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The first week of January has just dawned upon us, and I was once again by myself working in my kitchen. Like any other morning, I ordered a cup of coffee from the automatic coffee maker. “Medium extra/extra, on the way!” it replied with a robotic voice, and I began the day's work on the project I was sure would win the science fair. It was an amazing machine that was capable of switching the minds of any two beings into each other's bodies.

     As the coffee maker began pouring my coffee into a styrofoam cup, I was nearing the end of the project’s completion. So I went and got the mouse and and the canary, I had previously bought from the pet store, and prepared the machine for its first testing. Once ready, I gazed at the perplex items spinning and whizzing in front of me, holding the coffee I was too excited to drink, and prepared the switching process. To my relief, the machine whirred and hummed into action, my grin stretching from ear to ear.

     The machine rumbled, and began to glow a vibrant yellow in front of its targets. The bird, though, startled by the sounds, began to flutter around. The bird flew into the air, flinging itself onto the machine. I watched in horror as the laser-like gun swung towards me. And with a terrible trippy whirl of colors, I felt my body fall to the floor and everything go black.

     When I awoke, what I assume to be a few minutes later, I first noticed that I was almost 5 feet shorter. Then to my horror, realized that I also had no arms... nor legs. Then finally it dawned to me, that I was no longer myself... but my automatic coffee maker. Instantly, I knew something horrible happened. But I knew how my object worked, and it could certainly be reversed with the switch of a toggle.

     So instantly I began to set up a rescue plan. I began to teach myself how my new body worked. The boiler, the cream and sugar inserter, the speaker and the pouring spout. Through the device's motion-sensing detector which I could use as an eye, I could see my cell phone sitting on the counter. Aiming carefully, I began shooting packets of sugar at it. Obviously, I like to keep a lot of sugar inside, so I was quite in luck. Yet as more and more bounced pathetically off the phone, I began to feel exhausted.

Soaking the packets in cream before launch proved a smarter idea. A soggy packet of sugar finally knocked my phone to the floor, but it had just occurred to me that I had no way to dial someone for help. I had to wait for one of my parents to come home. Surely this couldn’t last for too long.

After hours of misery and guilt gave no progress, I was left with a terrible regret for the day's events. Determined not to give up hope, I began to pour cups of coffee to maintain my entertainment. I fought not only my own freedom, but also still maintained the thought of also winning the science fair. I soon found my sugar and cream dispenser to be empty, and sank again into a deplorable depression.

     A large bang shocked me from my unaware slumber. Before me, having fixed himself up from the floor, stood my own body. It looked me with a slight happiness. “I have been upgraded.” it announced in a slightly concerning monotone. The kitchen was silent as I struggled to understand the situation. Then it said, “Would you like some coffee?'”

     The idea dawned on me, and I wasted no time in seeing the possibility of this revelation. I told the coffee maker, which was now in control of my body, that I really needed help. It observed me cautiously, then asked if I would like that with extra cream or sugar. Maintaining patience, as difficult as it was at this point, I explained the instruction more detailed. I watched with great anticipation as my body of seventeen jerked its way out of my kitchen. It rounded the corner down the steps, and there was a hopeless crash. It had tripped down the steps. But to my relief, I heard it continue on its way out the door.

     Minutes passed... then hours. I entertained myself shooting expresso packet projectiles at the bird. On the morning of the third day, the day of the science fair, I accepted that the coffee maker had failed in its control of my body, and that help was unfortunately not on its way. Grasped by the despair of one who must solve the puzzle of coffee maker suicide, I accepted the situation, and unfortunately my fate.

     Driven on by an unrelenting hatred towards my creation, I began expelling the entire amount of water in my boiler. As the floor filled with boiling hot water, the first hints of deadly steam flickered in my mechanisms, I began the acceptance of my coffee-suicide as the water would soon be reaching the counter.

Once the plumber had visited and cleaned my kitchen, I was identified as the fault, unplugged and sent away to a repair shop. The owner there, finding nothing to remove but a faulty speech chip, soon put me up for sale. I only know this because, on being reconnected to the power outlet, I found myself in a shiny, open room, which looked very similar to that of the teachers lounge at my school. Missing my electronic voice, I could only listen to the conversation of the teachers, discussing the odd conduct of their participants in the fair. The end of their discussion stopped at his arrival. I gazed at the door in silent misery, as my body stepped vibrantly into the room, displaying its newly designed poster-board. At the top of the list I could only make out, “Medium coffee, extra/extra.”

 Nightfall. The night was dark and timid, like one that is illustrated in the children’s books, when the witch glides across the aphotic sky. It was silent, not a sound was made. It was 4am. I had just came from the scorch ring demons that live below. I am defined as a 12 year old boy; living in Syracuse, New York, with a wealthy mother of two, and a dad who has more affairs than Bill Clinton, but little do they know. I am not what I perceive to be. I full not only the world, but also myself, into pretending to be something far beyond my reach. I lie my way into the human race, I walk amongst them, I praise their flag, I go to school, I eat and breathe in their presence, but is that enough?

They’re not like us. The greatest aspect about the mortal world is that they contain a wondrous gift called, feelings. We don’t feel, emotions are only a state of mind. Where I’m from, feelings are forbidden. The boss of our colony believes feelings are a way of human nature. To eliminate one from feelings, at five years, we remove the hearts from every child. It’s a horrible dark thing to encounter. You can hear the scream and anguish from the child to the highest peak of the venomous forest. The dark clouds hover the world as the scream gets louder, they enjoy the sound of pain and agony, it’s the blood which keeps them alive. I felt the pain of the little girl.  I felt the knife as it drove through her hepatic vein, and the pulmonary artery. I felt the cry, I felt the intrigued sadness, I felt the anger, and the hatred.

Myself. Being me, is not something I want. I’m a monster. I’m the one your parents say to watch out for, I’m the one your friends say never to go out with. I’m the one that can fool the world. I’m the one that can make you drown in your own blood. I’m the one you should never trust. I’m the one you shall never love.

The Moon. After the human form of me caressed my body, I sent out for my bed. The only place where safety is a promise. I crept through the window of my cluttered room. My mortal parents are asleep. I hear their dreams, their thoughts, and their fears relating to their long run down days at the office. I hear my brother, crying, and sweating with terror. I cant read his dreams, his mind is controlled by someone much more powerful than I. Oh, how scared the poor fella must be. The dream is dangerous, its a poison, its a defining characterized image of the world I am embarrassed to say I’m apart of. I decide to leave Tim at his dream if any disturbance, could kill him instantly. So I slipped on my pajamas, and stared at the moon, the moon stared back. Its lucent light gleamed where my heart should be, but wasn’t. The light didn’t hurt. It was soft, and elegant, it touches my body with such grace, and respect. If only nights like this could last forever, no pain, no sorrow, no suffering, only the light, and the noise of nightfall.

It’s Saturday. Tim was already awake. I heard him downstairs talking about the new Forge game coming out today. I also heard the words “no,” and “you already have 36 games you don’t even play with,” and my parents characterizing Tim as “Spoiled.” I began to block out the conversation, and focused on getting dressed. Even though its been two years I’ve been part of this earth world. I am still not used to the need of a “shower.” A shower is defined as water particles falling down from a faucet like object which hovers over a something called a “bath tub,” and while your in the shower, you use a substance known as soap, which is stuff that supposedly makes you smell good.

I dried myself. The feeling of dryness releases the tension on my false coating. As I dressed my body with jeans and a T-shirt I sat there on the edge of my bed, staring at my frame. I can’t help but stare. It’s amazing how I can look like this; so beautiful so innocent, so human, while underneath I look like a sloppy joe.

The Mirror. Mirrors aren’t true, their lies through a 2 inch piece of glass. Mirrors are expected to define our existence, by glancing at the reflection of a person that should be but isn’t. They fool us. We’re not what they want us to be; we’re the exact opposite. I’m not what the mirror sees, I’m much worse.

My home. I live nowhere. The world contains nothing. It’s crowded with emptiness, but filled with the sadness of corrupted souls. The world of Sheferous has no life, no meaning, and no defiance. It’s made of arousing fires, causing the atmospheres to look sluggy and gray, killing everything in its path. Volcanoes erupt, oozing out the deathly substances of lava. The living, do not live hear. The kind and generous do not live here. The love and the caring do not live here. I live here.      

The outer layer of ourselves. We are feared by many, due to our misleading appearance. We are naked, clothes are forbidden. Our ears are angled upright, our fingers are clawed, our skin is pink and wrinkled, like a shaved chi Wawa. I am sent to earth as a spy, my world wants to destroy and conquer. I pretend to be an orphan, in which my parents adopted 10 months ago. I have been going back and forth from Sheferous to earth, feeding my colony the updates, and information about the world that will soon be theirs.

Who am I? Hello my name is Gretty, I am a boy who is 4,000 years old, and I was sent to earth to stalk the lives of billions of people. As a disguise, I wear a body suit, which slowly and painfully transforms me into a human. Who would’ve guessed it?

The Good Life. I walk in unison with my family. Holding hands, side by side, buying ice cream, biking along the river, fishing with my dad, my mother congratulating me on my excellence. Tim and I jumping, rolling, skating, screaming, doodling, watching, laughing, enjoying, going, and never stopping.  This is my world. I live here.

Fading into darkness. As night casted over, I slipped out of bed, getting ready to go to the world that initially runs through my blood. I went out into the night; blackness was showing its true colors. I stood in the middle of the street; I closed my eyes and imagined the fire, the smoke, and the lifeless zone. I opened my eyes when I heard, deaths scream. I was here, but god knows I didn’t want to be. After living hear for so long, this world still gives me the creeps. I shivered and shaked in terror as Henderous (leader of the colony) called my name.  His voice was in full command. You could hear death parting from his lips.

“GRETTY!” Henderous thundered.

“Yes, Sir,” I said, as the words trembled through my mouth.

“GIVE ME THE REPORT OF THE HUMANS!”

I told him about how they have a something called “The holidays” coming up in a month, and within the series of events called the holidays there would be a huge ceremony called “New Years.” I explained to him that new years is a holiday in which earth celebrates a new decade. He then decided, he would strike them on that very date, January 1st. As he spoke of the torturous language of death, I felt my body drop to the floor. I felt my mind spin from one direction, to the other. I felt my knees weaken. I felt my teeth chatter. I felt the thought of, a land so precious, and so well respected, crumble down, and transforming into a world where staying alive is never a promise.

New Years. Chaos erupted. People; Burning, running, gliding, yelling, crying, saving, praying, hoping for an end of the pain, and the sorrows. Buildings; crashing, slamming, jamming, creating a fog of dust. Fire; flaming, boiling, dancing to the sound of ending lives. Henderous; roaring, towering, defeating, smashing, creating a world where death is a sport, not an action. The creatures far and below; biting, fighting, killing kids, mothers, sons, cousins, grandparents, pets, anything living. ME; watching, despairing, hurting, standing, nowhere, nothing, empty, souless, mindless, heartless, this was the end.

