Here it is:
The group of Scatterlings walked diffidently towards the dome. All lost deep in thought. Merlin looked over to Ford, and felt a stab of pain for remembering of what their friendship once was, and how she destroyed it. Once now, more than ever in her life, she wished she could rewind and eradicate those words from existence. But what’s done is done. All her will power now could do nothing for it. She was brought back to reality as the dome door vaporised at the press of the button, and a Citizen God walked out.
Seer walked down quickly to the glass dome to converse with the Citizen God. After a moment of quick exchange, both Seer and the Citizen God crossed their right arms over to the left side of their chest, across their heart, sealing the bargain. Seer crossed back up the hill with the results.
“Well?†Merlin queried.
“They have allowed us in. I told them we have one of their collars and they wanted it back. They said that is the reason Merlin has no memory. They promised to restore her memory to her.†Seer replied.
“How do you know that we can trust them?†Merlin asked.
“No one breaks a blood oath. Besides, they gave me this.†With that said Seer pulled at a grey, round disk and aimed it at a tree. He pressed a button in the centre of it, and where a tree once stood, there was now a clearing. Everyone stood in awe for a moment, considering what they should do. Seer yelled at the Scatterlings to get moving, relieving them of the duty of decision making. Promptly walking down to the Dome, trepidation filled Merlins heart, aching out to every limb and neuron in her body. Again, the door opened, and the same Citizen God was there in his white suit, which stopped their fragile bodies from being poisoned by the environment. Turning around, the Citizen God beckoned for them to follow. The elevator in which they stepped was made out of a dark blue metal, like most of the rest of the dome. It whirred down at a prodigious speed, only stopping once they came to the final floor. With a clunk and a whirr, the elevator doors opened. The Scatterlings stepped out into the main hall and stared at the space around them. Old buildings stood above and around them, consumed by ruin. The dim grey light around them played on the buildings, giving the weeds and broken windows an eerie appearance. All the streets around were deserted. There were no signs of life, and it was impossible to think that anyone could live in such a place of ruin and anguish. Every single human instinct went against walking into this place, so how could anyone tolerate living here, when every day your body wanted to throw itself away from where you lived and worked. Slowly they walked forward, and with every stride, the hair on the back of Merlins neck stood further on edge. She and Ford glanced over at each other at the same time, but with Merlin could not bear to look at him. She turned away swiftly, again reminded of the pain she caused him. She knew what a fool she had been, for Merlin was lucky that he found her, otherwise she might not still be alive or free.
“Through here†directed the Citizen God, pointing towards a grey door on the other side of the room, with some form of symbolic marking on it. Confidently, Seer walked up to the door. On opening the door released some kind of sleeping gas. Merlin realised they had been betrayed, as she faded into eternal darkness.
She woke to the sound of debate, but it ceased as soon as she showed a sign of movement. Upon opening her eyes, the Citizen God who had brought her in welcomed her back.
“Welcome back to the land of the living. Did you have a nice sleep? I’m sure you did. That gas works on everyone. I suppose you have many questions, but they will all be answered after you do something for us. Do you want to know what that something is?â€ÂÂ<br>“Not really†replied Merlin calmly, somewhat deflating Andrew, the Citizen God.
“Well you are going to find out anyway, and then you are going to do it for us. How does that sound?†queried Andrew, not really looking for an answer.
“Not until I speak to my friends†demanded Merlin.
“Good, I see you haven’t been completely brainwashed. I am surprised at your level of development though, I was expecting nothing like this. You do realise this is the first time I have seen you awake, don’t you? Good. Well, I don’t expect you to know what I am talking about, seeing as we haven’t told you yet, have we. No. But you will learn everything after you do this little task for us. What we need you to do is to get inside the main computer using your telekinetic ability, and unlock a door to an object of ours, a D-Jumper. We need to get you to do it, because anyone of us who tries to get to it gets blocked off by the computer program. We have experimented with many others of your breed, but none have been successful. You may have noticed the voids? Well, they are those who have tried and failed. We need to get you to demonstrate on a simulation first that you are able to do it, and then you will tackle the main computer. If you survive†Andrew explained in a long winded sentence.
