1 The Dream Rider (8 page)

“Exactly,” he pointed a finger at me to emphasize his
point. “The dreams seem real because they are real. You are here in this place,
yet also in your room on Earth.”
 

I tried to process what Jonas was saying but it was too
far-fetched, too outlandish. “That’s not possible.”
 

“Actually, it is entirely possible. In fact, it’s all
about the possible or the possibilities, as it were. Your scientists on Earth
have only begun to scratch the surface of what they are calling quantum possibilities.
Quantum mechanics, as your mathematicians know it, is beginning to reveal new
mysteries to the people of Earth. Though, it may be some time until they
understand the truly amazing thing we call dream travel. By unraveling the laws
of the quantum universe, it is possible for your consciousness to travel great
distances in mere seconds. Your mind folds the fabric of space and time so that
the distance becomes almost negligible. One of the greatest minds from your
planet was close to grasping this concept. You have no doubt heard of Albert
Einstein?”
 

“Uh, yeah. He’s like the most famous scientist of all
time.”
 
He grew silent for a
moment, letting me consider what he’d said. Somehow, I understood what the
older man was telling me, but it still sounded crazy. “So, you are saying that
I am both here, on this planet, and back in my room.”
 
It was more a statement than a question.

“Yes.”

“And that is all possible because of the human
subconscious.”

“Yes.”

“And you’re telling me that every dream I’ve ever had
seemed real because it actually was real.”

Jonas stopped me for a moment. “I realize this must sound
crazy to you.”

“Crazy?” I interrupted. “Crazy? I’m sure you do have an
idea how crazy it sounds. Because I’m pretty certain
you’re a
crazy figment
of my imagination.”
 
I stood up to walk back to the gate but a firm hand snatched my wrist
and held me tight.

“I understand your doubts, Finn. But soon you will come to
realize what I am telling you is true.”
 
His eyes pleaded with me.

Nothing was making sense. I speculated how long I’d been
asleep. More than that, I wondered how I could know I was asleep. Unless what
the old man was saying me was the legit. That terrifying possibility reared
it’s ugly head in the back of my mind.

“Tell me, Finn,” he pressed, letting go of my arm. “Why
have you not awoken on your own planet yet?”

It was a question I’d been considering the entire time. It
was the question that had kept me from sleeping on the less than comfortable
cot, despite my severe exhaustion.

“If it were only a mere dream, Finn, you would already be
back in your own world, attending your classes and hanging out with your
friend, Nate.”
 

The room started to tilt.
How had he known all of that?
“That’s
impossible,” I mouthed quietly as the floor started zooming towards my face.

“Finn,” I heard my name called from a distant place.

My body felt like it was vibrating and there was a sound
like pouring sand in my ears. “Finn, are you alright?”
 
Jonas was holding my head in one arm,
shaking me gently.

“What? What happened?” I asked groggily.

“You fainted,” he responded. “Perfectly understandable.
You have undoubtedly been hit with information that would be difficult for
anyone from your planet to process easily.”

I tried to hide my disappointment from him. I was still
there, still in some alien prison. I pushed myself up a little but continued
sitting on the ground as my senses started to return.

“I don’t understand. What am I doing here? Why haven’t I
woken up back on Earth? Why is all this happening to me?” Jonas accepted my
flurry of questions with a patient smile.

“I will explain everything to you in time.”

“In time?” I asked. Maybe the old man didn’t realize how
freaked out I was. He didn’t have time to answer as several other people began
to crowd around us. I stood up from the floor quickly and sat back down at the
table. Jonas did the same, assuming his original position.

Prisoners of seemingly every kind poured into the
room:
 
men, women,
muscular
, fat, skinny, black, white, brown. Some went to stand
in lines in front of half-doors. Others went to meet with in other corners of
the room. Each corner was designated with a colored banner that hung from the
balcony. I’d not really paid much attention to the flags until then.

