~Rain Shine~ (Chapter 8)

I made my way through the crowd with the night vision I gave myself. I tried to figure out how and which human to approach, but everything got so confusing. Suddenly my night vision faded out. Someone knew I was here. I was going to die, if I didn't get out soon. I grabbed someones arm and pulled out of the tunnel.

"It will be fine, come with me."
"What. What's happening!"
"Just follow me." I pulled her forward, sprinting toward a forest. It was almost impossible, barely any were left. Once we emerged into a safe spot, I sat on the ground, breathing heavily.
"Hi." She was a girl with long brown hair, and a soft complexion with brown eyes. She was the right type, she was tall, and looked strong enough, lucky choice I guess.
"Hi. Um your not one of them are you?" I hated to lie, but I had to, for now.
"No. I'm here to try to stop it."
She nodded.
"Why did you pick me?" She looked concerned.
"I need your help."
"Guess I might as well, were all going to die anyway." She must of had time to think about it.
I nodded. "We have to convince the guards to take us to the center of the operation."
"Yeah, and how will we do that."
I sighed. I had to tell her it was the only way.
"I am one of them, but I don't want you to die, I'm still on your side."
"What the h311, I might as well believe anything."
I shrugged.
"But still, how will we get them to take us there."
"Mind control. Our kind have it, well here we do."
She nodded. "Lets do it, what do I have to lose."
"Your life,"
"Well that's a risk I will take." She smiled. "It's only once and a while you can try to save the world."
I smiled. "Yeah."
"What's your name?"
"Sun, yours?"
"Rain, just thought we should know each others names before we plummet towards death."
We laughed. We were both too unsure to discuss the weird connection between our names.
We shared a glance and nodded before we left the small forest into an restless war for humanity.

~Kenna London~ (Chapter 7)

Men and women and children, all in one room, a vast room, but it would barely hold the volume of its inhabitants. They clung to each other and sobbed, tears blurring the vision of some, but other just sitting in stunned silence, eyes dry, waiting for their impending doom. I was one such person, staring out at everyone. My body felt light, like I was just watching the scene in front of me, not really there. It was shock, turning my already pale face pasty white, and rocking me on my feet. The tension in the air was thick, suffocating, and I felt as though I had to take deep gasps of the stale, musty air in just to breathe. No one knew where we were, no one knew anything. It was the ignorance more than coming death that moved silvery tears out of the eyes of those in the room. There was nothing worse than not knowing.
And then, a man had come up over a balcony that I doubted anyone had known was there. He had a sallow face and sunken eyes that gave him every resemblance to a corpse. And a corpse he was. The grim reaper of the thousands choking in this room. He appeared human, but there was something off about him, maybe his height, which rose over seven feet, or his jet black robe that skimmed the floor, perfectly fitted in every way. And then he spoke.
"People of New York City!" He called, voice rising above the masses without the aid of a microphone, "You, as you may well know, have been selected to participate in our experiment." He spat every word as if it were a disease, although he voiced them with pride. A confusing mixture, but malignant in every way, "Now, to begin, please separate yourselves: minors to the right, and adults to the left."
The crowd had no intention to move. Mothers and fathers clung all the tighter to their children, and adults and minors alike stayed in their places.
From doors, seamlessly flesh with the wall, strode men and women, tall and equally pale to the man on the balcony, with robes of deep burgundy and expressionless faces. They tore children from parents, set brothers and sisters of differing ages apart, and dragged them, crying, to the right side. The air quickly filled with screams and sobs of anguish, so much that it was hard for me to bear. I didn't want to be here. I wanted to be in the shelter, even if I'd have to stay there for fifty years while all the word went to chaos around me. I didn't want to be here.
knowing I wasn't yet an adult, I quickly hurried to the left, not wanting to be touched by the strange people. Then one of them stopped me, closing their cool, skeletal hand around my shoulder, forcing shivers down my spine. It was a man, bald, but with a nasty smirk on his face and a mouth full of perfectly white teeth. He might have been in his forties, but it was impossible to tell.
"State your age." He commanded me.
"Seventeen."
"Adult enough," he said and shoved me off towards the right before nonchalantly walking off and settling himself in the middle, between the halves of the population along with all of the other robed newcomers.
The man on the balcony resumed his speech, "Good. Now that that is taken care of, we will be escorting you through these double doors in front of you in groups of one hundred. The approximate time of wait in between these parties is one hour and thirty minutes." He started to exit through the door behind him, then turned around to meet all of the fearful, confused faces underneath him and uttered one word, the equivalent of death to them. "Commence."
The robed people who had been standing still as statues for the remainder of the man's speech moved forwards towards the adult half and began to count people off.
A sudden surge of panic shot through my bloodstream, and I clenched my fists, muttering quietly under my breath, "Please. Not me. Not me. Please, not me."
But then one of them strode up to me, burgundy cloak swaying silently behind her, and stopped, pointing her thin, bony finger at my face.
"Eighty-Eight. Through the doors." She said, in a cruel voice that shot through me like bullets and I wanted to sink. I wanted her to pick another eighty-eight so I could sit here with everything that was vaguely familiar, with a crowd of people that could comfort me, but she shoved me off towards the front, and I had no choice but to follow the other ninety-nine people making their sad exodus away from what they loved.
And into the unknown I plunged.

