'Ugh… it feels like I'm sinking.'
'Slipping deeper and deeper into this ocean.'
'Inside an ocean? How am I breathing?'
'Am I breathing?'
"WAKE UP," a voice boomed around Pace as his eyes snapped open.
Harsh fluorescent light glared from the ceiling above. He gasped, chest heaving. The scent of sterilized metal and old concrete filled his lungs.
Around him was a sea of children—about fifteen or sixteen years old. Seated on identical metal chairs, all wearing white t-shirts and shorts.
In front of him, on a stage, stood a boulder of a man, wearing a crimson military uniform. Medals decorated his chest, and ribbons of various colors were strapped around his shoulders. A gold insignia of a door pinned to his hat.
Grabbing the mic in front of him, he adjusted his throat before gently tapping it twice with his finger.
Instantly, all eyes were directed toward him as he spoke out. "Good day to you, kids…" The officer's voice was deep. "All those seated here have officially been infected with the 'sink' virus. And you may know this already. But as heavy as the toll is, the infection marks the beginning of a new era in your lives…"
"Back to the day when it all started." Pace whispered as a smile tugged at his lips. 'How many times have I said that same lame-ass line by now?' He thought, popping his stiff neck, eyes drooping as he listened to the officer rant. Next to him sat Jayden, dressed like everyone else, looking at Pace with his golden eyes and round face.
"How long do you think the orientation will last?"
Pace grinned before he even heard the question. He could've answered in sync with him. Hell, he probably had done it a thousand times by now.
And yet, it never did get old.
"You know," Pace whispered back, "if I had a cent for every time you asked me that, I'd probably be able to afford the ticket for that moon trip."
Jayden snorted quietly, running his hand through his short brown hair. "As if you ain't getting bored… it's not like we haven't heard this bullcrap before. Heck! What idiot would get himself infected with the virus if they didn't know about it?"
"I pity the lost souls who did it just to get out of the orphanage." Pace replied with a condescending tone. "They are about to see hell worse than the one we came from."
Pace leaned back, eyes dragging lazily toward the stage. The officer was still rambling on about how this would affect their future. A future Pace had experienced countless times.
"Within a few minutes, breathing will become difficult. Movement sluggish. You may begin hallucinating. Do not panic—this is the natural course of the infection," the officer said.
'Yeah, yeah,' Pace thought. 'Now that I think about it—back on the train, the magician did tell me to choose the Fool's Gate, didn't he? To think a selfish bastard like him would give up one of his three conditions. Not that it helps—it's not like I know what the Fool's Gate looks like. I wonder if it's in the records. Ugh—'
"After twenty-four hours, you will enter a dream-like state. A nightmare of sorts. Each of you will be sent into a different realm, tailored by your subconscious fears and trauma—because the virus is sadistic like that." The officer didn't say that last part. Pace just liked to spice it up from time to time.
"The only way out is to find the red door. It's rather easy to catch once you see it." The officer's voice turned grim as he continued. "If you die in your nightmare, or in case you fail to find the red door within three days, your body will become the door. And the creatures inside your nightmare will come out into our world."
Jayden frowned slightly at that part. Every time. Right on cue. "That part still freaks me out," he muttered. "Just knowing that a few of us would turn into gateways to hell. Ugh—"
Pace turned to him, his eyes struggling to meet Jayden's, for he knew the true horror of the Solmegon 13—the sink virus. A few wouldn't begin to cover the hundreds who would die today, and how their deaths were the fuel that kept society and this war running.
"But then again—it's of course not all bad. If you successfully clear the nightmare, you will also get to choose your chained gate. Now, the number of options you get depends on your performance, and we are always discovering new gates. But even so, we have prepared a sheet comprising all the gates we know of, along with their respective characteristics and the powers they offer."
The officer leaned in, his voice dropping lower. "The important part is that the gate chooses you based on the story you lived through during your nightmare. So tell a good one, a terrifying one, or maybe a wholesome one. Be yourself."
Pace smiled. 'Back then none of us knew how important that last line actually was—but then again, if I had actually paid attention, I would have never chosen the Explorer's Gate.'
He pondered as he lowered his gaze from the stage and onto the crowd, who had mixed expressions, chatting on about what gate they wanted and the life they had dreamed of for themselves.
'I wonder what would have happened if I never met the magician. If I never had the power to regress.' Pace's expression grew grim as his eyes swept through the room. 'Guess my goal for now is to somehow get the Fool's Gate. I wonder what its domain is. Stupidity?'
Just as he finished the thought, his pulse spiked. His heart felt like it was about to burst. All the outside noise muffled as he entered a world of grey and red. Something cold and wet slipped past his cheek.
In the third row from the front, four seats away from the edge, sat a young girl. Her skin was bright as the sun, and long blonde hair cascaded down her shoulder. She was giggling like any normal teenager.
'Alice…?'