Concealed Weapons

Who could predict being dragged into a secret one-man alien weapon resistance? Ceena certainly couldn't. Too bad, now she'll have to fix this or feel guilty.

 

Concealed Weapons

Part One: The Hidden Organization.

I hate having to walk home after spending two extra hours in school, and then almost get shot and killed on my way home. I mean I didn’t want to fail my Physics test, resulting with me having to stay after the bell to retake it. There was only two other kids in the classroom besides me. One finished early and the other was still taking it when I left. I didn’t rush it, at least, I’m mostly positive I hadn’t. Not like I would want to get outside anyway. It was seriously freezing! The sky was completely clouded, the air cold, making my nerves agitated. Do you know how annoying it is to play racquetball in this kind of weather? Everytime I hit the ball my palm would scream in pain. The other kids I was with would brush it off like it’s not nothing.

“ Ceena you’re just making it a bigger deal than it actually is!” My friend Knox would tell me. He’s not particularly good at sports, but he did have more endurance than I did. The whole game he went not complaining while basically had a seizure every time I was supposed to hit the ball. I remember after class I had caught him on the stairs to the quad.

“ Hey. How the heck do you not get affected by this weather? You’re literally wearing short pants and a T-shirt right now.” Knox looked down, then back up at me.

“ Uh, I dunno. I just don’t feel it I guess. I feel a bit cold. But not too much.” He said plainly. Every other kid around us was covered in long clothing but him. Including me. I made sure to wear my black jacket, and warm blue pants. But not Knox, he was fine!
“ I’ll never understand how you do it.” I had said.

“ Heh, I don’t either honestly. Maybe it’s a difference of genetics? What doesn’t bother me will bother you?” Knox guessed.

“ What. Are you saying girls get colder than boys?”

“ No. I’m simply speculating.”

“ Oh sure!” At that point we had to split and go to our classes.

Did I rant again? Oops, I do that. It’s just I would rather not be blasted by coldness as my reward for completing a retake test. But here I went anyway! I walked down the stairs and across the quad. Most of the other kids were gone at this point, unless they were apart of some sort of after school activity. Which I wasn’t. I was happier staying home after hours to draw and play games. That was more fun. I passed the math building, climbing down the side of the dirt hill that lead to the school on one side. It was a nifty short cut. Few cars drove by. I guessed they were mainly kids leaving school late like me, or adults returning from a long day at work. I put my hands in my pockets and looked up as I moved along the sidewalk. A flock of birds flew over head, a few more joining them from the nearby trees. People came in and out of the daycare that was oddly close to my high school. I had heard of a toddler who’d proclaimed the F- word to everyone there. Must’ve been awkward for the parents.

I reached the four way cross street section. There were still a good amount of cars waiting to make a turn or keep going. I still had a bit to go before I reached my house. It was located in the neighborhood about a block or so away. I shivered. Even with my jacket on, I was still turning into a popsicle. I remembered the new credit card I had gotten only a week ago. I hadn’t used it yet. There was a small shopping center down the street to the left of me. Maybe there was a place that sold hot drinks? I decided to check it out, my cold body getting the best of me. I walked across the street to the left instead of heading upward. On the other side of the street, a kid was leaning against the street pole. She was darker skinned, with purple hair running down her back. Her yellow eyes focused on her phone. She was wearing a red jacket and dark red pants.

“ Hey Tisha. What’s up?” I asked as I came up next to her. She peered up from her phone.

“ Oh hi Ceena. Not much. Just waiting for this dang light to turn! I swear it takes forever everytime!” She raised her hand in exasperation.

“ Heh, yeah I know what you mean. It takes awhile for me also. Did you have to retake that Physics test?” I asked.

“ No. Man I lucked out on that one! Narrowly got by with a B-.”

“ Really? Nice! I had to do it again.”

“ What grade didja get the first time?”

“ No. I don’t wanna say.”

“ Yes you do tell me!”

“ Agh. Fine. I got… a sixty nine percent.” I said sheepishly. Tisha shrugged.

“ Eh, that’s whatever. All you can hope for now is getting a better score on the retake right? I wouldn’t worry about it.” I sighed in relief.

“ Thanks. Yeah, I think I did better this time. Are you going home?”

“ Yup. You?”

“ I am. But I think I’ll get something hot to eat first.”

“ Huh. From where?” I pointed to the shopping area down the sidewalk.

“ Oh. Alright.”

“ Do you wanna come?” I offered.

“ Naw. I’m gonna show these guys that a girl can handle the cold!”

“ But not by risking your health!”

“ What risk? I ain’t risking anything! You should do it with me! We are strong enough!”

“ Yeah, but no. Just because I’m female shouldn’t mean I have to prove myself.”

“ Alright, suit yourself. I’ll talk to you later!” Tisha waved as the light turned white. I waved back and continued down the sidewalk to the center.

I wasn’t surprised that Tisha wanted to be so challenging. Ever since realizing that girls have certain prejudices against them, she was constantly trying to prove herself. I could respect that. It was one of the reasons I was good friends with her.

Though sometimes I just get nervous that she might end up hurting herself. One time she tried to run more laps than the other boys in P.E. and over did herself and was sick for the next few days. I myself don’t go to such extremes. Like I said, why should I have to? Seems to me like simply doing my work and going about my days was good enough. If anything more of the girls were braver than the boys. They were the ones doing the most amount of school shows and performances. Though there are some good acting boys too. I had seen many groups of girls mess with boys, talking fake romance. Ugh, romance. Something I know nothing about and will not get into it. Despite Tisha’s many words of how to pursue such a thing, I don’t bother. And neither does she. Sure, she talks about it a lot, but she never actually does anything. Who would either of us go for anyway? There’s no one who she or I am interested in. Not saying the other boys are bad, no. But nothing I would be into in that way. What even is that way? I have no clue. Maybe I don’t want to. Plenty of ‘couples’ kissing each other around the school during the day. Kissing, as in in front of everyone trying to get to their classes. Why exactly? I won’t be one to judge. But I’ll abstain from that for awhile.

I reached the shopping center. There was a store for sports, pets, quick groceries, medicine and hospital needs, and a StarBucks. Cause you have to have one of those everywhere you go! I honestly wonder what it was like a few decades ago when this restaurant didn’t exist. Regardless they did have some good hot beverages. I went there for my warming needs. I took a shortcut around the back of the buildings. These were in line with some older buildings that had been shut down for sometime. They were sand colored, the grey doors ripped. Apparently they were old factories or something before. But now they don’t do anything. I don’t know if I was allowed to be here. But I did it anyway. But quietly, so you know, no one found me. Luckily there was no one there. Just some graffiti on the walls. JACOB WUZ HERE. WHAT THE (insert cuss word) IS A LILAC????? And, DEEZ NUTZ ARE TOO GOOD FOR YOU. Were some of the lovely things printed there. Why didn’t the government take action? Maybe because no one even cared about these buildings, so there was no offense to vandalising it. Either way, I entered StarBucks.

Inside was much better than outside. The air modifier warmed me as I stepped in. I sighed with relief. There was a line at the register, which made sense. Some other school kids and adults sat in seats, drinking coffee and eating treats. (that rhymed!) I got in line and peered at the menu. After about two minutes of choosing what I wanted, I settled on a hot chocolate. Simple and good. I got to the cash register. I ordered my choice and payed for it. It felt good to do so by myself. No one else to help or do it for me. I clutched my new drink and went back outside. I sipped some.

“ Ahh! I knew this would do it! Now I can head home!” I said to myself. I began to take the shortcut back to the sidewalk.

Now, I hadn’t expected to see something new, but I did anyway. A man was crouched down next to the corner of an abandoned building. He had a pack and was rummaging through it. He was dark skinned, with sleek orange hair, and black eyes. He had on a pair of red overalls, blue jeans and blue sunglasses, though it wasn’t sunny. He spotted me, and I froze.

“ Hey you kid! Could you help me out for a second?” He beckoned for me to come over. I wasn’t sure whether to be scared or not. He seemed nice enough. But what was he doing around here? I dared to help him out. I came over to him.

“ Ok. What do you need?” I asked. The man got up, and pointed at the door.

“ I need to get this door open. But I also don’t wanna cause a big ruckus.” He sized me up. “ Hmm. Didn’t see ya clearly at first. What are you fifteen?”

“ Yeah.”

“ Ok. Hmm, blue eyes, green hair, lighter skin too. Hmm.”

“ Can I ask what you’re thinking about?” I didn’t know why a stranger was considering my looks.

“ Huh? Oh. No bad reason. I’m just thinking… ah forget it. Can you get open the door?” The man asked again.

“ I guess I could try.” I walked over to the steel door. It was sealed shut. Nothing I could do would open it. I looked at the door handle. It had a slot for keys to be put in to unlock it. I couldn’t use a key. But maybe…

“ Well? Can you?” Asked the man. He had slung his pack over his back and crossed his arms facing me.

“ Hold on I got this.” I opened the top front zipper of my backpack. Inside were the keys to my house. The actual key I wasn’t using. Instead there was a little piece of copper wire that I had forgotten to take off. I slipped it into the hole and twisted it around.

“ You sure that’ll work?” The man asked.

“ I dunno. If Assassin’s Creed has taught me anything. It’s that little pieces of this kind of stuff works when opening locked things.”

“ Are you really gonna let a video game’s logic guide you in real life?”

“ No. I mean, I don’t know. Let’s just see.” I fiddled with the wire. I heard a click. The door opened a little bit. I pulled the wire out. “ There!” I said.

“ Ah you actually did it, good.”

“ What did you need from in there? Isn’t this place closed down?”

“ Yeah. Uh…” The man scratched his head, as if considering something. Then he sighed. “ Forgive me for this.”

“ Wha-” Before I could finish, he grabbed me around the waist with both arms.

We both hurtled through the doorway. I screamed as he slammed on the ground. He shut the door and covered my mouth. He set down his pack, kneeling down.

“ Shut it now! If you’ll let me explain!” He told me sternly. I was so scared I listened. I closed my mouth, shaking. He slowly removed his hand. He pointed at my backpack. “ Give me it.”

“ Wh-”

“ Don’t ask. Just do it.” I gave it to him. He pulled out my phone and put it in his pocket. Then he set it against the side of a shelf. He sighed.

“ Ah what am I thinking? Doing this to a little girl. Imma get screw up for this…” I didn’t move or say anything. Many thoughts were running through my head. Was I getting kidnapped? Raped? Why had I come here? What if my parents find out? The man sat down next to me.

“ Look. I know you must be scared out of your mind. Let me explain.” He sighed again. “ I’m here on a secret mission of sorts. You said these buildings were abandoned? I wouldn’t be surprised. Perfect kind of place for Plasamic to hide their crap.”

“ P-Plasamic?” I asked.

“ Yeah. I’ll explain more later. We don’t have much time. Basically I need to destroy the contents of this factory. They’re hiding weapons in here…if they get released to the public…” He looked serious.

Now I really didn’t know what to think. Who was he talking about? What contents?

“ I know you have questions. Like I said I will explain. But later. I’m sorry for having to do this to you. I look like a damn pedophile don’t I? Ah god!” He put a hand to his face. “ Just please. I shouldn’t have dragged you here. But now that you are, can you please cooperate and help me?” He did look honestly troubled.

“ Well. If I am stuck here, then sure. What are we doing?” I asked.

“ Ok. Look around.” I did so. There were some shelves extending to the ceiling. They each had multiple rows of boxes. They were labelled as ‘ Dangerous. Keep away from innocent eyes.’ What?

“ What are they for?” I asked the man.

“ Those are filled with weapons.”

“ Weapons?”

“ Yes. This company. They have been secretly making very powerful weapons illegally. The government tried stop ‘em but now they do it undercover. That is why I must-” Another door opened. In came four men and a woman. They each had on purple suits. The woman had a silver suit on.

“ Check around. There are supposed intruders here. Find them quickly!” The woman ordered. They took out rifles. Silver and blue glowing rifles. They started to look around. The color of their outfits was the same as on the boxes. I quickly ducked back down behind the shelf.

“ Who are they?” I asked quietly.

“ They are part of Plasamic. Dangerous people! Now, you need to listen to me carefully!” The man reached in his bag and pulled out two pistols. They looked similar to the weapons the other men had. I gasped.

“ What is...what-”

“ Shh! I know! But like I said work with me! I’ll explain quickly. If you fire just by tapping the trigger, then you will fire a small shot. It will affect them like as if you were punching them. If you hold down the trigger, then you will blow a hole in them. So use whatever mode you like. Just knock them out!” He held it out to me.  

I took the pistol with shaking hands. I fiddled with it. I placed my fingers in the trigger hold and wrapped around the handle. I didn’t know what to feel. I was holding a real gun.

“ What- you want me to-” I couldn’t even speak.

“ Please.” The man grabbed my arm. “ You have to help me.” He took hold of his own gun. He looked over the edge of the shelf and fired at a company man. The man was hit in the chest by a blue ball. He fell with his intestines showing. The woman saw this and located the man.

“ Well. It’s you isn’t it? Good to see you Emund. Why are you here? The one who is the intruder are you? Very well. Now we’ll have to kill you after exiling you. Men, fire at him.” She pointed. Emund ducked back down as blue shots fired over head. They hit the wall, leaving burn marks.

“ Damn it. Ok kid. Three left. I don’t know if we can get her.”

“ Does she know you?” I asked.

“ Yes. But again, later. Now.” He looked around. “ We need a plan. Before they reach us. Think of something.” He told me. He crawled to the side of the shelf and continued to fire at the enemies. I was so scared my pants were wet. As embarrassing as that was, I focused on thinking of what to do so I didn’t die.

I looked up. Along the sides of the shelves, were little hinges. Perhaps used for carrying the boxes up and down. If I remembered right from my dad’s work, shipping and managing, those could hold a person of up to a certain weight. The doctors always told me I was too skinny. I took hold of a handle and switched it on. It latched on to my jacket. I was carried up into the air.

“ Kid! What are you doing?” Emund said from down below. I was brought up to the top of the shelf. I saw that all the shelves were connected at the top. I moved along the top of the ceiling by pushing in the direction I wanted to go. I managed to get above the men. They were firing at the far end of the factory. I didn’t know what I was doing. So I dropped down.

I landed on top of one man. He collapsed under me. I did what I knew from movies. I used the hilt of the gun and struck the back of the man’s head. This hurt my hand a lot. Luckily the man stopped moving. The other two looked at me in surprise.

“ What? Why is there a girl here?” Said the woman. In the confusion Emund shot down another man. I raised my pistol. I shot at the other man, completely missing. It’s not as easy as it is in the games. Thankfully Emund took him down also. He ran to my side. I got up. We faced the woman. Now, up close, I could see her clearly. Her pitch black hair, her hard, grey marble eyes, lightish skin. She scared me with her seriousness.

“ What?” She took a step back. “ Emund, I never thought you would go this far. Using a little girl for your needs. But we have plenty more storage! This won’t mean a thing!”

“ Ha! You’re just frustrated because I beat you again Acunia!” Emund said proudly.

“ Agh! That meant nothing to us then, and it means nothing now! We will carry out our plans to cover land! You can’t stop us!” Acunia left through the door.

I stood there, motionless. I was still processing what had just happened. Emund let out a heavy sigh and put a hand on my shoulder.

“ Kid. You ok?”

“ I-I don’t know. What just happened exactly? You know each other and, covering land?”

“ Ok. I guess I should explain now. Ok. So the Plasamic Incorporated made these weapons using some of the strongest metals on Earth. They made the bullets out of Illium. You know the asteroid that hit just a few weeks ago? The rumors of a new metal being found inside of it aren’t false.” This surprised me. I had heard of it on the news and at school. But like most kids, I didn’t believe it.

“ Really? Is that what it’s made from?” I asked, looking down at the pistol in hand.

“ Yup.  They also use plasma taken from other metals. The weapons have configurations inside of them that fuses the metal and the plasma to make a deadly laser shot. The metal melts in the plasma and it becomes the shot.” Emund explained.

“ That sounds like it’s from a video game or something.”

“ Well, where do you think those ideas come from? Doesn’t make it any better.” He’s right. Things in games are cool. But if even a quarter of them was let loose in real life, there would be mass trouble.

“ Oh, that’s true. So then why do they sell these things?” I asked.

“ For money, and power. They think they can get more control over businesses and take over more of the world that way. People will follow them. That plus the fact that they can use powerful weaponry would mean they could control almost the whole world.” Emund twirled his pistol.  

“ Jesus. I didn’t know about this.” I sighed. “ How come this had to happen to me after school?”

“ Kid, I dunno. Bad luck I guess. But look. We shouldn’t stay here. Now that you know about all of this, you need to help me. Anyone who has knowledge about Plasamic are in trouble of being assassinated. If you came with me, we could work to stop them. I know where the other manufacturing stations are. Please?” He looked serious and sad, pleading for help from a high school girl.

Considering I was probably in trouble now that I had gotten into this whole thing, and I would be in danger if I just left, I figured I had to help. Maybe I would be in risk of dying. But at least I wouldn’t be an open target if I decided to help him.

“ This is probably a bad decision. But sure. What are we doing now then?” I asked him. Emund seemed to relax in relief.

“ I can show you more about these weapons and my plan at my house. But we need to get rid of this building.” He reached into his bag and produced a medium sized dark green brick. It had a control panel for setting a timer.

“ Is that a bomb?” I exclaimed.

“ Yes it is. We aren’t terrorists if we are using this for the right thing. But the police won’t think so. Meaning as soon as I set this we have to leave quickly!” Emund set the bomb next to the shelf and set it for five minutes. It started to tick down.

“ Never thought I would be around someone who had just set off a bomb.” I said blankly.

“ Never thought I would be the one doing it around a girl. Now here.” He took out my phone and dialed in his phone number and house address.

“ Can you come to my house tomorrow morning?” He asked, handing me my phone back.

“ No I have school.” I said. “ Shouldn’t we be leaving?”

“ Yeah. Ok… how about 6:00 pm?”

“ Uh.” My parents were gonna be home earlier tomorrow. “ Yeah that’s fine.” It was friday tomorrow so I had time to go to a stranger’s house.   Emund pulled on his pack.

“ Alright. This has been… interesting kid. Oh, I never got your name.”

“ It’s Ceena.”

“ Last?”

“ Minshel?”

“ Ceena Minshel?”

“ Yup.”

“ Ok got it. I’m Emund. Talk later.” He took my gun from me and ran out the door. I bolted over, grabbed my backpack, and followed out the exit.

Had I known that I would’ve been forced into a building, where I was gonna be given a gun, attacked by men and woman from an illegal organization trying to gain power, I wouldn’t ever come near here. But, like Emund had mentioned, it happened. What is in the past is in the past. I can’t change it. So, even if it seems dangerous, I still have to deal with it and make the right decisions. So I guess my decision is to help this man stop this company. Because if they manage to ship out these weapons it would only spell trouble. Regardless of all that, I was really freakin’ scared. Should I tell my parents? Maybe, but Emund acted like it was bad if others knew about it. I realized that I should probably get home and away from a building that’s about to blow up behind me. I jogged back to my house. Along the way I could hear the explosion go off. It was louder than anything I had ever heard before. I turned to see an orange mushroom cloud rise up in the distance. Cars swerved and drove away, and people screamed and panicked. Why would Emund just set off a bomb like that? Did he have no consideration for others? I would have to ask him later. I managed to get home without anyone stopping me.

When I got home it was about 5:30pm already. Had it been two hours? I wasn’t sure if that was long or not. I came in through the front door. My family’s cat Gina came up and looked at me with her dark brown eyes and bright yellow fur.

“ Hello Gina. Sorry I didn’t come home sooner. Here. lemme get ya something to eat.” I set my stuff down and went into the kitchen. I grabbed her bowl and a box of kitten food. I filled it up halfway and added some cheese. As she ate I did my homework. Just some Math and English, not too bad. By the time I was done, it was 6:00pm. Was I really going to arrive at Emund’s house tomorrow? I checked the house address on my phone. I could call or text and make up an excuse so I didn’t have to go. How would I even get there? My parents definitely wouldn’t take me. I didn’t know where the address was. I put my hands to my head on the kitchen counter.

“ What the hell have I gotten myself into? I don’t know if I should go. But I’m afraid of what’ll happen if I don’t.” I said aloud. Gina finished her food and walked over to the backyard door, wanting to be let out. “ Ok, come on.” I let her outside. The sky was darker now. My phone went off. It was time to let Gina out to walk. I had just done that. It was convenient. Whenever she needed to be walked, we just let her roam by herself. Sure, at first we had to go with her. But like a lot of cats, they do what they want. Gina always comes back however. Makes my job easier. Though one time she did get into a fight with a dog, and my dad had to settle it with the neighbor. I guess stuff like that is bound to happen.

I watched the cat walk around the yard, deciding where to jump out.

“ Gina. What do you think I should do?” I asked her. She simply stared back at me. If you aren’t talking food or scratches then I don’t care. She was probably thinking. How nice it must be, to be a cat. To not have the worries of a human. Like choosing whether or not to fight an evil company. I went back inside, closing the door but leaving the window open slightly to let her back in. She gets pissed when me or my parents forget. That poor window gets so cut up. I went to my room. My room was a decent size. A bed, a shelf, a night stand, small couch, a larger shelf, and a small desk. At the desk, was my computer and a pad of paper and a set of colored pencils, regular pencils and pens. I flipped through the thirteen drawings I had done since getting this pad. I like to draw things from media, like games and movies etc. I flipped past sketches of Sans, Undyne, Chara, Sonic, Carol Tea, Zero, Mega Man, Spider Man, Iron Man, etc. At first I hated my drawings. The proportions were off. But I practiced, using Art class in school and sheer determination to keep trying. Now I think I’m better. The characters look normal. I’m starting to do more full pieces. With backgrounds as well as characters in them. So far it’s a work in progress.

I began to sketch out a city with Iron Man and Sash Lilac in it. Just a random thought that came to me. By the time I had done the outline of Lilac I heard the garage door open. A moment later my dad came in. He was wearing his black and white suit.

“ Hey sweetheart how was your day?” He hugged me and kissed the top of my head.

“ It was ok.” I muttered.

“ Did you hear about that explosion that happened near your school? Some bomb went off or something. They don’t know who did it yet.” My dad adjusted the shutters on my windows.

“ N-no?” I lied. “ What happened?”

“ Like I said. They haven’t got much info on it. They might release more later on or tomorrow. You weren’t hurt?”

“ No. I had gotten home before that happened I guess.”

“ Alright good. I don’t want anything bad happening to you. You know that right?” He ruffled my hair.

“ Yeah dad, I know.” I said back.

“ Good.” He left the room. Now I was even more conflicted. What if I was hurt and my parents were to find out? How would they feel? Should I not go then? But I have to, people are in danger if I don’t. Ugh, why did it rest on me? I had a hard time sleeping that night.

I had a weird dream. I was in, China. Large colorful buildings rose around me. Emund stood in front of me. He was looking at a building bigger than any other. It consisted of three towers connected at the bottom.

“ Well. It’s up there. In there is their main leader. Once she falls, we’ll be done.” He said. I tried to speak to him, but he didn’t hear me. The dream changed. I was standing at a home, it was bright yellow and small. Where was this? I had never seen this neighborhood before. I woke up in the morning. I got up and did my usual routine for school. Staying in bed five minutes after the alarm has already gone off. Putting on my clothes very slowly. Brushing my teeth. Eating a hot pocket. Checking my backpack for school supplies, only to check it again right before my dad drives me to school. So, about the usual beginning. Except I couldn’t stopping of Emund and Plasamic. Did anyone at school hear about the news? They probably would have, considering the explosion was only a few blocks away. If anyone asked about it, what would I say? Was I about to lie again? I didn’t want to think about that, so I just moved on to my classes.

The four periods before lunch were the normal. P.E. was all about the exciting, blood pumping activity of walking around a track for an hour. Literally. I talked to Knox the whole time about time travel and what it would be like to transfer different dimensions. Made the class more bearable. Second was art class. I only really liked it, besides the fact that I draw at home, because it allowed me to go through a process of building something cool. Like a nice valley or a uniquely designed character. It was fun to create something of your own, and see it go through various stages of development. The history part is ok. Then there’s math and physics. Ugh. WHY did I have to get two of the worst classes in succession? I mean sure there are processes to it which is interesting. But only sometimes. Most of the time it’s all about doing the exact same thing over and over and then getting it wrong and having to do it all over again! ‘Such a fun thing to do.’ But at least I have lunch afterwards so I can rest my annoyance in food. Because we all need that at some point. Today I had brought a tuna sandwich, chocolate bar and Mtn. Dew. It was tasty! I sat at my normal spot. A table under a roof, where me and Tisha always sit. Usually it is just the two of us, which I personally prefer. Tisha has no problem talking to a whole group of sixteen kids. I can do that, but I like just sitting with her and having her full attention the whole time.

About ten minutes after lunch began, Tisha sat down next to me.

“ Hey Ceena, what’s up?” She asked me.

“ Hi Tisha. Not much. You?”
“ Mmm. Same. But I was killing it in Spanish! I got so many of them vocab words right! The other boys were getting so mad cause they couldn’t get it!”
“ Pfft, really? Wow.”

“ I know right.” Tisha certainly liked Spanish, and acting in general. I wasn’t as into it. “ How’s been theater?”

“ Oh it’s been alright. Just memorizing scripts and movements for the next play.”

“ I see, cool! I’ll come watch it.”
“ You should!” The school plays weren’t bad. I enjoyed them. Though the seats are a little too small and it’s always packed with family members. For a bit we sat and didn’t say much. Then Tisha asked what I had feared.

“ Hey so. Were you involved in that explosion yesterday?” I jolted a little.

“ W-what do you mean?” I swallowed my chocolate bar hard. Tisha looked at me, raising an eyebrow.

“ You did go to the area where it was at right?”

“ Yeah I did.”
“ Soooo. Did it have to do with you?”

“ U-uh…” Why was I afraid to tell her? Sure, Tisha could be seen as the type who judges and doesn’t care. But I know from experience I can trust her. She’s the only one who I’ve been able to talk to besides my parents. “ Alright. But don’t tell anyone ok?” Tisha held out her hand.  

“ I will not tell anyone. You have my solemn oath on that.” I smirked and shook her hand.

“ Ok good. You sure? It involves me killing people.”

“ Oh what seriously? Damn. Ok, you know I am here for you. Tell me. Also how did ya kill?” I explained to her what had occurred at the abandoned factory. Her expression was serious the whole time. “ Jesus man. And you’re ok from that?”
“ I guess so. I’m just worried about Plasamic. From what I saw and heard… they are trying to take over, company wise. Gain land and control with their weapons or something.”

“ Sounds like a stupid thing to do. What about this Emund dude?”

“ Not too sure about him yet. But I’ll have a chance to learn more today.”

“ Today? How?” I hadn’t told her the part about Emund inviting me to his house afterwards.

“ Yup. Um. He kinda took my phone from me and pleaded with me to join him in his mission thing before giving it back. I don’t know whether or not to go.”

Tisha put her head on her hands, thinking.

“ Well. If it is as dangerous as you say then I dunno. And you said something about assassinations? That isn’t good.”

“ Yeah. But what do I do? Should I go? It could be risky.” I asked nervously. Tisha drummed her fingers on the table. Other kids walked by, unaware of the situation.

“ I mean. If you’re so worried about it. Then I could go with you.”

“ Wait what??”
“ Yeah! This sounds cool! I always wanted to use guns!”

“ That isn’t true. Is it?”

“ No. But that isn’t the point. I wanna see this. Can I come?” Tisha seemed honest about this. I didn’t want her to get hurt but I also needed help. I wasn’t exactly confident about doing it alone. I mean besides Emund, but I had to figure out more if I could trust him.

“ Well… sure. If you stay quiet and safe.”

“ I am good at that.”

“ Like when you performed at the school event and scraped your knee?” I said sarcastically.

“ Girl you know I did that with the full intent on making it to the far lane!” Tisha exclaimed, lightly hitting my shoulder. I rubbed it and laughed.

“ Yeah yeah, of course!” I looked her straight in the eyes. “ But seriously. This is dangerous. We could die from this!”

“ Girl come on. If you are going, I’m coming with you, ok? I already said this sounds interesting. Also, it is the weekend after school gets out. So we got two days to do this! Besides, you know how bad businesses are at making business decisions.” I smiled and shook my head. If there was one good thing about Tisha, it was that she could put me in a good mood.

“ Alright fine. Since you keep insisting.” I finally agreed.

Tisha popped a chicken nugget in her mouth.

“ Thank you. Then, when are we going?”
“ Uh… I dunno. When should we?”

“ Ya wanna ditch class?”

“ What no! We can’t do that!”
“ Ugh, why do you care so much? My fun classes already ended!”

“ So? That’s not a good enough reason! We’re trying to do this without getting in trouble.” I explained. Tisha sighed heavily. The bell rang.

“ Well, if ya say so. Man, I got english next! What a bore!”
“ Bore? At least you read in that class. I have that last.”

“ Lucky you. You’re into that stuff. Not me!”

“ Are you gonna keep complaining? Or just do it?”

“ Oh Imma complain. But yeah let’s go.” Tisha and me packed up our things and headed off for class. She went towards the english bungalows and I went to spanish. It felt better, knowing that I was gonna have my one good friend with me. Sure, I had other kids I talk to. Like Knox. But he was just a school friend, only talking during the down times. Otherwise I didn’t have any close friends. The last one I had before Tisha was back in elementary school. I remember him still.

Since I was a shy kid and mostly kept to myself, no one sat with me during the recesses and lunches. This never really bothered me, since I wasn’t that social to begin with. Then, in fourth grade, me and him were put in the same class. We sat together and it was the first time I felt a connection to someone who wasn’t a family member. Spaik decided to help me when I was having issues on my work. I didn’t ask, he simply offered it to me. He had seen me struggling and took it upon himself to aid me. Then, it continued outside the classroom. We found each other on the playground. Spaik always invited me to play tetherball or soccer. He took things very seriously. Which helped me since that meant I could talk to him about my growing fears, and he’d listen.

“ Spaik, what’ll happen in fifth grade? Apparently we’re getting three classes now?” I had asked worriedly. Me and him were at a bench eating our early snacks.

“ I guess so. Three teachers? Ew.” He said.

“ Doesn’t that make things complicated?”
“ Yeah it does! Three times the amount of homework! Such terror!” He exclaimed.

“ NO!” I said loudly.

“ But, it’s fine. We got this. All it means is we have to divide up our day for each set of homework.”

“ Not more homework!”
“ Yes more! But again. If you just make a schedule. Do one thing at a time, only worrying about that one thing at that moment and nothing else and then moving on, it shouldn’t be bad. Get it?”

“ I think so. Perhaps it won’t be as bad.”

“ No.” Spaik was the one person who talked to me back then. He talked deeply about things but he could also be loud and bubbly at times.  We separated because of family issues. In middle school I met Tisha. Her, plus me being more able to talk to people, allowed for those years up till now to be much better. I didn’t think too much about Spaik nowadays. But sometimes he came up in my mind. I entered la clase de español.

The rest of school was overall, normal. Spanish we did a packet over more verbs, which took me the whole period. Then english we did another few pages of the Odyssey, which I finished before everyone else. You know, class favoritism. Put I knew the day wouldn’t really begin until the periods were over. I was sitting in english. Staring at the clock on the wall. School’s about to end. Do I want it to end? I guess so. But then we need to go to that guy’s house. Ugh. I don’t know if I wanna do this. But Tisha offered to come so I won’t let her down, she did seem excited. I guess I’ll see what happens. I thought to myself. Once the bell rang, I walked over to the front of the school, where me and Tisha normally meet to walk home if she’s available for it. Which normally happens about two to threes times a week? Maybe more or less depending on hers or mine parent’s situations. As I waited, I checked my homework. One English, and one math. When I would actually be doing it is another question. I stood there, kids walking by. Either on their phones, talking to friends or simply by themselves. After about five minutes, Tisha walked up to me.

“ Heya! You ready?” She asked.

“ I guess.” I answered softly. Tisha put a hand to her hip.

“ You should really stop worrying. This won’t be that bad. We got each other right?”

“ Well, yeah. But still.”

“ Still nothing. Can we get something to eat first?”

“ You wanna eat? We’re supposed to go to the guy’s house!”

“ I ain’t about to use futuristic weapons until I’m full! You want rubios?” I sighed.

“ Sure.”

“ Ok. Who’s paying?”

“ I can.”

“ K thanks.” I let out a laugh. We left the school, heading to the nearby rubio's restaurant.

I wish I hadn’t brought a jacket today. It was hotter than yesterday. The sun burned bright in the sky. Clouds barely visible. Allowing for all the rays to hit me. Good thing was, I had a short sleeve short on under this jacket. I took it off and stuffed it in my backpack. If there is one thing I don’t understand, it’s that my pack gets so full so quickly. Like when I have just my basic school books and what not in there, it’s fine. I can carry it easily. But as soon as I put something else in, like a lunch bag or my jacket, boom! Instantly turns into the weight of a boulder. I don’t get it. At least I was feeling better with my blue T-shirt and orange soft pants. Who said anything about matching? Tisha wasn’t much better. With her purple shirt and black pants. Did she choose the shirt color to match her hair? Possibly. But knowing her, it was a coincidence. She didn’t wear things with much thought normally. Which was fine, considering I was the same. We walked down the street, going past the area where the factory was. We were going to another shopping center across from it. As we pasted, I saw what remained of the factory. There wasn’t much. Just some of the base. Black, charred and smoking. There was at least five police cars around it, yellow tape put up to keep out others. Officers inspected it, and made calls on their phones. I moved a little faster, hoping they wouldn’t see me. If I was gonna get caught doing this, I didn’t want it be now. Thankfully, we made it to rubios.

We entered the building, looking at the menu as we got in line.

“ So. What do you want?” I asked my friend.

“ Hmm. Imma go for them chicken tacos. Love those things. You?”

“ Uh. I think the chicken burrito.”

“ Are you copying me in burrito form?”

“ Maybe.”

“ You sneaky.”

“ Well I mean. I have to get in on some of that chicken too don’t I?”

“ Yeah but if you take mine Imma have to get out my Valkyrie and smash you!” I laughed at her reference.

“ Oh is this Destiny now?”

“ Yup. Now pay for the food please.” It was our turn at the register. I payed for our stuff, with two fountain drink included. Speaking of the fountain drinks. I always have a hard time deciding what kind of drink I want. I inspected the selections.

“ Hmmm. Orange soda, lemon soda, root beer soda. Why are there so many kinds of soda?” I wondered.

“ Are you really going to question it?” Tisha started taking some of all of them. “ Just take all.”

“ Is that allowed?”

“ I dunno. But either way, I’m doing it.” She filled up her cup. I didn’t argue. I simply filled mine with orange soda. We chose a seat in the back outside.

“ What did you do in English?” Tisha asked me.

“ Read Odyssey.”

“ That book is so boring!”
“ You say that about every book you read!”

“ So? Couldn’t the schools find a way to make reading more fun?”

“ How?”

“ Maybe by… adding a virtual reality feature to it so it’s more interesting! And an addition of free games to play.”

“ I am pretty sure it don’t work that.”

“ Well yeah, but it should.”

“ Who knows. Maybe in the future.”

“ Perhaps.” Our food came. I chowed down on my burrito. It was pretty good! Once we finished our food we left rubio's.

“ So you said you knew where this address was?” I asked.

“ Lemme see it again.” I showed her my phone. She thought for a second.

“ Yeah… I think so. Come on.” She headed towards the neighborhood located on the upper hill. “ You know I forgot to bring my bike. Would’ve made this a lot quicker.” Tisha said on the way up.

“ Oh yeah. It would’ve been.” I said. Tisha had recently gotten into riding around on her bike. I had bought one a long time ago. I had pumped it up so we could ride together. It was fun, to race through forests and streets.

“ But then you couldn’t follow me. Since you didn’t bring it. Unless we both brought ours.” She exclaimed.

“ Well yeah. Is it far from here?”

“ Not really.”

