《B.U.D》
Prologue
¡°They¡¯re done, Admiral.¡± Chief Scientist Tungul pridefully beckoned, ¡°please step forth and taste the fruits of our labor.¡±
A team of scientists saluted the galaxy¡¯s second most powerful man as he approached the three metallic cylinders that housed their ultimate creation. They had spent the better part of their lives working on this innovation, pouring their very hearts and souls into every step of its creation process. Now they awaited one man''s verdict, a verdict that would ultimately decide the worth of all their cycles of effort.
The Admiral¡¯s heavy metal boots clanked forward across the hall¡¯s grated surface; their patter echoed an authoritative tune that matched the mighty military man¡¯s stature. He stopped before the assemblage, and turned, his medals and awards glistening brightly in the artificial light.
Then, with a wide grin and a deep bellow, he delivered his judgment. ¡°Well comrades, they said it couldn¡¯t be done, but here you¡¯ve gone and done it. You¡¯ve manifested my vision into reality.¡±
The scientists breathed a collective sigh of relief. Roman Ceres himself had approved their work.
The admiral circled the cylinders a few times and then stared up at the rafters. ¡°S.T.O.R.K,¡± he said, ¡°which of my scientists did the most work?¡±
That would be 2nd Lieutenant Cyrene.
A robotic voice echoed through the hall.
¡°I see,¡± the admiral said, ¡°and which scientist did the least?¡±
Chief Scientist Tungul.
¡°Interesting,¡± the Admiral scratched at his stubbled chin. ¡°S.T.O.R.K, send for my personal guard.¡±
Understood, Admiral.
¡°Your grace,¡± Chief Scientist Tungul tossed himself before his superior. ¡°S.T.O.R.K cannot be trusted. I worked diligently for your lordship; I swear it on the gods of our ancestors.¡°
The admiral let out a hearty laugh and knelt down to his subordinate¡¯s level. ¡°My dear Chief Scientist, I put you in charge of this project, and this is how you repay me? With lies and deceit?¡±
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.
¡°I¡¯m not lying.¡± He groveled, ¡°Please your lordship, try to understand. I worked on administrative tasks, things that a stupid overseer system like S.T.O.R.K could never begin to comprehend.¡±
¡°Pick yourself up,¡± Admiral Ceres beckoned the man to his feet as an entourage of the galaxy¡¯s finest troops marched down the corridor, guns drawn and ready for action.
¡°Your lordship, please! Please don¡¯t kill me.¡± Tungul continued to grovel.
¡°I told you to STAND UP.¡±
¡°Yes, yes my lord, anything you say.¡± The galaxy¡¯s most famous civilian scientist stood erect in front of his employer, tears and snot erupted from all his visible orifices in a shameful display of his own impotence.
¡°You truly are a pathetic man.¡± Admiral Ceres smacked him hard across the face, sending him crashing back to the floor.
¡°Your lordship, please. No. NO!¡±
¡°Yes,¡± Admiral Ceres motioned for his guards to pick the disgraced scientist up off the floor. ¡°Lucky for you, the IGC has a need for a deceitful and wicked human being like yourself. Human greed and avarice are some of the defining attributes of our culture.¡±
¡°I don¡¯t understand,¡± the scientist cried.
¡°You would understand exactly where I was going with this if you had actually helped on this project.¡± The admiral punched him hard in the gut.
Cracking his knuckles as if nothing had happened, he turned back towards the gathered crowd. ¡°2nd Lieutenant Cyrene, step forward.¡± The admiral demanded.
¡°My lord,¡± a slender female officer stepped out from the assemblage of onlookers. She rendered a vigorous salute and then bowed at his feet.
¡°Stand.¡±
¡°Yes, my lord,¡± she stood without hesitation.
¡°Can you please tell our ¡®Chief Scientist¡¯ all about what is housed inside these three cylinders?¡±
¡°Chief Scientist Tungal,¡± she saluted him, ¡°inside of these cylinders are the first true hybrids between man and machine. We call them P.A.L, B.U.D and F.R.N.¡±
¡°I knew that,¡± Tungal said.
