Chapter 2
April made the long trek through the city's outskirts for what she felt like was an eternity. Her clumsy footing on the dark geometric rocks caused her, on several occasions, to stumble and scrape a palm and a knee, but she ignored these small trifles because she was aware that she had far more unsettling matters to take care of. Like where she was, for instance. And how she got there, and what she was going to do to get home.
Humph. "Home", she thought. To be honest, April hadn't settled in a 'home' since her early teens. She was more or less a drifter of sorts, always moving and finding new opportunities that benefitted her. Her stay at college was the longest time she's even stayed in one location, granted she did move around after her first experience in the dorms with a roommate. Most individuals could be cited as enjoying their first year after having a roommate at college, but April's experience wasn't anywhere close to this. Her experiences with her roommate were rocky at best, and her roommate had a temper and an incredibly bitter attitude. If it hadn't been for Glen, she was pretty sure she wouldn't have made it; Glen always had a blow-up mattress to spare when she felt like she couldn't endure another roommate quarrel.
The journey to the "City of Neon", as April now referred to it as, felt like it took the entire day, but she couldn't quite estimate how long it took due to the fact that there was no setting sun, or a moon, to determine a rough time estimate. There weren't even any stars. She immediately became suspicious of her predicament, feeling like she is being subjected to a horrible prank, or an involuntary confinement, similar to the "Truman Show." That definitely would explain the lack of sun, and the distinct feel that this entire area was closed off from everything else, she thought.
The buildings were far taller, and sleeker, than the mental picture she had formed from afar, as she approached the first broad roadway. They seemed incredibly unnatural, and almost impossible; how could a building be that tall and slim without being structurally unsound? How and how could there be so many of them? And why did the streets and the buildings all possess the same fascinated fluorescent neon glow that was unnaturally bright? The road that she made her way onto seemed to abruptly end and stop at an invisible wall, as if it yearned to stretch out towards the wastes that she had just ventured from. They were cleaner than any streets she had ever encountered, and she felt like she was a miniature in a toy village. She detected no signs of movement until she made her way around one of the tall towers. From that view, she could detect ships. Vehicles flying in space above her, and the faint humming sound distinctly audible. She also noticed clouds that seemed incredibly low that mingled between the towers, and were filled with thunder and the flashes of lightning.
She didn't charge out into the streets in a fit of confusion, or excitement, but instead kept to the edges of the simulated concrete of the buildings and kept a low profile. She didn't make it long, however, until she could feel small vibrations in the air and a powerful gust of warm air smacking her in the face. A searchlight was turned on with a "pop", and started roaming the vicinity around her until it found her location. She was obviously the perfect example of a deer caught in the headlights, and was frozen in her spot. She brought an arm up to shade above her eyes in a vain attempt to get a better look to see where the searchlight was coming from.
She wasn't aware of her immediate surroundings and footing giving way to leave her with just a honeycomb-shaped plot to stand on. She didn't make any attempt to run, for she immediately assumed that whatever the thing was that was coming down upon her would inform her of her whereabouts and potentially send her back to where she properly belonged. The closest thing she could describe the thing coming down upon her was a ship of some sorts, but it vaguely looked like a giant clamp, or a bridge. It appeared to be composed of mostly black; with bright orange highlights accentuated it's bridge-like shape. It had three major spotlights, one under the middle upper extension, and two under each "leg" of the structure. This was also where the warm vented air seemed to be coming from, and as she got a closer look, she got the impression that the air was helping to stabilize it as it moved through the air and as it made it's descent.
The middle of the ship descended down towards the ground, directly in front of her, only giving her a more distinct impression of a drawbridge. As the platform came to rest down in front of her, she noticed two men in black form-fitting suits with the same orange neon lighting accentuated their forms. They wore black glossy helmets that masked their faces, and held a lance in either arm that was half glowing in the familiar orange glow. To April, they looked rather comical looking, being a mix of every science fiction action movie thug she had ever witnessed. She gave a half laugh, and stepped towards the guards in a relieved sigh.
"Great! I've been walking for hours…I'm lost, and I'm tired…could you please bring me to the nearest police station? I think I've been kidnapped, and I can't remember how I got here…"
She didn't finish her sentence, for the guards stepped down from the platform in unison and grabbed her by the upper arm, leading her back on to the ramp. There were sections on the platform that had two white blocks that were roughly the size of feet between the barriers of another similar set of neon white foot holdings in front of a black padded back and head rest. She didn't ask questions as she was lead into place, but she did become increasingly nervous as her feet were trapped into place and her ability to move was eliminated.
Her protests were interrupted by someone to her right, who was in the exact predicament that she was in, and with one of the most vacant expressions she had ever seen, informed her to keep quiet and to act as they did if they wished to not be deleted. April's eyebrows came together at the word "deleted", but April definitely possessed the intellect and insight to know when to listen and follow instructions if she wished to be free of any harm.
The two guards that lead her to her spot moved to opposite locations on the platform, and positioned their bodies into molds that were almost identical to their own bodies. They were entrapped into their "molds" with a small cover coming around and resting in place. Vibrations and the blow of warm air alerted her to the ship's take-off, and as she looked down she noticed that the floor was clear and she could see the streets, sidewalks, and buildings become smaller. Back home, she was a lover of rollercoasters and theme park rides, but this seemed a bit much. She became immediately nauseous, and looked around her, and then up only to notice a ceiling that was similarly clear. She could see a pilot of the ship up above in front of her through the ceiling, and wondered if he was the one in charge and could potentially answer some dire questions she had in her mind.
The ride on the ship took only minutes until they arrived at their destination, which seemed like a great vast empty space, aside from the geometric lines and shapes that ran along the black granite-like ground. There were a set of 4 guards, and what appeared to be a supervisor, waiting for their arrival, and the second the ship landed, the guards lined up and the supervisor stepped up onto the platform and began their evaluation.
He started at the individual on the far right of the row, and as April watched, she saw the supervisor stand inches in front of the individual, and within seconds, proclaimed "Rectify". The supervisor repeated this several times, until he came upon an individual that seemed slightly more energetic than those around him and was struggling within his confines. This individual received the sentence of "Games", which April assumed was not to be associated with fun and excitement. April learned from that example to be as still and restful as possible, and as the supervisor came in front of her, she could hear sounds similar to that of a computer at work behind the mask of the man in front of her. April thought this seemed largely odd and impossible, for those clicks and hums could only be the sounds of a monitor hard at work, and this man was clearly not a monitor. Within one second, he had made his evaluation.
"Rectify."