Years later at age fifteen, he met a girl in one of the housing shelters who was attracted to his struggle. She was a runaway too but she ran away from a loving household. They became friends and she often helped him out financially with her parents' money. Eventually a relationship emerged and he fell in love while she fell in like. On his eighteenth birthday he proposed to her and she accepted. Ultimately she got cold feet and disappeared at the last minute.
Troy felt deserted and abandoned. His happiness was ended abruptly and in dejecting fashion. Without her he was desolate and spiraling out of control. He started to take melatonin and other medication for his depression. After two failed suicide attempts, he joined a depression treatment center where it took over a year for him to get himself together.
As an adult he was on the right track. He became good friends with one of the counselors who shared a similar childhood as he. The counselor used some of his connections to hook Troy up with an apartment in a nice neighborhood, and a clerical job in a nearby business park.
One day Troy came up with a clever and unique business idea for them to work on together. With constant hard work and perseverance, over the years their company took off like a rocket. They made millions of dollars in no time; but in no time the counselor betrayed Troy by stealing all the money and disappearing forever.
When Troy found out about the treachery, he went berserk and punched holes in the walls. Months elapsed before his anger collapsed. A new woman in his life was what aided him in his recovery from being duped. He met a nice secretary who was average looking but had a great personality. They dated for a while and then got married. She was pregnant shortly thereafter, and he was truly happy. He came to the realization that having someone special in his life was what completed him.
Unfortunately as fate would have it, his wife and unborn baby died in a car accident. He was devastated. He could not understand why he'd been dealt such a bad hand. He did not believe in bad luck but most of his life seemed to have been plagued with it. It took almost forty years for him to reach a point where he was happy and content; then at the peak of his joy, happiness was taken away from him.
Over the next decade he tried repeatedly to get himself together and be happy, although that never seemed to fully manifest without the help of someone else. He ended up feeling that having another person in his life was superior to being alone. He ended up dying alone at the age of fifty five with no one around to attend the funeral.
7
The One World government had captured the most valuable player of The Entity resistance. They had him in check with the intents of a checkmate. In a short matter of time, Troy would be assimilated into The Collective and that would be the genesis of The Entity's downfall.
But unbeknownst to The Collective, The Entity was set up in the structure of a military. Once Troy was captured by the One World authorities, his second in command named Mark, volunteered to go on the perilous mission of trying to rescue Troy from inside of The Collective's main headquarters. The first part of his plan was to get inside, locate Troy and give him the dream pill so that his assimilation would fail to be effective.
This proved to be a risky and difficult feat to accomplish. The headquarters compound was heavily secured and only authorized personnel was allowed. This vast compound was hidden within an enormous mountain range and carved inside of a mountain that exceeded 15,000 feet in elevation. It was designed with the architectural intricacy of a deluxe ant colony, with spectacular inside construction and a mega system of pathways.
To make it to the entrance of this undisclosed government compound, Mark was assisted by a fellow Entity member who was familiar with the rough elevated terrain of the Broadus Alps. It took two days for them to elude the various patrolling jeeps and the occasional helicopter, before reaching the entrance at the top of the mountain.
Nightfall finally fell by the time Mark and his assistant made it up, which was just as planned. After dark there were fewer guards on the mountain because the whole vicinity was on complete lockdown. Mark was already camouflaged within the vicinity, and ready to infiltrate.
A computerized, nuclear resistant door protruded from out of the mountain top. This secure entrance was near the location of the main air vent that burrowed into the climate controlled facility.
Before departing from Mark, the assistant helped him to remove the bolted steel cover from off the small vent. Afterwards they shook hands and Mark was on his own from there. Mark was petite enough to fit into the air vent, and brave enough to attempt the task. He carefully toiled on hands and knees for an hour before making it through to the interior, to one of the many passageways that led to various vault rooms inside of the mountain. He was risking his life by going into this dragon's lair.
The One World Collective wasn't perfect or indestructible, but they were so intelligent and worked so well together that their combined focus was incomparable. The level of precision and power they possessed resulted in them being a worldwide juggernaut. This allowed them to practice non-violence and peace, which in a sense was a weakness. But negativity in society was so scarce that it was rarely expected.
One World's mental chokehold reigned supreme over ninety percent of the worldwide population. Citizens in society lived their lives in harmony and according to their inner inhibitions. Administration and government members lived normal lives as well, but when at work they were all synched like cyborgs. Their brains were focused only on their duties and tasks. They ignored anything that did not present a direct threat to them or their mission. Unless detected, anyone in the same uniform could walk around the premises in a uniform manner, basically undisturbed.
As soon as Mark made it through the elaborate ventilation system into the interior of the One World headquarters, he took off his shirt and pants and revealed himself fully draped in a fitted administrative uniform. This allowed him to walk around the compound relatively disregarded and unscathed.