¡°Did you know that these amazing creations currently lack the human personalities that they need to be fully effective?¡±
¡°What do you mean?¡± Tungal looked up at the Admiral, blood dribbling out of his mouth, ¡°aren¡¯t they done?¡±
¡°I¡¯ll take that as an admission of your guilt.¡± The admiral laughed. ¡°2nd Lieutenant Cyrene, are you prepared to accept a promotion.¡±
¡°If you will it, my lord.¡± She bowed her head at him.
¡°You know what you must do.¡±
¡°Yes, my lord.¡± The middle-aged second lieutenant approached one of the cylinders that she had helped design and typed in her access code on the keypad. The cylinder opened laterally, revealing a swirling cloud of bright blue glyphs and sharp metal splinters.
The scientists and soldiers alike, stared in abject shock as the military operative sacrificed herself to the vortex in a bloody splatter. It shredded her from the feet up, yet she never so much as screamed a single syllable, even as the vortex ate her whole.
¡°Now that¡¯s a loyal soldier,¡± Admiral Ceres removed his three-star beret and saluted the bloody vortex. ¡°Loyalty, sacrifice and a love of one¡¯s country ¨C that is what she has that you lack, my dear Chief Scientist.¡±
¡°Ancestor¡¯s mercy¡ What is that thing?¡± Tungal vomited up blood onto his shoe. ¡°What have we created?¡±
¡°That¡¯s your new reality,¡± Admiral Ceres grabbed him by the collar and dragged him kicking and screaming towards the central cylinder.
Two scientists ran up to the unit and inserted their access codes, revealing a second equally strong vortex.
¡°Today¡¯s your lucky day,¡± Admiral Ceres pressed him up to the edge of the vortex, ¡°now you finally get to be as greedy and deceitful as you want. Perhaps one day you will even rule the Universe, thanks to me, but that day will be many eons off.¡±
¡°Please, no!¡± Tungal begged.
¡°Enjoy yourself.¡± Ceres kicked him into the vortex. His grotesque screams reverberated through the cavernous hall, causing many of the onlookers to fall violently ill.
¡°Go get my son,¡± Admiral Ceres removed his blood-drenched gloves and passed them to one of his attendants, ¡°it is time to make my bloodline an immortal part of history.¡±
¡°Sir,¡± the attendant, a woman named Anatolia, stepped forward and bowed at his feet. ¡°What happens if we win against our enemies, won¡¯t you have sacrificed our, I mean your only child for nothing?¡±
¡°Foolish girl,¡± he cackled, ¡°the IGC may win this battle, but it will never win the war. This society will be destroyed, and when that day comes, my three-headed hydra will awaken and consume the Universe in fire and death.¡±
¡°How can you be so sure?¡±
¡°Because I am the enemy.¡± A serpent¡¯s tongue slithered out of his mouth, ¡°and this is all part of a game that I started playing many eons ago.¡±
Chapter 1 - The Recital
Ethan, hey Ethan, can you hear me? I¡¯m scared.
The voice of a child called out to me from within a swirling cloud of dust. As hard as I pressed against the maelstrom, I could not reach inside. The pressure was just too strong.
¡°I¡¯ll save you one day,¡± I promised the voice. ¡°You have my word.¡±
Please. I don¡¯t like this.
¡°I don¡¯t like it either!¡± I reassured it, ¡°I am getting closer every time I dream. I think I might break through any night now.¡±
BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.
¡°Sorry BUD, I have to wake up now. Stay strong while I''m away.¡±
¡°Good morning Fluffy,¡± I gave my favorite stuffed animal a big fat hug and then clonked my alarm clock into submission. Fluffy was a Calico cat, and she was my favorite possession. You see, I¡¯m a little embarrassed to admit this, but I have always been afraid of the dark. When I was younger, I would wake my mom and dad up every night and ask them to check under my bed for monsters. I used to hear three distinct voices back then, but once my mom gave me Fluffy, I started to feel better. After that, I only heard one voice ¨C and I had actually become friends with it. Its name was BUD, and it was very nice. Every night I got a little bit closer to rescuing it from that vortex.