It took about ten minutes for us to get there. I had many moments of thought to myself. This is taking awhile. Maybe it’s too long. I could turn back now and it would be fine. Oh wait, probably not. I still would feel guilty then. Ugh. But there is so long to go! Whatever, I’ll keep going. You know how when you are doing something, and then you end up making it worse for yourself? But in reality it wasn’t that bad? That was this walk for me. It was hot outside, like every time I walk home. And I couldn’t stop my thoughts from bringing up the worst possibilities. I wish sometimes I didn’t have a brain. The two of us finally made it to the address, according to Tisha. It was bright yellow and small. One floor with a backyard sticking out.

“ Guess it’s it.” Tisha began to move to the door. I stayed.

“ You sure about this?” I said nervously.

“ Girl I swear. The moment you stop worrying is the moment world hunger is resolved. Come on!” She grabbed my wrist and pulled me up to the front door. “ Go on knock. This isn’t a date or anything.”

“ Tisha, he’s like thirty.”

“ I know. So what I’m saying is, it’ll be fine. Do it.”

“ OK ok.” I knocked. I tried to calm my breathing. Telling myself things to keep me from being too scared. I’m not too sure if it worked or not. The door opened. Emund stood in the doorway.

He was now wearing a white tank top, and grey shorts. He had blue goggles on.

“ Ah it’s you kid. Is this your friend?” He asked, jabbing a thumb at my companion.

“ Y-yeah.” I gestured to Tisha. She waved.

“ Hello! Emund right? Ceena told me about your little skirmish at the factory near our school. I wanted to check what’s goin’ on!”

“ Tisha!” I exclaimed.

“ What? Isn’t that what’s going on?” She responded back.

“ I mean I guess but-”

“ Look. You shouldn’t of told anyone.” Emund said. He inhaled and looked at Tisha. “ But. Now that ya did… you two know each other well?”

“ Yup! This girl is great!” She put her arm around me. I might’ve blushed a bit.

“ Mhm.” I muttered. Emund crossed his arms.

“ Right. Well ya seem like it. Tisha was it? Can you keep a secret?”

“ Sure! What kinda secret?” She asked.
“ What did the kid tell you?”
“ Uh. About the company and the factory. And she doesn’t trust you.” Tisha told him. I felt like shrinking into the nearby bushes. Emund raised an eyebrow.

“ Not trust? I guess that makes sense. I wouldn’t seem very friendly would I?” He sighed and dropped his arms. “ But listen kids. I am not a bad guy. I know at your age you hear all about how not to trust strangers.”

“ Mhm.” Said Tisha.

“ But again. I need your help! I’m in this alone. I managed to escape them and not get hunted down. But they are out there, getting stronger. Whenever Plasamic finds a person who knows their plans but aren’t working for them… bad. So I asked you to come here so I can finally stop them.” He looked worried and guilty again, like he had back at the factory.

“ And so you need two kids to help you?” Tisha asked, putting a hand to her hip. Emund sighed.

“ Yes. I’ve already thought about this. If ya don’t wanna get hurt, then you need to come inside.”

“ And you’re sure this isn’t a rape?”

“ Unless rape consists of training with highly dangerous and high tech weaponry to stop a company.” I snickered at this. Tisha dropped her arm.

“ Alright. Show us what’cha got.” Emund let us into his house.

It was even smaller on the inside. Going down the corridor: On the left was the kitchen, white tiled. On the right was a single bathroom. Past that, a living room. A medium size TV screen laid on a brown shelf. A red couch laid on a green and red rug. A door behind the rug seemed to lead to a bedroom, and next to that was what I guessed was the garage door. Large sliding glass doors led to the backyard, which was the biggest part of the whole place. A wide stretch of grass, set up like a shooting range. With targets, and firing stations. A little covered patio with a table and four seats around it laid down some guns.

“ How the heck do you live like this?” Tisha asked. She inspected the living room television. “ This is way too small!” Emund came over to her.

“ Small? I don’t need anything larger than that! Unlike you kids I can appreciate simple things without much internet usage.”

“ Whadda mean? I can appreciate simple things!”

“ Like what?” Emund asked. Tisha pointed at the shelf below the screen.

“ This is a nice brown for example. It looks glossy. Do you clean it often?”
“ I do. I like things clean. And that isn’t what I was talking about.”

“ Well you know what that’s whatever!” She gestured to the backyard. “ Is that the reason we are here?” Emund looked where she was pointing.

“ Pretty much. Before that, are ya kids hungry?”

“ No. I just ate.” I said.

“ Yeah, together. We ate together. Why do you keep calling us kids?” Tisha asked.

“ Because you are kids.” Emund opened the door to the back. The warm air sweeped into the building. “ Also uh, just leave your stuff by the front. You can keep y’all’s shoes if you want.” He walked out and waited for us. Tisha put her bag down by the door. She faced me.

“ Why are you just standing here? This’ll be cool!”

“ I guess so. Isn’t this illegal and dangerous?” I said.

“ We aren’t doing this again.” She pulled me into the backyard. I just sorta slipped off my pack.

When we got there, Emund was setting up three of the five stations. He waved us over to one.

“ Alright girls look.” He picked up the weapon. It was a pistol, like the one I’d used at the factory. “ We’ll start simple. This is a basic firearm from Plasamic. Think of it as a pistol like you’ve seen. Just hold the handle with two hands, and aim and fire.” He did just that. He shot at the target across the way, blasting a hole clean through the wood. It smoked blue.

“ Jesus!” Tisha exclaimed. “ And you just go around, blasting up your stuff?” Emund set down the pistol and smiled.

“ Yup. But I got plenty of these target things. About three hundred in the garage. Which I can get to from my room.”

“ Why in your room?” I asked.

“ I dunno. Just the way house is I guess. Now then, who wants to try?” He offered it to us. I just stared at it. Tisha grabbed it out of his hand.

“ Me! I’ll go first since she’s too scared.”

“ I am not scared!” I protested.

“ Oh sure you aren’t. Don’t worry. I’ve got this!” She aimed the gun at the target. Her right eye closed, her face concentrated. She fired, the bullet hitting the rim of the target. “ What? Come on!” She complained. I laughed.

“ Seems like you have to try harder, Crucible Queen.”

“ Hey! Dontchu start making fun of my Destiny skills! You try it.” She put it in my hands. I took it. I remembered when I had shot and missed at the factory. I guess now was the time to practice. I raised it up, focusing on the red and white target. I fired, completely missing. The bullet hit the fence. Thankfully it was made of metal so it didn’t dent too much.

“ Alright. You two need to keep at it.” Emund advised. “ Get a grip on using the basics first.”

“ Well when can we use the bigger stuff?” Tisha pointed to the larger rifles sitting on the other stations. “ Those look cool.”

“ Once you actually learn how to use this first. Or else there is no way you’ll be able to use those.” Emund brought over another pistol. He gave it to Tisha. “ Get going.”

“ Wait what are you gonna do?” I asked him.

“ Watch you.” He laid down on one of the seats, hands behind his head.

“ No tips?”

“ Just treat it like a normal pistol. It’s not hard, just get used to the aiming.” And he watched us. “ And before you ask. Those things are gonna do more damage to the targets with a low charge than it would to a human because of the way the plasma is made.”

“ Are there different kinds?” Tisha asked.

“ Yeah. The ones I have/stole, are ones that aren’t gonna kill on low charge but will with a high charge for skin and flesh.”

“ And that works how exactly?”

“ Stuff with the intensity of the plasma fused with the metal, don’t worry about it. Just go, practice.”

Me and Tisha spent a good hour practicing. I know since I checked on my phone. The first few times I didn’t get how I was supposed to hit the middle. Tisha got it faster than me. She messed up the target after her fifth try. So Emund had to replace it. Lucky her. I keep going unto my sixteenth time of missing completely before I started to hit it. Finally however, we managed to fluidly shoot up the target. Once we did, Emund clapped.

“ Ok! Good! Now, you ready for bigger guns?”

“ Heck yes! Which ones?” Tisha asked eagerly.

“ These.” Emund walked over to the station farthest to the left. Where two rifles sat. They were the about the size of a normal army assault rifle. “ So with this. You’re gonna want to hold it by the handle and the leather here, in the front. Also don’t worry about running out of bullets. Like you saw with the pistols, infinite ammo.” My friend took hold of one, weighing it.

“ Not bad. It’s heavier. Good thing I’m strong.” I held my weapon. It took me a second to get used to the added weight of it.

“ Are these automatic?” I asked our trainer.

“ Yeah. The other ones aren’t.”

“ Can we handle full auto?”

“ Probably. Just keep in mind to pull the gun down when you do fire. It tends to jump.” Tisha aimed.

“ Alright. Shouldn’t be too bad.” Then she fired. The gun’s barrel flung upwards, spraying bullets into the sky. She yelped and dropped it. “ Nevermind! God dang dude.” I faced Emund.

“ Will that alert other people?”

“ Naw. They don’t make much sound. Ya noticed?” Now that I thought about it, I did. These energy guns didn’t make the big bang that most military guns do. That helps I guess. I aimed my rifle, ready to hold it downwards. I fired off, pulling the barrel down as it shot upward. I managed to hit the target a few times.

“ Hey. I did something.” I said.

“ Mhm. Keep going.” Emund sat back down.

“ Thanks for being here with us.” Tisha exclaimed, and retried. This went down similar to the last time. We spent over an hour trying to consistently get shots to connect. Tisha got it after about ten times and me after twelve. I was getting better! By the time we were done the sky was turning darker. I realized I should’ve texted my parents.

“ Can you guys give me a minute?” I went back inside the house and texted.

“ HI mom, dad. I should've told u i was at my friends house today. Sorry for not saying anything sooner.” I sent them. Thankfully they let me stay the night, since it was friday. I felt bad lying to them, I mean I was with a friend. But still. I turned around just as Emund came in.

“ Hey so what time do you kids go to sleep normally?” He asked. I raised an eyebrow.

“ Sleep? Why?”

“ Well.” He checked his phone. “ It is currently 9:30pm. And I need your help with another factory tonight.” This surprised me.

“ Wait you want us to go with you to another location where they are manufacturing weapons this same night?”

“ Yup. Reason being: If it’s night time, then there won’t be as much resistance above ground. And maybe even underground. Who knows.” I shook my head in shock.

“ Hold up! Underground? Where the heck are we going?”

“ It’s a construction site. I told you Plasamic likes to do things while under cover. They won’t just open a building like this out in the street where the government can easily find them. I know where it is. Now we just gotta blow it to hell.”

“ More bombs?”

“ Yup. I know it’s extreme but I have to make sure their stuff is ruined permanently.”
“ And what about the explosion you caused near my school? That could have killed innocents walking by!” I said, a little loud.

“ Hey, calm down. Again, it was at a time when not that many people were around. And like I have been saying to you, this is serious! I cannot let them have this stuff. If a couple of randoms are hurt, then so be it. I don’t want this. But Plasamic can’t keep going either. I ain’t a goddamn maniac alright? So please. Calm down. When do ya kids sleep?” He sighed and looked at me. I was still unsatisfied with the way he dealt with the factory near my school, but I let it slide.

“ I normally sleep at around ten.”

“ Oh bull manure. I’ve been to your house over night. You do not go to bed at that time!” Tisha came inside, holding a rifle still. “ And plus, you’ve even admitted staying up later.”

“ Thanks, but I wasn’t lying.” I said sarcastically.

“ Well, y’all oughta go now. Since we are leaving in three hours for the construction site.” Emund told us.

“ Construction site??!” Tisha exclaimed. Emund told her what he had just told me. She looked intrigued.

“ Alright. So we bust into this site at night and do what exactly?”
“ The exact room was built into the ground. I surveyed the area before. There is a big drilled hole that they built it into. If we sneak down it and get into the room we can set off another bomb and get rid of it.”

“ What is with you and blowing stuff up?” Tisha asked. Emund shrugged.

“ It’s not like I enjoy doing it. I just feel like it is a sure way of putting each factory out of commission. So that, you know, nothing is retrieved from it.”

“ And you are serious about us sleeping over here with you?” Tisha asked.

“ Yes! I hope you can trust me enough to stay here for a few hours and then continue to help me!”
“ Ooooh. I dunno. Trusting is a hard thing to do.”

“ Agh. Please? I’ve gone through the trouble of showing you girls how these damn weapons work. Can’t you at least show me you know how to use them in a real fight?”

“ Hmm. A real fight. Like a shooter game?”
“ Yes! Sure, like that.” I realized what he was doing. Tapping into Tisha’s love for FPS games. And using that to persuade her into trying out a real gun fight.

“ Tisha.” I put in. “ This isn’t a game. You need to understand that.”

“ I get that. But these guns are seriously pretty cool. And I wanna try them out. When exactly?”

“ I already said in three hours.” Emund repeated. “ I’m suggesting you two get some rest. Unless you want to be tired on our trip there.”

“ How far is it from here?” I asked.

“ Oh. Let’s see.” Emund pulled out his phone, checking Google maps. “ Not too far. A few miles. It’ll be easy though. Since it’s late at night there should little to no one on the roads.” At this point, I was conflicted. On one hand, this was really stupid. There was a good chance something could happen to us while we slept in this man’s house. On the other, I would feel guilty if I didn’t do anything to stop Plasamic. I mean I did come all the way over here, so I must be into this thing now. I sighed.

“ Alright. I guess we can do it. What do you think Tisha?” My friend smiled.

“ Yeah! Sounds fun. What kinda guns do we get to use?” Emund put his arms to his hips.

“ Heh! I’ll figure that out. You two just head into the guest room.”

“ There’s a guest room?” I asked. I hadn’t seen one earlier. Emund pointed to a door adjacent to his bedroom door.

“ That one. I don’t ever use it, since I live alone. There’s only one bed. So either y’all sleep together or on the floor or somethin’.” Tisha walked over and opened the door. Inside were plain white walls, and a gray rugged floor. A single bed, a night stand, and a window were inside.

“ Ok, I can sleep on the floor.” Tisha decided.

“ Wait. You don’t have to.” I told her. She waved away my offer.

“ Naw it’s all good. You seem more stressed about this. So I’ll let you have it. Is that fine?”

“ Uh… sure. Thanks.”

“ Uh huh. You got a sleeping bag E-dude?” She asked.

“ Hey don’t say that to me! I’m the elder here. And yeah I have one. Hold on.” He went into his garage, and came back out about two minutes later. He was holding a wrapped up, dark blue sleeping bag. “ Here.” He tossed it to her. Tisha caught it.

“ I dunno about the elder. But thanks.” She went into the guest room, spreading out her bag and plopping down on it. “ Hmm, not bad. Ceena, come on in! There’s no pedophiles in here.”

“ Oh really? Not funny.” I said, laughing. I laid down on the bed, under the sheets. It was fairly comfy. I had the window right next to me.

“ Those blue sheets work for you?” Emund asked.

“ Yeah, sure.” I replied. They were enough for what it was.

“ Ok good. Well, goodnight, I guess. Well, more like see you in a little bit. You get it.” Emund closed the door.

I think Tisha said something to me. But I didn’t catch it, because I fell asleep almost immediately. I was more tired than I thought I guess. This time I had another odd dream. I was standing in some brown, boarded building. I could see leaves out a window. There were some crates scattered around, and a computer to my left. In front of me was a boy, about my age. He was looking at me in shock.

“ Why are you here?” He asked me. At first I was confused. What was happening? I studied the face of the boy, trying to give it a name. Then it hit me.

“ S-Spaik!?” I asked. I didn’t know what to think. This was just a dream, so maybe it was a flashback. But we never had come to a place like this before, and it wouldn’t explain why he was so surprised. I tried talking some more, but the dream ended. I woke up feeling kinda awkward.

That is, besides my dream, it was still late at night when I woke. Which I am not used to at all. I looked out my window. The sky was still pitch black. I checked my phone. It was 12:50am. Jesus, I wasn’t sure my parents would be ok with me staying up this late. But then again, my parents wouldn’t be very happy with anything I’m doing right now.  I leaned over and looked at Tisha. She was still dead asleep on her bag. How had I woken up so fast? Then I heard it. A faint alarm set off in the living room, by Emund probably. The noise was shut off, and the door opened.

“ Alright kids, get up. We don’t wanna waste time doin’ this.” He glanced down at my friend. “ Is she gonna move?”

“ Most likely not. I got this.” I climbed down from my bed and tickled her neck. From my experience with sleeping with her, it seemed to work a good amount of the time. This time it did. Tisha jolted awake.

“ Hey! Stop! What’s going on?”

“ It is time for us to leave.” Emund threw two small packs down next to us. “ Take these. They each contain a pistol, a communicator and a bag of chips.” I looked through my bag.
“ Are these for the mission?” I asked.

“ Yes it is. What else would it be for? Now Ceena, I’ve been thinking, and there’s something you need to know.”
“ W-what is it?”

“ You seem to be hesitant to pull the trigger. While I can appreciate the worry, it can also be a weakness. You need to know when it’s ok to just fire at the enemy.” I flinched.
“ I-I know. But I don’t like shooting people!”
“ I get it! I really do! But like I’ve been saying. You won’t get in trouble for this. Not if you stick with me you won’t. I don’t like it either, understand? I’m just telling you that you need to do this in order to save everyone! Because, like it or not, a few person’s death over thousands is better than the other way around. So please, just try not to give into the hesitation, please?” I could hear the pleading in his voice again. I set my bag down.

“ O-ok. I’ll try.” I muttered. Tisha sat up.

“ I sleep for only three hours and I wake up to drama like this? No. Girl it’ll be fine I’m telling you! We are in this together!” She gave me a reassuring smile. I was glad she was here, I would’ve had a harder time without her.

I got up, slinging the bag around my back.
“ Ok, fine. Let’s go.” Emund nodded.

“ Well now. Seems you two do work for each other. Alright.” Tisha got up and retrieved her bag.

“ Hey, we aren’t romantic or anything. But yeah, we do!”

“ Mhm. Right. Then come on, let’s get in my car.” Emund began for the garage. I saw he had a pack as well.

“ I didn’t know this nerd could even drive.” Tisha said, and left the room. I followed suit into the garage.

Our trainer’s car wasn’t anything special. It was a simple yellow car, with two front and back row seats. It looked kinda classical. He got into the driver’s seat.
“ Let’s go. I know it ain’t anything special.” Me and Tisha filed into the back. The garage door opened and we drove out onto the street. As we went, I saw a family pass by. A mom, dad and a kid. I didn’t know what they were doing out so late. The little boy had on one of those red and yellow propeller hats. The parents were discussing something, but I couldn’t hear what it was. We drove for about ten minutes. The stars above us gleamed, the cold air cutting my skin when I reached out of the car. As usual, the weather was against me. Why did I have to be wearing a T-shirt at the wrong time, again? Anyway, we made it to the construction zone.

It was fairly large. A piece of land sectioned off by green wire fencing. Inside was a field of brown dirt. Bulldozers, mats, drills, movers, pushers, and other equipment laid scattered around. In the middle of it was a big circular hole made by one of the machines.

“ Ok. So back to the plan. Y’all see that hole? We sneak down there, and get into the factory. Got it?” Emund asked.

“ Wait how do we even get down there?” Tisha replied.

“ I’ve been here before. They have a ramp that goes down it. For inspection purposes or something. Regardless, that’s what we are using.” He got out of the car. We did the same. It was really cold this late at night. I wish I had my jacket when I was about to perform illegal actions. Emund walked over to the front gate, which was naturally locked.

“ Ok. Do y’all wanna climb over?”

“ I can!” Tisha exclaimed.
“ I can’t.” I said melancholy. Emund raised an eyebrow.

“ Oh? You can’t huh? I got an idea.” He did something I wasn’t expecting at all. He went over to me, picked me up by the waist, and tossed me over the fence. I broke the silence of the night with my screaming as I flew over and tumbled into the dirt. Luckily the dirt was soft, so it didn’t hurt that much.

“ What the hell was that for???!” I yelled over the fence.

“ SORRY! I had to do something quick! We don’t wanna waste time.” Emund said back. I could hear Tisha laughing so hard. The two of them climbed over no problem and landed back down. Tisha jogged over and helped me up.

“ Mi amiga. Are you good?” She asked. I wiped dirt off of my clothing.

“ Mhm. Emund seriously. WHY?” I asked.  
“ Again. We need to do this before anyone sees us. If the public gets involved then that’s not good. Can you forgive me.”
“ Sure. Whatever. Where are we going?”

“ That way.” He pointed. The hole wasn’t too far away. We began to move toward it.

Unfortunately, there were two guards standing in front of the ramp. They each had on black plated armor, and holding rifles. The three of us moved behind a dormant machine.

“ Get out your pistols kids. Now we get serious.” Emund ordered us. Tisha excitedly dug out her weapon.

“ Got it! Is it like the ones we had at your house?”

“ Yes!” He took out a rifle for himself. I got out my pistol.

“ Hey! How come you get a bigger gun?” Tisha asked, disappointed.

“ Because I can use one! Now quiet down! We need to think of a way to get those guards out of the way.” We hid there for a good few seconds.

“ I got something.” Tisha said.

“ What?” I asked.

“ Ok so, you see those large movers over there? I’ll shoot over there, to get their attention. Once they move there, we shoot ‘em!”

“ Eh I dunno.” Emund said.

“ I’m gonna try it.” Tisha aimed her gun, and fired. It hit the front of the mover.

The two men looked at it in alarm.

“ What was that?”

“ Must be intruders!” They rushed over to the mover. I just stared at them. Emund sniped the first guard’s head, He hit the dirt. The other located us.

“ Hey YOU! STOP!” He shouted, and aimed his rifle. Before he could shoot, he was hit in the gut by Tisha’s pistol. He fell over. I looked at the bodies. Before I could reach any kind of negative conclusion, Emund pulled me up right.

“ You ok? Get to the hole quickly! Start going down, I’m gonna cover up the bodies.” He jogged over to the guards. Tisha and I ran over to the hole’s edge. It was a lot bigger up close. A spiraling ramp let downwards. At the bottom was a pool of water, and a tunnel. We descended down. Our feet made deep, hollowed stepping sounds as we walked. Once we got to the bottom, we stepped into the tunnel. It led for a few meters to a metal door. Emund joined with us.

“ Alright. That door should be it.”

“ Why haven’t the workers noticed this?” I asked.

“ Most likely from legal contracts and what not. Disguising themselves as a different company. Who knows what they make others think.” He began for the door. We followed. As we approached it I had to try and make myself stop shaking. I had survived these guys once, I could do it again. Even though I might die. Hopefully not. Or Tisha.

“ As soon as I open the door, run to the nearest hiding spot. I’ll cover y’all. Got that?” Emund asked us. We both nodded. He flung the door open.

Instantly me and my friend bolted. I saw a conveyor belt. I dove behind it, Tisha following suit. I heard gunshots, and men shouting. Emund ducked under next to us.

“ They know we’re here. Get ready!” He exclaimed. Bullets flew over us, hitting the wall.

“ Aw yeah! This will be fun!” Tisha leaned over the conveyor, firing off her pistol. She quickly dropped back down as a bullet almost hit her. “ Ok, that’s hard to hit.”

“ I told you it wasn’t like a game!” I said.

“ I know that! We need a strategy. You have one?”

“ That’d be nice.” Emund said. He shot, I heard someone grunt and hit the floor. I panicked, but I thought. I looked around. The belts had large crates on them. They would be large enough to fit me and Tisha. The control mechanism was situated right next to Emund. An idea formed inside of me.

“ Emund! Hey!” I yelled over the gunfire. He turned to me. “ Me and Tisha are gonna hide inside those creates! Use the lever to move the crates over to them! They won’t expect that!” He looked at me like I was crazy.

“ How is that supposed to work?” He asked.

“ If they see boxes moving, that won’t be interesting to them, since they are usually doing that I’m guessing.” Tisha put in. “ So we can get the surprise attack! We can get in these crates right here so they won’t see us.” Emund looked nervous about this.

“ I guess we don’t have a choice. Go get in. I’ll move ya. You’ll probably get hit.” With those encouraging words, we climbed in. I put the top over my crate. Jeez was it cramped. My arms and legs ached within seconds of me being in there. I pressed against other parts and gadgets that Plasamic owned. I even saw a few guns.

The conveyor belt began to move. I felt my crate rumbled as gunshots blazed past. There were multiple occasions where I thought I was gonna get accidentally hit and killed. Thankfully I wasn’t. I felt the box come to a stop. I didn’t know what we were supposed to do now. We didn’t assign any signal. That was until I heard Tisha jump out of her box.

“ HEY GUYS WHAT UP!?” I heard shuffling and gun fire. The thought that my friend could be shot at that moment was what made me burst out also. It was a scary scene. Two men were on Tisha. Advancing on her, guns raised, two were firing at Emund still, and one was facing me. He aimed to shoot. Arms wobbly I raised my pistol and fired. It hit the guy’s knee. He let out a yell and grabbed his leg. Emund shot his head and he fell over. The other two saw me. I shot one guy’s crotch. He screamed like a woman and gripped his comrades arm. While they were trying to untangle each other, I jumped down off of the conveyor belt. Emund sniped one guard, and I placed my pistol against the other’s chest, blasting a hole in it. They both fell. Tisha was having issues. She was cornered. One guard grabbed her. The other aimed to finish her. I yelled. I bashed the right guard in the back with my pistol. He staggered, dropping Tisha. He turned around, and slapped me, hard. I fell to the ground, my head spinning. Tisha shot the guy’s head and he hit the floor. The final tried to shoot her, but she ducked out of the way. Emund sniped him in the back. He collapsed against the belt.

Emund ran over to me.

“ KID! Are you ok? You’re fine. Come on, get up.” He slowly sat me up. I took a minute to get over the pain in my head as Emund set up his bomb against the crates. “ There we go. You two did a great job. I mean wow. You really hit them! Ceena, that was some hit you gave to that guy’s back.”

“ Are you being sarcastic?” Tisha asked.

“ NO! Really. I’m glad you came. Certainly makes my job easier.” He set the bomb to detonate in five minutes. “ We need to leave now.” I stood up, angry.
“ No. I’m leaving you! I am not going to be apart of this anymore!” I said. They both looked at me.

“ What? Kid?” Emund said, confused.

“ No really! Me and Tisha could’ve died doing this! Tisha was close to dying! I can’t handle this! I won’t risk me and my friend’s life for your stupid cause! I shouldn’t have done this in the first place! It is way too dangerous! If you wanna keep going then be my guest. But I won’t be with you!” I was practically yelling.

“ Ceena.” Tisha said softly. “ This isn’t right. You don’t need to be upset about this! I’m fine! We all are! I get why you’d be mad. But please, it’s not how you think it is! I’m ok!” She tried to give me a reassuring smile. I still wouldn’t take it.

“ No Tisha. How can you act like this? It’s something that can KILL YOU! Are you just too dumb to understand that?” I wasn’t speaking logically anymore, just out of anger. “ Maybe you are.” Tisha looked offended.

“ Hey! Don’t be a jerk just because you’re too worried all the damn time! We were perfectly fine until you randomly jumped at us like this!” She retorted.

“ Yeah? I’m just looking after us! Go with him then, and get yourself killed. I’m leaving.” I turned to head back out the way we had entered. I threw my bag on the ground. “ And keep your trash.”
“ Ceena! Be reasonable!” Emund yelled. I stormed out of the construction site.

I used my phone to find my way back home. I rung the doorbell, and my dad sleepily opened it.

“ Ceena? My god why are you here at this time of night?” He asked.

“ Sorry dad. Things got kinda crazy at my friend’s house. Too much partying, so I came home.” I lied.

“ You kids have way too much fun sometimes. Come in, and get to sleep!” I did try to sleep. Even though I was in my comfy bed, I couldn’t. I just kept thinking about the factory. Was I wrong? Was I acting too aggressively? Should I have stayed with them and continued onward? No. I couldn’t have. I was too scared, to be honest. Seeing my really good friend come so close to harm, and even death… it was too much. Had she stayed? Stayed with that man? The man who dragged me and her into this whole thing? Or, rather I dragged her into this. It’s my fault Tisha is in this now, and why she wants to do this. Something she could very well die from. But, if I stayed away, would I be hunted? Would Plasamic find me, and murder me? Would the two of them succeed without me? Sure they could, they didn’t need me. I could move on with my life and they finish this. I decided as I went to sleep.

The next day was saturday. I thought about being able to move on, maybe. Perhaps focus on something else to ease my mind. My mom always tells me to go outside, and walk around, draw or sleep. The thing about sleeping was, I didn’t think that would help at the moment. Considering my last two dreams weren’t exactly too swell. So I decided to go for a stroll around my neighborhood. I don’t do it often, simply because I like being inside more. But it was a nice day out. The sky was blue, only a few clouds scattered here and there. The temperature not boiling hot or freezing cold. Which allowed me to wear a comfortable blue short sleeve shirt and dark blue long pants. Sometimes, matching can be annoying. Since my hair is always green, and I’m not into dying it or wearing hats. Hats make my hair itch for some reason and I never liked how my hair sticks out the back. I won’t squish it up on the top of my head simply because I need to look better. Not if it makes me uncomfortable.

I left my house, heading over to the nature trail just across from it. It’s convenient to have a mini forest like path so close, it gives Gina a more interesting place to go. At least from what I’ve seen. I can count multiple times were I’ve found her wandering the ground. Scavenging for...whatever she is looking for. Normally Gina finds nothing. Though one time she returned with a water bottle, containing a tiny broken watch inside of it. Who leaves their watch inside of a water bottle? Anyway, my parents just threw it away. This time when I climbed down the slope to the path, Gina was there. Like I’ve said, she kinda comes and goes when she wants. Is that dangerous? It might be, but normally she’s fine. Since our cat is so good, we reward her. She is always back in time for dinner anyways and it’s less work on me, so who’s complaining? Not me.

Gina saw me and scuttled over, stepping on leaves and sticks scattered throughout the dirt. She rubbed against my leg and purred softly. I smiled, and stroked her back. I appreciated how affectionate she was. Always wanting to be scratched, and never being aggressive. That is unless it’s been a bad day, or you’re trying to attack her. Gina has some crazy fighting moves. Once, our neighbor, Johnathan’s dog tried to fight her. The dog ended up with new cuts and she was perfectly fine. Thankfully our little yellow cat ain’t like that all the time.

I continued past Gina and went down the nature trail. It was nice. The trees, the bushes, dead logs and plants on the ground. Some ants running in formation along the trunk of a tree. A spider forming its web between an old sewage pipe. A lizard dodging to get away from me as I stepped closer. I could see why some people use this as a daily exercise, to remove the stress of life from their shoulders, if only for a little while. A little is better than none. I came to a split in the path. Go up and you’re taken to another street. Keep going forward and there was more of the path, before it ended onto another street. I checked my pockets. My phone and credit card were in there. I realized it was about lunch time. Why not get something to eat? There’s a shopping center just past the street to my upper left. I decided on it.

The center itself is pretty good. There’s a shopping mall, StarBucks ( again ), and some other nice things like a dry cleaning, and a karate training class, and other food restaurants. It was lucky to have all of it so fairly close to my house. I scanned the buildings, deciding what I would want to eat. I settled on Z Pizza. It wasn’t the best pizza, but it would do. I headed over into the building. Inside was pretty small. Only a single hallway extending to the back of the building. Five tables to your right, and the counter and kitchen to your left. A TV monitor up above played a sports game. I remember that my dad, and this one kid in my science class, Robert, would always get so pissed when the game was spoiled for them. For my dad I wouldn’t hear the end of it while I did my homework. He’d come home after his day at work all upset.

“ I swear if I get spoiled one more time.” He’d bust into the house complaining. “ I’m not looking at another television screen today!” Then he would go right and watch the game himself. It was worse with Robert however. This kid would come storming into physics class, completely triggered about his spoiler. I don’t really care about sports myself, but he definitely does. More than my dad perhaps. When all the kids in the class were beginning to settle in for another period of torture, Robert walks in.

“ GUYS! I just got ruined! Ruined! That football game? Arizona Cardinals won. Can you believe that?” Then before anyone answered him, he’d continue ranting. “ No, actually don’t answer that. I don’t need an answer. I just need some bleach to clean my dirty mind, because I can’t unsee that SPOILER!” The teacher would force him to shut up and sit down. Fortunately he wouldn’t rant at all during the rest of the period, which I appreciated.

I waited in the small line at the counter. There were three people ahead of me. The kid in front of me I recognized. It was Knox. I tapped him on the shoulder.

“ Hey! How are you?” I asked him. He turned to face me. His black hair squished under a light green cap, kinda like my hair. His purple eyes, worried but thoughtful. His light skin covered by a black jacket. He smiled.

“ Oh hey Ceena! I’m fine. You?” He replied.

“ Mmm, ok I guess. How was that english essay for you? Did you pass?”

“ Yup! I got that integrated thesis on point!” He said, we both laughed.

“ Nice! Yeah, I got an A on it.”

“ You always get As on these essays.”

“ I guess.”
“ You do! Anyway, isn’t it interesting that George Orwell chose to talk about humanity using animals?”

“ Yeah it is. But maybe that way it’s more effective. You know, like having a hidden meaning behind what’s going on.”

“ Right right. It is definitely cool how words and stories and can be used to portray almost anything. Emotions, feelings, thoughts, ideas. All those plus more.”

“ Yeah true. People will certainly listen to a piece of art when it can do that kind of thing. You know it’s funny. Nowadays, not as much people read books. They play games or watch movies or something.”

“ Mhm, do you read a lot?” He asked me. I thought about it.

“ No. I mean I do read, sometimes, if I feel like it. But normally I draw, or grow my plants in backyard or that kinda stuff.”

“ Oh right, yeah that’s cool. I do read a lot. I suck a*s at writing, but reading is fun for me. I mean you know how much I read in school.” I chuckled. I’ve seen Knox read a good amount at school, during lunch or in classes. Maybe it was where he got some of his conversational ideas from.

“ True. But, what can a game teach you? Isn’t it just for fun?” I asked Knox. We moved up the line. Someone up front was arguing about getting a larger pizza.

“ What game…? I have no clue honestly. Maybe ask Tisha, she would know. With the amount of games she talks about I would be surprised if she didn’t know.”
“ Oh, yeah.” That brought up what happened yesterday again. I tried to not show my killed mood. We got to the front of the line. Knox offered to buy me a pizza, but I rejected him. I would be fine getting it myself. He got a small box of olive pizza, and I just got two slices of cheese. Once that was done, we said our goodbyes. He had to go meet a friend at the lake. I sat down at one of the outside tables in front of the restaurant. The pizza itself was pretty good. Good tasting cheese, and the sauce wasn’t overflowing or anything. Z Pizza seems to be flat a lot, which is interesting, but it’s nothing that won’t stop me from eating it. While I was eating however, my phone buzzed. I thought it could be my parents, asking how I was doing. It wasn’t, instead it was exactly what I feared it would be. It was Tisha.

“ Heyo! What up girl?” She asked.

“ Eh, not much. Still trying to figure out yesterday. How are you?” I texted back.

“ I’m… I dunno. Me and that dude Emund were going to head on over to the final factory, but I wouldn’t go.”

“ Why? I thought you wanted to stay with him.”
“ I do. But I won't go without you. I was there because you were there. I won't go without you! It's not as much fun then.”

“ Tisha! You have to, people could be in danger if you don't!””

“ You're telling me that? YOU should've stayed with us if that was how you felt!” I felt like I had been hit.

“ W-well. I'm still not sure ok? I don't want to get hurt, and you shouldn't either!”
“ Ok, what is it? Do you want this to happen or not? One second you talk about me doing it to save people, and the next you don't want me to go since its dangerous. What is it?”
“ I don't know!.... Look, Im sorry. I just don't want us to get hurt or worse!”

“ I get that, and I appreciate your worry. It's one of the good things about you! But, I feel like you should come back, we can finish this together! I can protect both of us if you are scared we will die. You know we wont get hurt that way!” I laughed. Tisha could still do that to me even in a time like this.

“ Heheh. I'll think about it. Can we talk about something else?”

“ Sure! What up?”
“ Hmm. Do you know if a video game can have an artistic value to it? Like something for people to connect to, and learn from?”

“ WHAT? DID YOU REALLY JUST ASK THAT?”
“ Woah, why are you screaming?”
“ Girl, you seriously need to be educated in the ways of gaming arts. I can do that!”

