or of Hercules?” Hands shot up, from the group in the middle, of course. The girls slowly raised a few after that. I only nod.

“Ok, well today we begin a new section on this topic. Here is your new book that you will be reading from for the next few days,” she stated before forwarding us a quick notice, glancing down to our tablet textbooks to see the notification from the teacher.

“Each of you will be assigned a god to study, and yes, they are already assigned. I want to challenge each of you to get to know about their lore, as well as trying to connect to them,” she continued.

“Here goes Ms. Jay with that spiritual nonsense again,” one of the guys in the middle commented on.

“Charles, I would rather a raised hand, not smack talk from the sidelines.” Ms. Jay returned, continuing with her instructions. “Charles, you have Zeus actually, I think that you both have many things in common.”

Like ego, you thought, chuckling inside.

“Oh, James, you have uh, let’s see here, oh yes, you have Athena,” Ms. Jay said. “Sara, Hera; Jane, Demeter; Austin, Poseidon; Chas, Ares; Kaitlin, Hestia; Tony, Hermes; Zack, Hephaestus; Alisha, Aphrodite; Matt, Hades; Sam, Apollo; and Andy, you have Artemis,” Ending the list on me. “For the rest of class, I want you guys to be reading up on your god or goddess, and by next week to have a three to five page research paper on your findings, so get going.”

With that, the rest of the class, I look at the little bit on her, finding that she was the chaste goddess of the hunt.

The rest of the school day seemed to have dragged on, as I enter the house again, climbing the stairs to my bedroom to have the ether drive start up again.

The blue light went off in the corner, pulsing itself to life. My grandfather used to tell me that in his time, virtual reality was so close to coming true, yet, it never seemed to work for one data bit or another. He gave me this object in his will, after passing away about a year ago, and though that may be too soon for dad to talk about, I felt no closeness to the man. We never really seemed to be alone or anything like that, so when we received the call, my father was in tears. Mom seemed happy, but stayed silent. I just stowed away again in my bedroom.

Now, ever since I got this thing, all I want to do is create the very thing that he loved the most, the idea of another reality. However, not to fully indulge into the world, but by creating customizable wallpapers for anyone so that it doesn’t take too much effort or money. We have the tech, so why not?

So this time, the room was filled with the sights and sounds of what was this lush exotic land that I didn’t recognize at all. Then out ran this creature, covered in short brown fur with horns that snaked out from its narrow head. It reminded you of the mechanical horses that would run the electric corn fields out in the countryside, minus the horn bit.

I approach the thing, scared at first. It snorts up a little dust cloud with what was a square nose, causing me to pause briefly before advancing some more.

About to finally touch its nose, a rush of wind zips on past, the creature lets out a howl of anguish, hooves up in the air as I move back rather hurriedly, not longing to be near the thing for a second longer. Tripping to the ground, I cower, waiting for whatever came here to attack. 

It never did. Looking up, I see that a piece of wood is sticking from its shoulder as it begins to run away, in the opposite direction. Another gust of wind passes over before the beast falls to the ground, still.

I stare, left to ponder if it’ll move. But more importantly, who or what the hell shot that thing.

“Hey, would you mind? I was here well before you ever showed up out of the blue in front of my target.” A voice echoed from behind, where the gusts seemed to have been conjured from.

The woman from earlier appears then, the same one that had stepped out from underneath the willow. Her hair flowed freely, black as one could get. She wore in a leafy gown, draping over her figure rather tightly, ending rather high up on her legs before black cloth emerges from underneath, acting as a form of shorts of sorts. She couldn’t more than twenty five. I almost wanted to say that she was a teen, about my age, if not a little bit younger. However, there was something in her golden eyes, which suggested otherwise.

“Sorry about that,” I stutter, standing up, “I think that something is wrong with the drive, if you excuse me for a second, I believe it is somewhere around here.” As I search all around for the main computer, or a barrier that blocks off you from moving any further into this new fantastic world of dreams.

“Well, whatever you are looking for isn’t important, come with me,” she demanded  moving past, over to the slaughtered game.

“But, I don’t even know what is going on. Who are you?” I ask, lost in my own design of a world.

The system wasn’t even supposed to act like this. It was built to project images that were found on the internet, on random forums which looked cool. I just wanted to create a customizable virtual wallpaper for bedrooms, believing that this would help make money rather quickly.

That was the plan anyways. However, this seemed to be way out of the game plan, as psycho chick squatted next to the dead creature.

