After five straining hours of studying, my eyes were burning, and I had started developing a major headache. I needed to do something different, anything but those damned differential equations…

“Annie, can you switch on the news for a bit? I want to see what happened to that place in Texas...”

Annie, my nurse for the week, walked over to the TV and switched through channels until she found one that discussed current events in the US. As expected, the story of the day was on Sweetwater, a rather unremarkable city of roughly ten thousand people in the middle of Texas.

A couple of days earlier, all phone connections to the area had been suddenly disrupted, and satellite images showed a big black blob instead of farmland and the small-sized city. Immediately, conspiracy theories cropped up, ranging from the fantastic to the absolutely ludicrous.

Of course, reputable scientists in addition to various federal agencies and hundreds of reporters also investigated the area, coming up with their own theories and speculations, but none dared to enter the roiling cloud of sinister-looking darkness that covered an area of about 2500 square miles.

As I watched the live images on TV, I suddenly noticed streaks of green shooting through the cloud, like green lightning, and then the churning of the cloud started to slow down. With apparent apprehension, the camera crews and reporters at the scene began to provide live commentary on what they were seeing.

“And it a bit of breaking news, the black cloud that has covered Sweetwater is starting to recede. We are live at the scene, recording for our viewers as things happen,” a somewhat scared-looking brunette woman in a dress suit said into the camera while shooting nervous glances at the black cloud behind her. “It seems as if we will finally gain some further insights into what has happened to this town of ten thousand souls, right in the heart of Texas. It seems as if… oh my god, the cloud is gone!”

The camera view switched from the reporter to a view of the area. And indeed, where there had been a black cloud for the last couple of days, now there was a giant crater. Or perhaps it was not a crater, because instead of an elevated rim around the impact area, there was a 20-yard drop from the edge of where the black cloud used to be, and then perfectly even ground extending horizontally for as far as the eye could see.

I blended out the excited jabbering of the reporters and turned to Annie. “I don’t think that they are going to find out more right now. They’ll have to make sure that the ground is stable and that the cloud is not coming back before they will dare to send someone in there. I’d be curious to see satellite images though, but they won’t share those that fast either.”

“My God, I wonder what happened to those poor people!” Annie sighed. “You’re right, though, there’s nothing that we will learn right now so we might as well go for our daily walk, don’t you think?”

“Aww, do we have to? I hate this area. It is full of mosquitos, and most of the paths are basically useless for someone in a wheelchair. I’m tired of the same old trip around the lake!”

I was pretty mad at my parents for making me come up to Lake Placid for some ‘nice’ vacation in the middle of nature. I was sure they meant well, but seriously, what was I supposed to do here? They probably thought I still had friends in town, since we had lived here for a bit. Or maybe they hoped that the beautiful nature would cheer me up and conjure fond memories.

Alas, the memories were less than fond, as all it did was remind me of that ill-fated climbing trip in the area. And regarding friends... well, suffice to say that not many people want to hang out with a quadriplegic. Even worse, some of the local guys actually made fun of me when they saw me, despite Annie standing up for me. At least they had not pulled any physical pranks on me, but I didn’t think it was beyond them.

To top it all off, there was currently a biker gang in town. Hell’s Devils or some such, clearly a knockoff of the Hell’s Angels. But, knockoff or not, they looked like pretty rough guys. Most of them were huge, shoulders like a bear, long beard, tattoos of snakes, dragons, anchors, and naked women. The whole shebang. And most of them looked dangerous, like a gang member or ghetto-tough – the type that wouldn’t hesitate to stick a knife into a pregnant girl and have a good time doing so.

The Hell’s Devils were looking for trouble and had already started a few brawls in the local bars, beating up the local ‘tough’ kids. They also had a few women with them, but it seemed they were mostly the typical biker woman - a bit worn out, sitting behind their ‘man’ on the bike, laughing too much about their own raunchy jokes in one of those raucous, rasping voices that indicate too much screaming and smoking.

Not that I had a prejudice against the bikers, not at all. I mean, perhaps a little bit. I had never liked bikers when I had still been healthy, but now that I was disabled, I felt actually threatened by them. Not like the retirees that ride into the sunset with their buddies type of bikers… I don’t mind those. No, the ones that hoard weapons and cause trouble wherever they go.

This group, for instance, displayed many swastikas and when I had passed them the previous day, I could hear a couple of the guys mumble something about putting all the cripples into gas chambers.

Annie snorted: “Quit whining, you little sissy. It is great weather outside. It’s going to be good for you and your mood. It really is quite beautiful here.”

“The weather can kiss my ass,” I grumbled, but dutifully allowed her to push me out of the house. The cheerful optimism and positivity were things I really appreciated about Annie, and so, despite my personal misgivings, I allowed her to frequently drag me into social or natural activities, even though I would have rather stayed in the house whining about all the terrible things in the world.

The bed and breakfast we stayed in initially had not been wheelchair accessible, so the owner put down a ramp specifically for me so that Annie could easily push my wheelchair in and out of the house. I was just going down that ramp, when suddenly there was a sharp crack, like a thunderclap, scaring the shit out of me.

“What the hell happened?” I shouted, my voice breaking as I tried to calm down.

Before she could say anything, and she was likely going to admonish me for using the word ‘hell,’ the ground started to shake violently. I could see trees swaying wildly, some of them toppling, and cracks appeared in the houses around us. The ramp suddenly jerked to the side, and my wheelchair started falling over.

Suddenly everything went black, weirdly enough before I even felt any pain from face-planting on the concrete. And despite me not seeing anything, I felt quite alert and conscious.

What had just happened?

This was seriously freaking me out. I was terribly scared of going blind. That would be the last straw. Quadriplegic and blind are a terrible combination. Not that either one individually is great.

Before I had the chance to fall into even more panic, a sultry female voice said: “Welcome to Minara! You are now part of the selection process. Before we complete your transfer, we will determine your individual physical and mental specifications.”

“What the heck is going on? Who are you? What happened to me? Where is Annie? Annie! Can anyone hear me?”

Alas, there was no response.

Suddenly, I was in a room, laying on a flat surface inside of what looked very much like a cat scan machine, only that it was made out of some kind of marble-like stone instead of metal. And instead of a smooth surface, as one would find in a regular hospital, there were runes etched into the ‘machine.’

After a short moment, the stone started emitting a low humming noise, and the runes began to glow in a bright green light. Initially, the light was contained inside of the runes, but once all the runes were filled with it, a matrix-like pattern started to emerge and separated from the stone, drifting towards my body. I braced myself for pain, but all the light did was seep somehow inside of my body.

After perhaps a couple of minutes, the light started to dim and eventually left. Then, a different set of runes around my head started lighting up with a more purple glow, but instead of a blanket of soft light, concentrated rays of purple light shot towards my head and this I definitely could feel. It was as if something was digging around my brain, a feeling that left me nauseated and feeling violated at the same time.

At least it finished as fast as it had begun and once the purple rays had disappeared a blue box popped up in front of me. It took me a few moments to recover from the intrusion into my brain and realize that I could actually read what was in the blue box.

Congratulations! We have assessed your physical and mental attributes.

Strength: Error – &$^#*

Intuitive Reasoning: 14

Agility: Error – &$^#*

Complex Reasoning: 17

Speed: Error – &$^#*

Emotional Intelligence: 9

Dexterity: Error – &$^#*

Perception: 13

Endurance: 1

Spatial Awareness: 20

Vitality: 5

Willpower: 20