“ Over the phone?”
“ Yeah! Why not?” She asked. I realized that this was pretty typical for current day standards. Seems like a lot of people, teens especially, use their phones for a lot things. Like talking, which wasn’t used a few decades ago. Weird how culture changes so fast.

“ Ok. Tell me.”
“ Alright. Prepare.” There was a pause as Tisha created a long message. I readied to read it. “ So. Artistic value? Ok. Have you heard of the game Undertale? I know by 2018 its kinda obsolete to most people, which is stupid. It's an amazing game. You know of that game right? I think you played it. Anyway, that game has a lot of messages. Mainly about morale. The game is built off of a system of sparing or killing the monsters, remember? Through this you can either befriend them, getting the good ending, where everyone goes free from the underground and its all happy and stuff. Or the bad ending, where you slaughter their entire race, resulting with a bad time from a certain lazy skeleton, oh yeah, and the erasing of the entire planet! This system teaches you about choosing what's right. Doing things to make people happy, and making positive choices. To not do something just because you are curious about it. Because it might get you in trouble. Its a message taught through fun and interesting characters, and music. The gameplay is, ok, but the monsters you meet is where the game really shines. This showed people about morale, and that's why it was so highly acclaimed. Does that make sense?”

“ Yeah it does. Thanks.”
“ No biggie. Hey, I gotta go, my grandma needs my help baking cookies. Bye!”
“ Cookies? Lucky! Alright see ya!” I closed the text.

That conversation was, interesting. I was more focused on the first part rather than the rant about Undertale. Though it was helpful, if I’ll remember any of it. Should I go back? When? During school? I can’t do that. Can I? If it would help everyone survive from an overflow of illegal weapons and a company who just wants to rule over them all. But is it worth it to risk dying? I wasn’t sure. I walked back home, taking the same route I used to get to the Pizza place.

The rest of the day wasn’t too interesting. I just drew some figures of guns, and of Emund and the Plasamic employees. I couldn’t get them out of my head. Be reasonable. That was what Emund had told me. I thought I was being reasonable. Maybe, I wasn’t. Bailing out on them like that, when I was needed apparently. Tisha wouldn’t go with him if I wasn’t there? That was ridiculous. They could handle it. Even if Emund had failed by himself, and Tisha was known to get in trouble if I didn’t keep her in check… agh! It sounds like I should be going back doesn’t it? I dunno anymore. I’ll just wait until monday and see what happens. Perhaps it’ll be normal, and I can forget this.

Who was I kidding. It didn’t happen like that. Why would it? First off, sunday was boring. I just basically did my usual. Drew some images of the underground from Undertale, and Chemical Plant from Sonic. I do watch games on Youtube often. I also tended to my plants in my backyard. They were coming along quite nicely. I had some sunflowers, lilacs, and astrantia flowers. I loved how calming they were. No such guns or danger here. Just nature doing its thing. My mom had asked me if I was ok, and I just said yeah. She didn’t need to know. Did she? Maybe. But I would handle this myself. Then monday started. I was driven to school by my dad. I could almost tell myself it would be ok. Then I got out of the car and saw Emund standing on the sidewalk. He was tossing up and down the keys to his car. I pulled out my backpack, said bye to my dad, and approached him.

“ What are you doing here?” I asked. He faced me, he was wearing black shaded glasses.

“ Kid. Look. Let’s forget what happened before. But you need to come with me. Now.”

“ I have school!” He sighed.

“ I know. I’m sorry. But we have to. The last facility is moving tomorrow. That means they should be packed up and ready to go. It will be easier to attack now while they aren’t as armed. If we lose them, I won’t know where they are. That’s bad. We have to go now. Tisha is already in the car. Please.” Other kids passed, rushing to school.

“ I-I…” I faltered. “ I just don’t wanna get hurt. And plus my school work.”
“ You will not get hurt! Look kid. You have my promise. You will not get hurt! I haven’t let that happen so far, and I ain’t going to let that happen anytime soon. As for your work. Uh, just do it later.”

“ It’s not that simple!”
“ Well! I had to miss a decent amount of assignments when I was in school. I mean that due to me sleeping through most of the day…” He coughed and straightened himself. “ Anyway. Are ya coming?” He had the same pleading look in his eyes. I hated being so nice sometimes.

“ Whatever. Sure, let’s get this over with.” I grumbled.

“ Great! Follow me! The car is down the street back that way.”

I followed him to the car. Tisha was in the backseat, playing Fortnite on her phone.

“ DAMN IT! I swear this version of the game is freaking messed up man! How did he kill me after I sniped him? I had good stuff!” She sighed and let me in. I scooted in next to her. “ Heya Ceena, you feelin’ better about this?”
“ Mmm, I guess. I’ll feel guilty if I don’t so…”
“ Yeah. I get it. Thanks for coming. It’s something special to do something you don’t want to do for other people. But you do it since it’s important.”

“ Yeah, let’s just do this.”

“ You kids ready? Do y’all have lunches?” Emund asked, igniting the car’s engine.

“ Yeah I do! I got me a sweet peanut butter and jelly sandwich!” Tisha said happily. I nodded, smiling.

“ I have a soup of noodles and chips to eat.”

“ Ok good. I already ate, but y’all can eat here in the car if you want to. It’ll be awhile drive. This forest is a few miles away.”
“ Welp. Good thing I got my phone.” Tisha said, stuffing her sandwich in her mouth. The car drove into the street, and we headed for the third factory.

Was I supposed to be doing this? No. I was supposed to be in school. But I wasn’t. Apparently this was the right thing or something. I at least hoped so. It was a little nerve wrecking eating in the car. Emund kept making big turns, and my soup sloshed around. Thankfully it never actually spilled out of my cup. I gazed out the window. People in their cars, driving around. Worrying about their own individual issues. Could any of them be a part of Plasamic? Did they know? Who knows. I didn’t. It was weird. We were doing something to save these people, and yet they had no idea of it. At all. If I told anyone, they would think I was crazy. It depends on how you look at it. It could be good or bad, if people don’t know about what you do, or if they do. It could empower you, or break you. I wasn’t sure which I preferred for this instance.

After about an hour of driving, we made it to the forest. I gasped when I got out of the car. I hadn’t ever seen a forest so large before. It was dense. Trees extended to the sky, bushes clumped all over the ground. Leaves, sticks, and garbage littered the dirt.
“ Oh wow. How are we supposed to find it?” I asked.

“ I remember this place from long ago.” Tisha got out of the car. “ I almost got lost.” Emund came around, carrying a pack.

“ I know where it is.” He pulled out his phone. On it was some kind of tracking device. “ It’s not too far from our current position. Let’s move.”

“ Alright. Lead the way captain.” Tisha said. Emund and her moved into the forest. I stared at the other cars for a second. Let’s see if I’ll die from this one. I told myself. I ran to catch up with my friends.

For the first few minutes of walking, not much happened. We just walked through the forest. I tried to enjoy the nice scenery, it was good. Until I spotted our target. It was up in the trees. A series of wooden rooms, connect by boardwalks. The thick leaves covered it quite nicely. You wouldn’t know it was here unless you were trying to look for it. Unfortunately we were.

“ OK. So.” Emund pulled out two pistols from his pack and handed it to Tisha and I. Tisha twirled it around in her left hand.

“ Ay! We get to shoot people again? Awesome!” She said with enthusiasm.

“ Uh, I’m not sure you should be thinking of this as awesome Tisha.” I muttered.

“ Girl for real? I’m just trying to have some fun with this! You should try it. Might make this less troublesome.”

“ Mmm, I dunno. Less troublesome or more so?”
“ I dunno! Why do you need to make a big deal out of it? Just let’s do this!” She did seem excited about this. I’ll admit it made me smile. I probably wouldn’t be here still if it weren’t for her. I looked at my pistol.

“ Is this the same one we had before?” I asked.

“ Yup.” Emund grabbed his rifle, now a silenced sniper, and put on his backpack. “ Not like it makes much difference, but you know, still. At least it’s something y’all can use fairly well.”

“ Hey! I was killing it with that machine gun!” Tisha protested.

“ Yeah, when you were fighting a piece of wood.”

“ Shut up! I could still do it.” I laughed and shook my head at their bickering.

“ Either way. How do we approach the factory?” I asked Emund. He looked up.

“ There’s a ladder leading up to the first room. They wouldn’t have the weapons in there. More likely it is in one of the three rooms to the right of it.”

“ Three? I only see one other.”

“ That’s because it’s hidden by the tree leaves. They thought about this one.”

“ Oh, right.”

“ But it’s good thing y’all got me to locate it for ya.”

“ Oh really?”
“ Yes really. Are y’all ready?”

“ I am!” Tisha told us. I stared at the facility nervously. Emund put a hand on my shoulder.

“ Look kid. I wasn’t lying about what I said earlier. I will protect you. I will. It’s not that bad. You know how retarded these guards can be. Plus, they probably don’t have highly skilled people up there. It’s moving day. They’ll have some dopes there just for packaging and transportation. It’ll be easy!” He reassured me.

“ Well… alright, sure.” I said.

“ Great. Now follow me kids.”

We climbed up the ladder. Emund up top, then me and then Tisha. I kept thinking we would get sniped or something as we ascended. We didn’t. Once we were almost to the top, Emund stopped abruptly. I almost smacked into his foot.

“ Here. Just in case they do have people watching this front entrance, we should sneak around on our bellies.”

“ Excuse me?” I asked. Emund poked his head up, looking over. “ Yeah, in front of us is a window. There might be guys looking this way. To avoid them we should crawl under the window so we don’t get seen. Alright?” I thought about the amount of splinters my body would get.

“ Sure. If we have to.”

“ Crawling? I’m good at that. Let’s do it!” Tisha said below me. Emund climbed up and we followed suit. It was kinda awkward, worming along the ground. I kept going over little nails in the floorboards, which hurt a bit. We all stood up against the other side of the building, which didn’t have any windows. In front of us extending a small bridge to the next room. To our left, a walkway curved around the building.

“ Ok good. I think, to make this quicker, we should split up.” Emund said.

“ What? Split up? How is that gonna work?” And I thought you said you were gonna protect me. Is what I was thinking.

“ It’ll just make this faster. You can come with me Ceena, if you’re still scared. Tisha, can you go by yourself?” Emund asked. My friend nodded.

“ Yeah that’s fine! This’ll be like the gorgon’s labyrinth back in good old VoG in Destiny 1. Sure!”

“ It’s not a game…” I warned, again. She waved away my concern.

“ Ah, I know! I’ll be fine! I’m just looking for the weapons right?”

“ Uh huh.” Emund said. “ And if you find it, then text me in the group chat. Tell us your location, and we’ll come as fast we can. Got it?”

“ Yup! Don’t worry Ceena, I can do this!” Even though she said that, I was still worried.

“ O-ok, just be careful please.” I pleaded.

“ I know I know. I’m going now.” Tisha crept down the bridge to the other room. I tried to calm down, watching my friend walk off to her potential death.

“ Ceena. You ready? Let’s check this building right here. Just so we don’t miss anything. Ok?” I sighed and turned to face him.

“ Yeah. Are we gonna blow up this place also?”
“ Mhm, unfortunately.”

“ But, the forest.”
“ I know. Again Ceena, don’t lecture me about what I’m doing. I’ve thought it over. Whether or not there is a different way doesn’t matter now. We are doing this a way I know will work. If there are other smaller damages, then so be it. Please, don’t make it harder than it already is for me.” This surprised me a little bit.

“ Alright. Sorry.”

“ Naw it’s fine. Let’s move.” He began to crawl around the corner of the room. I followed. The back had no windows. But it did have a door.

“ Stay here. I’m gonna check the other side.” Emund moved around, and I stayed put. After about a minute, he came back. “ Ok. There’s a window on the other side, I check to see if there was anyone inside. There is. Three employees. They’re standing around boxes, talking to someone on a big computer screen.”
“ The weapons?” I asked.

“ Nope. Not here. We should met up with Tisha to see about the other buildings.”
“ How do you know?”
“ The boxes are labeled with the kind of contents that are inside. These don’t have any of the stuff we are looking for. Just other supplies.”
“ Oh. Alright.” I said. Emund went back around the corner. I was about to do so myself, when the door opened. I froze, as a guard stepped out. He was wearing a purple suit, with white highlights. He had black hair, red eyes, and dark skin. He seemed about my age. I recognized him. He spotted me and stumbled backwards.

“ C-Ceena?! What are you doing- you can’t be here!” He exclaimed. I stood up, facing my old friend Spaik.

“ Hello… Spaik.” I said. I tried to keep for a straight face. Even though on the inside my emotions were exploding. Shock, joy, betrayal.

“ W-what are you doing here? I wouldn’t ever have expected this!” He said.

“ I am here. To stop all this!” I gesture around to the building. “ Why are you here? Why are you with them?” Spaik didn’t seem to know what to say.

“ Ceena. I’m sorry. This must seem so terrible to you. Come, let me show you something.” He gestured and walked into the room. I walked in with him, not really thinking about what I was doing. The two other saw me, but didn’t do anything thanks to Spaik telling them to chill. He opened one of the boxes. Inside were blueprints for more weapons, and how to use them and where to ship them to. “ Ceena, you see this stuff? This is what will progress our future. This will allow humanity to protect themselves. We can use this technology more than just weapons. Weapons were but a test. A test to see if we could harness the energy of an alien metal. It seems we could. Now we are experimenting with other things. Things such as medical devices, to keep people living longer, and ways of increasing technology everywhere. To make the computers, TVs, game devices, all of it, better and more accessible to anyone. This is how we proceed Ceena! That was why I joined. I know it looks bad, but it can help us!” I closed my eyes.

“ I don’t believe this. You seriously expect me to think that’s true? I know it isn’t.”
“ What do you mean?” I faced him, anger forming in me.

“ Come on Spaik! You’re a smart boy! You should realize what the hell this, this company is doing! Sure, they may say they have the ability to do all this good crap. But the ability to, and actually doing it are two very different things! I’ve seen how they are! Those two other facilities that went boom? That was me!” The three men gasped. The other two raised their guns, I did not care. “ Yeah! I’ve also seen on the news what they do. Do you watch the news? The crimes that have been committed? They say they don’t know the people behind it were. Bull manure. It is Plasamic! Who else? Weapons being used to murder anyone who won’t join them in their quest to claim more land? They won’t use this stuff for good! Even if they do, it would only be for those who they force to join! They aren’t trustworthy! This guy, Emund. He actually escaped from Plasamic somehow. I’m with him. He’s been trying to stop you guys for awhile! He knows of the dangers you cause, and I realize that too! I don’t wanna do this, but I have to!” I grabbed Spaik’s hand. “ Please. You have to believe me! Help me stop them! You don’t have to be apart of them! Please!” I felt my eyes tear up. I couldn’t accept the fact that my long lost friend would reunite with me in this way.

Spaik removed his hand from mine.

“ I can’t. I’ve heard that speech too many times. My parents disowned me when they found out. I don’t care about that and I don’t care about being with you any longer!” I saw him begin to cry also. “ I-I never wanted you to find out. I couldn’t bear the thought of encountering you again. I’m sorry.”

“ You coward!” I yelled. “ Didn’t want me to find out? Why would you do something if you don’t want people finding out?” I could very well say that about myself. My subconscious said to me. Spaik raised his gun to my head.

“ Look. I already said I ain’ going to change. I know what I’m doing. Stop it Ceena. Leave, or I’m gonna have to shoot you.” I didn’t know what to do. My heart was beating like a car engine. I knew I would have to kill him if I wanted to leave here and finish the mission. But I didn’t want to, no where close to that. The big computer screen behind us turned on. On it was a woman. She had pink hair, dark orange eyes, and dark skin. She noticed me.

“ What is this? Who is that girl?” One of the guards turned toward her.

“ Ma’am! This is a friend of Spaik’s!”
“ I don’t care who she is. Is she a new recruit?”

“ No.” Spaik said.” No, she isn’t.”
“ Well then get rid of her! We can’t have innocents who hold information!” The guards turned to face Spaik.

“ You heard the leader. End her now!” Spaik’s hand trembled. His eyes said he would do anything but this. I eyed him, trying to stay confident. Even though inside I had none. Not just because of the fact that the Plasamic leader was looking right at me, but also because I was about to get shot by my once best friend.

A shout was heard from outside. Emund came rushing in.

“ Kid! Sorry, I was caught up with Tisha. The bombs are set and-” He froze as soon as he saw everyone else. The leader smiled.

“ Well well well. If it isn’t our good old traitor Emund. How have you been? Still trying to pathetically destroy us?” She taunted.

“ Luniet.” Emund growled. “ I actually have been quite successful at shutting down your disgusting operation! I took down two facilities! And I’m going to get to you also!” He seemed to scan the background behind Luniet. “ I know where you are. That’s chinese markings on your computer right? Smooth.” The woman growled.

“ You won’t get to me! Men, make yourselves useful and kill them!” The screen shut off. The other two guards shot at Emund. He hit the floor, shooting one of them in the knee. He hopped around on one foot. He was sniped in the head. The other hit Emund’s shoulder. He cried out in pain and clutched his wound, dropping the gun. Spaik was frozen next to me. But I wasn’t. I leaped out and grabbed the rifle. I pointed it at the other guard.

“ Haha! You probably don’t even know how to use that thing little girl!” He laughed. I smiled.

“ Oh really?” I sniped his head off. I turned to Spaik. “ Do you wanna be next?” He put up his hands.

“ Ceena! Think about this! We can make things better for everyone! Don’t do this!” He pleaded with me.

“ No. You should’ve thought about this when you decided on joining these vile people. This is not a good future. It’ll be a dystopia! And you would be the one to start that. Why would you want that? I am sorry, but I won’t let innocents get hurt by your actions Spaik!” Tears really were streaming down my face at this point. I tried to pull the trigger, I really did. But I couldn’t. I didn’t have the willpower to shoot my friend. Emund got up, his shoulder red and dripping.

“ Kid. We need to leave. We have less than two minutes to run!”

“ WHAT?” I screamed.

“  I was trying to tell you that! We need to go now!” I didn’t move. Spaik and I looked at each other. The memories of elementary school flashed through my mind once more. I felt like my feet were glued to the ground. Not letting me remove the memories from the past. Emund grabbed me, and hauled me upward. He carried me out the door and to the ladder.

I was acting like a total baby. I was screaming, kicking and punch my friend. I kept blabbing. I didn’t even know what I was talking about. All I knew was I wasn’t about to leave Spaik behind. Emund slapped me across the face.

“ Kid shut up! Gosh I didn’t know you were a damn toddler! Listen! We have to leave now. We cannot stay here. As soon as Tisha gets here we climb down and go.” He grabbed me. “ Do you understand me?” This was the most serious I had ever heard him. It scared me.

“ Y-yes. I understand.” I said. Tisha came rushing over.

“ Move now!” She climbed down the ladder, and we followed. Once we hit the bottom we bolted back the way we had come. I glanced back, and stopped dead in my tracks. Spaik was at the railing, looking down at me. He had a look of sorrow, and guilt on his face. The rooms behind him exploded, taking him with it. His face was consumed by the red and orange fireball. The entire structure collapsed. Pieces of debris flew everywhere. The nearby trees caught fire. Tisha pulled me along.

“ No time for watching, we need to go!” We ran back to the car. Emund turned on the engine and we drove off. I stared at the forest as we got further and further away. My mind was a blank slate. All I could see was Spaik’s eyes. The look that said he was indescribably sorry. Before he was consumed, and truly gone forever.

Emund parked on us on a hillside a few miles away. It overlooked the highway. To our left a valley stretched to the horizon. It was beginning to turn night time. Tisha and I lay on the grass, gazing at the sky. Emund bandaged his wound. Once he finished he sat down next to me.

“ Kid. You alright?”

“ Probably not.”
“ Right. Is it that boy?” I took a shaky breath.

“ Is it even worth complaining about? He was my friend. My great friend back before I had Tisha. I had no idea he would be here.”

“ Damn. Ceena. I know anything I say won’t take away the pain. But just know, this is for the better of everyone. And I am certain you would’ve changed him if you had the chance.”
“ I wouldn’t have. He was set on his ways. Just like I am. Is this right?” Tisha sat up.

“ Don’t go asking stupid questions. Of course it is! He was just brainwashed or something probably. I dunno. But we are doing the good thing right now!” She assured me.

“ Yeah. Ya can’t let their philosophy stop you from your mission.” Emund agreed.

“ I know. I know. But, it’s just hard. Why do I have to see him like that? WHY?” I complained.

“ I get it. I really do kid. I’ve seen lots of people be taken in by Plasamic. They’re never the same after that. But all I do is just move on. If ya can’t help them then you might as well keep going. Keep working for something better.” Emund told me.

“ Mmm. I guess so.” I just continued to stare at the sunset. Maybe I could get over this. Or maybe it would haunt me.

Emund did some calculations on his phone.

“ Nice! I got it!” He exclaimed.

“ What? Did you get a new highscore or something?” Tisha asked.

“ Not exactly. Ceena, you remember the markings on Luniet’s computer?”
“ Mhm.”
“ That was chinese. So my theory was correct. The main development building was moved. It was located in France before, and now it’s China. Those markings wouldn’t be like that if that wasn’t so.”
“ So, what? Are we traveling there then?” Tisha asked.
“ Seems like it. But there’s something about the base.”
“ What?”
“ It’s invisible.”
“ What?” Tisha and I asked at the same time.

“ Yup. They have a special paint coating that makes it unseeable to the naked human eye. But not to worry. I’ve marked a smaller building in China. It’s main use is for storage and that sort of thing. Point is, we can find glasses in there that the employees use to see the construct.”
“ Oh. So we sneak in there, and get inside the main place. There, we, blow it up?” Tisa asked.

“ Yeah. Three spots of interest. We would probably need to split again. To get all three.”

“ Jesus we use a lot of bombs in this.” I put in.

“ Mhm. You should be used to it by now.”

“ Well. Can we go home? I’m tired.” Tisha said, yawning.

“ Yeah.” I agreed.

“ Right, ok. I need time to get the tickets to our flight anyways. When do y’all have time to get to China?”
“ Never?” I said.

“ Spring break! That’s next week!” Tisha said.

“ Oh.” I muttered.

“ Ok that’s good. I’ll be seeing you girls on friday then. Try and have a normal week huh?” He got up and into the driver’s seat of his car. “ Come on, let’s get ya back home before y’all fall asleep on me.”

The next week of school, was weird. Not because of the school itself, but of me. It just wasn’t the same when I had the knowledge of Plasamic, and what happened at the factories. It was tuesday, so I only had four days until I would be back into the whole thing again. I had told my parents that I would be on a school field trip to China. They actually bought it.

“ I know you would never lie to us Ceena. So we trust you. Have fun!” My dad had told me. That made me feel worse. I could at least drown out my worrying with school work. I had the pleasure of staying after school again so I could do the work I missed yesterday. I had to do some english, math and spanish. Eh. The classes themselves were fine. I managed to do the work fairly well, and it gave me something else to think about. I could draw lots of things from my mind in art class. I tended to my flowers a lot more than I normally did. Seeing them grow, increasing in length, coloration, and strength. How they form around each other, making a mini community. It was very soothing for me. At lunchtime, Tisha and I still talked. We didn’t talk about the mission, or Emund, or anything. Unless you include Tisha wondering what Emund would look like if he were dressed like Batman, or fighting in the intergalactic wars of Destiny and Advanced Warfare. If you wanna know the truth, I actually used these discussion as fuel for my art. I would try to draw Emund as these characters, just for fun. Most of the time they came out, eh. Tisha said they were good, but I dunno. I always feel like I haven’t done as well as I could have on certain drawings. Sometimes I make one that hits it well for me. Usually I just say, ‘ that’s good enough,’ and move on. Because I don’t wanna be too egotistical about myself, and and I don’t wanna be too self depreciative. I’d show the pictures of Emund to my art teacher. She would actually compliment me on them.

“ Oh wow Ceena! That is good! Where did you get the inspiration for this?” Ms. Higgling would ask me.

“ Uh, well… you see.” I’d get stuck on what to say. Since no one could know about what I was doing. In case they take it to the police, or worse. My parents. “ I just, came up with it! Yeah, he’s an original character.”

“ Wonderful! It’s good to come up with your own stuff! Shows signs of true artistic ability!”
“ Yeah. But fanfics, and fan art are still ok right? I mean if you want to get better?”
“ Sure it is! Making something based off of what you are a fan of is never a negative thing! It’s only bad if you are trying to sell it off as your own creation. That’s never a good sign. It can get you into a lot of copyright trouble! But just for fun? That is A ok!”

“ Right, thanks.” I could appreciate how vivacious my art teacher can be. Anytime she would lecture us about a certain time period, she would go off. Like she would practically be acting out the scenes she was describing. Motions and all. One time a student asked her if she was gonna audition for a play. She simply said art is her profession, not acting. Personally, I feel like she would work for it but either way.

Besides that, there’s this girl in my spanish class, Lilly. She’s the kind of girl that the guys think are just adorable. Why? Because she’s tiny. Lilly is like, five foot three or something I swear. She has golden hair, sea blue eyes, and light skin. She also has this very squeaky voice that most high schoolers don’t have. Good thing is, she’s smart, Lilly won’t be taken away by just any guy who tries to hit on her. Since she is so tiny, she can easily dodge out of the way. Good thing also, since there is at least five guys who go after her daily. Now, don’t think this is sexual harassment or anything. Because to Lilly, it’s a game. I can count a good amount of times I’ve seen her dash out of spanish class, giggling like a mad woman as the boys try to make a move on her. I don’t really see the fun in avoiding people who are trying to make you their girlfriend, but if it makes her happy, then who am I to complain? I went into spanish class, on thursday. It was one of the block period days, when the class are one hundred and eight minutes long. It can be, either really quick, or really dang long depending on what the class activities are like. Today, we were doing some mostly chill stuff. Some warm up sentences, then a video, then a talking activity, then a packet. The thing I like about spanish class on block periods is that we always get a ten minute break in the middle of the class. During this time, our teacher, Mr. Thasum, allows the students to eat, go outside, and use our phone and basically do what we want. I like it, even though I don’t get into it like some kids do. Every time we have this break, there’s this group of kids, boys, and two girls usually, that play cards. I’m not too sure on what they play specifically. But they play man. They get huddled around a specific set of desks in the back, and get it on. They yell, scream, and take and lose bets. At first Mr, Thasum didn’t let them do it. But after the group of kids insisted on doing it every break, he eventually let them. I think now he likes it. He leans on his chair, and watches them. Smiling when someone inevitably rage quits, claiming they’ll never play again. The day after they go right back to what they are doing. Me? I don’t play with them. I’m not good at cards, never have been. It kinda bores me honestly. Instead, I either draw, or play on my phone.

I got this app recently. By recently I mean I got it before the whole thing with Plasamic. It basically allows me to simulate the growth of any plant I want. I choose the plant or plants I want, then set up the type of habitat it will grow in. Choosing when and how to give it water, food, sunlight, etc. You might think it’s really boring. But I, I like it! It lets me do what I enjoy at home, but on the go, anywhere I am. Of course, it’s only a simulation. It’s certainly not like producing my own plants in real life. That’s something I feel like not enough people understand, at least from what I’ve seen. The difference between making something in real life, and online. For example, plant growing. Sure, it may seem easier, to just do it virtually. Where you don’t need to worry about things like having enough money to buy supplies, or accidentally stepping on your flowers, or someone else crushing them. Or forgetting to take care of them, and having them die on you. All of which have happened to me. I swear when my dad told me he had stepped on my lilacs when he was blowing the yard, I had to remind myself that I loved him. Anyway, that may seem like the best way to do it, right? With none of the worries, and all of the benefits? Well, just like how Spaik got brainwashed by Plasamic, it ain’t all it seems to be. Now I’m not saying it’s bad to enjoy something that is done virtually, of course not. If you like it, and you aren’t hurting someone in the process, then it’s fine! But what I’m trying to say is, perhaps you would get a better experience from doing it in real life. It’s hard to explain, but there is a difference between seeing something grow and get stronger online, on a screen, and seeing it for yourself. Seeing it happen in reality, right in front of your very eyes. Where you can touch it, smell it, feel it. You can have a real effect on it. There is just some real euphoria that comes with it, that you just can’t get in a simulation.

That’s why I don’t let this app get too into me. I won’t let it take over my life. Though I’m sure if I let it, it would. But I won’t. Because I know I have real flowers, that depend on me and need my help, sitting right in my backyard. Even then, I only give them some of my time. Because what else needs me? My family, my friends, my schoolwork, my artwork. And now, Emund needs me, apparently. I walked into this, and now I have to finish it. Do I sound selfish? I hope not. I’m just trying to say how things are for me. It’s not selfish if it’s true, right? Maybe that’s just on earth. What about other planets? Do those, so far off into space, that have other life forms think like that? That is what me and Lilly talked about, today in spanish, during the break. She sat next to me, so it was easy for her to turn to me and start talking about space again.

“ Hi Ceena! Are you understand these o-ue conjugations?” She asked me.

“ Yeah, I think so.” I replied.

“ Me neither. So got a question. You know how civilization is right now right? How we have all these rules and expectations we set for ourselves?”
“ Yeah?”
“ Do you think aliens have those same rules? Do they mock each other the same way we do?”
“ I dunno. Maybe.”
“ I mean. It all comes from our brains right? The way we think, and the expectations we create come from that. So would they have that also?”

“ Who knows. I mean, I find it unlikely that we humans are the only ones in the whole universe to have this kind of thinking capacity. Why would we be the only ones?”

“ Yeah, it does seem unlikely. That’s why, when I grow up more, I wanna be a space astronaut, and explore far away planets! Who knows what I would find!” Lilly said excitedly.

“ Heh, yeah. Good luck with that.” I told her. I meant it. If she wanted to accomplish something like that, then so be it. I wasn’t sure how likely it was, but hey, people can pursue their dreams right?
“ Hey Lilly! If you’re thinking about growing up, then ya should first think about increasing your height you midget!” A kid across the room said.

“ OOOHH BURN!” Yelled another boy.

“ Hey! Lucas, Miles! Don’t talk like that! Apologize!” Mr. Thasum said to the two boys. They both shrugged, still smiling.

“ Alright. Sorry about that. Really sorry.” Miles said sarcastically, he was the one to cast the joke.

“ Sure, whatever.” Lilly didn’t even turn her head. “ They don’t bother me. I’ve learned to not let it bother me anymore.” She told me. I knew that. It was a good thing she either enjoyed it or blew it off. I’m not sure I would be able to do that.

The rest of the week, was alright. Just more assignments, and stress, and work. The usual school stuff. It was friday, and I was at lunch. Two more periods until the school day was over. I had said goodbye to my parents. It would be spring break. Tisha and I sat there, at our table. Not talking, just eating. We both knew what would be happening when school got out. All the kids would be heading home, ready to enjoy their sweet vacation. A week with no school. At least for them. The two of us would be flying to China with Emund. To a normal kid that would sound awesome. They don’t know what we are really doing there. Maybe we could try and have fun with it. We would be seeing new things. I had never been to China, and neither had Tisha. Would it be possible, to enjoy it? Knowing that we could very well die there? And we were only there because we had lied to our parents? I wasn’t sure, and I didn’t want to think about it. It didn’t help that I got some nasty work in my last two classes. Because why would school help me? Later on, the final bell rang at the end of class. I met up with Tisha at the school entrance. I got deja vu. We had been here before. Meeting up to go to Emund to fight Plasamic. Except this time, I had no idea of where to go. All he had told us was to find him after school. He never answered my texts, nor Tisha’s.

“ Um. What, do we do?” I asked my friend. She was eating a chocolate bar.

“ Well.” She popped the rest in her mouth. “ I say we text him. Cause otherwise I have no idea.” I took that suggestion. I sent him a message. ‘ me and tisha are at the school entrance, where are you?’ It took about five minutes for him to respond. ‘ I'm here I think. Go out outside and look for my car. Im parked near the theater looking building.’ “ I think I know where he is.” I told Tisha. We both went out to the front parking lot.  

I looked around. It’s always annoying trying to look for someone when school has just gotten out. Since there’s dozens of kids trying also to get home. Tons of cars, buses and mobs of children everywhere. And since the parking lot was fairly small, it was a cluster. Thankfully, Emund’s car stuck out. His yellow car was indeed parked in front of the school theater. We got in the back.

“ How did you find this place?” I asked our driver. He glanced back at us. He now had a white T-shirt, and black long pants. Still wearing those black shades.

“ Tisha showed me where it was remember?”

“ Oh… right. Sorry I’m just stressed right now.”
“ About what?”
“ You know what.”
“ Ah. Yeah I get it. Look kids. It’ll be fine. In my opinion, we totally got this. Those last three facilities we took care of no problem! So these last two shouldn’t be an issue!”
“ But the main base! Isn’t that, gonna be like, more guarded?”
“ Probably. But it’ll be fine. We just have to be careful about our movement. Set the bombs, and get out. The thing that is working on our side, is the size of the base. As you would expect, it’s a lot bigger than the factories. Meaning we have more room to wiggle around. Room they can’t see us in.”
“ Yeah! We can really get in there, and do some damage!” Tisha agreed. I sighed.
“ Ok, that may be true, but do we really have to split up?” I asked worriedly.

“ Look, we will just get to that once we are actually in there. First we have to get to the plane, fly there, get a hotel room, then get some glasses from the storage building.” Emund told us.

“ You know where it is?”
“ I think so. Now, can I focus on driving please?”

“ Oh. Yeah.” I sat in silence as we were driven to the airport.

I had only ever flown in a plane once before. When me and my family took a trip to New York. It was a cool experience. I got to see the tall buildings, and central park. The Statue of Liberty was… alright. Maybe it was my spoiled frame of mind thanks to drawing and such. But I thought it wasn’t up to the high praise people give it. I mean sure, back in the day it was a cool accomplishment. Maybe I’m just comparing it to the structures that came after it. Which might not be too fair. I dunno. Emund parked his car in the lot next to the airport. A plane zoomed over head, causing the ground to rumble. When I got out I realized something.

“ We don’t have any bags! We aren’t bringing anything with us!” Emund hauled three packs out of his trunk. They were massive.

“ Ah don’t worry about it. I got stuff for us. This is a business trip. So lots of accessories aren’t needed.”

“ A business trip?” Tisha laughed. “ More like, go and get yourself killed trip.”

“ Tisha, that’s not funny!” I said laughing.

“ We won’t get killed. Now move, our flight is taking off soon.” He handed us our very large and heavy bags. I nearly died carrying it to the front desk. They checked our stuff, and Emund’s plane ticket. We went through the tiring process of having our stuff scanned, and our clothes. We got something to eat at one of the small built in restaurants they have. I got a hot dog. Tisha ordered a cheeseburger, and Emund a set of meat fries. It wasn’t bad. For airport food. Finally, we got on our airliner. We put our stuff in the upper cargo hold, and sat down. I had the pleasure of taking the window seat. Tisha was next to me, and Emund was in the aisle seat. I offered for him to take the window, but he rejected.

“ Naw kid. You should. Might take away some of your stress.” He had told me.

I always felt like riding in a plane was like riding in a car. I got bored. Good thing was I had my backpack with me. So I could take out my art supplies, and draw. Once I got tired of that, I looked out the window. I was glad I did. If there is one thing that an airplane has that a car doesn’t, it’s the view! Seriously. I saw entire valleys, towns, cities, and deserts and forests and oceans. It’s a good thing that planes nowadays have infinite fuel. Thanks to a recharge method some scientist came up with. That meant I could stay up in the sky without having to extend the flight with going grounded. That also meant Plasamic could shoot me down at anytime, since it would be easier now to track a vehicle that just stays airborne the whole time.

“ Emund, is this safe?” I asked, suddenly afraid.

