NATHANIEL

The smell of rusted metal and mold was encumbering. Nathaniel would have Loved to have lived anywhere other than here. The steel factory had existed for as long as he could remember, from the time he was nothing but a little toddler till now, a young man standing at the end of everything he had ever known.

It was not just the smell of rusted metal or the deep groaning the earth now seemed to make every fifteen minutes, but it was also the red sky, the blistering heat and the stench of perspiration that clung to his body. The sun was about to go supernova, and twelve billion humans would be fried to ash in a few hours or days.

Nathaniel shouldered his bag as he made his way past the steel factory that has neighbored his family home for over two hundred years, it used to be the family business of a family whose bloodline came from a Japanese blacksmith who had decided to move to Africa for greener pastures.

At the moment such an information no longer mattered because Africa along with every other continent, country, state, city, town and village would cease to exist in a few hours or days. Today was just the final chapter in the long book that was titled earth.

Nathaniel moved his feet faster as he bypassed and circumnavigated scalding hot pieces of abandoned cars, trucks and motorcycles. With how hot the earth currently was, touching anything metal would peel a layer of flesh of your body. He was careful though, and he was swift, he had no time to waste as his family were already waiting for him.

There was no escape from the disaster that was coming, the sun reaching the end if its life happened just as suddenly and without warning as someone who sneezed. It was to late to implement a proper escape route, because no one and nothing would be able to outrun the blast range. But there was hope, well something like that. No human body would survive the incoming disaster, but what about the Human mind; the human soul.

A virtual world had been built by a game company about sixty to seventy decades ago, it was not fully complete as the world was ever expanding and growing with a capacity for self growth that has baffled humans since the birth of Microsoft. The server of the virtual world was made on a mineral enriched moon about two galaxies away.

It was basically another planet, another world. And while it has mostly been closed off to the public and had been under extensive beta testing for the past ten years, almost everybody on earth knew enough about it that it had become the next big thing. This world was not just made as a game, it was supposed to be a tourist attraction, a place where people can visit and relax.

But now it was going to be humanities last hope. Every willing man woman and child would have their mind sent through almost seventeen billion server satellites, before their minds would arrive at the virtual world, perceiving everything like it was reality and starting all over again, if the whole propaganda was to be believed. Their bodies would be forgotten behind and life would go on as usual almost as if nothing had happened.

There was a lot more complexity and channels involved, but the basic gist of the matter was that his brain was going to be somewhat fried and transferred from his body and put in a game. It was overwhelming, but it was survival. Nathaniel hurried along the almost empty and abandoned streets of the once great city of Abuja, all that was left of this former capital of Nigeria was eerie silence and those unfortunate souls who preferred to stand their ground and wait for the end. It was pathetic really, but Nathaniel couldn’t fault them, he would have given up hope if his family did not choose to stand for and together with him. New world, new life or a new chance aside, as long as they had each other Nathaniel did not feel a need to he scared of anything.

The city hall came into sight as he rounded the corner of a former shopping complex. The 700 floors of pure steel, concrete and glass was a culmination of hundreds if not thousands of years of Nigerian culture and heritage. The city hall was more like a museum, it held Nigeria’s history, now it would be left behind as a spectator of the end of that history.

There was a significant crowd of people at the front of the building, hundreds if not thousands. He could just as easily pick out his family, they were all dressed in blue traditional clothes and were surrounded by soldiers, immediately they saw Nathaniel their faces lit up with visible relief as they waved him over. Nathaniel was scared, but it was time to say goodbye to everything he had ever known, and somehow the thought of it all going away put a burden that even his families love would not be able to carry with him. Dusk has come to earth.

ESTHER

Esther felt her heart skip a beat the moment she saw her brother, for a while she was worried he would not be able to make it here on time. She loved her brother, but she could never seem to agree on anything with him; chief among them was the manner in which she got to save their lives.

They were sacrificing a lot, especially in her own case as she had to sell her body to get her family a chance to survive. Nathaniel was a lot more flexible and compromising than she was, but the choices she had recently been forced to make had pushed even his own limits about the kind of things he would be able to accept.

