Tomorrow's Dream
By: Ryan S. Brown
Ch. 1 Zer0 XHDX 0137

Having awaken on a frozen snow covered tundra, Zer0 had no recollection of how he had gotten there. Zer0 was perplexed that he didn't seem to feel any pain what so ever about his body. Zer0 had streams of frozen blood coming from his nose and eyes. Zer0 stood to marvel at the beautiful majestic landscape that surrounded him.
Zer0 was clothed in a solid black outfit so he defied the white snow covered tundra around him. Zer0's hair was frozen in spikes that stood 12 inches from his scalp. Zer0 stood 6 feet tall and to his knowledge was the only living breathing entity that dwelled in this lonely place. Zer0 noticed a large summit of a hill that was fairly nearby. He decided that he would journey over towards it to see if he could gain a better vantage point of finding out the contents of this frozen wasteland.
Journeying over to the summit Zer0 checked the contents of his pockets and most unfortunately came up empty handed. At the top of the summit Zer0 peered out over the strange and mysterious land that he found himself trapped within. He noticed the tree line of what looked to be a great and ancient forest. Zer0 decided to himself that if he were to ever find any answers to this mysterious place he would find them within that great and ancient forest. Turning to begin his descent to the bottom of the summit a very large paw was very forcefully swung in the direction of his face.
On second instinct Zer0 swung his head back from the large paw that so forcefully invaded his space just in time before the large claws of that paw tore the flesh from his face. Zer0 observed a large polar bear standing on its hind legs. Thinking very quickly Zer0 stayed low to the ground and rotated his body in a 360 degree counter sweep attack on the large mammal's supporting legs. After his counter attack landed it knocked the polar bear off of its balance and the large bear fell over the edge of the summit to the grounds below. Zer0 watched as the large mammal landed on its hind end and slide to safety in the valley below the summit.
Knowing that the bear was safe Zer0 felt better about him and decided that he would go and explore the great and ancient forest that he had observed from the top of the summit. So he began his descent to the ground below the summit. It looked as if it was a straight shot from his current position besides flowing hills that lie here and there along the way. Unexpectedly Zer0 had to use the washroom to take a number 1. After unzipping his pants preparing to relieve himself Zer0 fell over as a booming voice made an announcement almost directly at him "The four X's will lead to the Door." The voice exclaimed and just as Zer0 finished relieving himself he felt himself whirring almost back in time to a distant memory of his former past.
It began on a day like this one that we experience today. It was very grim outside not very friendly in the street. It didn't really make sense to all of them why they stayed where they currently stayed but yet they lingered on. Enduring on their great adventure in a place known as Great Onyx, Zer0's sanity very slowly slipped away from him as he knew it or once knew it at least.

They rocked on with their modern day jams, at least they were modern day to them counting that they got lost in this place known as GO and they had never been updated on anything else that was happening in the outside world, and good friends of the many legends that you'll hear of from time to time through out the population updates of this place. For you see that they didn't exactly get to see public much through out their horrific stay at this place. So they more or less stayed frozen in time as they indulged in their studies of many random thoughts and experiences through the technology world.
Some were kept to them and others were spoken through out the long days that they struggled with. Zer0 once heard a saying from a friend that he used to know, the story comes to the storyteller as water comes to the ocean from the flowing rivers, for do not try to intervene with the almighty flow of the great river, let it flow as it does. Row with the flow as it's spoken in a short phrase and you shall receive the words of the almighty flowing river. And on goes the process. And in his time that he spent at GO he learned so many new things and he met so many new interesting people that he would NEVER forget.
His time is coming near that he will retire and be headed on his way into what is known by them as the "outside world." With so many things left to discover and experience through out his life. The one that he will NEVER forget is the true friends that he made at GO and the way they made him feel that he was equal to them. That he didn't have anything else left to be in debt to them that all he had to do was just be there and it was all ok. Zer0 will NEVER forget that people just seemed to fade out only to be remembered by some random action that they made therefore forcing them into a state of termination or by completing their trade and heading into the outside world.
Zer0's version of the legend began with 3 individuals that went by Slim, Midnight, and Sketch. Sketch was a very hyper active son that was very skilled at drawing and such this being the reason why he went by Sketch. Whenever he was called a "white boy" by another he would react by informing them in a very ill manner that he in fact was "not white he was Italian." Therefore after Zer0 made the notification that these 3 hung out with each other he labeled them the "Italian Mafia."
Zer0 decided that this would be the group in which he hung with the majority of the time he was there. These individuals held such things in common with Zer0 such as similar tastes in music. The hardcore selection of music was their course of listening. The one that goes by Midnight fascinated him in her own way with her unique taste in music by informing him on a new genre of music entitled "Dark Wave." He was not really sure how to describe this new genre of music except that after listening to a band entitled "Cruxshadows" he described this wonderful musical experience as being as a poem reading set to a musical beat that sounded something of a old school Western salon type taste. Slim was named this because he was very tall and skinny so they felt that this alias fit him well.
