Project JAKIO

a story i wrote while making music on a website called musicshake.

Chapter 1. Helios’ Story

My name is Helios Jeffery Warren. There’s nothing special about me, really. I live in room 698 on the 7^th floor of our ship, Ursa. Oh right you probably don’t know. Earth was abandoned 15 years ago. I was 18 years old when it began. So young, so oblivious, getting ready to graduate from High School. I Grew up in what was known as Iowa. Nice state is was. Everything was alright. No worries no problems, even though I had a terrible family life. When I was 4 my mother died after giving birth to my younger brother, Isaac. It turns out he is not my father’s son. That drove my father to drinking, he would always beat on Issac, sad story in his case. The day before my 11^th birthday, my father died in a car wreck. Isaac and I were separated he was sent to a family member out in Massachusetts whilst I remained in Iowa and lived with my uncle. We never got close, so I wasn’t home very Much. The only one whom I was ever with was my girlfriend, Maria.

I was with her when it started. You might be wondering what im talking about. Well, WWIII, that’s what. When the bombing started everything around started to turn into dust, ash and fire. My Little town I lived in evacuated in the locker room in our high school.

The Bombing, nobody knows how long it lasted. But when we emerged everything was destroyed. Months past after the war ended. The surviving 30% of the worlds population started to rebuild small communities. Our elected leaders from all around the world united and decided that the Human Race surviving was more important than the petty differences they once sought to kill each other for were no longer important. The Human Race was once again rising but this time as one united world. But the damage had been done. The Earth was collapsing. Panic streaked across the world. Our Leaders they created Project JAKIO. Its purpose to find the humans another sustainable planet to live. But there was still a few million people on Earth, you can’t transport that many. So then began the mass killings, people turned against friends, families, anyone who stood a threat to them getting a spot on “Ursa” our little village of New Iowa on the other hand was un affected by the mass killings.

After another 20% of the population that slaughter itself, the remaining 10% was told to form lines in their communities when the ship passed over. When Ursa arrived at New Iowa, we were all amazed at the size of the ship. But 1 man came out of it. It was General Harold Campbell; he was the one sorting people. When he walked by us he gave each of us a card. It had a number on it. The number I got was 698. The General read out numbers. As each number was read, Maria and I got more worried. Then as a huge sigh of relief the general said “698” I walked forward and stood by the other chosen ones.  My attitude changed though when the next number read was “704” Maria’s wasn’t called. I remember my reaction.

“Hey!” I ran over to the general, “did you skip one?” the general just shoved me away. I ran after him. I grabbed the list, and scanned there was no 699 on it. I looked up just struck with surprise. I look over to maria, she has tears running down her face. Then she mouths the words “I Love You”. I attempted to run back to her but I was stopped by guards and forced on the ship.

I remember just yelling “Maria!! Maria, NOO!!!” as the ship lifted off the ground I gazed out the tiny window by the loading door. I could see her held by her mother. Waving goodbye to me as I got farther and farther away.

 

Chapter 2 Life on Ursa

It’s been 15 years since we left earth’s atmosphere for the last time. i only vaguely remember anything else besides what I said to you. It just seems so long ago, almost like a dream. I’m alone now, 33 years old and alone, alone in room 698. The last room on the end on the 7^th floor. Every other room has 2 people residing in it. I Still have the nightmares about Earth and nightmares about my short time on it. All the fresh air, trees, animals, my cat, Hamball. What a furry little guy. He’d always lighten up my day. Nowadays I lie in my room, gazing at the ceiling…. That is when I’m not on missions.

That day we left earth all residents of Ursa was lined up and given jobs based on there skills. Me, only being 18 didn’t have many skills, the first job they said was Doctor, then I corrected them by mentioning that I had no medical skills, they then said trooper. So now I am a soldier, in the Ursa Army, an army that consisted of every ethnic group that was on Earth. I spent 14 hours of everyday for 2 years in Boot Camp. I hated it very much. But look at me now. I feel so in shape. In shape, yet empty.

Missions come so rarely, the Ursa may travel 1000 Lightyears per hour, but we don’t run across habituated planets very much. So I have a lot of down time, to sit and reflect. I sometimes feel as if this ship is a prison. Theres no individuality here. Everything is either dull tan or gray. The color of Metal out does anything. It’s not like the leaders enforce against colors, people draw, paint do stuff freely. It’s just that the builders of Ursa didn’t really put a lot of time into the appearance of the interior. Heck there’s even a little band on the 4^th floor that plays us music every now and then. I go down and listen to them every now and then. But most of the time I don’t go, it reminds me too much of Earth.

I am not much of a people person. I eat alone in my ‘dorm’. I never go out and hang with people. I try best to avoid the Plaza. The plaza is the center of amusement on Ursa, malls, food court, even an arcade. The arcade games though are the old training simulators for the army.

I am not completely alone. I do talk to some people, like theres Dylan. It turned out we have a lot in common. He comes over to my dorm occasionally, we talk, play chess, but it’s not very often. His job is engineer, and theres always stuff breaking down on this ship. He’s taught me a few things about the structure of the ship and some mechanics. Then there’s Justin. He’s probably the one person on this ship who has it worse than I do. I am the only person who he talks to him. Not because he doesn’t talk to others, but everyone ignores him. His job is janitor, sure theres like 100 janitors, but his area is the ‘Base’, in other words the very lowest floor on the ship. There’s not even an elevator button for it so he has to take the stairs. He swears he only got that job because he’s black. There is some racial things about Ursa, but I think that only because who’s in charge.

Whenever I decide to go visit Justin I end up helping him clean. The Base is like the back side of a pumpkin, the side that, never gets maintained and is an eyesore, not to mention theres no lighting down there and it’s always cold. The Base is used as storage of stuff that nobody ever uses. Old boxes full of god knows what. 

I can’t forget to talk about the old man that everyone likes, Mr. Cremshaw. Nobody know why he was choosen, he’s way to old to do anything useful, but he always sits on the bench to the right of the elevator. I sit and chat to him once and a while, we have a good laugh or 2 and we go our separate ways. But still, most of the time I lock myself in my room and stare at the ceiling, staring at my card, that I taped to the ceiling right above my bed.

On another note, I think how its amazing how well everyone coincides with each other. The population of Ursa is almost evenly spread out in different races, and people from different countries. There’s an occasional brawl every now and then, but it’s almost like everyone forgot what they stood for on earth, no countries, no religion, no land to fight over, its just everyone as one. Something we never had on Earth, but it makes me think, did it really have to sacrifice 90% of Earth’s 7 billion people to make us realize that there can be world peace?

 

 

 

Chapter 3 The First One

“is that all?” she asked, I glanced over to her. She scribbled one last thing on her notepad and got up. “Well Mr. Warren, I hope these Therapeutic sessions are helping with your depression. I will see you next Monday at 0900hrs and we can resume your therapy.”  She walked over to her bag and put her things in and and walked over to the door, she looked back and said one last thing “that’s quite a story you got there Mr. Warren” and he walked out the door.

I turned my head and Stared at the card. “I can’t believe I told her my whole life story.” I thought to myself. “ I don’t see how that made me feel any better.” Then my stomach rumbled. “ Damn, Hungry.” I slowly sat up. Rubbed my eyes and started walking towards the kitchen.

*Knock, Knock, Knock* I stopped. *Knock, Knock, Knock* “ALRIGHT! I’m coming, I’m coming!” I made my way over to my door and opened it to find Dylan standing there. “What do you need? I told you I’m not lending you anything else until you return my-“ he put his hand on my shoulder. “Warren, settle down I’m just here checking on you” I grabbed his hand and threw it off of me. He looked at me surprised. I just scoffed back at him “I don’t need sympathy, I’m fine!” I started to shut the door but he stopped it with his foot.

“Warren, man, you’re not fine!! Your in your room much more than usual, you never talk to me, and you even stopped visiting Mr. Crenshaw! He asked me what happened to you.” I sighed and opened the door back up. “Come with me” he said. “You need to meet someone I’d think you like.” I rolled my eyes. I walked over to my dresser grabbed my access key and I followed Dylan out of my room. As we walked towards the elevator, I noticed people looking at me. They all just stopped what they were doing and looked at me, as if they’ve just seen an alien. As the elevator door shut I decided to ask “Dylan, why is everyone staring at me weird?”

He Chuckled, “Well, nobody has seen you in 2 weeks except for that therapist, whats her name again?” “Ms. Nomad, Katie Nomad.” I replied. He laughed, “what’s so funny? Hear a bad joke?” I glared at him. He stopped, “No man, you on a first name basis with her? You guys getting close?” he nudged me with his elbow. I punched him in the arm. “ You know nobody calls me by my first name, and no, I call her Ms. Nomad and she calls me Mr. Warren. There’s nothing between us.”

“Right, I forgot you’re still thinking about ‘her’” he said sarcastically. “is that why your depressed? I hope not, it’s been 15 years. You got to move on man, it’s not Healthy to mope around” “SHUT UP!” I yelled. I looked down at my feet. “you remember that big air gust last week, that swept down the 7^th floor early last week?” Dylan raised his hand to his chin and remarked “HMM, I don’t know, you mean the last day anyone saw you? Well before today.” I continued to stare at my feet. “well it went into my room and blew everything all over the place” He coughed and gaged sarcastically, “You mean you’ve been depressed because that wind made your room messy?” I looked at him blankly. His smile disappeared. “No you moron, as I was cleaning up all the papers I noticed that my card had come untapped from the ceiling” he looked at me, “and I noticed what it said on the back.” He rolled his neck “Yeah Yeah Yeah! You told me already. She crossed out something and wrote ‘I Love You �" Maria’”

“Quit Interrupting me, anyway, In the angle at which the light shined on it I was able to see what was crossed out.” He froze, “wait a sec, where you going with this? It Should’ve said ‘Helios, Soldier’” I shook my head. A tear started rolling down my face. “it didn’t say that”

Dylan grabbed my shoulders. “Warren!! All of our cards we received said our name and our jobs!!! Yours had to say that!!” I looked at him, teary eyed. I wiped one eyed and swallowed. “You want to know what it said? Well look for yourself.” I reached into my pocket and retrieved my card. I handed it to him and he yanked it out of my hand. He then raised it up at a weird angle to try to see what it said. Then his eyes widened. He lowered the card “I-I-Impossble!! Oh man I had no idea” he handed me the card. I looked at it again. I then looked at him. “it said ‘Maria �" Doctor’”

 

 

 

Chapter 4 Reunion

“698 isnt your number, she gave you her card!!” Dylan ran his hands through his hair. I put the card back in my pocket and wiped my eyes. “she must’ve switched them when we hugged.”

