Moreover, there were islands with forests made of processed foods. If the drawings he colored were accurate, hot dogs even grew here—with buns and all.
Of course, children were also told that the more amazing an island looked, the more dangerous it tended to be.
Aside from learning many curious facts about his new world over the years, he mostly engaged in physical exercise and played in the yard.
Now he was in the second grade, and yesterday his father said that he would finally be allowed to play outside on his own. Until this point, he had almost never been taken out of the hospital; a few times, he was taken into town with his nanny, but such occasions could be counted on the fingers of one hand.
Starting today, with some exceptions, he would be allowed to freely walk around the base.
Adjusting his shirt, Bill took another look at himself in the mirror before turning and leaving the room.
As he walked through the apartment, Bill called out, "Mom, I'm going out to play!"
Sitting in a chair with a high back, his mother turned and softly said, "Don't forget to come back for dinner."
In another context, her words might have seemed somewhat detached. However, according to his nanny, the accident had damaged her spirit more than her body did.
His nanny, Miss Angie, repeatedly assured Bill that his mother loved him very much but couldn't show it the way she would like due to the aftermath of the accident.
As for the accident itself, Bill still didn't know all the details. When he tried to ask Miss Angie about it, she usually changed the subject or simply said that his mom would get better with time.
Once, he asked his father about it, and for a moment, he saw the power hidden in his father's huge frame. Seeing pure rage on the face of a man nearly 3 meters tall was something, but even more shocking was how Bill himself reacted to his father's anger.
This anger was contagious, and although his father quickly composed himself and left, Bill remained in a foul mood for the rest of the day.
Shaking off these thoughts, he replied, "Okay, Mom!"
Standing on tiptoe, Bill turned the door handle and exited the apartment. He knew how to leave the hospital, but what to do next, he planned to figure out on his own.
Once outside, he decided to try reaching the docks.
Since he didn't know which direction to take, the plan was to find the fortress walls and then follow them, hoping to discover the long ramps connecting each level.
He considered taking the elevator to the first floor, as he did when he traveled to town, but that elevator was linked to a labyrinth of huge corridors that connected armories, training rooms, bedrooms, kitchens, and many other facilities on this base.
So instead of getting completely lost, he decided just to try getting a little lost.
Moving faster and faster, Bill couldn't contain his excitement.
All the ships he had seen in pictures were sailing ships. And although this might seem boring, Bill was eager to see the level of shipbuilding technology.
Heading in a random direction, Bill thought to himself, "It will be interesting if they are all ships from the Age of Discovery."
Walking along the wide road, Bill couldn't help but notice the grandeur of the architecture in this place. The base itself was built layer by layer on stone foundations.
Each foundation supported buildings and structures at least 30 meters high.
These structures then became new foundations upon which even taller buildings stood. Bill thought this place looked more like a fortified stone city the size of a mountain than a naval base.
From what he had seen before and what he could see now, the base had five levels. It resembled a square more than a pyramid; however, at the very top of the base stood a palace in the Roman style.
Five massive columns on either side of the entrance to the palace supported the building's roof, and between the columns, the word "MARINE" was written in English. Looking up, Bill thought that this word could be seen for many miles out at sea.
Bill thought it would be strange if they had the technology to create such a fortress but still used sailing ships to cross the ocean.
Smiling, Bill began to walk a little faster. Everything here was new and unusual, from the animals to the buildings and even the world itself!
Walking through the wide streets, he saw the fortress wall in just fifteen minutes.
The walls had crenellations, but by his estimation, each was only about four feet high. This was good news since his own height was about five feet.
Approaching the wall, Bill stuck his head between the crenellations.
The view of the endless ocean stretching to the horizon was breathtaking. From here, he could see the lower levels of the fortress and even make out a dock where enormous sailing ships were indeed docked.
Looking around, Bill tried to peer over the edge of the fortress wall to see where he needed to go. Now that he had seen the ships from afar, he wanted to get closer to them. But he couldn't see past the six-foot-high crenellations and was hesitant to lean too far over the edge. So Bill decided to climb onto the ledge of the wall, hoping it would give him a better vantage point to see further across the fortress.