“ Ah, sure. Why, are ya worried about Plasamic? Naw, it’ll be fine. If they shoot us, then they risk being in trouble with the government. Well, they could find a way of it with a cover up like they normally do. But I don’t think they would want to risk it, with the damage we’ve done to them.”
“ Oh, alright.” I tried to relax. But the thought never really went away. It just kinda dissipated a little bit, while still leaving some for my subconscious to chew on. What a horrible thing to chew on. I’ll admit, through the combination of looking out at the amazing views, drawing, watching youtube, and listening to Tisha complain about Fortnite, I could calm myself down. It wasn’t a bad flight. We weren’t shot down, and we made it to China. And, dang. I didn’t know what I was in for. It kinda looked like New York, with hundreds of humongous buildings. We had arrived there at night time. And the city seemed to glow. All the buildings emitted different colors. From green, to purple, to blue, red etc.

“ Holy crud that looks awesome!” Tisha exclaimed. We flew over the landscape, getting ready to land in another airport. “ Everything is so pretty and colorful!”
“ Heh, yup. It would be easy to hide here, so I can see why Plasamic moved here.”
“ What were they doing in France?” I wondered.

“ Not anything specifically. They did start in America. But they moved away because they feared people would become too suspicious of them. Then, once that fear grew in France, they came here.”
“ And they’ve been alright here so far?”
“ I guess so. I had no clue where they were till I saw those markings. I mean I had some guesses, but China was low on the guess list.”
“ Well either way this is so cool!” Tisha said happily. “ I say this makes this worth it.”
“ Hopefully.” I muttered.

After we left the airport, it was kinda a blur. I remember we got into another car that Emund rented, and we were driven to a hotel. It took awhile for us to get into our room since Emund had to deal with language barrier. But we made it. And I was tired. I could only sleep so much on the plane. As soon as we got in, I dropped my stuff, dragged myself into the nearest bedroom, and fell asleep. This time I didn’t dream about Emund or Plasamic or anything. I got something kind of random. I had a vision of a boy, sitting at a dinner table, typing on a computer. The table was brown, with a plant in the middle. The boy seemed to be around my age. He was wearing a black T-shirt, and blue pants, light skin. He seemed focused on whatever he was typing. I could only get one glance at the screen before the dream ended. It said ‘ Concealed Weapons.’ I had absolutely no idea of what the heck was going on. I woke up very confused.

When I went into the living room, I expected my companions to be arming themselves for battle. But nope. Emund was in the kitchen, cooking breakfast. Tisha sat on the couch, watching a chinese Twitch livestream of Destiny 2. Apart of me calmed down when I saw this. I walked in. Emund glanced up and noticed me.

“ Ah hey Ceena. Didja sleep well?” He asked me. I shrugged helplessly.
“ I guess. Had a dumb dream though. I guess I’m still worried.”
“ Well don’t be. Here. Maybe some eggs will brighten up your mood.” He set out a plate of freshly scrambled eggs and bacon on the kitchen counter. Tisha took a different plate for herself.

“ Dang. Since when did you cook?”

“ I’ve practiced here and there. Lemme know what you think.” I tried a piece of egg. It wasn’t bad. Actually it was pretty good.

“ Huh, this is not bad. Nice!” I complimented.

“ Really? Thanks.” Emund plopped some down on his plate. He tasted it. “ I’ve done better.” I giggled a little. You know, maybe it wouldn’t be so bad. Having these two with me. I guess I wouldn’t take anyone else except them on this mission.

“ Hey Emund. Do you… think we are doing ok? Like do you think we are doing fine in terms of helping you?” I asked.

“ What? What kind of question is that? Of course I think you’re doing fine! Like I’ve mentioned. Y’all girls really have helped me with taking down this freak company. It would not have been possible without you two! If anything, I’m the one who should be embarrassed. I wasn’t sure at first if you two would be right to help me. I thought maybe it was gonna get me into trouble. But now I know better. It has helped me. So I know we got this!” He said, eating his bacon.

“ Well that’s nice, since it has been pretty fun! Right Ceena?” Tisha said from the couch.

“ I guess it has. It’s been different, that’s for sure.” I admitted. “ When are we going?” I asked.

“ Tomorrow. Today I thought we could just explore China.” Emund said.

“ But would Plasamic find us?”
“ Did you really think they can locate us in this mob? The streets are always crowded. The only danger we have is losing each other in the mess. So let’s stick together eh?”
“ Hehe, yeah. Ok.” I said. I guess the storage building could wait.

After we finished eating breakfast.  We put on our clothes and headed down the hotel and onto the street. I still couldn’t get over how massive the whole city felt. All the people, cars, and structures. It all felt large. We wandered the streets. Tisha and I basically gaped at everything. Even if it wasn’t that interesting, we still were amazed by it, simply because it was new. We got some sushi from a restaurant. I won’t go over how annoying it was while Emund tried to order something. Thankfully we did get our food. I had never eaten chinese food in China. But now I understand the meaning of the term ‘the real thing’. Because actual China food is great. Different than when people in America copy the style. Not bad obviously, but it is something else for sure. After we wolfed down that, we headed over to a Nintendo store. The reason we even went there in the first place was so Tisha would stop asking. She said she wasn’t begging us, but she was, trust me.

I’ll admit, it was cool. Seeing hundreds of merchandise from Mario, Pokemon, Zelda, and other series. Though I’m not into that stuff personally, Tisha was in heaven.

“ This is incredible!” She exclaimed. Running around, checking out as much stuff as she possibly could. “ This plush was only ever sold once in California! And this game wasn’t even sold in the U.S.!” Emund and I just looked at each other and laughed. It was nice, seeing her have such a good time. We didn’t buy anything. Because Emund had transferred a limited amount of money before we got here.

“ I don’t wanna waste it on stuff we don’t need.” He told us.

“ Hey! This is not wasting! It’s collecting!” Tisha argued.

“ Collecting? Y’all can do that later. Come on.” He left the store, and the conversation.

“ Hmph. I don’t like it when he parents us.” My friend pouted.

“ Maybe we can get it later on. Just right now, let’s go ok?” I asked her. She nodded.

“ Sure, I guess.” We left. The last thing we did on that day, was take a tour around the ‘ancient,’ parts of China. The old places, like the wall and the big towers. It kinda bored me. But I did make a mental note to use these as drawing inspirations later on. Emund seemed impressed. He made us follow him around the entire place. Inspecting the buildings.

“ Damn. The craftsmanship on these constructs are insane. They really made wonders with their limited technology.” He said to us. “ Makes you think we could be doing a lot more right now. With our increased building potential.” Tisha sighed heavily.

“ Only thing it makes me think is how much I wanna be blasting people in Fortnite. Can we go now?”

“ Hold on. One more place I wanna see here.”

“ UUUUGH!” I feel like she was overreacting. Regardless I was in the same boat as her. Literally. Emund wanted to check out old chinese boats for some reason. We took a ride on it around the water. There were some other people there too, tourists like us. Are we tourists? I guess. Tisha laid down and tried to look dead. I simply watched the fish in the water, thinking of art ideas.

By nightfall we went back to the hotel room. Emund had bought some chicken for us to eat. We all watched Twitch with Tisha on the couch. After that, I went to sleep. No dream at all. Probably because I was anxious. That morning, it was a different scene. Emund was preparing for the mission. He had a new pack. He was putting in three rifles, and some grenades.

“ Woah, grenades? What are those for?” I asked.

“ They’re just small ones. In case we get in trouble. They’ll set off a smaller explosion. But enough to knock them out.”

“ Oh.” I walked over. Some more bacon was set out. I started eating. It’s hard to eat when you’re nervous. Tisha sat next to me and started on her plate.

“ When I woke up, Emund told me some awesome news.” She said.

“ What news?”
“ Those rifles? You notice how he isn’t packing any pistols? Only rifles?”
“ Yeah?”
“ Guess what that means!” I thought for a moment.

“ Oh dear.”
“ Oh yes! Think about it! It’ll be so much more fun now! We can really hit those Plasamic losers!” Tisha pumped her fists.

“ I’m not exactly sure that’s the point of this.” I said.

“ Ah leave her.” Emund finished packing his bag and stood up, stretching. “ If it allows her to have fun with this, then so be it. As long as you girls stay careful,  I could care less.”
“ Yup! He gets it!” Tisha said. I shrugged.

“ Alright. When are we leaving.”

“ I was gonna say after y’all finished eating. If that’s ok?” Emund asked.

“Yeah, that’s fine. Tisha?”
“ Yeah, sure.” She agreed.
“ Alright cool. Also, when you’re there, just turn off your phone.” Emund told us.

“ Wait why?” I asked.

“ Well think about it. If we are in close proximity to the main base, then we shouldn’t let them track us. They’ll probably be trying to do that.”
“ Weren’t we in proximity this whole time?”
“ Well kind of.” Emund finished his plate of bacon. “ But we weren’t close enough to the base itself to be of any issue, I guess. The storage unit is fairly close to it. So, I got a plan.” He folded his hands and faced my friend and I. “ I know this might sound like a lot, but. Things would be quicker, if we got the glasses from the storage unit, and then headed directly to the main base. Another reason I wanted to bring the rifles. Y’all look ready to use them, and we are gonna go into a place where we need them.”
“ Is it that bad?”
“ If we go in guns blazing. Which we won’t.” He said, to Tisha’s disappointment. “ But we are gonna sneak in. If we get busted then it’s safe to have them. Are you kids ok with that plan?”

I fiddled with my orange juice filled glass.

“ Well… if it’s the only way. Then sure. We have all day right?”
“ Uh huh. Plus, if we get in, set the bombs, and get out it won’t be so bad. Just whatever ya do, don’t encounter the leader, Luniet.”
“ Isn’t that obvious?” Tisha asked.

“ Yes.” Emund said. “ But. She can’t be shot. She always this annoying set of armor. It prevents her from being killed normally. Which I guess is the point but still.”
“ Oh jeez. Ok I’ll stay away.” I promised. Tisha nodded.

“ I’m ready to leave.”
“ So am I.”

“ Alright. Let’s get to my car.” Emund got up, and so did we.

With that, we got on our clothes, and headed down to the hotel’s parking lot. Emund warned us the drive would be a while again. What this meant was, I would be drawing in the car on my phone, and then attempting to rest for the whole drive. And by resting, I mean, listen Tisha rage about Fortnite. And then inevitably yell in delight when she won a game.

“ Can you keep it down?” Emund asked her. “ It’s hard to focus on driving when you’re constantly screaming in my ear.”

“ Man, I am going off right now. These chinese folk don’t got nothing on me!” She sniped someone in the game. “ BOOM!” She dabbed.

“ Tisha, I think you’re getting too lit.” I said.

“ And you’re telling me too lit is a bad thing?”

“ Hmm, I guess not.”
“ Well you need to rearrange your guesses. Because I got this on lock down!” Once she got into something, especially if it was a game, there was a small chance of stopping her. I hoped that would help us in our mission. We pretty much continued like that till we reached the storage facility. On the outside, it seemed like another abandoned building. Dark blue, faded paint with a white tiled roof. It was the most depressing looking place I’d ever seen.

“ That’s where they keep stuff to be shipped off?” I asked.

“ Yup.” Emund grabbed his pack. “ Remember. Plasamic doesn’t want anyone to know about this. It’s best if they keep it looking like nothing.” He got out of the car. Me and Tisha followed suit. Once out of the car, Emund gave us our rifles. Tisha nearly dropped from shock.

“ Oooohoho! This will be so cool!” She exclaimed. She felt the weapon, aiming it around. I looked to see if anyone was close by to see us with guns. The surrounding area was desolate.

“ Where is everyone?” I asked.

“ Not too many people live here. Again, this is the type of area Plasamic would want to stay in, as to not get caught.”Emund readied his rifle, putting grenades around his belt.

“ Don’t we get some nades?” Tisha asked. Emund scoffed.

“ No. Y’all think I trust little kids with grenades?”
“ You trust us with guns.”
“ Yes but still. I got ‘em. Now let’s move. Before some random does see us.” We walked over to the storage’s front door.

“ Is there anyone in there?” I wondered.

“ Not sure. I know how to check.” Emund knocked on the door. We all hid around the corner. But no one answered. “ Ok, so I guess not.” He went over, and shot the lock with his rifle, opening the door. We crept inside.

Inside was a familiar sight. Multiple shelves lined with an assortment of tools, papers, weapons, dismantled weapons, and other devices. Some desk laid around.

“ Good, no one. Quickly check anywhere you can.” Emund told us.

“ How do we know what kind of glasses to look for?” Tisha asked.

“ If it looks kinda like goggles. They would be the only ones in here to look like that.”
“ And you know that why?”
“ I used to work for these people remember?”
“ Oh right. Fine.” Tisha looked through the shelves. Emund checked the back of the storage room. I filed through the desk drawers. For the first few minutes, we found nothing. I was beginning to get tired, and then I found it. A pair of odd looking goggles. They were black, with white rims. The actual glass was red tinted. When I put them on, new boxes suddenly appeared around the room. They weren’t there before.

“ Woah!” I said.

“ What?” Emund asked.
“ I found the goggles! I can see boxes.”
“ Huh. So that’s what I’ve been tripping over this whole time.” Tisha said, and kicked a box over in front of her. “ I totally knew that was there.” I let out a chuckle.

“ I’ll see if there is more.” I did find more. There were tons of them inside that drawer. Lucky drawer apparently. I distributed it to my companions.

“ Dang, they do make invisible things visible!” Tisha exclaimed. “ Can we use these to find BigFoot?”

“ You could try. I ain’t sure how much success you would have.” Emund told her. He tried on his pair. “ Yeah these should do. We’ll have to see if we can… see the main base.”

“ Alright.” I said. “ You know it’s funny. I thought there would be people guarding this place. But it’s abandoned.”

“ Yup.” Tisha said. “ That was until they showed up.” She pointed to the front door. We shouldn’t have left it open. Six guards were standing in the doorway.

“ Hey you shouldn’t be here!” The front one said. “ Get them!” They rushed in.

Leave it up to Tisha to be the first to engage. Immediately she fired. One guard was shot and killed. Another was just wounded. The others still came at us. The three of us split up. We each hid behind a shelf as gunfire filled the room, breaking the silence. Emund tossed two grenades, shaking the room. One guard shot at me through the holes in the shelf. I ducked down, dodging the bullet. I came back up, shooting but missing on purpose. The guard lurched to the side, giving me time to take off his head. Another came up between me and Tisha. He elbowed me, causing me to sprawl backwards. Tisha shot him in the stomach. He yelled, aiming at her. I shot him in the back and he dropped. Tisha rushed over to me.

“ Ceena! Get up, there’s still three more.” She pulled me up. I saw Emund. He was fighting with one guard. He punched him in the face, the guard counter attacked with a hit to the stomach. Emund was forced back onto a desk. He used this to his advantage, pushing up with his hands, double kicking the guard. The poor fellow went flying back into some boxes. Tisha shot him down. The second to last guard saw us from across the room. He aimed at me. I lunged behind a shelf just as a bullet flew past, scrapping Tisha’s face. She yelped and clutched her scratch. Emund tossed another grenade, blowing him to the side. He didn’t get up. The final came up out of nowhere and began to choke Emund. I got a little closer. I aimed, and picked off his head. The three of us met up at the front door. Bodies laid around. Emund put a bandaid to Tisha’s wound.

“ I forgot I left these in my pants. Guess it’s useful now. Ceena, you ok?” He asked.

“ Yeah. What about them?” I asked, gesturing to the fallen.
“ Leave ‘em. I’m blowing this place. Not now, but when we are done with the main base.” He dropped a bomb. “ No one’s coming in here anyway. Let’s continue on.”

With our shiny new goggles in hand, we got back in the car. Emund drove us off.

“ Hey Tisha, are you ok?” I asked.

“ What? This cut? Ah don’t worry about it! Imma be fine!” She put a hand to her cheek.

“ Ok, if you’re sure.” I looked out the window. One thing still bothered me. “ So, how are you taking this? As in, mentally?”
“ What?” Tisha asked. I heard Emund groan in the driver seat.

“ I mean as in, you know. We’ve been killing people on this, mission. So…” I hoped she knew what I was trying to ask.

“ Uh, oh!” Tisha righted herself on the seat. “ Well. I guess I’m fine. I mean you know I’ve never been truly disgusted with murder, unlike a lot of kids in our classes.” I thought of all the times she’d told me about some classmate who nearly had a heart attack when they found out someone had died. I knew those kids well too.

“ Yeah. So it doesn’t bother you?”
“ Not really. I mean they do deserve it right?”
“ I dunno, maybe they’ve been confused, or forced.”
“ I mean, yeah that’s true. But still, things happen, and we just gotta move on right? If we are doing this to help everyone else?”
“ Exactly.” Emund put in from the front. “ It sucks, I know. But we just need to keep trudging forward, we are almost to the end.” I looked down at the gun in my arms.

“ Okay… I guess. Wait, how come we can’t just call the police?”
“ If you did that then it would give Plasamic a chance to get away. When the forces were to arrive, there would be a big scuffle between them, us and the enemy. During that certain members could escape, and that wouldn’t fix the issue.”

“ Yeah, you don’t need to rely on the police for everything.” Tisha added. I shrugged. I figured since we were doing pretty well on our so far, we wouldn’t be in need of more help. Assuming I didn’t die before I could find out if I would be right on that or not.

It was getting darker by the time we found the main base. We didn’t exactly take a long time to get there, more like things got dark fast in China. It really wasn’t helping the overall atmosphere. We pulled up to an empty parking lot near an old toy store, that seemed to be abandoned. Several of the surrounding buildings were also torn up and lifeless. Across the lot, was a structure that definitely didn’t fit in. It was a good thing no one noticed this place, because otherwise it would be easy to spot. It was an altered version of the one I had seen in my dreams. Three towers shooting from a rectangular base. All painted in shiny chrome, with no windows, and several garage doors.

“ Is it just that easy to walk up to the front door and say hello?” Tisha asked.

“ Naw. They act like this because they want others to think that no one is here. If the randoms think nothing is going on, then they won’t have an interest in checking the place out.” Emund explained.

“ Then what happens if we go up to the front door?” I asked.

“ Nothing. We can’t get in, that’s bullet proof metal, and they won’t answer. I’ll show y’all.” Emund started for the door. My friend and I followed carefully. If I was afraid of getting shot out of the blue before, I certainly was now. All along the deserted field that surrounded the main base I thought giant turrets would spawn up from the ground and shoot us.

“ What are the towers for?” I wondered.

“ If I remember. They’re just there either for sheltering supplies, or making weapons and other small things. The real goal is the bottom room of each tower. That’s where we can blow it and cause the whole thing to collapse in on itself.”

“ Sounds fun. Is the leader here?” Tisha asked.
“ Most likely. We shouldn’t have to worry about her as long as we do the job quickly.”
“ But what is the plan?”
“ Hold on.” Emund reached the front door. I watched in horror as he casually knocked on it. Whistling. “ Hello! Is there anyone in here? I’m from the local sandwich shop and am here to drop off an order of cucumber sandwiches? Anyone?” After a minute nothing happened. Tisha laughed.
“ If that doesn’t get their attention then nothing will.”
“ Exactly the point.” Emund came back to us. “ They won’t open unless you knock in a very specific sequence that only the members know.”
“ Wouldn’t you know it?”
“ I do. But I ain’t about to go in through that way. We should find a different way in.”
“ Oh, right.” I looked around, trying to figure out a way in that wasn’t obvious.

If we couldn’t use the front door, then the walls would be the next place to look. The wall we were facing had nothing interesting about it. I walked around to the other side, on the right.

“ Imma see something. Be right back.” That side had some pipes protruding out of the wall and into the ground. In between the two large grey pipes, was a closed vent. It was currently turned off. I ran back to my friends. “ Guys! I found out how to get in!”
“ Really? How?” Emund asked.

“ Ok so.” I told them about my findings. “ Can we get open that vent?” Emund thought for a moment.

“ Hmm. I guess we could shoot it. Assuming we aren’t heard, we could climb in through there. Then drop down once we get inside.”
“ But isn’t that… gross in a vent?” Tisha asked. I turned to her.

“ Really? How would that be gross?”
“ I dunno. Have you ever climbed into a ventilation system?”
“ No, you got me. But still. It’s our only chance right now.”

“ AH fine, I’ll try it. But if my clothes get messed up you are paying for new ones.”

“ You can just wash them when you get home.”
“ Sometimes things can’t be washed out.”
“ Ok, well let’s just see what happens ok? I don’t wanna stay out here.” I admitted.

“ Why? It’s safer out here than in there.” Emund said. “ Let’s move.” With that happy statement, we moved over to the vent gate.

Emund took off the gate, and we climbed in. Emund, me and then Tisha. Honestly, it wasn’t as bad as you would think. The interior of it was only covered in dust, even though it smelled like pee.

“ Did someone take a leak? Yeesh that stinks.” Tisha commented.

“ I didn’t. Emund?” I said.

“ Girls, stop. I’m sorry but at this point we need to be serious. This is the final moments of this mission. So just be serious about this for a few more hours.”
“ Hours? That’s a long time to be in a invisible building.” Tisha said.

“ Deal with it.” We crawled for a little longer. Until our group leader stopped.

“ Alright stop.” We were halted over another vent gate. This one lead into a hallway in the building. I could see a door. It was labelled: ‘ tower 3 entrance.’ Two guards were standing in front of it. “ Y’all see that door? That’s spot number one for us. We get in there, and set the bomb.”

“ Then find the other two and repeat, right?” Tisha asked.

“ Correct. Now, the only problem, is that we need to get those guards to move…” I looked once again. I didn’t see anything that would help us.

“ Emund.”
“ Yeah?”
“ Well first off, can they hear us?”
“ No. These vents are made out of a certain metal that absorbs sound waves. I don’t think they want to hear the air blowing through 24/7.”
“ Good. Also, what’s inside of the room exactly?”
“ Uh, gosh why are you asking me so many questions? It’s hard to remember the specifics of this place. I think, just the staircase leading upwards.”

“ Are there any rooms where I could get a new gun?”
“ One of the uppers rooms is bound to have plenty. What’s up?” I told them my idea. Emund scoffed.

“ I mean… it sounds terrible. But we don’t have much other choice. And my knees are killing me.”

“ Same with me!” Tisha complained. “ I want out! I’m fine with anything.”
“ Then I can do that?” I asked.
“ I’m just not sure you can get another weapon, without getting caught.”
“ I’ll go by myself. We can split up, make this go by faster. It worked last time.” I offered.

“ Eh, you sure? You aren’t scared of being here by yourself?” Emund asked. Fact is, I was plenty scared of being here. But I realized that succumbing to my fears wasn’t gonna help anyone here, except Plasamic. And they couldn’t win, not now.

“ Y-yeah. Just hand me a bomb, and we can text each other how to set it up or something.”
“ Pfft, texting in the middle of enemy territory.”  Tisha snickered.

“ Hey! It’s the only thing I can think of!” I turned a little red.

“ Naw it’s cool. Emund?” He hesitated for a second.

“ You know what, what the hell. I think we can. Once we get in that room together, I’ll send you all the info you need. Ceena, once you have reached the other staircase, and the bomb set up, text me. Me and Tisha will come to you. Got it?”

“ Yes!”

“ Then let us begin operation shut down.”

I slowly pulled my rifle out in front of me. Which wasn’t easy since it was a confined space with other people in it. I held it with one hand, and aiming through the gaps in the vent gate, sniped the left guard’s head off.

“ What the-?! Who’s there?” The other one screamed. I lowered my rifle all the way through the gap, ( the gun was skinny ok?) and I threw it down the hall. It hit the marble floor with a clunk. “ Oh for the love of…” The guard ran over to inspect it. The three of us quickly dropped down. Emund shot the guards head, and using his door unlocking skills, we entered the third stairwell. Immediately Emund pulled out a bomb and placed it behind the stairs, setting it for remote control. He came back over to me.

“ Ceena. You still sure you want to separate to get your gun from upstairs, and get the other spot by yourself?” He asked again, he really did seem worried about my well being. I managed a weak smile.

“ Yeah. Are you two going together?”
“ Actually. I’m coming with you.” Tisha said.

“ Wait but I thought we agreed-”
“ I know, but I was just in pain up there and wanted to get out fast. But now, I say we still split, but leave this dude by himself. It’s about time we get to do this double style!”
“ You aren’t gonna do anything else are you?”
“ Nope.” Tisha stood by my side, and held out her palm to Emund. “ Bomb please.” He looked at us and laughed.

“ You two are insane. Fine. I’ll get the second one myself, and you two get the first. But again, text me Ceena so I can still help you.”
“ I know.” I said. He gave my friend a bomb. Never thought I would be saying that.

“ Well, good luck, I guess. Text me.” Emund crept out the door. Tisha turned to the staircase.

“ Alright, then let’s get you a new rifle.” She said to me, and we walked up the stairwell.

As we went, the steps creaked, making more noise than I would’ve hoped for. It went up for what seemed like miles. I imagined how it would all come crashing once we set off the bombs. Would we be jailed for what we were doing? Would the government see this as an act of treason? Or violence? Would they recognize the threat that we were trying to stop? I tried not to let these fears consume me. A door appeared on our right, labeled as ‘ gun storage 6.’

“ 6? How many do you need?” Tisha asked. “ Eh, let’s check it out anyway.” She opened the door and stepped in. I nervously entered. The room was thankfully empty. Only shelves of different weapons laid about. Each set was masked with a glass case. In order to open them, a card needed to be entered in the slots below them. Cards, I assumed, that only certified members got. Too bad we weren’t one of them. Tisha scanned the rows, no different than she would be looking for the best kind of bread at VONS.

“ Hmm. How about this one?” She pointed to a close range machine gun.

“ I would rather have something I can actually control.” I said.

“ Right ok.” She continued. The time she spent looking for a fancy new firearm, I spent staring at the door. I kept thinking someone would come in and shoot us. But no one did, so far. I thought of Emund. Was he ok in getting to the second spire? I considered texting him. Than thought against it. He probably wouldn’t like it if I wasted time asking him questions.

“ Ceena! This one?” Tisha called from across the room. I walked over. She had picked out a smaller rifle. It had a skinny barrel, and a fat middle. Its description read: Scout 567. Fires singular bullets per trigger pull. Recommended for longer ranges. Fire rate is 4/10.

“ Yeah, that works. It’s like the snipers, but with less range and more fire rate.” I decided. Tisha nodded.

“ Alright. Stand back.”

“ What are you gonna do?”

“ Get it for you.”
“ Don’t tell me you’re going to do what I think you are going to do.”

“ I probably am.”

“ Oh joy.” I watched as Tisha aimed her sniper at the glass. She shot, shattering it. The alarm in the room went off. A red alarm blared on the ceiling. I quickly grabbed the scout rifle.

My friend and I hid as two enemies entered the room. One of them was a basic guard. He looked around, his expression angry and hard. The other, I recognized. I suppressed a sob as Acunia stood in the doorway. The same woman that was at the very first factory where I met Emund. She had the same fierce look. Her black hair fell down her back, her marble eyes surveying the room. She wore a dark purple and golden uniform. Over her left breast was a patch. The number 1 in red. She held an odd looking pistol in her hand. It had an elongated barrel.

“ Check around, I have a suspicion as to who it could be.” She told her comrade. The guard saluted his first in command.

“ Yes ma’am!” He held his rifle fast, and began to check the aisles. I looked to Tisha desperately. She simply smiled.

“ I gotta a plan.” She whispered, barely loud enough for me to hear. “ Stay right here, and don’t move. I’m going up there.” She gestured to the top of the shelf. I wanted to ask how and why. But she was already on the move. She disappeared behind the aisle. The guard came around the corner and saw me.

“ Hey! Come over here now!” He shouted. Well, this is how I die. I thought. I did what my friend asked, and stayed put. The guard advanced on me. “ Are you deaf? Get over here!” He got to about six feet in front of me. “ This is no time to mess around little girl. Come here!” He made to grab me. I lunged out of the way as I heard a gunshot. I turned on the ground to see the guard’s body slump to the floor, a blood wound in the side of his head. I looked above me. Tisha waved down.

“ Hi! Nice shot wasn’t it?” She called down. I didn’t know how to answer. Why are you talking to me when the first in command is still in the room?! Might’ve been one of the things I said. Instead, I got up and picked up my rifle.

I crept to the side of the aisle shelf, and peeked around. Acunia was standing near the wall. She turned to the side and locked eyes with me immediately. I whipped back around the corner. My heart raced as Acunia walked toward us.

“ It is you, isn’t it?” She turned the aisle. She laughed. “ It is you! I had a feeling you would come here. Little kids think they can do so much.” Acunia faced Tisha, who was too afraid to fire. “ Those video games. They brainwash you. Make you think you can do anything you want. Make you believe you can, save the world, help anyone. That you can, run at the speed of sound, explore the universe, fight aliens, build anything you want, reset time and fix your mistakes, bring the dead to heaven. And so on. What bullshit.” Acunia made a quick move with her gun. She shot Tisha in the shoulder faster than I could keep track of. Tisha screamed, falling to the floor with a thud. I tried to run over to her, but Acunia kicked me back, slamming me into the shelf. The weapons rattled. Tisha laid against the other side, clutching her bleeding wound. I held my stomach, moaning in pain. The first in command smiled. “ How pathetic. You don’t understand real pain, a real fight. You know, I was born into a life without games. My parents told me that games were for the weak. If I wanted to be strong, then I would have to train in reality. Feel what it was really like to shoot a gun, to hurt someone, and get hurt even more yourself. That is how I came to be in such high command. Luniet didn’t want someone who was mentally unusable, who didn’t understand the concept of perseverance and strength. Not watched, but earned. You girls don’t have such capabilities. Emund was an idiot for thinking he could destroy us.” I didn’t know what to do. We were done for. How could I defeat Acunia, when she could end us at any moment? Tisha wouldn’t be of any help in the state she was in.

Acunia walked over to my friend. She raised Tisha’s face to hers. “ How sad, that you’ll die instead of joining us. We could’ve used someone like you. Ah well.” Tisha gave me a glance. Her eyes, full of fear and pain. But, also hope, and belief. She was telling me something, and I knew what it was. It was time I started to fix things on my own. I didn’t need Emund and Tisha to do everything on this mission. I looked to my surroundings, for a way of victory. At the edge of the room, was a weird looking device. The schematics said that it was a machine made to hold weapons, so that they could be worked on. It was able to constrain hundreds of force. It looked large enough to hold someone’s arm. I stood up, my stomach screaming in protest.

“ Hey, Acunia.” I said. She turned, tossing Tisha’s gun to the side.

“ Hm? What are you going to do? Don’t think you can win in a gun battle. I have the most amount of training, the most-”
“ I’m not trying to do that. I know I can’t beat you with these things.” I threw my rifle to the side. “ So instead, I ask to do this the old fashioned way.” I put my fists up. Acunia looked in disbelief. She chuckled.

“ That’s different. You wanna fist fight?” She dropped her pistol. “ Interesting. I won’t decline, show me what you got little girl.”

I charged her. Acunia grabbed my head and flung to the side. I rolled along the ground. I ran at her again. She uppercutted me in the chin, then punched me in the stomach. I reeled back, coughing up blood.

“ You really want to do this? You can’t win.” She taunted me. I spat out more blood, trying to stay upright. Acunia was in line with the machine. I ran ahead again. At the last second I ducked down, missing Acunia’s fists. I slammed into her chest, pushing her backward. I lost my footing. We both tumbled back. Acunia kicked me away. I rolled into the wall, hitting my head hard. I got up, the world spinning, the colors drained, and dizzy. But Acunia was stuck. Her right arm was caught in the device. Close around her upper bicep. She tugged and cursed. She couldn’t move.

“ This doesn’t mean anything! Once I get free you’re done for!” She cried. I limped over to my scout rifle. I groggily aimed it at her. Her face drained of color as she realized what was about to happen.

“ Maybe you don’t see it.” I said, barely audible. “ But video games do give us something. They give us experience, allow us to learn things you wouldn’t be able to otherwise. Like how to use your surroundings to your advantage. Not just games, but media in general. Maybe one day, you’ll be able to see that.” I shot her in the stomach. Acunia’s body fell limp. Not moving.

I stumbled over to Tisha, and fell into her lap. The next few moments were blurry. I saw Tisha get up, and reach into her backpack. We had those? It was hard to remember properly. Apparently we had some medical supplies in there. I don’t know when those came to be, but we had them. Tisha dabbed my face, cleaning off the blood. She bandaged my face, arms and legs. She put some cloth around her own shoulder. Than together we laid down against the shelf, and I lost consciousness. When I came to, Tisha was sleeping. How did she manage that in a place like this? I shook her gently to wake her. Her eyes opened.

“ H-huh? Oh, Ceena. What’s up?” She rubbed her eyes and sat up.

“ We need to finish the mission. The first tower. Bomb.” I told her. Tisha got up and stretched.

“ Oh yeah.” She saw Acunia’s body, still in the machine. “ Nice job by the way. That was some fight.” I stood next to her.
“ If you count getting beat up the whole time as good. Let’s get out of here.” We got our things and left the room.

At least I had a weapon now. We descended the staircase. The bomb was still set at the bottom. I checked my phone. I had some texts from Emund.

“ Ceena. You ok? I heard the alarm go off. You alright? I set the second bomb. Now you two need to get the first. I can’t stay here. Imma head outside. Sorry, but I can’t risk getting caught waiting for you two plus they know I’m here. Barely got the second bomb set up. Lemme know you’re fine and are going for your bomb.” I texted back.

“ I’m ok, and Tisha. We had a scuffle in the weapon cache. But we are fine. Heading to the first tower now.” We exited the room and into the main hallways.

Tisha had told me how much she wanted to act out Metal Gear Solid in real life. Now she really could do that. We sneaked around the halls, dashing into closets and other rooms when guards came near. It was the most nerve wracking and stressful thing I had ever done. Well, besides everything else about this mission that is. There was one time where we had been caught. Tisha wanted to check out the food center. The people inside saw us. They threw down their processed meats and pulled out pistols. We bolted down the hallways, only getting seen by more men. I tried to fire where I could. I wasn’t even sure if I had hit anyone. I did however, hit a pipe along the wall. It spewed out gas, covering up the hall. The guards collided with each, screaming and scrambling. Tisha and I slipped out and continued on our way.

We made it to the final staircase, number one. Tisha set the bomb as I waited. Once that was done, we left for the entrance so we could leave. We were going to make it, but we got surrounded. Guards had appeared from seemingly nowhere. To my left, right and front. They aimed their weapons and told us to comply with them.

“ We aren’t complying with anything. Ceena, you go back. I got this.” Tisha told me.

“ Go back?” I asked. “ Where?”
“ Find another exit. There’s bound to be more.”
“ What are you gonna do?” She smirked, and pulled out a grenade behind her back. Emund’s grenade. I smiled.

“ You sneaky-”
“ Don’t ruin it! Just go!”
“ Hey! Quit talking and move!” One of the guard’s yelled.
“ Ok. I surrender.” Tisha put her hands up. I ran away as the blast went off. I dashed down the hallways, hoping that my friend didn’t just commit suicide.

I turned and ran into a door. I wasn’t sure where I was going, I just wanted out. The place I got to instead, was the construction zone. There were multiple benches, and pits set up in which to make weapons. Not just guns, but other things. Like armor pieces, medicine pills, and housing materials. This was what Spaik was talking about. The other uses of the alien metal. Standing on the other end of the room, was a women. She was working on something by herself. She turned to face me. Her pink hair, orange eyes, and dark skin was familiar to me. Luniet crossed her arms.

“ Oh. Ceena. Can I ask a question?” This surprised me.

“ W-what?” I answered.

“ Why you think this is the right thing to do. You’re in school right? So why did you feel the need to go through all this trouble, when you could’ve just stayed to your normal life? Do you really believe what one guy tells you? Emund lies. We are a company of improvement. We are experimenting, to help humanity. It matters not that some people have to die. If we can create brand new technology, with the alien metal, than a new age is upon us. This is what Plasamic works towards. That is what I lead it towards. So tell me, Ceena, why do you want to prevent that?” I stood, shaking.