*Ding* the elevator arrived at the 1^st floor. We walked out and to our left up stood Mr. Crenshaw. “Warren! How nice to see you! We must catch up sometime!!” I didn’t look at him, I just nodded my head. Dylan led me over to a table in the corner of the food court. There sat Justin and another Man. The man didn’t notice us approach because he was busy talking to Justin. As we arrived at the table Justin got us “Warren, Dylan welcome! Dylan you know this man, lets see if Warren can guess. I looked at him, he looked at me. His eyes opened and his jaw dropped and he quickly covered it with his hand. I raised my eyebrow.

“Wait a second, open your mouth again.” The man did. He had 2 missing mullers on the right side of his mouth. Then I noticed he had a scar down the right side of his face. “it- it �" it can’t be!” my mind was racing he got up and I ran towards him. “Isaac!! How is this possible?” he smiled and patted me on my shoulder. “oh man, I didn’t realize it was you until they kept  saying Warren. Only my brother would want to be called by his last name instead of his first!!” I was filled with so much joy I hugged him. Isaac, I- I didn’t think you would be chosen!” he frowned at me, then laughed. “oh Helios, I thought that too! It turns out my beatings actually benefitted me! They said that I was already battle Hardened, so they took me to the Vault and they had me train under extreme conditions and I just got done last week!” I shook my head in surprise “ wait Monday last week around 1400hrs?” he looked at me funny

“Yeah how did you know?” Dylan and Justin Looked at each other and then Dylan broke the silence “That Breeze!! When you opened the vault after 10 years it released a major wind gust that blew through the entire ship!” I just stood there blankly.

“Warren? HELLO?” Dylan was waving his hand in front of my face. I then snapped back into reality. “wow when they said everything happens for a reason they ment it” Isaac looked confused, Dylan filled him in. ‘Warren had his card taped to his roof and it blew off and he found out 698 was not his-“ I smacked him upside the head. He rubbed it “right, I’ll shut up now”

“698 wasn’t what?” Justin asked. “Nothing never mind he said that, lets just order food or something.” I said as I sat down trying to change the subject.

Later that night, I sat at my table, flipping my card in my hand. I was thinking about Isaac. About how different he was. About how that our dad beat him and not me how he was the one sent away to Massachusetts, about how he was sent to the vault for 10 years and about how all that added up to me discovering that I had it worse than him by not having my number read. Now the feelings of guilt tripled. I started to feel light headed, like I need to rest. What I really needed was a distraction.

 

 

Chapter 5 Monceto

*BEEP! BEEP! BEEP* The sirens were blaring loudly. I jumped up to see a message on my TV. The message said all soldiers should report to the Dock immediately. I ran over to my closet. A bunch of clothes piled out. “Come on, Come On!!” I dug through the pile of clothes and stumbled across my armor. I hurriedly put them on, punched in my gun safe’s combo and grabbed my rifle. I burst out my door and started sprinting down the hallway. Everyone else was peeking there heads out of their rooms to see what was going on and other soldiers were running towards the emergency shaft. As I made my way down the shaft in between all the other soldiers, I heard some trying to talk with others to see if they knew what was going on. Nobody knew. I Finally arrived at the dock along with the last of the others, and there we saw that General Campbell was on the big screen.

“All soldiers get to your sections and await further instructions.” I ran over to section 05 and met with the other troops. “Anyone at all Know what the hell is the emergency?”  I asked expecting to get a bunch of ‘I don’t know’ s when Griffin said “I Believe we are arriving at a planet” the others look at him “Shut up Griffin, that’s stupid, it’s been 8 years since we found one, and the last one sucked” Louis spatted. I smacked Louis. “Don’t remind us, maybe he’s right”

Then General Campbell came upon the big screen again. “alright Soldiers, its been a long time waiting but we found another planet to explore, this time it’s Monceto. An Advisor will come around and explain to you what your Section’s objective is. And soldiers some advice, don’t try to mess with anything or any creature that doesn’t seem civilized. Good Luck!” and the screen went black.

“told you Louis! You owe me now” Griffin Smirked. Louis flipped him off “I don’t owe you s**t, you just guess lucky” A woman ran over to us, carrying a folder. Louis grabbed it. “Ok guys in that folder is everything you need to know.” She stopped and turned to me and winked “Good Luck” she then ran over to the next group.

“ooh Warren you have a lover” mocked Ken. “Dude shut up” I said, looking over Louis’ shoulder. “Louis whats it say?”

 Louis shoved all of us away, “Chill guys I got this” he straightened his back and cleared his throat. “Ahem, our mission today fellas is….what? D****t!!”

“what? What is it Louis?” Ken asked attempting to grab the paper out of his hand. Louis shoved Ken back and Griffen snatched the paper. “Aha!! Our mission guys is to, guard the ship. Great.” Griffin gave the paper back to Louis.

“well everything happens for a reason, right Warren?” Ken said as he nudged me. I frowned at him. Then suddenly the airlock hissed as the big docking door opened. The first section ran out the door and out onto Monceto. The light seeping in was extremely bright and made it hard to see. As our section made our way to the door a thick moist air came sweeping in. Ken coughed “what’d we do land in a swamp?” when we got out the ground was all sticky and covered in some moss like material and the surrounding was filled with tree like plants. This was our first time outside Ursa in 8 Years.

“Holy crap man it’s so- swamp like!” Griffin said. Louis face-palmed “well, THANK YOU Captain Obvious!!” I walked over to a tree-like plant. It was a green blue color and it stood up from the ground and branched out like a tree. “Man I’m too nervous to touch anything.” I said. And I walked back to the ship.

A few hours later. The four of us were just sitting there, on the foot of the Ursa waiting and waiting. “Man this SUCKS!!!! Louis remarked. “we finally get to a planet and we get suck guarding the ship!!! Arnt you guys curious what’s out there? Just imagine what life lives here, or if theres more than just fucked up color swamp? You know what?” “Louis… Don’t even” I warned, “You know what? Im leaving!! I gotta see  whats out there!!” he got up strapped his gun to his back and started walking, I got up. “Louis get back here!! Our orders were to guard no to mosey around in an unknown world!!” he stopped, snickered, then blew up with laughter, “Warren, you were always so uptight, Do this, don’t do that, your doing that wrong, yada, yada yada. You are surely one to talk, oh Mr. Mope around about your dead girlfriend for 2 weeks. I bet she was ugly” by this time my hands and teeth were so tightly clenched that I was sure they were going to break. “Take that back!!!!!NOW!!!!” Louis chuckled, “only if you catch me” and he took off into the swamp. Blind with rage I sprinted after him. “LOUIS!!!!!” I ran through all the trees and shrubs and goop so fast that my lungs couldn’t keep up, my sides started burning up. I was so mad that I wasn’t going to let Louis get away with it. I could hear over my constant slopping Ken and Griffin’s shouting “Warren!!! Louis!!! Come on Guys!!”

Then I flung forward and landed on this hard surface. My knee was killing me. I looked at my right hand. It was scratched open and started to bleed. I looked up to see a large open area with black rocks everywhere. And there stood Louis all Frozen with shock. I got up to him and asked “what are you looking….” My voice trailed off as I gazed upon this blue marble- like sphere stuck in the ground. “What do you think it is?” he asked. I was at a loss for words. The orb was massive probably 5 or 6 feet in diameter, and was blue/white swirled like a marble. As if we were little kids seeing a big toy or something desireable he slowly crept closer. The black charcoal like rock underneath us crackled with every step. We were about 10 feet away from this massive blue orb when Louis stopped. “ok Warren I take it back, I just wanted to get away from the ship.” I shook my head. He look at me for a second “do you think it’s alive?” he started to reach for it I jumped and grabbed him arm “ARE YOU CRAZY??!! IT COULD KILL YOU!!!!” I yelled. Then the ground beneath us started to shake and giant cracks in the black rock formed. The blue orb started to glow. Then it started to float. “OH S**T MAN OH S**T OH S**T OH S**T!!!” Louis screamed as he stumbled back. I couldn’t look away. It was so beautiful and majestic. Louis started shaking me “Warren We need to go!!” I looked at him. I could see the fear in his eyes. He let go of me and started to run back. I then too started to run back but I stumbled over a protruding rock. I landed on my hand again this time ripping a cut in the wrist. “AW!!” I screamed. The pain in my hand was excruciatingly bad. I looked at my hand and all the blood gushing out. Then Louis Grabbed me from the back and helped me up. Then he ran. The orb then zipped right after him. Louis stumbled a little and looked back in terror. His eyes widened as he saw the orb coming for him. I panicked I looked around for something to throw at it, nothing. I then felt myself leap forward and shove Louis out of the way. He landed into the swamp. I turned my head just to see the orb heading towards me. I raised up my hands to protect myself the best I could. Then I felt a cold feeling come over me, then all my muscles tensed like I was being electrocuted then I collapsed and my mind started to go and everything faded away.

 

 

Chapter 6 Side Effects

“err” I groaned. I went to rub my head but I couldn’t lift my arm. My eyes finally adjusted to the light and I noticed I was in the imfirmary on the Ursa.