Putting Fluffy down carefully, I popped out of my bed and cracked open my window. It was abright and sunny day. The perfect weather for a jog around the neighborhood.
I slipped into my black athletic shorts, tossed on a t-shirt and flipped my bangs to the side. I had to admit, I looked pretty stylish for someone who just rolled out of bed.
¡°Morning mom,¡± I yelled on my way out the door. She nodded back. As always, she was deeply invested in her writing. She was writing some kind of a fictional memoir about an alien and her family. It all seemed pretty ridiculous to me, but it was popular stuff, my mom was ridiculously successful. I just wished that she would pay a little more attention to me. She had always acted a little distant and cold when I was in her presence, despite my best efforts to make her happy.
As I started my morning rounds in our suburban neighborhood, I reflected on all the changes that had happened to my family in recent years. My mom and dad had gotten a divorce. He had started to become a little unhinged and was getting himself wrapped up in strange conspiracy theories. Mom didn¡¯t like that, and so she dumped him. During the summer after the divorce, I spent a couple of weeks at dad¡¯s cabin in Northern Wisconsin, it was a creepy experience. He had invited some unsavory old man to stay there with us. They would spend whole days tinkering in the shed out back without saying a word to me. I hoped that he wasn¡¯t plotting something crazy, but it was definitely a possibility.
Then there was my brother¡¯s situation. All he did was stay inside and play video games. He was a 20-year old who didn¡¯t seem to care about any of the normal things that a 20-year old was supposed to care about ¨C jobs, romance, school, you know, that kind of stuff. I loved Chris, but I worried about him. If I am being honest, he wasn¡¯t really all that good at video gaming either, so I doubted that he would ever become a professional gamer. Which meant he would probably become a total shut-in, which is not something that I wanted for him.
¡°Ethan,¡± a friendly face interrupted my jog.
¡°Hello Mrs. Myrtle.¡± I smiled and waved at our elderly neighbor. Her son was a Captain in the Air Force, and he and I often talked about military life. I was going to be shipping off to the Air Force Academy in only a couple of months, and I enjoyed getting an inside scoop on my new life from him.
¡°I hear that you have a big piano recital tonight. Is that true sweetie?¡±
¡°I sure do,¡± I gave her a big thumbs up while I jogged in place, ¡°and I¡¯m even going to be performing my own composition. Are you going to come?¡±
¡°I¡¯m afraid that I¡¯m going out of town to see my daughter, but it would be great if you could make a video of it for me.¡±
¡°Of course,¡± I waved at her and began to jog off, ¡°I will put it on VHS.¡±
I was a little bit nervous about the recital, but I hoped it would go well. I had put so much time into my composition, and this would be my last performance before I graduated high school, so I really didn¡¯t want to mess it up. Just thinking about it made me want to practice some more.
This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.
I darted back into our home, flung off my clothes and dove into the shower. The water was cold but refreshing. I had read somewhere that cold showers were supposed to stimulate brain activity, and they definitely seemed to help me concentrate. Although sometimes they gave me headaches.
OUCH. A sudden ice pick sensation poked me in the brain
Hello? Ethan?
What was that? I wondered to myself. Did someone just say hello to me? I clonked myself in the head a few times. I must have been going crazy.
Then, through the shower curtain, I saw a shadow enter the room. Who the hell is that? I thought but didn¡¯t say a peep. Perhaps they hadn¡¯t noticed me, it seemed unlikely, but you never know. I might be able to sneak up on them, I thought.
I heard the faucet turn on, followed by strange gurgling noises. Was this person the same one that had spoken a minute ago? There was only one way to find out. I would have to spring an attack.