I sat on my bean bag, frustrated. Why couldn’t I be as smart as my father? With his support, I should be on top of the world like him. He always treats me as though I’m his only child. Every time there’s a major crisis, I have to be with him because he doesn’t want anyone but me with him when he’s trying to solve something big. I guess I’m his inspiration. I wish I had someone as an inspiration... I wish I was my dad. Even though he’s old and annoying sometimes, he’s known as the smartest guy in the world. These days there are so many technologies that work with humans that people are getting lazier and lazier, day by day. Like what Dr. Ngawang once said about the technologies in 21st centuries and I quote, “Someday, technologies will take over the world and life as we know it, will be a lot easier.” I have to agree with the quote because it is true that technologies have definitely taken over the world and life is easier but life is too easy that everyone is getting more and more brainless. It sure is simple with bots doing all the works for us and you don’t have to think because everything is done for you. Researches have shown that there has never been this many obese people in the world. Every single household own a chef-la; she cooks all the meals and since she does all the cooking, there’s no need for anyone to be cooking. My dad has been telling me only 1% of whole population in United States has an IQ of 50 or more and they are encouraged to participate in the “----------”. He is the leader of that group because like I said earlier, he was named the “smartest guy in the world”. 

I remember that day... The day my dad was pronounced the smartest guy to be alive. Year 3000, to be exact. Mr. Rondolsky gave a whole speech about my dad and how appreciative he is of him. He started of mentioning my dad and his alien friends from Mars and how he was the one who bonded with the aliens after 5 centuries of the humans thinking aliens are here to destroy our planet. When reality, they were actual nice beings. Even with their vicious, odd looks, dad figured out a way to talk with them through frequencies of sound waves with the little knowledge of physics, he had. Then he started talking about all the popular inventions that my dad had created in his life when he was a young. I could see his envious face even today. I want to see someone, who look up to me. I mean I still have time to shine. I’m only 23 and my dad, well my dad is really old. Now that I’m mentioning his age, he’s turning 76 this weekend! 

I’ve planned a special secret birthday ceremony for him. He has no clue I’m planning it. Even though I feel as though he may have notice my behavior a teensy bit strange for the past few weeks because I have been getting home late at night. Though he never bothered to ask why I was coming so late. Every time I came in, he was in his lab with his machine gears working on a new robot called “Gee”. Gee, on the other hand was specially dedicated for his girlfriend, Gina. Gina was a decent woman for him and i accepted her in the family because she wasn’t dumb like the rest and she reminded me a littlle of my mother. It is such a tragic that every decent women that my dad married, ended up dying. My mom died when I was 13 due to a machine malfunction. The worst part is we couldn’t find her body because she was stuck in the time travelling device. Gina died 2 years ago because of my aunt. My aunt, well she’s a robot. She’s a human robot, meaning she looks completely like a human and has human organs except her brain. Her brain is made out of metal with chips. Her head is abnormally large but she is a beautiful creature. 

“Gavin! Gavin! Wake Up! Are you okay?” my lovely sister blurred in front of my face. 

“Yes..... Yes, I’m awake, Kasia.” I replied with pain in my neck. I had fallen asleep on the bean bag. “How did I end up falling asleep!!” I asked to myself because last time I checked, my sister was watching the television on her bed while I was on the bag, reading. I’ve never fallen asleep reading a book, no matter how boring or annoying it is. 

“You looked really tired when you came in.” Kasia replied with a smile. Then it all came to mind. I was really tired last night with all these preparation for my dad’s birthday party this weekend. Wait, it is 2 am. His birthday will be tomorrow. I forgot the day was already over and new day is about to dawn. I remember I wrote a status up on my “Walls Of Faces”, social networking center saying I was organizing a birthday party for my dad. After only a second later, I ended up with 1 million 203 people giving me suggestions. Almost everyone of them were dumb, someone said “Kiss him for me” and then it became a trend of thousands saying “kiss him for me.” It was annoying as hell because my iRobot started acting weird cause of all the notification I was getting at the same time. To be honest, I was pretty jealous of how popular my dad was and how everyone seem to like him. That’s where all these junk popped up in my head, which made my head throb and fall asleep unconsciously.   

With the help of Myla and Hollis, we finished all the decorations for tomorrow. Myla was one of the house maid that my dad had made for me and Hollis is my homework helper that I purchased at the mall. I got my speech ready and that included... Dun- dah- tah! my first new invention; a robot that can feel emotions. I’ve worked my butts off for this for 2 entire year while I was in college. Aside from that, today went by so quickly, I didn’t even realize I forgot to eat. I was starving! I begged chef la to make me a chicken noodle soup and some salad. I don’t know why but I wanted to be healthy tonight. The dinner was delish as always so i headed to sleep praying for tomorrow to go well. 

“Mr. Gavin! Today is Professor Adonis Forest, bracket my father bracket, birthday.” Myla announced coming with a fresh pair of tan pants and a black tuxedo shirt, near my bed. I realized I have still forgotten to register “Professor Adonis Forest” as my dad on her brain chip instead I put in brackets because I was lazy. 

“Thanks Myla! I got it! Leave the clothes on the table. I’m going to take a shower in a second. Tell chef-la to make me a vanilla bean coffee for me this morning. Oops! and don’t forget to wrap that gift for me!” I said with such anticipation, Myla got right to work. My shower lasted for about 5 minutes and I rushed through out the door with my brand new clothing. 

At the party, my aunt successfully brought my dad to the ceremony without releasing the secret party. When he came in and heard the loud “HAPPY BIRTHDAY”, he almost collapsed. Everyone hushed while he wheezed; that very moment left everyone skipping a heart beat knowing the consequences of him dying. I had a playback of what would actually happen to me and the whole nation if my dad actually died. There would be no one as smart as him and there won’t be any changes to the whole planet even after million of years after his death. There will be only few smart ones and they’ll take over the world instead of helping each other out like my dad. However, he got up and all I hear is a huge sigh of relief from the crowd. Then I got up to the stage and got ready for the speech. 

“I would like to thank everyone for taking the time to come here from all over the world to celebrate my dear father, Adonis Forest’s 76th birthday! I want to thank my two baby robots, Myla & Hollis that has helped me organize this party. Now I would like to share some of my thoughts and wishes for my dad for his upcoming years. When I think of my father, I don’t know how to describe him. He’s the greatest man I will ever know. Now I know that every dad wants to hear their kids say I want to be just like my father and I am going to say it with actual deep feelings because I truly do envy him and when I grow up, I want to be just like you, dad.” I start my speech and I looked up and I can see everyone with an awe spark in their eyes. Then I continue, “ I really can’t imagine anyone as great as you to be my father. I am truly blessed to have you as my dad. You’re the best dad I can ever have.” I look up and I can see my dad tearing up but with a bold face. Then I get ready for the zenith of my speech. “. . . I would like to say that I’m going to be a married man soon.” The whole crowd goes nuts congratulating me starts blowing up champagnes. I skim through the crowd and see my dad in disbelieve as though he’s having some trouble. l reflected, did I just blurted something ridiculous in front of the crowd? instead of saying I’m getting married? The next thing I know, my dad’s on the floor and everyone hushes. 

Mercedes Keese

1. ¿ Como te llamas?

Me nombre Mercedes Keese.

2. ¿Cuánto anos tienes?

Yo soy viente ocho anos.

3. ¿Qué universidad tú fuiste?

Yo fue universidad de Columbia.

4. ¿Qué anos tu graduarse?

Me gradué en el dos mil catorce.

5. ¿Cual es su asignatura de especialización?

Me especialicé en biología.

6. ¿Qué puede tú dar a la hospital?

Yo soy dedicado a mi trabajo y un a trabajador.

7. ¿De donde tu trabaja?

Yo trabajado en la universidad. Yo dijo los nuevos estudiantes  sobre la universidad. Yo también Ayudé a la universidad de Pennsylvania y Thomas Jefferson Hospital. 

8. ¿Por qué tú quiere ser un neurocirujano?

Quiero salvar vidas.

9. ¿Qué harías tú si perdido a un paciente?

Yo haría encontrar lo que hice mal y arregarlo.

10. ¿ Por qué quieres trabajar aquí?

Es un buen hospital.

11. ¿ Por qué debería contratarte a tú?

Yo soy dedicado y me gusta la oportunidad.

12. ¿ Cuál fue su trabajo anterior?

Yo fui un asistente de nodriza.

13. ¿ Por qué quiere dejar su trabajo?

No es lo que quiero.

Gracias

Peer Editing

I always had trouble getting up. After tough nights, I would always have trouble. The night before he was on Jupiter, tracking down a Rogue Agent from the United States Government. It was a tough night, but he had some clues on where he was.

After getting waking up,  I went to get breakfast and i saw a  name tag of one of the waitresses. Her last name was the same as the Dylan, the Rogue Agent. He could see His eyes in her, because they were such good friends in the academy.

While i was eating at a Cyber bar, I see a waitress. She has the same last name as Dylan but I doesn’t make too much of it. As I was eating my breakfast. I find something at the bottom of his cup. A phone number, I dials it.

AsIi was walking to the Warehouse, I become completely surrounded by people with blasters and masks on. They take my weapons, And search for any bugs on me. They say: “He’s clear”. So they take him to the warehouse. And, he finally sees Dylan for the first time in 5 years.

Dylan: Long time no see man.

Cole: A little over the top for just a meeting huh?

Dylan: I told them to trust you, they’re just usually OCD about that kind of thing.

Cole: Who is the “They”

Dylan: The Rebellion.

Cole: What?

Dylan: Cole, the people you work for. The Government we so truly think are good people, are actually bad people. They run underground operations in Galaxies around the Universe the enslave the people to make money Cole. They are bad people, The government is not who they are anymore. They are just run by people who want money, people who will do anything for it.

After arriving on Earth with the Rebellion. They wear their identify changing masks, they completely change the outlook on their faces so they don’t need to hide or run. They hid in plane Sight. After going to McMulls office, they find out that, McMull is dead. They called his death an “Accident”. Shocked and confused, I start feeling fearful for my life and my families.  But, Dylan gaves me comfort, and told him that with they’re actions. They will make my children’s lives better.  “I understood” I said.

After their only chance of bring down the Government is dead. They needed to take immediate action. They needed to go into the Government building. And, take the President. Try to talk to him. But, it isn’t going to be easy. It’ll probably be a fire fight, Dylan said.

3 weeks later,  I called my family. And told them that I was conducting a mission on Saturn. And, I told them that I loved them, fearing that it would be the last time talking to them.

As Dylan Brings in all the guns and ammunition. I am reminiscent of years before when we were working for the Government, killing people we thought who were bad, but were actually innocent. It was killing me thinking about it.  Their were 20 of them, 20 of them going in to a heavily guarder building, it’s  basically a suicide mission Cole was thinking. But, it needs to be done.

As everyone gets into the Ship, Dylan gives me a hug and says ‘Thank you”. I just nod and proceeds. As they near the Government facility two aircraft droids are flying along them. And ask for their clearance. As the rebellions ship doesn’t comply they start banging on the ship and then shots starting firing, one by another the aircraft droids were going down. And, the gunner had a hot shot. As the decanted. Blasters are fired and everyone takes cover. One by one, the droids get shot down. But, one by one. One of the rebellion gets show. One after another. 20, 19, 18, 17. I was counting as he saw his friends being picked off one by one. Dylan and I were tag teaming this. They were blasting threw everything. As they got to the doors. There were only 10 of them left, they weren’t even in the building. As they go in, they are completely mortified to see that the Government is completely ready for this attack and have hundreds of droids lined up to fight. “Someone tipped them off” Dylan said. As they see their doom,  Dylan tells me  he’s sorry.