“Oh goodness your awake!” said the nurse. “ I you’ve been out for 2 weeks.” 2 weeks I thought, coincidence? I didn’t leave my room for 2 weeks when I was depressed. The only thing I managed to spit out was “2 weeks?” “Yes” the nurse nodded “You ended up better than Mr. Hutchens.” I sat up. “What Happened to Louis?” the nurse came over to me, “relax Mr. Warren. You need to relax, we don’t want you get upset. I’m not supposed to tell you what happened to Mr. Hutchens” she then stuck a thermometer in my mouth. “102.1, mild fever. But nothing serious. How you feeling?”

“What Happened to LOUIS?” I insisted. The nurse sighed. “Mr. Warren please, if you want to know ask someone else, but im not getting in trouble by telling you.” She was writing notes down in a medical pad. “Fine” I said “who Would know?” she looked at me. Then shook her head. “Im Sorry Mr. Warren, I wouldn’t know” I sighed.

“interesting, now your temp in 91.1, but how? Why Would it drop so much?” he left the room in a rush. Suddenly the room felt really cold. I tried to move my arms but they were strapped to the bed, under a sheet. I started to freak out “HEY!! Why am I strapped? What the hell is going on??” suddenly it got really hot again. The door opened and in came the nurse followed by Dr. Smith.

“Hello Mr Warren, it is you this time right?” he walked over to me, I looked up at him. “what” I gasped I was sweating and panting for water. “what do you mean this time?”

“ah, so you don’t remember. You woke up yesterday claiming to be some Monceto creature called a ‘Wincarzal’ nobody here knows what that is.” Dr. Smith explained. He then put a cool rag on my forehead. It felt reassuring “May I ask you a question Mr. Warren?” I repositioned myself.  “Sure, only if you answer a question of mine” he nodded so I continued “What happened to Louis?” the doctor looked back at the Nurse, she nodded then left the room. The doctor bent over and whispered “He’s dead” he stood up straight “WHAT?!?! HOW???” The rag on my forehead started to sizzle “HOW???” the doctor jumped back “Mr. Warren calm down!!” “HOW DID HE DIE???” my muscles tensed and I could feel the straps give way, then snap. My arms flung up and the sheet caught fire and burned up into ash. The Doctor turned on a fan and blew the smoke and ash away. When I cleared I almost had a heart attack I stare at my right hand and fore-arm. It was glowing blue and white. More intencely around my hand. “wha- what the hell?” the doctor walked back up to me. “So now to my question, what did you come incontact with on Monceto?” I couldn’t speak. I just sat there on the medical bed staring at my hand. “Mr. Warren what did you touch?” I looked at the doctor. “a blue orb, that’s all I know about it”

Dr. Smith walked back to the counter. “that’s what Mr Hutchens said. A blue orb” “How did Louis die? I deserve to know.” I said. Dr. smith sighed “ I suppose you do, are you sure you want to know. It might upset you.” I thought for a second “Yes, I believe I can handle it”

Dr. Smith leaned up against the counter. “ok according to Mr. Snyder and Mr. Lovitt Louis dragged your unconscious body back to the Ursa. Mr. Lovitt phoned the medical staffed and we rushed down to pick you and Mr. Hutchens up. You remained unconscious whilst we treated Mr. Hutchens. His Physical injuries were a minimum, a few scrapes here and there, but he seemed distressed about something, he kept saying blue orb over and over again. Everytime one of the nurses or I tried to speak with him he’d snap at us and yell something. A couple days later the army barged in and took him with them. But before they took him. I noticed his eyes. His eyes were glowing the same pattern as your hand there. From what I understand they took Louis to interrogate him about his discovery. I believe what actually happened is Louis attacked one of the guards and he was killed. So in short talk he had a mental meltdown and went crazy. When you woke up Yesterday and starting yelling some foreign language I thought they’d take you too, but then you calmed down and passed out again. And now here you are. Awake and burned half this medical room.”

I emptily gawked at the wall in front of me, trying to ponder what the doctor said. It was a lot to take in. “Whatever you did differently that he did you seemed to take it better” he mumbled as he wrote down more things.

“I had a cut” I said, “excuse me?” “I had a cut, on my hand.” I repeated. The doctor dropped his pen “That’s it!! Whatever possessed you two, your body accepted it better because it had a direct path to your blood!” I looked down at my hand. Opened and closed it a few times. Then I set it on the bed rail. My hand got cold, I looked at it again, and I gasped. The doctor turned around and the folders he held in his hand fell to the floor. I just kept staring at my hand. I felt so stiff, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. The doctor walked over to where my hand is grasping the bed rail. He tapped his pen on it *Ding Ding* he looked up at me. “Metal, your hand is Metal!!!”

 

 

 

Chapter 7 Something’s Wrong

I slowly released my grip on the bed rail. So scared to do anything else, I focus completely on my hand. And then I let go entirely. And hand faded back to the blue/white glowing.

“uh doc, what the HELL??!?” I said puzzled. “ Touch something else, like this pen!!” he handed me his pen. My hand turned into a hard plastic, yet I could still bend my fingers. We looked at each other again. I gave him his pen back. “Doc, what we going to do about this?”

“We need to keep this concealed, no one must find out about this or, or- well you get the point. Here take this glove, it’s a temporary solution I’ll visit you when I have a better one.” He walked over to me and handed me a winter glove. I slipped it on and the glow didn’t shine through. “aren’t people going to think I’m weird for having one glove?” I looked at him. He smiled “well probably, if anyone asks tell them you injured your hand badly and the glove helps protect it, cause it’s sort of true.” I just shrugged and got up from the bed. I looked at it and laughed. The matress and pillow had black scorch marks up and down it.   

“Well thanks again, doc, but I think I should go home before everyone thinks I died” he cracked a smile. “Remember, the less people who know about this situation, the better, anyone could turn you in, even your friends” I stopped at the door and looked at him “Why didn’t you?” he stopped what he was doing. “I’ve seen things, Mr Warren, I’ve overheard conversations coming from General Campbell’s room and the control station, There’s something else going on here, the last thing I need is more attention brought to myself when there are so many sick. It’s seems as if we are short a doctor”

“Yeah” I said to myself as I left the Medical Ward, thinking about Maria, and how she would’ve been that missing doctor.

When the elevator arrived on the 7^th floor, the hallway was filled with troopers armed and watching everyone closely.

As I exited the elevator a soldier I recognized from section 1 walked up to me “Hello Private Warren. I need to ask you some questions”

I stopped him “What’s this about, why are all these soldiers here?” I also noticed they were the only soldiers from section 1. “We have reason to suspect that someone is going to compromise our missions and destroy the Ursa” I jerked my head back in surprise. “What? Why? You got to be kidding!!” the soldier’s expression stayed serious “Someone has been spying on us, but he manages to elude us for the time being” I shook my head, “Sorry, this is the first I’ve heard about this. If you don’t mind I’m going to my room to get some rest” I lunged past him and walked to my room, not daring to look back. Once I got inside I quickly shut my door and locked it. I turned around and jumped. “General Campbell, sir!! What the Hell are you doing in my room?”

He took his hand and wiped it across my table and lifted it up and looked at it. “Helios, do you know what this is?” I shrugged “Dust?” “”Dust” he repeated “Dust collects when something sits dormant for a while without being disturbed, and Helios there’s dust on a lot of things in here, that means you haven’t been in your room, where have you been?”

“Uh…… The Medical Ward” I replied “why does that matter? Does that have to do with the spy?”

“Spy? How- How did you find out about that? It’s classified?” Campbell said startled, he walked up to me and got in my face “How did you find out about that?”

“A soldier in the hallway told me” I replied, backing myself away from him. “Helios, what soldier?” he walked over to my door unlocked it and opened it. “the hallway is empty” I shoved him aside and looked out into the hallway, no soldiers, no people, completely empty “But-“ “Helios!! Ursa’s been on lockdown for 4 days, nobody has left there room!! That is except for you”

 

 

Chapter 8

“Impossible!! When I got out of the elevator there were people and soldiers” I turned to General Campbell, he looked at me curiously “Helios did you suffer a head injury, I heard you got injured back on Monceto.” I rubbed my head and walked over and sat on my bed “no, I don’t think so.”

“then tell me, WHY THE HELL WERE YOU IN THE MEDICAL WARD? I have good reasons to suspect you of treason against us.” He said firmly. I stood up “Oh don’t go there!! I did nothing wrong!! I just felt ill that’s all.”

He looked at me as if he didn’t believe me, “Alright Helios, I guess some of those drugs the doctor gives you makes you see things, and forget anything about this ‘spy’ understood?” he said as he walked towards the door “Yes Sir”  He paused for a second, he looked at me, then down at my glove hand, then back at me.

“Anything I should know? The Fate of the Humans might depend on it.” He said scanning me carefully. I shook my head, then rubbed my eyes. I looked up and saw General Campbell looking down and rubbing his chin as if he was thinking, then suddenly his eyes widened, “Of Course!!! It has to be him!!!” He looked at me and smiled, “thank you for your time Helios, you might’ve just saved us all” I looked at him puzzled then got up to the door “What? Who? WAIT!!!!!”

Then he slammed the door behind him. I looked at my feet and ran my hands through my hair. Then I lowered them and took the glove off and stared at the glowing. I stood there trying to think about who Campbell might’ve been talking about. My phone buzzed, I got up and walked over to it and picked it up a message from Issac. It read ‘Some strange stuff have been happening since we left Monceto, General’s on edge, people disappearing, a sudden lockdown, you alright?’

My phone suddenly shut off then zapped a little electric bolt into my hand, I jerked it back and dropped my phone. I looked at my hand, the blue/white glowing now had a red beam around it. My hand felt really twitchy. I lowered it towards the table top. Then suddenly a giant arc flash shot out of my hand and struck the table causing a minor explosion shooting me back. I landed on my bed. I groaned and looked up and saw that my table was split in half with a big burn mark on it. I looked at my hand in amazement.

