Episode Twenty-Nine: The Horizon

Troy Lombardi awoke in tattered clothing with his back on the sandy beach. Nothing hurt. The wet sand was comfortably conformed to his body. After looking around the beach for a while he was able to find some of his gear, but not much. No tent, torn clothes, spoiled food, no canoe. He found some jerky, which for some reason seamed funny to him this morning. Meat in a world without animals.
He kept breakfast short, the quiet determination to go on hadn't left him, and he wanted to be on his way. For a short time he delayed, trying to decide if he should return to the remains of the lodge for supplies, or adventure into the wilderness with what he had. He decided to reach the top of the stairs and at least examine the next leg of the journey. If it looked easy, he would start out. If he felt like he would save time in the long run by getting gear, he would go back.
Once again Troy began to climb the stairs. As he realized that he was the only one who had ever actually climbed these stairs. The others had always gone off in other directions. He decided that he would call them the Lombardi stairs. And if these were the Lombardi stairs, the waterfall was certainly the Lombardi Falls, and the river the Lombardi River. These pleasant thoughts occupied him for most of the climb up. Near the top, he looked up and saw the clump of grass.
“This time,” he told the grass from below, “I'll reach you. I'll see what you see, when you look the other way.”
But to the north, there was nothing to see. At first Troy thought the ridge must immediately drop away, because he couldn't see anything beyond it, but the absolute nothingness of it shortly came into his full view. The landscape abruptly ended; only the sky continue on in a great blue sphere. Far below him, the sky turned black where stars looked upward at a blue sky.
“How?” Troy whispered to himself. Glancing back at the Origin Valley to make sure he wasn't dreaming, he saw that everything was in order; water appearing from nowhere rushed into the river at his left before plunging into the lake. Curious he picked up a rock and tossed it into the horizon, the moment it crossed over the line where the landscape ended, it vanished.
Then impulsively Troy threw himself into the void. Just like the rock, he vanished, or as he felt it, everything vanished—himself included. In the bareness of his thoughts, Troy had the wonderfully strange experience of gaining a thrill of hope after having believed all was lost. Freedom was about to be his.
Then reality hit him hard. Over two months of lying prone and unmoving had left his body weak. A feeding tube was jammed down his throat. He tried to move his hands, that were lying on the pillow above his head, but he couldn't. The room was slowly coming into focus, but his eyes didn't seem to work very well. After stretching his fingers a few times, he felt around with them and realized Dean had handcuffed him to the bed.
Slowly, painfully, he rolled onto his stomach and used his hands to pull out the feeding tube. His eyes were working better now, he could see the others one of which, to his surprise was Elizabeth. “What is she doing in there?” he thought. Another girl he didn't even recognize. He wondered if William and Jim knew about them. Using his feet he was sure he could hit the power switch on the white box under Elizabeth's bed, the one that housed the mind connection equipment, but he was certain that would only lead to his recapture.
The next closest was William; the head of his bed was against the foot of Troy's. Stretching as far as he could Troy was able to touch the white box with his foot, but not quite far enough to reach the switch. Unable to think of anything else, he kicked the box as hard as his weak legs would let him. Pain shot up his leg. Hearing a noise, Dean Senoma walked into the room, magazine in hand. Seeing Troy awake and moving he immediately stepped out of the room. When he returned a moment later, he was pointing a pistol right at Troy.
“How did you get out?” Dean demanded.
Not wanting to give anything away, Troy held his tongue—he wasn't sure if it still worked anyway. For good measure he kicked the white box a second time, but the only result was his own wincing. Dean walked over to the desk and shook the mouse. The screen lit up showing a window that was tracking the status of the computer's memory. It said sixty-one percent full.
“Something must have gone wrong with your connection. I should kill you now,” said Dean, “but William will want to see that you are still alive.” He waited for a response, but Troy wouldn't give one. “In fact, I think I'll send you back to the Origin right now. Perhaps having another one of his friends around will help him change his mind.”
Realizing he was about to be sent back into the Endless Frontier, Troy raised himself to his knees and stretched out his neck away from the pillow. His effort was rewarded as Dean cursed at the computer when it wouldn't connect. Seeing Troy's defiant effort he retrieved a syringe. In his weakened condition Troy couldn't put up much of a fight, but he did his best. In only a matter of moments, Dean had emptied the contents of the syringe into his arm. He lay back on the bed and drifted into the Endless Frontier.