Tori was a girl that Zer0 met on myspace.com. Zer0 was fully in love with Tori from the minute he set eyes on her. And she was in love with him as the same. They started going out with each other and made a very lovely couple.
Slim and Midnight started taking an interest in one another somewhere along the beginning of their great adventures at Great Onyx. And so they ended up going out with each other in good time of course. This in no way bothered, Zer0, as he totally supported them and still does to this day in their individual stand as a gothic couple. Zer0 was totally aware that it's wrong to label things he was just doing his best to sound technical for this was his GREAT ADVENTURE OF Great Onyx.
Slim and Midnight were standing in the ghetto court yard with the picnic tables made out of concrete surrounding them was a beautiful star lit night. Slim ended up using the classic line "Do you see the stars above Midnight?" Midnight, replied "Why yes I do. Why might you ask Slim?" And Slim replied "I've been counting those stars up there and for every star I could count I would think of a reason why you're special to me. There is only one problem." Midnight said "And what's that Slim?" Slim in his smooth manner replied "I ran out of stars." And so they started going out with one another.
Sketch was a very sporadic individual he ended up going out with many randomized cracked out chicks around GO. One day later on down the road, while Zer0 was in trade which was computer technology for him and welding for Sketch. Sketch came into Zer0's trade and requested that he give him two latex gloves for some odd reason. Zer0 replied "Sure." So Zer0 handed Sketch, who was the Father of The Italian Mafia at the time, the two latex gloves he requested.
Later on that day after trade Zer0 saw Sketch walking down the sidewalk with a very solemn look upon his face. It turned out that he had returned to welding and he filled both gloves with a flammable gas and took a lighter to each one. Now the action of this very sporadic individual almost blew welding up. Therefore he was terminated. With the absence of Sketch in the Italian Mafia this group label no longer served any use to anyone. The crew that Zer0 hung with now went by The Family when The New Father Slim rose to power with his Empress Midnight at his side.
The rising of The Family to power meant that there were new slots to be filled for new individuals like ourselves. There was also a very needy situation for money in The Family. Therefore to meet the following needs the new members were named H17m4n, Koby, Malakia, Heavy D, and Old Man Buck and to meet the money requirements for The Family Slim instituted The Economy. The Economy worked in a way that they received snack every night at 8:30 PM. The Family would save their snacks and give all of them to Slim the New Father. Slim started out selling snacks at 50 cents a pop. This built quick revenue for Slim to work with in The Economy.
H17m4n and Koby were the first two African Americans to make it into the family. H17m4n was always talking about taking somebody out in the shadows or something along those lines and that's where he got his alias from. Koby was by far the most hyper active minor that Zer0 had come across in his time at GO besides this fact he somewhat resembled the famous comedian Dave Chappelle. Koby got his alias by default along with Old Man Buck. These two were just originally known by that alias in specific. Malakia was accordingly descendent to a vampire named Malakia's bloodline this being where he got his alias. Heavy D was just very large and plain stupid this being where his alias originated.
Later on others joined the ranks of the family while the majority of the former members were terminated from GO for many random reasons. The Economy is what The Family eventually became led by. The 4 main individuals in charge of The Economy were Slim, Midnight, Zer0, and B1g P1mp1n. Zer0 in good time led his own part of The Economy into a spiraling wreck of debt just before he managed to get his act straightened out for the big test of The A+ Certification exam. Zer0 failed the first part once but fortunately he was given another chance and was able to pass the second time at attempting the Hardware portion of the exam. Zer0 passed the software portion of the exam on the first attempt. He moved into the outside world after that.
The booming voice declared "The first X is complete. The next is the second X." Zer0 was sitting at his house bored as hell. That's when his mother asked him "hey do you want to come with me to the mall to run some errands?" So he said "yeah I'll go." Zer0 stood outside the mall and let his mother go ahead and walk in so he could finish his cigarette. Zer0 went in and ran straight into one of his old friends. She was with 2 females that he didn't know. They asked him if he wanted to hang out with them so he said "yeah." They went outside to get a smoke. And that was when his old friend introduced him to the 2 other females. One named Kelly and the other Kali. When he locked eyes with Kali Zer0 automatically fell in love with her. Kali was accordingly staying that night at Kelly's house. So he got Kelly's phone number so they could hang out the next day. That entire night all Zer0 could think about was Kali and if she liked him like that.