But their survival was more important than their pride or a mortal body that would become irrelevant for them sometime soon. She was the eldest, and even though Nathaniel was the man of the family and the person expected to take care of both her and their younger sister, not to mention their parents, but she had to step up this time, only problem was that she had to pay a somewhat heavy price.

As soon as he successfully maneuvered his way past the crowd of people she hugged him. He was stiff and rigid, it was like hugging a board and she could feel absolutely no warmth from his body anymore. She had hurt him, some might even say betrayed him to his enemy. It did not take a lot for her to know that he would find it very hard to forgive her if ever. She was sorry it had to be this way, but she did not regret it one bit. She saw a chance to save her family, even though they got the short end of the deal, she would never regret it, and she would never apologize for her decisions either. Such was life.

“I thought you were not coming?” The rumbling voice of their father asked. Their father was a giant of a man, he stood at almost six foot seven putting him a head or two above most men. The only person who could contest with his height was Nathaniel who was six foot two himself, but it was obvious he would never be able to match their dads stature.

Both her brother and her father had a rather complicated relationship, to the outside world and even sometimes to themselves it was obvious they all loved each other very much, but this was a family that was riddled with disagreements and as much betrayal as expected from a family that descended from royalty. They had hurt their selves a lot, and even if they were still together, they were very much broken as a family.

“I couldn’t let you guys go on your own, regardless of who gave us this spot. You’re my family, and family sticks together even when we disagree with each other.”

Esther was moved, and it was obvious her father was too. Nathaniel used to be the biggest believer in their family. But that was years ago, growing up let him see the dirty truth about their parents and the change their choices brought upon their children. He became detached and distant, but he never left. Which was weird because Esther felt it would have been better if he left, at least that way she wouldn’t be standing face to face with him and feel like he was standing a million miles from her.

Their parents choices had derailed their lives a lot, now it seems the choices of the children was about to do the same. Esther was happy they now had a chance to live, but she had this lingering fear that from today things would get a whole lot more complicated for their family and eventually they would end up completely torn apart. And no matter how hard or how much she fought, this seems to be the reality they were heading straight for.

She heard the sound of the city hall being opened up as a row of police mechs marched out of its interior. The black and metallic frame gleamed under the glare of the sun. It was time for them to leave, it was time for the world to change.

“ALL CITIZENS ARE EXPECTED TO FORM A LINE WITH YOUR VERIFICATION CARD AND TRANSCENDENT TICKET. PLEASE IF YOU FALL INTO THE ABOVE CATEGORY MOVE TO THE RIGHT. ALL SPECIAL ADMISSIONS MOVE TO THE LEFT…….”

FAITH

Faith did not have a lot expectations anymore, in fact it could be said she no longer had any. Marching through the white hall with her family and a hundred other people who had paid for their survival by practically selling themselves into slavery, with others like her sister paying much more than expected. Silent as they both were Faith knew there was a lot of unspoken tension and animosity between her brother and sister, and her parents had nothing to say about either because they were also not saints themselves.. She had lost hope in her family, and that was quite a feat for someone her age considering she was only fourteen. As together as they might seem, there was a bevy of cracks in the perfect image they portrayed, and they all knew it.

However the question would be how was it possible that with all of the anger between them and numerous disappointment and heartbreak that has served as the foundation of this family, how?...... Were they still standing together.

That answer was quite simple, they were family. And even with all of the shortcomings they acknowledged the fact that they had to look out for and love each other. Because if they can’t trust family, then who can they trust.

The procession of people finally came to a stop in a room filled with a few dozen pods of varying sizes and designs. All of this pods looked quite slick and futuristic with their silver coats and gleaming power cords connected to rather terrifying looking helmets.

This was the key to the survival, the so called gateway to a new world. For some reason Faith found it very hard to believe and accept the fact that they all had to substitute the real world for a virtual one, how was that real.

There was a host of questions she kept on asking herself, would the air be the same, would the sun be the same. Would her food still have the same taste or will everything be taste less and bland like the very many virtual reality games she has played in her fourteen years of life. The fear of the unknown……..she was not scared of the unknown, she was just scared of this change, of being forced to live a rather unreal and mundane existence in a world that was not real with people who were not real.

