I was born into chaos and madness. All my life, I had trained for one reason and one reason only. To fight the madness. Today was the first step of my fight. Today, I turned sixteen and soon Unlocked my connection to the Trinity.

  It happened sometime during the night. A sudden shock of pain tore me from a dark slumber. I couldn’t remember what my dream was about, but I knew it was better than what I woke up to. Pain — endless, unceasing pain. At least, it felt like it. I thought it would never end. I clutched my chest, trying to squeeze the pain to a stop. My hands felt numb against the searing agony sinking deeper into my chest. I clenched my teeth against a scream, drool fell from my lips. I sat up in bed, swung my legs over the edge, and then fell to my knees.

  My vision filled with glowing lines of red light and glitching flashes of gray. Looking out at my room — a former broom closet from the Older World housing nothing more than a twin-sized bed and a side table with a reading lamp — twisted out from under me. It caused my head to spin as everything shifted in and out of focus. The red lights grew stronger, causing me to close my eyes against the menacing glow. It didn’t help. The lights were not coming from somewhere in my room but within my vision. The striated beams of crimson and stone-gray began to slide up and down within the blackness of my mind. I wanted it to stop. It was overwhelming and agonizing, and on top of the pain still infecting the rest of my body, I thought I was about to die.

  I opened my eyes again and reached out to grab the edge of my bedside table. I tried to stabilize myself, pulling myself up to my feet, but when my knees buckled underneath, I fell and knocked my lamp from its perch. I landed hard on my side and then curled up in the fetal position. I tried to call out to my dad to ask him to help me, but all I could do was let out spit and clench my teeth again.

  As I lay, curled against the agony encompassing my entire self, I felt something enter the room. Not in a physical sense. The door was shut, and the hallway lights were still off. No, this was something else. Something grander than the space it allowed itself to enter. A form which had no form. A presence not entirely present within my reality. I didn’t need to look around to know what it was. The Trinity had come to me. It did not speak. It did not reach out to comfort me. It was only there to acknowledge the power it had finally Unlocked within me.

  [System Notification]

  [Connection to Trinity Initialized]

  [Uplink Finalized]

  [Warden Pierce Connection 100%]

  [Neural Link Unlocked]

  The pain had ceased. The encumbering presence of something godlike had suddenly vanished from my room. The fast-moving lines of light had faded away, and I was left staring at the bottom of my bedside table. Broken glass lay on the ground before me, from the shattered remains of my lamp.

  I lay on the cold, hard ground for hours. I felt my heartbeat begin to slow and my breathing return to an even pace. Sweat drenched my forehead, leaving an uncomfortable itch. I felt the itch crawl across my skin and down my spine. When I felt strong enough, I reached up with the back of my hand and wiped the drool seeping from the corner of my mouth. When I pulled my hand back, I noticed the spit was a darker color than I expected despite the shadows painting my room. I had bled from my teeth or perhaps bit my lip during my sudden attack.

  My body was shaking now from a cold drift of air coming in from under my door. The crawling gooseflesh made its way up my back and caused me to shudder. My body felt sore, my arms weak, and my legs as tired as if I had worked a long day heaving wheat bags with my father. I needed rest. Every fiber of my being screamed for rest and peace. To let the day end and night take me. I needed to lie down, put my head back on my pillow, and let the dreams ease my pain.

  I struggled to put my elbow underneath me, but once I did, I was able to roll to a seated position and let my head rest on the cool metal framing of my bed. After a few minutes of heavy breathing and heavier eyes, I managed to gain enough energy to pull myself back into bed. Then a light flicked on outside my door.

  I could hear the sound of light boot steps making their way down a long, echoing hallway. A shadow appeared under the door frame, followed by a gentle knock.

  “Ward. Time to get up,” Ian Pearce said, knocking a second time.

  “Da… Dad…” I tried to call out and let him know I couldn’t move. I needed his help, and he needed to know my connection had been Unlocked. When I didn’t answer right away, he knocked a third time. “Ward, let’s get moving. Don’t want to waste the day.” I placed my hand down and attempted to get in a seated position, hoping it would help me in my futile attempt to answer my father. However, my hand rested on the edge of the teetering bedside table, and when I pushed, it fell to the side. I landed back on my pillow and listened as the small wooden table clattered to the floor.

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  “Ward? Are you alright?” Another knock came, but this time, it was followed by my father opening the door and letting the phosphorescent lights of the hallway pool into my room. I squinted against the light and tried to speak again. “Ward! No… No, it can’t be.”

  My dad rushed to my side, put his hand on the nape of my neck, and helped me sit up. “It’s happened. You’ve Unlocked your connection. I thought we would have more time. A few more days or even weeks. Ward, what do you see? Ward?”