“JEEESUUSSS, that’s some static, it absorbs electicity?” I looked at my table again, trying to process it through my head. I felt a small pain in my arm. I looked down at it and almost had a heart attack. “no, No, NOOO!!!” I screamed. The blue white glowing now reached up just past my elbow. I touched my bed rail and all of it turned into metal, my whole arm was metal. i let go and started pacing around my room. I was trying to get  a grasp of the whole situation. Then I heard knocking.

I looked around my room, I quickly grabbed the table halfs and threw them in my closet, but in my haste a table leg fell off and the knocking continued. “One Second!!” I said impatiently as I picked up my fried phone with my left hand. I opened my dresser and threw it in then rushed over to the door. I swung it open. It was the soldier from earlier.

“I knew I saw you!!! Where did you go when we looked out here earlier?” he blankly stared at me. Then he raised his arm and shoved me back. I stumbled back and almost fell. “Hey what the Hell?” he walked stiffly towards me. I grabbed the table leg and held it like a bat. “What do you want? Don’t you come closer!!!” I threatened scared. He continued to approach me. I swung, as soon as the leg touched him it disintegrated. I fumbled back in awe. He looked at me, straight into my eyes.

“Helios, you have been chosen” I was now pinned with my back pressed against the wall. “I �"I-I refuse your offer!!” I spat out. He looked down at my arm, then back into my eyes. He quickly grabbed my arm and held it really tight. It started to get tighter. I flinched in pain as he continued to tighten his grip.

“LET GO!!!!” I yelled and I grabbed his arm and attempted to pull it off, to no avail. “Resistance is futile. Helios You have been chosen and now you need to accept it!!!” he said in a monotone-like voice. He then tightened his grip even more. I cried out in pain, then I snapped, something in my head clicked. I clenched my teeth and clamped my fists shut. “I said LET GO!!” I yelled as I swung as hard as I could. I got him right in the chin and he stumbled back. I fell to my knees exhausted, I looked up and saw him buzz like a hologram then he returned to a more solid appearance. “what- what are you?”

“Helios, there is no need to fight, let us work together!!” he spoke quietly yet firmly. I was so tired and confused that I was in tears, “WHAT ARE YOU??!?!?”

He walked over to me and grabbed the collar of my uniform and lifted me up off the ground. “You must control it!! CONTROL IT!!!” he demanded as he raised his other arm into a punching position. “CONTROL IT!!!”

“Control what?!?” I struggled to break free, I swung and kicked him in the gut. He stood there not even noticing.

“3” he said I looked around franticly. My mind was racing, I knew if this thing punched me, I would be done for. “2” I attempted at another punch at his face but my arms weren’t long enough. Then I had an idea. “1”

 

 

Chapter 9

Just as he swung I slipped out of my uniform top and fell to the floor. I looked up and saw his fist tore right through my uniform. He looked down at me and tossed away my shirt. He reached for me but I dodged away.

“What do you want?” I asked, panting and wiping away sweat. He turned around. “YOU NEED TO CONTROL IT!!!” he repeated and walked towards me. I got up and stood in a defensive position. Just as he got 2 steps away I lunged at him and wound up for a punch. But as I punched he vanished and I went flying to my T.V. and my fist went right through the screen. I felt the electricity surge though me and I got jolted back. I felt myself slam against one of my walls and land on the floor.

Scatter-brained I attempted to regain focus but I felt too numb to move. As I laid there on the floor I just was thinking to myself, this is it, I’m done for. Everything around me in my room was fading away, I started to drift, and my mind started to wander.

Then I jumped wide awake, the man was standing there across the room looking at me. “You need to control it. Or it will kill you” he said, without moving a muscle. I went to rub my head when I looked down at my shirtless torso, the right half of my torso was glowing blue/white. I jumped up to my feet, totally ignoring the man and ran over to my door mirror. The glowing spread down to my waistline, on the right side and started crawling up my neck. “this can’t be happening!!!!” I screamed I looked back over to where the man was standing, he was gone. I turned back towards the mirror and he was right in front of me.

“You must-“  “YEAH! YEAH!! Control it, I know!! You’re talking about this- glowing aren’t you?” he didn’t respond. “Alright, I’m just going to take that as a yes, but if you won’t answer me about that answer me this, WHAT ARE YOU?” I scoffed in a low yell. “I am the conscious of the Wincarzel, I took a form of a human so you could have more to relate to.”

I stood there wide eyed and dumbstuck. “You’re the Wincarzel? Well that explains a lot. Well, Explains everything except for one thing” he looked at me questionably.

“Why did you show up in the hallway and tell me about ‘the spy’” I asked. He walked away from me. “Answer ME!!” I demanded. I attempted to grab his shoulder but my hand went right through him. He looked all hologram like again. “Everyone you know is about be involved in the fall of a civilization. And it starts with the information that a certain person obtained.” He turned around and looked deep into my eyes. “It cannot be prevented, an entire race will come to an end when this ordeal is over. Its up to you to choose which one.” I smacked myself, to see if I could get it through my head. I looked up. He was gone. I sighed. “d****t that left me more questions than what I had before.” I plopped down on my bed and stared at my ceiling.

I woke up somewhere between 9 or 10 hours later. I felt relaxed. I looked down at my torso, and at all the glowing. I took a few deep breaths, and look at my bed rail. ‘just need to concentrate, to control’ I thought. I grabbed the bed rail and felt a huge chill run down my spine. I opened my eyes, all the glowing turned to metal. I did not react. I took a few more deep breaths. I slowly released my grip on the bed rail, then realeased it completely. My arm and my side remained metal. I cracked a smile. I examined my arm closer, tapped it and heard a ding. I took another deep breath and shook my arm. It went back to the glowing. I laughed. Something I realized I haven’t done in a very long time. it felt good. I got up and over to my radio. And turned it on, I immediately recognized the tune that was playing. I used to listened to it all the time when I younger. ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’ it was a melancholy song yet it made me feel joyful and I touched my dresser. The glowing turned to wood. I laughed. I fell down onto my bed again drifting away into slumber.

 

 

Chapter 10

I was abruptly awaken by the sounds of alarms and loud banging noises. I shot up. And an announcement came over the loudspeaker.

“Attention all passengers, please remain in your rooms, do not leave for any circumstances. Thank you for your cooperation.” Then It shut off. I put on the first hoodie I could find. I looked in the mirror to confirm it covered all my glowing.

Suddenly the lights went out. “Hey!” I objected. I found my way over to my light switch and flipped it, nothing. I flipped it a bunch more times, still nothing. I then realized it wasn’t just the lights, it was the power in general. I looked over to my window. I saw ice crystals start to form.

‘S**t!” I exclaimed. I knew it wouldn’t be long before the rooms would drop to dangerously cold temps. We were lightyears away from any stars so there was no external heat. I tried to open my door. It wouldn’t open. I slammed against it. I then sighed. I touched door knob with my right hand. I felt my arm get really cold. I walked away from the door. Then sprinted towards it and punched the door right above the door knob, it broke open and the door knob when flying. I looked out into dark hallway. I couldn’t see anything. My hand went back to glowing. I shrugged. I raised my hand and stumbled though the darkness using the glowing of my hand as a flashlight. I got to elevator and slammed my head against the door. “Damn, no power.” I walked over to the stairwell door and started to make my way down the stairs.

At last I arrived at the bottom. I walked over to the door and cracked it open. I heard voices. Then I saw the flashlights.

“He’s around here somewhere” one voice said. “He will not get away, nobody can see the tapes!! It could ruin everything!!” the second voice said. The flashlights kept sweeping the dark filled plaza. I opened the door more and crept through and quickly found a pillar to hide behind.

“Seriously! Why would anyone take those tapes?” the first voice asked. “Doesn’t matter why they took them, but when we find him, our orders are to kill on sight.” I sat in the darkness. Trying to think who this spy is everyone keeps talking about.

“I thought I might be that crazy doctor. Dr. Smith was it? Well. After General Campbell was done talking to some Warren guy he went straight over to the medical ward and apprehended him. But obviously he was wrong.” The second man stated.

The flashlights then pointed at each other. “How do you know the doctor didn’t send someone else to finish his task?” the first man replied.

“Either way, he’s a dead man if we don’t recover the tapes.” The flashlights went back to scoping out the area.

I sat there in silence waiting for the flashlights to get farther away. I waited, listened, until there was no sound at all. I let out a sigh. Suddenly I heard footsteps, running footsteps. I stood up. I looked around the pillar and I saw a dark figure run at me. I hid behind the pillar, my heart was beating so loud I was sure it’d give away my position. I started to peek around the edge of the pillar again, nothing but black.

Then I flung forward and hit the floor hard. I rolled onto my back as a flashlight shined in my face. “What are you doing here?” the man said.

“i-i-I just wanted to know why the power was out!! I swear!” the flashlight turned away from me. And I could see an outline of an arm reached out to me. I grabbed the hand and I got pulled up.

“Come with me” the man said and started walking away, I caught up to him, I couldn’t make out who he was, frankly I couldn’t make out what anything was. I was squinting so hard I started to get a headache, but I didn’t dare to take my hand out of my pocket. The man stopped and put out his arm to stop me. In the dark I could make out a silhouette of a man standing at the end of the hallway we were in. the figured shift and the man I was standing with shuffled backwards. “RUN!!!!!!!!” he yelled and ran the way we were came from. The figure at the end of the hallway started firing some semi auto rifle. We rounded a corner and the man I was with stumbled into a wall “We need to get going.” And he started sprinting again. I tried to follow him the darkness made it very difficult. Just when I thought we got separated he grabbed my sleeved and pulled me into a small room.

