Meridias

by Ryan Hodgson

  While he worked out his strategy for Alicia he realized who he should bring with him to Meridias. Joel was the only one of his friends that hadn’t been to Meridias which was probably a good thing. Joel had a bit of a sadistic side that showed up when they were playing video games together. Who knows what he would do if he could use magic. Elunduil put the two cards in his pocket and folded the letter up so that he would remember where to go. Despite the heat he chose to wear shoes rather than sandals and after putting them on he went out the front door and headed to Joel’s.

  He’d only been to his friend’s house a few times since they hung out during school but he still remembered where to go. He walked through the neighborhood streets until he came to one of the streets that cut through the area. It was only a two-lane street but it tended to see a lot of traffic due to it connecting with other roads that led to nearby grocery stores. Today it was fairly empty so he crossed the street and walked up it a short distance before taking a smaller street that led back into the neighborhood.

  A few moments later he came up to the second house on the block. The house was light blue and had a garage on the north side. Currently there was only a mini-van on the driveway. He walked up the concrete path to the house and knocked on the door. A few moments later Joel’s mom answered the door. “Sorry Joel’s not here,” she said.

  “Oh, when will he back?”

  “Who knows? Could be more than a month.” Elunduil was confused. A month?

  “Where is he?” he asked bemusedly. The moment he asked her, her expression turned dark. “I’m not really sure. Some FBI agents took him away a couple of days ago for some secret military training.” She was clearly upset. Elunduil found himself befuddled by this information. Why the heck would the FBI be taking Joel away for secret military training? There had to be thousands of other people to choose from... unless they needed someone more ordinary. Images of morally questionable human experimentation came to mind. “That doesn’t make any sense,” he said while shaking his head. Joel’s mom agreed. “Uh, take care then.” He wasn’t sure what else he could say so he kept his farewell simple. “Be safe!” she called out as he walked away.

  Elunduil decided to head back home so that he could call his friends and tell them about Joel. While walking back he heard someone call his name. He looked up and saw a familiar face in the driveway of a house he was passing by. “Hey what are you up to Elunduil?” the teen said as he walked up. “Hey, Sean. I was just at Joel’s.”

  “Yeah? What’s he been up to?” Sean asked. Elunduil sighed and quickly told Sean what he’d learned about Joel. “Woah! For real?” Sean asked his blue eyes displaying his shock. Elunduil nodded and Sean whistled. “Wow I would not expect Joel to be picked up by the FBI for secret military training. I wonder what they’re making him do?” Elunduil shrugged in response. “Yeah I was going to invite Joel to come with me to this new virtual reality place since I have a couple of free passes but...” he tossed his arms in the air.

  “Wait there’s a virtual reality place? Man I want to see that.” Sean looked excited.

  “You can come with me then. I’ve got to go home first though.” Sean’s excitement burst out. “Really? All right I’ll come with you then.”

  The pair left Sean’s house and walked through the neighborhood. Sean talked aloud as he wondered how real the virtual reality place would be. Elunduil commented about how there was an entire world they could interact with. Unlike Joel, Sean was skinny and athletic in appearance. He liked keeping his brown hair shaved down to his scalp. He was also fairly outgoing and talked about various things until they reached Elunduil’s home. Elunduil quickly called Tim and then Tanis. He learned that they were both heading to the virtual reality facility right now and told them about Joel. They were both surprised and shocked and wondered why Joel would be taken for secret government training. After agreeing to meet up with each of them Elunduil put down the phone he and Sean left.

  It took them over 45 minutes to walk to the virtual reality (VR for short) facility from Elunduil’s home and by the time they got there they were sweaty from the heat. The facility was set up in a small shopping area near the end of the block. There was a large red sign on the face of the building that read: Meridias. Sean gave an intrigued “huh” and then they went into the building. The first thing that they saw when they entered was Mr. Elden sitting behind a reception desk. Further to the right there were bathrooms and a large water cooler. Mr. Elden gave them a wave and they waved back and then went to the water cooler to get a drink. “Ahh that’s the stuff,” Sean said. Elunduil chuckled and looked over the rest of the facility. There were multiple portal machines up against the wall. They were currently inactive. There were also tables for people to relax and eat. The entire place reminded Elunduil of the facility near Mt. Hood except that this place was quite a bit bigger.

