It was the year 3426. His name was Mathew Williams. He was a male teenager.

He may not know much about the world around him but, he knew that much at least. He also knew that he lived in the land that used to have been called Canada. Or at least his body did. His mind not so much but we'll get to that in good time.

Anyway, he knew that he lived in Canada because according to the videos of historians and news stories, that he had diligently listened to whenever he could find them, that's where he was. But, he could be wrong. On the other hand, hundreds of news reels and other information sources cannot all be wrong. Wasn't there a saying that he had found somewhere? That there is a grain of truth to every story? Then somewhere in all of the stuff he had found there has to be at least a grain of truth hidden in there somewhere. And if all of them said the same thing, that Canada was the land in this such and such location, then that must mean that he was in Canada.

This is what he knew beyond that though. He knew that a lot had changed in the past millennium. For one thing, there were no more countries. Nothing, they were now no more. People had come to see that identifying everyone else as a different kind of person only bred distrust between those different groups of people that were deemed the same. The people of that time were trying to move past that kind of mistrust. But, also, people had come to find that they weren't all that different after everything was said and done. People began to just call themselves human. People had stopped identifying themselves with their old countries. There were no differences between people anymore.

All wars stopped as wars between different countries were now seen to be the same thing as a civil war. There was no point for any violence to occur anymore. So, the violence stopped. The identifying of oneself by a country of origin stopped. And so, in the end the countries themselves just seemed to stop. The countries were now as gone as the empires that had come before them.

If Mathew wasn't so inquisitive, so curious about everything that he came across; he might never have understood exactly everything that had happened to his world since that particular time in his world's history. He might have never known about the countries. He might not have understood what was happening to him right then and there.

Because of his nature he knew he was now in a fictional utopia type digital world called "Eden". He knew that he had been put there when he was five years old. Mathew also knew that he had not been put into Eden physically. It was true he had been sent there, but that was just his mind, his body had not gone with him. As far as he knew it was at the place where his "home" was, like everyone else whose mind was uploaded like he was.

About a week ago he had found a website that explained what Eden was. According to the site, it is a virtual world made from the internet that all of the children of Earth now go to. Eden was meant to teach kids about the world outside and anything that the person wanted to learn about. Anything that had ever been put onto the internet was open to them to go onto. They could literally do anything that they wanted to while hooked onto there.

But, most important, Eden was meant to keep all of the children under control while their parents found about the world around them. Eden was meant to keep their children free from the distraction that a child always proves to be.

Publically, Eden was advertised as being the ideal way of making children become independent. They had to become independent; they had no one to besides the other children that were hooked up like they were to try to communicate with.

Eden was built with every adult knowing that anyone their children met online there was little to no chance of them seeing after they turned eighteen. At that time, when they were of legal age to start working, they were taken off of the net to be trained and set to work on their pre-determined job. Any contact after they were eighteen with any friends they had made was strictly discouraged.

Messages like that was the children's only real contact with the outside world. It was only ever little messages that would show up in their virtual bodies pockets telling them about certain things.

"Today is your birthday, happy birthday, Mathew."

"Look up what toothpaste and tooth brushes are and how to use them. After you leave you will need to know how to use them because you won't have any technology to do it for you at that time."

"Don't become too close to anyone; you cannot meet up with them after you are logged off."

"Two more years to go Mathew, keep hanging in there. You should start looking up all the different known plants that have been found so far. Your job after disconnection will be to find any unknown plants that are still left to be found."

There almost seemed to be no point to even trying to interact with any of the other teenagers he saw. He would be gone in two years anyway.

But, just maybe that was the reason why he should risk the sure heartbreak any relationship, no matter how trivial, on here would cause. This was the only time he would be free in his life to decide exactly what he wanted to do for himself.

Mathew wanted to know what friendship would feel like before he lost his chance forever. He wanted to have at least one friend before he logged off and spent the rest of his life hiking around the world without ever encountering any other people. Mathew wanted to know what it was like to know a fellow human being as much as he would soon have to know all of the plants in the world outside.

That day, for the first time since he had found it, Mathew walked into Eden's main common room where people would occasionally gather. Today he was determined to find someone to talk to. Mathew scanned the room, looking at everyone, trying to see if there was anyone that would be willing to strike up a nice conversation with him.

The person Mathew chose, after looking throughout the room, had brown gelled up hair, and a scar on the top part of his forehead that begged the obvious question, 'how did he manage to get that?' The person was wearing a blue and white stripped scarf wrapped around his neck. The boy looked to be about his age, which was why Mathew had chosen him, and was tall, much taller than Mathew was. But, that was okay, Mathew was already interested in him, the person's height did not bother Mathew at all.

He started to walk toward the stranger noting as he got closer how his face was actually very handsome. The scar on his forehead took nothing away from how attractive he was. The scar actually made him look a bit roguish and interesting to behold.

Mathew swallowed hard as he came to stand before the man, looking up at him as the stranger gave an indifferent expression back. His eyes seemed to be glaring at Mathew though despite his blank expression. 'That's a little nerve racking.' Mathew thought to himself before speaking.

"Um, hello, my name is Mathew Williams. Could I please know what your name is?"

Mathew could only hope that, despite his misgivings, this would become the best two years of his life.