SOLO ELITE THE GREAT AWAKENING

Suddenly my body jerked three times hard, as if I were being shocked back to life, and, with each shock, a bright white flash soon followed. I kept my eyes closed in fear of what I might see, because I really didn’t know if I was dead or alive. I was bombarded with the familiar smells of fresh grass that entered my nostrils, saturating the top of my skull, which gave me just enough courage to consider opening my eyes.

The light poured through my eyelids, and slowly I opened my eyes and was immediately blinded by the light of the day, as if I were a newborn baby who had never seen light before. The searing pain of the daylight reached back far in my brain, and immediately my eyelids shut. Slowly I tried once more to open my eyes, but, this time, the pain resided, and my vision came to me, blurry, but still revealing shades of green consistent with that of grass.

“Oh, no! My glasses! I must have lost them in the ocean!” I thought to myself. I did not dare make any full-body moments since I could be an easy target, being unable to move yet, plus blind. I tried my best to lie here, absolutely still, thinking through the possible places where I might be. As my sight came to me, I found that none of my present environment had come close to anything I could ever dream of in my wildest dreams.

I was indeed lying in a tall grassy field, but that was a very minor comforting fact. By now I could see perfectly. The dark gray clouds above me appeared to be leaping forward and moving like mangled worms in a foam bait cup, thrashing around to escape. Down from above and then through the wilted blades of grass came a wind, breathing an ashlike dust that saturated my clothes and my surroundings.

“Where am I, and how did I end up here? I sunk downward and yet ended on top of a hill? It is possible, I guess, if I came from one side of the Earth and pushed through the other side and came from the ground.”

Still lying here, I wiggled my toes. “Check. Those are working.” Next I wiggled my fingers. “Check. OK, I am in one piece.” Despite my situation, physically I felt remarkable. In fact I felt better than I ever had. My lungs did not hurt as they normally did, and, although I had lost my glasses, I could see even better without them. I could, in fact, see perfectly. Lifting my head up above the grass line, I was taken aback.

Most would look upon these surroundings as weird and unstable, but I found beauty in it, as if it were a painting that was perfectly imperfect. The breath from above carried a sweet perfume that blew the grass in a rhythmic wave. The sun glowed neon purple from behind the clouds that were rumbling and moaning, tossing and tumbling, casting out pure gray into the sky like a smokestack. Even the waves of the rivers seemed to be in disagreement, flowing in whatever direction they desired.

My words could not give justice to what I was seeing; all I knew was that it was definitely not of my world. There were a few similarities to our world, but even those things were beautifully unique. I quickly rolled over and sat up, eager to get a better view of everything, but I was met with the startling realization that I just might be dead. I thought to myself, Let me see. I was on a boat with Teddy. Oh, my God! Teddy! What am I’m going to tell his mom and dad? Mom! Oh, Mama, I want to come home! Mom would surely search for me when she wakes up! But who knows when that’ll be!”

It was at that point I felt so alone and a bit uneasy. Sitting here in the tall grass, I put my head between my knees and began to cry.

“Um, miss?” I heard a boy’s voice say.

I paused for a moment and wiped my eyes. Looking up, I could barely make out the figure because I was directly facing the sun.

With my hand blocking the light, I nervously answered, “Yes?”

The figure moved directly in front of my eyes, and I was able to focus on him. He was a small boy about my age with messy black hair much like a doll’s hair. He wore an odd-looking hat that looked like the one Teddy wore. The rest of his clothing was strange as well. He had brown leather skins wrapped around his feet that were tied together with a piece of cloth; his pants and shirt seemed to be made of the same material. On his back he carried a long sword that looked very beat up and old.

The boy spoke and said, “I saw you sitting up here, and you looked very upset, so I …”

But, before he could finish, I cut him off and said, “It’s OK. I am OK. I’m just upset because I don’t know how I got here, where my friend Teddy is, or even where I am.”

He replied, “I am sorry. Forgive me. This is the land of Kenosh, and my name is Adam.”

I thought for a moment about the bell on the boat and how the word Kenosh was on it. I stood up and said, “I am Robin.”

Adam quickly dropped to one knee and bowed his head, removing the sword from his back and presenting it to me.

“My queen, it is you. My apologies. The people of Kenosh have been waiting on your return.”

“Queen? No. Look, it’s Adam, right? You must be mistaken. I am no queen. I am just a little girl from Texas! My mom still tucks me in at night, and I sleep with a night-light! I don’t know how I even got here!”

Adam returned the sword to its scabbard on his back and grabbed my hand and stood, pulling me up. “Come on. I can explain that. There is so much I have to show you!”

I walked a few feet behind Adam as we made our way down a hill to a village that appeared to be deserted with much of it burnt down. Adam explained that, at one point, the village was thriving with people from all over, who came together to question their own arrivals here and, through this, they had formed communities. The elders had opened their eyes to see that they had been brought together for a reason, but the town had come under attack by men they called the Swine, who have only hatred in their veins.