The whole place was crowded and filled with assembly lines of people performing an array of duties in different rooms and auditoriums. Mark robotically blended in and made his way through a number of hallways, past various functions; until by the grace of fate he ended up near the Dream Machine chambers. Mark was able to find the room in which Troy was being held. At the time, Troy was conscious and in between dream phases. The two of them were able to have a brief conversation because no one else was in the room.
Mark immediately noticed that Troy's mentality had already been affected. Troy almost didn't know who he was. He reminded Troy about their cause and what was going on. He gave Troy several pills and told him the purpose of the pills. He made him swallow one right then and there, and told him to take one every time they tried to put him into a dream phase. After the mission was complete, Mark farewell'd Troy and told him that he and others would be back to rescue him.
Mark exited the room in a hurry. He was on a journey to get the hell out of the One World headquarters. Once halfway out of the compound, Mark became eager and anxious about escaping. He was walking way too fast and displaying odd movements that were out of sync. His behavior got him marked as an intruder and apprehended in a matter of seconds. Authorities immediately took him to a detention chamber and injected him with a truth serum that made him spill the beans about what he was doing there. They confiscated the brain pills and took Mark to a different sector to get him started with the pre-assimilation dream phases.
As far as Troy was concerned, he had already ingested one of the brain pills before being put into his second dream phase. The doctors quickly realized that the pill he took would likely impede the purpose of the Dream Machine. To counterbalance this scenario, the One World doctors decided to use their recently assimilated neophyte, Zia, to go inside of Troy's second dream phase in order to be a part of his dream-life and influence his experience.
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8
In the holy and historic city of Jerusalem, Troy was born on the East side, where hard times reside. His immediate family migrated to the capital when he was an infant, to avoid the Gaza conflict. As a youth he grew up with his friends playing in the littered streets that were shared by stray dogs. He learned quick how to deal with the rough conditions he inherited.
His circumstance was bleak but he was equipped for it with high intelligence. He had no idea why, but most of his peers were mentally inferior. The reason was because of the dream pill that was taken. But it was taken prematurely, therefore it was only halfway effective.
After the tenth grade he accepted a scholarship to Cairo University in Giza. He didn't want to leave his family but they urged him to go. His leaving turned out to be advantageous because it took him out of the socially discouraging setting that he was from. His freshman year in college was a strange adjustment. Academically it was no sweat, but socially and psychologically he was trying to find himself.
Near the end of the second semester, he met a professor from a neighboring university who introduced him to a militant group of freedom fighters. Troy's feelings were not as intense as theirs, but he shared the same resentment towards the powers that be and the unfair system. Although he was a little turned off by their violent tendencies, he did fit in because most of the freedom fighters were like him. His involvement with them continued to increase, until he met a lovely girl on a beautiful spring day after a philosophy conference.
The lovely young lady turned out to be Zia. She was born into an affluent and loving situation in West Jerusalem, on the opposite side of town from where Troy was from. She was the youngest of three sisters and she benefited from it on many levels. Her youth was filled with wisdom from her parents and from her religion. She started to become more spiritual than religious shortly after her bat mitzvah.
Although she came from more opulence than the average person, she was far more down to earth than the average person. Her personality was electric. She was class president in high school and graduated summa cum laude. Everyone was sad to see her go as she accepted a scholarship to Cairo University.
Zia had no problem adjusting to her new environment. Everyone clung to her like static. She quickly prospered as a pre-med student. By her second year she was already in cahoots with the med-school students. She was even invited to be part of their intellectual panel at the 17th Cairo Medical Conference.
Around the same time, Troy had become involved with a team of chemistry students working on cancer treatments. He was attending the Cairo Medical Conference when he first laid eyes on Zia. It was almost love at first sight. He was overwhelmed by her beauty but she was turned off by his arrogance.
As she was on her way out of the Grand Nile Tower with fellow students, Troy pretended to have a stroke in the lobby. She and others rushed to his aid, but she discovered that he was faking when he instantly recovered and professed that his admiration of her was what caused his collapse. She was not flattered.
Zia left the lobby in a hurry thinking that would be her last time seeing him. But as destiny would have it, they continued to end up being at the same place at the same time. She learned about his credentials as a chemistry student, and over time she got to know him as a person. He was her total opposite, but she viewed him as a quality opposite.
Zia was an old soul in a beautiful young body. She finally became interested in Troy and he treated her like a precious jewel. He brought fun to her life like she hadn't experienced before. His spontaneous romanticism paired with his book smarts impressed her immensely. Together they were having the time of their lives.
After bonding like magnets they became inseparable. Long walks in the forest was where their relationship blossomed like a red rose. In a short matter of time they fell in love and were floating in space together. Zia was good for him like nutrition. She deterred him from bad influences and served as an umbrella of positivity in his life.