As I swiftly made my way across the campus to the Dean’s office, I can’t help being slightly nervous about our presentation.

What is he going to say? Will he approve? What’s our next step? These few thoughts swirl around my head. I feel as though I shouldn’t have anything to worry about. However, for some reason I just can’t seem to rid these thoughts from my mind. I arrive at the office door, with a plaque that says “Dr. Mark Clover, Dean of University”, took a deep breath, and knocked.

            The door opens, and there stands Dr. Mark Clover, Dean of Tasker University.

“Well hello Dr. Connor, very pleased to see you”, exclaims Dr. Clover.

                        “Hello sir! Nice to see you as well”, I replied.

As I entered, I took the time to glance around the room. Dean Clover has a pretty nice office. I’ve always admired the art that covered the walls, and the huge windows that overlook the East side of the campus.  I then caught sight of Liam sitting in a chair in front of Dean Clover’s desk. I went and beside Liam, in the chair adjacent to him.

                        “Are you ready?” he whispers to me as I take the seat.

                        “Yes, I think so” I hesitated.

                        “Alright… let’s do this,” he declared.

And now… the meeting begins.

            As I quietly sat in the seat, I tried to think positive, and keep my composure. It’s not everyday that you’re sitting in the Dean’s office, awaiting for a make or break decision, that could change your life. 

            “Well gentlemen, look how far you’ve come,” stated the Dean as he strolled to his seat. “What information do you have for me today?”

                        “Sir, we’ve finally come to the end of testing. This formula we’ve created is strong enough to get rid of all the clones that were mass-produced. The array of chemicals that we’ve conjured up, have the power to shut down the clone within 3 minutes.” Liam states with excitement in his voice.

                        “That is impressive. Does this formula have any effect on humans?” questioned Dean Clover.

                        “Thank you sir. It does not have any effects on humans. It is not made for humans, so it won’t have any effect on us” replied Liam.

                        “Excuse me, but we’re not exactly sure of the effects this could have on humans. We never tested…” I stated, before being interrupted by Liam.

                        “Yes, but we did not see any need to test humans. Yes, the clones are more important to worry about. The effect the formula might have on humans is not nearly as much as an effect it has on the clones,” Liam interjected. 

            The room was silent for a few seconds. Who would speak next? What else does the Dean want to know?

                        “I have one last question… Dr. Liam, you told me earlier, that this could make us loads of money. How soon can we start producing and selling this?” asked Dean Clover.

                        “We could put this on the market within a few months. No questions asked.” Liam blurted out.

                        “Actually… no we can’t. We have not finished the appropriate tests to assure that this product will get rid of the clones. If it is not correct, the clones will just continue producing, and will wreak havoc everywhere,” I retorted.

The office got silent once again. This time, I was confused… there were new questions that entered my mind.

                        “Why would Liam discuss manufacturing this, and we hadn’t perfected it?”

 We already discussed that this couldn’t be marketed yet, so why did he go behind my back? I pondered.

                        “It is clear that there are a few minor details that the two of you need to work out. I’ll let you two go, and discuss them, and once they’re sorted out, we can come back for another meeting. Thank you for your time Dr. Liam, and Dr. Connor”, Dean Clover stated as he stood up and shook our hands.

Once outside of the office, Liam immediately began jumping down my throat about the comments I made.

                        “Why would you tell him it wasn’t ready? We’re almost done with our testing. We’ve already gone through the “business” side of this, so there shouldn’t be a problem”, shouted Liam. 

                        “Listen, we can’t produce something unless it is complete and perfect. I can’t lie to him, and tell him that we’re completely finished with them”. I shot back at him

                        “Connor, I don’t know what’s gotten into you lately, but I will work on getting more money for us. With the formula, we’ll be getting paid a large sum of money.”

                        “Liam, you can’t possibly believe that this will do well on the market without the proper testing. That’s not smart, and you…”

                        “Honestly, if you have such a problem with it, then fine. Don’t worry about getting a paycheck. We don’t need to worry about humans… this is for the clones. It will have no connection at all.  Liam stated, as he began to walk away.

As, Liam walked away he turned back around to give me an “evil look”. Something just doesn’t seem right. After Liam walked away, I had this weird sensation that something would just go wrong. I stood there confused about how I should handle this little ordeal, but also worried about what would happen next.

                        “What are we going to do about the clones? How much more testing needs to be done? Is Liam going to begin to produce it? What can I do to stop him?”

Little did I know… that soon my worries would become far greater than anyone could have expected. 

            As I entered the laboratory the next morning, I was startled to see what had taken place. Vials lying around, chemicals spilled, broken glass, and papers strewn all across 3the floor. What do I do now? 

How hard and uncomfortable this seat feels is the only thing that matters to me right now. It is a flood, the way the rap music from the earbuds of the high school boy opposite me seep into the cracks of my subconscious. In this one bus ride, my last bus ride, the only thing I can think about is the bass of the song and just how much I actually do hate siting on this bus everyday, twice a day. 

But, I mean I just don’t understand why this is necessary, though. It was ONE party. My parents are just going to drastic measures! The Academy? Really? Shooting me into East Jesus Nowhere in outer space is not what I need. Honestly, I’m a good kid. I clean my room, I walk the dog and complete my brain uploads. Why exactly they think sending me off to some ‘school’ is a good idea is a mystery to me. Apparently this is they way they learned as a kid. Being taught by a person? Having to sit in a lesson all day? It  all makes no sense. 

I have two days. It’s two days until I have to board an intergalactic flight to my doom. 

I meet up with Jeremy at Mario’s Pizza. 

“The ACADEMY?! You must be kidding me. You’re yankin’ my chain, right?” 

“Unfortuately, I am neither kidding or yankin,” I match. “It’s happening, dude. I might doubt it if not for the fact that my dad has been talking non-stop about it.” 

Jeremy leans back in his chair and shakes his head with his typical smirk, “You are in for it, man. I’ve heard they have no internet!” This was something I hadn’t heard before. No internet? I gape at him; that is unreal. Jeremy seems satisfied having shocked me with that tidbit.

Later on that night, Mom comes in to talk to me. I couldn’t handle any more tears. Luckily, she looked stoic instead. 

“Now honey, you know this is going to be unlike anything you’ve ever experienced. You know that Itzahseekret is a very different planet than ours. You’ll need your--”

“I know mom,” I interupted, “my winter coat. We’ve been to Ryland for holiday, it’s basically the same planet, right?” She nodded, but she bit her lip as if she wasn’t so sure I really did understand. Mom just hugged me gently as if she had never done it before and left me to “my own devices” as Dad called it. She doesn’t really want to send me to the Academy. My dad is the one. He believes in learning your lesson to fullest extent; whereas, Mom just follows along thinking it’s what is best for me.

I loaded up my Digi-screen and the holographic image splayed out in front of me. I came to a plain website, probably a free, not to mention ancient, Geocities site. I skimmed over a short text describing the school. Something about books and something called a classroom, I think? Finally, I found a photo. The actual Academy was not quite what I expected in terms of aesthetics. I thought at least it would look modern, maybe made of all glass or something cool. Not quite. It was ordinary in all aspects like the kind of stuff you see in 2000’s movies. The inconspicuous rectangluar shape and unassuming brown color did not give me any indication of what was inside. 

I spend the rest of the night and the next night searching the internet for something to cling to. I’m used to knowing exactly where something is and exactly what it looks like from my Digi-screen. I don’t go anywhere without checking it. The lack of information keeps me awake. With no luck, my ceiling offers no repreive. I wake up knowing no more than what Dad and Jeremy have told me. The bus route and people on it that I know by heart do not seem as alien anymore. 

_________________________

I wake up on the day I’ve been dreading since I was caught doing it. Don’t make me bring it up again, ya know, the party. My mom flips my light on without saying a word.  Dad’s been waiting for something like this. He went to the Academy too, so technically it’s legacy. In his day, it was some sort of honor.

 “Made me a man!” he recounts to me for, I’d safely say, the billionth time.

Now, it’s pure punishment and that is exactly the point--punishment. Breakfast is a quiet event on all fronts. I imagine the house will be this way when I’m not here. As Dad and I are leaving, my Mom doesn’t say much but just looks me in the eyes with tears in hers. She hugs me for about 4 hours before my Dad finally beeps his car horn to wake up the whole neighborhood. Different though,  Dad talks the whole ride. He is beside himself with excitement.

“Sound as if you’re happy to be rid of me.” I tell him.

“No,” he answers, “just happy you screwed up enough to convince your mother this is good for you. The Academy will do you some good.” 

As we approach the flight station he gets more serious. “Kid, be good for once and don’t make your mother and I have to come get you.” 

I don’t know what it is; my parents think I’m a hooligan. I think they read some parenting book that says as soon as I hit 17 I must be close to criminal. 

Dad just claps me on the back and drives away. Not that I expect much else, we have a no nonsense relationship. 

He warned me about the flight days ago, though, and hell it is. The turbulence is horrible and I now am aware that I do in fact, get space sick. 

Parker, Steve. "US Flag | Flickr - Photo Sharing!" Welcome to Flickr - Photo Sharing. Web. 13 Jan. 2012. <http://www.flickr.com/photos/sparker/2427517816/>.

Designs, SmartBoy. "The Sparse Planet | Flickr - Photo Sharing!" Welcome to Flickr - Photo Sharing. Web. 13 Jan. 2012. <http://www.flickr.com/photos/smartboydesigns/3797823072/>.

Fotography, Sarai. "Outer Space Simulation | Flickr - Photo Sharing!" Welcome to Flickr - Photo Sharing. Web. 13 Jan. 2012. <http://www.flickr.com/photos/wingsofahero/3374370563/>.

October 28, 2125

“You remind me of your mom when she was your age”

The infamous line, but it has no meaning to me. I say this not because I hate my mom, oh god no! I say this because I never met her. It’s weird though, I feel like I knew her my entire life. I love her unconditionally. You see, my mom died while giving birth…to me. Yeah I know, that’s a hard pill to swallow. Whenever someone brings her up I can’t help but be reminded that I’m the reason that she is no longer with us But let’s be honest I am the reason.

Every year around my birthday, my grandparents tell me stories about my mother. It seems like every year I learn more and more about her. Although I love the second hand stories, I want to know what my mom was like firsthand. The idea may seem a little far-fetched, but I’m almost confident that It will be easy.

Everyday after 6^th period, all of the juniors have to go to Time Capsule class. Before we graduate, we must know how to properly operate a time machine. Even though our training just started a few weeks ago, I feel confident in my ability to work the machine. I mean, it’s as hard as it looks!

Tomorrow, after class, I’m going to hide in the coat closet until Mr. Briggs locks up. At about 6:00 the school should be empty, and then I will borrow a time machine. I’m a little nervous… but hopefully nothing goes wrong. Wish me luck!

Xoxo Ariel :)

November 22, 2025

Wow! It’s been a while since I’ve last written in here… Well let me get you updated! I’ve been in the past for about a month, but in the future it would have only been a few hours. My mom and I are best friends. Oh yeah, did I forget to say that I found her?! I went back into the past far enough that her and I are the same age. It’s so cool! But what’s even cooler is that we practically look like twins. I think that’s part of the reason we became so close. She introduced me to her parents today. Yup, my grandparents. They look so much different so they do in the future. They appear to be a lot younger and happier… but I guess that should be obvious.