“ I-I…” I didn’t know what to respond with. I thought of everything. Of Emund, the factories, newsreels, Tisha, Spaik, human history. “ I am doing this, because…” I gave a nervous breath. “ I am doing this for the right cause.”
“ Cause? This is not the right cause!” Luniet yelled. I flinched.
“ To you it may not be. But to me, and my friends, and every other innocent bystander out there it is. You may think that what you’re doing is right. That it will help all of civilization.  Here’s an idea. It won’t. Doing something for the better of everyone does not mean you go out and ruin it along the way. If you destroy more than you create, than how much have you really created? Nothing. If humanity is dead in the making of something new, than who is left to revel in it? No one. There are multiple solutions to any problem. This way, the way Plasamic aims to handle it, is not one of them. You cannot go around, murdering, forcing people to do what you want, claiming land so you can enslave others. Just in the name of false retribution. This is why I am here. To put an end to this. You may think I’m just some random teenage girl, and I am. But I won’t let others be hurt by this stupid company’s dreams. I have a dream, finishing you!”

Luniet stared at me, amazed. Her mouth hung open.

“ How, dare you say that to me!” She held out her hand. A small device laid in her palm. “ If you won’t follow us, than you must die!” She pressed a button on it. Suddenly she was enveloped in a white light. When it died down, she was wearing armor. Black and red plated armor covered her body. Her face a mask. A hollow socket faced me. She had no weapon. But she wouldn’t need one. I barely had to time to aim my rifle as she shot toward me with blinding speed. She smacked me across the face, sending me careening into a pillar. I groaned and stood up, back to the same dizzy feeling as before. I looked around, four pillars held up the room. Luniet charged me again. She pummeled in the stomach, picking me up by the neck. She nearly strangled me. I kicked her helmet, which did nothing. She threw me hard to the floor. I felt my ribs crack, my brain bounce around in my head. I loosely took hold of my gun, as my other hand was crushed under Luniet’s boot. I screamed as my fingers cracked, splitting apart. Tears filled my eyes as pain surged through me. My body told me to give up, that it was over. I was too weak to even move. Luniet was standing over me, raising her foot to finish me.

“ This is what you get when you mess with Plasamic!” Luniet drove her foot down to squash my face.

In that moment, I remember something. Something I had seen Tisha do in Destiny 2’s PvP. She was about to get killed by an attacking player. She shot to the side of him, missing on purpose. The guy got confused, and was open to be killed by her. I figured to try out that technique, since I couldn’t think of anything else. Just as Luniet’s foot was to connect with me, I shot to the side, hitting a pillar behind her. It cracked and grumbled. Luniet turned to see the column fall to the side, smashing into the one next to it. That by itself did nothing. But it did leave her stunned for a second. I shot the other pillar behind me. Same thing happened. It collided into the one left of it. Except this time, that one didn’t fall into the wall, it fell on top of Luniet. If her armor could protect against bullets, than it was nothing compared to hard stone. She vanished underneath the column, as it hit the floor next to me, spreading dust everywhere.

I lay there, dazed, for what seemed like years. My body ached with so much pain I could hardly feel anything. The pillar sat next to me, blood leaking from under it. I heard my phone go off. Who was texting me? Where was I? I could barely even think. One thought did surface. I NEED TO GET OUT OF HERE NOW. My subconscious told me. I managed to get up somehow. I left my gun and my bag on the ground, only taking my phone with me. I slowly made my way out of the room, falling back to the ground more times than I could count. I eased open the door. The hallways were empty. No one was there, allowing me to make my way down them. I reached the main entrance. A dozen or so bodies laid about. Hit by an explosion. I walked past them, and opened the door. The fresh morning air hit me. There were two people outside, talking to each other about something. They both saw me, and rushed over. I lost my footing and tumbled down the front steps. But I was caught. Two faces loomed over me.

“ Ceena! You made it! We were beginning to worry!” Tisha said happily.

“ Gosh kid. Ya gave me a goddamn anxiety attack. You look terrible. We should get you two to a hospital.” Emund said. They hauled me back to the car. I laid in the back, with Tisha as Emund drove us away. I saw the main base of Plasamic.

“ Hey Emund. What about the trash?” Tisha asked.

“ Yup. I got it Tisha, don’t worry. The trash,” Emund pressed a button on a small device. “ Is getting taken out.” The main base erupted in a huge flurry of flames. The area shook and dust and debris flew in every direction as the building exploded. I was still returning back to my normal consciousness, but I knew what that meant. I smiled, laughed in fact. Tisha put a hand on my shoulder.

“ Yup. We did it. They’re done for. Everything they were working for was in there, and we toasted it.”

“ Exactly.” Emund said from the front. “ Plasamic is finally finished. Who knew what the three of us could do?” A hospital rose in the distance. I lay back in my chair. I closed my eyes. We had done it. Plasamic could no longer do their work, and no one would be hurt any longer. These, Concealed Weapons were finally thrown out, forever.

Part Two: Frozen Slave Land

I’ve heard many things about why growing up sucks. Most of them forget one small thing, however. Tacos. I’m old enough to where I can get my own tacos now! This may not sound like such a great thing to you, but for me, it’s awesome. During many of my years as a child, I’ve loved tacos. Only issue was I was too young, and therefore either too scared or simply unable to buy my own food. I guess the PTSD of what happened two years ago doesn’t help me with that.

Speaking of two years ago, I have no one to talk about what happened. Not besides my good buddy and him. Tisha’s not really the best person to talk to about it since she has mostly the same thoughts about it as me. Actually, she was the one who kinda enjoyed blowing up multiple buildings and using futuristic weaponry to murder mistaken soldiers. The more I look back at that, the more I wonder, what would’ve happened if I didn’t meet Emund? Would he have succeeded in stopping the company himself? Actually, thinking about Emund, how’s he been? I keep going on and off as to if I should text him again or not.

Tisha keeps saying she has been trying to contact him and he only ever responded twice. She’s told me that he said he’s been working as a mechanic at some shop. I guess that makes sense. Fixing cars and people’s broken toys and whatnot. He was always good with the technical stuff. He would’ve helped a lot with my scientific engineering class last year. Ugh, God, I won’t go into that, but Jesus it felt like hell to me. I’ve been keeping up on my arts though. Got into a cool art class for my first year at College. Tisha’s gettin’ into game design, which suits her all too well. Hopefully, it won’t be another game like Fortnite.

I heard that college lets you pick the classes you want, and I suppose that’s true. But….Ok look. I have four classes presently. English, Math, Art, and Spanish. They’re fine enough classes, at least I like them more than I used to back in high school, but the projects are ridiculous. Now, in about five minutes, I’ll be heading over to Tisha’s house to work with her and my friend Knox on a big project for Spanish. I could’ve gone over there earlier, but I was peckish for some tacos. Like I was saying before, I have the ability and credit card to get what I want now. So I did.  I’m also here alone, which is why I’ve been thinkin’ too much.

I finish eating my final taco and pull my phone out of my backpack. 2:32 pm, Saturday, December 23rd. Good thing I have two weeks off to finish this project. We’ll be getting it done early so I have time to do more of what I wanna do during the actual break time. We started on it last week, and now we’ll get it done. I put my phone away, and dump my leftover meal into the trash bin. I check to make sure I have my phone, wallet and backpack on. Saying goodbye to the cashiers I exit the door to On the Border, heading to Tisha’s house.

Another good thing about being eighteen, I have a car I can drive. No longer do I have to have my parents drive me, or use Emund to take me places, or even have Tisha drive me around. That was embarrassing for me, during those few months where I had to text my friend to take me to the concert, or to the art museum or some other place. But not anymore! Got my own fancy red car. It’s nothing too amazing, but it gets the job done. I get in, roar up the engine, and head out of the shopping area.

Once I get to Tisha’s house, a small, blue and black house, I park on the road a few feet away from the driveway. I would’ve parked in the driveway but a silver car is already there. Must be Knox’s, though I’ve never seen his car. Or even know he had one. I step out the driver’s seat, shut the door, adjust the straps on my shoulders, and head up to my friend’s front door.

Tisha always gives warm greetings. Even if she isn’t feeling well, she still tries to be positive for me, which I sincerely appreciate. In return I make it my duty to help her out. Today she wasn’t as huggy wuggy as she normally is, since Knox was there. I met him in the kitchen. I still have two of my classes with him. He’s sitting at the kitchen counter, looking over some sheets. I know these, they’re the same papers that our Spanish teacher gave us, just some outlines for what we could do. I set my pack on the wooden floor, getting out my Spanish binder.

“ So do we know what we’re doing?” I ask. Tisha slides past me on her socks.

“ Me and him have been gettin’ a few ideas.” She pokes Knox in the back of his jacket.

“ Yeah yeah.” He says, pulling out a piece of paper. “ So Profe wants us to find a certain place, take a picture of that place, and make a short story for it. So I thought we could use Obam park that’s across from our school.” He has a picture of the park. In the picture is a man praying to the statue of Obama. Next to him is a kid with a balloon looking really confused. I inspect said picture and laugh.

“ Why would that even be happening?”

“ Dunno, but do you wanna use it?” Knox asks.

“ You have any better ideas Tisha?” I ask.

“ No, not really. Besides this could be really funny.” Tisha says.

“ You mean muy divertido.” I say. Tisha smiles.
“ Vale, smartipants.”

We spend the next five hours getting the story done. After, we sit down in Tisha’s living room at around five in the afternoon. She turns on a memes reel on YouTube.

“ Why did that take so long?!” I ask.
“ Maybe because we spent so long arguing about what words to use.” Knox said

“ We spent fifty minutes on that paragraph about the balloon.” Tisha said. “ maybe we shoulda done this separately.”

“ Really?” I ask.
“ No, it was a lot more fun doing it with you two. Who else was I gonna pester about using the wrong words?” Tisha says.

“ The amount of times you pestered me about using conmigo instead of con mí….” Knox shook his head while smiling.

“ Yeah well, we got it down.” I say. “ That was easy honestly.”

“ Guess Profe wanted it to be slightly easier than last time.” Knox says. “ And thank God for that.”

“ Oh come on! Dale! It wasn’t that hard Knox!” Tisha says.

“ You mean the one where you write about a person you know?” I ask. They nod. “ Oh, that was simple enough for me.”
“ Para ustedes tal vez.” Knox says. “ But for me? It wasn’t easy. I had like no one to talk to for it!”
“ Yeah, except you ended up writing about Ceena.” Tisha says.

“ Ok?” Knox says.

“ I still remember when you accidentally said I love her in it.” Tisha says laughing. I facepalm, smiling. Knox goes a tad red.

“ Can we not talk about that? You know it was a mistake!”

My phone goes off, the notification of a message. I pick it up, and see who it’s from. I expect it to be my parents, asking how I am and when I’m coming home.

“ Hey kid, this is still your number right? It’s me, Emund Chester.” Sent from that number I’d been trying for so long. I stare at it for a few seconds, not sure of what to do. Should I respond? What do I respond? Should I tell my friends?
“ Tisha.” I say.
“ Yeah?”
“ This uh, message. It’s from Emund.”

“ Who?” Knox asks.
“ Lemme see that.” Tisha takes my phone from me and inspects the message. “ Hmm, yeah it’s him.”
“ Who?” Knox asks again.
“ The guy I’ve told you a little bit about.” I say. “ The dude who did the thing with the company?”
“ The story you’re still expecting me to believe? The reason you were grounded for a whole summer? You’ve barely told me anything.”

“ Oh yeah, I remember that.” Tisha says, chuckling. I roll my eyes and sigh.

“ Yeah well…. He just messaged me again after….What like two years?”

“ I think. Well I sent a reply back.” Tisha says. “ I’ll see what happens.”
“ And you did that without my permission?” I ask. Tisha shrugs.

“ You can trust me girl.”
“ I know.”
“ This sounds kinda suspicious to me.” Knox says.

“ Why?” Tisha and I both ask. He shifts in his seat.

“ I mean, just randomly messaging after so long, supposedly? Not something I would trust.”
“ Did anyone ask you Knox?” Tisha says.
“ Well I-”
“ Kidding. I get it.” I snicker a bit, and Knox is just confused. Honestly all three of were confused at that moment.

During the rest of the night, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. As I did my final bit of homework for the break, watched some Youtube, fed my garden,  and even chatted online. The thought still stuck in the back of my brain. The response Tisha had sent hadn’t been answered back. I was to text my friend when he did say something back. Was it just a greeting? I wasn’t sure he would do that and then leave for no reason. I head off to bed, and crash for the night

When I wake up, I find a text from Emund on my phone. Jeez, I rarely boost out of bed quickly, but right now I did. I sit, and hastily wait for my eyes to come into focus. “ Sorry for the late reply, been checking thru some stuff. I know this seems like a weird request, but can you and your friend come to my house? There’s something I need to show you.” My fingers type fast, my nails clicking on the iphone screen.
“ Yeah sure what’s your address?” My feet start to shake as I wait. Why am I getting so excited? Or nervous?
“ Same as before. Except now I painted the house red, for a different feel.” Emund responds.

“ And you want Tisha with me?” I ask.

“ Yup. When the soonest you can make it?”
“ I’m on break now so anytime in the next two weeks.”

“ Tomorrow work?”
“ Sure. Can I ask what it’s about?” This is the question that’s bugging me the most. Of course it takes him the longest to reply to this specific message.

“ You remember Plasamic? The ones we stopped back then? It’s about them. I may have found ‘em again.” He says. I put my phone down on my nightstand, and throw my bedsheets over me.

“ Are you serious right now?” I say to myself. Good thing I’m alone. This was exactly the kinda thing I was waiting to hear, and I swear I hate the fact that it’s actually true.

But is it? It can’t be as bad as I’ve had nightmares about for the past few months, on and off. Can it? No, they were destroyed, right? And I got off lucky, after my dad did some work to cover it up for me. I’m still not over that, but that’s not the thing to worry about. Maybe it’s just some small thing. I take my phone and reply. “ Ok, not sure what to think of that, and I didn’t want to greet you again this way, but alright. Tomorrow works.”

“ Ok, great. 10 am then.”
“ That early?” He doesn’t reply back. Well great. Now for the rest of the day now I won’t  be able to focus on anything. Those drawings I wanted to finish? Probably not yet. I was gonna start a christmas project, with my garden. The Lilacs and Sunflowers, I wanted to see how they would look in different kinds of make up environments. I have a set of castle, wonderland, and techno city themed props to place around them and decorate them. Also some friends on Discord wanted to do some Roleplaying with me. Guess I’ll have to blow those off for a while. But I might as well enjoy myself for today. I text Tisha about tomorrow. She’ll probably want to go. If she feels how she did last time.

The rest of my Sunday was fine. I managed to get the worries out of my head. Though as I tried to sleep that night, I realized I’d have to make another excuse to my parents. Not again. However, this time it shouldn’t be as bad. I don’t live with them, and I’ll just say I’m having a vacation trip with my friends, if it comes to that. If it’s more than just a quick visit tomorrow. I’m not certain either way. Then there’s the issue of my plants. For them, I could just leave them and use one of those self-watering mechanisms I’ve seen ads for. Or I could send them to my parent’s house and have them take care of it. Though this is assuming that I need to leave them away for a long time. Which, this is just a quick visit right?

Probably not. No matter how much I try to convince myself that this’ll just be a simple thing, I know it won’t. Emund in my heart is associated with danger, and Plasamic, that mysterious company who was bent on increasing their own power. Still not sure why they wanted to do that, besides a hunger for domination over other companies I guess. It’s not that I don’t like Emund, he himself is just fine. The more I think about it the more I can say that what happened two years ago was fun, and certainly made me a….Less afraid person, I think.

But with all that in mind, what’s going to happen tomorrow? I feel like it’s some big event or something, one that’s currently being masked by an easy looking day. Tisha, of course, is excited to go. She’s already attempting to guess what Plasamic might be up to.

“ You think they want to distribute more weapons? Or maybe they’re trying to take total control over Sony! And Microsoft! They’ll want to be watching our every move and literally rule over us!” She was getting a bit erotic in her texts.
“ Tisha, just chill. It’s probably, or hopefully, nothing.” I text back.

“ But are you sure?”
“ I dunno! I guess….We’ll just find out tomorrow okay?”
“ Fine fine.” I slept easier than I thought I would that night.

So tomorrow came. Oh boy what a Sunday this was. I drive up to Emund’s house around ten in the morning. Tisha’s not here yet. I only have my phone on me, assuming this will be a short trip. I knock on his door. It swings open, and there he is. Same darkish skin, orange short hair, yellow T-shirt, and dark blue shorts. He has sunglasses on even though it’s not at all bright out.

“ Hi Ceena. Been a while hasn’t it?” He leans on the door frame.

“ Y-yeah, it has...How’re….You?” I ask.

“ Not bad, not bad. Just uh...Tryin’ to re-establish my life after, what happened.” He says. I nod.

“ Heard you’ve been working in repair jobs?” I ask.

“ Mhm, yeah.” He steps back, waving for me to come inside. “ Let’s talk inside. Is uh...Tisha comin’?”

“ She said she was. Surprised she didn’t come first thing.” I say.

“ Alright, as long as she doesn’t take too long.”

“ What’s up anyway?” I ask.

“ I’ll tell you but not while you’re standing at my door. Come in.”

It felt odd being at his house again. Last time I was here I was learning how to shoot a futuristic gun in his backyard, and slept in his guest bedroom. That’s something I still don’t like to talk about, no clue what I was even thinking back then. Guess Tisha didn’t help, uring me on. She’s probably doing the same now...Oh well. I’m here. I walk past his small kitchen, and into the living room. On the coffee table next to the sofa is an iPad. It’s on an Email, with a picture of what looks like a shot of a door ajar, and inside a large black and grey device can be seen, or at least part of it. The exact details of it are kinda fuzzy.

“ So you’ve noticed my iPad.” Emund sits down on the couch. “ This is what I’ve wanted to talk to you about.”

“ OK? Is it the thing in the photo?” I ask.
“ Mhm.”
“ Who sent it to you?”
“ I sent it to myself.” Emund says.

“ You...Sent it to yourself?” I ask. He puts his hand up.

“ Look, once your friend gets here, we can discuss it.”

We waited about ten minutes for Tisha to arrive. It was a bit awkward, since Emund wasn’t in the mood for causal talking. He kept focusing, as if thinking about something, and holding his hands together. When I asked he kept saying to wait. I just ended up going on my phone. It was a good relief when the doorbell rang. Emund brought Tisha inside, after a quick greeting.
“ So, what’s this about plasamic?” She asks. Emund sits down again, and takes hold of his pad.

“ Look at this picture you two, see anything odd?” We inspect it. At first nothing comes to mind.

“ What about it?” I ask.

“ Where were you?” Tisha asks.

“ The Saromi desert, just outside the state.” Emund says. “ Went there for a relaxing vacation.”

“ Oh wow, was it fun?” Tisha asks.

“ For the first three days yeah. They had this nice museum with fossils and an old airplane junkyard where they gave tours. That was until I checked out the military facility they have there.”

“ Why would you go there?” I ask.

“ I was just lookin’ for things to do, that’s all.” Emund says. “ Turns out, I was looking a bit too hard. I saw this one door slightly open. That was odd since all the other doors were closed. I took a peek inside. Saw that.” He points to the picture. “ Reason that’s even remotely interesting is...Well you girls remember the design of the old Plasamic weaponry?” We both nod. It’s hard to forget something like that. I’ve drawn some of it in my sketchbook. “ Notice that this device has a very similar construction pattern?”

It took Tisha and I a few seconds to make the connection. Tisha raises an eyebrow.

“ So, you want us to believe they made that?”
“ I’d say it’s possible.” Emund says. “ Shortly after a guy who works there shooed me away. He said that that room was off limits. Why else would it not be allowed?”

“ Maybe because it’s a military thing and they don’t want random people checking it out and getting hurt?” I say. Emund shakes his head.

“ I thought that too at first. Then I realized that the whole point of the facility being open to the public was so that they could show people what weapons and inventions they have, and gain their trust in using them.”

“ OH yeah, like they NEED our trust.” Tisha says. I snort.

“ Then, you’re thinking Plasamic put that device there?”
“ Yes. Call me period, but yes.” Emund says. “ Unfortunately my vacation was due to end the next day, and I had to catch a taxi back home.”

Tisha takes a few more good looks at the picture on the iPad. She sits down on the couch next to me.
“ Ok so, I get it. Whadda need us for?”
“ Well uh…” Emund rubs his hands together again. “ Believe it or not, I don’t have that much money.”
“ Really? Even with the job you have?” I ask.
“ Nope. Only about five or so per hour of being at the shop.” That was about six dollars under the normal wage.
“ Well that sucks.” Tisha says. “ Why do you need money or something?”

“ I uh….Yah. Since I wanna get a better look at that device. And I’m not about to spend more money to rent a hotel room long enough for the military facility to open to the public again.” Emund says.
“ Why do I get the feeling you’re about to ask us for money.” I say.

“ Because I am.”

We both laugh. We can’t help it. It’s just funny that this guy, the one who had access to all the fancy tools back in the day, is having money issues.
“ Emund, man you think we’re liquid or something?” Tisha asks.

“ You’re what?”
“ She means we’re only teenagers, and we’re not rolling in dough.” I say.

“ Oh...Well what if you two combined your allowances?” Emund suggests.

“ What allowances? We’re in college.” Tisha says.

“ I only have around a hundred bucks from senior year.” I say.

“ Yeah same… I have about hundred twenty.” Tisha says.

“ Wait how do you have more than me?”
“ I don’t spend so much on coloring pencils and flowery stuff.”

“ So now you’re acting like that’s a bad thing.” I say.
“ Of course not. That’s probably why though is what I’m saying.” Tisha says.
“ But you bought Destiny 2 Forsaken for like what, forty dollars?”
“ Yeah, and it’s been great. OH also I finally found out how to get th-”
“ Girls! The topic at hand?” Emund interrupts.

To cut it short, we ended up united the three of our money sums to pay for a hotel room in Saromi. I wasn’t so salty about this, since I had just gotten a new pack of coloring supplies last week, and so I’m good. Make my vacation more interesting. Tisha was more hesitant. But her reason was “ Good adventure costs.” I suppose that is true. Depending on the kind of adventure. I wasn’t sure if I wanted this to be another adventure or not. Either way, four hundred and fifty dollars down the drain. Emund bought the room online, after transferring the money to his account. Tisha and I spent the next few minutes trying to convince our parents that we were going on a vacation with our friends. Tisha got out of it easily for some reason. I swear her parents are as laid back as she is. I, on the other hand, wasn’t so easily able to swindle my parents. My dad was the first to accept. He wished me a good break, and told me to send pictures. Mom kept recalling back to last time I did the same thing. This is what I’d been worrying about. I had to mentally question myself as to whether or not it was really worth it to lie again. Blame my curiosity, or me just wanting to have an interesting time off, but I did it. Perhaps mom just got tired of bickering with me. She wanted pictures also, and selfies, to know I was gonna be fine. My fingers shake a bit when I text “ I will be fine.”

Emund volunteered to drive us to the Sarmoi desert. Tisha wanted to take her new car, and persisted on it. I would’ve taken my car, except I had to buy gas for it. I didn’t feel like bothering with that and so I had Tisha drive me. She picked me up early the next day, Monday. I once again only brought a few things in my purse. I couldn’t decide how long this would take, and Emund didn’t know. Tisha said not to worry so I’m trying not to. While I sat in the shotgun seat of her car, I asked if she knew where she was going.

“ Of course not. I’m just following Emund.” We’d been tailing him the whole time. Other drivers must’ve thought we were chasers in crime. It took longer than it probably needed to. Tisha made some wrong turns, and lost track of our friend. Any time this happened I was the one to call him and tell him the embarrassing news. He started to get annoying after the third and fourth times.

After five hours straight of driving, we made it to the hotel parking lot. Jesus, it was night time. I was sleeping when Tisha shook me violently.

“ Aye, sleepy head, we’re here.” I sit up groggily. Emund’s car is parked across from us. There’s a street to my right, and past that the desert. Felt like the end of the world. The hotel looked like it was about thirteen stories high. Each with five rooms, excluding the first. I get out of the car, sling my purse over me, and head into the lobby with Tisha.

“ You’re not tired?” I ask her.
“ I am, that’s why I almost crashed while getting into the parking lot.” She says.
“ Wait you what?!”

“ Hey, don’t lecture me.” She heads into the lobby. I want to say somethings, but I choose not to. I look at the time on my phone. Twelve in the morning. Ugh. I see I have texts from Knox.

“ Hey do you have Profe’s email? I lost it.” From a yesterday. I face palm, I forgot to text him back.
“ Yeah, sorry for the late response. I’ll get it to you in a little bit.” I text back. I’m too tuckered out to think about it. Funny I can get so tired while just sitting in a car.

Our room was on the fifth floor of the hotel. It was simple enough. Living room, bathroom, three bedrooms, and a mini kitchen. I got flashbacks to the room I stayed at in China with Emund and Tisha. Not sure if that similarity is a good thing or not. We didn’t mingle there for too long. The three of us pretty much crashed as soon as settled in.

Turns out we needed to wait two days for the military facility to open again. That’s fine, gave us time to see the area. We went to that junkyard Emund mentioned. Tisha and I played a guessing game to see who could guess the closest to the time each aircraft was built. We were wrong every time. The restaurants here are fairly good. Nice bacon and eggs, and their hamburgers are alright also. We did a little bit of walking around the edge of the desert. Emund told Tisha that simply venturing out there without any preparation is a death sentence. She didn’t believe that, but she felt it later on. I didn’t wanna watch her suffer alone so I went with her. When we got back to the hotel we were each tired and hot as hell.

Third day, and it’s time to see the so-called Plasamic device. I figured we were going first in the morning, since that seemed to be a common occurrence. But no, Emund advised waiting till around five in the afternoon since that’s when they start to close. This confused me at first, since why would we go after they’re already closing if we waited specifically for them to open? His argument was that if we got there close to the time they closed up, then there wouldn’t be as many visitors or workers there. I still kinda felt like we could’ve gone at any time, but I won’t argue with it.

As we walk over to the military facility, the sun begins to go down, casting an orange hue across the sky. For whatever reason, I think of my old cat. Last time I saw it was about a little over a year ago? Actually, I’ve forgotten about it for the most part, to be honest. I know that sounds harsh, especially since it was the family pet, but still. I move into my own home, and my mom insisted on keeping the cat for themselves. It was kinda funny, my mom had this mental conflict where she wasn’t sure whether to let me keep the cat or not. I eventually told her it was fine, that it’d be less stressful to live completely on my own at first. That’s what I thought at the time, and for the first few weeks it was true. Then I started to get lonely. That led to me going out a lot more...Kinda. I mean more than I used to. I’d go to this bar a few streets away, not to drink, but watch the bands that played there and maybe strike up some conversations. I’m actually proud of myself, since recently I’ve been able to talk more to random people than I used to be able to.

Regardless of that, here I am now, with my old buddies… If you include Emund. We enter the facility. It’s basically a big dark green rectangle on the outside. Inside is a makeshift museum of the different weapons that the army is working on. People walk around, read and stare at all kinds of oddly configured tools and gadgets. Even though there are a few men and women here to explain everything, I know for a fact that most of us have no clue what’s going on. These people are probably here just so they can calm down their worries that the government is gonna enslave everyone.

The three of us take a stroll around, glancing at some of the items on display. Tisha was the most into them, of course. I had to pull her away from a couple displays, mostly because Emund didn’t want us kicked out for staying too late. Tisha and I follow him towards the back of the building, where a set of closed doors lined a wall. Three of them were open, two had visitors going through, and one had no one going through at all. Emund poked his head in.

“ Yup, this is it.” He motioned for us to enter, and slipped in. I look at my friend.
“ You think we’re gonna get caught?”

“ Probably. I don’t think anyone’s supposed to be in there. Whoever is guarding may as well have left at the wrong time.” Tisha says. I nod.
“ I mean we ended up paying for this so….Might as well?” I say.
“ Sure. I hate wasting money.” She walks into the room, and I quickly follow. Fake bugs crawl down my back as I think someone will see us. Inside the room is white, very white. In the center is the device we saw in the picture. Large, black, with some white wires visible. On each end is a circle piece that looks like it can open up to release something. A small iPad like thing is built into the side facing us. It’s set on a password screen.

Emund inspects the Pad.
“ I guess the gov’s been tryin’ to get into Plasamic’s stuff.” He types in a code. The screen flashes red. “ What? That would’ve worked last time.”
“ I don’t think you should say stuff like that outloud.” Tisha says. “ Someone could hear.”
“ Oh, yeah that’s true. Ceena can you close the door?” Emund asks.
“ Wait why? Isn’t that breaking some rule?” I say.

“ No more than what we’re already doing. Maybe they won’t notice. Maybe someone else opened the door while the person guarding it left and if we close it they won’t see us?” Emund says.

“ How convenient would that be.” Tisha says.
“ I guess but what if that’s not the case?” I ask.

“ Then we’ll get out of here. C’mon Ceena, aren’t we used to this stuff by now?” Emund says.

“ I haven’t been for a long time!” I say. “ I’ve just been living normally for two years.”
“ Have you NOT been living normally Emund?” Tisha asks.
“ I have, mostly. I’m just saying we should be willing to do somethings that are considered slightly dangerous in order to save the good of the people.”
“ What the hell does THAT mean?” I ask. Tisha starts to laugh. I shush her. I close the door gently.

“ Thank you. If you want I can go from here and you two can leave.” Emund says.

If we wanted to not do this then we wouldn’t have come. My friend and I wait around while Emund tries different codes that he learned during his time with Plasamic. Ten minutes later and nothing happens.

“ I can’t figure this out. What is this?” He asks.
“ If anyone here would know it’d be you.” Tisha says.
“ Well of course but since you two girls are here you could at least come and offer me help.” Emund says. I attempt to figure it out for him. I obviously don’t do any better. Whoever made this password knew how to be cryptic. A few minutes later, and we’re deciding on leaving.

“ I’m starting to really feel like this isn’t anything special.” I say. “ I mean what else can it do if neither us nor the military can figure it out?”

“ Exactly, and I’m hungry.” Tisha says. “ Can we some In N out?”
“ I told you you should’ve eaten on the way here.” Emund says.
“ Yes but at that time I wasn’t hungry and now I am!” She says.

“ I could eat too.” I say. Emund groans.
“ I ain’t convinced that this thing isn’t dangerous.”

“ Maybe you should let it go, and have a nice burger instead.” Tisha says.

“ A burger won’t-” A hissing noise starts from the machine. We all step back.

Blue fog spills out from the wires from the two longer sides. It spreads along the floor. The temperature in the room decreases immensely. I wrap my arms around myself. The Pad screen goes red, and a black weapon symbol appears. The two circle sides rotate upwards, revealing big shafts. Inside each shaft a core starts to power up, becoming an icy cyan color. Then the device explodes.

My eyes open to a sky of black. I’m laying down on a field of grass. I move my arms, and feel the blades bend under my weight. I sit up. Ahead of me mountains stretch to the sky. As I look around, tall, jagged, sharp tendrils of rock erect around me. I stand up, and the rocks begin to form closer to me. I hastily run forward, and then stop. More rocks grow up from the grass. The more I walk, the more the rocks climb over me and around me. The floor under me starts to crack apart. White light emits from within. I start to run, and faster and faster. The tendrils swarm me, eventually blocking my path. I smack into one, and fall into another. The crack widens below me, and I fall through.

Second time I awake, and I’m now in a bed. Brown sheets are over me, on a fluffy white mattress. My vision focuses, and I can see the room I’m in. An ebony desk with a lamp. A bookshelf mostly empty. A green and red rug under me. A grey door in the wall across from me. Unlike in the dream, I can think now, I can feel for real. I sit up, and rub my face. At first I can’t think properly. I take a good few minutes to consider everything. I was with Tisha and Emund near the Saromi Desert, in the military facility near closing time. We were inspecting the device made by Plasamic, and it started to activate. Then what? I’m here? I look at the nightstand, nothing on it besides the lamp. I take notice of my clothing. Purple long shirt, and purple long pants. Where’s my phone? Or my purse? Or, my friends? This isn’t my house and this isn’t my room. Is it Tisha’s? I don’t think her place looks like this. Emund’s? Maybe he got his rooms redone, but I have a feeling that’s not it.

I know what I should do. I should be leaving this room and seeing where the hell I am and what’s happened. I stand up and place my bare feet on the rug. Feels nice actually. I walk over to the door and place my hand on the gold knob. I hesitate. I sense something is very wrong. I don’t know what or why or how, but I can’t shake the feeling that something here isn’t right at all. As if once I open this door I’ll be thrust into whatever’s been going on and there’ll be no coming back. This room is a haven of sorts and beyond is not. Stupid overthinking? Maybe. I open the door and peer out.

There’s a hallway. I see two more rooms and a bathroom. To my right is a staircase leading down to somewhere. I pick up the sounds of people talking, and glasses being set on tables. I can’t make out what’s being said, like too many voices are going at once. Where is this? A restaurant? I step out of my room, my heart beating. I nervously start for the staircase. The wood is cold against my feet. I raise my leg to step down the first stair, when I hear footsteps coming up. Instantly I’m frozen. I shouldn’t be scared I’m grown up! But what I am supposed to do? A woman halts her movement as she sees me. She has red hair, tan skin, green eyes. She has on a black tank top, camouflage pants and black boots. A cigar is held between her lips and a coffee mug is in her left hand. She smirks.

“ Well now, you’re finally awake. It’s been sometime Ceena.”

This woman, who I learned the name of whom was Sibeko, and I had a lengthy talk back in my room. The gist of what she’s told me is that the device I had seen in the facility was a bomb. It was planted by a few remaining soldiers of Plasamic, set to go off at a certain time. Once it went off, it blew away everything in the immediate area. That’s why I was knocked out. It released a snowy substance that spread along the far west side of America. To be more specific the area around California and top part of Mexico. As soon as this happened, everyone who lived in those areas were taken into custody by Plasamic members. Ones who had been recruited in secrecy during the last two years in preparation of this moment. They made ten different living sections for these civilians to stay in. Plasamic also made bases to keep track of everything that was going on, and more importantly to keep a fake connection with every outside source. So that anyone anywhere else in the world wouldn’t see something bad going on. Of course, Sibeko told me, this was only meant to be a short term plan. Plasamic was sure to do something after enough time passed. However that next step hadn’t been reached yet. I asked how she knew this. She said that a handful of people have gone against the Plasamic law over the last year. Sneaking around, eavesdropping. She joked that soldiers aren’t exactly the best at keeping secrets.

I lean against the wall, taking this all in.
“ Where are we?” I ask.
“ Section five.” Sibeko says. She is sitting near me on the bed, hands crossed.
“ So this part of the world is under Plasamic control all because of the device?” I ask.
“ Mhm, and the people they got to do it. I don’t understand who would agree to this.” She says. I shake my head.
“ Was it my fault?” I ask.

“ Yours? From the way I see it no. That bomb would’ve gone off no matter what you did.”

“ Wait….How did you find me, and know about me?” I ask.

“ I didn’t find you. Plasamic found you and placed you here in this section. And I know of you since well...There are some of us who knew about the Plasamic blackmarket back then.” Sibeko says.
“ Really? Besides Emund?”
“ Yup. Ceena you should know that it’s hard to keep information out of the public hands. Or at the very least the hands of some people.”
“ But you didn’t help out.”
“ True, very true. I’ll admit we were scared, and so we let you and your friend along with Emund do it for us. Trust me it’s not something we’re proud of.” Her face was apologetic enough.
“ Wow I….” I stare at the wall, thinking. “ My family?” Sibeko shrugged.
“ I wouldn’t know. Probably put into one of these sections. Unless they tried to go against Plasamic.”
“ Meaning?” I ask. She shakes her head. “ Don’t tell me they’re dead.”
“ No, I’m not saying that. I just don’t know. Most people don’t die, only a few have.”

This was one of those moments where a lot of stuff was going on in my head. However through it all I had one thought.

“ Hey, do you uh….Know how I can find my friends and family?”

“ Myself? No. I know a guy who can though. Carligan, we call him Carl. Plasamic placed him as a data keeper for this section. He’s in the small building a block from this bar. Has no windows and looks like a metallic Christmas present.” Sibeko says.
“ I should go there?” I ask.
“ That’d be the place I look. However one thing.” She gets up and leaves the room. I stare after her, my mind blank. Sibeko re-enters holding a set of snow clothes. A thick blue jacket, fluffy orange pants, a dark blue beanie, black gloves and black shoes. “ Here. You’ll be needing this. I did say this place was covered with snow now. As of right now anyway.”
“ For how long?” I ask.