The horror she felt was palpable, but the choice was completely out of her hands. Names were being called and people were being distributed into different pods. Some of the pods were clustered in pairs of two’s, three’s, all up to pairs of ten’s. then the rest of them were single units only. Faith had no idea why the whole thing was distributed like that, but she at least hoped they would put her and her family together.

As more and more people were being called to occupy the pods she turned her head back to pristine white hallway they just came from. There was no one blocking her way, no obstacle and no guard. If she so chose she could just make a run for it, she could leave this fake life that was about to be her future and her dysfunctional family behind. They say it’s a second chance and that everything would be different but she knew better, living would never be the same, it would no longer be real.

“Hey baby are you okay?” her mother’s voice jolted her out of thoughts of escape. She wanted to answer but tears rapidly pooled in her eyes as the unfairness of the whole situation got to her. Her eyes were quickly blurred by the tears as they rapidly slid down her cheeks. She felt her mother hug her, and soon enough she felt her entire family holding her. They all held each other as the words of an unspoken promise hung in the air. They may be dysfunctional, broken, and on the verge of total collapse. But they were family, and that was more than enough for them to get through the next day, because they would do it together.

NATHANIEL

Nathaniel was breathing rapidly as he tried to get comfortable in the pod. There was enough space, but he felt strangely confined and nervous. He swallowed rapidly as he tried to bring his fear of tight spaces under control, he couldn’t hear them, but he knew his family were in pods that were part of a pair, so they were all next to him. The operators had explained that the clustered pods were specially designed so that groups of people who knew each other or are family would spawn in the same area in the virtual world. At least this way it is guaranteed that they would be together.

Nathaniel has not done much in his nineteen odd years of living, there was nothing to his name, and nothing he was proud of. But he had made numerous decisions that had ended up hurting his family. He had no idea what his parents were thinking or his sisters either, but he wanted to make amends. He needed to.

Before it was discovered that the world was ending and everything on the surface of the earth and much of the milky way galaxy would be fried to a crisp when the sun goes supernova, Nathaniel had found out he was dying. He had a cancer the likes which have never been seen before, the doctors had said his disease was quite adaptive. Every treatment and test made had instead continuously strengthened his sickness and brought him ever closer to the grave. And then the universe decided it was time to end the world, and he was given another chance. This chance was all he had left to fix his family, it would not be easy. After all having a father who was a drunk and abusive monster of a man, a mother who actively cheated and practically sold her eldest daughter into prostitution when she was fifteen, or the first and only son who spent most of his teenage years in cults and getting high on all sort of drugs. The only person normal among all of them was Faith. And it was why Nathaniel was so adamant about making amends, he wanted to make sure that Faith keeps her innocence

To him she seemed like the only chance their family had for redemption. She was untainted by the sins if their parents as such she was the only one who could save them.

Nathaniel suddenly felt a jolt, the helmet grew from cold to hot in mere seconds almost to the point of being unbearable. As he was about to open his mouth to exclaim in discomfort he felt seven inch long needles extend from the helmet and straight into his brain. He suddenly lost all control of his body and was stuck there feeling the intense burn from the helmet without the power or strength to complain or say anything.

He had no idea how many needles they were, but he could feel them in his head. They were like roots and they spread and pulsed within his skull. Nathaniel was very afraid, this was something he did not expect and he had no control over his body to express his fear and discomfort. It got hotter, and soon enough he began to feel the burn all over his body, it went up in temperature and intensity with every passing second.

There was pain, intense nerve wracking pain that on any other day would have left Nathaniel writhing on the ground and screaming like a man possessed. He felt his heart beat skip, jump and race, he could say nothing, do nothing but silently endure this pain. Then everything went dark.

Nathaniel felt like he was in a roller coaster, there were moments where all he could see were lights flying past him with intense speed that all he could see were blurs of colors and lights. He felt the ground disappear from underneath his feet and then appear again moments later.

It was like he was going up and down and up and down again and again until all that was left was the feeling of emptiness within his gut. Nathaniel had no idea how long he was encumbered by the darkness, the light and sensations that came with them. But the next time he opened his eyes the sight before him was so breathtaking that he quite literally had his breath taken away.