Oh yeah, she told me about her boyfriend today. I’m surprised that it isn’t my dad. I wanted to ask her about him but if there is 1 thing I learned in Time Capsule class, it’s do NOT temper with the past. I must follow the rules, especially since my existence depends on it. But I gotta go! I’ll try to keep you posted!

Xoxo Ariel J

November 25, 2025

A few days have passed, and a lot has changed! Where do I start? The other day I met my dad at my mom’s school. He looked nothing like how he does in the future. Anyways, the whole time we were at school she was saying such horrible things about my dad. At first it funny until I started making jokes about how one day she would end up marrying him. She seem utterly disgusted by the thought, and kept repeating that no one would marry a man so dumb. I snapped. I didn’t know what else to do. I blurted out that she would marry “a man so dumb”. I told her I was from the future. I told her I was her daughter. I told her about her death. I told her everything. I was a victim of word vomit. We learned about this in Time Capsule class. Some people can’t handle what they see in the past and as a result, they blurt out the future. It never ends well after that.

            My mom… Catherine she thought I was crazy. She left. She left me there and continued to scream insults at me. I thought she’d understand. I forgot that people from the past cant fathom the things that happen in the future. Immediately after I went back to where my time capsule was… or where it should have been. It was gone! It had self-destructed. I knew this because right where the time capsule used to be was nothing but rubble from the time capsule. I panicked! Then I thought about it… I had altered the future, my future. I remembered back to when we had learned about the cons of going to the past. One of these was that there was always a possibility you wouldn’t make it back because of something you might have said. The time capsule would be the first thing to go. Without a time capsule, I wont be able to get home and no one knows where I am. Back home it hasn’t even been an entire day yet… No one would know to come looking for me. And if they did, they wouldn’t even know where to start. I was trapped, and my only friend… my own mother thought that I was looney. A weirdo. I don’t know what to do, I haven’t completed that chapter in time capsule class. I was lost in the past. 

July 18, 2030. 

I’ve finally found it. I’ve found the perfect specimen, who will prove perfect for my creation. Intelligence, average height, devoid of any mental or physical defects, amongst other things. She also shares my dream, the dream of creating the perfect human. Someone devoid of all frivolous emotions such as: jealously, anger, happiness, lust, or sadness. It shall only think through rational thought and rational thought only. It shall be selfless, having no need for such irrelevant things like money or wealth. Too many people of the present are fueled by their emotions and their own selfish needs. Countries going to war because of something like oil? That’s preposterous. How can thousands of lives be lost in a meaningless war just so I can fill my gas tank? Idiots! All of them. We humans are imperfect by nature, too controlled by own emotions. Even as I write this, I’m becoming enraged at the current state of the so-called “human race”. My anger solves nothing, anger begets nothing. Nothing but violence and more suffering. I will create the catalysts for the new world; they will be perfection, perfection that will breed more perfection. I will God and they shall be my Adam and Eve.

September 24, 2042. 

I’ve done it. After years upon years they are ready. But not now. I can’t let them go out into the world now. The world isn’t ready for them, it’s full too much of imperfection. I have a better solution, I shall place them in an remote area, we were they shall begin the new world there. This way they won’t have any interaction with those of imperfect nature, and thus taint they’re imperfection. Yes, this is what I shall do. But there is one last thing to do. I must take my own life. I must do this, because I am imperfect. I exist as the very my creation intend to rid of. If I’m to see my dream come to true fruition, ALL imperfection shall be gone. 

Sci-fi story

Tony just got done with his third patient for the day, he looked at his “Best Doctor Ever” mug, on the right side of his desk, after taking a long sip of steaming coffee, he looked at his list of appointments for the day, his next patient Tim Mcmillan was supposed to be there in a few minutes for his appointment. Tim has schizophrenia and recently was very unstable, so Tony thought this session could do him a lot of good.

As time passed by Tony got increasingly nervous, Tim was never late to an appointment. Tony decided to do something after painful 30 minutes had gone by, Tony to called Tim’s phone. Tim always picked up his phone and came to his appointments on time, but this time the phone was disconnected. Tony understood the signs; he had seen it enough times with his patients, he knew now all he could do was go home, watch TV, and see where it happened.

Tony arrived home at around 8:40, as he entered his home he thought about adjusting his bracelet for 50% gravity, but decided not to at the last moment. Tony had never liked the government being able to control your gravity, of course as a kid he had played with his bracelet, like everyone had, but now as an adult he knew how controlling these were. Tony had a clean record, meaning that the government would process his requests first if he wanted to adjust his bracelet, and Tony knew this, but he still wouldn’t do it. Tony had worked out that he should only use this when in a lot of danger from someone on the outside, for example if one of his patients brought a weapon to their appointment.

The news was basically the same as every other day; some weather for the next few days, a storm was brewing over the west coast, and then some local news. This was the section Tony was looking for, he was just listening for Tim Mcmillans name, waiting for the inevitable, when he would find out what had happened to his former patient. Tony started to drift off, but then he heard it, “A local mans gravity was raised to 300% today as police surrounded him. Witnesses say the man was yelling gibberish in a hostile manor for about 3 minutes before the police arrived. The police who arrived on the scene shot immediately for fear that this man could cause potential harm to civilians.”

This took Tony a long time to digest this information, he had seen people in the newspaper that were Gravity-bound before, but never to someone who Tony known well, especially not one he would talk to every 2-3 days for almost a year and a half. Tony turned off the TV and laid down on his couch, pondering what he should do about this predicament. Tony realized that the government was getting increasingly strict with their use of the PYC machine, at first they would only use in high-risk, hostage like situations, but as more machine have been built, the use is much more common in every day life, but never used for harmful purposes like it was today. Tony could read the signs better than others, so his final thought before drifting off to sleep was that he should do something to show the government how wrong they were.

The next few months went by in a blur, doing his daily routine over and over, watching the world changing around him. Every once and a while, one of his patients would be Gravity-bound, with the governments increasing intolerability of any type of misbehavior. Tony was slowly loosing patients, everyone that could come to him was either too scared to go outside, or had been Gravity-bound. He pondered what to do, and eventually decided to actually get up and do something about it. Tony had never seen anyone stand up to the government since the PYC machine was invented, and he wanted to make a statement.

Tony spent weeks planning how this would go down, he gathered about 700 people to march on city hall. Tony made signs, having tons of people come over and help him plan for this event. He closed down the office to work solely on this project, not that it mattered; he only had 2 patients left. The plan was to attempt to get in to city hall, and look for the PYC machine controlling the city, or the people who control it, and talk to them sensibly. If they found the machine first, they would stand there until someone they could talk to showed up. The main idea was to not be violent at all, so that the government couldn’t take any forceful action against them.

The time had come; Tony was the first on the scene, observing the landscape until people started arriving. The security guards outside started to notice something was up when about 20 or so people gathered in a group in front of city hall. The group continued growing until almost 150 people were there, then they started making their way in to city hall. Around half made it in to city hall easily before the security started organizing them in to a line, making them walk in between security guards in order to enter.

This is when all hell broke loose, one of the protesters in the line brushed up against a guard. The guard took this opportunity to take out his baton and hit the man. About 6 people around this brawl joined in, while the rest of the bystanders watched. In less than 40 seconds, the 4 protesters involved in the fight had been Gravity-bound, the starter being killed by the guards afterward. The other 3 were led off in handcuffs. Seeing this kind of treatment appalled Tony, especially with the realization that he had caused this to happen.

Things only got worse from here; the protesters arriving outside saw the commotion and ran in, causing a ruckus much worse than before. This started a riot, between all of the guards and many of the protesters. Tony could only stand there and watch as one by one his companions were Gravity-bound and arrested, or Gravity-bound and killed. Tony even watched as one mans gravity was turned up constantly, until eventually his bones were crushed completely.

Tony ran. It was all he could do, his people were getting over run and shut down. Edging his way around the destruction that he caused, seeing fallen comrades everywhere, beaten by the batons of the law enforcement. Past all of the men whose deaths he caused, barely making it under the radar of the guards. 100 feet until the entrance, 50 feet, halfway down the steps, just 20 steps and a small courtyard until he was safe.

Tony made it safely down the stairs, but then he was spotted by one of the guards outside who recognized him as the leader. Tony heard the guard yell out, but ignored him and continued running, then right as he was about to take the last step out of the courtyard, it happened. His body just stopped working like he was used to, Tony was forced to the ground, and couldn’t get up, he had been Gravity-bound. He was surrounded, a gun pointed straight at him.

The moon is rising again and the mutant birds are chirping . (Yawn). The air smells of fresh cow butt and the sky is as green as my new string beans. That’s Venus for you. It is 9 o clock in the morning again and another day  I have to go to work. Oh excuse me I forgot to introduce myself. I am Zuruck Chew the IV. I am a single father with 12 kids and blab bla bla. I’m sorry it is the same everyday.

         Driving to work can be a real drag. It’s the same as always. Just seeing the same thing everyday makes me ill at ease. Broken houses, parks with no tress, stinky diapers on the floor. You know the usual. But driving to work is not the worse part.  The worse part is actually being at work. As a national service guard I do absolutely nothing. I just sit here, look at this virtual box and see if any enemies try to attack us. But it’s so boring. First of all, of living Galactic creatures in the Milkyway, who the hell would be stupid enough to attack us. We have absolutely nothing here to take unless people want recipes on how to make bunny chow. So yeah this job sucks. I mean who the hell wants to sit there and watch a box that does nothing . And I have to watch it with an idiot. And trust me when I say idiot I mean idiot. His name is Ghahu Betch and he says 1 + 1 = 2 . What an idiot. But it’s not that bad sitting next to him. In fact he smells like Strawberries.

So anyway today I had enough. I’m not going to take this anymore. I had finally arrived at the halls of death walked up the endless flight of stairs to my station and sat down and wait. Now Ghahu is talking about how we are dumb and uneducated. I’m pretty sure the one who thinks there are living creatures on earth. Is he an uneducated one.  He just kept on blabbing on about something. And that’s when I blew up. That’s when I told him. AGGGHHHH!!!!! “I had enough. I’m not going to do this BLEEP anymore. ” My rage of furry took over my body and I stormed to the bathroom. I sat down on the slimy and relaxing stall and finally I got some peace. As the big brown and wet poop came from my butthole I notice a strange smell. It was like a hint of fruity sensation. Almost like Strawberries. That’s when I realized oh god no. Not strawberries.

 “ Hey dude you seemed upset out there”

“ I’m fine Ghahu I was just”

“ It was just that lately you been acting like a douche and that explosion outside….”

“ I’m fine Ghahu”

“ Are you sure?”

“ Yes, now leave me alone shouldn’t you be watching the box”

“ It is a high-tech state of the art mega super Del 7000. It’s not just a box. And we should maneuver our way back pronto before something god-awful happens”

“ First of all me and my butt have a little date with Mr. Toilet right now and second of all who’s going to care? Nothing bad will ever.” Little did I know I would later regret those words.

