Meridias

  Elunduil and Tim laughed at Joel’s reaction “What are you running away for?” Elunduil asked between chuckles. “I have no idea. Something about you coming at me while attacking lightning fast is scary,” Joel replied. Tim looked thoughtful and said,

  “You know you did kind of look like you wanted Joel’s blood Elunduil.” Elunduil pondered the thought for a moment then decided he did come at Joel with the intent of beating him up.

  The trio went back to sparring until just before the first bell rang. For the most part they tended to ‘kill’ each other evenly though their hands tended to take the brunt of the attacks. Right at the end Elunduil somehow managed to jab Joel in the eye. “Why?!” Joel cried out “First the hands and now the eyes!” Elunduil and Tim made sure that Joel was okay and then decided to end things for the day. “Man that really hurt!” Joel complained as they walked through the halls. “Sorry,” Elunduil responded. “I was aiming for your chest but you deflected my blow up. It’s kind of your own fault.” Joel agreed but still complained about his eye. The two parted ways at the hallways intersection with a quick farewell and went to their last finals of the year.

  At the end of the day Elunduil hurried to the buses. He hoped he would get one last chance to talk to Alicia before the summer break started. He found Joel while he was looking and they talked about various scenarios in The Comic and stuff that they did recently in video games. Their bus arrived earlier than they expected and Elunduil let out a sigh. “You almost seem disappointed that you’re leaving school.” Joel observed as they walked towards their bus.

  “Yeah, well I’d hoped I’d get a chance to talk to Alicia before school was out...”

  “Ooh! Was Elunduil going to ask her out?” Joel teased. Elunduil gave a disgruntled groan and quietly said, “Maybe.”

  “Ahaha! Well at least you know where she lives so you could visit her right?” Joel was right. He could always go and visit her. Especially since he would no longer be under house arrest. Of course now he just needed to find the nerve to go over there... Why did these things seem so complicated?

  On Saturday afternoon, two days after finals, Joel found his thoughts drifting while he was playing one his favorite games. It was a beat-them-up style game where you went around defeating hundreds of soldiers on the battlefield. He was pondering Elunduil’s disappearance which had happened about a month and a half ago. Joel had been at home when he’d heard of Elunduil’s disappearance. He’d been a bit surprised when the others had vanished but was even more surprised when he found out about Alicia. He had been a bit miffed since he’d been out with a cold at the time. Then on the day Alicia had asked Elunduil to study Joel had been questioning Elunduil about her before she had arrived during lunch.

  “So how exactly do you know Alicia?” he’d asked.

  “Well I only know her from band. Other than that... we really hadn’t interacted before the kidnapping.”

  “Hm but she still went to find you with Tim and Tanis when you were lost.” Elunduil would’ve responded but at that moment Alicia had come up to the table and sat down. Joel had suspected that Alicia had feelings for Elunduil since he’d first heard about her and after watching her and Elunduil over the next few weeks he had been certain. He just hadn’t been able to tell what his friend felt towards Alicia until their last day of finals.

  The sounds of someone knocking on the door shook Joel out of his reverie. He paused his game and got up to go to the door. He heard his mom’s voice as she answered the door and sat back down on his bed. He was about to go back to playing his game when he heard his mom calling his name. “Yes, mother?!” Joel called out.

  “These men want to talk to you,” she called back. Joel frowned and got up. He wondered who was at the door for him. If it had been one of his friends then his mom would’ve said so and probably would’ve let them in.

  When Joel got to the door he saw two men in black uniforms wearing black shades. “Joel Zweihander?” one of the men asked. Joel nodded. Who were these guys?

  “I’m agent Maxwell and this is agent John, FBI.” Agent Maxwell had tan skin and was almost as tall as Joel. His hair was black and he wore a silver ring on his right hand. Agent John was shorter and had a fair complexion. His hair was blonde. Both agent’s hair was cut short. “I’m sorry but we’re here to take you in.” Agent Maxwell’s face showed no emotion as he spoke.

  “What? Why?” Joel asked in surprise.