“ No one knows yet like I said. At some point, maybe near future, things will change.”

“ Knowing Plasamic it’ll be a dangerous change again?”
“ Mhm.”

The inside of the bar was fairly warm. The people were nice enough. They ate food that was apparently grown in chemical farms kept by Plasamic. Ew. As I was leaving a soldier burst into the place, and everyone literally stopped moving. He said some things and then left, and the party resumed. Once I had thanked Sibeko for her help, I left the bar. Good lord! LA was snowy. White puffy crystals absolutely dominated everywhere. The streets, buildings, sidewalks, dirt. People walked along, wearing clothing similar to mine.  Outside no one talked happily with each other. They just moved. I saw some Plasamic soldiers, equipped with black and purple military gear and rifles, surveying the areas. They made the folks keep walking, and told them where to go. I wasn’t sure what they wanted out of this. Control? If so they had it so far.

In order for me to get to the Data building, I had to pretty much sneak my way there. Now, I haven’t been doing the whole “sneaking through enemy territory thing” in a long time. I mean granted this time I wasn’t inside of a dangerous military base, I was just moving along with other members of society. Society? Plasamic’s little society? Either way, I had to be extra careful. Most of the children were indoors I assume, and only the adults, or tall people, were outside. I’ve heard my mom tell me that I’m tall, but especially in this scenario I just don’t see it. One thing I do want to be seeing, is her. As I make way down various frost-covered streets, I’m secretly hoping to find her, and dad, and my friends. Sibeko said she didn’t know. I have to reach that data building.

Every time a Plasamic soldier glances past my general area I shiver. Sure I’ve handled them before, but this time I’m armless. I wouldn’t be able to fight them back the way I am now. I think I’ve passed the data building already, and so I’m retracing my steps. I come up to what I think is the building. There’s no one going in, or out. There’s no soldiers near the front doors either. I assume it’s safe to enter. Maybe it’s not. But I have to go in. This is the only lead I have as to what to do, I guess. I slowly open the cold doors and peer in.

The front lobby consists of some waiting tables and lines of people waiting to get to the front desk. There’s a total of six people working at said desk, looking at something on their monitors. The line on the far right is the shortest, and I get on that one. Honestly, it’s a bit unsettling how the interior of these places are so much more...Safer feeling than outside? Not sure if that’s the word. Outside everyone is so quiet, and just walking to their next location somberly as if they were zombies. Soldiers watching their every step. In here, people talk though they don’t laugh much. The more I stand in line and listen in to some of the conversations, I can hear the pain in their speeches. They aren’t happy, they don’t understand what’s happening. They can’t get help, and they don’t want this to continue. I want to help, but how? Tell them I’ll fix it for them again? But this time Plasamic has actually gone through with their plans and taken over, well at least some area of the world. But, I have this unsettling feeling, like Sibeko said. They’re planning more. This can’t be the end. There is something else to come soon. What is it? I don’t know.

I finally reach the desk. A guy is there. Blonde hair, light skin, blue eyes. A scar going down his lip. He looks up at me.
“ Hello, how can I help you?” His voice is strained like he was forced to do this job.

“ Uh….D-Do you know someone named Carligan?” I ask.

“ Yeah, that’s me.” He says.
“ Oh… Well do you know someone named Sibeko?” I ask.
“ I do. We know each other.”
“ Right. Well uh….She said you could help me.”

“ Do you need to find someone or something?” Carl looks at me expectantly. People behind me are waiting. I get the same feeling I have when I’m at a restaurant and I’ve forgotten what I want to order. I shift on my feet.
“ Yeah um… Grand Fletcher and Sima Fletcher?” I say. He looks on his computer for a bit.
“ Yeah I’ve got ‘em. Your parents?”

“ Mhm.” How did Plasamic get their info?

“ They’re in Section 7. Both are ill from the cold, and aren’t expected to get better for some time.” Carl says. A gasp escapes my mouth.

“ Seriously?” I ask, and Carl nods.
“ Sorry. You can take the train to get there. Anything else?”
“ A train?”
“ Yeah, just north of here. More like long moving cars, since they don’t go on rails. But yes trains. They transport us to different sections only allowed by those land trains.”
“ Who’re they?” That question I shouldn’t have asked. Carl winces a little bit, and so does some of the people around me.

“ Just...Anything else?” Carl asks.
“ O-oh….Uh. Tisha Hardisty?” I say.
“ In section 2.” He gave the specific area and house number. “ Ok next!”
“ That’s it?” I ask.
“ Only two finds per come.” Carl says.
“ Why?” He stares at me. Because of them, that’s why. I thank him and enter out back into the cold.

I had no clue what time it was. My stomach was starting to hurt from hunger. I realize I haven’t had anything to eat from when I woke up. How long has it been? Maybe a few hours? I look up into the sky. The sun is directly over me. I’m not Ibo, I can’t read the sun. I begin to head north and look for Plasamic’s land train system.

Carl wasn’t kidding when he said a long car. That’s basically what it was. Like a limousine but it was shiny silver, with multiple windows and the general interior of a train. It had a series of large wheels to move on. Soldiers regulated how many people entered. They only had one train going to different stations at certain times. I had to sit on a bench and wait an hour before they called the train was moving to station 2. This definitely seemed like a temporary setup. Regardless, I move into the train concealed by a pack of adults. I sit down in a corner where I’m covered on all sides. I don’t wanna risk being seen on my way to Tisha. It’s odd, actually, having to be stealthy since apparently people are looking for me. I’ve never had to worry about anyone trying to find me before. Unless you count hide and seek in fourth grade. If that’s the last time I’ve had to hide from someone, then this is not the revisit to that game I was looking for.

As the train moves along the streets, I gaze out my window, watching the frost covered buildings and people blaze by. I try to imagine what the ‘next step’ of Plasamic’s plan could possibly be. Sibeko said that just the far western part of American was affected so far right? So California to somewhere around the border of Mexico I guess? Why here? Mexico? My mind drifts to my parents. Are they still alive? Do they know what’s happened, and that I’m an integral part to stopping it? Well, integral makes it sound like I have to do something now. Do I? Or would someone else fight Plasamic for me? I...Don’t wanna be alone anymore. Not in this new world. Or part of the world. I’m heading to station 2, so hopefully my old friends will be willing to do something again. I can at least take some comfort in knowing that they probably will want to help me, I think. I guess I’ll have to find Knox and my family later.

About a half hour later the train stops at station 2. I exit the train quickly, ducking around the corner of the nearest building. This place looks similar to the station I was just in, except I think it’s more of a neighborhood. There are houses lining a road going along a hill. The larger city of LA is seen in the distance. Was that station 5? I’m assuming that one of these houses must be a ‘containment cell’ for Tisha and Emund. The problem lies in finding the right one. I’d be like a door to door salesmen, endlessly searching for someone to help me. I’ve never done that before, and I don’t wanna start now. I begin to make my way along a sidewalk.

There are only a few people out in this part of the station. Not too many soldiers here either. At least it doesn’t feel as congested as the last one. As I move, I see someone walking towards me up ahead. As they get closer, I see their figure. Feminine, younger, darker skinned, purple hair, with an annoyed kind of walk.

“ Ceena?” She stops in front of me. “ OK good, I finally found you. What the hell’s been goin’ on?”
“ Tisha…” I’m taken back for a second, then I smile. “ I have no idea. We should probably talk though.” And we did. We sat down in Tisha’s ‘house’ and explained everything that’d happened to us so far. It was a pretty comfy place, despite the air of desolation.

“ So, you’re telling me you got an explanation and a way to find me, when all I got was a new home and a neighborhood where everyone is super depressed?” Tisha asks me. I let out a laugh.
“ I guess so yah.”
“ I still don’t get why these dudes can’t just screw off and get a new hobby.”
“ I don’t either.” I say.

“ Like why not a restaurant server? We need more of those anyway. And these Plasamic people know how to make an impression.” Tisha says.
“ That could work. But I think we need to focus on right now.” I say.
“ And what are we supposed to do? From what you’re telling me they have a good amount of control over this area, and we’re trapped by them. You barely got here, I don’t know where Emund is, and we have no other way of fighting back.”

“ I mean...Wait, did you say you didn’t know where Emund is?” I ask. Tisha nods.

“ Haven’t seen him since I woke up in this house.” I put a hand to my face while letting out a sigh.

“ Damn it. I was hoping we could all meet together and figure out what to do.”
“ I mean we can go looking for him. Did this Carl dude tell you where he was?”
“Nope.” I say.

“ Oh. Then he could be around here somewhere!” Tisha says. She stands up. “ For all that getting a new house is worth, it just doesn’t feel right to live here in these kinds of circumstances.” I look up at her.
“ Yeah… You think we can find him?”
“ I hope. Get our old trio back together you know? This might even be fun.”
“ You realize that this is probably gonna be harder than last time right?” I ask.
“ Oh yeah I know. But it’s like a game, ain’t it? The levels get more difficult, but that doesn’t mean we can’t beat it.” Tisha says.

“ The fact that you still see things as a game scares me.”
“ Does it really?”
“ Kinda.” I get up, rubbing my face. “ Alright, there’s nothing else to do. Where should we check?”

We didn’t walk for very long. I also now realized that Tisha was given similar clothing to wear as me. Meaning that she’s in heavy winter wear. I’ll admit I don’t remember the last time I saw her in clothing like this. I think? It’s a bit hard to remember somethings from before all this happened. As the two of us move along the icy neighborhood, we pass a few other people, who’re wandering aimlessly, confused. One point a soldier saw us, and began to advance on us. Tisha pulled me as she ran around a house. We ran through the backside of a couple houses, somehow losing the man. Once we returned to the streets, we heard two people arguing. White house, with the front door open. A female guard stood in the doorway, trying to explain something to the man in front of her. He was tannish. He had orange hair, sunglasses, and a yellow set of winter clothing. Tisha and I look at each other, and smirk. We wait a bit for the argument to end, and the man shuts the door on the woman. She walks away in disgust. As soon as she’s far enough away we bolt to the front door. I knock hastily. It opens slowly, the man peering down at us.

“ Who’re you?”
“ Emund it’s us.” I say.
“ Who’s us?”
“ The girls you were with when the bomb went off? Who you used to get money?” Tisha says. Emund considers this. He shakes his head.
“ I don’t know you.”
“ Come on please! We don’t have time for this!” I say. He looks around, and opens the door a little more.

“ Fine fine. Get in here, and we can talk.”

So Emund’s experience was a little like Tisha’s except for the fact that he wasn’t allowed to leave his house at all.

“ Yeah they said that since I used to work for and then betrayed them, they won’t allow me outside of my ‘cell.’” Emund says, reclining on a red chair. Tisha and I are on the couch.

“ That sucks. But we have to do something.” Tisha says. “ This isn’t gonna get any better, right?”
“ I don’t think it will.” I say. “ But I can’t think of what to do. I mean how do we take away a company’s control over an entire part of the world?”

“ Must be somewhere where Plasamic has weaknesses right?” Emund asks. “ That’s how they usually work. They have power that comes from certain points of interest that’s then connected to other areas where they do most of their actual work. Cut that point of interest and the rest should fall.”

“ Ok, but we don’t even know where those points are.” I say.

“ Only one way to find out right?” Tisha asks.

“ Mhm. By searching for it.” Emund says. “ I just need to figure out a way to leave this damn house without being seen.”

“ It’s gonna be much harder to move with you.” Tisha says.

“ Oh thanks.” Emund says. I laugh.
“ Just cover up your face for now, and we can sneak around I guess.”

“ Where are we going first of all?” Emund asks. “ Ceena, maybe we can check around in the station you came from?”

“ Actually, while I was out and about a little bit ago,” Tisha says. “ I overheard a conversation between two people at one of these houses. I think someone mentioned a chemical farm where the new food is grown.”
“ New food?” I ask.
“ Chemicals?” Emund asks. Tisha nods.
“ Apparently. Station...Uh….3? I think that’s what they said. I could be wrong however.”

“ What about it?” I ask.
“ That got me curious. I was gonna look for it when I bumped into you Ceena.”
“ Why would we spend time trying to look for that?” Emund asks. “ Don’t we have something more important to be doing?”

“ Yes, but since we don’t know exactly how to do that more important thing, can’t we go check out this farm?” Tisha asks.
“ I mean….I guess it’s better than nothing.” I say.
“ I still see it as pointless.” Emund says.
“ If it’s so pointless to you then you can stay here and we can go!” Tisha says.

“ Who said I was staying here any longer. This place is depression in the form of a house.” Emund says.

We finally decided on leaving the house and going to the farm in station 3. I think we all just wanted to be doing something rather than nothing. Tisha wasn’t sure if there was a farm in station 3, but we were heading towards the train anyway. Emund had covered up his face with an extra jacket he found. He looked like a little kid who tried to make a Bumblebee costume for Halloween and failed miserably. At least it worked, the soldiers who saw us from far away figured he must’ve been some weirdo with his kids. If they got too close Tisha and I would have to move a large way around them, since that close up we were bound to be seen.

It uh, didn’t work. The three of us were heading through an alleyway between two larger buildings at the outer perimeter of the station. Emund figured it was fine, since people tend to go down these all the time. I guess however,  people didn’t do that so much in Plasamic’s world. Not only was no one else there except us, but before we could make it to the other side, a voice called out behind us.
“ HEY! Where’re you three going? You’re not with the rest of ‘em!” A Plasamic soldier stalked towards us, rifle in hand. I turned to face him. He saw me and gasped. “ It is you three. By God.” He put his wrist to his mouth and spoke into a comms piece. “ I need backup, I found the three sneaking around undetected.”

“ Run!” Emund said. We bolted, but three more soldiers appeared ahead of us. We stood there, eyeing the attackers. They closed in, weapons trained on our heads.

“ You’re lucky we kept you here so long, don’t blow it. We’re still waiting on orders as to what to do with you crazy people.”

“ A bit hypocritical to call us the crazy ones.” Tisha mutters. I feel my heart beat increase tenfold. My legs are wobbly. We can’t fight back, we have no weaponry. Emund seems like he’s ready to punch one them in the face.

The guard behind us lets out a gasp. I see him hit the ground, a bullet in his back. The three soldiers in front of us look around in surprise.

“ Who did that?! Come out now!” I see a figure dash along the roof of one of the buildings. Another soldier is shot, he falls to the ground. The other two are overtaken by confusion. Emund smacks one in the face hard. She stumbles and collapses. The third is about to shoot me, when a bullet penetrates the top of his skull. We stand there, not sure of what to do. Should we run? Are more Plasamic members coming? Nothing happens. Emund motions for us to follow him. He begins to head for the exit to the alleyway in a semi-jog. Tisha and I glance at each other and follow him.

As we come to the sidewalk, we look around anxiously. So far no one has seen anything. A door to my left opens, and a figure steps out. They whisper something to us, waving their arm for us to follow them inside of the building. I’m hesitant, but then another guard spots us. I tug my friend’s shoulders and start to head for the figure.

“ Ceena what are you doing?” Tisha asks.
“ Inside of there! I think that’s the one who saved us! We should hurry someone’s coming!” I say. Emund thinks for a moment. He looks skeptical, but he sees the guard walking towards us.
“ Just get in.” He follows me to the building door. Tisha is confused, but she doesn’t have much else in terms of options right now. She slips through the doorway after Emund and me. The figure practically slams the door closed. They have a thick light brown coat on, with a hood and a black scarf that covers half of their face.

“ Upstairs, now.” They say. They point to a staircase across the way, past some office desks.

I’m not sure why I’m being so trusting of this stranger. I think it’s because they saved us. I climb up the stairs, coming to an upper hallway. Tisha and Emund are right behind me. There are five rooms, two on each side and one straight ahead. We wait for a few minutes just standing there. Then the hooded figure glides past me, going into the room on the far right. They flick their hand, telling us to come in.

“ Trust this?” Tisha whispers to me. I shrug.
“ We’re already here, and I think they saved us.” I say.

“ If that’s true then we’ll need their help.” Emund says. “ But we shouldn’t just stand here.” We walk into the stranger’s room, the floorboards creaking under each of our steps.

It looks like a sloppily made bedroom. There’s a bed with white sheets thrown on it, some work lockers put together in one corner, and a desk with a computer and some snack bags on it. A window brings in the afternoon sky. I can assume this is one of the places that some Plasamic member quickly made into a somewhat livable place during their year or so of preparation after the bomb went off. On the bed lies the stranger. Their hood is drawn back, and their scarf is on the bed to their side. Long, wavy brown hair is sprawled out on the pillow. Dark yellow eyes look at us, implanted in her white skin.

“ I didn’t think the ones who stopped Plasamic before would be so helpless now.” She swings her legs over the side of the bed. “ You can sit down here, or there’s a chair in the corner next to the desk.”

Emund sits in the chair, Tisha sits on the ground, and I just simply stand. The stranger eyes each of us. “ So, we should get acquainted first. I know you three, Emund, Tisha, and Ceena. I’m Ressai.” She twirls a pistol in her left hand.

“ You...Know, us?” I ask timidly. Ressai nods.

“ Indeed. Well, sort of anyway. Emund, do you recognize me?”

“ Hm…” He thinks for a minute. “ Wait, weren’t you that one girl that used to cross paths with me at Plasamic some years ago?”
“ Yeah, I am. Good, you remember.” Ressai says.
“ What happened to you? Why do you look like an assassin now?” Emund asks. Tisha smirks.

“ To cuts things short, I’ll explain briefly.” Ressai says. “ Once you left Plasamic, I saw that as my chance to do so also. Like you, I also wanted to stop this damn company from doing something they would regret. However, by the time I got enough courage to do so…. I had found you and your new friends already on the way.”
“ But then why didn’t you help us?” Tisha asks.
“ I dunno...I thought you three were enough, that too much wasn’t a good thing in that case….I was just afraid back then. But not now.” Ressai says.

I point at her gun.
“ How did you….?”
“ Well...Over the last year or so….I’ve been busy you could say.” Ressai aims the pistol at the wall, then lowers it. “ While you three were, incapacitated, I’ve been able to do some….Practice doing what I enjoy.”
“ Shooting people?” Tisha asks. This makes me worried, I’m afraid that comments gonna get us shot or something. Ressai simply smirks.

“ In a way you could say that. But more than that, like sneaking around, moving in between the lines going to the place you’re not supposed to just so I can make it to where I want to go.”
“ Like how you used the top of this building to save us?” I ask. Ressai nods.

“ Yeah. There’s only a couple of people who’ve done the same like me. We move around and sneak our way around Plasamic’s security. It’s honestly fun, these guys aren’t very well setup.”
“ We knew that.” Emund said.
“ However, during my time sneaking….I found out some interesting information.”
“ Do you want our help?” I ask.

“ I do. I could try to crack it myself…. But now that you guys are here, we should discuss it. And we don’t have much time.” Ressai gets up. I move back. “ Follow me, into the room across the hall. There I have a little setup so I can explain better.” We follow her into the opposite room. This is more or less a storage unit with a bunch of lockers and papers on the ground. Along one of the barren walls, is a web of pictures and notes. Each picture has a location somewhere in what I think might be California and or...Mexico?
“ Those are Plasamic buildings….Or at least they could be.” Emund says. “ Have you been taking pictures of their bases?” Ressai nods.
“ I have. Got these before all of our phones were taken away. Of course, I have around twenty pictures here, and I know that most of them probably aren’t the actual locations of main power units.” She says.

“ Then why do you have them?” I ask.
“ I figured they’d help me visually organize my exploration. It’s a shock that none of them have found this out yet.” Ressai Says. Tisha walks up to the wall, examining the photos.
“ The problem is most of the buildings around here look about the same, with all the snow.”
“ Mhm, that’s why I said it’s hard to be sure of where anything may be, in terms of Power stations.” Ressai says. I point to one photo towards the right side of the web.

“ Isn’t that in San Diego?”
“ Yeah, that’s the one place I’m the most confident we could find a P station in.” Ressai says.

“ P station?” Tisha asks.  
“ I’ll call it P stations, short for Power stations, main bases of operations, that kinda thing.” Ressai says.

“ Well, I reckon that’d be the first place to start this whole thing no?” Emund asks. Ressai looks at the picture in question. A silver building, not too different from any other military styled facility, kinda looks like a theater or entertainment center.
“ It would be the place to look I guess.” Ressai says. “ I haven’t really looked around that much for these things honestly.”
“ Why not?” I ask. Ressai wraps her arms around herself.
“ I dunno….Guess it’s just the kinda thing you need to be ready for, you know? Besides I was a little scared to do it myself. Traveling alone out here, especially when attempting to enter areas that Plasamic doesn’t want you in….”

Tisha nods.

“ Scary then right? If that’s the case we’ll just go together.”

“ Is that the only way to solve this?” I ask. “ I mean, this is all bound to fall apart once the other countries, and the rest of the U.S. finds out right?”
“ Ceena, I wouldn’t be so sure.” Emund says. He leans against a locker. “ Remember when your new companion Sibeko or whoever you told us about told you that Plasamic has a ‘next phase’ to their plans?”
“ Companion?” Ressai asks.

“ Didn’t you also say that Ressai?” Emund asks. She looks at him.

“ Yeah….Well I did. Whatever they’re going to do...I feel like just waiting to see what happens won’t be the answer.”

“ Ok so then we go to these...What did you call them Ressai, P Stations?” Tisha says. “ We go to them, shut them down, and we’re good!”

“ Wait, no.” Ressai says. “ Just shutting them down won’t work like it did for you guys last time. Plasamic has much more control then the first time around, and if we simply go around shutting things down it’ll cause attention to be drawn to us.”

“ I get that.” I say. “ So we can...Wait how many main bases were there  again? Two?”
“ Three, I believe. But so far only two main ones have been heard of around here.” Ressai says.

“ Then what about just getting rid of those two places? Would that cause like a….Chain reaction effect?” I ask.
“ What effect? Are the rest of the areas held down by Plasamic just gonna fall away like dominoes?” Tisha asks.

“ It could be possible.” Emund says. “ If Plasamic really is still working under a central power type of control, then if we remove the main points of power we should be able to see that loss of direction lead to their downfall.”
“ Right, and the people themselves would be riled up enough to make sure the rest of the soldiers can’t do anything. As long as those soldiers are taken by surprise and can’t get backup.”

“ Oh I see. So that this loss of direction would confuse the remaining Plasamic soldiers long enough for everyone to pretty much overthrow them?” Tisha asks. Ressai nods.

“ That’s the hope anyway. We can locate and destroy the two main bases and then figure out where the third one is.”

So it was decided then. Tisha, Ressai and I would set off for San Diego to find this so-called P Station. Emund wanted to come, but Ressai suggested he stayed behind, as he was the most familiar to Plasamic than any of us. It could make things more difficult if we have to hide him even more carefully than we have to hide ourselves. However, he would still be of some use.

“ Well if I’m staying put,” He said. “ Then I have something to add. If stealth is your goal, then we’ll wanna take out both bases at the same time, so that there’s no way we can be jeopardized in the middle of our ‘mission.’ If we’re to do that, then I still know how to set up some nasty bombs.”

“ Oh no, not this whole blowing stuff up again.” Tisha had said.

“ No really, this time it’ll make more sense. I promise!” Emund said.

“ Do you know where to get said bombs from?” Ressai asked.
“ Nope. But you can show me right?” Emund asked. Ressai had sighed and said yes. It could be a tad difficult, but she could show him. That was the plan then. Emund goes undercover for a while, during which Tisha, Ressi and I ( like I said) will be doing the dirty work. We find the two main bases, mark them down, and afterward have Emund send them sky high. Sure, it’d be easier if he could come along with us, or if we could set up bombs ourselves, but we can’t. None of us besides him even know the basics of setting up explosives, and we don’t have time to figure it out. Plus, we need to move quick, so Emund being with us would slow us down like we’ve said. Guess that’s how it is. Another mission to save the planet. A mission that could kill me, and one that most of the world won’t even know about. Great. Why not. Better than letting whatever else would happen...Happen.

After our meeting was done, we got something to eat. We were all hungry. Plasamic at least has the decency to let some restaurants stay open. Even if they have soldiers standing guard. Along our way to some Spanish food place, we heard yelling on the streets. An older lady wasn’t willing to deal with Plasamic’s new rules. She was on the sidewalk, yelling at a soldier.

“ This is RIDICULOUS!” She says. “ You cannot just freeze over our land, and make it your own! The government WILL stop all of this!”
“ Ma’am, the government won’t have a chance. Now just please move along and stop being the reason why Humanity is a plague to the Earth.” The man said. The woman’s veins popped out in anger.
“ How DARE you even SAY that to me!” She attempts to hit him with her bag. The man grabs her wrist, and shoots her in the stomach with his rifle. The old lady drops to the ground, blood puddling around her. I, and the people around me, stop and gasp. I hear people murmur. No one does anything except watch.

“ KEEP MOVING EVERYONE!” The soldier says. He takes out his phone and calls someone. I want to do something, but Ressai takes hold of my arm.

“ Ceena, no. We can’t it’ll only cause more trouble. If you want to stop this, then we need to follow the plan.”
“ Even if innocents die for stupid reasons while we do it?” I ask.
“ That’s how it is. If this works, then it should be worth it in the end.” Ressai says.
“ And if we don’t make it work?” I ask. Ressai looks at me. Her eyes gleam serious under her hood and over her scarfed mouth. We’re all wearing hoods here. We’re all looking the same under Plasamic’s rules. I grudgingly move onwards with the crowd. We catch up with Tisha and Emund, who had made it to the train already.

We waited an hour for the train to head for Station nine. That was where Emund chose to go. I’m not sure why, and I don’t think he has a reason. But as long as he’s out of the way I guess. However there was an issue. I notice Ressai sitting on the bench next to me, digging through a backpack. She’d stop every time a soldier walked by, and then start again.

“ What are you looking for?” I ask.

“ I have things in here that’ll be helpful for us.” She takes out two phones. They’re old, like iPhone 4s I think.

“ Are you trying to scare us with how old those are.” Tisha says.
“ No Tisha, this is for the….” A soldier watches us, and then begins to herd people into the train when the doors open. Ressai shoves a phone into my hands and offers one to Emund. “ Take these. For contact.” Emund inspects the phone. He gives a thumbs up and gets up, walking quickly towards the train. The doors close and the vehicle speeds away. I look at my phone. It’s fairly cracked, but the battery still works. There’s no apps on it, except for Google, the picture app and the messaging app.

“ So I take pictures of the bases and send them to Emund?” I ask. Ressai nods. She stands up, shouldering her pack.
“ We should start moving before we’re yelled at. I have two more things for you two, but we can’t exchange them here.”

We head back to Ressai’s place. It was repetitive to go all the way back, but I guess there’s no other safe option. Does that mean there’s no safe option for Emund? Or Knox? My parents? What about Tisha and Ressai’s friends and family? When I asked Tisha she didn’t say much. She said she’ll check on them later, whatever that means. Ressai? I need to ask. But when I attempt to do so, something about her stops me. Maybe it’s her rigid, over serious manner. Her cold set eyes. Now’s not the time for those questions. Hopefully at some point I can ask her. It didn’t help when she offered me an arm gun.  A little blue and grey gauntlet that attaches to my right wrist. It has a wrap around piece that you squeeze with your fingers and an energy bullet shoots out of the nozzle on the top.

“ Don’t ask where I got this. I’ve found some odd things during my searches. Plasamic’s weird. Most of the ‘inventions’ they make they don’t even use, at least not yet.” All Tisha got was a normal pistol.

“ Ok really? Ceena has an awesome arm cannon and I get a dinky pistol?”

“ Not sure if you should really be complaining right now Tisha.” I say. Tisha twirls the gun around her fingers.

“ Eh, I guess. But you’ll have to let me use that at some point.”
“ I might.” I say. “ Does Plasamic not know you have these things Ressai?”

“ No, they don’t do house searches. If someone tries anything outside they take care of it quickly. No need. Besides this is only temporary.” She takes a slightly longer gun out of her pack. Like Tisha’s, except the barrel is bigger, and she has to use both hands to hold it. I guess it’s some kind of personal sniper pistol.

“ Right, well now that we’re kids with guns again,” I say. “ Where are we going?”

“ San Diego, in Station 10.” Ressai says. “ We should head over to the train deck, and wait. We might get lucky and not have to wait for too long.” For the first time, we actually didn’t have to sit on a bench for all of eternity. The train was loading up for station ten as we arrived. Wonder how long the good luck will last. We move with the crowd and sit down. Ressai tells Tisha and me to put our guns under the seats. Tisha does, but I can just roll my sleeve up over my arm. The train rumbles, and we take off.

As the vehicle plows through the snow, heading from Los Angeles to San Diego, I attempt to message my parents. I input my dad’s phone number and text him. “ Dad? It’s Ceena Fletcher. How’re you?” I wait for five minutes. No response. I text a similar message to my mom. Then to Knox. Ten minutes more, and there’s nothing. Pressure and anxiety build in my throat. Are they ok? Please tell me they aren’t dead, they can’t be. They can’t be. They’re just doing what Plasamic tells them to do right? They don’t have phones since barely anyone here who isn’t part of them doesn’t have a phone. I’ll have to see them later, I will. Whenever I’m not held down by time to stop this all. I text Emund. “ Is your phone working? This is Ceena.” I wait in agony for a reply. Why is it always when I’m texting this guy specifically that I feel like crap?

“ I got it. My phone’s working. This thing is so old.” He texts back. I sigh with relief. Tisha looks over my shoulder at the phone.

“ We’re on our way to the first station. Where’re you?” I ask.
“ In some apartment. They practically shoved me in here as soon as I arrived. Door’s locked. Good thing I hid my phone. They don’t like me.”

“ Wow, you have food?”
“ Fridge is full so yeah. Good luck to all three of you. Lemme know when you’re ready for me to help.” Emund says.
“ Yeah, you stay not dead in the meantime.” I say. I put the phone down. Tisha looks at me, and I stare at her. We don’t say anything, for fear the men at the front and back of the train will hear. But Tisha’s eyes give off the same feeling they always do. The same feeling they gave off back then. Determination, a hint of nervousness, a hint of fear, and excitement. She tries for a smile. I do the same. Not sure if I succeeded in looking confident, but I tried. I look to my right, to where Ressai is watching the outside world. A seemingly endless expanse of white.

I want to tell her something. That we will get through this, and we’re here to fight this together. That I dunno what’s going to happen, but whatever it is, we can work our way through it together. Ressai seems like she needs someone to tell her that right now. But I can’t, not yet. That frustrates me. I’m afraid I won’t have a chance later on to say anything. But I will, I will. After a few more minutes, the train stops. The doors open, and people exit. As we walk out with them, I look around. The sun’s out, there’s buildings scattered here and there, and some small restaurants. I bend down, acting like I’m picking something up. I can use the Google feature on my phone to bring up a vague map of the area. There’s a neighborhood nearby, and a lake, a downtown, and more. We’re in San Diego.

It feels odd, being a new place in these circumstances. I figured that somewhere so close to LA isn’t supposed to be covered in snow. Why hasn’t the snow melted? Is this even natural? Probably isn’t. I stand up, putting the phone in my pocket.
“ I guess it’s time to start looking.” Ressai says.
“ Wouldn’t you know where the...Thing is?” Tisha asks. Ressai shakes her head.

“ Haven’t exactly looked for them yet.” She says sheepishly. “ I’ve always gone for other things.”
“ Ok, we can start now.” I say.
“ Yeah, we should move.” Tisha says, seeing a guard. We leave the train deck and begin the search.

We came by a high school. I remember this place. Scripps Ranch High School. My mom was gonna have me go here at some point. Then my dad convinced her it’d be simpler to have me stay in LA for school for until at least college. I was gonna move out of the city for college. Funny how that didn’t happen. It’s interesting to check this place out now. There’s no one here. It’s not in session.

“ I guess Plasamic doesn’t have any teachers on deck for this.” Tisha says as we walk by.

“ They wouldn’t. Not when they’re only in the process of whatever they’re doing.” Ressai says.

“ So they just give every kid time off from school?” I ask.

“ Ceena we were already on break.” Tisha says.

“  Yeah, over a year ago Tisha.” I say laughing.
“ Ohhhh, right. So no school for that long? Sounds good to me.” Tisha says.

“ Perhaps…” Ressai says.

“ Ressai, how old are you?” I ask.
“ Uh…. Seventeen.”

“ Really? Damn!” Tisha says. “ What grade were you in?”
“ Twelfth. I was in the middle of my second term when…”
“ Oh, well. Aren’t you happy you don’t have to deal with it?” Tisha asks.
“ Yeah, I guess. I kinda liked going to school though.” Ressai says.
“ Why?”
“ Cause um…” Ressai stuffs her hands in her pockets and keeps moving.

“ Tisha, can you stop questioning her?” I ask.
“ I’m not!....I mean I am but I’m just curious.”
“ Ok? You know that some things need to be asked at the right times.” I say.

“ Is there something you’re waiting to ask?” Tisha asks.
“ Well…. Let’s just go.” I say. We move on from the school. As we cross the street to head towards the San Diego Miramar Lake, I notice a group of toddlers being lead by two female Plasamic soldiers. I try not to worry about that.

Why did we go to the lake? I dunno, we figured something might be there. Seemed off enough to make sense. We stuck with some younger boys as we made our way around the lake. These boys were disgustingly weird. Even after being forced into a situation where they have to listen to evil army people, they still find a way to be perverted.
“ You girls are looking cute today. Do you have partners? You need one around here, let us be your missing half.” We didn’t respond much. If my friends and I didn’t have to stay in groups to be safe, we would’ve left long ago from these losers. It wasn’t even worth it, considering that the lake yielded NOTHING. We found NOTHING! We walked about half of it and then we were forced to walk the other half. Some soldier guy told us we had to stick to groups or else. Apparently, the three of us kids wasn’t enough. If we were in a public area we needed to be in larger groups or with adults. I hate this. What the hell does this reward Plasamic with? A reason for them to be utterly destroyed?

After exiting the lake, Ressai suggests the theater located nearby in a shopping area.

“ Why there?” I ask.
“ If we’re going with the logic that they’re probably hiding something in a place you wouldn’t think…” Ressai was interrupted by a guard walking over.

“ Kids, what are you doing?”
“ What do you mean officer?” Tisha asks. The guard stares at her, his gaze hard.

“ Stay with the group. Also what are you talking about?” The three of us look at each other.
“ Uh… We were just discussing a game we were uh, playing.” I say. The guard watches us. Crowds of people pass us by.
“ Well just move along now!” He says. Ressai begins to follow some old men, and motions for us to join her. Tisha looks at the guard for a moment, then moves on. We head towards the shopping area. It was a decent size. On the left you have some restaurants and a big movie theater and on the right you have a large furniture store and some more restaurants.

“ This place sure likes its food doesn’t it.” Tisha says. We enter the area on the left, passing by a bookstore.
“ It’s not all restaurants, and I mean, we need to eat.” I say.

“ How in the world did Plasamic even manage to do this?” Ressai says. “ Keeping track of all these people? Even if it is temporary.”

We searched around the place for a good fifteen minutes. Each building had soldiers posted and people walking in and out. All their faces having the same worried, upset, distressed look. Anyone who was laughing or smiling was probably faking it. How couldn’t they be? In each one of said buildings we found nothing. They all seemed “normal.”
“ Can we try the theater now?” Ressai asks. We exited a bread place. “ I’ve been saying for the last fifteen minutes we should go there.”

“ Then maybe you should’ve gone yourself.” Tisha says. “ I just wanted to see what this place was like.” Ressai stops and looks at her.
“ What? In the midst of all that is going on right now you want to check it out?”
“ Yeah, can’t we have some fun while we do our job?” Tisha asks.
“ Guys.” I say.
“ No Tisha we can’t. We do not have TIME.” Ressai says. “ Can you stop joking long enough for us to get this finished?”
“ Why are you so rude? I’m just wanting to lighten the mood!” Tisha says back. I see a guard coming over.