“What do the banners mean?” I said, looking up at the
green one that hung over Jonas’s table.

“Those are the teams games prisoners are assigned to,” he
said as he watched the procession move like clockwork.

“Teams?” I wondered in a hushed tone. There were a few
people heading in our direction. My neighbor from across the corridor was one
of them. I also recognized the big man with the red beard and hair.

“Yes,” Jonas answered. “Mallock puts the prisoners in
groups to train together.”
 

“Train? For what?”
 

“The games.”
 

“What are these games I keep hearing about? The guards
said something about them earlier.”
 
I leaned in close to him.

He looked over at me with a serious expression. “I believe
in your planet’s ancient history, there were civilizations who had games such
as these. Romans if I’m not mistaken, were one of them.”

A sickening feeling began to rise up again in my stomach.
“Like gladiators?”

Jonas nodded slowly. “Yes. A fight to the death.”

Jonas’s statement hit me like a bag of rocks. I was on another
planet, in a gladiator training prison. And the only explanation I had for why
I was there was that it was some kind of strange connection between dreaming
and quantum physics, which I barely knew anything about.

I eyed the group that was assembling around us. I could
tell they were sizing me up. Some eyes were curious. Others were suspicious. I
realized the striking contrast between them and some of the other prisoners I’d
seen when I first arrived. They were strong, fitter than others, and their hair
looked cleaner. “Why do these prisoners seem healthier than the ones I saw on
my way in? There were some who looked like they were starving, and hadn’t
bathed in forever.”

Jonas cast a cynical smile. “The emperor must keep up
appearances for the public. The prisoners who fight in the arena have to be
fit, and somewhat visually appealing. The people believe we are all treated
equally, which is clearly not the case. The ones who fight are given slightly
more food, and this soup,” he tapped the bowl with the side of his hand, “has
more calories and protein in it that it would appear. They also let the
fighters take a shower a few times each week.”

“Not everyone fights?” I frowned, curious.

He shook his head. “There are two groups: fighters, and
prison slaves. The slaves are not treated as well as the others.”

I wanted to ask him who decided who would fight and who
would not, but I had a feeling I knew the answer. Instead I posed another
question that had been bothering me. “Why do all the guards call me
frag
?” I
asked.

A female voice chimed in from behind me. “It’s what they
call all of the prisoners here,” she answered.

I spun around and saw a thin but strong frame with long,
dark chocolate hair cascading down to her shoulders. She wore a tight, olive green
shirt with sleeves barely below the shoulders and form-fitting brown breeches.
Her beauty was lost on me for a moment as I realized
who
she was. I recognized her immediately. She was the girl from the party. I
stumbled backwards and fell to the ground, remembering how she had paralyzed me
by merely touching my leg.

“It’s you. You’re the girl from the party.” I tried to
scoot away from her as she continued towards me, her hips moving back and
forth. I felt my head bump into something hard and looked up to see a muscular
figure with an orange beard. It was the guy I’d seen leaning against the wall
on my way in the night before. He hovered over me like a giant in his green
tunic and brown pants, similar to the outfit the girl had on. Now I realized
they were all wearing similar outfits, and the clothes were in better condition
than the ones worn by other prisoners.

She smiled at my weakness. “I’m not going to hurt you,
Finn. And I cannot use the power in this place that you felt on Earth.”
 
Her words set my mind at ease a little.
The bearded man reached a hand down to help me up, which I accepted sheepishly.

“Thanks,” I offered and stepped back.

“Siderians,” she explained, “believe that we are all part
of our planet and it is part of us. We are fragments of a greater purpose, a
greater existence.”

“They think we believe in some kind of magic, like foolish
children. It is a term of derision, used to show that we are inferior to our
imperial overlords,” Jonas added.

“Overlords? Okay, wait a minute. You’re hitting me with a
lot of information here, Jonas. First thing,” I turned to the young woman. “Why
did you paralyze me the other night at the party? And how were you there, on
Earth?”
 