“Not until you allow me to speak to Seer†Merlin repeated. After a brief discussion with the other scientists around, Andrew turned back to Merlin.
“Ok, we will organise this for you straight away, for we need to be able to have the D-Jumper ready for use as soon as possible†he finally agreed.
A little while later Merlin was called over into another room. The room was reasonably large, and had many cages in it. The desks were covered in test tubes, and the cages were filled with people. There was a separate mass of cages set apart from the rest, specifically for the Scatterlings. Andrew led her over to one of the cages which contained the Scatterlings’ leader, Seer. She walked over to him and looked through the cage bars, filled with sorrow and compassion, with the thought that if she never came to this world, Seer, Ford and the others would never be in this situation. She was wondering why none of them said anything, when she noticed a collar around each of their necks. The collars, when activated, made you completely simplified, obeying any order given, not being aware of your existence. Andrew then asked
“Which one would you like to speak to?â€ÂÂ<br>“The same one that I said in the beginning; Seer†she replied. At that, Andrew pointed a control switch at Seer, and pressed a small blue button right in the centre of it.
“Wha…..Where am I? What’s happened?†questioned Seer, looking around behind his shoulder, checking there was no hidden danger.
“You are in the Citizen Gods’ Dome. We were betrayed, and everyone except for me was collared. The only way we can get out of this mess is if I do something for the Citizen Gods†she explained.
“What might that something be?†queried Seer.
“To access their main computer using telekinesis and unlock a door for them so that they can have entry to their D-Jumper†the reply came.
“Is there any……†Seer trailed off as the collar was reactivated.
“But you said-†Merlin protested, but was cut off half way through.
“I said you could speak to him. I didn’t say for how long. We kept up our end of the bargain, now you keep up yours†instructed Andrew, as he led her in the direction of the simulation computer.
After a short while of walking, they came to a little seat, concealed behind a wall. Directly in front of it was a glass wall, behind which was a computer in a dark room. Andrew ordered her to sit down, and then walked over to a control panel.
“Do you stuff†he ordered.
“What ‘stuff’†she asked, completely bewildered.
“Open the door†once again he ordered. Merlin had no idea what to do. Though she had been told that she had telekinetic abilities, she had no idea what to do.
“Hurry up†Andrew ordered.
“It is like our minds have hands sometimes, they do what they want, when they want†her memory offered. This gave her an idea. She imagined her mind having a hand reaching out for the computer. Suddenly, she could see herself through the glass, sitting down, eyes closed, with a look of determination on her face. She turned around to face the computer, amazed at her new found ability. Though she still had no idea how she was going to get into the computer. She decided if she had projected herself this far, why not project herself into the cursor of the mouse, as this is one of the controlling points of the mouse. She attempted this and got in, but as soon as she did, she felt a rush of data flowing into her brain. Luckily her natural shielding ability blocked this too, other wise she would have ended up as a voids, just like the others who tried. She tried again, only this time, requesting that only a small, harmless flow of information be sent. This worked. She spent some time moving around inside the computer, exploring everything. Suddenly, she stumbled across the networking data. Merlin realised that if she wanted to, she could travel to the main computer from here. Allowing herself to be pulled along to it by the electronic pulses, she ended up in the mainframe. From there, she realised she had control over the whole dome. She could alter anything she wanted and the Citizen Gods couldn’t do anything about it, including turning off the air supply. Merlin weighed up the possibilities of both instances. She could turn off the air supply and kill the Citizen Gods, along with herself and the Scatterlings. Or she could do as they asked, and still have the possibility of being caged up forever with a collar on, or being killed herself. After another short moment of contemplating, she decided she would turn off the air supply, and take the Citizen Gods down with her. Altering the settings, she quickly withdrew into her own mind. She opened her eyes only long enough to see Andrew slump to the ground unconscious, her vision faded into darkness and she too did the same.