||Hollowed||

Should he give up trying to sleep? The test could happen at any time, any day, anywhere.

There were cases of inmate's in prison being able to escape due to them. The same for asylum wacks, people who knew people shaken to the core cause they don't remember who they are.

'What was even the point?

Fearing the unknown is about as human as anyone can get. That's why the government exists... But too much is uncertain, too much is being said... why aren't they stopping it? It's like they're waiting...'

-----

"B-A-N-G, taking you by storm, the famous new pop band of the century taking the world by storm" the radio was more lively than actual televised media. What was once seen as a dying media, turned out to be lifesaving in many ways.

"Turn off that stupid thing and come have some breakfast!" Spoke Zion's Mother from downstairs.

At least she wasn't asking him to do something and then not replying when he yelled back a reply. Just to make him go all the way down and for her to say something so stupid or so easy to do...

Putting on some pants, he lazily stomped down the stairs. It was a miracle that he hadn't slammed his face into a step yet.

"There you are, help me set the table" she said as he yawned and grabbed some knives and forks.

His Mother was an 'old gal' didn't like media yet she knew not to push views on others. It was the only reason he had a phone, was because she wasn't delusional.

Scratching his head first he then sat down at his seat, pouring some apple juice as his plate was laid down in front.

"Did you sleep well? No nightmares? I've put your medication beside your boiled eggs."

'Ah, that was the other part, you at least needed one person who was sick in some sense. In a family, there's at least one, mine was a cause of delusions. To see and hear something that isn't there.' Zion breathily chuckled at his earlier depictions of his Mother. If either of them were delusional, it would be him.

If he wasn't on the medication that is. Medication that soothed the mind and corrected the time. That way his reality stayed consistent and not mixed in with oddities.

Swallowing his pills he than immediately dug in.

"You know, you haven't been very open with me about highschool. You keep saying you're failing class after class. But I get phone calls from your teachers proclaiming big things and ingenious in what you do." Rubbing her hands together, a nervous habit she had she sighed.

"I don't know why you'd lie about this but I can tell when something is troubling you. If this is about your father-"

"Mum! Just stop!" Zion slammed his hands on the table but reeled back immediately, "-please, can we not talk about this right now..."

There was a reason he lied about failing, he wanted to leave Ifreid, he wanted to find his father. One of the first in a generation to go missing by the 'tests'. People even police wrote it off as a runaway from a situation due to no body being found.

But Zion was certain, if others supposedly 'made it back', what if his father had no choice? Yet the only way to go anywhere would be to become a scholarship intern at Bionatic. Bionatic was world wide, every country, city, town had one decently sized site.

Dedicated to the 'test's' and the 'purpose', if there was answers to be found, secrets even. Those files in those places for sure had what the internet couldn't show.

'It's quiet' He suddenly thought, his mind finally snapping out of a haze. He'd been so lost in thought, that sound of nothing had snapped him back to reality?

Looking up, he froze.

Everything was still, stuck in place, lost in time. Not a sound, no background filter of nature, no white noise in the slightest. Just the image of his worried stricken Mother caught in place across the table.

[ Calculating... ]

'Huh?'

[

What sounded like a woman's voice suddenly filled the silence. Zion went to confront the voice but no words travelled through the frozen place.

[Re: Calculation... 0%...1%...15%]

[ERROR*^⁰]

[Consistent error, unable to Calculate]

[Eliminate]

'What!?' Zion suddenly felt the floor beneath him give out and a sense of dread embedded itself.

[Eliminated]

[Proceeding with Calculation...]

[Calculation...0%....16%....34%....57%....73%...95%...99%...100%]

[Calculation completed]

[Determined Calculation... B]

[Reseting...0%...27%...69%....81%...96%...100%...]

[Reset completed]

[Opening World 3B]

-----

'I don't know where I am... I can't feel anything...'

There was a good reason he couldn't feel anything. Because he was nothing.

In a split second he had been reduced to nothing but atoms. His entire being was no more but live conciousness.

But the bigger question was why had it left his conciousness alive?

Even though his body was no more his thoughts were free. Free in a sense that he felt he could shift something.

Although not visible, his thoughts seemed to pick up forms, sounds even as he morphed slowly to that of an enclosed gelatin piece.

Full reconstruction through sheer time and patience. No concept of time, no space, just thoughts and non religious prays. As what once was nothing became shape and developed thoroughly, layer by layer.

Without time or place, they forgot who they were. Simplicity of thoughts and gathered layers of atoms that became flesh. Layer by layer, the gelatin became something more.

Cannot see, cannot speak, cannot do became a challenge to do.

As eyes, mouth, arms and legs appeared over time. Warm, than completed the cold feeling in nothingness.

Who, what, where, how, irrelevant as colour slowly drawer near.

Born and created are two sides of the same coin, but opinions and thought are unique to an individual.

"Congratulations, it's a boy" Spoke an old woman as she pulled the last of a remaining umbilical cord and more out of the exhausted woman.

"He's beautiful" said the now new mother as she held her new born.

"What's his name?" The older woman spoke softly as the mother gained her composer a bit.

"Zion Linux"

----

"He's still trying" Spoke the old woman as she looked out the window to a young boy.

Unlike his mother he sported red hair like rubies and warm light brown amber eyes.

It had been 8yrs, Zion was slowly processing what had happened.

He'd been removed without warning or hesitation from his own world it seemed.

His life before, never existed. If it wasn't for his thoughts that stayed concious for how even long he was in that void for.

He wouldn't have remembered himself at all.

"I wish I had that sort of youth again" the old woman chuckled, as the Mother behind her smiled.

"He's just like his father, curious about the world" she spoke fondly as she approached her maid. Looking out the window, they saw Zion looking at insects. "I only hope he doesn't turn out to be him..." her once fondness turned cold as the maid took pity on her and Zion.