  Tim and Tanis walked in a moment later and were talking to each other. Elunduil called to them and they came over to the water cooler. “Man this place looks great. I’m kind of glad we get in for free,” Tanis said as he came near. “Anyway I guess we should go see what this is all about.” Everyone agreed and they moved to speak to Mr. Elden. However a group of three teenagers around their age had appeared at the counter. There were two guys and one girl. The two guys had the same brown hair and looked to be related and the girl had platinum blonde hair. Elunduil and the others took their place behind these three and waited patiently.

  The two guys paid Mr. Elden and went off to the side to wait for the girl. She made a distraught face to her friends and stepped forward. “Look I don’t have enough money. My friends forgot to tell me how much it cost.” She spoke in a soft voice and fidgeted nervously.

  “No worries! Since today’s the grand opening I’ll let you in for free!” Mr. Elden said cheerfully. “If you have financial troubles and want to come back then I’m happy to have you do some work for me.”

  “R-really?” The girl sounded surprised. Mr. Elden chuckled and handed her a ticket. She turned to go to her friends and noticed Elunduil and co. watching. “What?” she said aggressively before joining her friends. “What’s her problem?” Tim mumbled as the other group walked away. Elunduil stepped forward. “He’s with me,” he said indicating towards Sean while holding out his cards. “Ah, the golden tickets!” Mr. Elden’s smile broadened and he hummed while he scanned them. Tim and Tanis followed suit. “You’ll be going into room 6 with the other group. Have a good time!” The group thanked Mr. Elden and found the portal with a large blue six painted above it. Scott Howard was standing by the portal. Elunduil and Tim had once shared a harrowing experience with the man in a place called the “Internet”.

  The Internet was an interdimensional tunnel that apparently connected to other worlds, even places that people had imagined. They had been forced into this tunnel when they had been discovered by one of the knights of Ragnarok while they were sneaking around with Scott. They were chased into the tunnel by these creepy black, dog-shaped creatures that had unnatural agility. For whatever reason the tunnel had responded to Elunduil and he was able to save them in the end. Later they had used the tunnel to get a small task force of elves into Ragnarok so that they could stop the laser cannon before it annihilated Ellicia.

  Scott was explaining and demonstrating that when they walked through the portal they would actually be going into a room that could project this virtual world. “Now this world is always running and all these rooms are connected so you will see other people that went into separate rooms while in Meridias. Now before I let you in I would like to remind you that even in Meridias your actions will have consequences so please think carefully before you act. Let me activate the portal and let you in.” Scott inputted a password on a nearby console that was attached to the portal. The machine hummed to life and a few moments later a blue portal appeared. Elunduil heard the girl and her friends gasp as well as Sean and grinned. It was good to see that portal again. Scott checked everyone as they went t
hrough for their tickets. He gave Elunduil a wink as he checked Elunduil’s card. Elunduil grinned and Scott gave him the signal to go into the portal. Elunduil approached the portal and paused for a moment. A mixture of feelings swelled up within him. He was excited, nervous, and could almost feel the nostalgia in the air. Without any more hesitation he stepped through the portal and into Meridias.

  On the other side Elunduil was met with a bit of a surprise. He vaguely recognized his surroundings as the main lobby in the tower that had once housed the laser cannon at its peak. The lobby was bigger than he remembered but that was probably to accommodate the six portal machines that lined the two walls of the room. In the center there was some sort of pillar that stood around 10 feet tall. It was silver in color and rounded at the top. There were three white rings near the base and a white vertical line that ran through the three rings and to the top of the pillar. Elunduil swore that the pillar itself was giving off a faint glow but it was hard to tell with the lights in the room.

