Prologue

Lionel Wilson

The FlyBus jolted and tossed the kids inside it like marbles in a jar. Lionel Wilson, tall and lanky, with his dark, unreadable eyes and dirty blond hair, stared out the window in a daze. The people around him were loudly talking, trying to speak over the rumbling bus. It was giving him a massive headache.

His friends were chatting by him, discussing the recent school uniform that was changed this week. They now had to wear ridiculous looking shirts and cotton pants, boring and bland. The traditional navy blue and white was over ruled by the school counsel, and instead they created a uniform that people were humiliated to wear. Lionel would rather walk around naked.

"I mean, come on! Pink shirts and white skirts? It's so dull," one of Lionel's friends complained. The others agreed. Lionel tuned them out with a song on his G-Pod, the G-phones on his head blocking out all sound except the music. He nodded his head to it, mouthing the words.

Someone tapped on his shoulder. He turned his head to see Evelyn Meyes, his best friend, smiling at him. Her hair seemed on fire, it was so red, and it blazed in the sunlight that shone through the window.

Evelyn pulled his G-phones off his ears. "Hey, Lion," she said, grinning at his new nickname she just started using. "What's wrong? You seem so sober."

"Me?" He raised his eyebrows innocently, acting like he didn't know what she was talking about. At this moment he really didn't want to discuss why he felt so depressed, so he grinned stiffly, trying his best to cover up the feeling.

"Yes, you. You've been so quiet this week. Usually you're active and peppy, but you're just so…unlike you lately. I wanted to know what's wrong." She situated herself in the seat to be more comfortable, like this conversation would be a long one where Lionel confessed all his feelings to her. That was the last thing he felt like doing, so he glued a fake smile on his face and tried to seem cheerful.

"Eve, there's nothing wrong at all. I've just been feeling tired lately and a little sick." He became silent, turning his gaze back to look out the window. Evelyn still sat, expecting to hear more from him.

"What else?" she prodded.

"Nothing."

The silence felt electric with tension, buzzing in their ears louder than the FlyBus engine. Lionel felt the muscles in his neck tighten and cramp for not moving. He didn't dare look at Eve, for if he did she would catch his eye and make him spill out everything. That was one of her deadly skills.

The FlyBus stopped, dropping off the last kids in the vehicle. Lionel jumped off and started to his house hurriedly. Eve lived on the same block and followed him off the bus. She fell behind, probably wondering if she did something wrong that offended Lionel.

He stopped and let her catch up so he could tell her a small portion of the truth. She deserved that much. She caught up and stopped by his side to look up into his face with her beautiful eyes that said, "What did I ever do wrong?"

"It's not you," he reassured her. "It's my life." And then walked into his house. Eve watched him, curious as to what he was talking about, but continued on her way, glad that she wasn't the problem.

In this year of 3007 on earth, the world has thoroughly changed. Since the "Revolution" in 2787, things have become very different than what it used to be. The land people stand on is no longer polluted, the air is clean and breathable, disease is a myth, and people have become more rational. Or so everyone says.

Lionel knew things no one else did. He was the son of the mayor in Cainville, a large city located in Celias, a country that used to be called, "The USA, or Canada, and Mexico", and since his father "ruled" over his city, he was able to have confidential information no normal person could know. And Lionel knew about it.

Josten Wilson was the mayor's name, and he was a strict mayor. But, then again, most mayors were strict to "protect" the people. Lionel thought it more like imprisoning people. The laws were ridiculous, restricting people from straying to far out of the city without permission from the mayor, or making uniforms at schools that made everyone look like fools. Every school had uniforms, no questions asked. Basically, things were unfair, and Lionel was the only one who knew why.

He walked into the mansion, hanging his light jacket up in the closet. He heard someone talking in the other room but didn't bother seeing who it was. He was tired, that much was true when he talked to Evelyn, and he needed to think as well. The truth he had figured out only a day ago was so unbelievable, and he needed to really figure things out. Like what he was going to do about it.

He fell onto his bed and switched the gravity knob to zero. The pillows and blankets all floated up, and he drifted towards the ceiling with them. Settling down and getting comfortable, he made his bed and floated for awhile while watching TV. The television was attached to a circuit of poles so that it could move anywhere in the room to Lionel's liking, so he brought to his level of the room.

He was watching the screen but nothing was registering in his head. All he thought about was…the pill.

Can you imagine a world of perfection? Well, this world was getting damn close to that. Heaven on earth didn't seem so impossible anymore. All the technology that had grown over the years was really paying off. You didn't hear about cancer anymore. Heck, that disease was killed off decades ago. And cars? Hondas? Hummers? Who used those things anymore? Flying cars were more the style, and not to mention less polluting.

And that's only the beginning of the many devices and vehicles and other items. High-tech wasn't the word for it. How about…freakin' impossible?

Lionel shook his head to his thoughts. All this technology, and yet, we always go back to how to make the world perfect. We made our homes safe, our moving vehicles, our neighborhoods, but there was still one last thing to "perfect".

The people.

And that was the horrifying information Lionel knew about.

Swallow a pill, and you'll wake up perfect.