U T O P I A

Chapter 1

She was standing before a window, a clear sky in front of her. That was the first thing she noticed was wrong about what she was seeing. The sky in Utopia was never clear, instead it was always smothered in thick grey clouds and hidden behind a smoky haze. But this sky, it was bright and blue, a strange sight for eyes that had never seen what it looked like beneath those clouds before. The second thing she noticed was the golden, glowing orb high in the sky. The sun was a sight just as rare as the blue of the sky. Some days you could see a faint glow behind the clouds, but that glow was always red, not gold like this one.

Lifting a hand, she was reaching out to touch the window when her scenery changed. This time she was seated on a couch, staring at a screen mounted on the wall. On the screen, images of burning buildings and people running were being shown. Feeling people beside her, Lysa tried to turn her head to look at them but found herself unable to move.

'The council warns everyone to be wary. We can only hope...' The voice coming from the screen trailed away as Lysa's world shifted again.

She could feel her legs moving but couldn't quite see ahead of her. There were people around her, all walking in the same direction. She was following them into the darkness, that much she could gather. Aside from that, she had no clue of what they were all doing in this place. Somewhere ahead, a soft glow appeared before them and they moved towards it. As they grew closer, Lysa could see that the glow came from a large open space with lights in the ceiling. Covering the floor were hundreds of people, perhaps even thousands. They huddled together in small clumps, all looking lost and alone. All looking afraid.

Before she could find out anything more, the people disappeared and she was on a street, leaning on a car. Someone was beside her, but she suddenly became aware of the people on the other side of the car. They were standing, almost appearing to be marching towards her. Something exploded to her right and she leapt sideways into the person there.

'We have to go,' a male voice told her. Involuntarily, she nodded and stood. Lysa tried desperately to stop her body as she and the man ran out from behind the car, another explosion going off just ahead of them. She wanted to scream but couldn't open her mouth as her scenery changed again.

Now, she was sitting, her back leaning against a wall. There was a man beside her again and this time, she was staring at his face. Only, his face was made entirely of metal.

'Alex,' her lips moved with permission and the voice that came out didn't exactly sound like hers. 'If I die, what will you do?'

'You don't have to worry about that,' the voice that came from the metal face was the same as the one she'd been behind the car with. 'Because I won't let you die.'

She didn't say anything more, only continued to look at his face. His human-like, metallic face...

Lysa's eyes snapped open, her pupils swallowing her bright blue eyes as they struggled to take the scraps of light in the darkened room. Her ceiling came into focus above her and she turned her head from side to side, looking around her darkened room. Her brows creased in thought, she was confused about the flurry of images she'd seen. And whose face had that been? Lifting her head from her pillow, she scanned her room, searching for any of the things she'd just been. None of them were there.

So what had she seen?

Her train of thought was interrupted a moment later when the device on her forehead sent a few sparks raining down across her vision. With a little yelp, Lysa ripped it off and flung it onto the floor.

Crack.

A thin, white line ran across the device's smooth surface but that wasn't the only thing that was wrong with it. Tiny, golden sparks flew from it and the blue light that indicated whether the device was on or off flickered constantly for a few seconds before switching off. The sparks stopped.

She climbed out of bed, bending down to take a closer look but not daring to touch it in case something happened.

This was the device which controlled her sleep and if it was broken, it must have meant that what she'd just seen had all been a dream. That place, that other world and all of its people, had all been a dream, created by her own mind. But the people of Utopia were not supposed to dream, that was the whole reason that they had the devices in the first place.

And yet she, Lysa Connors, had just had a dream.

She didn't know what to think. The dream had been kind of wonderful but scary at the same time. The world she'd created had seemed incredible, but bad things had happened to her in it. The people in it had all seemed so sad and lonely, too. All except for that man, Alex. The one who had said he wouldn't let her die. But why would she have died? And why hadn't she been able to control her own actions?

The lights in the ceiling turned themselves on, having of sensed that the movement in the room was because she was out of bed and not just rolling around in her sleep. They were very dim, but the light still burned her eyes which hadn't had any time to prepare for the assault on them. A robotic arm extended from the wall to smooth out the bed covers she'd tossed aside and waited for her to climb back into bed.

With a final glance at the sleep control device, Lysa straightened and climbed back into bed. The device was a problem for the morning and at that point in time, it was night and she was far too tired to sort it out. As she rested her head on the pillow once more and the lights dimmed, she closed her eyes and a part of her hoped she'd dream again while another part wished she'd never had that dream in the first place.

For the rest of the night, no dreams came.