I contemplated my options. I could sneak a peek at the person first and risk losing the advantage of surprise, or I could lunge right at them through the shower curtain. It was one of those curtains that is hung on hooks, so there was a risk that I might get entangled in it and hurt myself. Still, I knew that the voice I heard was not my mothers¡¯ or brothers¡¯, so it had to be an intruder. I had to protect my family. Okay Ethan¡3¡2¡1¡
¡°Rawrrr!¡± I jumped straight through the curtain and attacked the intruder.
¡°Ethan! What the heck man, you¡¯re naked.¡± Chris covered his eyes as I plowed right into him.
I burst into laughter at his reaction. It served him right for barging into the bathroom while I was showering.
I yanked a towel off the wall and covered myself. ¡°You can open your eyes now.¡± I sniggered.
¡°You jerk.¡± He gave me a gentle shove. ¡°I don¡¯t want to see that.¡±
¡°We used to take baths together when we were little,¡± I tied my towel in a knot and joined him at the double sink, "so it''s not anything you haven''t seen before."
¡°Still.¡±
¡°Well you shouldn¡¯t interrupt my shower then, and you especially shouldn¡¯t go making weird robot noises like that, I thought you were an intruder.¡±
¡°What are you talking about?¡± He asked me as we both brushed our teeth.
¡°You know exactly what I¡¯m talking about,¡± I spat into the sink and gave him a playful fist bump on the way out, ¡°see you tonight.¡±
¡°Tonight? What¡¯s tonight?¡± He asked as I was on my way out the door.
¡°Figure it out.¡± I snapped back at him. If he couldn¡¯t figure it out on his own, then mom would do it for him. There was no way that she would allow him to miss my piano recital. Or, maybe my practicing would jar his memory, assuming that he didn¡¯t have his stupid gaming headphones on like he always did.
And so, I practiced, for a couple of hours or more. I felt like I nailed it. It was a masterwork. My composition about the frontiers of space was going to be a roaring success, I could just feel it.
With my confidence overflowing I kissed my mom goodbye and boarded the express bus to downtown Milwaukee. I would get there, get dressed, and prepare myself mentally for my big performance. Hopefully, my dad would be there too to cheer me on. As I got ready to go up on stage, I peeked out through the curtains, looking for him. Every time I looked, I got more and more depressed. How could he miss such an important event in my life? Didn¡¯t he care?
I wished that Fluffy was with me. I needed something to hug ¨C or someone. My own dad had ignored me and shirked that responsibility. That asshole.
Holding out some desperate hope that my dad was arriving late to the venue, I ran outside into the warm evening air. Perhaps I would catch him on his way in. I looked all around but couldn¡¯t find him. Instead, I saw a gaggle of people, huddling around who else but my mom, the famous author.
I worked my way into the crowd, looking around for my brother, the only other man who could cheer me up in place of my father. I spotted him at the back of the pack, talking with one of his gaming friends. He was wearing one of my old clip-on ties, but despite that, he still looked surprisingly mature. Much better than the ragtag guy who sat at home all day playing video games.
I ran up and gave him a slap on the back, catching him off guard.
¡°Ethan!¡± My brother waved his friend off, ¡°Why are you outside? Shouldn¡¯t you be getting ready?¡±
¡°Have you seen my dad?¡± I hoped against all odds that he had.
¡°Not yet, but I¡¯m sure he¡¯s around.¡±
¡°Well, if you see him, let me know.¡± I tried to act okay about it, but I am pretty sure that Chris saw right through me. Even though we were only half-brothers, we were really close. We both knew when the other was feeling glum. It was part of our connection.
¡°Wait!¡± Chris grabbed me and turned me towards him. ¡°Your bow tie is crooked.¡± He knelt down and pretended to fix my bow tie, but I saw through his deception, and I had no intention of stopping his next move. Chris pulled me in close to him and gave me a big hug, the type that I had wanted my father to give me. Thank God for my father in absentia, I thought.
¡°You¡¯re embarrassing me,¡± I pushed him back.
¡°Good luck buddy,¡± he said, as he fully released me from his grasp and walked into the auditorium.