The words came out of my
mouth like a gushing waterfall.

“Our minds allow us to travel, just as yours does,” she
answered.

Jonas had called it dream travel
.
It sounded like something out of a
fairy tale. I glanced around, at the group of a dozen or so people who had
gathered around us. They seemed non-threatening but their positioning was
beginning to make me feel a little claustrophobic. They appeared to be
anticipating something.

I brought my attention back to the girl. “Why did you come
to Earth?” I asked hoping my voice didn’t sound nervous.

“We have been expecting you, Finn. Once we found you, we
knew that Mallock and his men would be close behind. Regrettably, they got to
you before I could, initially.”
 

“And brought me here,” I stated, disappointedly.

She shook her head. “No. They found you on the street.
Remember?
The men in the trench coats with the guns?
They are part of Mallock’s police force, his personal assassins and most
trusted hit men. They lured you to another place in your dreams and tried to
kill you there.”
 

How
had she known that? I hadn’t told anyone about that dream. Had I?
I ran through the events of the
last few days in my mind, but even when I spoke to Dr. Edert I hadn’t revealed
any details about my nightmares. There was no way she could have known details
I had not shared.

“We arrived too late,” she answered my question before I
could ask it. “I don’t know how, but somehow you survived. I watched them shoot
you. I saw your body lying there on the sidewalk as they walked away. Then you
disappeared vanished.”

“You saw the whole thing? You watched those men shooting
at me? But it was just a…” I stopped myself, realizing that maybe dreams
weren’t what I always thought them to be.

“The next day we saw you were still alive. We couldn’t
take the risk that they would get to you again so I came to Earth to warn you.”
 
She crossed her arms and stuck one hip
out to the side.

I unconsciously lowered myself back into the seat I’d been
in previously. The tired eyes of the group around me stared, almost vacantly.
“Who are all of you?” I asked, finally.

She smiled at me. Her grin seemed more of relief than
anything else. “My name is Nela. You have already met Jonas, our leader.”
 
She went around the group, introducing
each person. A few of the characters stuck out in my memory, especially the
black man from across the hall, Taurus. He was dressed differently, though and
I was curious as to why.

“The bull,” I said to him. “Fitting for a guy as strong as
you.”
 
He gave me a puzzled glance.
“The bull? Taurus?”
 
It didn’t seem
to register with any of them. “On Earth, Taurus means bull.”
 

He smiled finally understanding. “On Sideros, Taurus means
thinker.”
 
He turned and
disappeared through a doorway without saying anything else.

Nela continued with the introductions. Petra was the
large, red-haired man I’d bumped into. Near him was a woman with similar fiery
locks that cascaded down past her shoulders. Her legs were exposed from the
thighs down, showing off quads and calves that could crush a car. Her arms,
too, were rippled with muscles. She was clearly an imposing figure. They called
her Elda. I tried to remember everyone’s names, but that was something I had
always found difficult. If I remembered a few I would be good with that.

“It’s nice to meet all of you,” I said awkwardly. “My name
is Finn McClaren, though, I guess you already know that.”
 
The group nodded.

“I thought you would be bigger,” Petra said, cynically. He
peered at me with one eyebrow raised.

“His physical size doesn’t matter,” Jonas insisted, easing
the tension. “He is the one we have been waiting for.”
 

“I’m sorry,” I interrupted. “Bigger? Why would I need to
be bigger? And the one you’ve been waiting for? Why have you been waiting for
me? You still haven’t explained why you have been watching me.”

Petra laughed sarcastically and sloughed off towards a
stack of metal cups near a faucet in the corner.

Jonas returned his attention to me while Nela sat down
nearby and the others gathered around. “Our planet is a small one, about
two-thirds the size of Earth. Many years ago, Mallock and his army came to this
world. His ships easily overcame our vastly outmatched armies. The war only
lasted a short time, after which Mallock named himself emperor of the entire
world. He built a wall around Sideron City and brought all of the planet’s
citizens here to work for him. While many are free to roam about the city, they
are never allowed to leave.”
 