  “We’ve been told that we’re to take you in for classified military training. I’m not authorized to speak of the details but here are the official papers.” Agent John procured an envelope and handed it to Joel. Joel opened it up and took a look at the documents. He didn’t understand most of it except the part that said he had to participate in this training or else he could be tried in court. He looked to his mom with confused and sad eyes and she shook her head that she didn’t understand it either. “These documents are yours to keep. You’ll be provided all the necessities that you need so as soon as you’re ready we can leave.”

  Joel felt like his life was turning upside down. A lazy Saturday afternoon was quickly becoming a pain. Military training? Why him? There had to be millions of better people than him. “I’ll tell your father,” his mom said. “We’ll all miss you.” His mother fought back tears. “I love you. Don’t forget to write.” Joel’s mom embraced him. He wasn’t sure what to say in this situation so he just hugged his mom back. He turned to the agents and followed them to their car. As they pulled away from Joel’s house he couldn’t help but looking back and wondering how long he would be away from home.

  45 minutes later they pulled up to some building in Portland and got out. It was large and the walls were made of thick concrete. There was a sparse window here and there on the second floor but otherwise there was no view of the interior except from the glass doors at the front. “You’ll be given a full physical examination as well as a psychological exam,” Agent Maxwell said as they approached the front doors. Joel groaned. Running on a treadmill was the last thing he wanted to do.

  When they got inside they went to the front desk and Agent Maxwell spoke to the receptionist. “Ah, we’ve been expecting you,” the man behind the desk said. “Room 24B is ready.” Agent Maxwell lead the way and Agent John followed behind Joel. The floor was made up of shiny white tiles and large florescent lights lined the ceiling. The walls were a soft beige color that was easy on the eyes. The whole effect of the setup caused Joel to feel a bit relaxed despite being in an unfamiliar place. Before he knew it they were at room 24B and heading inside. There were all sorts of monitoring equipment in the room as well as exercise equipment. A man with a lab coat was already waiting for them. “Ah, is this the young man we’re testing today? Excellent let’s get started.” The I.D. card clipped to his coat identified him as Simmons Greenly. The man was clean shaven and had short brown hair.

  The two agents stood by the door while Simmons led Joel over to the monitoring equipment. “Now then please remove everything except your briefs.” Joel reluctantly did as he was told and waited nervously as wires were attached to his body. He was then directed to the treadmill and told to try and keep running for as long as he could. The machine started at a slow trot and Joel thought that this wasn’t nearly as bad as he was expecting. However the machine slowly got faster at one minute intervals until he was at a jog. Eventually he was running at a full sprint and wondered when this hell would end. Much to his relief the machine was shut off and he was able to take a break. He drank the water that had been provided for him and hoped he didn’t have to get on the treadmill again.

  Unfortunately, Simmons had other plans and Joel wound up on the treadmill two more time before the man was satisfied. “Good take a 10-minute break Joel,” Simmons said in a soothing voice. Joel was grateful for the break and wondered how long he’d been at it. To him it felt like days but he doubted it had been longer than 30 minutes at the most. He wiped the sweat from his brow and sat wearily on a nearby chair. Whe
n his break was up Simmons had Joel lifting weights. He always pushed Joel to the limits of his strength but never made Joel go beyond them. Joel was directed to the other machines in turn until all the tests were finished. “That will be everything for now Joel. I’m sure these agents will direct you to food and a shower.” Joel sighed with relief. Finally he was done! He donned his clothes and followed the agents to the showers and sat under the hot water for 20 minutes before coming out. The agents then showed him to the cafeteria and carefully supervised him from a distance while he ate.

  After dinner Joel was taken to a different room for his psych evaluation. The agents waited outside and Joel found himself with Simmons once more. “Alright so how are you feeling?” he asked.

  “Fine.”

  “Good, good. I’m sure that shower hit the spot. Now tell me about yourself. What do you like to do?” Joel thought about his answer before replying.

  “Well... I like playing video games.”

  “Uh-huh what kind?”