He was standing on a lush hill overlooking what he could only describe as a valley in the shape of a basin. Below he could see a castle and a host of other building surrounding it. Straight to the west was a thick forest that spread all the way to the horizon and stretched towards the snow capped mountains he could see in the north, and the south behind him.

The castle and the buildings around it was nestled on flat expanse of land that was green and lush, he could see herds of cattle or at least animals that looked like cows. The plain stretched to the east where from his vantage point he could see the silvery gleaming sea.

The sky was covered by huge clumps white clouds, colorful birds and what Nathaniel could swear were dragons flited across the blue sky in happy leisure, the twin suns in the sky dropped their rays on the land without the threat of going supernova.

Nathaniel brought his gaze back to the valley and noticed a river that flowed down from the mountains going past the castle town and winding its way to the east back into the sea. There was such peace and non of the terror and anxiety that was associated with living on earth. Everything felt real.

“Nathaniel?”

He turned his head at the sound of his father’s voice and was almost startled by what he saw. His father still looked the same, tall, brown skinned and a face that was sterner than most but with a hint of mischievousness that set him apart from most men. But apart from the fact he was wearing what Nathaniel could only describe as sack clothes, his entire hair was white. And it was longer than the almost bald look Nathaniel remembered him having. So his dad now had hair and it was white.

“You have hair.” Nathaniel said to him in a matter of fact tone.

“Yes boy, I noticed.” His dad answered back with a smirk on his face.

Nathaniel did not know why, but there was a sense of excitement in the air, which was why he couldn’t help grinning with his giant of a father. Nathaniel walked towards his father as he tried to make heads and tails of his own changes. His height was the same, and just like his father, his hair was also white and longer than expected, so long that it reached the small of his back. But his hair was a bit rough and tangled in clumps almost to the point of looking unkempt or spiky.

Nathaniel looked around and noticed his mother and sisters almost immediately, they all looked the same except for the fact that his sisters had white hair too while his mother had a hair that could only be described as fire red. Her eyes was a startling shade of purple, and he could notice his sisters had the same colored eyes.

It did not take a genius for Nathaniel to understand that this was how the system spilt the genes between parents and children. They inherited their father’s hair color, but their eyes were the same as their mother’s. Nathaniel did not know if he had the same eyes as them, but it was not really a matter of contention. His mother and sisters came towards him and his father and they turned to really appreciate the view right before them. Then a screen popped up in front of them with a few messages.

[WELCOME PLAYERS TO ZION, YOU HAVE BEEN BROUGT HERE UNDER A TWO YEAR CONTRACT OF SERVITUDE TO THE OLAGOKE FAMILY.]

[ AS SUCH YOU WOULD NOT BE ALLOWED TO PICK A CLASS UNLESS THE DEFAULT ASSIGNED TO YOU BY YOUR EMPLOYERS.]

[YOU WOULD NOT BE ABLE TO GO PAST LEVEL 10 UNTIL YOUT TERM OF SERVITUDE COMES TO AN END]

[YOUR RACE WILL REMAIN THE DEFAULT HUMAN UNTIL YOUR TERM OF SERVITUDE COMES TO AN END]

[YOU WILL BE UNABLE TO OWN A SUB CLASS UNTIL THE TERM OF YOUR SERVITUDE COMES TO AN END]

[YOU WOULD BE UNABLE TO USE SPATIAL GATES OR TRAVEL ANYWHERE WITHOUT THE EXPRESS PERMISSION OF YOUR EMPLOYERS]

[YOU CAN NOT USE THE AUNCTION HOUSES, ENROLL IN THE ARMY, BECOME A MERCENARY, BE PART OF OR CREATE A GUILD, MARRY, HAVE CHILDREN OR OWN ANY PERSONAL BUSINESS UNLESS SPECIFIED BY YOUR EMPLOYERS]

[FOR MORE DETAILED INFORMATION ABOUT GAMEPLAY MECHANICS, RULES AND ANY OTHER QUESTION YOU MIGHT HAVE, CONSULT THE HELP TAB FROM YOUR STATUS MENU. ENJOY YOUR NEW LIFE AND WELCOME TO ZION]