  He spotted the other three teens that went in before them with a person in black armor. A knight of Ragnarok. Of course Elunduil wasn’t sure if they’d changed the name of this city or not so he could only guess. The knight motioned for Elunduil to come over so he went to the knight. Sean then Tanis and Tim appeared one after the other and looked around. “Wow this place looks so real!” he heard Sean say in awe. “This is like the holodeck!” Elunduil’s friends joined the group and the knight spoke. “Is this everyone?” he asked. The group nodded. “All right then let’s get started with the tour. Follow me.” As the knight led them away Elunduil couldn’t help but notice that the knight’s armor was different from before. It lacked the menacing appearance that he remembered and reminded him of a guardian or protector.

  The knight took them to a nearby room with a strange looking table at its center. It was circular and about 3-4 feet in diameter. In the center of the table there looked to be some sort of projector protruding up a few inches with buttons on the side that probably controlled it. The knight confirmed Elunduil’s suspicions a few moments later when he pressed a button and the lights dimmed in the room. “This show will give you some insight on the history of Ragnarok,” the knight said. The projector turned on and a hologram of Ragnarok appeared. Elunduil noted that there appeared to be some new buildings in the city.

  “Many years ago the citizens of Ragnarok came to this world much in the same way that you did. Through a portal,” said a women’s voice. The voice sounded familiar to Elunduil but he didn’t know why. The image changed and showed a desert and a portal with several people surveying the land nearby. The people were wearing menacing black armor. “Our mission was to find new materials and new technology but above all else we sought out power. After searching for weeks we found a settlement inside the edge of a forest. The elves of Ellicia.” The image changed and showed several knights standing on the plains. One of them had some kind of metal binoculars up to his eyes and was gesturing towards the forest. The image then changed to dozens of knights constructing buildings in the same area as the previous image.

  “We brought resources from our world and began constructing this city. At the same time we met with the elves and learned about them.” The image became two knights talking with Angurvadel. “After a time we learned that magic existed in this world and sought the knowledge to use it but the elves refused us.” Angurvadel shook his head and pointed the knights away. The knights left. In the next scene a small group of knights was seen fighting with the elves. “Driven to complete our mission our leader Alex Jericho attempted to seize the knowledge by force. This began a conflict between us and the elves and at first they beat us back easily so we were forced to stay our distance for a time.” The knights were beaten back by the elves in the image. “However after training in this world for several years we found that something about his place made us stronger and faster than we could ever hope to become in our world. We could now fight on even ground with the elves but there was no way we could fight against their superior numbers. We began making surgical strikes and attempted to take the elves hostage. It was around this time that someone destroyed the portal in our world leaving us stranded here.” The scene became the desert and showed the portal collapsing and disappearing.

  “With no way to return home we called off the attacks for a brief time until our Leader decided that it was through magic that we could find a way back. We began to attack again and developed new technology to help us.” There was an image of a transport hovering above the ground that was in the shape of a beetle. It was shown carrying knights from Ragnarok to Ellicia and vice-versa. “Our Leader began to see the elves as an enemy that had to be destroyed and so we created the weapon to do that." An image of the laser cannon atop the central tower was shown. “There were some among us who believe that Alex Jericho had gone too far and fled to Ellicia to aid them. A few years later we learned that he found a portal to another world and found someone who could use magic. The elves came to call him The Firewall Flower.” Elunduil felt his heart race. There was an artistic image of a man wearing a blue robe and a flower-shaped burst of flame appeared on the ground in front of him. “With his help the elves launched an assault upon our city while he led a strike force through an interdimensional tunnel that lies near our city.” The scene showed a field with elves and knights engaged in battle.