         As soon as I rose from my toilet I heard a boom sound. Almost like an explosion. Then the power on Venus turned off. In the span of 5 minutes, Venus shook,  there was an episode  of maddening   flickering lighting and  a lot of screaming. Normally a red-alert like that would make the Venus’ sirens go beep beep beep. But Ghahu and I were still in the bathroom. As soon as we got out we left towards our station when our 4 arm,  7 ft , 500 pound of muscle body building boss was sitting at our station.

“ Now you see what you had done” I said

“ You and moi are in this predicament together.”

“ BOYS!!!!!!

“ By all means monsieur, what could possibly be bothering you today?

“ Your smartness can’t get you two out of this one. You two should realized that our world was just attack by earthlings.

“ Um s s-s-sir  w-w-what exactly are earthlings?”

“ Obviously people from PLANET EARTH. Now Listen. I”M REALLY ANGRY. BECAUSE OF YOU TWO, the planet of Venus will go into a planet shut down. NO LIFE WILL BE  HERE. If you idiots didn’t get  our world ends .  They stole our life emulator. I need you  to go to planet Earth and take our Life emulator back. You have one week or your both FIREED Grrrrrrrr.”  As he stomps out of the room Ghahu whispered, “So I guess we have an adventure together partner.”  All man.

         To make a long story short we jumped on a rocket, took about a 17-hour hyper speed flight and landed on earth. The ride was boring listening to this man talk and talk. short,  I’ll resume the story to me and Ghahu landing on planet earth. Once we landed I was in complete shock.

“Dude are we at the right place?”

“If my scientific theories are correct I must conclude that we are indeed on planet earth.”

         I guess we were on earth. But the place is so different than from Venus. The sky was blue instead of green. The air was a lot fresh then I could ever dream. But we were  on a mission. I could not waste time gawking at this new place We had to  find our life emulator.

“Ok so we need to move forward to a place called the DC.”

Luckily there was a nice earthling kind enough to tell us where DC was. But that was  really far away. But Ghatu said that on the way here he read somewhere on how to get free rides. He puts one hand out with his thumb sticking up and the other hand is behind his head. If I didn’t know better I would say that he was in a sex position.

Oddly enough this creepy guy came and gave us a free ride to DC. I still feel guilty about not paying him some Galactic money. But he seemed to be in a rush when told him weren’t woman. But he did give us some great information. He said the President is in something called the white house. We went to this big white building with a big pointing thing on top of it. We asked one of the stylish earthlings to let us speak to Mr President. Then we found out that we were in the wrong building. But then we were arrested because Mr. Smarty thought it would be a good idea to tell them  we wanted to speak to the President and take something from him.

At this big building that seems like it needed major renovations someone called a judge gave me and Ghahu a 30-year sentence for attempted robbery. But somehow Mr. Smarty found a way to escape. He just took his finger nail and clipped us out of our handcuff. We somehow escaped from earthling prison. We walked for what seemed to be forever or it could have been  about 5 minutes . We found another big white house. This one was a bit flatter then the last one but I got that feeling that this could be the house. But Ghahu probably almost saved my life. He seemed to elude several men dressed in black suits, talking in miles  and wearing guns . Luckily , we joined a group of people  touring the house. So we made our way inside the house and we had found the emulator. So we tried to not walk suspiciously   and we made our way back to the ship. Once we took flight we heard explosions. The nice old humans were shooting RPGS at us. That was when Ghatu took us on hyper-speed and we made back to Venus safely. So now Venus is saved, I am taking my job seriously, I had an adventure and now enjoy smelling strawberries

Keiren reached into the locker he had rented at the recreation center, locker 13. His back was to me, he pulled something towards him and froze. His shoulders stiffened. 

“What is it? What’s wrong?” I asked.

He turned and looked at me while holding something out. There were two of them; little bronze, metal hearts with gears showing. They were both on bronze chains.

“Do you know what these are? Or how they got here? I’ve never found anything in this locker before and I always rent this one out.” He stated.

“Maybe someone else rented it and accidentally left them; they could be best friends necklaces or something. See how they’re identical?” 

“But what’s with the numbers?” He asked.

If you looked really close at the hearts, you could see numbers through gaps, on three of the gears. 

“It looks like a date. What’s the sense of having that, time moves faster than the days do. Most people carry watches that only show the date as an extra feature, not as something primary.”

“Why’s it frozen on that one date?” He questioned. “It isn’t today’s date.”

“Maybe the...batteries died.” EHHHH, wrong. I could hear the buzzers going off in my head. I turned one of the hearts over in my hand. There was no battery cover, nor anywhere to fit a battery. Maybe it’s solar-powered? There aren’t any little black squares to collect the sun’s energy with, so no. That couldn’t be it. 

“Maybe it’s a type of remembrance thing, ya’know so the owner could remember an important moment in time?” Keiren suggested.

“I don’t think so. It looks...too complicated for that.” There was a little button on the lower end of the right side of the heart and two on the top left. I tapped the left side button that was closer to the bottom. It made a clicking noise and changed to today’s date.

“Hey. The date on mine just changed to today. Like magically.”

I bet it was because I pressed the button on mine. I pressed the lone button that was located to the right. It moved a year backwards.

“Did anything happen to yours?” I asked Keiren.

“Yeah, the year changed to last year, that was weird.”

“Every time I change something on the one I have, yours changes, too. Hm, curiouser and curiouser.” When I looked back down, I saw that there was a light in the middle of the heart that glowed bright green. “Hm, what’s this?”

“What’s what?”

“It’s glowing...look so is yours!”

He looked down at the heart in his hands and turned it over and over, looking over every square inch to try and see what was making it glow. I decided to just push the light to see if it were some type of button.

As soon as my finger applied a slight amount of pressure, I felt like I was a ribbon being pulled behind a running child. I felt like I was being twisted this way and that, I felt like I was being waved like a flag. Everything was pitch black, then all I saw were stars that expanded so they became the light of day. I was pulled to the concrete sidewalk, like a screw to a very powerful magnet. I wobbled slightly and steadied myself as I came to a stop that left my head spinning. I heard a snap and Keiren landed next to me with his hand on his head. He almost fell over as he tried to steady himself as I just had. 

“What was that?” He asked with a slight slur. He, then shook his head and asked again more clearly.

“I don’t know. What I want to know is how we’ve gotten outside. I don’t remember stepping through those doors.” I said matter-of-factly hitching a thumb at the doors of the old recreation center that loomed behind us. We both looked around. Things looked a little different. Where was the bench that was out outside last month? They couldn’t have brought it in already; the nice weather just started. There was a newspaper booth behind us. It looked old and rusted, though a new one had been bought about 3 months ago. It was supposed to be shiny and red, with maybe only a few scratches or evidence of wear. I felt a pull towards it. 

“Hey, can you grab a paper?” I asked Keiren as I turned to look at him.

“A paper? For what?”

“I don’t know. I just want a paper, can you get one, please?”

He walked over to the old newspaper booth, grabbed a paper and handed it to me. He then walked over to the window of the recreation center and peered through. A few people were walking on the street, but no one paid us mind. I recognized them all, that’s a good sign; things couldn’t be as out of whack as they seemed.

I looked down at the paper. The news story on the cover was something about a house fire that had happened. I don’t remember hearing about this. In this small town, news traveled fast. Way too fast for my liking; if there was a fire, I probably would’ve known and there would probably be some type of donation box at the recreation center for the family. I looked at the date of the paper: “April, 15, 2010.” But today was April, 15, 2011. That is a nasty misprint; something the editors definitely wouldn’t have overlooked.

“Evie! Look here!” Keiren still had his faced pressed to the window.

“What is it?”

“Look, it’s Miss Daisy! I thought she died this past December.”

“You must be mistaken, maybe it’s someone who looks like-” but there she was. Sh even had her metal walker, which was adorned with pink tennis balls on the legs and the teddy bears attached to the top bar. She was walking slowly toward the door to the hall they reserved for bingo. She smiled at everyone who she scuttled past.

“Hi, Miss Daisy. Nice day, huh?” “Here, Miss Daisy, I’ll get the door for you.” It was definitely her. But it just couldn’t be. I backed away from the window slowly. The Pizza shop across the street had its Thursday special board hanging in the window. Today was Friday. I jogged across the street with Keiren on my heels. I went up to the shop clerk.

“Hi, how can I help you?” the clerk asked with generic happiness.

“I was wondering why the Thursday special was in the window, today’s Friday isn’t it?” I asked very quickly.

“No, today is Thursday, thanks for your concern though.” the clerk replied as she hitched a thumb towards the calendar on the wall.

I went to look at it. Sure enough the heading read: April 2010. The kittens on the calendar looked down at me with their big eyes. It felt like they were begging me to understand. I realized I still had the metal heart clutched in my hand. The smallest gear read: “4,” the middle sized one: “15” and the biggest one: “2010.” I saw Keiren’s head shoot up in surprise. He was looking at the metal heart in his hand, too. I think he came to the same realization that I had.

“Evie. I think we traveled a year in the past.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~❤~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We went over to the recreation center and sat down on the steps in front. 

“I don’t understand. All I did was press a button. I didn’t turn any dials or anything. I don’t see why it would send us to today.” I said with a bit of exasperation. “And how are we going to get home, to our time, if we don’t have any clue as to how to work them?”

“Well, let’s retrace what happened before we traveled here.” Keiren said. “Ok, so first what did you do to it?”

“I pushed the bottom, left side button and it changed to today’s- well the present time’s- date. Then I pushed the right side button and the year changed to 2010.” I said with my my fingertips pressed to my temples. “Then I pushed the glowing green button. And finally we ended up here. I didn’t do anything else.”

“Maybe we should try that again. Then maybe it’ll change back to 2011. What do you think?”

“Okay, we can try. If it doesn’t show “2011” we just won’t press the green button to make us travel.”

“Alright. Sounds solid. Ready when you are.”

I nodded at him and pulled the metal heart closer to my face. I pushed the bottom left button. The heart clicked, but nothing seemed to change. Then I pushed the right side button. I stopped breathing for a moment. What if it didn’t change to 2011? What if we couldn’t figure it out? What happens if we can’t get back to our present time? 

I tried willing it. I kept saying a steady mantra of “2011” under my breath. I pressed the right side button. The click seemed to echo, my eyes squeezed shut at the sound of it. Please, please, please. I carefully opened them and exhaled easily. On the biggest gear “2011” was displayed. The green light started a steady glow and I showed Keiren with a smile. 

This time, he pressed the button. Then everything went pitch black and the sky ignited into stars.

We ended up back where we were; at locker #13 in the recreation center. The florescent lights were buzzing at an almost inaudible level. I was surprised that I could hear them over the sound of my beating heart. We decided not to put them back in the locker. What if someone who didn’t know how to work them found them? They’d be stuck.

“So, what should we do with them?” Keiren asked as he kicked rocks across the concrete.

“Hide them, I guess. So no one will find them. Who knows what trouble they could get into? Besides, many people today believe that wishes don’t come true.” I replied with a smile.

Keiren looked at me strangely. I looked down at my feet. I was skipping over all the lines in the sidewalk. After all, wishes really do come true. I just wanted to see my grandma. One. Last. Time. I just wished I could’ve brought her daisies.

He said to me: "It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life.

