Chapters It was three thirty in the morning. Due to the fact that my life had just been destroyed, I was walking home in the rain, which helped to hide my tears. Kicking a can in front of me, I dismally walked with no destination in mind. The dried blood on my shirt wasn't going anywhere. Neither were the deep wounds that would inevitably turn into scars. Suddenly, a car pulled up.
The window rolled down. A man leaned his head out. "Hey." He said. "What are you doing out here in the rain?" I didn't respond. "Oh, I see." He continued. "One of those things, is it? Something bad, whether it be justified or not, has shot you out here against your will. I'm not gonna force you, but get in the car if you want. I've got a lot of spare rooms at my house."
I got in the car. I had no idea where I was going, but all I knew was that I wanted to be away from where I was. I replayed the events of the day in my head.
It had been my birthday. I'd woken up to my parents standing above me, and "Sweet Sixteen" banners all around. I'd sat up, only to be served breakfast in bed. After spending a few hours unwrapping presents and the like, my dad showed me outside. A new car was waiting there. I'd climbed in, and driven off in a little joyride. Then my parents had climbed in and we'd gone to get my full licence.
We turned left onto a gravel road. The man stopped the car and looked at me. "What exactly happened?" He asked. "Usually, the people I pick up are bawling their eyes out, giving me their whole life story."
"What do you mean, usually?" I asked, suddenly becoming afraid.
"Don't get the wrong idea." He answered. "I'm not one of those guys! I drive around picking up people who are living in poverty, or who have had something bad happen to them, and I take them to this rehab center, where, if they pass the tests, they're sent to a better place." Seeing my wide eyes, he quickly added "Oh, they don't die! No, I've been to the better place myself. It's a different world." He restarted the engine and we drove on in silence.
As we drove out onto the interstate, everything was going fine. We were rocking out to Journey, and going a little too fast. But there wasn't anyone around. Which should have worried me, considering it was rush hour. As we turned a corner, a horrible sight lay before us. There had been a humongous rock slide that had blocked the road and killed about twenty people. As my dad and I got out to search for survivors, the engine sputtered a bit, causing enough noise to start another rock slide. The rocks rolled down behind the car. The steep sides of the mountain prevented any climbing, trapping the three of us in a small stretch of the interstate.
Now we were coming up on a small town. As we drove through, I looked into windows, seeing the people inside happily sleeping or partying. They'd never seen someone they loved die right in front of their eyes.
My mom, dad, and I searched around the rocks and the road for hours, trying to find a way to get out. After a few fruitless hours, we gave up. Then, there was a small shout from above, and a rope dropped down to road level. A man stuck his head over the edge and motioned for us to climb up. We did, and, as soon as we'd all reached the top, other men had appeared and shoved sacks onto our heads, and then we were tossed into a car.
We reached a large forest. The man drove us in without hesitation, and I didn't ask why we had to go in. I just simply stared out of the window and continued recollecting.
After a few hours of riding blindfolded in a car, my mom, dad, and I had been unloaded and tied onto chairs. They had ripped the sacks off of our heads. Our eyes had then opened onto the sight of six or seven people chained onto the wall. Each of them had been tortured to different degrees. There had been three slots open.
We were driving through the forest when we turned a corner to a startlingly bright light. Ahead was a small, brightly lit town.
The man who had lured us out of the rock slides earlier had untied my dad, then thrown him over his shoulder and chained him to the wall. then my mom and I had been forced to watch as he tortured my father to death. Then he had done the same with my mom. When he came for me, I had bitten his hand. The man had slapped me, then, as he was lugging me over to the wall, mumbled something about taking it slow with me.
We pulled into a parking lot and climbed out. The man led me into the largest building of the town, which was, I figured, the rehab center the man had told me about. He led me into a small bedroom, in which I fell asleep and involuntarily relived the rest of the horrible night.
The man had spent almost two hours lacerating and burning multiple parts of my body. then the police had burst in. Turns out, they had been tracking these guys for months. After they'd killed all of the serial killers, they'd taken me off of the wall. In my frantic state, I'd thought hey were trying to hurt me, as well. I'd ran out and jumped in a van, speeding off into the night.
After about half an hour of meaningless driving, I slammed into a tree and was knocked unconscious. I woke up two hours later, at about three in the morning. When I'd climbed out, the full reality of what had happened. My parents had been killed, and I'd been saved by the police, which I'd run away from. I'd become an orphan. As I aimlessly wandered the streets, a man pulled up and asked me to ride with him, which had led me to where I am now.
I woke up to two adults, a man and a woman, standing over me. I believed it was my sixteenth birthday again, and that they were going to die. I bolted into a seating position, only to find that the people standing above me were the man who had given me a ride, along with a nurse. "I see you're awake." He said. "I'd like to welcome you to my rehabilitation center. I built it for people like you, who've had bad things happen to them. You've been asleep for two days. We had to put you on an IV."
"Thanks for bringing me here" I said. "But who are you?"
"I suppose I should explain myself." He answered. "I am John Dalton. I own this center, along with every building in the entire town. After I'd struck rich by investing in a very successful stock, I came here and built this place. As people failed the tests for passing into the better world, There became a growing need for other residential areas. I built them the town, which the failed patients now live in."