“Like slaves,” I said quietly.

“Yes,” Jonas agreed. “Exactly like slaves. That is
precisely what we are.”
 

“I don’t understand how he was able to conquer an entire
world. Why can’t you start a revolution? That’s what happens on Earth.”
 

Jonas smiled feebly. “Sideros was primitive compared to
his technology. We did not have the weapons to match Mallock’s firepower. We
may as well have tried to defend ourselves with sticks and rocks. He wiped out
entire villages and towns. Any survivors were brought here.”
 
Sadness filled his eyes. “My wife was
killed in the battle. She was very brave, even to the end.”
 
I could see Nela’s eyes were filled
with pain as well, but she fought off the tears.

“I’m sorry,” I offered genuinely. I never knew what to say
to people who had experienced loss like that.

His smile returned with some effort. “That was a long time
ago,” he responded. “We must focus on the present. You are here, and that is
all that matters.”

“There you go again,” I interrupted. “What do you mean by
that? Do you think I’m some kind of hero or something? I don’t know if you
realize it but I’m just a college student, and I’m not even very good at
that.”
 

I could have sworn I heard another snort come from Petra
in the corner where he sipped water from a cup.

Jonas’s eyes pierced mine and struck deep into my soul.
“We have been searching for you for many years,” he said. And you are more
powerful than you than you think.”
 

“Powerful? I’m a slow runner, not very strong, I do
average work in all my classes. Just the other day, I dropped the game winning
pass in a football game.”
 
I
doubted they knew anything about sports, so the last comment may not have
helped my point.

“You’re the only one we’ve ever heard
of
who has ever survived a dream death,” Nela spoke up.

“Dream death?”
 

“It’s when you die in a dream. Typically, if you die in a
dream you die in your own world. But you didn’t,” her statement was layered
with curiosity.

“Wait. Are you telling me that you have seen other people
killed in their dreams and those people died in reality?”
 

She nodded, seemingly unfazed by the comment. “It happens
more often than you know.”

The idea was macabre. People had been having dreams in
which they died and never woke up from them. “And you just let that happen?”

“We save the ones we can,”
Jonas
commented. “But we only have so much time here, in this place.”
 
His hand waved around, displaying the
prison walls.

His expression was pensive. “There is another reason that
we believe you are the one we have been waiting for.”
 
He paused for a moment. “You are the only one that we know
of who is able to control their actions and thoughts in a dream. Right now, you
are processing all of this at an amazing rate. Yet your mind has not rejected
it and woken you up.”

“My mind hasn’t rejected what?”

“Your subconscious knows that you are needed here, Finn.
It knows you have a purpose here, a destiny. The subconscious mind is much more
in touch with the universe than the conscious mind. It is the most powerful
device in all of creation.”

The conversation was getting pretty heavy, but I lingered
on the first part of what he’d said. “You said I was here for a purpose. What
purpose is that?” I questioned.

“To set our people free.”

“Oh, nothing major. Just save an entire planet.” I jabbed
sarcastically. “Again, I think you have the wrong guy.”
 

Nela touched my arm. I instinctively tried to pull back,
afraid the same thing would happen that did the first time she touched me. It
didn’t, though, and I settled down.

“Finn. You are the only one we’ve seen that has displayed
any kind of control over events in dreams. You’re the only one we have ever
seen die in a dream but wake up, unaffected in your own reality. And you’re the
only one we’ve ever known to kill one of Mallock’s assassins.”

The last part struck a chord. I tried to hide my surprise
at her knowledge of what I’d done. But my words did a poor job of concealing
it. “How did you know that?”
 

“It’s how you got here. When you killed Faio, you took his
place in this world. Your subconscious brought you here. You can only return to
Earth when you have fulfilled your destiny.”