Dream Chasers (Dystopian Scifi Series Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page B

After a while,
the gap between rich and poor had been so wide, the government had begun
treating Lower City like some kind of sick thing, as if Lower City was a person
in need of charitable services.
    A bicycle creaked, the chains
that made the wheels turn in need of oil. The man riding, a tired teenager with
a heavy backpack, couldn’t care less about his transport or the state of it. He
raised his chest into the air, gave the pedal a lethargic push down, and seemed
contempt with the new found speed.
    ‘See that building over there?’
Ohko asked, pointing at broken windows. ‘That’s where we going.’
    The puddles were like mines,
and Peter stepped over them. ‘Isn’t that the old basketball court?’
    His grin revealed a few white
teeth and a few yellow ones. ‘Not a anymore. Now we the playas.’ They stepped
into the parking lot, where cars had once come to drop off their children for
basketball lessons. There were no cars today, except one abandoned SUV, a white
scratch the only color remaining on the wet steel. While walking past the SUV,
Peter peeked inside its open door. Inside, a big cat with emerald-green eyes
glanced at them.
    Glass crunched under their
feet, welcoming them inside SJBC (Shai Jang Basketball Court). A cabinet with
no trophies was the first thing Peter saw. Its glass lay shattered on the
ground below, and the only thing remaining in the cabinet were crumpled papers.
    ‘What are we doing here?’ Peter
asked. He knew why they were there but was playing it stupid. The thought of a
Dream Infiltrator in this building made him feel dizzy and excited at the same
time.
    ‘We gonna shoot them hoops for
a bit, you know,’ Ohko made a hoop-throwing gesture, ‘like the old Magic
Johnson. Do it good.’ They came to a closed door. There was sign on it that
said Court Entry A-1 . Ohko slapped his hand on it, and before pushing
the door open, he glanced over his shoulder and grinned; this was the door to
Narnia, that grin said. ‘You ready to see?’
    Peter shrugged, not knowing
what to expect. The door swung wide, clapping against a steel frame. This was
no Narnia, just a filthy court that had been abandoned when the rich got richer
and the poor poorer. But farther in, people in black jackets stood around what
looked like a hospital bed. Machinery with a lot of wires were dotted around
the bed. It took Peter less than three seconds to realize one of them, a Neo
Infiltrator, a headset strapped around the head that is used to balance energy
frequencies in the brain. Peter’s mouth fell to his knees. A part of him didn’t
believe Ohko, a part of him laughed at the idea of something like this being
real, but there was no denying what was in front of him, and all the equipment
seemed to be there as well: the Neo Infiltrator, the cables, the heart monitors
(both the wristbands and ankle ones), the dream cage, which was the bed itself,
a carefully designed bunk able to lock all necessary body parts: the head,
ribs, wrists, and ankles.
    He found himself walking faster
than his friend. He needed to feel the bed with his own two hands, to make sure
it weren’t a dream or some kind of foolish prank. It was neither a dream nor a
foolish prank, it was—
    ‘Real,’ Peter said, minding his
way through the heavy coated men, who were looking at Ohko, pleased. ‘How is
such a thing possible, Ohko?’ Only in his wildest imagination had he seen such
a machine, which appeared to be somewhat intact, only a few loose ends hanging
here and there. He caressed the light-blue steel with a few fingers, feeling
his heart grow warmer. He remembered the first time he saw a Dream Infiltrator,
he was a young boy, around the age of five, and his mother had bought a TV for
the first time. One of the first commercials was of scientists in orange coats
presenting the power of Dream Chasing, how a Dream Chaser could go into a dream
and see what they saw.
    Peter picked up the headset and
played with the dials scattered around the