- Revelations 21:6

Chapter 1

“Finally we’re here!”. You could hear all of the kids rejoicing, finally having arrived at our destination. New Haven, the city of wonder... But how could this utopia have survived? After all the bombs dropped, how was it possible that an entire city survive? I wasn’t the only one but hell it was rough. I still couldn't believe the fact that a whole city stood, in a Utopian state in all it’s glory, unscathed and untouched by the Great War. It seemed almost surreal. I thought back to the times when I had to kill just to make it through a day. Not just animals…but the raiders…even some of the wastelanders. But things were going to be different here, I thought. But I could not have been more wrong.

After being shown to our living quarters, we were all given standard issue clothing. I couldn't say that they were stylish, but hell, it was better than my ragged, war-torn battle gear. The one rule that I despised was no weapons. But hell, in a utopia, shit ain’t always pretty and prim is it? I kept my gun close and my family closer and nothing was going to stop that.

Chapter 2

Damn it. I knew this was gonna happen. As he awoke to the sound of a door closing ever so softly, he turned to confront his son. Silently, almost effortlessly, he got up from his bed and approached his son. "Where have you been?". I could see it in Blake's eyes… Searching for some wise ass excuse to his mischief. "Uh… nothing. I just came back from a short walk." he retorted. He just didn't get it, I guess. "Bullshit and you know it. I don't want you sneaking out like that. At least tell me next time. Now go to your damn room." A sigh of relief filled the air as I eased up. "Blake," he said, almost expecting a response. 

"Yeah Dad?" 

"I love son. Don't ever forget that. But don't pull this crap again o.k.?"

"Yeah Dad. Sorry, I just wanted to go out and have some fun you know?" he responded groggily.

"Yeah I understand. Now get some sleep."

… 

It was 6 o'clock. God the time flied. As I got up, I felt a sharp pain in my hand. "Uh." I let out a short groan before getting up to check if Blake was still sleeping. Sure enough, he was out like a light. I decided to leave him a note and let him get some more rest. "Hunting time." I said to myself quietly, as I grabbed the keys and my hunting rifle. I frantically scrawled a note on a crumpled piece of paper lying on the table.

Blake,

I left out to do some hunting. Hopefully I can catch something half decent. Don't go anywhere until I come back. Food's in the fridge and there's still some cola on the counter if you want it.

Dad

That would suffice, I thought. As I grabbed my duster, I had a feeling it was going to be a long day.

Walking through the serenity of the apartment almost made me wish I had stayed just a bit longer to clear my head. Before leaving I grabbed my gas mask, locked the door and headed out into the bright sunlight. "Damn," I said. "Near goddamn blinding out here." Quickly throwing on my duster and shades, I began the walk to the gates. After picking a breakfast in the market, which consisted of eggs, a small steak, and a slightly irradiated water; I stopped into a few stores. None of them had what I needed. But every one of then had what I was looking for. Ammunition. The easiest and cheapest commodity to buy and sell. Hell, come across a dead man out in The Wastes and you could have one hell of a dinner that night. I guess this time I would be rolling out with just 30 .308 Armor Piercing rounds and just 4 standard .308s. Capable enough to stop a few coyotes, or raiders for that matter. Out here, there was no good or evil. There was only survival. What I once thought was evil became my good. Living in The Wastes really could blur a man's sense of morality. Even when a raider begs for their life, you take it. Because if not, they would've taken yours, even if they say otherwise a million times over.

Those guards always seemed to have an affinity for my rifle. Always stopping me to see the gun, even when I didn't have it they wanted to talk about it. Hell, maybe one day I'll find a near useless one that I can fix up for them.

As I finally exited the gates, just after talking with the guards, I looked out and saw emptiness. A vast emptiness left only by a post-apocalyptic desert. Not even a trace of life…But somehow, somewhere there was the waters of life… just like Revelation 21:6…"To him who is thirsty I will give to drink freely from the waters of life."

Chapter 3

Finally I arrived at my planned spot. It felt so good to be back in a familiar place. Home sweet home. I started to unpack my gear and lay out the days plan. Water, check. Armor piercing rounds, check. Variable optics scope, check. Now all I had to do was make sure the rifle was ready. All the time I had at home, I still couldn't resist cleaning and checking it in The Wastes. 

As I began to check my rifle and next thing I know, I got 2 raiders staring down at me. I could hear their footsteps before they even found me but damn, this was gonna be a rough one. As one began to reach for my shoulder, I flipped him over my back and onto the ground. In one swift motion, I picked up my rifle and fired a shot right into the knee of the 2nd raider. Instead of reloading, I knew it would be quicker to use my combat knife. In a whirlwind of precision, I swept down, avoiding a lunge from the wounded raider and slit the dazed raider's throat. Then, swiftly removing my blade, I slowly walked towards the injured raider.

Spinning the knife around my hand, I was his God now. I determined whether he lived or died. I could be his saviour or the harbinger of death. I could have spared him, but I couldn't show mercy to the merciless. So I took his knife, tossing it aside carelessly and hugged him, driving my knife deep into his heart. I knew my face was the last image to be burned into the recess of his mind.

Sci-Fi Story

Upon earth, 15 hours after the first of the pods launched, it crashed to the ground. In the middle of a concrete road in a small town, the villagers came to observe the uniqueness of this foreign object never before seen. At the moment of impact this first Martian felt the impact through its body. Like nothing it had even felt before, as the cylindrical capsule was forced by the intensified gravity of a much bigger planet, sent it smashing into the ground. The weight of its safety belt squeezed it down, tight against the seat. So tight the belt squeezed against it’s wearer threatening to cut it in half. Meekly he raised his tentacle easily pushing it away from him, as lifting it was too heavy without the gravity equalizer activated. It slowly crawled across the floor of its ship as it felt that the sheer weight of their air was forcing his body through the atomic holes in the floor. Luckily to activate the equalizer the switch needed to be pulled down, and with ease after several earth hours the Martian managed to reach it.  With a grunt of strength it lifted one of it’s extremities against the weight of this world and forced the lever back down. In an instant the machine buzzed and hummed. It rumbled and snapped as the engine came to life, equalizing the gravity inside the capsule. Now there was work to be done, to construct the war machine. Freely it’s tentacles whipped around and throughout the capsule putting pieces of metal, screws, and joints in place. It tightened and loosened them, to construct the machine that it had to memorize back home. As it constructed it thought of home. What will happen if this doesn’t work? What is their future, so few of their people remain. The future relied upon its actions. The idea was frightening almost too much to bare.

He was ready as the last screw was tightened into place. To begin, pushing a button lifting the cylinder straight up against the gravity and above the lip of the crater.  The view from inside his metal home was fantastic. The hills of flourishing plants along the countryside and rolling hills that went for miles were all in view. A blue sky that it’d only heard about in the temples of old, before they were destroyed. In the distance it saw the clouds meet the land in the form of a fog that blurred into the distance. The beauty of this world, so fresh, overtook it, this world was innocent of the troubles that its planet had endured. But it had a mission; it was race against race and for its race to survive this one could not.

Ahead it saw mechanical beasts, similar to it’s own in material but much lower and that seemed to move, almost fly across the ground so smoothly. Humans ran across the ground, running from the standing tripod. A bang isolated its attention, coming from one of the humans vehicles. The explosion shot metal right across the top of the Martians war machine. This undoubtedly was a violent act, a show of aggression that stopped any thoughts of “is this right?” in the mind of this first Martian. So it in turn fired away, a heat ray shot a beam across the space between its and this planets machinery. The target turned white, burning any humans in it alive and began softening much like any metal would do under intense heat. This was the beginning of their mission, neutralize resistance, take control, and make it suitable for the remainder of the Martians to arrive. This was its constant reminder of its duty, all for the mission.

The Ayngel’s Bell

Chapter One:

            3000 feet underground laid a cavern that was transformed into a lab by one of the greatest scientist of that time period. Bleeping lights and flashing noises filled the lab. His machines and gadgets where a symphony of chaos. “Dr. Chase, we’re running out of time. They’ll be here any moment.” Mr. Heddings yelled over his shoulder as he scrambled back and forth around the lab gathering supplies and equipment. “I only need a couple more minutes Heddings. Just a couple more minutes. She’s almost ready.” He leaned over the body of a young woman who was laid out on a cold steel table. Her chest was opened with wires and cables hanging out. Sighing, Mr.Heddings nodded in acceptance and continued packing. He located only the essential blueprints and documents and stuffed them all into a folder as Dr.Chase put final touches on his latest project. He was creating an “angel” as he constantly would refer to it.  She was seemingly human with the exception of a few things. Her internal make up was all wires, chips, and plugs; creatively arranged to be connected to one main motherboard located in the center of her chest. She was a robot glazed in synthetic skin.
            Just as Dr. Chase closed up her chest and locked it with a blue tinted key, the wall in front of them exploded. Smoke and debris from the equipment lined along that wall erupted inward followed by lines of red laser lights. A team of armed men filtered in the room within seconds yelling and pointed their guns towards Chase and Heddings. “Step away from the android!” they yelled as they charged towards them. Chase slid the key into the pocket of the android’s pants just as one of the men grabbed him and threw him to the ground. “What’s our order Alpha?” the man holding down Chase asked. An armed man, noticeably larger than the rest of them, walked in through the hole blown into the wall and looked around. “Extract then dispose the Android. Clean Everything Else.” The man holding down Chase nodded once and then without another second stood and shot him in the head.
            Heddings flinched and looked away from the now lifeless Doctor. “The Ayngel’s Bell will sound... and you all... will rue this day” he mumbled to himself. He stared into the goggles of Alpha with sympathy. “If only you weren’t so stubborn.” Alpha shrugged casually to himself. “If only you weren’t so naive.” In one timeless motion, he raises his gun to Heddings’ forehead and pulls the trigger.

Chapter 2:

            I was sitting at the bottom of a hill on the side of the river bank. It was my secret hide out because it was shrouded by shade from the trees and bushes at the top of the hill. I had built a shack down here a couple years back as like an escape from life. I stocked it with everything I needed like food, clothes, a bed, and my tool kit. I was a self proclaimed robot engineer. I tinkered here and there, made little bots to help around, and worked with a team of techs. We hack systems, and screw with the government for a living. The governments been corrupt and working on something big for the couple years. Our plan was to eventually break past their security system and find out exactly what they were planning. 

-Brrrringggg-
My cell phone goes off, breaking my thoughts. 

“ Oh my gosh Lawrence! We need to meet. Like now. KT found activity with the gov’s shadow team.” 

Just as I’m about to respond to the excited voice on the phone, a female body comes tumbling down the hill and topples over the edge of the bank into the river. Reflexes gots the best of me and before I actually realized it, my phone was on the ground and I was jumping into the river after her. Her body floated a couple feet ahead of me, being pulled by the current. The river would get rough if we floated too much further down stream. Kicking a little with my legs I covered the distance between us and caught her by the arm. She was unconscious, but hopefully not dead. I caught hold a large branch handing in the river and with much effort and exertion pulled the two onto land. My body begged me to relax for a moment but my mind was too locked on making sure I didn’t just save dead weight. 

“Hey lady, come on and wake.” 