~Lucious~ (Chapter 6)

WE made it, we made it. we are alive. we are alive.
That kept going through my head as I put my arms around my sister. She was shivering. We made it with plenty of time, I guess its just the thought of being down here for fifty years that frightens her. WE took a seat where the guard told us to sit for our room assignments. Since we were still kids we had to have dorms instead of homes, and we still had to go to school everyday. We still needed to get jobs to pay for house bills and such. We still needed money for food, water, electricity, all of that good stuff. It was all basically the same, except we were underground. No fresh air. And all of the drop-elevators jolted back to the surface with a time lock. No way out for fifty years, well that is, unless you were the head honcho of the place. They call him the governor, but he does more than any governor would do. He is the lookout. Keeping us posted on how things are looking on the outside.

How do I know this you may ask? Dad was supposed to be that guy. He said there were these suits that helped you go outside and not get poisoned, and there was this stairwell that went all the way up two hundred feet, of course there was an elevator too...but this elevator came and left as you pleased. But there is one thing that always confused me. Right after the car accident just before dad died he said "Take care of your sister, and...and take the stairwell on the right." I have no idea what he meant by that. The nurses and the doctor just said it was the pain killer talking. But the sincerity in his voice. Just then my cellphone rang. The one dad gave me. I looked at the number. It was mom.

My mind went back.
"I'm leaving!" she shouted at dad five years ago. "Take good care of Luc and Marg." I wondered how the woman that gave birth to us could hate us so much. She stormed out of that door and I watched as her car drove away. I don't know why she left. She just did. But If she didn't care, why were there so many tears in her eyes? I answered the phone.

"H...Hello?"
"Luc? Oh thank you God!" I heard her half sob half laugh on the other end.
"What is it mom?" How was I talking so normally to the woman who had up and left her and her children?
"Your not underground! You are free!" What was she talking about?
"What? I'm sitting right here on the bench!"
A guard looked at me from the other side of the holding room. He started walking this way.
"You need to get out of there. Luc! Take Marg and get out of there!"
"What? what do you mean? What are you saying?" A pair of kids and their dog sat next to me.
"Luc! Listen to me. They are going to kill everyone down there. Its part of the experiment! They are trying to start over! Make the Earth better." I fell silent. "LUC! GET OUT OF THERE!"
"HEY, YOU!" It was the guard. He was running. Well as fast as he could with so many people blocking his way.
"Marg! Lets get out of here!"
She looked at me like I was crazy, but she obeyed and jumped up.
"Come on! Hurry!" I looked over at the children sitting next to us. They seemed frightened, I think they heard me. "You guys should come too. i dont know you, but trust me." I held out my hand toward the girl sitting there. The guard was pushing past the crowd. "Please come."
The guard was closing in.

~Celeste Osborne~ (Chapter 5)

I lay on the couch, munching stale popcorn and ice-cream left over from the birthday party Hunter and I had rigged up for ourselves. Some birthday present the fates have given us: the end of our piece of the world.
But here we are: our fifteenth birthday and we’re stuck in the house, sharing a blanket, wondering when, IF, our parents will get home, where on earth they could possibly be, why they were acting so odd when they left, and waiting for the TV to begin playing a countdown to death.
We were ready hours ago. Right next to the couch our backpacks lay, completely packed with all our necessary items. Beside them, Marta, Hunter’s Husky/German Shepherd mix, sits straight and alert, the same way she has ever since she joined our family.
Hunter could’ve been safely away a week ago, but he’d refused to leave Marta and me behind. After all, we are his eyes…
“Celeste, WAKE UP!”
My twin’s yell pierced my consciousness.
“What?” I ask groggily, wondering why there’s popcorn spilled all over me. Then, I hear it.
“21 minutes, 15 seconds until destruction.” Said an extremely calm voice.
The television. Oh no.
I leap up, completely awake. “Where’s Mum and Dad?” I ask, grabbing my backpack and running to the front door.
“They aren’t back yet!” Hunter replied, and I felt a pang of pure fear, like freezing lead, fill my heart.
“Are…. Are you sure?” I asked, but I knew he was telling the truth. Our parents might be gone for good.
“19 minutes, 52 seconds.” The TV announced.
All three of us ran out the door. Without Mum or Dad.
As we ran, my brain sent terrifying messages. ”We’re gonna die. We’re gonna die. We’re gonna die.” It repeated, over and over until my heart was in my throat, my stomach was in knots (and filled to the brim with butterflies) and I had a splitting headache.
“4 minutes, 38 seconds.”
“We’ll make it!” Hunter said to me, panting. He may be blind, but he runs as well as anyone else would in a crisis. A.k.a.: ultra fast and with enough energy to flatten anything in his way.
Marta barked, apparently agreeing with her master’s statement.
“No… we aren’t gonna make it!” I would have murmured to myself, but I didn’t because it would’ve taken up too much breath.
“2 minutes, 7 seconds.”
And then, we came in view of the shelter’s entrance. Finally.
“1 minute, 32 seconds.”
”Run faster, Celeste! You can do it! This is just another race with Dad, only with more deadly rules!” I tell myself.
“1 minute, 3 seconds.”
“We’re not gonna make it!” I shriek.
Hunter doesn’t answer, and I know why. It’s probably hard enough to run without tripping over Marta, even though she’s trained well.
“0 minutes, 48 seconds.”
I force my legs to go faster, feeling feverish with the effort of running so far, so fast.
“0 minutes, 23 seconds.”
I leap into the elevator and hold it open for Hunter and Marta, who practically collapse into it.
“0 minutes, 9 seconds.”
The doors shut, and we begin to hurtle down to the shelter.
“We’re still alive.” I say, tears pricking my eyes.
“Yeah, surprising, huh.” Wheezed Hunter, taking his backpack off and shakily putting what I call his “Movie Star Impersonator” glasses on.
Tears began to pour down my face and I sniffled.
“Wow, emotional much?” he asked, but he has the worst poker-face on the planet. I can tell that the only thing that’s stopping him from following my weepy example is the fact that he’s a boy, and therefore not allowed to cry in public and still keep his pride.
Man, I’m glad I’m not a boy.” I think, wiping away my tears with the sleeve of my jacket.
Then, we enter the shelter.
A guard dude stares at us. “Oh, the lucky ones.” He said in an awed tone. “You were this close to dying, you know.” He held his fingers two centimeters apart.
“Well, you can wait right there.” He said, pointing to a couple of seats next to 2 kids who were probably siblings.
We sit down, and it finally hits me: it’s just the three of us now, Hunter, Marta, and me.
Without Mum or Dad.
Pardon me while I break down and cry.