“What the Hell is going on here??” he walked over to a table and flipped on a lantern. I gazed at the man as he slouched over the table. He was wearing a black hoodie, just like mine. He had on old jeans and running shoes. He remained facing away from me and clinging to his side. “Why are you here? Why did you ignore me earlier?? WHY AREN’T YOU EVER THERE WHEN I NEED YOU????” He yelled and slammed his hand down on the table. A substance splattered everywhere, a red substance. I stood there puzzled “Are you ok?” was all that I could say. He jerked around to face me. Under his hood I saw a mask that almost made me crap myself. It was white, the whitest white I’ve ever seen. There were blue vertical stripes on it, and only 2 dark eyes. No nose hole and no mouth and you could see the blood dripping down his neck from behind the mask. It seems like something off of a horror movie. The man did not speak. He handed me the box he was carrying. “take this, guard it with your life, and feel free to watch them too.” He walked over to the door then turned back and looked at me and slammed the door behind him. I could hear yelling, then gunfire, then a thud. I closed my eyes. I felt the tears starting force themselves out. Then lantern dimmed. I walked over to a wall and slid down it. Gazing at the box. I opened the top just a crack. Inside contained tapes. The label on the top, was labeled ‘Project JAKIO’ I shut the box and just sat there in the dim light and cried.

I made my way back to my room. Which wasn’t too hard considering the power was back on. I slid the box under my bed and sat on it. I couldn’t stop thinking about the masked man. About who he might be. I wanted to play the tapes to badly, but my TV was destroyed.

Knock, knock, knock.

That was the last noise I wanted to hear. I slowly made my way over to the door and opened it a crack. It was Dylan. I opened it all the way.

“Warren, man thank god your still with us!! It’s been weeks!! A lot of us thought you weren’t going to awake from that coma you were in. oh and sorry about Louis.” He said as he patted my shoulder, I just gazed down. I just now realized I haven’t seen him since before we landed on Monceto. “Anything you need, Warren, just remember I’m here for you.” He started to walk off and I stopped him he looked at me questionably. “Your TV”

“Pardon me?” he said. “Your TV, i- mine broke, I could use a distraction.” I replied. He chuckled. “Well, alright man. Just try to not break mine ok?” he laughed. I fake laughed, just to amuse him and he walked off. I closed my door and walked over to my bed.

Knock Knock Knock.

“oh for the love of-“ I swore. I paced over to my door and swung it open. There stood Dr. Smith. “Hello Mr. Warren, you need to come with me.” I looked at him with a puzzled look on my face. “Come, I’ll explain on the way to the medical ward.” He walked off to the elevator. I followed. When we got inside the elevator I broke the silence. “So, Doc whats this about?” he remained still and glared at the elevator door. “I need to confirm the identity of a corpse.” My gut churned. The rest of the elevator ride down was silent. I followed him to the mortuary. As we entered the room the smell of death overwhelmed me. And there in the middle of the room was a solo cart, with a sheet over and the outline of a body. We walked up to it. I looked at the doctor. He had a very solumn look on his face. He grabbed the edge of the sheets and started to pull it back. My heart sank and my knees felt shaky. Then my heart stopped. There on the bed lied the man in the mask, peppered in bullet holes in his upper torso. I felt so sick to my stomach I almost passed out. I glanced at the doctor again and he gave me a slight nod. I reached down at the mask. I grasped it, it was ice cold. I took a deep breath and started to pull it off. I was staring at the doctor as I was doing this, I really didn’t want to see the man’s face. The doctor just continued to stare at the wall behind me, but now he had tears rolling down his face. “I never meant for this to happen, Helios.” My eyes widened. Just what the hell did he mean by that? I thought. I slowly started to look down. Then my eyes landed on the man’s face. Everything around me stopped. I dropped the mask. My heart stopped. I felt my hands shake, then tense up. I felt anger and anguish surge through me so fast that I couldn’t even move. “no.” I whispered through clinched teeth. “NO, IT CAN’T BE HIM!!!!!” I screamed.

End Part 1

 

 

Chapter 11

I pushed away from the cart in such rage and slammed against the wall. I turned around and the doctor didn’t even move, he just continued his empty gaze at the wall.

“What did you do?” I felt myself swell up, the tears were coming, tears of loss, anger confusion. “WHAT DID YOU DO?????” I screamed at the doctor. He didn’t reply or move. I ran up to him and shoved him back I got up into face. He looked down at me. “Watch them, Helios”

The door swung open and in marched 2 guards. They walked around the corpse and up behind the doctor. They slammed up against his body and one grabbed each of arms and shoved him out of the door. At the doorway waited General Campbell. He glared at me and shut the door behind him.

The elevator arrived at the 7^th floor. I walked out, people were finally emerging from there rooms after a long weeks lockdown. I was halfway to my room when Dylan stopped me.

“hey Warren, have anytime?” he asked. I sighed and took a moment. “All the time in the world.” I replied sarcastically. He motioned his head to the side and walked to his room. As we entered his room, a rotten smell brushed against my face. I waved my hand to try and extinguish the horrid smell.

“Yeah, sorry about the smell, some of us aren’t lucky in the rooms we were given, or the partners.” Dylan said, he bent down and grabbed a can of air freshener and unloaded the whole can into the air. “Better?’ I shook my head “Yeah, you’re right. Anyway. My roommate is away right now, don’t know where, but I’m not too concerned, he’s nothing but a nuisance.” He sat down. “So Warren, it’s been a long time since we sat and talked.”

“Do we have to do this now?” I scoffed. He shifted in his seat and looked into my eyes. “is everything ok?” I looked away. I felt my fist tighten. “Look if you don’t want to talk that’s fine, I’m not going to force you to talk. Hey listen, if something is troubling you-“

“HE’S DEAD!!!!!!” I  blurted out. He jumped up and walked over to me. “who is? Whose dead?” he asked. “i-i-I-m sorry, I sh-shouldn’t have come here.”  I looked over at his TV. He walked over to the TV and put his hand on it. “Warren, let me be frank with you. Your hiding something. I hate being In the dark. So tell you what, I’ll let you use my TV after you tell me what’s going on”

“Fine!! I guess I’ll just leave then” I turned and headed for the door, then he grabbed my arm suddenly he let go “OW! Wha-?” I turned and looked at him. His palm on his hand was burnt. “Dylan, I’m sorry.”

“What the hell was that man? Your arm is on fire or something!!” I walked towards him and he stumbled back. “Stay away from me!! I can see you don’t want anything to do with me, so LEAVE!!!” he pointed at his door. I closed my eyes. I wanted to double check with myself to make sure I was going to do the right thing. “Dylan, look man, I’m sorry that you got burnt. I didn’t feel It right to just go around and tell everyone, ok? But-“ I paused and reached for my right sleeve and pulled it up. Dylan’s mouth dropped open. “What the hell?”

“I really didn’t want to involve you, Dylan, but I have no choice now. Back on Monceto Louis and I ran into a creature called a Wincarzel. It possessed us, but as far as I know Louis’ body rejected it and he was killed for attacking other soldiers. Me on the other hand took it well and it’s been spreading across my body ever since. When I left the medical ward the ship was on lockdown due to a traitor running around somewhere with valuable tapes.  Later I met the spy and he gave me the tapes and he ends up getting killed.”

Dylan stood there dumbstruck with shock “holy s**t. Who was the spy?” I reached into my pocket and took out the mask. “Wait I’ve seen that somewhere!!” he said, then rubbed his chin. “He’s dead. My brother is dead.”

“I’m so sorry Warren I didn’t know. Isaac was a good man.” He walked back over to his TV “I already tried to unplug it. There’s a mess of cables, so if you need to watch…. Those tapes…. Then feel free to come over whenever you need to.” I nodded “Dylan, you cannot tell anyone of this. Our lives depend on that fact!” I turned and left his room. I walked the rest of the way down to my room and paused at my door. I peeked behind me. I looked over at the potted plant sitting a ways back. Something moved behind it. I turned away  from my door and walked over to the plant. There was nothing behind it. I turned back towards my door when I heard it slam shut. I ran over to it and tried to open it. “HEY!!! Let me in!!” I yelled banging on the door. I pulled on the door handle and it fell off. “Damn door!!!” I looked through the doorknob hole. I saw a figure shift across my room. Then charged the door. I backed up as my door swung open and the figure sprinted past me with the box of tapes in his hands. I ran after him. He was getting close to the elevator. There was no way to stop him I thought. So as one last chance to get the tapes back I lunged and was able to grab his ankle. He slammed onto the floor. I saw a tape fly out of the box and it bounced behind the trashcan. I looked back at the man just in time to see him swing his foot at me and kicked me in the face.

 

 

Chapter 12

I finally regained consciousness and realized I was in Dylan’s room again. He was sitting at his table staring into the wall. I reached up and touched my nose “Erh” I groaned. I looked over to Dylan, I had trouble gaining focus. “He broke your nose.” Dylan said. “Who, who did? Who was that and HOW DID HE KNOW I HAD THE TAPES!?!” I sat up.

“Warren, I know what your thinking, but I had nothing to do with it.” He got up turned on the TV I think it’s about time we find out whats going on around here.”

I rubbed my face “S**T this hurts, so I’m guessing you found the tape behind the trashcan.” He nodded. He walked over and shut the light off. And sat back down over by his table. He picked up his remote and clicked it. The TV buzzed. It showed static. Then it cut to a small room. There was Louis, strapped to a chair with  2 guards behind him. Somebody off screen spoke. “Louis, I am a patient man. Playing these games are not helping you any.” Louis looked up and grinned, then abruptly busted out laughing. “is something funny Mr. Hutchens?” the man asked

“Stupid Human!!! I’m just trying to help! You listen to them. Why? Your doing there tasks, WHY?? I demand you release me!!!!” Louis said, struggling to release himself.  “This is exactly what I’m talking about, Louis. Calling us Human, claiming we follow some other race around. This is all horseshit!! SNAP BACK INTO REALITY MR. Hutchens! Or I have no choice and-“

“Listen to me you ignorant fool. I know you aren’t brainwashed like the rest of your squad. They chose you to lead the humans into this big lie. And guess what, when they had enough with toying with you all they’ll dispose of you!! All of you!! That’s how they are, always were. I’ve been trying to pin them down for many centuries. They trapped me on Monceto, and had you destroy it. There was nothing I could do. So I jumped into 2 humans to save myself.”

