A. L.

Frazier

Fate's Horizon
Chapter 1: Green Ribbons
It was more than a demonic cancer, it was the burden of watching her family sacrifice everything in the fight to save her. Her parents buried themselves under an impossible debt, and despite all their love and effort it seemed they were going to have to bury her too... When she was first diagnosed her father took out a second mortgage. When she came out of remission her parents took her brother out of private school. When a tumor in her liver had to be removed her mother got a second job, then she sold their furniture, their appliances, even their car - and when that wasn't enough - and Erika was transferred to the I.C.U., they sold their home. After her cancer was upgraded to stage 4 they asked family and friends for money. When they turned their backs, and Erika's uncle told her mother to "accept fate", she took out a last line of credit and contacted a doctor by the name of Michael Beitler. Her father sat beside her in the treatment ward, lifting her hand against his face. Her mother and her younger brother James was standing on the far side of the room. She felt a tinge as the nurse brought a needle to her other arm. Her father's face was pale. For the last three days he sat beside her, hearing every breath, watching every injection, and praying through every procedure. "When you wake up, someone will be there to make it all better." He held her hand as she struggled to stay awake. "Stay strong darling. Remember how much we love you." ***

Shimmering green lights flooded in from the skylight above. In front of her was some kind of giant glass shield, many meters high. A figure stepped into view.

"What's your name?" it asked "Erika." She said rubbing her eyes "Are you here to cure me?" "No." The girl reached out her hand to help Erika get on her feet. "I'm like you." She said "My name's Sandra, I just woke up ten minutes ago. We're all looking for the doctor." Erika looked up at the vibrant green ribbons, they seemed to move unlike anything she'd ever seen before - a beautiful cosmic wind blowing across the surface of the night sky. "You're lucky to be alive, most of us didn't make it." "What do you mean?" Erika asked "You're the last one to wake up. There are nine of us now." she said. Erika turned around. There were hundreds of opened pods neatly aligned on giant steps. In front of nearly every one, was a body lying motionless on the ground. "What happened?" "We don't know - we think the power went out..." Sandra replied A boy walked up to her, by far the youngest of the group "Hi! My name is Sammy, I'm eight years old. But I'll turn 9 in 3 months. I like video games and candy. What's your name?" "Erika." "Hi Erika. I have a question, do you know where we are?" "No." "Ok." Sammy turned towards a boy on the far side of the room and yelled, "Hey Jacob! She doesn't know where we are either." Jacob sighed, he had short black hair and pale complexion."Of course she doesn't Sammy, none of us do. We just woke up." "Oh yeah."Sammy paused; "Hey Jake?" "What is it Sammy?" "What is that green stuff in the sky called again?" Jacob grew noticeably frustrated at Sammy, it was clear to everyone by now that the boy couldn't go more than five seconds before asking some kind of question.

"For the third time it's called Aurora Borealis." "A-ror-a Bor-ye-al-is" Sammy repeated. "That's basically it, now can you help us find a way out of here?" said Jacob From a hidden stairway, a teenage boy with blond hair and blue eyes called out. "Hey! I think I found a way out." They made their way out of the room and walked down the giant aisle lined with displays, exhibits of various gadgets and strange things they'd never seen before, most, if not all, involving the human body. "Is this... a museum?" Sammy asked They made their way to other side of the glass shield, and came across a plaque, it was in English, or something closely resembling it. ABOUT THIS EXHIBIT: This exhibit contains 483 stasis pods designed by Bietler Medical. Inside each one is an immaculately preserved body - so well preserved in fact, that they are suitable for organ transplanting - even after more than 300 years... These pods were built for terminally ill patients with the intention of preserving them until some treatment for their illness could be found. After the first two dozen attempts at reanimation failed, Bietler Medical was sued under fraud allegations, and soon after declared bankruptcy. The pods remained in Mr. Beitler's possession on his insistence that the people inside were still alive... Despite exhaustive tests, there have been no signs of life. "I can't believe that, we've been in there for three hundred years! What do you think happened in all that time?" Sammy said. Sandra looked down the hall "I don't know, but we're in the perfect place to find out."