I pushed down on her chest a couple times but nothing happened. Placing my ear to her chest, I could hear something. It didn’t sound like a normal heart beat but it was something. I scrambled for my phone and called my car. It locked onto our location and with a couple minutes my car came gliding down the hill and spun into a perfect park. The door jutted open and I lifted her into the back seat. Sitting down next to her the doors close and the car’s auto voice asked “Where to, bro?” 

“Nearest Hospital.” 

The car shifted gears then blow up the hill, skidded onto the road, and zoomed off. Horns and yells rang around the car as I sat in the back of the car trying to figure out what to do with the her. After a moment I remembered something I had learned in a health class; CPR. I pushed her silver hair out of her face and leaned down. When I touched my lips to hers there was a sharp electric surge that shoot through me and sent me jutting up and hitting my head on the car roof. “Are you okay?” the car asked me. “Y-yeah. Just focus on the road.” I could feel the car tense and speed up  but then suddenly the car jerked and pulled over to the side. 
“Losing Power. Please remove source of energy loss bro.” 

Pushing down the passenger front seat and climbing into the driver’s seat I pulled open the car’s operating menu. 
“Unknown source of energy lose. Please Remove. Unknown source of energy loss.”

The words scanned across the screen repeatedly as the car’s battery meter continued to drop. “We do not have time for this!” I yelled half at myself and half at the car as I slammed my hands on the wheel. Suddenly from the back of the car there was a loud crashing sound and then a thud. I turned around to see the girl trying to climb out of the back window frantically. I grabbed the side of her leg and pulled her back into the car. 
“Let go!” she screamed and then pressed her back into the door of the car like she was trying to melt through it. Her face was panicked and confused and her eyes were...well... I don’t even know... they were an electric blue color. “Calm it down, k. I just saved your life.” The insides of both her eyebrows creased down and she stared at me intently. “What is going on?” 
I looked at her confused then climbed into the back seat to sit next to her. She was cautious but said nothing. “You came rolling down a hill and went straight into the city’s main river. I saved you’re life. Was taking you towards a hospital but I see you’re fine now.” 
Her body physically relaxes and she stares out my broken car window. “I don’t... remember...anything...” 

I sighed excessively and stared down at the floor of my car. “Look, I have to get...somewhere. Can I drop you off, uhm...” 

“Canta” she said cutting me off. “My name is Canta... Can... I come with you?” 

Her eyes locked to mine and she tilted her head in a way that made her silver hair fall perfectly over half her face. “Please...”

There was no way I could say no so I simply nodded twice. “But we’ll have to walk. Car needs to sit and recharge.” 

We stepped out the car, I turned on the solar panels on the roof of the car, and we headed towards my tech team’s headquarters. 

Chapter 4:

It’s been about 2 months since the day I first met Lawrence and his band of rebels. So much has happened. That first day when I met them I knew something was wrong with me. Something was… unnatural. When I had first awakened in Lawrence’s car, it was like I was being electrocuted and overwhelmed with this surging energy. I felt it again when I had touched my fingers to that keyboard in their headquarters. It was like I could link to the systems and feel them; I could physically and emotionally feel them. I told Lawrence about it that night when him and I were alone and he told me not to worry about it. “Don’t worry about anything Canta. We’ll take care of you.”

They made me a room within their hq and despite the fact that it upset the rest of his team, Lawrence took me out every day with him to do different things. Some day’s we’d run errands, other days we’d watch ‘normal’ people living their ‘normal lives’. We lived in a world where humans and robots co existed under a government run by a super computer and three old men. Normal people had families and went to schools and had normal honest jobs. They were, for the most part, oblivious of the world Lawrence and I lived in. We could see things for what they were because we looked at the bigger picture. After looking over the files that we downloaded that first day we realized that the government was creating android, robots that could pass as humans, so that they could use them to infiltrate the other countries and take over. It was a world-wide law passed at the beginning of the AI- robot coexistence Era though, that it was illegal to make a robot that looked and acted human. Anyone caught doing so would be sentenced to life in prison or even death depending on the AI they created. 

As of this moment, Lawrence, his team, and I were the only people who knew exactly what was going on in the core of the Government and we were the only people who could do anything to stop it before it went too far. We had a program called ‘The Ayngel’s Bell’. It was the strongest virus on the planet, designed to totally crumble the government and annihilate all the androids. The Super God Virus Code. It was going to be my job to install the program since out of the five of us, I was the best coder and hack. Over the past two months we’ve been planning our infiltration plans and battle tactics. The one thing we didn’t go over though was the code for the Super God Virus. Last night I finally asked them how exactly they were planning for me to install it. I could hear Harrison and KT’s body stutter and raise a few degrees. I caught the weird jerk in Lawrence’s laugh as he tried to shake off the topic.

“We have all that under control, Canta. Don’t worry about it at all.” Erika said when the boys didn’t speak up right away.

They were hiding something. I couldn’t tell what but from their bodies I knew it was something they thought would be problematic for me to know. I pretended to be clueless, smiled, and said “Okay!” and then walked off to my room to do intense thinking. By now though, Lawrence knew my habits and patterns. The others accepted me dropping the subject but he knew better that that. When I went into my room I could hear them arguing.

“She needs to know the truth! We need to tell her now while we have the time.” Lawrence pleaded.

Erika snorted, like she did often. “We don’t have to tell her anything. We’ll tell her when we get in.”

“Do you not understand how this is going to end? Don’t you think she has a right to know?”

“Right!? She’s a -“

I think they remembered that I could hear them and because Harrison and KT hushed her and the conversation stopped. Lawrence burst in a couple seconds later.

“C’mon. We’re leaving for a while.” He said staring at me. There was something odd in his eyes. Sadness? Maybe worry.

He took my hand and pulled me through the base. Erika was glaring at him, Harrison was giving me a sympathetic look, and KT was doing something on the left desk system, trying to stay out of the situation.

Lawrence led me outside and then let go of my hand and relaxed. “What’s wrong?” I asked trying to piece together everything but my mind just couldn’t connect the dots. He looked at me again with those odd eyes. “Look Canta. I need to tell you something. I don’t care if it upsets any of them. You deserve to know.”

“Know what?”

He gripped my shoulders and stared at me with the most conflicted stare I’d ever encountered. Just as he was about to speak I could hear something shoot off a couple hundred feet away from us. Some deep inner instinct made me push Lawrence to the ground and raise my hand up. Before I could understand to motions, I was holding three bullets in my hand. “What are you-” he began but something inside was telling me we were in a dangerous situation and needed to relocate. I could feel something switch inside of me and then my thought process seemed to increase it’s speed by 100 folds. My mind couldn’t keep up with my motions because within seconds, I was picking up Lawrence, swinging him onto my back and then sprinting off down the pavement. Sounds waltz around me. Barely audible gun fires. I could hear each and every bullet splitting through the air and dodged them with a precision that wasn’t human. Up ahead was a large flight of stairs that lead to a walkway that went through the city’s center. I jumped on the railing and my feet shifted into wheels.

The next thing I knew I was skating down the railing, landing on the ground with sparks on my heels, jerking around a sharp corner, and then speeding down a very steep hill. For some reason I  knew there was tunnel about a 400 feet ahead. My legs swayed faster and for an instant I was flying. Unfortunately, I had gained too much speed and so when I tried to stop in the tunnel I tripped over myself and started to fall. Within the one instant that I was falling though I manage to shift Lawrence infront of me and skidded across the ground on my back. There was an odd smell of burnt rubber and my body felt… damaged. Too much was happening. I laid there, refusing to move until I got a grasp on what exactly was going on.

            Lawrence looked at me, gripped my shoulders like he had the second before all this had started and shook me. “Canta, Canta don’t shut down on me please. Respond.” He talked to me like I was some command system. My eyes shift to meet his. “Canta Respond.” He repeated as he started to lift me. I pulled away from him and stood on my own, ignoring the fact that as I stood the skates on the bottom of my feet retracted. I hugged myself for a moment, afraid that the confusion would tear me apart if I didn’t defend myself from it.  I could hear foot steps back at the stairs about 500 feet off. They didn’t come up as a threat to me even though I could tell they were trying to be. “What... Am I Lawrence?” I turned to look at him and he tried to look away but I caught him but his stubble-haired chin. “What am I?” His eyes averted mine and irritated me. Not paying attention, the hand holding his chin receded and a fine knife took its place. “You will tell me the truth.” I could feel the volume of my voice sharpen as my arm rotated backwards and fired the knife off and into the throat of someone trying to sneak up from behind us.

“You’re the Ayngel’s Bell, Canta.” He mumbled as he stared warily at the dead man behind us. Locking eyes, he continued, “You’re an Android. Built with the Super God Virus in you.”

My brain processed all the information in a second and concluded “You’ve all been using me…You’ve been lying to me all this time just to use me and them get rid of me.” He shakes me once in aggravation. 

“I’ve wanted to tell you. When we realized what you were, what would happen to you once all this was over. I wanted to tell you”

Sudden above us I could hear something coming towards us. Something heavy with propellers. A helicopter. I pulled away from him and went down to the entrance of the tunnel. Looking up I searched for the helicopter. My eyes automatically locked onto it and zoomed in. My arm raised and after a moment I could feel it dislocated, detach, and blast away from me. It shot up towards the helicopter and after a moment exploded. The copter exploded in the air and flaming pieces of metal fell to the ground.

“We need to go. We need to crash the Government’s system tonight.” I said as I walked back to Lwarence’s side. He nodded once and without another word I threw him back on my back and headed back to headquarters. Tonight had to be the night that we do what I was designed to do. I could not stay another day in a lie.

Chapter 5:

            Without any warning, Canta and Lawrence came exploding into hq. Erika, Harrison, and KT immediate were woken up. “Let’s go guys. We’re activating Ayngel’s Bell tonight.” Canta said walking over to the right desk and clicking on the tower. Harrison stumbles out of his bed and rushes over to her side. “Woah there Canta, what the problem? We’re not scheduled to attack for at least another week.” Canta stripped down the security systems of the government ‘s made building while she listened to Harrison ramble. “Can’t wait that long. We go in tonight. I just took out all the power in their main building. It should stay down for at least two hours. You guys get me in there and I’ll do the rest.” KT tried to pull her chair away from the desk but Canta’s hand shifts into a gun and points at him. “I’m not asking.”

            Erika looked at Lawrence. “You told her?” Canta shook her head before Lawrence could answer. “Not in this life time. We were attacked. They know where we are, okay. This mission has been compromised. We need to go in now or not at all.”

            KT tilted her gun away from him, afraid she’s accidently fire it off with him standing in front of it. “You don’t even know how to active the Ayngel’s Bell do you?” She let her arm drop and felt through her database. “ I have the capability to active it. I just need to get to the super computer at the center of the central base… You all can stay here if you want but I’m going.” She looked over them as they all processed. The human brain’s thought processing skill was 10 times slower than hers.

“Fine, We’ll go in tonight, but you need to be careful. There will be androids there defending the core.”  Harrison said.

Canta looked up at him and smile “I’m well aware.”

            -To Be Continued. 