  “Uhm hack-n-slash, beat’m up, roleplaying games.” Simmons scribbled a few notes down as he listened to Joel. He asked more questions about Joel’s life. “How would you describe your relationship with your family?"

  “Ah, you know fine. Sure they do some annoying things they do but doesn’t every family?" Simmons nodded. He then gave Joel various scenarios and Joel had to tell Simmons how he would handle it. There was one response Simmons was particularly interested in. “Now what do you think about people who steal?” he asked.

  “Well they broke the law they should go to jail,” Joel replied.

  “Uh-huh what about murderer’s?”

  “They should be executed.” Simmons looked up from his notes.

  “Really why do you think that?”

  “Because those that take a life deserve to have same thing brought upon them self.”

  “So, like an eye-for-an-eye then?” Joel nodded in response. Simmons asked a few more questions and then brought out a bunch of cards. The inkblot test. He asked Joel to tell him the first image that popped into his head when he saw the cards. “A butterfly, two faces, blood splatter, an exploding planet, some sort of flower, a sword shrouded in flames...” This went one for a few more minutes. “Alright then now I want to answer the questions on this sheet and then we’ll be done.” Simmons handed Joel a pencil and a packet of papers. Most of the questions were focused on how Joel thought and perceived things and often he found himself stumbling with the meanings of some of the questions.

  When he was finished Simmons showed him to a room. “We’re going to take some time to exam you tomorrow. It will probably take all day so if you need anything just press this button over here.” Simmons pointed to a button on the wall. Joel nodded and went to the bed. He was so tired that he fell asleep almost immediately.

  Late the next day Agents Maxwell and John went to the observation room that Simmons was watching Joel from. “Ah! Agents! I assume you’re here to check-up?” Agent John nodded. “Perfect I’ve mostly completed my report for Joel. I’ve actually been experimenting with a peculiar behavior that arises from the subject under certain circumstances.” Simmons handed his notes to the agents. “Peculiar behavior?” John asked with raised brow as Maxwell perused Simmons notes. “Yes, yes it’s quite extraordinary if not a bit frightening. I discovered it earlier while I was eating a cookie,” Simmons explained. Maxwell handed John the notes. He saw the words 'slightly unstable and a bit sadistic.’ as he read through the notes. “Is this behavior dangerous?” Maxwell asked.

  “Uh, it could be dangerous but it’s not something that I would perceive as being a problem out in the field. I’ll show you what I mean.” Simmons reached down to a pile of bagged cookies and pulled one out of the wrapper. “Now keep a close eye on him,” he commanded. Maxwell and John complied. Nothing out of the ordinary happened. Joel was just sitting with his back to them and seemed bored. “Now look away for a moment and then look back.” The agents followed the command. What they saw when they looked back would’ve startled them had they not been trained to remain calm.

  Joel’s hands and face were pressed up against the window and he had a crazed look on his face. “How did he...” John said with fascination.

  “Amazing isn’t it?” Simmons said. “His speed seems to exceed what previous tests found.”

  “GIVE ME THE COOKIEEE!” Joel was clawing at the glass. Maxwell looked to Simmons in confusion. “He can’t see us, right?” he asked. Simmons nodded.

  “Despite that he still seems to know when there’s a cookie nearby. I wonder how he developed such an ability. Anyway I think I’ve seen enough to compile my report. You can take him now.” He put the cookie into a chute that led to the room. Joel stared at it with bulging eyes. Maxwell and John looked to each other for a moment and when they looked back Joel was in the center of the room with cookie crumbs strewn about him like nothing had happened.

  The agents glanced at each other then exited the room and then went to the door that led to the adjoining one. Maxwell opened it up and they saw Joel sitting on the bed. “It’s time for us to take you to the military base now.” he said. Joel nodded and followed the agents outside and to the car. He saw that the stars were already out in the moonless sky. He took a look at his watch and saw that it was nearly midnight. Simmons hadn’t been kidding when he’d said that they’d be watching him all day.