‘Stop right there, 2 humans? Whos the other?” the man interrupted. We heard him slam his hands down on the table. Louis groan and screamed. “Stop this now!! Release me or else I’m going to have to act in a manner of which I try to avoid.”

“Oh Louis you stupid Neanderthal. Is this your attempt to escape? Well ha!! Your fooling no one.”

“QUIT LIEING TO YOURSELF!!!! You know the true purpose of your existence and this ship. You know of Project JAKIO and what it means!! You need to stop this charade and save the human race.” Louis said. The man did not reply. Louis suddenly shifted his focus and looked straight into the camera.

“Any one who is watching this. You need to stop this man. You need to stop The Gaz, you need to end Project JAKIO before it ends you!!” the man quickly walked into camera view and over to Louis and punched him really hard across the face. The chair he was sitting in almost fell over. “Nobody is going to see these tapes, retard. Now, I’m giving you one last warning Louis, give up this act, or I’ll have to resort to killing you.”

Louis looked up at him. “You were surprised.” He spat out. “What the hell does that mean?” Louis chuckled. “you reacted when I  mentioned a second person possessed. That means you know this isn’t an act. You know everything I said was true.” The man bent down to reveal his head. I immediately recognized General Campbell. He grabbed Louis’s collar and pulled him up to his face. “Now listen here you, you will tell me who that second person is or I’ll-“

“Yes I know, kill me. And what exactly will that accomplish? Nothing except killing half of the chance you have to get out of this situation and killing and innocent soldier. You’re just as bad as they are!!” Campbell suddenly reached into his uniform and brought out a pistol and shoved it into louis’s face. Louis didn’t move. “I’m not afraid of death. You should be afraid, very afraid. You have no idea whats coming your way.” Suddenly Louis’s face started to glow blue and white. He let a cry as he broke free of his restraints. Louis grabbed General Campbell and threw him through the mirrored window behind him. He then let out a small energy beam causing the chair to smash into a million pieces and the table flew into the camera, blocking the view. In the background we heard gunshots. Then the tape went blank.

 

Chapter 13

I glanced over to Dylan. He remained motionless, eyes closed and murmuring to himself. I stood up. “That’s it. I’m going to find out what Project JAKIO is.” Dylan opened his eyes. “They’ll Kill you.” He softly said. I stormed over to his door. “Do I have a choice? I’m the other person he said in the video. I have to do this. By the way it sounds if I don’t do it we’ll all be dead.” I opened his door and walked out and straight over to my room. I closed the broken door as best as I could. And I plopped down onto my bed.

‘I need a plan’ I thought to myself. Dylan walked in. “Warren, I’m helping. You can’t do this alone.” He looked around my room. “ man your room is just as bad as mine.”

“It wasn’t like this the last time I was in it. They ransacked it looking for the tapes.” The room got silent. “Well, let’s start doing this!” Dylan said as he picked up a notepad off my floor. He scrounged around a bit more until  he found a pen.

“Dylan, no I have to do this alone. I don’t want anything to happen to you. Look, I’ll be fine. Just Go on with your life pretending like nothing ever happened.” He jumped up and walked over to me. “ Did that guy kick your brains out??? How do you think I could cope with sitting around whilst our lives hang in the balance? After watching that tape, there is no way in hell I’m standing back.”

“DYLAN D****T!!! You still have stuff to live for. Me, well, I’m just a nobody. My girlfriend is dead, Louis, my brother, EVERYONE I’m AROUND DIES!! Alright? I’m trying to not cost anyone else theirs.” He took a step back. I felt my face burn up, the tears were coming. “I’m sorry Dylan. I’ve been through so much. How do you think I’d cope if something happened to you and not me?” I fell back onto my bed. He looked at me and shook his head stormed out of my room. I slowly dozed off into sleep.

I woke up in the control room of the ship. I stood up and looked around. In front of me stood General Campbell, his head suddenly rotated 360 degrees in the most possessive way and he spoke in a demonic voice “You will not foil our plans!!” he shoved me and went flying into the wall behind me. I looked up at Campbell again and his body distorted into strange form. I stood up and pressed against the wall. “I am Gaz Rekka!! And I am here to destroy you.” He towered over towards me “NO!!” I screamed “ I ran at him  but I just ran right through him. Dumbstruck I turned around to see him swing his large deformed fist at me. I slid across the floor and into a panel. I propped myself up against it.

Suddenly Dylan burst in through the door and shot at the being. It turned around and picked up Dylan and a glow came out of his mouth and into Dylan’s. Dylan coughed and gagged then his skin started to dry up badly and peeled off to reveal nothing but a skeleton. The skeleton collapsed. I let out a small cry. The creature turned back towards me. My stomach felt funny then it hurt badly and the skin on my stomach burst apart and out came the Wincarzel. the Wincarzel took my form, except he was completely Blue/ white glowing. The Wincarzel version of me leaned close to my ear and whispered “4” he walked backwards and into the other creature. A bright light shined blinding me. Then I heard a bloodcurdling scream. The light dimmed and the creature was a foot away from my face.

“Uh, man, just a dream. It was just a dream” I convinced myself as I sat on my bed sweating to death. I sat there and thought about Dylan. “He’s not coming with” I told myself. I stood up, gathered a few things and took one last look around my room, gazing as if it’ll be the last time I see it. I took a deep breath and closed the door behind me.

 

 

Chapter 14

I arrived at the elevator and I paused. I looked to my right to see Dylan leaning against the wall. I sighed I motioned my head towards the elevator and Dylan jumped in. the elevator door closed behind us. “Alright, if you want to help so much, you can be the bait.” He nodded. I glared at him “What, no ‘I don’t wanna be the bait’ or ‘I thought I was in charge’  whining?” he shook his head. I handed him the tape. “OK, walk up to one of the guards and hand them this, if I am correct, then they should arrest you and take you to the interrogation room.” He grabbed the tape. “Then what?” I smiled. “Do what you do best.” He smiled as the elevator door opened. I walked out first and over to the a corner away from plain sight. I watched carefully as Dylan made his way over to a guard by a vendor. The guard grabbed the tape from Dylan, examined it and radioed something on his pager. He then slammed Dylan into the vendor’s counter and cuffed him. He then shoved Dylan off towards a door I never noticed before. I quickly slinked behind them. The guard used an access key to open the door and shoved Dylan through, I sprinted up and caught the door right before it shut. I peeked in to see a short hallway that turned. I slipped in and the door latched behind me. I reached into my bag and retrieved something I felt vital for the mission, the mask. I slipped it on. “This is for Isaac” I told myself. I made my way over to the corner. I peeked around just to see the guard shove Dylan around another corner. Then there were 2 more guards heading my way. I reached into the bag again and retrieved a small piece of pipe. I felt my arm turn cold, and I smiled. I looked down at the floor judging the guard’s distances by their shadows, I took a deep breath and counted to 3.

1, the steps sounded so loud, 2, I clenched my fist and took a deep breath, 3, I lunged sideways striking a guard in the jaw he flung into the wall and collapsed. The other guard went for his holster, I grabbed his wrist and put my other hand on his mouth. I squeezed his wrist as hard as I could and I could hear bones creaking. He kneed me away. I charged him again and put a good hit in his gut then I grabbed his head and kneed it in. I quickly then made my way to the next corner. I edged around it and the hallway was empty with a door at the end. I took another deep breath and ran at the door. Halfway there the door opened and a man with an iron helmet popped in. he raised his arm. I tried to stop but it was too late. I ran into his hand. As soon as I felt his hand I felt this great electrical surge shock through me. I stumbled back, then falling onto my back. The man walked up to me. Too dazed to react he kicked my side. I looked at his feet, I instant recognized the shoes, it was the same man that stole the tapes from me. Enraged I stood up.

“Who are you?” I demanded. I grabbed his suit’s collar and slammed him into the wall. The man did not make a sound. I then felt his hands grasp my neck. He then thrusted forward and I was slammed into the wall. Suddenly I felt a roaring pain across my face. I fell down to my knees and he grabbed my arm and pulled me into the doorway. I stumbled in, I looked up to find myself in what appeared to be a control room of sorts. “Impossible” I sputtered. I got up to my feet and saw 2 figures approach. When I gained focus I saw one was a man in a hooded robe and the other was General Campbell.

“The Masked Man returns!!!” Campbell exclaimed. he chuckled a bit. “Who is it this time? I wouldn’t have clue” he smiled. And reached for the mask I quickly grabbed his wrist. He looked at me surprised. I then punched him in the face, he stumbled back holding his nose. The Iron helmet man came up from behind me and hit me hard in the back. I fell to my knees again. I looked up. Campbell came over to me again and bent down to eye level. “It’s a shame people keep getting involved in this conspiracy, how many people will die in order to keep this hush-hush?” he stood up and drew his pistol from his jacket. He then released the clip and checked it and slipped it back in and cocked it. He brought the gun down to my head. “How many? Give me a number” without even thinking I spat out “4” he moved the gun away from my head and bent back down. “4?” he asked. “Bring him in.” I stood up and was forced to my feet. In came the guard and Dylan. Dylan had a terrified look on his face. “What the hell is this s**t?!?! Let me go you fuckers!!”

Campbell sauntered over to them. “4? How many we at so far? 2? Well I suppose here’s 3 right?” he pointed the gun at Dylan. “NOOOOOO!!!! I screamed and struggled to free myself. I twisted myself at a weird angle and was able to release myself. I stumbled forward and charged at Campbell. He aimed the gun at me. I blindly continued at him and I heard him fire.

 

 

Chapter 15

I woke up with a raging headache. I rubbed my head, the mask was gone. I sat up, and observed my location a prison cell. In the cell adjacent from mine sat Dr. Smith. He glanced up at me. “Your quite lucky Helios. That mask saved your life.”  I got up and went to the bars. “Dylan? What happened to him?” Dr. Smith didn’t respond. “WHAT HAPPENED TO HIM?” still no response. “God D****t I knew this would happen.” I kicked the cell bed. “Everyone I’m around dies!! I told him that, yet he insisted.” I plopped down onto the bed and ran my hands through my hair. “We lost, theres nothing more we can do.” I took off my right glove, and just stared at the glowing.