“ Guys, we need to move now!” I say. Ressai sees the soldier and lets out a growl.
“ Fine, come on then.” She briskly heads past me and towards the movie theater. I look at Tisha. She gives me an innocent glance.

“ Why, we need to just move on and get this done.” I say. Tisha shakes her head, and walks ahead.

The theater itself was simple enough looking on the outside. Red with white outlines. The front doors however, were locked. Ressai inspects the keypad attached to the silver doors.
“ Damn it, I knew it. Just like before. We need a Plasamic key card to get in.”
“ So if that’s the case then we’re screwed.” I say. “ There’s no way we can get one without being spotted, is there?” Tisha looks around. She notices a desolate parking lot that goes around the corner of the theater.
“ What if we lured one of them back there, and then took their card?”

“ You mean murder them first and then steal from them?” I ask.

“ I guess yeah, what else can we do?” Ressai checks around for anyone listening. So far not yet.
“ I guess I don’t see any other way.” She lowers her voice to a whisper so that we look like other groups standing around talking. “ Where do we hide the body?”
“ Good question.” I say. “ We can just knock them out, and prop them up all nice looking maybe.”
“ So then their co-workers will just think they are drunk?” Tisha asks.

“ Fat chance, in this state the others would be bound to know that something’s up.” Ressai says. A woman dressed in Plasamic black and silver clothing passes by. She glances at us as she goes, hoisting up her gun. Tisha jabs a thumb at her.
“ This would be our chance. Lone Soldier. Do we take it?” I look at Ressai. At first she hesitates, as if thinking about the eventual consequences of this action. She fingers the strap of her backpack. That makes me remember that she still has a gun with her, and so does Tisha. So do I.

“ Fine, let’s try it. If we do do this, we need to move fast.” Ressai looks at Tisha.
“ Ok ok I know.” Tisha says. “ Who’s going to do it then?”
“ I can, you two stay here.” Ressai says. “ Act like you’re relaxing near a tree or something. Anything except standing here.” She glances around, and then makes for the woman who’s near the parking lot.

I see Ressai ask her a question, pointing to somewhere around the corner of the building. The soldier seems to argue at first, but eventually Ressai leads her out of sight. What did she tell her? I guess it doesn’t matter, assuming that Ressai comes back. Tisha leans against a tree. I sit down next to her. She holds herself tight, like she’s cold even though she has heavy gear on. I watch the people go by, and the Plasamic members occasionally glancing at us. Is it just me, or are they watching us just a little more than they are the others? Do all of them know who we are? How could they? When we stopped them two years I figured it was fairly anonymous, and that no one knew. Except for a few outsiders like Ressai. Knox doesn’t know, I never told him. Maybe I should, we’re good enough friends and I think he could handle it. My parents don’t either.
“ Tisha?” I ask.

“ Yeah Ceena?”
“ Do...Your parents know about this?”
“ What do you mean? You mean about us and Plasamic? Two years ago N all that?” I nod my head.
“ Yeah.”
“ Oh well…” Tisha sighs. “ I don’t think so. My parents barely know or have anything to do in my life. You know that.”
“ Mhm, which sucks.”
“ I guess. It was always fine for me, since I learned to be more independent and I could develop myself without their influence.” Tisha says.
“ I’ve said already how parental influence isn’t always a bad thing.” I say.

“ Ok? I know, but still. I like to be my own person, do my own thing. Even if others don’t appreciate what I do.”

“ Are you upset about Ressai? I mean like what happened earlier?” We stop talking while three soldiers pass by. Good thing we’re in a more public area or else they might’ve gotten on our cases.
“ That? I’m used to it. Remember Xbox Live?” Tisha says.
“ Ugh, yeah. No one on there is friendly.” I say.

“ Mhm, plus those girls at school…” Tisha begins to pull out her pistol from her pocket, maybe to inspect it. She thinks twice and puts it away. “ I’m fine. Let’s hope this uh...Mission, or whatever, works out.”

“ Yeah, let’s hope.” I say.

Four minutes later, and Ressai comes back. I nearly jump when she taps my shoulder. Looking up I see a yellowish card in her hand. She stuffs it into her pocket.

“ Come on. We need to make a distraction or something so we can get in.”

“ How?” I ask.

“ Just yell some lewd thing and you’ll have the attention.” Tisha says. Ressai ignores this.
“ How about…” I see a crowd of people near the front doors, trying to get in. Some younger guys and girls. I think they were trying to see Into the SpiderVerse. Is that an old movie by now? “ We can hide in between that mob. That way the guards will have to question them before going for us.”
“ Is that all you have to offer?” Ressai asks.  
“ I guess so.”
“ What other choices do we have?” Tisha says. “ I’d rather go with that than stay out here where we’re being watched.” Ressai glances at the kids.

“ Coincidentally they’re right next to where we’re entering.”

“ Yeah exactly.” I get up. “ Please?”
“ Sure, whatever. Just come on.” Ressai heads for the crowd. Tisha and I follow.

Getting in was a lot more simple than I thought it would be. We just asked the kids to let us to the door. They were all trying to get in, so they let us with ease. Ressai scanned her stolen card and it beeped green, the door popping open slightly. The three of us slipped in. Tisha shut the door on the other kids, who were crying in outrage. We’d blocked their only way in. Now that we were inside, we have...I dunno how much time we have. Not much, considering the outside guards are likely to have seen what we did and are approaching this moment. I take in the scenery. It looks like a normal theater lobby, kinda. The ticket station has been converted into a station for storage. Dozens of lockers and papers were scattered everywhere. Only a few computers were on. The food stand was empty, and so were the hallways.

“ Looks like a teenage boy just moved in here.” Tisha says.

“ Shhh. This is enemy territory!” Ressai whispers.
“ Why are you crouching?” I ask.

“ Because! If we’re lower to the ground it’ll be harder for them to see us!”

“ But we’re in the open, and there’s no one else here.” Tisha says. Ressai gives her an irritated glance.

“ Look, just can we…” She sighs. “ Can we find some information and get out?”

“ What info?” I ask. “ One of those computers?”

“ I doubt-” Ressai perks up like a wolf. Footsteps are heard coming from one of the halls, and a voice talking. “ Move!” Ressai dashes across the lobby, vaulting over the counter of the food station and hiding. Tisha does the same except she goes behind the ticket station. I have no clue where to go.

A man in silver and black walks out, talking into a phone. He spots me and stops dead. My insides jolt, and I move without thinking. I raise my arm at him, and squeeze my hand. A tiny, blue bullet hits the man in the chest. He grabs his peck, and falls to the floor. I stare at the body. Did I just shoot him with my arm gun? Why did I do that? Is that gonna cause more issues? I hear fumbling outside behind me. The kids and some soldiers. They’ll be more coming in soon.

“ Ceena! Come here!” Tisha calls to me. I shakily walk towards her. She’s searching through one of the pcs. “ There’s like a bunch of gibberish on here. All kinds of data for different places. Something called Archer, and a space station?”

“ A what?” I ask. I lean over the desk, looking at the screen. “ Is that real? Why space? And how?”
“ You askin’ me? No idea! But what do we do with this?” Tisha asks. I notice Ressai coming over.

“ Find anything? Our time’s short.” She looks at the pc. “ What…? Space…?”
“ Why’re we focusing on that right now?” I ask.

“ Cause space is cool.” Tisha says.
“ No Ceena’s right Tisha.” Ressai says. “ Anything about one of the two main bases?”
“ I uh…. Don’t know… It’s confusing to say the least.” Tisha says. “ You know how to use this?”
“ Lemme see I-” Ressai’s interrupted by more footsteps. Faster this time. “ Get back to the food area with me. And don’t kill them. They could help us.”

So we hide behind the candys and cheeseburgers. It smelled horrible. A man comes over, seeing the body. He says something on his phone. The front doors burst open. Five more soldiers enter. I notice some blood on the pavement outside as the doors close. Two of them carry the soldier body away back outside. The others stand ground and begin to search. One of them heads to the pc, hooking up a pair of headphones. He starts talking. Is he on a voice chat with someone else?

“ Guys.” I say quietly. “ We may want to hear what that guy is saying.”

“ If he’s in contact with another station….” Ressai says. “ How do we get there?”
“ I have an idea.” Tisha says. “ I’ll act as a distraction and you two go over there and listen in.”

“ Wait no what are you-”

“ It’s fine, just go!” Tisha stops me. She leaps over the counter.

All of the men, except the one talking, see her.
“ Oh! Sorry! Is the theater closed?”
“ What the HELL is she doing?!” Ressai hisses.
“ I dunno!” I say. Tisha is escorted out of the theater. Many ‘what ifs’ start to pass through my head. “ Should we help her?”
“ No, not yet. Look.” The place is empty besides the one man talking on the pc. “ We have our chance.”
“ We can’t just walk over.” I say.
“ No no we’ll crouch down and go up behind him.” Ressai says.
“ Crouch down?”
“ Yes just follow me if you don’t understand!” Ressai hops over the counter. She lays flat on her stomach, wiggling along the carpeted ground like a worm. She can’t be serious about me doing the same thing. Can she? What else am I to do though….Staying here is probably a death sentence, or at least the kind of sentence that wouldn’t solve the current frosty problem. I awkwardly climb over the counter top, and lower myself to the ground. God if Tisha or my parents saw me right now. Who knew I’d be doing this in a movie theater. Life is weird.

I worm up next to Ressai, who’s plastered against the lower part of the ticket booth. Close enough to hear the conversation going on.
“ Yes yes. We have one of the three. She’s outside, given strict orders. Second time she’ll be shot….. The lemon cargo is on its way to San Jose now….. How’s Archer going? Did you send out the rifle shipments? They need it over there. We only have three days. At least get them there so they have it!....” I look at Ressai, who looks at me. She has the same face I do. Surprised. Ressai points to right hallway. I think she wants to leave. I nod. We quietly crawl along the ground, until we’re out of earshot. We stand up, and head for the back exit.

Once outside, Tisha is waiting for us.

“ Hey guys, figured you’d be here.”
“ Are you okay?” I ask. “ I heard that-”
“ Yeah yeah. They gave me some warning, then threatened me.”

“ Huh, ok. Well we know where we’re going next.” I say.

“ Yeah, and Tisha.” Ressai says. “ Just know that this’ll be even more difficult for you than it was before.”

“ Since they’ll shoot me next time I’m seen?”
“ You can’t just do what you did again.”
“ I know. So what now?”

“ We overheard a conversation between this station and somewhere in San Jose. They mentioned Archer.” I say.
“ Archer...Wait I think I remember seeing something about that being an ‘important component or something.’” Tisha says.

“ Did you?” Ressai asks. “ Well that’s good then...We should head over to San Jose and away from here. See what we can find.”

“ Ok but before we do, can we get something to eat?” Tisha asks.
“ I can agree with that, I’m hungry.” I say.

I’m surprised that the ice cream is still good. I guess the cold climate only helps that. It doesn’t help the scared looks on the worker's faces. Or the soldiers watching them. As we take a train to station four, San Jose, I wonder: what about 911? Has anyone tried that? Each time I try I get a null outcome. Did they cut the line? Do they have people in these bases working specifically to cut off any and all communications with the outside world? I guess it would work long enough for them to move on to phase...Whatever they’re doing next. The one time we need the military we’re shut off from them…. Of course. The train stops and we exit to San Jose.

I see a sight similar to San Diego and LA. Tall rectangular buildings, people of mixed races, tall mountains covering the distance. I feel like this place would’ve been pretty before the bomb went off. I won’t keep going over the same issues that I’ve been going over. Everywhere we go, it’s the same scene. Ice, soldiers, people walking in groups, trying to fake their happiness and not talking too close to the Plasamic soldiers so they don’t overhear. The sun shines over us, casting a warmer, orangish light onto the white surface of the earth.

The first place we went to was some kind of cathedral. Now, I’m not religious or anything, neither is Tisha and I think Ressai isn’t. However even still, I don’t think the St. Joseph’s Cathedral was supposed to look like an experimentation lab. The doors were wide open, which is what got my attention. I figured something like this couldn’t be of concern for Plasamic, since it’s wide open. There wasn’t anyone entering or exiting. Taking a peek inside, I see a main hall that’s been transformed. The seats have been replaced with tables, which upon them lay dozens of weapons. They’re in glass casings. Where the speaker’s(?) podium normally is, is a small desk with a larger table behind it. There’s no one here at the moment. I hear buzzing and whirring within the the gun cases. The three of us walked around, and Ressai investigated the pc which was on the desk. There was a password lock on it. Tisha suggested we leave it alone. Remembering the last time we attempted to break a Plasamic passcode, I agreed. Still not sure if that was our fault, or just bad timing. Guess it doesn’t matter much now does it.

We followed this bigger than normal crowd to some flowery looking area. Ressai told me it was the Heritage Rose Garden. There was a huge field of green, where layered by rows were thousands of roses and other flowers. A typical girl’s dream. The other girls in the crowd were going ballistic. I figured the soldiers that littered the garden would stop them, but they didn’t. I notice some of the smiling. Are they enjoying this? At least some of them have decency. Kind of...Not really.

“ Are we gonna join them?” Tisha asks. She watches the other girls and even some adult men wandering amongst the rainbow of plants.

“ What’s the use?” Ressai asks. “ We don’t have time to mess around remember?”

“ Come on Ressai! Can’t you have some fun? Isn’t that what life is about?”

“ Sure, but not when we’re trapped.”

“ Actually I think Tisha may be on to something.” I say.
“ Exactly...Wait what?” Tisha asks. I point to what looks like an old farmhouse off to the right middle section of the garden. A Plasamic researcher exits through the front door, typing on her phone. Someone says something to her from inside. She nods and shuts the door, walking down the steps and away.
“ They’re in there. Seems like they’re working on something?” I say. Ressai rubs her head.

“ Uh, ok? Are you saying that’s one of their workstations?” A guard spots us and motions for us to start moving.

“ Yeah I do I guess. Why not try it?” I say.

“ you mean as an excuse to join in the fun? Alright I’m down.” Tisha says. She begins to head for the flowers and the other kids running around.
“ Fine, ok.” Ressai says. “ If you two wanna frolic in the flowers then I’ll meet you near the front steps of the house.”

I wasn’t planning on “frolicking in the flowers” but I ended up succumbing to the smell. Maybe it’s something to do with my love of taking care of my own flowers. The ones that got frozen to death probably…. Anyway that feeling came back in full force here. So many kinds of wonderful plants! I’m not the biggest expert in the types of flowers and roses in the world, I really just pay attention to the ones I have and even then I tend to forget what the names are. But the beauty! Oh, wait. Did I mention how Plasamic managed to preserve them? Glass. A glass dome put over the entirety of the field. We entered through a door with the crowd when we first came in. I just now, minutes later, realized that. Must be the stress of what’s been happening or something. Since otherwise, these plants would’ve been dead long ago. But thankfully someone at Plasamic decided they were worth keeping. Either that or they just wanted to keep them here so the visitors would be content with them long enough for Plasamic’s plan to be carried out….What even is their plan? Ah, whatever. It’s admittedly hard to keep worrying about all that when I can just watch the flowers and roses. Swaying back and forth with the light, chilly breeze. Somehow staying colorful and radiating hope. I lost track of Tisha. I head over to the farmhouse once my floral amazement is done.

I had to weave my way through this place in order to even get there. Soldiers popped up out of every corner of the garden.  Each time they did it scared me. Luckily I seemed innocent enough, just wandering around. Once I was in a few dozen feet of the house, I saw two women standing guard. I waited a bit for them to get called off and move on. Good thing too, I don’t know what else I would’ve done. I creep over near the steps and wait awkwardly. What am I supposed to be doing now? Staying put till Ressai comes out of the house? Did she even go in? I don’t remember what she said she was gonna do. A few smaller kids run over to me.

“ Can we go in there?” They ask, pointing to the house.
“ I uh, don’t think so.” I say.

“ Why not?”
“ Because there’s bad people in there.” Tisha walks up next to me. “ Instead, you can go over there and see the rare roses! Trust me I saw them and they’re definitely something special.” She sticks out a thumb towards the opposite end of the Rose Garden. The kids waddle away. “ Where are their parents?”

“ No clue, but that’s not safe.”

“ Yeah especially since-” A loud sound of spinning blades and an engine burst through the air. Tisha and I look upwards, where a black helicopter is landing in a small clearing just outside the glass wall. A group of three Plasamic members gets out. They walk away, and the others stay put in the front seats. There’s a set of back seats in a section separate from the front. Two different soldiers enter from...Somewhere and get into the front section of the copter, waiting.

Someone lands down next to me.

“ Ok guys I got something.” Ressai says.

“ Does it have to do with a helicopter?” I ask. She stares at me.
“ Yes, how’d you know?” Ressai sees the sitting vehicle. “ Oh. Well yeah. I found a monitor in the house, trashy looking place. Anyway, there’s a copter scheduled to take some classified weapons to the Archer base.” As if on cue, two soldiers load up ten boxes into the back section of the helicopter. They all get into the front seats. “ Just like that.”

“ Well I suggest we move.” Tisha says. “ We don’t wanna lose ‘em.”
“ What are you planning?” Ressai asks. Four soldiers begin to return to the farmhouse.

“ I’m saying we follow directly.” Tisha says.  She starts to head back the way we came. Ressai seems like she wants to argue, but we run away from the guards just in time. We exit the garden. Tisha makes for the helicopter, which is now beginning to take off. It’s not too far away.
“ Guys come on! If we run we can get into the back part where the boxes are and we can ride with them to the base!”
“ Tisha you understand how dangerous that is right?” Ressai asks.

“ What other plans do we have?” I ask.

“ I can go back to the farmhouse and get the exact location of Archer and we can go there safely.”

“ But that’s too slow! Isn’t this about speed?” Tisha asks. “ I thought you wanted to make this quick rather than slow.” Ressai puts her hands in her pockets. I have a feeling she’s balling them up.

“ You’re using my….” The copter’s blades spin faster. It’ll be gone soon. “ Whatever, guess it’s worth trying. But we may as well be dead if we don’t make it.”

“ Just like everything we’re doing right now.” I say. “ We can make it.” The three of us bolt for the aircraft.

I get shivers down my back, thinking that some soldiers have seen us and are chasing us down. I don’t hear anything else, and I don’t feel any bullets in me. About the best I can ask for right now. The front section of the helicopter is shut tight, the doors locked. They won’t see us, or be expecting it. Tisha leaps and climbs up into the backspace. She offers to help up Ressai, who ignores her offer and jumps in with ease. I take my friend’s hand and climb in. We sit down in the seats just as the automatic system closes the doors. It’s a bit cramped with the boxes, but we made it. I feel my body lower as we’re flown up into the sky. Looking back down to where we were, I see some men looking back up at us. One of them picks up their phone and starts to speak frantically. They saw us, they had to have. I’m not sure if I should mention it to my companions who are seated in front of me. If we really are going to land in the first main base, then perhaps it won’t matter if they know. Would it? Maybe it depends on how far away said base is compared to San Jose. I let it go for now.

We sit in the oddly comfortable crimson seats. We bounce a little every so often. I hear muffled talk from the front. I still can’t believe we’re riding with the enemy. Tisha is looking out the window, gazing down at the mountains, valleys and more. Ressai simply has her head on her hands. She stares off into nothingness. In getting on the copter her hood had fallen back, letting her hair be exposed. She’d taken off her scarf, which laid over her legs. If I focused hard enough, I could consider her a normal girl. Not one who feels like she has to sneak around, risking her life to try and find out some way of stopping a threat she had no choice in being apart of.

“ R-Ressai?” I ask gently.
“ Hm?” Her eyes fix on me.

“ Uh… Can I ask you somethings?”
“ What do you mean?”

“ She means you look depressed.” Tisha says. She looks at me, and smiles. She goes back to gazing. Tisha’s here, but she’ll let me handle the job of finding out more about our new friend.

I sit up in my seat. I feel my pocket, where my phone still is. I quickly take it out, making a short text to Emund. While I wait for his response, I resume the questioning. “ What was your life like before this all happened?”
“ What kinda question is that.” Ressai says.

“ I dunno. I just wanna know I guess. You seem like you could get some use out of talking.”
“ Would I?”
“ Hopefully?” I look at her. She sighs and sits up straighter.

“ Fine. My life? Well, I was big on games. Video games. I uh...Lemme think. Assassin’s Creed. That was fun, guess it inspired this whole thing.” Ressai gestures to her outfit. “ And strategy games, like MindSweeper, Minecraft, Wizard 101, and etc.”
“ Huh that’s cool. I like those too, though I prefer platformers more, I think the art styles they tend to have are just gorgeous.” I say. Ressai nods.
“ I guess so, never tried them much.”
“ You ever go outside or anything?” I ask.
“ Sometimes. Mostly with my parents. It was always more fun with them around. We’d go to zoos and parks and aquariums and stuff. Not with friends though, I guess I didn’t have many. Or at least not ones that I’d wanna hang out with outside of school.”
“ Did you not let them? Did they want to be with you?”

“ Hm...No I don’t think so. I preferred to be on my own anyways. Why does this matter?” Ressai asks.
“ Since we wanna know more about you.” Tisha says. “ That at least has to be okay with you, we’ve been together long enough to warrant it.” I nod.

“ Is that fine?” Ressai is quiet for a moment.
“ Sure, I guess. It’s just odd, that now I’m doing this with you.” Ressai pauses. “ Can the guys in the front hear us?”
“ I don’t think so. The blades must be loud enough for them not to hear.” I say.

“ Good since this is a private chatroom.” Tisha says. I let out a chuckle.

“ A what?” Ressai asks.

“ Nothing.” Tisha says. Ressai is confused.

“ You mean like an internet chat room?”
“ Yeah. Have you used one before?” Tisha asks.
“ Like once or twice.”
“ Dang it’s fun you need to try it. Once we’re not in Frosty’s Dreamland.”

Some more minutes go by. Tisha falls asleep leaning against the window. Ressai fingers her pistol.

“ Are you okay with firing guns?” I ask her.
“ I guess so. I’d never used one til...This happened. Are you?”

“ Not really. But I got over it long ago.” I say. She nods.
“ Was that weird when you first met Emund?” Ressai asks.
“ Oh god… Yes it was! I was beyond scared the whole time. But I somehow got over it. I have my bud to thank for that probably.” I look to Tisha for a moment. “ Glad she wanted to come. I’m not sure I would’ve if it weren’t for her.”
“ Must be nice to have a close friend.” Ressai says.
“ Well...Yeah it certainly helps when you have a person there with you who understands you.”
“ Mhm.”
“ Hey Ressai… How would you feel about the three of us being friends? Like officially I guess?”

“ Why?”
“ Well because uh...Why not?” There’s a tinge of tension in the air. It dissipates. Ressai sets her pistol on her lap.
“ I guess we can. I guess there’s no one else I’d rather be…” She trails off. That gets a smile out of me.
“ Didn’t you say you knew Emund?”

“ Barely. We both worked with Plasamic for awhile. I quit when he did. We didn’t actually know each other we more or less just occasionally saw each other in the workplace.”

“ But you’re fairly young no? How was that?” I ask.

“ I was around sixteen I think? It was odd. They made me do some of the more basic jobs. Carrying crates, delivering messages. I had no idea what the hell it was I was actually doing!” Ressai says. She sighs. “ I should’ve left much sooner.”
“ Hey I mean it’s good you’re doing what you’re doing now isn’t it?”

“ Yeah I know. But maybe if I had helped you guys back then Plasamic would’ve not done this.” She glances out the window at the frozen waste like land.

“ Eh perhaps. But I think that all that counts is we are trying out best now.” I say.

“ Assuming we aren’t caught dead once this copter lands.”

“ True, but we’ll be fine. We just have to believe. Isn’t that all we can do?”

“ I guess yeah.”

Something about that conversation made me see Ressai differently. She wasn’t some assassin stranger now. She was more of my friend. Someone who I could trust to fix this whole issue with Tisha and I and Emund. Speaking of him, he texted me near the end of the flight. He said he was fine, just bored. Watching old sports reruns. I told him we were heading to the first of the two main bases now. He said to hurry up. I asked him about Knox, gave him his description. Emund said he remembered seeing a kid that looked like that earlier. Then he said there was a new kid that was moving in with him that looked exactly like what I had said. He didn’t text anything else. It wasn’t exact confirmation, but it was enough for now. I can tell myself he isn’t dead. Regardless I had to make sure I didn’t die first.

Our helicopter landed in Plasamic base Archer with a thud. The engine shut off, and the blades finished spinning. I heard the front doors slide open, and the soldiers getting out. I woke up Tisha and Ressai. I think we had all fallen asleep for a little while.
“ Guys were here and they’re coming to open the door what do we do?” I say. Ressai hastily puts her scarf and hood back on, taking hold of her gun. Tisha notices the door handle of the side she’s leaning on.

“ Are they coming from that way?” She asks, pointing to the other door.
“ I guess?” I say.
“ Yes they are.” Ressai says.

“ Ok then come with me.” Tisha says. She unlocks the bolt on the door and slides it open, jumping out and hiding around the side of the helicopter. Ressai and I look at each other in confusion. The other side begins to open. Ressai hastily climbs out the other door and joins with Tisha. I barely manage to do the same when the soldiers peek in.

“ Did you hear anything?”
“ I thought I did. I thought I heard voices.”
“ What voices?”
“ I dunno just voices.”
“ Gerald if you’re just being delusional again….”

“ I’m not!”
“ There’s nothing here.”
“ I’m not blind Herald.”
“ Just...Help me and the others take out these boxes.”

We sat there, hiding for a good few minutes, listening while the soldiers removed the cargo crates and carried them out of the room. Tisha kept popping her head over the side of the copter, to get a better look I guess. Every time she did this, Ressai would practically pull her back down. I was too afraid to do anything. I kept thinking one of them would just happen to check this side of the room and see us. Then what? Fight our way out? How many are in this base? Especially since it’s us. Not any random set of kids in here sneaking around, but us. That doesn’t help. Thankfully we were able to move on. Once we were fairly certain that the room was empty, Ressai slowly stepped out from behind the vehicle.

“ We’re clear. Move out.” She says.
“ K thanks Captain.” Tisha says. I let out a laugh, and Ressai shakes her head.

“ Guys please. This is where the mission is at the most importance.”

“ I know, but all we’re doing is finding the location of uh…” I start to say. “ Wait...We’re trying to find the center point of this facility...Why again?”

“ So we know where to set up the bombs for later.” Ressai says. “ You’ll probably need to get a screenshot of it Ceena.”
“ Do you not have a phone?” I ask.

“ I used to but I lost it. So I guess I’m trusting you won’t do the same.”

“ Oh, well yeah that should be uh...Easy?” I say.

“ If you can’t handle keeping a phone than that’s an issue.” Tisha says. She stands up fully, surveying the room. “ Anyway, where would the center of this place be?”
“ Not sure. The best bet we have is to search around, see where the middlemost part of this place would be. And hope that that’ll do it.” Ressai says. She begins to head for the door leading to the main hallways. Tisha and I follow her. Hopefully we can get this done and get out without being caught.

I’ll be honest, I wasn’t expecting to find that the center of the building was the bathrooms. We spent some time walking the halls, frequently diving into a room when soldiers were coming close. And by frequently I mean pretty much every ten steps or so. Even if there wasn’t anyone coming we’d hide anyway. One time I thought we were done for but I was just being paranoid. It was tiring for all the wrong reasons. Part of me just wants to shoot up the place and get this over with. Wouldn’t that work? Then all the other people who are being treated like low-level slaves can help us. But that might just be negative, impulsive thinking. Regardless, once we’d had what we thought was a decent enough idea of how this facility was structured, Ressai came to the wonderful conclusion that the bathrooms were the center point.

“ All the hallways lead to here. And everything else is connected to those main hallways. I don’t see it any other way.” She says as we carefully enter the restrooms of Plasamic. At least they keep it clean. It was empty in there, and the floors and walls were a baby blue color.

“ Ok so what are we doing in here then?” Tisha asks. “ Writing poop messages along the walls?”
“ Tisha that’s disgusting.” I say. “ Plus I feel like we should do whatever we need to do fast. I’m not exactly believing that no one will walk up on us.”
“ Right, so get the picture and we can go!” Ressai says. She looks at herself in the sink mirror.

“ Ressai are you checking yourself out?” I ask. She fiddles with her hood and scarf. The way she looks into her own eyes...It’s as if she’s remembering something.

“ No...I-I mean I guess so...Just get the picture.” She says. I do so. I’m not really sure what exactly I’m supposed to be getting pictures of, so I just take one of the inside of the bathroom, of the stalls, and of the door that leads to it. I send them to Emund. Not sure how good the connection here is.

Once I’m done Tisha makes to leave. As soon as she opens the door it swings open by another hand. Tisha jumps back as two women stand in the doorway. They both have blue and silver outfits on. They have no weapons, but they do have cell phones hooked to their belts. One of them gasps.

“ Who-what are you-?”
“ It’s them!” The other woman says. “ The girls who’re supposed to be kept under higher supervision!”
“ Well that idea didn’t work out now did it?” Tisha says. The woman in front takes out her phone.

“ Everyone at Archer we have an emergency! It’s the two girls. We need backup!” I never thought anyone would ever say they need backup in order to stop me. Not sure if I should be honored or horrified. Well actually I know what I am right now. Absolutely horrified. The woman was saying more stuff into her phone, but she was cut off by a bullet in her throat, courtesy of Ressai. She can whip out her gun fast man. The woman falls to the ground, clutching her throat. The other, being weaponless, stares at us in surprise. Tisha fumbles for her gun, and accidentally drops it to the ground. I take some odd initiative and shoot the woman with my arm gun.

Normally I wouldn’t do that. I don’t want people to think that I would normally do that since I know I wouldn’t. I’m just...Angered? Yeah, angry at these idiots for whatever the hell they think they’re doing. The three of us rush out into the halls, running towards the back exit of the facility. Unfortunately, sirens were put in place. And said sirens went off. This, in turn, gives me flashbacks to high school when the fire alarms would go off and they were so loud that they melted everyone’s ears. Funny thing now though…. If we’re caught here then our whole lives will be extinguished not just our ears. I run faster.

As Tisha opens the door and we all sprint through, I hear yelling and feet moving behind me. A bullet hits the door next to me. We run down a clearing of grass and towards a barren street. There’s no one outside at all. Why? Normally there were lots of people forcefully walking around before. A car pulls up next to the grass, a brown and yellow one. The window rolls down, and the driver waves for us to get in. I recognize her.
“ Guys in that car!” I say, panting.
“ Why who is that?” Ressai asks.

“ I think I may know them!”

“ Do you really?” Tisha asks.
“ Yes where else are we gonna go?” I ask.

“ Good point, I’m up for it.” Tisha says. The Archer base behind us rumbles as around fifteen to twenty soldiers come charging after us.

“ Pin them down and lock them up!” One of them says. They begin to shoot. They purposely miss our heads and aim for our feet. We’re not supposed to die? What else? Jail us? We reach the car. As bullets hit the side, I clammer into the shotgun seat and my two companions get in the back. The car fires up and flies off down the road. I can still hear the alarm and the men and women of Plasamic shouting and screaming. Bullets whistle past.

The woman driving speaks.

“ I’m glad my hunch was right. Are you kids okay?”
“ Yeah, thanks for the pickup.” Tisha says.
“ Mind me asking who you are?” Ressai says.

“ Name’s Sibeko. I was the one who got Ceena up and ready so she could stop this mess. Are these your friends Ceena?”

“ Yeah they are. How’d you know to be here?” We round a corner hard. The sirens shut off. I want to look behind us, but I’m afraid of losing my head.

“ Well...When the alarms go off they force us all into our homes. Then they go around checking to see what the issue is. That means that the streets are pretty much empty. I had a hunch that, knowing what you wanted to do, that if the alarms went off it may have something to do with Archer.”

“ Wait you knew about it?” Ressai asks.

“ Kinda yeah. I hear all kinds of gossip at my bar. Mostly very offensive things… But every now and then you get somethin’ interesting. Guys mentioning Archer, closest base of operations here in LA.” I let out an aggravated sigh. I could’ve been here this whole time, and not wasted time going to those other stations if only I’d known.

“ Oh… Why didn’t you tell me Sibeko?” I ask.
“ I guess I forgot at the time. I was more worried about getting you up and to see your buddies.” Sibeko says.

“ That at the very least is appreciated.” Tisha says.

We drive along for a good while. Sibeko says that it takes people a little bit for them to go back on schedule after an alarm. Occasionally a soldier would see us and attempt to shoot us, but we were going too fast. Do they not have tanks or on the ready air support? Where are more helicopters? Only thing I can think of is that they’re so focused on power working their plan that they aren’t truly set up for an attack. Then again… How much time is left till the next part of Plasamic’s plan is active? If they’re so confident in it that they’re willing to let us do what we do… We have to stop this. Less than three days and then we’re doomed. I can’t give these idiots the pleasure of beating us.

Eventually we stop in a place called Mexicali. I’ve never heard of this place. Somewhere in Mexico I think? That’d make sense. We get out of the car and look around. The sun is going down, giving the air an orange tinge. Some buildings are laid out along the way in front of us. White and brown, simple rectangular shapes.

“ Well, what are you girls doing now?” Sibeko asks.

“ Gonna start to look for the second base.” Ressai says, staring off into the distance.

“ Can we get something to eat first?” Tisha asks. “ All this dangerous world saving whatever is making me hungry.”
“ Where is there to eat?” I ask.

“ I think I remember there being a cool place to eat at down over there somewhere.” Sibeko points to a restaurant where some people are entering. “ Sounded like a good place, minus the Plasamic minions.”
“ Sure I’m down for that.” Tisha says. “ You two wanna come?” She looks at Ressai and me. We shake our heads in unison.

“ I wanna begin the search.”
“ Same… But Tisha can you bring me back something?” I ask.

“ Yup. Gotchu. I’ll surprise ya.”
“ Where should we meet up?” Ressai asks.

“ I dunno, we’ll just have to find out I guess….I can’t really think on an empty stomach.” Tisha says.

“ We’ll find you two,” Says Sibeko. “ Just don’t get caught or anything.” They head off for the restaurant.

Ressai spent a while complaining to me how much of a stupid idea it was to split up like this. I agreed, but at the same time I think Tisha needs a break. So do I, but walking around Mexicali is nice I guess. Air feels cool… I mean regardless of the snow it feels nice. Or maybe it’s my imagination. Either way. We go back to the old method of hiding amongst other groups of people to avoid being seen. Some point we pass by a building labeled ‘ Museo del Niño.’ On the outside it looks like a marble museum. A set of widespread steps leads up to the double front doors that are flanked by silver pillars holding up the roof. Two Plasamic soldiers stand in front of these pillars, eyeing each set of people entering and leaving. It seems like there are mainly parents with their kids going in.

“ What is this place?” I ask. “ Ressai?” She’s looking at the Museum, a faint glint of tears coming to her eyes.
“ This… I used to come here when I was smaller.” She says. “ My mother used to take me here in order to keep me calm and occupied while she did her work.” We stand at the foot of the steps, people heading past us.

“ What work was it?” I ask.

“ I was never really sure. Somethings about transportation and management over shipping cargo.” Ressai puts a foot onto the first step. “ She used her phone a lot and was busy with important information that she needed to get handled. So I was here for a little while each day, waiting for her to finish her business. Usually, I guess it always took around a few hours?”
“ Huh, so you liked it here? Did you used to live around here?” I ask.
“ Yeah, I think. I was born here and then we moved...Or, I mean my family moved to LA after a few years. Have vague memories of much else though…”

A squad of about ten kids and three adults walk past us. The kids are laughing and playing, unaware of the situation they’re in. Ressai and I attempt to walk with them into the museum. One of the guards looks directly at me. He sees me and then he sees the kids. I guess he wasn’t told that Ceena Fletcher had kids, so he let me pass. As the glass doors close behind us, I’m hit with warm air. The inside of the Museo del Niño was a surprising contrast from the outside world. Not only was the air hotter and therefore cozier, but the amount of joy in here was unexpected. Kids were at all different kinds of play areas. Most of them I have no clue what is even supposed to be happening at some of them. As we walk around, I see a tub of colorful balls, where some boys are swimming around and throwing as many as they can at each other. A small cylindrical piece with a globe like object on the top of it, that can be spun around in 360 degrees. A rainbow of lights emanating from all sides of the globe, giving off an almost fanciful glow onto the walls. A small bungee jumping pit for four or fewer kids. A set of fake airplanes that kids can ride in and make fake gunshot sounds. There were some others, but I didn’t get a chance to see them. While Ressai is checking out a station in which to investigate outer space, I notice a Plasamic soldier posted near the ball pit. He’s on his phone...Or no, that’s an iPad. Too big to be a phone. I get an idea. If the main reason they use their devices is for communication with another part of their organization, then what if he’s talking to someone somewhere? Is that where the second base could be? It sounds like a longshot, of course, but I wanna try it.

