Hello there! Welcome! Welcome back to the Future. Thanks for continuing to read. That's amazing to me.
Present time, in the year 139:
The boy from Earth's past staggered about the darkened lab, breathing between sobs of sadness and despair. His head ached, and he grabbed at his skull, trying to contain an unrelenting pain. He studied his arms and legs, which felt numb and heavy, as if not his own, unrecognizable; the body of a stranger. Everything seemed wrong. Everything was different. He was different. He let loose a contracted cry and scream, and collapsed to the floor, weeping.
Minutes later, the young man was able to ease his breathing, but a torment remained in his chest. His eyes pulsed an electric blue. From his crouched position, he blinked and squinted at his dark, half-lit surroundings. The isolation lab was empty; without life, without solace. Alessandro was truly alone, a stranger in a strange land. He closed his eyes and shook his head, his headache still slashing through his temples. He took a hand to his forehead to soothe his troubled mind.
The situation was without resolution. What am I to do, Alessandro thought. He slid a hand over his neck, not thinking, until his fingers ran over a certain, scarred surface -- evoking a phantom menace. He gasped. He feared his submittance. He gritted his teeth and stood up at once. He could not escape his being. He threw his arms out in the air, trying to suppress another outburst of despair; pleading, imploring.
And then, he noticed it there, still in his hand. The reflecting disc. He had forgotten he had been clutching it this entire time. The glass lens was shiny and transparent, roughly the size of his palm, capable of magnifying the tiniest of objects, but also as Alessandro had discovered, capable of revealing a specific truth, serving as a kind-of magic mirror for himself.
Intrigued, Alessandro had noticed that the glass disc reflected his outer clothing -- but did not show his corporeal head or body. His pullover shirt would parallel his truncal movements, but his bare face and arms were nowhere to be seen. Initially odd, but then instantly horrifying. The lens had revealed an inner truth -- an invisible man -- or more frighteningly, someone without a soul; Alessandro's true self as a demon.
He shook himself back to present time and tightened his jaw. He leaned back and threw the lens to the floor, shattering it into a thousand pieces. He fell to the ground and laid amongst his broken dreams, crying again.
———-
"Alessandro!"
Elliot had entered the isolation room of the pathology lab and found the young stranger sprawled out upon a minefield of broken glass.
"What happened? Are you hurt?"
Alessandro looked up from an outstretched arm.
Elliot's eyes widened.
Alessandro looked different. His eyes were puffy, engorged and bloodshot. Moreover, his face had filled out, and his jawline had lengthened. His hair had grown longer and thicker.
"W-what happened to you?"
The boy froze and looked again at his extremities, which were more sculptured than he had remembered. His clothes and body were covered in glass, the sharp pieces jabbing into the exposed areas of his arms and face.
Elliot followed Alessandro's gaze to the shattered glass.
"You're lucky you're not bleeding," Elliot exclaimed. He reached in to remove a jagged shard.
The young teen threw up an arm. "Don't touch me!" he said in a deep, unfamiliar voice.
Elliot raised his eyebrows. "Whoa, hold still! If you're not careful, you're going to need stitches!"
"I don't want to hurt anyone!"
Elliot cocked his head backward. "Of course not! That's why we need to remove all of this glass!"
Alessandro pulled away and rolled onto his back, smashing the glass beneath him. He gathered himself into a ball. Hidden from view, he wiped a melancholic wetness from his eyes.
"Are you hurt?" Elliot repeated. He bent down and shuffled closer. He pulled some glass from the boy's hair, but did not notice any wounds that needed attention. He removed a few more of the larger sharps from the boy's clothing. "What happened, Aless?"
The stranger sniffled and hung his head.
Elliot surveyed the lab. Nothing seemed to be amiss or out of place. However, to one side, the remains of a thin, metal frame lay twisted among the fragmented glass; the remains of an optical lens, found in telescopes in other parts of the department.
"What the--? The Professor's gonna kill me," Elliot murmured.
"Dr. Elliot?"
Elliot turned his head. "Wha—?"
"Am I a prisoner here?"
"Of course not, Aless."
"Then why am I being kept here?"
Elliot sighed. "You haven't cleared quarantine. We're protecting you, as well as everyone else here."
Elliot attempted to pick out another shard, but Alessandro pulled away again. The boy from Earth's past shook his head, tossing more loose glass from his scalp. He wiped his clothes brusquely.
"What is the truth, Sir? Am I a guinea pig? For your experiments?"
"No!"
"Then, when may I leave?"
"Oh, Aless! Soon, soon!"
But soon was not soon enough. Instead, the two young men remained there, crouched and unmoving, each contemplating the current situation.
Elliot brushed away more of the glass shards on the floor. "Leave this place? Where would you go?"
"I don't know," the strange boy answered. "Somewhere far away."
"You cannot just go anywhere. The Outer World is dangerous."
"It's dangerous here, too."
Elliot froze. He stared back into Alessandro's eyes.
"N-no, you don't understand. After the Third World War, the animals changed -- they mutated. They're bigger and faster now. They've become our enemies."
"Which animals, Sir?"
"Many of them prey on us, but the Canines -- the dogs and wolves -- they are the most threatening."
"But dogs are man's best friend."
"Not anymore, they're not! That's partly why we live here at Anderson, for safety reasons."
"You live here, Dr. Elliot?"
"Why, yes, all of the students live here."
"Students?" Alessandro sat up straighter.
A side of Elliot's lips curled upward at the amused response. "Anderson is a lot of things -- a science and research facility, a medical treatment center -- but it's also a school. A lot of children grow up here. Like me! I've lived my whole life here."
"What do the students study, Sir?"
"It's 'Elliot,' " Elliot answered. "Not 'Sir' and not 'Doctor.' " He smiled at the thought. "It's just 'Elliot." You're only called 'Doctor' if you stay after graduation and teach, or do research."
"Oh, I see, uh..."
"Just call me 'Elliot.' "
"Thank you, err, Elliot. Um, what do the students study here, Sir?"
Elliot smiled again.
"Well, we study math and science, but before graduation, you get to study something based on your strengths and interests. Really, you can study almost anything."
"What do you study, Sir?"
"Um, pathology."
Alessandro crinkled his nose.
"It's, eh, it's the study of diseases," Elliot clarified.
"Oh, I see," Alessandro replied.
Elliot's mouth shifted. "Yeah, I know. It's a strange thing to study. I'm not really sure how that happened..." He paused. "Anyway, Anderson is where children can live and learn -- safely -- until adulthood, before moving on to the Outer World. The idea is that when you graduate, you share your knowledge with the other human communities... "
Elliot chuckled.
"... to make the world a better place."
He said the words in a jilted manner.
"Sir?"
"Oh, nothing," Elliot smirked.
Alessandro persisted.
Elliot sighed. "The scientists here try to force a peace-loving philosophy on everyone."
Alessandro thought for a second. "Everyone longs for peace and love, Sir."
Elliot stared. "It's impossible," he replied. "There is no such thing as peace. You're either exerting control over your enemies, or they're exerting control over you. And all the animals are dangerous. Yet, for some reason, Anderson persists in taking care of them."
"You care for your enemies, Sir! Like St. Francis or Dr. Doolittle!"
Elliot scoffed.
"Well, I don't know a Do-Little, but you can't trust canines. They're wild and unpredictable. You could end up dead!"
Alessandro went silent.
Elliot wondered if, only now, the boy from Earth's past understood the dangerous times in which he was living.
"Maybe when you're cleared," Elliot said, "you can meet the other kids here?"
"Praise God! Thank you, Elliot! I'd like that very much. I think I'd like the teachers here, too. May I go to school here?"