The next day he called Kelly and got directions to her house and went over there. They hung out with each other for a couple of hours until he had to leave and that was when Kali approached him and gave Zer0 her phone number. He called Kali that night and they talked he told her the way he felt for her and she said that she felt the same way so they started going out that night. They went out for 3 months without fighting or arguing with each other what so ever. One night Zer0 was hanging over at Kelly's house with Kali, Kelly, and one of his friends named Matt that ended up going out with Kelly.
It started to get late but Kali and Kelly didn't want Zer0 and Matt to leave. Zer0 asked Kelly "When is your mom going to sleep?" She told him that her mom had taken some sleeping pills and she would be out in about 30 minutes or so. Kelly told Zer0 that he should go with Matt down the street to a local gas station and call them on a payphone at 2 AM since it was currently 1:30 AM. So Zer0 kissed Kali goodbye and Zer0 and Matt went down the street. There they were sitting in front of the payphone when 2 AM hit and Zer0 called Kelly's house.
She told him that her mother wasn't asleep yet and to call back in 30 more minutes. So he said "ok." He came back to the car and told Matt what Kelly had said. Matt says to Zer0 "I've got to go to the bathroom and I'm kind of hungry. But I don't really feel like going in this gas station. Do you know any other place we can go that has more of a party atmosphere?" Zer0 said "Dude, it is 2 AM. The only place I know that would even have a slight bit more human activity is the grocery store down the street." So Matt said "Ok then lets go there." So Zer0 and Matt went to the grocery store down the street. The booming voice exclaimed "The second X is complete. The next is the third X."
Zer0 was attending a public high school called Northwest High School in his home town Dalton, GA. He was 16 at the time. Zer0 was always rejected by the popular kids in that high school so he decided that he needed to try and make friends with other people. That's the day Zer0 noticed them standing in the corner of the cafeteria a group of other teens that were dressed in all black. Zer0 decided that he would go over and start trying to talk to them. So that's what Zer0 did. Zer0 started hanging out with them and they became better and better of friends with each other. Zer0 learned more and more about the ways of becoming an outcast. Zer0 started wearing all black, listening to metal, and being defiant towards authority figures. One night Zer0 got an idea, Zer0 figured that since they all held being outcasts in common with each other they should be united in some way. And that's why on that night Zer0 formed the group known as AVN (American Vanda-list's Network).
Zer0 had every last one of his friends that was considered an outcast join AVN. They decided that their first target to strike would be the most important authority figure in their lives at the time. And that was Northwest High School. Zer0 got 2 of his friends in AVN to come with him at 2 AM on Monday morning. They went and broke into the high school wearing black ski masks and gloves. Their mission was to steal school funds that were accordingly in the principal's office. They searched everywhere for these funds but never found anything so they left. The next time Zer0 went by himself because Zer0 couldn't get anyone else to go with him. Zer0 arrived at the high school at 2 AM with a black ski mask and gloves on. Zer0 broke in and flooded 6 bathrooms in the complex. AVN decided that they would strike the school one last time. And this time they wouldn't go soft core on them. The booming voice announced "The third X is complete. The next is the fourth X."
At age 14 Zer0 and his only sister were both in a really serious car accident. Zer0's sister's name is Kat. Kat's car collided with a tractor trailer at 60 MPH. Kat took the collision on the steering wheel and broke every bone in her face and Zer0 took the collision on the dashboard in his left eye. Zer0's brain slammed into the front of his skull and on the recoil of the collision into the back of his skull bruising both the front and back, Zer0 broke his noise, had internal bleeding from every one of his organs, and his left elbow was shattered into three pieces.
On the recoil their bodies came back with so much force they broke the bench front seat of her car in half and were left in a lying position. The collision with the tractor trailer set it off balance and it fell on top of Kat's car destroying it. Zer0 was knocked un-conscience on the collision. Unfortunately for his sister she was still conscience left with blood and spinal fluid gushing from every opening in her head. Shortly after the paramedics arrived on the scene of the accident Kat went un-conscience as well. They were airlifted to the nearest hospital which was Erlanger Medical Center in a town called Chattanooga, TN. It turned out that Kat needed re-constructional surgery performed on her face to repair the bones that had been broken. Everything in that department went smoothly. Zer0 on the other hand wasn't so fortunate, Zer0 had internal head trauma. Zer0 was kept in a drug induced coma for 2 weeks while other necessary surgeries were performed on him. Zer0 was forever and always Already Dead. The booming voice announced "The fourth X is complete. Follow the wolf Zer0."
In that moment an artic wolf and a black rose appeared before Zer0's eyes. Zer0 figuring that somewhere along his journey the black rose would come in handy placed it in his pocket. The wolf started to walk in the direction of the great and ancient forest. Up and over the rolling hills the two went. Zer0 could feel a sense of adventure
stirring in his veins. Zer0 felt anticipation creeping over the hairs on the back of his neck. The wolf led Zer0 into the tree line of the great and ancient forest.