The mixture of two different individuals from the same city, raised under very opposing religions, was a recipe for a sticky situation. Despite their countless dissimilarities, the two of them were crazy about one another. After spring semester, Zia invited Troy to spend summer vacation with her and her parents in West Jerusalem. He agreed to do it because she really wanted him to meet her parents.
Unfortunately, the introduction went sour from the beginning and the visit turned out to be a short one. Zia's parents were cordial but it was apparent that they did not want their daughter to be with him. Troy could easily sense their stereotypical undertones. Zia could as well. Deep dissension quickly developed, causing their visit to end in less than a week.
Next, the two of them had an even more naive idea, which was to visit Troy's parents in East Jerusalem. And as their logic should have forewarned them, his parents also did not approve of their relationship. In fact, they were not even subtle about their dislike of Zia.
His parents' outright disdain towards their relationship made her parents' reaction seem affectionate. There was no way that Troy and Zia were going to stay in that rude environment. They went back to Giza and got a place near campus to spend the rest of the summer break together.
Blood was thicker than water but Troy needed Zia like water. He was born into a rough situation but his life brightened when he met her. She showed him that having someone else's love can be powerful and enlightening.
These two lovebirds could not get enough of each other, but the mounting pressure from both of their families for them to not be together was starting to get to them. Then to make matters more muddled, by the end of the year they both were individually offered life changing internships in their respective fields of study. Zia's opportunity was at the NYU School of Medicine in America, and Troy's opportunity was at Cambridge University in England.
Zia loved her parents unconditionally. She was raised with respect and traditional religious values. Her going to America for free to study and work in the medical field, was the direction her parents had always dreamed that she'd go in. This opportunity meant just as much to them as it did to her.
Troy on the other hand, was a young prodigy and a special protege of his family, his religion, and all of society as a matter of fact. His talents could have either been steered in a negative or a positive direction. His natural proficiency made it easy for him to be an expert at synthesizing molecules. He was on track to creating a formula for a drug that could cure several devastating diseases. His prosperity was an important factor.
Troy and Zia both were very ambitious with a very tough decision to make. A long distance relationship could surely work but it was not what they preferred. Ultimately, outside pressures and common sense led them to go ahead and take advantage of the internships. The first few months of their time apart went well as they kept in constant contact. Then as the weeks rolled by and their lives complicated, their schedules began to conflict and the communication slowly decreased.
What did not decrease was the religious adversity boiling over within their families as the Israeli-Palestine conflict thickened. Both of them had relatives who'd died at the hands of a culprit from the others' religion.
Zia and Troy did not dwell on that, but their parents did. Increased pressure over the months began to ware down on them, causing their interfaith relationship to become shaky. By the time their internships were over, their feelings had become tainted like a drop of spit in a clear glass of water.
The result of Zia's internship was a scholarship offer from Harvard Medical School. There was no way on Earth her parents were going to let her pass up on that opportunity. It served as a blessing and a great launching pad for her career, yet it was a bad adhesive for her relationship with Troy. After a while, their family problems, along with opportunities leading them in opposite directions, resulted in them having to break up.
They tried to keep in touch but even that fizzled.
Life went on in separate directions for the both of them. With Zia no longer around, Troy immersed himself in his work. He finished up at Cairo U. and went back to Cambridge to earn a Phd in Medicinal Chemistry. He flourished in the lab and formulated a chemical powder that turned out to be a cure for asthma. This garnered him financial security and plenty of accolades. He moved his mother, father and sister out of East Jerusalem to Brighton, England, not far from where he lived in London.
At the same time, Zia's life in Boston was very prosperous. She was financially secure and did plenty of medical work for charity. She ended up meeting a fellow doctor who was from the same religious faith as she was. Her family approved of him and in no time they were engaged to be married. Although Troy was always in the back of her mind, she was happy with what appeared to be her perfect match.
A year later Troy was one of the guest speakers at the 3rd annual Pfizer Pharmaceutical Conference in Paris. An almost manufactured fate had put Zia at the exact same place and time as he. She was attending the conference with her colleagues when she saw Troy walk to the podium as the last speaker. She couldn't believe her eyes and her legs got weak. She could not even get up when everyone stood to applaud. It took five minutes for her to be able to speak because her mouth was dry as a desert.
Troy's reaction was tantamount to Zia's. He could barely keep his composure when he laid eyes on her. The first few minutes of their reunion was filled with conflicting emotions in both of their hearts. After their chance meeting of destiny soaked in, the love they once shared began to rekindle like a beautiful sunrise.
They experienced a fabulous weekend of fun and reminiscing. At its closing, Zia felt compelled to inform Troy that she had a fianc?e. His heart sunk to the ground until she professed to him that no one in the world could ever trump the love that she had for him. Troy let her know that he would drop everything in his life in order to be with her again.