“Helios, It’s not over” Dr Smith said. He stood up. I felt the tears forcing there way out of my eyes. The anger within myself started to swell up. “NOW WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN BY THAT??? YOU, DOCTOR ARE GOOD FOR NOTHING, NOTHING!!!!!! YOU’RE THE ONE WHO GOT LOUIS KILLED, YOU GOT MY BROTHER KILLED AND YOU PROBABLY TOLD THEM WE WERE COMING TO GET DYLAN KILLED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” I paused, gripped the bar and punched the stone wall. It made a huge indent, creating a little dust cloud. My mind was racing with so many thoughts that I couldn’t keep track of them. “Helios, just listen to me”

“Listen to you say what Doctor? Every time I asked you a question you failed to give a response, and the ones you did respond to your answers made no sense. And now here we are, HERE WE ARE!!! In a god damn prison cell, most likely going to get executed and you want me to listen?” he walked over to the bars in his cell and pressed his face onto one. “Helios, I can feel your anger, your loss, your confusion, but there is a way to end it. Don’t you see, Helios? The Gaz!! They’re on there way to meet up with Campbell to discuss the next steps. They will be on the ship, that will be your time to stop this once and for all!!”

I walked up to the bars in my cell staring at Dr. Smith. “The Gaz, who are they?” “they are a race from a far galaxy, there planet of origin has long since vanished. They’ve been going around taking weaker, helpless civilizations, torturing them, making them appear to the rest of the universe as the bad guys. Once that scapegoat is conceived as the bad guys, in swoop the Gaz to destroy that civilization and appear to save the day. When The Gaz arrive, I bet they’re here to set up the trap and destroy us!! The sad part is that the universe wont second glance at us. We did blow up Monceto. Project JAKIO!! That’s Project JAKIO, Judging and Killing Intergalactic Oppositions.”

“Where does the Wincarzel fit in with all of this?” I asked. “I’m not sure. That part is a mystery, but I’m sure The Gaz will do anything to destroy it.”

I glanced at my feet, just taking it all in. “How do you propose we stop this?” Dr. Smith reached into his pocket and retrieved a small Ziploc bag. “With this.” I looked at him genuinely confused. “It’s that charcoal material from Monceto that had the wincarzel trapped, remember, the same material when in contact with you made you appear dead?” he tossed me the bag. “what should I do with this?” “That’s up to you. I haven’t thought of everything. But I believe it’s your best bet of getting out of this cell.”

“You are f*****g crazy!!! You want me to basically kill myself?” I exclaimed. I looked down at the bag, then back at the doctor. I sighed. “I suppose it’s the only way isn’t it?” he nodded. “What about you?” he sighed. “I have my own plans, you just worry about stopping the Gaz” he walked over to his bed and lied down on it. I slipped the bag under my bed. And lied down on mine and just gazed into the ceiling, trying to best prepare myself for the coming days.

 

 

 

Chapter 16

When I woke up, I was shaking. I thought it was strange it wasn’t cold, I wasn’t nervous, I felt prepared. I looked over to the Doctor, he was staring back at me. I reached for the bag, picked it up and opened it. In came all the nervous feelings, my stomach started to churn.  The glowing parts of my body was trying to stop me from reaching in, but I resisted them and reached in.

I was shocked awake, I felt my heart race so fast, my muscles all tensed up. I let out a little groan and collapsed to the floor, everything around started to blur out and the light-headedness bombarded me with dizziness, faintly I heard the doctor screaming in the background.

I woke up abruptly again, the guards holding the stretcher stopped and dropped it. I fell to the ground hard on my back. Gasping for air I felt them attempt to restrain me. I felt my right hand hit the stretcher rail, turning it into metal. I swung my arm up hitting him in the chin, he yelled and tumbled back. The other man jumped on me, he kept me pinned to the floor, his arm pressing down on my neck. i continued to struggle until I  found a chance to break free, I elbowed him in the neck and he fell back a bit, I quickly jumped to my feet, and took a fighting stance. The 2 guards go to their feet, one pulled out a knife the other backed off a little and pulled out a gun.

“Surrender, Now!” the one with the gun ordered. I stared at him questionably, “Really, just really. How many times does that ever work? If I wanted to surrender I wouldn’t have escaped!” I lunged forward and caught the knife guard off guard. I popped him in the face and he stumbled back. The one with the gun fired, my first reaction was bringing my arms up to shield myself, to my astonishment, the bullet ricocheted off my metal arm. The Guard dumbstruck lowered the gun. “What the Hell?!?” he then ran backwards before stumbling then turning and running around the corner. I shrugged “Whatever” I turned around just in time to see the other guard come at me with the knife I dodged at the last second and reached up and grabbed the knife out of his hand. He turned back to me and pulled out his gun and fired, I felt the bullet hit my right shoulder and heard a loud bang. I looked down my shirt to see the bullet lodged in my metal shoulder, I then looked up at the guard.

With an angered look on his face he made one last charge at me and I jumped and struck him across the face, he fell to the side as the blood spurted out. I stood in the hallway, looking at the guard on the floor, not moving, and it occurred to me.

“Oh my god, what have I become?” Terrified by my own strength I looked at my blood covered metal hand. My mind started to deny any of it, but I was unable to get that picture out of my mind. I never killed anyone before. The feeling of taking another life made me feel sick to my stomach. I slid down the wall behind me. I didn’t dare change my arm back to normal, just something about having that blood on my skin would only make things worse. All I wanted to do was forget this ever happened. Every time I closed my eyes I could see the guard’s head twist in an unnatural way and the blood spray out of his mouth. In the background, behind all my thoughts I heard footsteps. I needed to get up and keep moving, but I didn’t want to open my eyes. The footsteps, running footsteps, got closer and closer, and then they stopped.

 

 

Chapter 17

I opened my eyes, on each of my sides were groups of guards standing 10 to 15 feet back just staring at me and the body. I probably failed to mention earlier, but there has never been a murder on this ship, at least one like this. They just stared at the guard’s body in horror. My regret and shock turned to anger. I stood up, I heard the guards equip there guns.

“WHAT?!?” I yelled “WHAT???? I’m guessing you guys didn’t know about the Murders of 3 of my friends?” the guards looked at each other. “Or did you? Or did you know about them, but thought nothing of it because nobody here really knew them? Yeah that’s it isn’t it?” No guard responded or moved. “And so when one of you died, it struck too close to home. You guys disgust me, almost more than how much I disgust myself. So if you don’t mind I’m going to go stop some a*****e from killing us all!!!” I brushed off my arms and stormed towards the way I was heading. The guards shuffled out of my way. I tried hard to just look forward, but out of the corner of my eye I could see pure terror in there eyes. I finally reached the door and paused, without turning around I asked “How many of you know what Campbell’s plan is?” complete silence.

I slammed the door behind me and took a deep breath. I approached the control room door. I stopped about 10 feet from it. I heard mumbled talking on the other side of it. It was too distorted to make out. I took a step back and sprinted at the door and busted it down with my shoulder, which was easier than I expected. I stopped myself on a counter. I looked around the room, empty. “what-?” suddenly I heard the door across the room open I quickly ducked behind the counter. I heard multiple footsteps enter the room.

“It’s an honor sir, I’m glad I am the ambassador you chose, I believe I have served you loyally.” A voice said. The footsteps stopped, then I heard buttons on the console being pressed. “You have indeed served us with great loyalty, General, the hour is almost near. Once the emitter is installed we can safely destroy this vessal from our ship. It will be a most glorious site.”

“indeed it will be, sir” General replied. I heard a hand drill run, what sounded as a cover of some sort being removed, I slinked over to the edge of the counter and peeked as little as I could. There over by the main counter stood the robed man with a hood and General Campbell, kneeling by them both was Dylan. He had some sort of collar around his neck. he was installing some sort of alien device into the console.

A beeping noise came from the console, the hooded man looked up at the screen, which I couldn’t see from the angle I was at. “Ah Yes, the Galaxy Patrol near, there arrival in 14 minutes. Once they arrive, we send the first signal, that will trigger this ship to fire upon us, giving us non- substantial damage, then we will fire back while simultaneously sending the second signal to demolish this ship.”

“How do you know it will blow the entire ship up?” General asked. The hooded man chuckled. “this used to be our old ship, Funny it is, this ship is so antique compared to our current vessel. Let’s see this one was the, ‘AR HELIOS’. It lasted quite a while though”

When I heard him say ‘AR HELIOS’ I almost had a heart attack, and the only thought that came to mind was ‘everything happens for a reason’. I peek back around but suddenly I was lifted by my shirt. I turned to look and saw the Iron Helmeted man holding onto my hoodie.

“What’s this now?” the Hooded man asked astonished, he turned to Campbell “Explain!!!” Campbell just spat out a bunch of noises,

“Whats the Matter, General? Cat got your tongue?” I joked, The mans tossed me.

“KILL HIM!!!!!!!” The robed man yelled, he ran off towards the door and Campbell followed blubbering something. The Man now had a grip around my wrist, and he tightened his grip, the pain was overwhelming, but almost like second nature I swung and hit him in the chin. He released me and stumbled then approached me again. The man grabbed my collar of the hoodie and lifted me off the ground. I kicked at his gut, nothing. I continued to black out, then I remembered, I’ve done this before!! I strained myself to remember the incident in the room. I closed my eyes and slipped out of my hoodie and landed on the ground  I glanced up to see his fist ripping through my hoodie. He reached for me and I dodged like I had before,

“Now last time did this I phased through you, im sure it won’t happen again” I told myself. He walked towards me, then I lunged wounding up for a big punch, suddenly he shifted off to the side and I flew into a monitor, my hand going into the screen, the electricity surged through my body, I tensed up, and collapsed, the pain was taking over, “AGH!!!!!!!” I screamed, then a huge bolt of electricity shocked my away from the monitor. Slid across the floor and came to rest against a door. I looked up in pain and it was the trash disposal door. I fumbled to my feet. Then I thought of something, that thought made me cringe.