“The name is Diana. I’m a woman of these woods, where you just intruded upon. I have the right to kill you anyways. But still, you intrigue me. For instance, you managed to show genuine curiosity as well as innocence when confronting this here deer,” pointing to the beast. “So first, I will ask, what is your name boy? And then I shall decide your fate.”

Great, the avatar in this image thinks you’re the weird one. Well, this should show some intriguing data for future tests, I thought.

“My name is Andy, I hail from the city of London, Ohio.” I reply, the answer drenched in sarcasm.

“Ok, ‘Andy.’” Diana states. “And where is this ‘London’ that you speak of, I have never heard of such an outrageous name as yours, nor an outlandish name as ‘London’.”

“Well, welcome to London,” I respond. “You’re standing in my bedroom, which is really weird.”

“You’re the weird one here child,” she claimed as she moved on over to me. “I can tell you that we are not in your room, or even in this made up world of yours.” She then grabbed my wrists, “You are coming with me, boy.”

I didn’t want to go with her, but after seeing her skill, I know that she would not have any trouble in killing me. Without anywhere else to go, I give in and follow along.

She moved past the thing she called a deer. I once heard a thing or two about them long ago, but that was from so far back, when learning about the rain forests that have been extinct from the world for a hundred years.

Stopping, she hesitated. It seemed that something wasn’t right. Well yeah, I bitterly thought, the thing is dead. I don’t know if that was the idea, but if it wasn’t, then she screwed up big time.

Moving forward, the we both carry on through the trees, which amazes me as I look up, seeing what I think are called leaves, falling from trees, one at a time to the gentle suggestion of the wind.

“Come on, you are so slow, you know that?” She barked at me, causing me to mover quicker.

Finally, after what felt like two hours of walking, you reach a campfire, where you see many cone like tarps spread out in a half circle before a fire pit.  

“Make yourself useful, help me gather wood for the fire boy,” She demanded.

Grumbling slightly, I start on the task, finding twigs and picking up until I found a handful.

“No! I want sticks, not these pathetic things, oh gods, what is wrong with you?” She asks, seeing the results from my exploration.

She pushed me to the side, heading to a nearby tree, finding a decent branch that had long ago fallen off it.

“Now, this is a stick, ok? Go find an armful and come back soon, the sun is setting,” she finished before disappearing again. 

Back to the task, I wonder if I should make a run for it. Even though I have no idea what the hell the ether drive was doing, and it defiantly doesn’t have this kind of juice to create such a vast world as this. Something was up. I have to fix the electronics on the main board for starters. 

I continue to run through all the possible parts that could have created such a dilemma as this, without any concise conclusion as while searching for sticks to kindle the fire.

The sun was almost gone by the time Diana came back, lugging the deer along with her. Jesus, how did she manage that kind of s**t?

“What have you been doing? You have enough wood to make a decent fire for thirty, now light it and let’s get this thing prepped for tomorrow, it won’t be good for tonight.” Diana criticized as she moved about, getting things in order.

The air became colder as I try to help before she told me to just sit down on one of the logs around the pit. Soon, the fire was lit, the deer placed inside of a tent; which, according to her, is what they are called. She exited, bringing out almost a real version of a cartoon round slab of meat that a barbarian would eat on the projected television in your living room.

“So, Andy,” she started as she set up a rigged system, placing the meat up on a wooden bar, cooking it over the flames, “You seem to not belong. You know nothing of hunting, or of deer. You seem to struggle to even make a decent fire, without my guidance. How you come to be here, that remains unanswered to me child.”

“Well, that makes two of us,” I answer with honesty.

“Tell me then, what happened to cause this evening to find us here in my land?”

“What, do you honestly want me to believe that you control these woods? That is more laughable then the fact that you think that this is real in the first place,” I spat, standing up now.

“Maybe,” she starts, “However, what is you proof for that?”

“My proof? I created this 3D projector simulator in order to show images in my room, so that people could have the leisure of changing their room’s look without much of an effort.”

“Well, that explains you laziness.”

“Hilarious.”

“Thank you, but you are by far beating me in that race of jester tonight, child.”

“And would you stop calling me a child!” I angrily yell. “I’m a teen, almost a man.”

“Then you are a failure of your people, now things are becoming clearer…”

“No! True, I’m lazy, however, I’m not a failure. I wish you wouldn’t just jump to conclusions, ok?”

Silence flooded the forest, as the night dragged on. Soon a sort of high pitched trill rings out, followed by a choking buzz. I look all yourself, wondering just what is actually going on.