"What is this 'Better World' you keep talking about?" I asked.
"It's not death, I can assure you of that." He answered. "But, unless you pass the tests, you can't travel there, and I, by my oath, cannot tell you what the better world is."
"Alright." I said. "Suppose I believe you're not some crazy person imprisoning me here and working me till I die. How do you know I'd stay here?"
"You have nowhere else to go." He said.
"Fine." I replied. "I'll stay. Get me on these tests of yours."
After John had given me a tour of the center (And after I'd spent two weeks getting my wounds healed), he showed me into a triangular room he called the "Testing Room." There were three different tests set up. A group of treadmills dominated one wall. On another were a line of skill tests. On the third wall was an obstacle course.
John said "Here's what you have to do. First, go onto one of those treadmills and run as fast as you can. It will stop after five minutes. Be ready, it's a bit jerky. Next, you will go over to the skill tests. You will choose one, and complete it to the best of your ability. Then, you will proceed to the obstacle course. Finish as fast as you can. All three of the tests will show you your results. Record them on one of the sheets by the door. Oh, and don't skew the data. We get the data as well, and we factor honesty into our qualifications."
John left the room. I grabbed a sheet of paper and a pencil, then walked over to the line of treadmills. I started out slow, then began to speed up. By the end, I had reached around fifteen miles per hour. Then it stopped. I was flung backwards before I knew what was happening. After I got back on my feet, I checked the data on the treadmill's screen. It said I had a score of two hundred forty six. I looked at the data sheet. There was a maximum score of five hundred for all three tests. I sighed, and then wrote down a 246 in the blank.
Then I moved on to the skill tests. These were much harder. It was a tricky puzzle game where you had five lives for fifty levels. You had to send one little ball into a group of much larger balls - all of them deviously placed - to knock them off of the screen. I was bad. I died at level thirteen. I got a score of seventy-five.
Then I moved on to the obstacle course. I pressed the start button, and then sped through the strait, dodging flying objects, leaping over hurdles, and ducking under fences. I finished with a time of eighteen second, and got a score of four hundred and ninety six. I jumped into the air in enjoyment. Even though I'd bombed the other two tests, I was fairly sure a near perfect score would get me through.
I left the Testing Room, and, following the maps on the walls, found my way to the results room. I found John there, and I gave him my results. He looked at them and then slammed the door in my face.
After having the door slammed in my face, I pressed my ear against it. I could overhear John arguing with a woman. John yelled "Just because he has the highest score on the obstacle course doesn't mean the other two tests are irrelevant!"
"Shh!" The woman said. "Not here! Let's finish this in the conference room." I heard their footsteps walking towards the door, and I ducked into a closet. The woman and John walked past. I followed them. They reached the conference room and shut the door. I walked into the adjacent room and found some vents on the ceiling that connected with the conference room. I eavesdropped. "You can at least give him a second chance." She said.
"No!" John snapped. "Everyone only gets one chance."
"Fine." She huffed. "But what about him? He could find the portal."
"Nonsense!" He said. "There's no way he can even get in if he does. The top floor is sealed, and that's that." I had all the information I needed. I bolted for my room.
After a few days, I was relocated out of the rehab center and into the town. After a week or so had gone by there, a hurricane blew through the town. I knew, due to snooping, that the basement of the rehab center wasn't really legit, so they'd be dealing with some flooding. I made my move.
After putting on the darkest clothing I owned (just a black t-shirt and jeans) and set off into he wind and the rain. After about ten minutes, I was soaked tot he bone. Luckily, I had made it to the rehab center. I slowly, as not to slip, climbed the walls to the top floor. When I reached it, I tried to pry the window open. I didn't work. Then I punched it. The glass was too strong.
A sharp crack caught my attention. A tree was falling straight towards me! I dodged just in time. The tree smashed through the window. An alarm went off. "Well, so much for stealth." I muttered, climbing in.
The room was quite a sight. There were two or three chairs set up around the room, but the thing that dominated the area was a large machine. There was an empty circle in the middle of it, which I assumed housed the portal to the "Better World" whenever the machine was turned on. I shoved one of the chairs underneath the door handle to buy myself some time. Then I looked for an on switch.
When I found it, there were footsteps in the hallway outside. After he machine had fully booted up, a small screen lit up near the switch. On it, it said: Choose your breed. Below appeared three images. A Pegasus, a Unicorn, and an Earth Pony. I've been a My Little Pony fan since the show started, but I'd never come out of the closet. I was shocked. Could the portal lead to Equestria?
I hit Pegasus. A small camera looking thingy dropped down. The screen was suddenly filled with the words "Stand in front of the scanner." I did, and that thin little light that's often seen in Sci-Fi movies moved up and down across my body, eventually producing a green pony on the screen. The pony's mane was ruffled, same with the tail. The pony's cutie mark was a vinyl scratch record. The words "Do You Accept?" flashed on the screen. I hit yes.
There was a furious banging on the door. It didn't look like it would hold much longer. The screen said "You may now enter the portal." I jumped in as soon as the door slammed open, puling out the power cord behind me.