Chapter 2: Some Kind of Mannequin

They stared down the green lit aisle and made their way to the entrance, seeing wondrous exhibits, even some things they recognized, like animatronic arms, and early robots. At the entrance, was a sculpture of a giant brain. It was made out of a dark glass and there were a series of wires criss-crossing in an elaborate network. "..is it alive?" Sammy asked. Another boy retorted "No numb nuts, read." This sculpture is a tribute to Eli Bentham - creator of the first cybernetic brain. Today every human being in the world experiences the benefits of cybernetic technology because of Eli Bentham's creation. It has been lauded by the Heritage society as the most important technological advance in the history of the world and marks the beginning of the Cybernetic Age. Before the cybernetic brain, people had to "sleep"- a mysterious need to lie down unconscious for six to eight hours a day. Besides eliminating the need for sleep, the development of the cybernetic brain increased conscious memory capacity from fifteen kilobytes to one hundred and forty four gigabytes... Behind the sculpture was a painting. Below it was a description; This 27 square meter painting of an astonished audience - though crude by today's standards - is the first demonstration of human cybernetic brainpower. The patient Clyde Vanderhorst produced this painting "with seemless ease" in forty-eight minutes during a medical technology conference in Geneva, Switzerland. On the lower left is a photo taken by a digital camera for reference. He reproduced this painting on several occasions to demonstrate the longevity and accuracy of his memory. Of them, only three known copies remain. The other paintings can be found at the Neuroscience Museum in Hamburg Germany, and the third copy can be found at the New York Center for Art. They turned around to see Sammy walking near the arches leading outside. "Hey guys! I found somebody!"

"Hey mister! You're not going to believe this, but we're a bunch of sick kids, we just woke up from your exhibit. We're looking for a doctor." but there was no reply "Hey! I'm talking to you!" Sam relented "I guess he's part of an exhibit or something." "What kind of museum has a man sitting in front of his desk slouched over in the entrance?" replied Jacob "Wake up you lazy crapper!" Sammy iritated "...What are you... some kind of mannequin?" Jacob reached over and put his fingers over the mans neck - a trick a nurse taught him in the hospital while waiting for his procedure. "Hey, his heart isn't beating, but his body is warm." The suns light was coming over the horizon, The vibrant ribbons in the sky were giving way. "Holy shit!" The early morning light exposed the plaza, in it were hundreds of people lying on the ground, completely still. There were no sounds, no mutters, no tremors, no heart beats, no breaths, but they all looked like they were just sleeping. There were no signs of struggle, it was like they all just dropped dead on their way to work. "Everyone's dead." "What happened?" "You think it has anything to do with those Northern Lights?" "Let's not jump to conclusions, maybe there are some people underground somewhere who haven't been affected." said Sandra "There are probably people on some far away planets that'll come for us" Sammy said As the light grew, debris could be seen falling from the sky. "I don't know... it doesn't look good" After a silence, jacob raised his voice. "What if they're all dead?.. and we're the only ones left - what then?..." - There was a growing rumble as the sun came over the horizon. -

Chapter 3 : The Fate Horizon

A burst of fast moving air came through the plaza. Their ears popped, and their stomachs buckled, and the green ribbons faded away as a white shooting dust filled the skies. The glass ceiling held - if only for the moment - and they hid under the dead man's desk clenching each other in a terrified panic. An hour passed before wind subsided, giving way to a horrific heat - the dust cleared to reveal the blinding light of the sun, they relaxed and held one another, the cool stone ground keeping them from from cooking with the cybernetics in the plaza, for the time being. Erika ran to the bathroom, and twisted the knobs on the sink. They stayed cool by running the sinks and cloggling the drains and letting the water run along the ground. They went out to eat in the night time - after the storms had passed and it was cool again. They went to the shop and grabbed as much they could, and toured the museum under the green aurora. They tucked themselves in curtains and closed their eyes, their bellies full of candies melted by the heat of the sun. "You ever wonder what he looks like?" "Who?" "The doctor." "There's no doctor Sammy. Everyone's dead." "No, he's alive! He's got to be" Jacob sighed "Face the truth Sammy." "What do you mean Jake?" Sam asked

"I mean it's up to us now, the whole world and our existence." Sammy's face expressed a combination of confusion fear and anger "No you're wrong! He's out there." Jacob turned his head away and rolled over. "Don't hold your breath Sammy." They could hear the sound of muffled sobs as they went to bed. The next morning Sammy didn't wake up. They all thought it was because he didn't want to.

Chapter 4: Beyond the Heritage

It was a week or more before the weather subsided. Before the nights were black, and it was safe to walk into the sunlight. The grounds outside were covered with a white dust. A few patches of cracked plate ground where the water had puddled and dried up. The bodies and faces were caked with a thin white paste. They were getting tired of eating.