  They got into the car and Maxwell pulled out onto the street. After a couple of minutes he pulled out onto the highway going east. This would take them past Troutdale which was a city just north of Gresham and towards eastern Oregon. Joel was about to doze off when Agent John said something. “Hm?” Joel replied.

  “The man who requested you, General Titus Leviticus IV, is someone that the FBI wants to investigate closely.” Joel frowned.

  “Why does this General want me?” he asked.

  “We don’t know. He leads a section of the military that deals with more... unusual research. Magic, psychic powers. The kind of thing that most would discount as mere fantasy.” Joel sat up with an intrigued look in his eyes. “Most of his projects have produced no results but we heard some rumors five years ago that he’d succeeded in something important. Around that same time over a hundred men and women under the General’s command vanished. There was an investigation but we didn’t find anything so it was covered up and excuses were made.” Joel was a bit annoyed. Of course the government would cover up over a hundred people going missing to save their own skins.

  “We suspect that The General is up to no good and has been for some time. However we need concrete evidence before we can bring the man in. That’s where you come in. You see less than a week ago we started to hear the rumors again and then we heard The General wanted you for ‘special training.’ If you are willing Joel we would ask you to find out what you can about these missing people.” Joel wasn’t sure what was going on but to him it sounded like the FBI were trying to stop this General. If that was the case then maybe he could help them. “I’ll keep my ears open.” John nodded. Joel looked out the window then with a wide yawn dozed off into a dreamless sleep.

  Chapter 4

  Return to Meridias

  Elunduil found himself with nothing to do on Monday afternoon now that school was out, so he decided to go check the mail. He grabbed the mail key that sat by the counter in the kitchen and went out the front door in his bare feet. The already hot concrete burned the soles of his feet as he quickly trod out towards the asphalt parking lot. Here he moved quickly and lightly since the rugged asphalt was pointy and hurt his feet when he stepped on it. He then reached the mailbox and located his apartment number, 204, stuck in the key, retrieved the mail and quickly retreated back to his home.

  Once inside he sorted through the mail. Most of it was junk mail or something addressed to his parents but one of the envelopes was addressed to him. He read the address label and saw that a familiar name. “Jeremy Elden,” he said to himself. The sight of that name br
ought back memories of his adventure and his first encounter with the man. He’d told Elunduil a tale of another world with elves and blacks knights which had very strangely matched up exactly with a nightmare Elunduil had just earlier that day. After showing Elunduil a bit of magic Mr. Elden told Elunduil he might be capable of magic himself. Convinced by Mr. Elden he’d decided to go and help the elves which had led to an unexpected adventure. Of course the world of Meridias was virtual but it had all seemed so real. Especially since he could’ve died at least three different times.

  He wondered what the contents of the envelope were and quickly found a letter opener and unsealed the envelope. He reached in and pulled out three separate objects. Two of them were identical and appeared to be cards of some kind and the other one was a folded piece of paper. Assuming it was a letter he quickly unfolded it and read the contents.

  Dear Elunduil,

  Contained within this envelope are two cards that will grant you and one other person unlimited access to the world of Meridias free of charge. The facility is located near the intersection of NW Burnside Rd and NW Eastman Parkway. This is a small token of the gratitude that Scott and I feel towards you and your friends for helping us smooth out our ‘problem’. Hopefully you will receive this on the Monday the 19th which is the day of our grand opening. I hope to see you there.

  P.S. The others are also anticipating your appearance and are quite eager to see you.

  Mr. Elden

  Elunduil put down the letter. The ‘others’ must mean the elves and the knights of Ragnarok... though he imagined that Cerra would probably be the one most eager to see him. He felt that they had become friends despite their short time together and found himself missing her presence. She was beautiful like all elves with long chestnut hair and a musical laugh but he found that his memories of her appearance were faded. He looked at the cards in his other hand. It would be good to see her again. Now he had to figure out who else to bring with him. He assumed that Tanis, Tim, and Alicia had probably received the same letter. He felt himself grow excited at the thought of seeing Alicia again. He just wondered if he’d be able to talk to her.