“What? You can’t handle the noises of the forest?” Diana inquired.

“I just, I’ve never heard this before. How is this possible, what did I do with the ether drive to cause all of this?”

“What is this now about an ‘ether drive’?” She managed to ask, struggling to recreate the sound of the name.

“Well,” you began, “It is a simulator disk that is hard to come by, rare these days, since most have given up on the idea of recreating virtual life.”

“So that is what you think this is? This ‘virtual’ world that you somehow managed to procure, like that of a god?”

“But I didn’t create this world, I found images across the internet…”

“What is this internet? You say so many odd things, I feel that you are lying to me. How do I know that you aren’t just another insane person lost in the woods?”

I look up at that point from the flames to see her face. Fear darkened it as the flames flickered across with courage, she reaching for her bow. That is when I remember, my remote house key that I somehow managed to forget about this entire time resting inside my pocket.

“Hold on!” I exclaim, reaching to grab the device, only to find that it isn’t there. 

S**t, it must have fallen out of my pocket at some point while you were with the deer.

“Well? What?” She waited for whatever I had attempted to perform.

“I lost it, my keys to my home. They have electrical components that may have helped shock the system, so that this may have gone away.”

“And what of me?” She questioned. “What would become of I if you are right?”

“Then you aren’t real, plain and simple. You would just be sucked into the ether drive just like that,” I say snap my fingers.

“That is fine enough for you, but I fear that something is wrong. You think I am not real, however, I am very much real. I feel as you do. I have a history, and I have lived in these woods in search of food. You come right in front of me out of what seems to be some hole in the ground, claiming that I am in your bedroom. You must be dreaming, or insane then boy. We can help in the village not far from here, we have the medicine to heal the mind…”

“But I am fine! I live and breathe in a world where machines function, creating harmony in our world, as well as ease.”

“At what price? You seem to have never seen a forest. Whatever may have happened to your world I can only imagine, poor child. I do hope our world may never come to see such a fate as that, for if that day were to come, then we surely are not living anymore.”

With that, we stare at each other for a moment, chests heaving from the amount of arguing that transgressed between the pair of us.

“Well, that escalated rather quickly,” I state, to receive laughter from Diana.

“You are surely an odd one, Andy from the city of London,” she said, tucking her hair behind her ear.

Then an electrical shortage occurred.

“What was that?” She asked, bewildered.

I also wonder as I look around, trying to remember where I’m at in the bedroom, even if I was at all.

Then the door barged open, mom entering with the woods vanishing rapidly like smoke.

“The hell is this s**t? I thought I told you to clean this f*****g room,” she said, angrily storming into the room, moving to the computer to the far wall.

I dive in front of her, not wanting anything to happen to what I’ve so desperately worked so long on. That’s when she shoved me off to the side as she continued on forward toward the blue glowing screen.

I again desperately dive in front of her as she unplugged the ether drive from the outlet, aiming for anything at this point. I grab the cord end before it is completely out. She pushed me off to the side, before going to town on all the cords, sparks leaping away from her fury. Longing to stop her rises in me, yet, I know that nothing will stop her until she is done with what she is going to do, until she is satisfied.

“There,” she exclaimed when she seemed finished. “That is a taste of what it will be like tomorrow if this place isn’t any better.” Her face was stern, lines created as she squints at me in the dark room before she leaves.

I remain, looking at the decimated computer, stripped of all its wires. An entire years’ worth of work, now having been ruined by mother. That is when the forest crept back into the seams, the woman in green leafy gown crosses over, moving viney cords over to their respective homes within the massive machine, the color and clarity of the scene coming back to focus.

I notice the main cord for the monitor was unplugged, and so I go to grab it. But then a discharge let loose as the electricity takes hold of my hand, gentle in a way, but very needy as it clings on, not letting go. Stars explode in all different forms as my body slips on out of space hurtling through the void lacking that along with time. 

I came to in who knows what kind of a bed. My body ached when I attempted to get up before Diana came into the room.

“Stay down, child,” she said as she moved on over to my side. “You lack any energy to resist me, so don’t try whatever you might be thinking of doing.”

I just slump back down into the bed at that point, unable to fight what she commanded.

“That’s it, now drift on back to sleep, everything is fine,” she said as she applied a wet cloth to my forehead. 

I knew that this wasn’t ok, that none of this was. Yet the nature of her voice was so soothing, that I couldn’t resist as I drifted off into deep slumber.