  “The Firewall Flower entered the tower alone and after a fierce battle managed to defeat our Leader. Meanwhile the rest of the knights had regrouped in the city and we decided we were done terrorizing the elves. We surrendered to the elves and then attempted to help them stop the weapon before it was too late, but with the weapon about to fire, The Firewall Flower chose to sacrifice himself and destroyed the weapon. However as he did so a mysterious warrior garbed in silver called Ark appeared and saved him as the weapon was exploding. After a brief celebration with the elves The Firewall Flower returned to his world. Now Ragnarok and Ellicia work together towards seeking new knowledge and technology but had The Firewall Flower not appeared to intervene all would have been lost.”

  The final image was one of the robed figure entering a portal between two trees with two branches forming an arch above it. The lights returned to normal and the knight stepped forward. “Now are there any questions about what you just saw?” he asked. The girl in the other group spoke up. “I’m sorry, but The Firewall Flower? Did this guy throw around pixie dust too?” she asked while suppressing a laugh. Elunduil felt a slight pang in his heart but it didn’t last long as the knight replied to the question. “No, he is The Firewall Flower because he was merciless and compassionate. Even when he defeated the Leader he felt sorrow for the man who had once been someone like you. Now let’s move on.” Elunduil was grateful for the knight’s words and could tell that he meant them. He caught a glimpse of the girls face as they turned to leave and saw her contemplating the knight’s words.

  ***

  It was late in the afternoon when Joel and the FBI agents arrived at the military base somewhere in eastern Oregon. Apparently the agents had stopped at a hotel so that Joel could get a full night of sleep before coming to the base. They’d even brought him breakfast in the morning. Thankfully they didn’t talk to Joel for the rest of the trip so he’d been left to his thoughts. He mostly thought about what he’d be doing and at times wondered what his friends were doing. He also wondered if they knew what had happened to him yet. As the car got closer to the base Joel couldn’t help but be impressed by it. He’d expected the place to be well fortified but was still surprised by its sheer size. The walls stretched out several hundred feet in both directions and where probably close to 20 feet tall by Joel’s estimate. There was a single gate that they were driving towards that he suspected was the only way in and out.

  John stopped the car in front of a booth attached to a gate that was armed by two fully armed soldiers and rolled down the window. “Federal Agents huh? You must be the guys we’re expecting. If you could just sh
ow me identification.” John pulled out his badge which had is I.D. card showing. The soldier checked a computer to verify the agent’s identity. “All right everything checks out. Let me just get this gate open and you can go on in.” The guard hit a button and the gates slowly swung inward. Agent John slid up the window and drove the car into the base. The agents pulled up to a large building near the center and waited. A moment later a man in uniform with short brown hair and muscular body stepped out of the building and approached them.

  “This is it. He’ll take care of you,” Agent Maxwell said. Joel took that to mean that he should get out of the car so he did. As soon as he closed the door the car pulled away and headed back towards the main gate to leave. “Joel Zweihander I presume?” the man asked. Joel nodded tentatively. “Good! We were expecting you a little sooner but that’s irrelevant. I am sergeant Ashblade and you’ll be under my command once we get underway. I’ll give you the tour and if there are any questions just ask.” Joel did have one thing to ask.

  “Why is this place so big?” Ashblade stared at Joel for a moment then burst out laughing.

  “Yes I suppose this base is quite a bit larger than others. This base is a large as it is because The General needs the space for his science projects and to protect these projects from falling into... outside hands.” Joel wondered why this Ashblade worded the last part the way he did but Ashblade was starting the tour while explaining what was what. He started with the building immediately in front of them, the command building. He briefly explained that this is where General Titus could be found most of the time and that they also handle intelligence operations in this building as well. This building was connected to the mess hall which was to their left and the living quarters past that and past that there was a prison section. The training ground was to their immediate right, and there were several vehicle bays. Joel asked if there were tanks and if he’d get to drive one. Ashblade told him that he wouldn’t get a chance to drive one of the tanks and Joel felt disappointed. Ashblade gave Joel a brief description of each place before taking him into the command center.