“Wait a second, your- your- THE WINCARZEL!!!!” I yelled.

 

 

 

Chapter 18

 

 The man stopped I walked up to him and he did not move I reached for his helmet and slipped it off, the face I saw almost killed me, I dropped the helmet and stumbled back, accidently pressing the trash disposal door opener. The door opened and the man walked towards me again. “It-It-It CANT BE!!!!” I stumbled back into the room and he followed me in. my eyes casted upon a completely blue/white glowing Louis. I closed my eyes, trying to remember something I forgot.

“Your not really him are you?” I asked not expecting an answer. “Louis did die, and was replaced by you!!” he reached for me I ducked and charged him and got my elbow into his gut. He slammed back into the wall. I jumped out of the door and closed it behind me. I turned around and saw him pounding on the small door window. I looked over at the other buttons on the door panel. “I’m sorry Louis, Rest in Peace” I pushed the one labeled ‘air lock’. The Wall behind Louis started to open, revealing space. The air howling was overwhelming as Louis tried to find something to grip on, then in a matter of seconds, he got sucked out. The walls closed again. I turned around and leaned against the wall,

“it Tried to kill me” is all that I could think. Suddenly the Console beeped, I ran over to it. And on screen appeared the robed man. “Oh it’s you, well never mind that Your Too LATE!!!! The Galaxy Patrol should arrive anytime now and begin our little show.” I heard a door open. I turned quickly to see Campbell.

“Hello Helios” he said. He walked up to me “Feeling Lucky are we? Today is the day where the Human Race dies!! Are you excited? We are going to make history!”

“YOU……ARE…..F*****G……STUPID!!!!!!!!” I yelled, I grabbed his collar and wound up to punch him, he smiled. “Ah, ah, aah! I don’t think so.” He took my hand off of his uniform. He took a step back and motioned his hand towards the screen, I looked at the screen “Helios? Your name was Helios? What a coincidence! That’s the name of the ship you’re on! Oh by the way have you looked in the mirror lately?” then the screen went black. In the faint reflection of the screen I noticed what the hooded man was talking about. The glowing now consumed the right half of my face. I reached up to feel it. “No!” I started to tear up.

“You’re a freak, Helios, A freak!! And yet you were led to believe that you were the one who accepted it better, Louis made the conversion, you resist and it makes you a freak!” I slammed my hand down on the console. “Helios, do you want to know what the Wincarzel is?” I looked at Campbell, he was grinning from ear to ear. “You might just be surprised, Ha! Ha! Haa!” I grabbed him again

“JUST SPIT IT OUT YOU F****R!!!” I  screamed. He pushed me away. “I don’t know if you could handle the truth” the screen blipped on again.

“Campbell they’re here, teleport Yourself here now.” The robed man ordered, Campbell smiled “Sir can you do me one favor real quick and remove your hood?” the man reached for his hood and slowly removed it. When I saw him my heart sank. “Everything made sense now?” the man revealed to have glowing blue/white skin. “The Wincarzel is a name we call our traitors. In our language, wincarzel means ‘worthless criminal’. He broke off from us many years ago after stealing our Energy core, we shot down his pod but that caused him to be absorbed into the core, turning him into that sphere you met on Monceto. That substance we used was to trap him, but a couple of disobedient humans go a little too close, and foiled everything! Once again, Campbell Teleport, NOW!” the screen blipped off. I fell to my knees and started crying, Campbell chuckled and walked over to the  teleport in the corner of the room.

Then out of nowhere a gun shot was heard and Campbell collapsed. I stood up alooking around, in rushed Dr. Smith. He ran up to me.

“He told you everything didn’t he? I’m sorry you had to find out, anyway we haven’t much time. Remember when I said I had my own plans? Well here it is.” He lifted a small metal box. “This will reverse the polarity of the incoming signals of the emitter they installed disabling it.” I grabbed it from him. “Yeah? When that happens  then what? Once they find out the emitter doesn’t work, they’ll resort to other ways of destroying us.” Dr Smith yanked it back. “Well, Helios got a better plan?” I walked over to the console and touched it, turning the right side of my body metal, I punched my hand through  the cover and ripped It off. I stared at the emitter. I reached for it but it zapped me back.

“It appears as if the electrical charge of the emitter is like to your arm.” The Doctor noted. I stood up and turned around to him, “I know how to stop the Gaz.” I bent down to the emitter and took a deep breath. “This is for Louis, Isaac, Dylan and the survival of the human race!!!!!”

“Helios what are you-“ I grasped the Emitter with all my might. The sudden rush of electrons now rushing through not just my right side but now my entire body took me by storm. I felt like I was on fire, but I didn’t let go. The force of the electricity was too much to bare.

Finally the transfer ended. I stood up and gazed at my reflection In the window. My Entire body was glowing blue/white. I leaned against the console, i was having trouble standing because of the surging energy. It didn’t help I felt short on breath.

“Helios what have you done?” Dr Smith rushed to my side. I stood up and started to walking towards the teleporter.  “Helios!!!”

Dr. Smith, I’m sorry but I have to- erg- have to do this! If I release this charge I’m cont- containing now it will blow up there ship. Please Doctor, tell the Patrol of the gaz, TELL THEM!!” I slinked past Campbell, he stared up at me with an angry look, clinging to his shot wound. There I stood before the teleport. I attempted to take a deep breath but it came out stuttered. I close my eyes. I brought back the happiest moment of my life I could think of.  I remember the time Maria and I sat on the hilltop looking down upon a nuclear Iowa wasteland, without a care in the world, I remembered the way she smiled when I joked about our soil quality. I felt myself smile. I stepped into the teleport ready to end it.

 

 

Chapter 19

Faintly the sound of beeping came into my ears. My vision was blurred, but when it came into focus I saw a medical ward. I stiffly turned my head, no one was in the room. My entire body ached terribly and I had a hard time remembering anything. I was just about to daze off again when the door opened, in came a nurse, and I do say a quite beautiful nurse. She walked over to me and put her hand on my head.

“How you feeling?” she asked. I wanted to say something but I was so numb that I couldn’t even understand what I spat out. She smiled and walked over to the counter. Then grabbed a needle, flicked it and walked back to me. Like any normal person I was anxious to get shot. I guess being numb helped a lot because I didn’t feel a thing.

“You took quite a high amount of volts through your body, Helios, but I’m glad your ok’ she smiled and leaned over and kissed me on the cheek. My mind was racing, she looked familiar but I couldn’t pinpoint it.

Gradually day by day went by and I regain more and more of my motor skills back. A week passed since I remember waking up, my nurse visited every day and took care of me. Justin came to visit occasionally as well.

I kept focusing on remembering what happened, I guess the electricity fried my brain. Then suddenly the nurse walked in. “Nurse!” I called she walked over to me. “The- The Doctor! Smith!” I managed to say. “Not today, I’m sorry not until we all know you can comprehend it all.”

Another weeks passed, and that’s the third ‘2 week’ event that has happened to me, more than coincidence I say.

“Nurse, I think I’m ready” I stated. “but, one thing first”

“What is is sweetie?” she asked politely as she helped me into a wheelchair.

“What was your name? I don’t think I caught what you said it was.” She wheeled me out of the room and down a hall into the medical ward lobby. When we entered the lobby a bunch of people started cheering and clapping, one man came up and offered to shake my hand, and I accepted. “What’s all this for?” I asked. “Well” she replied “They’ve all seen Dr. Smith’s Video” I looked at her questionably. “oh right you don’t know, well let me play it.” She walked over to the lobby T.V. and pushed ‘play’ on the tape player. It Buzzed for a moment before popping up to a view of Dr. Smith sitting in front of the Camera.

“Hello. I am Doctor Bernard Smith. I was head of the medical staff on the Ursa, but things have since changed, as you all know, well most of you. Anyway I have a few things I have to tell you. First of all, this message is dedicated to those who lost their lives; Dylan Vince Kyle, Louis Jacob Hutchens, Grant Hugh Lovitt and Isaac James Warren. These 4 men died for the survival of the Human race and they deserve to be honored.” Dr Smith then paused and bowed his head. “2^nd point, for those of you who are wondering how the trial went, The Prosecution of General Harold Campbell took place before the Universal Court. Campbell was charged with many charges and his sentence was 10 life spans in prison, yes that is possible, I guess they have an ability to revive a dead person, so that should be fun, but he gets what he deserves. And finally this part is for the man who was willing to risk everything and had lost so much, Helios. I’m Sorry I couldn’t be there to tell you in person, but as a key witness I am being held until this whole thing is over. Anyways Helios, you will have a lot of questions. I’m going to do my best to explain the events after you lost consciousness. I believe you passed out as you stepped into the teleport, well, you never did. The most amazing thing happened, the wincarzel separated from you and stepped in the teleport alone and the charge blew up the Gaz’ ship. This was to spare your life.

Something else you might be confused about. Well, the Ursa or the AR HELIOS, whatever you want to call it was taken as evidence to the humans were taken to an uninhabited planet that fits our survival needs. It’s a new beginning for the Human Race, and it’s a good one. I wish you the best of luck in your recovery and I hope to see you eventually. Good-bye oh and PS, I assigned a special nurse to you, as my thanks to you” the video stopped. I sat there pondering everything, it was a lot to take in, but I managed to get it settled in. 

The Nurse walked up to me and crouched down, then she handed me the tape. “I believe you should have this.” I took the tape and examined it. I looked up at her, into her eyes, her beautiful blue eyes. I felt my stomach get butterflies.

“What was your name again?”

“Maria” 

Author's Note

its not perfect. its my first long story. hope you enjoy it