I quivered and shook. There was blood drenched in various pools across the cloths that my mother had presented me with when I became of age. This was also the same day my skills had reached their prime and I became the special woman of my village. Unlike most, my power to control the sacred talismans, had developed unusually fast. Along with the three princesses, our world’s moons, the talisman allowed the ability to travel in and out of the present. The gift to control the talisman was a gift that was within only worthy women, the few of them that remained. Although, the other women were forced to wait for the alignment of the moons to begin their journeys through time, I did not. My natural born power allowed me to travel at various cycles of the princesses. However, no matter how special my power was, it only allowed me to venture as far as a few years.

 My father was the only one who had forewarned me of the allurement to disobedience my gift would bring. The temptations urged me to abuse the gift other chosen women did not have. The priestesses, the most powerful of the women, were law and as law they forbade the travel to the past in fear that it would alter the future. The chosen women, such as what I once was, were limited to only the future and to explore what we did not know. As new women were born, the priestesses deemed worthy only few and bound the sacred talismans to them. The power to control them was something that you must posses at birth, it’s in your blood.

The place where my implanted talisman, the key to my venture home, located in the palm of my right hand, was beginning to fade and along with it the flesh that surrounded it to bind it to me. I had disobeyed and I was paying the price. The price that had been only rumored about among the chosen, for no one had ever tempted to do what I had done. I then understood that even the curious ones that may have tried and strayed from altering the future had no key home. Even with all the power flowing through us chosen ones, we are subjected to time like all others without the precious talismans.

Although clear in color, I could see the stone burn with crisps of red and black. It was dying and my chance to return along with it. The pain of the burns made me scream with agony and beg for the princesses to just take the hand in whole. Soon, there was nothing left but a hole, a permanent reminder of just what I scarified.  

“Priestesses of Uriel, please, save my fate and grant me the power to return to my origin!” I begged to nobodies.

I pleaded for another alignment but alas the three princesses of our world had not yet been created and for all that I knew they would never be created due to my presence. I had tampered with the balance and was destined to be here, in the past, for, what appeared to be, the rest of my life force. I was stuck in an ancient world; one much like my own but was surrounded not by moons but instead plasma and stars. One detail in particular made me especially curious if not fearful of this world; it had a star brighter than any star that had lived in my world. The star was burning, ending its life, I imagined, but not even the death of any of our large stars could compare to the light that radiated from this time’s star.

I redirected my attention from the emptiness in my palm to the streaks of pure heating energy, skewed once more to a haze in the far distance of the sands. The desert that I had landed into when I made my venture was visibly dense containing grains and tiny unscathed pebbles and met the sky at every border. The haze, foggy and mysterious, crept out from behind a sand dune and almost hovered in my direction. With the sand’s unique abundance of purple quartz, I began to recognize this desert as the desert of Aliquam, a desert infamous in my time for it’s luxurious treasures and stones. In my time, however, there was not such an extraordinary source of the stones.

I wrapped my hand, now numb with constant heat, in a patterned sash that my father weaved for me when I was still a youngling. I screeched in utter agony as I pulled it tighter to prevent further bleeding. The blur, once so far in the distance, had made its way to only but a short distance from me. I saw what could be none other than a man, strong and balanced, that walked with such grace that it was as if he were walking on stone instead of caving sand. His wisps of hair slapped around through the fog of air and sand particles.

As he approached me I observed his hands, they appeared as if molded by clay, his entire body had this resemblance. His face, a beautiful mix of lone and wild, only implied other speculations of who he really was. His strange presence tickled my imagination the way not even this forsaken time had once done. I knew not a name but a legend of this creature that was rumored to be born of the sands it self.

“ Why do you travel in this desert? This is the desert of Aliquam and I forbid those who seek petty jewels for mere appearance. Speak your title or my hand shall be forced to steal your life force from your body and spill blood on these already drenched sands.”

  He spoke gently but I could note the piercing fierceness in his tone. He underestimated my persistence and sheer impatience at that point. Disappointingly, I was all but ignorant to this type of being, despite the legends.

“ Peasant,” my voice crackling still rattled with subdued pain, “ you are unknowing of my abilities and my uniqueness among women. I am not who you believe I am to be. I am not an enemy to this time, I am a victim.”

            He stood like stone only but a few steps in front of me, in clear view of my steady drip of blood and yet was not phased, affected, or concerned in the least bit. Although, I didn’t expect much of a reaction to my self inflicted misfortune. He responded contrary to how I believed a warrior would act.

“ Leave.”                                                                                                                                                                                           

With that he turned and walked with such grace it made me stare in awe, never had I seen a man with such pose.

“Wait!”

 I swiftly moved to grab for him and surprisingly for his lack of distance from my reach he managed to evade me and had disappeared from sight.

“ My vision must be deceiving me he must not have been…”

He was gripping the wrist that acted as a passage of blood flow to the empty palm. In that instance I felt nothing but anguish and the instinct to reach for my dagger concealed under my cloths beside my hip. I struck, and missed. The air but only made a hissing sound as the blade sliced through the spot where he was standing only a moment ago.

“ How do you manage to move so swiftly?”, I questioned.

He replied but left himself cloaked or hidden, unsure but surely he was not visible to my eyes.

“ I am not. I am here with you. I wish not to hurt you. Injured as you are you pose no threat to me and any battle will end with haste”

“ Present yourself. Only the sly cower and disappear.”

I threateningly said but the confidence was a mere façade.

Making himself known, he came forth.

“ My name is Abeo. I am a child of these sands and firstly protector of its existence. If have come to posses their crystals for your greed you shall be vanquished at my hand.”

“I wish you and your giver no harm. I am from a foreign world, a different time and place. By my own doing I am now apart of this world and wish only to coexist if no other option of returning home presents itself. My name is Adalia.”

“Adalia, why have you traveled to this world if residing was not a desire?”

I stood my position although I was visibly swayed by the question. It was a question I had never once thought to ask myself. Suddenly, without warning, Abeo drew his blade and stood on guard, his eyes were peering at something in the distance behind me. I turned to face the place of his focus and I began to see what he saw. There was thousands, an army of men. When I turned to face him with questioning eyes I saw another strip of men lining the horizon where the sky met the desert.

“Abeo, what is this? What knowledge have you had of this?”

“Nothing of the sort of treachery your tone accuses me of. These are greedy men having war for power. Leave, now.”

“If you are not my enemy and here we are both victims, I shall stay and fight. I do not cower like most women.”

He grabbed at the sand beside his feet and although there was nothing but grains that initially slipped through his fingers he picked something of solid matter. He tossed me the blade and regaining my composer, I stood with him and waited for the catalyst that inevitably changed what I knew about the world forever.

Lupe De Jesus

Spanish Script

La Preguntas:

Hábleme de usted.

¿A dónde fuiste a la escuela secundaria y la universidad?

1. ¿Qué puede traer para la empresa?

2. ¿Qué tu tienes que es diferente de los otros?

3. ¿Donde trabajaste antes?

4. ¿Si usted tiene una de las principales en español porque está aplicando aquí?

5. ¿Por qué eligió el diseño gráfico y el español como su mayores?

6. ¿Puede trabajar bien con los demás?

7. ¿ En que es mejor en la comercialización o diseño?

Ella-Mi momma

Lupe- Yo

Ella : Hola

Yo : Hola

Ella : ¿Como estas Señor  De Jesus?

Yo : Bien.

Ella :Hábleme de usted.

Yo : Me llamo Lupe De Jesus. Tengo veinte uno años. Vivo en Filadelfia.

Ella :¿A dónde fuiste a la escuela secundaria y la universidad?

Yo : Yo fui a Science Leadership Academy, una escuela para bio química. Yo fui a la Universidad de Ohio para Español y el Diseño Gráfico. Tengo mi maestro en Mercadeo.

Ella :  ¿Qué puede traer para la empresa (Trill)?

Yo : Yo puedo traer mucho, como creatividad y cosas diferente para las personas.

Ella : ¿Qué tu tienes que es diferente de los otros?

Yo : Yo soy diferente porque yo tengo expiernca en diseño y en español. Tambien yo tengo muchos ideals para la ropa.

Ella : ¿Donde trabajaste antes?

Yo : Yo trabaje en el Instituto de Arte de Filadelfia. Y programas de mercadeo online.

Ella :¿Si usted tiene una de las principales en español porque está aplicando aquí?

Yo : Porque el español mi puede ayudar en el diseño. Pero el diseño es mas intersente

Ella : ¿Por qué eligió el diseño gráfico y el español como su mayores?

Yo : Porque mi mommas me anima en español. Y el diseño es como yo diferente.

Ella: . ¿Puede trabajar bien con los demás?

Yo: Si pero si yo soy la nuca trabajando no me gusta porque y no puede hacer lo todo.

Ella : ¿ En que es mejor en la comercialización o diseño?

Yo : Soy mejor en el diseño porque mi momma me ensenyo

La mural es de la horizonte de la ciudad de Filadelfia. La horizonte de la ciudad simboliza el crecimiento de Filadelfia en habitantes, cultura, y industria. Los edificios y rascacielos son icónico del Central de Ciudad de Filadelfia. Vive en la ciudad es un movimiento por cambio y evolución en la futura. La horizonte de la ciudad conta la historia de la ciudad y lo progreso. La mural es diseñada a empoderar la comunidad del Central de Ciudad a continuar progresando y mejora por la futura, por una futura mejor. La bandera verde en la parte superior con expresión ‘Viva de La Cuidad’ es hecha a inspirar la comunidad en su intento a será respetuoso medio ambiente y moderno. El propósito de la mural es representar la belleza y ambición de la cuidad y comunidad. El color verde representa una nueva página y moda en Filadelfia sobre ser respetuoso del medio ambiente y derechos humanos. Los colores en el horizonte de la ciudad es muy vívido pero natural y realística. Los colores deben inspirador las personas que verlo.

En mi opinión arte público es más importante porque lo hace no pensar. Tanto grafiti, murales, y todos arte público es muy importante. Todos arte público conta la historia de una país. Yo pienso que mi mural conta la historia y la futura de el barrio. Yo pienso que la mural es muy sencillo pero efectivo. La mural es no ridículo y desordenado pero muy sencillo, y para que, me gusta.

Juan Rivera

  El mural se trata de un sueno de el barrio, si tienes un sueno puedes hacer cosas buenas y grandes para tener un vida mas mejor que la vida pobre. Todos de nosotros tiene o teníamos un sueno para ser algo grande para hacer dinero suficiente para la familia de nosotros. El mural es para dar los personas en el barrio un chance para ver que cambio es mejor que hacer lo mismo cosas que los personas están haciendo.

            El mural es un retrato de un niño dormido en una cama teniendo un sueno de los cosas el querré hacer cuando el es un adulto. El barrio esta en mala condición hoy en día y esta mural es para ver lo que pueden hacer para ser mujer en su vida. En el barrio no ay mucho cosa bueno. Ay drogas, violencia, y personas malas. Pero el mural puede cambiar la vida de mucha personas. Si ellos ven que todo es posible ellos pueden hacer mejor y tener un vida buena .

            Sueños son cosas muy grande que unos saben perseguir lo, unos saldría de los sueños. Unos veces nosotros tenemos que hacer sacrificio para hacer la imposible. Los colores tiene que ser brillante por que es un mural de algo muy claro y grande no solamente para usted o yo pero para el mundo entero. Dicen que un mural puede hacer un barrio ser mejor que estaba. Tiene un significado para todos lo que viven ay lado y también para lo que pasan en el barrio.