I walk up next to the man, purposely bumping into him with a bit more than your average bumping force. He stumbles, dropping his iPad into the ball pit.

“ Oh! I’m so sorry! Are you okay?” I ask, half hiding my face.
“ Damn it kid, you’re too old to be in here. Watch where you’re going!” A little boy in the pit picks up the iPad and holds it out.
“ Excuse me is this yours?” I quickly snatch it out of their hands.

“ Yeah, thanks!”
“ Hey girl that’s mine!” The soldier says. “ I’ll give you one chance to give it back.” I search hastily on the screen being displayed. A text conversation with a person named Josh in...Location listed as Arenia Casino, Mexicali. The soldier grabs the device from my hands. “ Jesus listen next time will you? Wait…” He inspects my face. I pull away, turning around.
“ Ok sorry!” I fast walk to where Ressai is waiting to get into the bungee jumping station.

“ Ressai I know where we should go in order to do the thing!” I say.

“ You what?”
“ The uh, mission! You see the Plasamic guy over there right? I had a glance at what he was doing and turns out there’s Plasamic people at some place called Arenia Casino?”

“ Ceena there are guards everywhere.” Ressai says.

“ I know but it’s somewhere to look right? Where else are we going?”

Ressai agreed to go with me to the casino… After she’d had a chance at bungee jumping. I thought it was odd, considering she was being a stickler before about moving quickly, but I think I know why. Something with the memory that this place holds for her is important. Perhaps she just wants to relieve that old memory for at least a little while? I let her do it for a bit, and by that I mean an hour. My phone doesn’t display the time, which is scary. The sun is getting closer to the horizon now. Maybe it’ll be nighttime once we find the casino. That means we’d have about less than two days, I think. It’s hard to keep track of time right now. Regardless, Ressai finishes her playing and we head out for the next stop. I always feel like something bad will happen whenever we do anything in this state. Probably because it’s true.

We had to ask a couple where the Arenia Casino was. They spoke Spanish only, but luckily I was able to figure it out. It wasn’t that far from where Sibeko had dropped us off. Speaking of her, we found Tisha and Sibeko sitting at a bench with two older women, eating tacos. Tisha had gotten me a single taco. Apparently she had eaten the other ones and just managed to let this one slide. That’s annoying, but at least I had something to eat. Maybe later. Sibeko ended up leaving since she said she needed to keep up management of her bar back at station five. Jeez, it feels like so long ago since I first woke up in this new world. I try to push that thought aside as we use the older ladies from before to get into the casino.

First thing, it is busy in here. Everywhere I look there’s adults playing gambling games, bowling games, more gambling games, eating at a miniature restaurant area, and more. The amount of noise both from man and machine deafen my eardrums. Ressai goes off to look around for anything suspicious and Tisha begins to ‘watch’ as other some guy plays a roulette game. How does that even work if there’s no real money to lose or win? Is it just an illusion? Plasamic sure isn’t going to keep track of that stuff yet. Maybe later they will. It may just be to keep the adults entertained so they’ll not be as upset about what’s actually going on. Same with the kids. Give them what they want for free, so that way they won’t notice the real issues. I grab a quick snack at the food stand. A nice cheeseburger and fries. Not very Mexican but it works. In between each bite I look around to see if some soldier is about to spot me. I haven’t been this nervous while eating in a while.

Once I’m done with my meal, and I’ve left my seat, someone taps me on the shoulder. I jump, and whip around. I aim my arm gun at Tisha. She holds up her hands in surprise. I sigh and roll up my sleeve. Since it’s too loud to speak properly, she points behind me. I follow her finger, seeing a grey door. It stands out from the rest of the red colored walls. A Plasamic soldier opens the door from the inside, looks around, walks out and then shuts it, heading to exit the building. Tisha and I look at each other. She waves and starts for the door. I follow. But where is Ressai? She should be doing this with us. I notice her trying to talk to some woman near a bowling alley. We make eye contact and I motion for her to come over here with us. Ressai carefully jogs over. She uses her keycard to unlock the the door and we slip in.

It’s a rather small room, with mainly just a large monitor and equally large keyboard taking up space. There are a few chairs laid out. And on those chairs are soldiers. Four of them. At first they don’t take any notice of us. The three of us freeze. Before anyone can say anything, Tisha pulls out her pistol. I’m about to say NO! until she blasts off the head of one of them. Now they all see us. The three other men scramble out of their seats, confused. They don’t have weapons. Guess they’re not meant for combat. That sucks. Tisha and Ressai make quick work of them. I kinda wanted to get a kill. Ressai rushes up to the monitor, searching through the data logs. Tisha leans against the wall, arms crossed and waiting. I stand in front of the door, shifting my weight back and forth in anxiety.

A message is displayed upon the monitor on the wall. It’s an outline for an idea proposition. Perhaps back when Plasamic was still thinking of what to do for their revenge or whatever. It has a heavy amount of calculations relating to the earth, and what might happen to it in the future. It shows growth levels of global warming and drillings into the earth. Saying that in the next few years the earth will split apart from all the damage we’ve done to the structure of it. That plus the natural shift in gravitational forces would cause the rocks that make up our planet to move a tad away from each other as the core weakens, that only being helped by us. Someone thought up the idea of freezing the planet together to keep it stable. Then it goes on to discuss the possibilities for maintaining chemically manifested food supplies and warmth for humans.

“ There’s so much wrong with this that it hurts.” Tisha says. “ Is this planet really going to split like that?”
“ No idea.” I say. “ I mean I guess it could be possible. It’s not like we treat this place very well.”

“ They’re insane! Just freezing everything won’t fix it!” Ressai says. “ It’ll cause every other aspect of life to go extinct! This plan they have will only work for a very limited amount of time before it too goes to crap!”

“ If that wasn’t obvious already.” Tisha says.

“ So are we still just in stopping them?” I ask.

“ We are...I think. I don’t wanna believe this is the way to stop...Whatever is going to happen. There have to be other ways for us to survive if this planet really will split.” Ressai says. She turns around and heads back towards me. “ Let’s move.”
“ Hold on, where are we going?” I ask. Ressai stops. “ Maybe we can-” The door to the room opens, and a soldier is standing there. He’s armed.

“ What-it’s you!” He says. He aims his rifle. With his other hand he calls into his phone. “ I found ‘em, group up at Arenia Casino.”

I take a risk and somehow shoot the man in the head, and the three of us bolt for the exit of the building. We make our way through the small grassy expanse outside the entrance. All the soldiers in the area were notified and have now swarmed to our location. We halt as we’re surrounded. Around ten or so guns are trained at our heads. If we try to fight back we’re dead. I figured at this point we’re gonna be killed anyway, or at least put in jail for life. On command my friends drop their weapons. Except for me.

“ Take care of ‘em. We ain’t risking them sneakin’ out of this one.” One of them says. A woman comes up from behind me. I feel a sharp pain in the back of my skull, and I fall to the floor, reeling. I’m struck again, and I black out.

I’m not sure how long I was out for. All I know is I’m kinda screwed. When I opened my eyes again I was in a jail cell. Dirty brown stones make up the walls and solid white marble roofs me and lies under my feet. I have a small, block-like bed, a window built into the wall over it, and that’s it. My phone is gone, and so is my arm gun. All I have on me is my snow gear from before. Guess even in jail you need to be warm. I look out through the bars of the cell, glancing down the hallway before me. There’s multiple other cells. I can’t exactly see if they’re all occupied or not. Once or twice I hear a cough or the sound of someone moving around. Hard to tell if that’s in a cell or outside. All I can do now is sit on my bed and think.

How am I supposed to get out of here? I can’t. Past this hallway there’s bound to be soldiers. Where even am I? Is this still Mexicali? I have a strange feeling it isn’t. Wait… If I was knocked out and left here then… How long of a time has passed?! Looking out my window doesn’t help me. Maybe it’s over then. I have no clue how to get out and even if I did there might not be enough time to find the second main base. Wasn’t there something said about a third base? Ressai was saying she was only sure of two. Is there a third one? Do we have to destroy all three or will getting rid of only two do the trick? Speaking of her, what happened to her and Tisha? Logic indicates they’d be here also, right? Or is this a special prison for people for high maintenance people like Tisha and I? All these thoughts swarm around in my head. I lay on my bed, constantly thinking and worrying. Do my parents know about this? Plasamic knows who my parents are don’t they? They were in the database. Perhaps they wouldn’t even waste their time with something like that. Everything’s so temporary and fast moving that smaller details may not matter at this moment. That brings up the whole ordeal of the next “phase” of Plasamic’s plan.

All this wondering kept me busy for a little while. I guess long enough for me to be found. I was brought out of my head by the grinding sound of my cell’s gate being opened.

“ Ceena? Are you okay? You look like you’ve been left by yourself for too long.” Tisha is standing in the gateway. She has a pistol in her left hand and a key in the other. She seems frightened, yet excited at the same time.

“ Tisha..? How did you...Where is… how..?” I say.

“ Well uh, to cut it short… Me and Ressai were placed into the same cell together… Bad idea. And so she came up with this idea to bust out involving goading one of the soldiers over to the cell and knocking him out and stealing his key and using that to unlock the gate and she made me go and get you. I got this weapon from the body.” She looks side to side. “ Also we need to hurry before more of them arrive.”
“ Do more of them know that you’re doing this?” I ask.

“ I have no idea but c'mon.”

We went back to Ressai’s cell, which wasn’t too far from mine. Her idea was to blast open the window using the energy gun Tisha had, and climb out. However, I stopped them, asking if we still needed a phone to use. I shouldn’t have asked that, since now the plan is for Tisha and Ressai to climb out the window, and wait for me while I go and find my phone. Great. Sometimes it actually hurts to speak up. But I guess we do need some way of getting information back to Emund and Ressai for later on. Or maybe we don’t, but we can’t risk forgetting where to place the bombs. I guess a quick picture is all Ressai needs to remember. And Emund is all we need to set up the bombs.

There were a couple guards wandering the halls. I borrowed Tisha’s pistol, and used that to my advantage. I’ll be honest when I say I feel like Lara Croft sneaking through the prison, taking out the enemies. Only now I have a lot more fear in me. I did end up getting shot in the left forearm. I definitely didn’t cry to myself for a few seconds after that. Luckily I was able to duck into a storage room, and retrieve my arm gun and phone. I would’ve taken a lot more of the weapons they had concealed there, but I was nervous and felt like I was gonna be busted at any second. So I ran back to the cell and climbed out the window. Pretty sure I heard yelling as I did so, but it’s fine. I’m fine.

I give the pistol back to Tisha, and sling the gauntlet around my right hand. My phone is still intact, or at least as much as it could be. I message Emund, letting him know that we’re okay and heading for the last main base. Around us, white grass stretches out to a line of trees just ahead. Past that is a road that seems to curve around the side of a series of cliffs. I can faintly hear the splash of the ocean. Some birds fly overhead.

“ That’s the first time I’ve seen animals around here I think.” Ressai says. “ Or, you know what I mean.” I nod.

“ Yeah at least they aren’t bothered… Yet.” Tisha says. “ Where to then?”
“ Perhaps along that road. Maybe it’ll take us to some town so we can know where we are.” I hear doors opening and guards rushing out of the prison.

“ Yeah good idea let’s move.” We sprint ahead and disappear past the line of frosty trees.

The water itself is weird. Patches of it are frozen to ice, and others are just normal water. The sand down below is speckled with hail. The road is grey and slippery. There are no people or vehicles. It kinda  feels like when my parents would take me to vacation during school time, and it was barren in most places. Normally it feels nice to be alone in a nice looking area. But now, in these circumstances? It’s more depressing than anything. The only reason there’s no one here is because of Plasamic’s icy mess. Or the fact that the soldiers won’t let anyone out here. Are they hunting for us? They’d have to be right? Every so often we’d see a small trail going up the side of the cliff, and we’d take it. Thank God since a Plasamic manned car would drive past every few minutes. One point we had to stay hidden up on a cliff trail for an hour, while a group of guards down below searched around. One of them came up and found us. Tisha shot him and hid his body in the bushes. Finally, though, we reached another town. It was similar to Mexicali, with the simple yet interesting looking buildings. Ressai immediately forced us into a travel shop, which was really full. No one was buying anything, they just wanted to be in here since there were no soldiers in here I guess. Ressai got some info from the woman sulking at the register.  We’re in Ensenada. I’m guessing that’s still Mexico. We left the shop and are now walking with the crowd, figuring out what to do.

As we went, I basically had to play a game of peek a boo with the guards. They only way they could tell if someone was me is by my face, since everyone else has similar snow gear on. If I thought a guard was looking at me, I had to quickly pull my hood over my face and look away for a few seconds, or minutes. Tisha also had to do the same. Ressai was lucky, as she wasn’t as well known as us. I was disgusted to see that the park was littered with soldiers. Some guy was sitting down, playing a guitar. A guard was next to him, looking at his watch. Do they allow limited music to be played? If it keeps the citizens happy why not. As we walk past the park, I see some more people talking to the guards. The guards calmly respond back without giving in.

“ Guys I see something.” Tisha says.
“ What?” I ask. She points to the back of a large white monument in the westmost area of the grassy region. At first I see nothing peculiar about it. Then I get it. There’s a faint outline in the marble, like there’s something carved into it. Like a door.

We had to circle around the park a few times as to not look suspicious to the other guards. Once we finally made it to the monument, we risked breaking out from the groups of people to inspect it. I have to literally act like I’m checking it out so no one thinks otherwise. Tisha reads the plaque on the front of the structure, while Ressai hastily feels around the back. She presses down on a specific spot and that section of marble is pushed back. Ressai slides it to the left, revealing a ladder going downwards. I look around, nothing yet. We have maybe a few seconds before we’re noticed.
“ Guys in here now!” Ressai practically jumps down. I begin to make my descent, Tisha above me. Tisha closes the ‘door’ after her. I’m certain we’re going to be caught again. My insides hop around like a popcorn machine as we head deeper.

I feel the bottom with my foot. Stepping off the ladder I see just what I wanted to NOT see. Two men. One of them is sending contact info to a place named Berserk in Tijuana on a monitor similar to the one from the casino. The other is leaning against the wall, sipping a soda, a rifle in his other hand. The one with the soda spits out his drink, and aims his gun. He shoots, taking off some of Tisha’s hair. Ressai rolls to the left, and I shoot the man in the groin. He reels over moaning as Tisha fires at his head. The body hits the floor and the computer man wheels around, whipping out a pistol. He aims at me, and all I do is put my hands over my face. A hard pain digs into my right arm. The man lets out a shout and hits the floor. Tisha sheathes her pistol and runs up next to me.
“ Ceena! Did they get you?” I’m shaking as I extend my arms. Now both them are bleeding and in pain. “ Why didn’t you mention this earlier?”
“ You need to tell us if you’re hurt Ceena.” Ressai says. She looks at my arms. She rips off a piece of her jacket and wraps it around one of my arms, and does the same with the other. “ This’ll stop the blood from flowing out. The bullets are only energy so there’s nothing actually in you. Just don’t move your arms too much and you should be fine.”

“ Ok….Thank you. I’m sorry.” I say.
“ It’s fine. None of us are in a good place right now.” Ressai looks at the screen. “ Tijuana? That’s in Station Eight I believe. We’ll have to take a train to get there.”
“ Oh really? Running around is more fun.” Tisha says.

“ Yes but we’ve almost been screwed over.” I say. “ And I wanna rest. Where’s the train around here?”
“ I may know…?” Ressai mutters.

It took wayyyyy too long for us to actually get out of that monument and on the way to station eight. More soldiers ended up coming down into the room we were in. We were able to hide behind the monitor and wait it out… But those people did a thorough check. It didn’t help that Tisha shot one of them, for “Fun” which made them call in reinforcements and stay there longer. At one point I thought they’d never leave. The waiting, worrying, arm pains, and uncertainty of the future made me consider suicide for a few moments. Thankfully I pushed that out of my head fast. We ended up making quite the body count down below the monument. Seems like all three of us were tired of waiting around. Once they stopped coming down we finally left. It’s gonna be hard to forget the smell of that pile of human bodies. Now we’re on the train heading for Tijuana. Not sure how long this’ll take, and I’m currently squished in between two overweight people, but we’ll see. Hopefully, we can get the photo of this second base and be done with all of this.  

Tijuana is very fancy. The buildings tower over us, covered in intricate design with what seems like food? Yeah, oddly inscribed food in all kinds of colors filled the walls of almost all the buildings. Never knew Mexico would look like this. Almost seems like a different reality or something. At least that’s what Tisha thinks. Ressai, somewhat naturally at this point, didn’t care.

“ We have to move. I believe the second main base...Or Berserker is around here.” She says as we hide in between two restaurants, waiting for a group of guards to pass by.

“ Why do the more important places have special names?” Tisha asks. “ Wouldn’t it make more sense not to give it a name so it would be harder to find?”

“ You would think so yeah.” I say. “ Though maybe it’s so that Plasamic themselves can remember.”
“ Possibly…” Ressai says. The soldiers pass and we walk out quickly, blending in with the nearest crowd.

There were a few buildings that I wanted to check out on our way to the beach. A neat looking toy and arts and crafts store. But uh, Ressai wasn’t having it. She was on the move. More surprisingly, so was Tisha. I think both of them could feel that this was the end of our journey, and just wanted to get it over with and done. Now I could’ve went and checked out these other places on my own, but the fact that I probably would’ve been spotted and shot as soon as someone saw me, and that I too am tired of all of this, lead me to stick with my companions. Plus a lot of these places are starting to look the same. Hopefully Emund and Knox are okay.

El Muro Beach. The Beach Wall. I can see where the name comes from. Separating the sand from the streets is a huge stone wall. A deep staircase leads down to the beach itself. The three of us stand at the edge of the wall. Other couples stand too, looking off into the ocean. It’s about midday now I believe. This would be cool, if guards weren’t posted everywhere. I’m sure some of them know it’s me, and are just waiting for an excuse to bust us. Looking around, I notice a decently sized building sitting at the end of a bridge sticking out into the ocean. It seems like it may have been used at some point, but now it’s closed and dirty. Whatever the sign on the front may have read, is now impossible to figure out.

“ That’s Berserker.” Ressai says.

“ It is?” I ask.

“ That’s why.” Tisha says, pointing. There’s multiple figures standing along the bridge to the old building. They’re armed. None of the civilians even attempt to go near. “ I don’t see any other reason why they’d be there like that.”
“ Exactly. Question is… How do we get in?” Ressai says.

“ Maybe we should talk about this as we head down there.” I say, seeing a guard turn his gaze in our direction.

By the time we got to the bridge we had the stupidest plan we could’ve possibly thought of. I was honestly hoping Ressai would come up with something else, but no such luck. Perhaps fatigue is getting the best of her. While her and Tisha walked up to the guards on the bridge, I took hold of the metal bars that held it up along the side of it. I hear them begin to question and ask directions to locations that don’t actually exist. I move my hands and feet, taking hold of the bars to climb my way across the side of the bridge. The water rushes under me and ice glistens in the sun. People stop and look at me for a second before continuing on. Maybe they thought I was a young recruit or something. Any soldier up above didn’t notice me. I make my way to the back of the bridge, and heave myself up and onto the top. Stretching over me is the backside of the decrepit building. The conversation my friends were in had stopped. Now it was up to me to get inside of Berserker and find the center point and take the picture. If only one of us knew how to use bombs. Guess one way is better than no way.

The backdoor is locked, naturally. I’m a bit fearful of making any noise. After trying to wrench the door open for a good few minutes, I aim my arm gun and fire at the lock. It makes way too much noise. I hear alarmed screams come from the front of the bridge. I begin to panic. I can’t back out now. I rush into the building, shutting the door behind me. What good will that even do? Probably nothing. I take in the scene before me. I’m in a food storage chamber. Several freezers, and cabinets surround me. They’re all empty. Going through a doorway brings me to the would-be kitchen. Stoves, sinks, pots, bowls. It all looks like it’s suffered from an icy explosion and owners who only want to use it for their own selfish purposes. A monitor is on the wall, and five pcs are spread about on the counters. They’re all on, and all processing data and information. Where to send weapons, where to send food, where to produce chemically generated rice and vegetables, and ways to please the masses… This is how they handle keeping all these cities in “Check” for at least a year or more.

The back door opens and soldiers rush in. I jump, pulling up my sleeve to reveal my gun. I back up to the wall with the monitor attached to it. Six of them run in. The only thought in my head is “get rid of them.”  I fire off rapid bullets. As the men get hit, they too fire back. I duck down, the top of my head getting grazed. I hold back tears and shouts of fright. I keep shooting forward, closing my eyes. My leg is hit, and the side of stomach too. I keep shooting, holding my other arm over my face, crouching down lower to the ground. Finally The back fire stops. I hear my bullets hit a wall. Looking up slowly I see a pile of bodies in front of me. Blood seeps out and onto the floor. Any feelings of relief are short lived. I’m in such pain it’s hard to even stand up without moaning and wanting to fall over and collapse.

With my right arm I weakly take out my phone, the one device I don’t hate with a passion. I take some quick pictures of the kitchen, storage chamber and the backdoor with the label of “Tijuana.”. I text “ We’re coming to you now, it’s time.” I put my phone away and limp out the door, tripping and falling onto a counter. It takes me a few minutes to get up again and muster up the power to exit the building. Outside Tisha and Ressai are waiting for me. Tisha says something but I don’t comprehend it. Ressai takes a good look at me. She nods, understanding instantly. They take me by the arms and carry me toward the sand. We wouldn’t have survived if the others around us didn’t help. Any soldiers who saw us couldn’t do anything. A dozen or more men and women make a pack around us, helping us toward the nearest hospital. I had a feeling that there wouldn’t be any service inside. A young doctor took me in immediately. The Plasamic guard inside saw me and simply smiled. He gestured to his watch, which showed there was only less than a day left till the next step. I couldn’t think about that, not with the pain I was feeling. I was wrapped up with more bandages and given some medicine. Thank God money didn’t exist in this temporary Frozen Slave Land.

I’ll be honest when I say I barely remember going back to Station nine. The watch the guard had showed me swirled in my mind. Is that why they’re letting us go? Do they know that our efforts are worthless when the time is almost up? What does that even mean? All I can hope for is what we’re doing to work. And honestly what does that mean anymore?

I wake up on a bed. When my gaze becomes stable, I look around. I’m in a boring looking room, with brown walls and a red and green rug. There’s a shelf of clothing and a desk across from my bed. I swing my legs off the side of the bed and stand up. I’m still wearing the same snow gear I’ve been wearing for the past few days...or however long it’s been. I’m really starting to hate snow. Out past the door and down a short hallway brings me to the main living room of the apartment. Emund and Knox are on a couch, while Tisha is relaxing on a red lounge chair. Ressai leans against the wall.

“ Ceena!” Knox says. “ How do you feel?”

“ U-uh….” I stand there, dumbfounded. “ Ok? I mean I’ve been….I’ve uh….”
“ It’s fine we know kid.” Emund says. “ You three have been heroing it up out there.”
“ Damn straight.” Tisha says.

“ But it’s not going to matter.” Ressai says. “ I saw one of them on the way here. They’re relaxed, purposely letting us do what we want now.”
“ The time is almost up isn’t it?” Emund asks. “ I’ve been hearing about this three day thing.”

“ Wait...What are they planning?” I ask.

“All I know is I’m one hundred percent officially scared as hell right now!” Knox says. I laugh.
“ Have you been with Emund this whole time Knox?” I ask. He nods.

“ Yeah, though I’ve pretty much just stayed in here.” He jabs a thumb at Emund. “ This man kept going outside.”
“ I told you I’m not just gonna stay in here and do nothing. I still have shopping I need to do.” Emund says.

“ You’re lucky you weren’t caught.” Ressai says.

“ Oh I was but I lost them.” Emund says putting his arms behind his head.

“ Back to the important conversation.” Ressai says. “ Ceena, we were just agreeing on what’s the next move. I gave Emund your phone so he knows where to place the bombs, and so I can take him there.”
“ Yeah I have no clue where we’re going still.” Emund says.

“ It’s fine… And now we were about to head out so we can get the bombs.”

“ Is it that easy? Where would these bombs be anyways?” I ask. Ressai stands up straight and heads for the front door.
“ No time to explain, Emund?”
“ Yup. Comin’.” Emund gets up and exits the apartment. “ This’ll be interesting.”
“ Stay safe.” I say. Ressai nods.
“ You too, stay here for now.” She leaves and shuts the door.

I wasn’t sure how long it would take for them to come back. They returned about an hour later. Tisha Knox and I were in the midst of discussing what’s the best kind of snow when Ressai came bursting into the living room.

“ Guys! I found out something!” She stops. Emund comes up next to her, looking annoyed. “ There’s actually a Plasamic space station in Earth’s orbit!”
“ There’s a what?” Tisha asks.
“ How?” Knox asks.
“ The third base, like we saw briefly before. I did some more searching when we arrived at Berserker.” Ressai says.

“ Can I add she was only able to get in there because of ME?” Emund says. “ Everyone was so distracted by me! I didn’t know soldiers could ask so many questions. Then I had to kill them with this neat rifle I found.” He hefted up a rifle. “ I think they may still be looking for us.”

“ Oh no…” I say.

“ HEY listen!” Ressai says. “ There’s a Plasamic shuttle about to take off in three hours to reach the space station. Any ideas?”
“ I mean we can’t just hitch a ride with them and go up there can we?” Knox asks.

“ That’s a great idea.” Tisha says. “ I say we do that.”
“ Terrible idea, please no.” Ressai says.

“ It would be unexpected wouldn’t it be?” I ask.

“ Exactly, so we should do that and then blow up the station in outer space!” Tisha says.

“ I think I hear someone coming.” Emund says.

“ Okay fine.” Ressai runs over to a window, pushing it open. “ We go and get to the shuttle, it’s taking off in the field next to Archer.”

“ Wait they just have a-” I was cut off by Emund.

“ Not all of us… How about just me?”
“ I’ll go.” I say, standing up off the couch. “ I wanna help finish this. I’ve been through too much not to.”

“ Said like a true teen.” Tisha says. “ We’ll hold off whoever comes.”

“ We will?” Knox asks.
“ Fine just move!” Ressai says. Emund takes a firm hold of his gun. He waves for me to follow, and climbs out the window. I still have my arm gun. My only protection. This is a terrible idea. Ressai helps me out the window, and wishes me good luck. I lead Emund to the Archer base.

It was too easy to get there. It was a small chaos outside. Guards were running around, talking into phones and yelling at citizens to get inside. Maybe it was the new phase of their plan, or something about seeing Emund in public that got them into such a riled up state. Emund was a bit trigger happy, making sure any guard who stopped for us was taken care of. I was saving my energy for the space station. I dunno if this will work, but I might as well try my best. A small, pod like vehicle was hovering over the grass a few meters away from the base. Never thought I’d see something like this in LA.  The commotion of the crowds gave us some cover to run for it. As we got close, Emund picks me up, helping me into the back seats of the vehicle. I realize the design is similar to the helicopter we took back at San Jose. The front is separate from the back. Emund gets in. He bends down under the seats, hiding from view. Even though doing this hurts me, I do it anyway. It takes what feels like an eternity for the shuttle to close up and lift off. The nervousness and pain I feel make it hard to stay still, but I manage somehow. I hear the squad of soldiers up front communicating to the space station. The walls are shut, and it’s dark like the night. To them there’s no one back here so why would the lights be on. I’m pressed to the grey, cold floor as we lift off the Earth and exit its atmosphere. I pray that Tisha, Ressai and Knox and my parents and their parents will be okay. And so will us.

I would talk about how cool it is to be in space, if I wasn’t in horrible physical pain and not even able to see space itself. The soldiers up front sure are enjoying it however. I can hear them OOHING about it. Jerks. Emund ended up falling asleep on the way up here. I would wake him up, but I can’t muster up the power to do that. I could, but I’m saving it for the real endeavor. The shuttle rattles every now and then, which does frighten me, but it usually dies down. After about some time, I wasn’t really keeping track, I feel the shuttle stop and the engine shut off. The soldiers exit the front part of the vehicle and leave. I lay about for a few minutes trying to give myself the will to do what’s about to happen. What even is about to happen? I roll over along the floor, and sit up. My side is still in pain, however it’s not as bad as it was before. I tap Emund on the shoulder. Nothing happens. I tap him again harder this time. He jolts awake, standing up quickly. He looks around and wipes his face. He picks up his rifle.

“ Ceena are you ready?”
“ I guess… What are we even doing up here?” I look at my arm gun. “ We barely even thought this out.”
“ Well like your friend Knox said.” Emund takes out a small block like device from his pocket. “ We’re gonna blow this place to Hell.” I look at the thing confused.

“ What is that?”
“ You know what this is.”
“ I don’t want to.”
“ But you do.”
“ That is a bomb isn’t it.” I ask. Emund tosses it into the air and catches it.
“ Mhm! I figure since I haven’t had a proper chance to use this yet, I might as well do it now!” Emund offers me his hand. “ Now we should get going. Ready to end this?” I look up at my old friend. Interesting this is how this all ends. First time I met him he was trying to infiltrate a Plasamic base, and now here we are again. Similar circumstances come around when you least expect them I suppose. I take Emund’s hand and stand up.
“ Yeah, I’m ready.”

So what happened next was kinda my fault. Once we left the drop off station and entered the main part of the Space facility, I uh…. I let loose. We got busted immediately. This place was the most guarded Plasamic area I’ve ever seen. Once we were spotted Emund and I both knew that trying to sneak our way through this would be near to impossible. I silently suggested something I thought I’d never suggest in my life. Massacre them all. I shot a soldier to my left, and another in front of me. One from the right retaliates and I duck down, only to be covered by Emund who takes care of them.

“ You sure about this kid?” He asks me quickly. More soldiers come rushing towards us.
“ Yeah why not. I’m not in the best spot emotionally anyways.” I say. I’m really not. It’s gotta be everything that has been happening since I honestly don’t care about the lives of these men and women any longer. To me they’re just brainless idiots who only think of themselves and some dumb scheme they have to save the world and keep it from splitting apart. What does that even mean? It doesn’t matter anymore. Emund and I are ending all of this here and now.

Another thing, I would’ve been a dead girl in seconds if it weren’t for my friend. I’ve forgotten how good of a shooter he is. He was taking down soldiers like it was a game of Call of Duty. Tisha would be proud I think. I was doing alright myself. I had to constantly hide around corners and check my flank so I wouldn’t get shot down and killed. I almost did a good number of times and that probably doesn’t help my mental state. But you know what? Something about it was liberating. All the time spent hiding and fearing for my life and the lives of my friends and parents and strangers I didn’t know, and not knowing if I would live till the next few hours or not. I guess you can say that I was able to let it out. I’m not sure the exact number of how many Plasamic members we snuffed out the lives of, but it was a lot. I think. Again it was more of a haze than anything. At some point we enter a room labelled “ CENTRAL UNIT.”
“ This seems important. Come on!” Emund tells me and drags me inside. I see a power module taking up the middle of the room. A large rectangular structure with several large cable wires extending out of it and to each of the separate energy distributors on each wall. They flashed with a rainbow of lights and made all the beep booping you can imagine. It was a more quiet contrast to the gunshot filled havoc happening outside. Speaking of that we needed to do whatever we needed to soon or else we’d be cornered most likely.

Emund takes out his miniature bomb and bends down near the central module. “ Can you cover me? I’ll need only a few seconds.”
“ What would happen in a few seconds?” I ask. I look through the door’s peephole. Only scarred walls so far. “ I think we bought ourselves some more time. Go!”
“ On it!” Emund starts to fiddle with the object. I stand against the wall next to the door, my arm extended. I’m half daring someone to come in, half dreading it. Unfortunately someone does enter. As soon as the door opens I fire, and of course I miss. The figure punches me across the face, sending me sprawling to the side. I catch myself on the wall and barely stay standing. “ I’m done!” Emund gets up and turns around. The figure, wearing a purple and white military suit, charges at Emund. Emund fires his rifle. The blue bullets bounce off of the man’s body. The armor giving off an orange color as it deflects the bullets. This dumbfounds Emund long enough for him to be hit in the gut and then the face.  He stumbles to the side. The man reaches for the small bomb on the floor. I shoot at his back, getting the same results.

Th figure stops and turns to face me. He smiles.

“ You’re Ceena aren’t you? I’ve wanted to meet you for a while.” He says. “ You don’t know me. But you killed my wife. Back a few years ago.”
“ Your….” I faintly remember the leader of Plasamic who dwelt in the final base I destroyed so long ago. “ What a-about it?”
“ Nothing much. Only it makes me want to show you something. You’ll like it, it’s rather interesting.” The purple man reaches into his pocket and produces a grey cube. On it has a warning label and a red button. Emund shoots again, but again to no prevail. “ Actually in order to see the effects of what I’m about to do you’ll have to take a look outside.” The purple man presses the button. I tense up. Nothing happens. I slowly open my eyes. The man is gone. I hear a distant laughing from inside the station. I look around, but I see nothing but what was here before. “ Kid…?” Emund says. I shake my head.
“ What did that do…?”
“ I….” Emund looks at his bomb, which is still intact. “ OH kid we need to go this place is about to blow!”

We make it back to the shuttle, which is now empty. We didn’t encounter anyone else on the way. As we were running down the halls, I swear I saw the purple man again, watching us from afar, grinning. When I did a double take he was gone again. I have an odd feeling that we didn’t fully kill the rest of Plasamic up here. Emund and I hop into the front seats of the vehicle and Emund fires it up. We’re ejected from the station, diving towards Earth. I look out at the planet. I would expect to see a world about to be free or something. But instead I gaze upon a new and permanent ice age.

Like magic the surface of the planet is covered by a thick layer of light blue. As our shuttle breaks into the atmosphere and we get a closer look at the landscape, it only gets worse. The ocean in its entirety is icing over, the nature amongst the valleys are becoming tight with frost and ice. Our shuttle lands down next to the Archer base. We get out. The air is colder than it’s ever been. Snowflakes fall down around me. Thick layers of snow begin to build up everywhere I look. It’s like an icy wonderland. Except there’s no escape from it. Up ahead I see Ressai and Tisha running towards us. Around me people are rushing around screaming and firing off weapons. The number of Plasamic soldiers currently visible is next to none.
“ This….” Emund says looking into the sky. An explosion can be seen up around Earth’s orbit. “ They must’ve executed the next part of their plan.”
“ Guys!” Ressai says as she reaches us. “ Plasamic they….they... “
“ They set off sub zero detonations around the world?” I ask.
“ That’s what they were planning. No wonder….” Emund says.

“ What does this mean? Everything is different!” Tisha says.
“ This means…” Ressai rubs icicles off of her shoulder. “ This planet’s not viable to live on anymore.” I look around at all the people. Some of them begin to head towards us yelling.

“ Are you sure? Then what do we do?”
“ I dunno… Guess we’ll have to find out.” Emund says.

We’re taken away by the crowd. So this is it then. I guess Plasamic was stopped, the world isn’t in danger of being watched over by them. They’re nowhere to be seen now. But they left behind exactly what they wanted. If we really aren’t able to live here anymore… What’s the next option? I guess the government will have to figure that one out or something. All I know is we aren’t out of this yet. Whether this planet is livable from now on or not, Plasamic isn’t done yet. I can’t say how I know, I can just sense it. They wanted to turn our world into a popsicle and they did it. Whatever happens now is gonna send chills down my spine. Oh boy.