  My father had waved his hands in front of my face, trying to help me focus my eyes. Its motion was only a blur to me and even his aging eyes a distant horizon. My dad was a strong man despite his stature. He was shorter than me, mainly due to his constant arch to his back, making him bend over slightly. He was clean-shaven and had a bald head which reflected the hallway lights brilliantly. He was wearing his overalls over his sweat-stained shirt and had a knapsack thrown over his shoulder. He was the [Master of Harvest] in our community, and a lot of people depended on him, and right then, I depended on him.

  “Ward? Tell me, son. Do you see anything? Focus… focus.” My father’s voice began to fade as my consciousness faded with it. “Stay awake. C’mon focus. What do you see?”

  I closed my eyes and let sleep begin to drag me away. It was helpless to resist, and I didn’t want to resist. It felt good to let the dreams cover me like a warm blanket and let me rest. But, before my mind fell and I let sleep take me, something appeared in my vision. A single line of text glowing with red neon. I did as my dad commanded and focused on what it said.

  [Welcome to the Fallen States]

  It would be another few days before I woke from my slumber. It was the first thing my father said when I finally managed to wake up. He said it was natural for those newly Unlocked to have a traumatic experience and require extended rest. It was something I already knew without him having to tell me. A lesson drilled into my mind since I was eight years old. A lesson the First Unlocked had insisted every child learn. Once a human reaches the age of sixteen, they begin a countdown. The time was unknown. The date of the Unlocking was a mystery, but one thing was for certain. Every sixteen-year-old had their connection Unlocked before their next birthday. Mine just happened to unlock the very day I turned sixteen. Happy birthday to me.

  “Well, everything seems fine. I don’t see anything unusual about his Unlocking. Though it did leave him a nasty scar on his lip. Bad luck I suppose. I think he’ll be fine,” Dr. Matthias let his small flashlight fall from my eyes and placed it back into his coat pocket. He then reached over, grabbed a small clipboard, and sat on a small stool beside my bed. “See anything yet?”

  “Besides the welcome notification, nothing,” I answered.

  “It’s not uncommon but if you do start seeing more notifications, please let your father know,” Dr. Matthias pulled out a short pencil, sharpened down to no more than an inch of its life, and wrote something down.

  “The Trials are in a few days, aren’t they?” I asked my father.

  He didn’t answer me right away. Instead, he folded his arms, looked to the ground, and sighed. “Yes. There isn’t much time.”

  “But I’ve been training for this my whole life. As long as I do what I was told I should be fine. Right?”

  My father and Dr. Matthias gave each other a stern look. A look I knew held answers I wanted but felt I already knew. The Trials were dangerous no matter how much training a newly Unlocked had. I had worked hard in every aspect of my training growing up. Hand-to-hand combat, scavenging, fire-making, armor repair, and even firing a gun. I was good at all of it but it didn’t always matter. The stories I was told about the Trials were different for everyone. No one knew exactly what to expect. The only thing in common was seeing the Trinity awaiting those who managed to survive. If you completed the Trials, then you received your first Linked Weapon and opened up your chosen Class Pathway.

  Dr. Matthias and my dad were among the first people initiated into the Fallen States. They were alive when their homes used to be called United. Then everything changed for them. The entire human race was almost wiped out overnight. The only saving grace was the being known as the Trinity. The only benevolent Fallen now ruling the world above. A world of monsters, chaos and madness. A world the surviving people fought back against every day.

  My father completed his Trials right when the world collapsed. He never told me what happened during his Trial and despite the years of training and hard work, he had rejected the premise of progressing. He was only Level 17 with the highest-ranked skill being two stars. His Class Pathway was Scavenger with a specialization in Farming. It wasn’t exactly a fighting Class or even a class meant for surviving. It was a support class he chose so he could help others. He was given the title of [Master of Harvests] by improving upon his support abilities. It sounded cooler than it was.

  Dr. Matthias also chose a Class Pathway and specialization more fitting to helping others. As a Preacher specializing in Medicine, he had Unlocked the Title of [Doctor]. Unlike my dad, Dr. Matthias worked on leveling his abilities. He had reached Level 50 and had a maxed-out skill at five stars, Pharmacology. He created most of the medicine and aids for The Quarters. Without him, almost everyone here would have died a long time ago.

  “Ward… It’s not that simple,” My father finally said.

  “It’s never simple. The world is madness and so are the Trials,” Dr. Matthias said. “But everyone has to do them. Just keep your head down, keep moving forward, and if you hear someone screaming. Run.”