” You are the only one left, aren’t you?”

“Yes, my mother was taken by the Swine, and I miss her dearly. I also have a brother, but that’s another story. So it’s been just me for almost a year now. It’s going to get dark soon. Right this way, let me show you where I live.”

I nodded my head, and we walked between what was left of two buildings and headed toward some collapsed rubble. How could anyone live here? I thought to myself. Adam lifted a piece of wood, a makeshift door, that was hanging by a pair of crude door hinges—made of two wires looped through the wood and hung on a piece of steel and then stretched across to both sides of the buildings as a stabilizer.

“Come on. It’s safer than it looks. I promise,” he said.

For a moment I paused and was a little unsure about what to do, but I could see that Adam meant no harm, so I ducked my head and went in, and Adam followed behind me and shut the door. “It’s very dark in here,” I said, scanning the area with my hands. I could hear Adam fumbling around the room, knocking things over and making loud banging sounds, cursing at one point as he stubbed his toe. Then Adam struck a match and lit a lantern on a table.

“You’ll have to excuse the mess. I don’t get much company, as you can imagine.”

My stomach growled, and I realized how very hungry I was.

“Do you have anything to eat?” I asked.

“Yes, of course. Here, have a seat, and I’ll get you something,” said Adam, while using his hand to dust a small section of the floor in front of the table.

I made my way to the small round table that was very low to the ground and crossed my legs and sat down. I watched Adam as he fumbled around nervously in the cabinets, opening one door, then the next.

“Oh, I know! I’ll be right back!” he said while running out the door.

I could see shadows moving around outside through the cracks in the wall as the dust Adam stirred up began to seep inside. After carefully listening to the growing ruckus outside, I noticed the shadows moving faster.

“What in the world is he doing?” I chuckled.

“Come here, you!” screamed Adam, when suddenly I heard the sound of a chicken squawking and flapping its wings.

Adam yelled in pain as the chicken pecked and clawed at him while they scuffled. I watched for at least a minute as the shadows danced back and forth before abruptly stopping. The larger of the two shadows paused for a moment before fading off. I then turned to the door expecting to see Adam’s shadow and anxious to see the aftermath, when suddenly the door flew open, startling me, which made me jump and scream in terror, “Oh, holy crap!”

Even such petty words would not fly in Mama’s house, so I naturally covered my mouth expecting to get in trouble. Walking in, Adam ducked his head, holding a dead brown-colored chicken in one hand.

“Holy crap? Not necessarily the response I would expect from a queen, but OK,” he said, while laughing and shrugging his shoulders.

Adam slapped down the chicken on the table before me and grabbed an iron rod, prodding it into the fire pit, churning up coals from the bottom that were still smoldering .I watched as Adam quickly plucked the chicken feathers and prepared the meat like a pro before putting it in a pot and burying it in the hot coals. I did not really say much because I thought Adam was cute, and that made me nervous.

After dusting off his hands, he poured me a cup of water and sat down and said, “It’ll be a while before it’s done.”

I smiled, and our gazes met across the table, and an uncomfortable silence came over us. At the same time we both turned from each other, a little embarrassed, and began digging for conversation. Adam jumped at every opportunity to check on the food as a way to escape the awkwardness. We attempted any small talk we could think of until he finished cooking.

“OK, it’s done,” said Adam, while slamming down a huge chicken leg in front of me.

He did his best to make me smile with corny jokes, and, after a while, I became comfortable. We ate and laughed, and, although I did feel very welcome, I could not shake why he had kept calling me his queen, nor how much I missed Mama and Teddy, nor how I even got here in the first place.

“Adam? You keep referring to me as your queen. How do you know that I am your queen?”

Adam leaned back against the wall with his arms behind his head and said, “Our people have been fighting for their lives for thousands of years. Some have won. Others have given up their hope to the Swine and have passed on. There is no discrimination in the eyes of the Swine. It is only our flesh that is the barrier to their desire. Men, women and even children come here for the same reason I have.”

“And what is that reason?”

“It’s too much for you to handle right now, and, in time, all things will be revealed.”

Adam stood up and uncovered a dusty box, flipping the latch and opening it. Reaching inside, he pulled out a piece of paper, rolled up and sealed with wax bearing the letter K. Adam handed it to me. After breaking the seal, I unrolled it on the table in front of me. He stood beside me and pointed at a girl standing on top of a hill that looked very much like me.

”You see? It is you, Robin. You have been here before but don’t remember. The scrolls say that the Robin with great wings will come from one side of the world, through the ocean to the land of Kenosh, and, on that day, whispers will fall on the ears of the Swine that the Elite One has returned, bringing an unsettling fear into their hearts. You have returned to lead us in the battle that will ultimately be the destruction of the Swine.”

As he stood there talking, I felt as if I did, indeed, remember being here before and that my mind had been awoken from a great sleep.