Partially Before We Died (Full Novel–Draft)

A Technological Distopian Novella for Adolescents and Adults

Introduction– Luck’s dreams, eye-sight and upbringing
Prologue– Losing More than Sight
Chapter 1– Meeting Roman
Chapter 2– Checking the Map
Chapter 3– Three Travelers
Chapter 4– The Plan
Chapter 5– The Hospital
Chapter 6– Mom’s Room
Chapter 7– The Elevators
Chapter 8– Lookout Lighthouse
Chapter 9– The Other Side of the Wall
Chapter 10– The Many Faces of Naomi Lowman
Chapter 11– The Elders of the Wood
Chapter 12– The Tiger on the Carousel
Chapter 13– Reaching Roxy
Chapter 14– The Way Back
Chapter 15– The Record Room
Chapter 16– Ending the Program
Chapter 17– Lucky Downloaded
Chapter 18– Captives in Comnet
Chapter 19– The Machine-Made Man
Chapter 20– All We See or Seem
Chapter 21– Back to the Woods
Chapter 22– Finding the Key
Chapter 23– Face to Face with the Past
Chapter 24– Awakening the Dreamers
Chapter 25– Locking In
Chapter 26– The Operation
Chapter 27– Disconnected
Epilogue– On the nature of science and art of dreams

Keepsakes

I breathed in the fresh, crisp air. Another jolt of lightning pain pulsed through my body like electricity filling the empty space around me with the sound of panting.

I felt for my backpack. Inside I found my wallet with stiff fingers.

Inside: my Ohio state driver’s license, credit cards. It is possible no one will ever find me. I frowned at the photo of myself. No one will find you, April DuWitt, 5’4” eyes BRO.

Silence is maddening. I began looking at the things I kept behind my identification. These things, if it were possible, seemed to say more about me than my government issued ID card.

A movie stub and Walden’s member card. A phone number jotted down on a piece of ripped notebook paper with no name. Twenty eight dollars…

My heart sank. A group picture from my Junior Prom. I looked at all of the familiar faces; familiar but strange. Everyone seemed young, even though the photo was from only three years ago. I look at face after face, remembering, laughing, crying, regretting every single moment I carried with me.

Now I was sinking, almost comfortably, into numbness and became unable to move.

Gazing upward I stare at the diamonds of my tomb, treasures innumerable shimmering magically above. I hold remnants of an expired life, my life, in frostbitten hands. My breathing is slow, drawing in each empty, cold taste.

I know no one will find me. I relive happier, warmer days as ice crystals overcome me. Frost offers one last kiss. My lips and every lie they ever told are silently and eternally preserved in this case, forever.