Snippet of a story

Ah, the freedom of flight, the weightlessness of free-fall. Doesn’t it feel wonderful? Well, it would if you weren’t launching at maximum velocity towards a gaping hole that leads to the center of the earth. Why are you going there? What’s going on? You suddenly jolt out of your dream and the realization hits you. Today is the tests, the tests that will decide whether you can save your planet.

“I wonder why I was dreaming about the earth, we are so far from earth on Pluto”. You cry out, and then suddenly it becomes pitch black; you can't see anything. Then a cloth is shoved roughly in your mouth, and your screaming is immediately silenced. You are shoved in a bag and have no clue what is going on. You try to scream, but it gets muffled in the cloth in your mouth. You panic. The only time you have read about something like this was in your favorite comic book The Adventure on Earth. The main character, Jed, once had a nasty run-in with the government of Mars, which culminated in him being shoved in a burlap sack.

“I don't think that I have done anything to upset the government?” You think to yourself. You continue to mull things over in your head, and then suddenly you remember the tests, and you start to panic. You were supposed to meet in the center at 8:00 am, and you have no clue what time it is. So you speak up.

“Excuse me, but I was supposed to be at the test center at 8:00 am.” Then you hear a shout that rattles all around you, and this is what you hear.

“Shut up, and be patient. I did not sign up for this job, but I got stuck with it. So be quiet.” That scares you, and so you stay quiet. You are dragged roughly for about 5 hours and feel sure that you are late for the tests. Once you feel yourself stop moving; you can relax a little bit. You are still worried about the tests, you really wanted to help the planet before earth explodes killing everyone in the milky way.

Then you are dumped somewhere, you hear the people leave, and hear the door lock. You wait a couple of minutes, and then timidly crawl out of the sack. You find yourself in a dimly lit room with a toilet, sink, shower, and cot. You sit down on the cot and the moment your head hits the pillow you are out. You are woken up after what feels like a minute.

“Why did I just wake up?” You question with your eyes still closed, and then you open your eyes and see a woman standing there with kind eyes, and she says

“Do you mind getting up for breakfast, Sergeant wants everyone in the commissary?” Before you can ask anything; you hear a stampede of feet, and get up. You follow the woman to the commissary. When you get there it is already full of people all ages dressed alike sitting at long tables. Before you can sit down the sergeant asks you to come up to the front. The walk is agony, it feels like it takes 10 thousand decades to reach the front of the hall. When you do the sergeant stands up and says.

“Welcome once again to yet another initiation ceremony,” and that's when you freak out. You were totally not ready for this. You do your best not to show your fear, but that feels impossible. Lots of things are running through your mind like “Initiation, what will I have to do?” “I did not sign up for this.” and “Who are all these people staring at me.” After what seems like an eternity everyone starts to clap, and you are almost positive that your face is so red that you don't know what you should do.

“Welcome, it is so rare to have only one initiate.” The sergeant said along with a bunch of other junk about hard work and integrity. (at that point everyone became interested in their silverware and shoelaces) “Now it is time for our initiate to go outside and scale a tree to bring back the mystical boba fruit.” Everyone claps and smiles at you. Sergeant hands you a knife and says that you may go out, and everyone may file out after you.

“Great,” you think “everyone is going to be watching me fail and embarrass myself.” You have no other choice, but to walk outside and try to figure out what to do.

Once you are outside you do your best to locate the tree. It is very easy to find, being the biggest tree in the front. Then it dawns on you if this is a super powerful magic tree maybe I am not supposed to climb such an important tree. Maybe they are testing my logic. You think about it and decide what you are going to do. You walk up to the tree and kneel down in front of the tree. You lay down the knife and step away.

“Very well done. You thought about it logically, and made your choice based on the logic.” Sergeant says to you. “Now I present you with a suit and list of instructions, okay everyone go back to your room and get ready for the day.”

You go back to your room and read the list of instructions.

• Must wear uniform at all time

• Always have your hair in a buzz cut

• Keep everything tucked in and orderly

• Be quiet in the halls

• Be very punctual

• Be at every class

You really don't want your hair in a buzz cut and you don't know how to shave you hair. You change into your new uniform (very itchy and large) and you go back and read the paper again and as you are flipping the paper over to see if there is anything on the other side when your door opens and what looks like most of the residents pull you out of you room yelling and screaming. They carry you a long way out of the building to another building which you recognized as the gym, but suddenly the gym isn't there. You panic, what is happening. For the second time today you find yourself being stuffed into a bag after being bound and gagged.

“Why does this keep happening to me?” You wonder as you are dragged across the ground roughly. Am I destined for this my entire life? You are dragged for hours and hours. By the end, you are severely battered and bruised. Not knowing what to do you fall back and then you suddenly stop moving. What in the world happened. You feel the bag be dropped and you hear footsteps walking away from you. You wait a while and then try to get out of the sack, but you can't stand up. You freak out, your legs won't support you, and you panic. As you think you realize that you have no feeling in your lower part of you body from the waist down. And so you are stuck. You just have to sit there and hope someone comes along. Suddenly someone does, well several people come rushing over to you with a bed on wheels. They say

“Hi, we see that you aren't moving and wanted to check if you are okay.”

You tell them “I am okay except I seem to have lost all feeling and movement below my waist.”

“Oh, may we take you to the hospital to have you checked on?”

“The what,” You say.