I couldn¡¯t imagine what I would do if something happened to Chris. My brother really was a genuinely nice and caring guy, and I was certain that he could turn his life around if he really applied himself. Maybe he would get inspired by my music and take up the piano himself ¨C I could dream at least.
With reinvigorated confidence, I made my way backstage and prepared myself. My big moment was almost here, I was set to headline the 3rd and final group of advanced students, and I was ready. All I had to do was wait for my turn.
The 1st year students went first, and boy were they bad. Some of them were so off-key that it wasn¡¯t even funny. I had been like them once, but I had gotten better at the piano through practice and dedication. Perhaps some of them would also get better in time.
Next came the sophomore and junior students. They were much improved. One girl, Judy Harris, a well-known klutz, tripped on stage and almost landed face-first on the piano. I felt really bad for her. That had to be super embarrassing. But I was proud of her for recovering, and actually playing pretty well too. I¡¯m not sure if I could have overcome such a thing.
¡°Okay, Ethan, you¡¯re up next.¡± The recital director tapped me on the shoulder.
Confidence, Ethan. You need to be confident. I stood up and walked carefully out onto the stage. The recital hall was packed to the brim with people. My mother and brother sat in the front row, but my dad was still nowhere to be seen. Oh well.
I bowed before the audience and then approached the piano. With a deep breath, I sat down and checked to make sure the keys were in tune. Then I positioned my hands in just the right positions. The auditorium was so quiet that you could hear a pin drop.
I dropped my fingers down onto the keys and began my composition. But something was wrong. Something was very wrong.
¡°Ethan!¡± I heard my dad shouting loudly at me from the audience, Time for you to die, you alien shit." I turned to see what was going on, while still plugging away at the keys using muscle memory.
Chris? Why is Chris running towards me?
BANG. BANG. BANG.
Blood exploded through my brother¡¯s upper chest as the shots hit him one after another. His body limply collapsed on top of me as the next round of gunfire rang out in the hall. I feltbullets splash against his body as he protected me from certain death. There was no time to react. I sat there, covered in my brother''s blood, completely helpless and weak.
That¡¯s when I heard them, those two evil voices that had haunted my dreams so many years ago. They were cackling in unison as my brother bled out on top of me. One male, and one female. Both incredibly evil.
Chapter 2 - The Truth
¡°Go, go, go!¡± A team of paramedics rushed my brother out of the auditorium, kicking open the fire door and pushing him into the night. Officers in black and blue surrounded me on all sides, futilely trying to comfort me. Nothing they could say would make me feel better. I was a devastated wreck, curled up on stage left, covered in my brother¡¯s blood and my own tears. I wished that they would just go away.
¡°He¡¯s going to the best hospital in the city,¡± one of the officers assured me, ¡°it isn¡¯t over yet.¡±
¡°He was shot in the head!¡± I slammed my fist into the floor. ¡°Oh my God, he was shot in the head!¡± I couldn¡¯t believe it. In the blink of an eye, he was taken from me. My best friend in the whole world was taken from me. All so that I could live. He had saved me from my own father.
I hated my dad for what he had done. He was the epitome of evil ¨C and now he was dead, shot by one of the other concert goers point-blank in the head. Good riddance, I thought. I looked up into the main aisle and saw him there. His disgusting trigger hand had slid out from under the blanket that the cops had draped over his body. It made me nauseous knowing that his blood flowed through me.
The officers cleared an opening for my mother to comfort me. She was surprisingly collected, especially in light of what had happened. She knelt down and put her hand on my head in reassurance. Then she leaned up against my ear, ¡°we need to talk,¡± she said.
I couldn¡¯t figure out what we needed to talk about. My brother was shot! What part of that required a discussion.
¡°We will escort you both to the hospital,¡± the police officers accompanied us out of the building and into the mercury-lit parking lot. They literally had to carry me to our car. My legs were like jelly.
¡°Can we take my car?¡± My mom asked the officers.
¡°Are you okay to drive, mam?¡±
¡°I think so,¡± she said, ¡°I need a moment to be with my son. He is very clearly traumatized after what just happened. Please let me ride alone with him.¡±
¡°Of course,¡± the officers acquiesced to her demands. ¡°We will drive in front of you. Do you know the directions to the hospital?¡±
¡°Yes,¡± my mom hastily locked us into her Tahoe and then patiently watched the officers walk towards their squad cars. When they were far enough out of view, she turned toward me and grabbed me firmly by the shoulders.
¡°Mom, what¡¯s going on?¡± I asked her. ¡°We need to hurry up and get to the hospital.¡±
¡°Ethan,¡± she looked me square in the face. Tears erupted from her face in roaring streams, as she pleaded with me. ¡°You need to get out of here.¡±
¡°What are you talking about?¡± I grabbed her arms and tried to calm her down, ¡°Dad is dead, he can¡¯t hurt us anymore. The only place we need to go is the hospital.¡±
¡°There isn¡¯t much time,¡± my mom jammed a small metallic orb into my hand and pushed me off of her. She backed the car up and began tailing the cops towards the hospital. Their bright blue and red lights cleared the traffic out of our way, allowing us to press forward with ease.
¡°What is this?¡± I rolled the object around in my hand. It was about the size of a half-dollar and almost as light as air. My brother was shot, my dad was dead, and now my mom was throwing this on me. I didn¡¯t understand what was going on.
¡°As soon as we get to the hospital, slip away from me and go to 314 N. Golden Spruce Court. The access code is 5677.¡±
¡°Mom, please talk to me. I don¡¯t understand ¨C¡±The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
¡°Everything will make sense once you get there.¡± She pulled a small pill from her pocket and handed it to me. ¡°For now, you need to take this.¡±
¡°This isn¡¯t some kind of suicide pill or something, right?¡±
¡°We don¡¯t have time for this! Please take it.¡±
Putting blind faith in my mother, I chucked the pill into my mouth and swallowed it down with a half-drunk bottle of water that happened to be in the cupholder. ¡°Oh gross, that tastes horrible,¡± I said.
A bitter tingling sensation flooded through my body. The very fabric of my existence felt wobbly and woozy as the drug took hold of me. I instantly regretted trusting her. Perhaps it really was a suicide pill.
¡°Stay strong,¡± my mom encouraged me, ¡°this next part is going to hurt.¡±
¡°Owwwwwwwwww!¡± I gasped in pain as the skin on my left side began to bubble and curdle. It pulled away from my body in huge chunks, separating from me and splashing onto the center console. ¡°What the hell?¡± I jumped to the back of my seat, desperately gasping down air as my very molecular structure disintegrated into piles of blood and flesh.
¡°Chris¡¯s father and I used to use these to hide our relationship from our commanding officer,¡± her hands trembled as she gripped the steering wheel, ¡°its black-market cloning technology from Minitour Prime, not fun stuff, but it does the job.¡±
¡°What?!¡± I tried to make sense of what she was telling me while also fighting against the pain of my own body¡¯s rapid disintegration. ¡°I don¡¯t understand any of this.¡±
¡°I¡¯m an alien,¡± she told me bluntly, ¡°as are you, and right now you are in grave danger.¡±
¡°Of course, I¡¯m in grave danger! My body is turning into liquid!¡±
¡°Your molecular chemistry should begin to re-stabilize any moment now. As soon as it does, you will need to switch clothes with your clone so that the police don¡¯t catch on to what we are doing. You left one of your school gym uniforms in back, you will have to change into that.¡±
Sure enough, just as my mother had said, my body began to return to its normal shape and composition. As my pain subsided, I unlatched my seatbelt and slid over the center console where my pool of flesh and blood was forming into a replica of me.
At that moment I began to piece everything together. That book that my mom was writing was not a memoir about a fictional character at all, it was a book about her. Which meant that I really was an alien, or a human-alien hybrid more accurately. I couldn¡¯t believe what was happening. In an instant my life was being uprooted, my very being was being questioned.
¡°Chris is going to survive,¡± my mom told me as I undressed, ¡°he is even more of an alien then you. Chris¡¯s father is from the Andromeda Galaxy as am I. Simple projectile weaponry like that won¡¯t do much to him.¡±
¡°Why do I have to run away?¡± I asked my mom as I slipped into my gym clothes, tossing my blood-stained outfit into the front seat.
¡°Everything you need to know is at the address I gave you.¡± My mom gave me a final sendoff, ¡°You have two years to get stronger, by then your clone will no longer be able to hold its form, and you will have to return.¡±
¡°Don¡¯t worry,¡± the mound of flesh solidified into my figure, and turned towards me, ¡°I will make sure that nobody knows that you are gone,¡± it said to me in a perfect imitation of my own voice.
¡°We¡¯re approaching the hospital now,¡± my mom said as she entered a downtown parking garage. We pulled into a parking spot and then she turned around and motioned me close to her. ¡°Whatever happens, know that I love you.¡± She gave me a kiss on the forehead before exiting the vehicle with my clone, and that was it. She was gone.
Unsure of my place in the universe, I laid on the floor of our SUV and let all the events of the last hour sink in. My piano recital had turned out to be much more eventful than I ever could have imagined, and not in a good way.
## ##
Walking barefoot across the cement hardscape I weaved between alleys and buildings as I made my way towards the address that my mom had told me ¨C 314 N. Golden Spruce Court. My clone had taken all my possessions minus my gym uniform and my phone. I almost certainly looked like I was high on drugs or mentally unstable to any passerby¡¯s who saw me, especially when you consider that I still had my brother¡¯s dried blood in my hair and on my face.
I hopped over piles of broken glass and cut through abandoned industrial areas as I crept towards a decrepit old warehouse district on the city¡¯s southern flank. It was a long and tiresome journey, but surprisingly easy. I was a quick runner, and although running without shoes or socks felt a little strange, it wasn¡¯t all that different from running with some of the minimalist ultra-light running shoes that I had used in the past.
After a couple of hours, I had made it to the 300 block of Golden Spruce Court. There was nothing ¡®golden¡¯ about this street. Rusted tin can warehouses and burnt out factories littered the area. Where in the world did mom send me? I wondered.
By now it was completely dark, but using the streetlights and bonfires as my guide I was able to sneak along the edge of the street until I found the address. A small shack sized warehouse sat in a field of muck in front of me. I walked to the front of the structure and used the flashlight app on my phone to look for the keypad that my mother had told me about, but there was nothing. In fact, there wasn¡¯t even a front door to this building. I had to walk into it through a rusted out hole in the wall.
I carefully walked into the hollowed-out building and looked around. Thankfully there was nobody inside, I had half expected a strung-out old hobo to jump down from a rafter and split me in half.
¡°There¡¯s nothing in here.¡± I plopped my ass onto the floor and stared up at the decaying ceiling. ¡°I don¡¯t get this.¡± I shined my flashlight all around the room, but there was nothing. Just a few primitive tools and some crumpled old beer cans, no keypad, and no answers.
I reached into the pocket of my shorts and pulled out the strange metallic orb that my mother had given me. Was I supposed to do something with it?
I touched it against the floor, against the walls, against anything that I could think of ¨C even the beer cans. Nothing happened.
¡°I wish I had Fluffy right now,¡± I collapsed again in frustration.
I stared up at the ceiling and wondered what I would do next. I couldn¡¯t go home anymore, and I had no money or possessions. I was essentially homeless. I might have to go into the wilderness and put my scout skills to the test, or maybe I would have sneak away to a place where nobody knew me and start my life over. I had worked so hard to keep my grades up and get into the Air Force Academy. This sucks, I thought.
That¡¯s when it dawned on me. The ceiling was getting smaller and smaller, shrinking to the size of a small rectangle.
¡°Is this thing an elevator.¡± I sat up and looked around.
Sure enough my surroundings were changing. I was no longer surrounded by a dilapidated old warehouse, no, I was in an underground high-tech chamber ¨C and in the middle of the room was a spaceship.