-Wimarc "Mikey" Starr- (Chapter 4)

I wouldn't hold it against you to think of me as a four legged guard, most people do. But Sam trained and worked hard on me to make sure that wasn't all I was. He taught me things most humans would never be able to grasp, and made sure I was raised the right way. Regular meals, feet off the furniture, business gets taken care of OUTside, and of course: don't bite until you're sure they deserve it. We became best friends and trusted each other with our lives... which was why I let him experiment on me.

Sam Perfect performed one of the most dangerous exercises ever done on a dog. He replaced my heart with a human one, re-wired a part of my brain that allowed me to talk, and made me unbeatable against authority. Of course, I had a weakness, because now I had a heart. I felt things so much more intensely than I had felt them before... Pain, happiness, love, and loyalty.

Sam helped me adjust to these changes and we grew closer with each moment that passed. Now that we could communicate with words our relationship became effortless. I still trusted him with all my human heart and so did he. We laughed together, cried together, built our strength together, and slowly perfected a plan to save the world from evil together.

He knew about the governments experiments, they weren't so much unlike his own. But Sam did it for good. To better the country- not destroy it. He watched for years as they too perfected a plan... That's why we started an underground world. When the president found out, he went along with it, telling the city that it might soon get destroyed. But he didn't tell them about their plans with the people who wouldn't make it.

On that day, Sam and I made sure to protect and save as many people as we could. Time ran out. Sam was in the other world and I was not. Her voice came over the speakers. I wasn't going to get to Sam... I couldn't believe it. Four men in white and red leather came to take me once the world was dark and dead.

I was once again another experiment, but this time... I didn't trust the operator.

~Rain Shine~ (Chapter 3)

Why? Even I am not sure. My father, one of the generals, told me, and as much as I love him, I'm not sure I believe or trust him. He told me one day when I was 6 that we were going to build an army, so in 10 years we could go to earth and learn knowledge from earthlings, and teach them how to care and realize that they're killing everything. Sadly, at that age, I did know what that meant, death, lots of it. I'm a soul that feels pity for innocent, unlike my father.

So that's why I'm standing on earth right now, I am trying to stop the testing, but I know I will die, even if I succeed, and I know it's only a matter of time ...again. I have to think that dying, fighting for what you believe in is better than dying, with guilt in your heart. In fact, right now, I haven't been prouder than myself. That's something worth dying for, isn't it?

Right now, here on earth, I have gave myself a body, I actually have one, I'm no longer a bodiless soul, I'm flesh and bone with a beating heart. It shows me there is possibility for peace, but sadly the world doesn't work that way. My mom was a human solider, and hid me, before she died, later my dad found me in a hole in the ground, barely alive from the world war. My dad swore revenge, with others, ever since. I followed the other humans into a dark room, they're sobs, echoed in my hearing. I soft tear escaped my eye. I laughed, I was actually crying. The eyes from around me stared from my laughter, I looked down, not sure what to think. I didn't belong here, what was I thinking.

~~~

"Oh sweet rain, you will find peace right?"
I stared in my mom's sad eyes.
"Well when your older..."
I looked again, making her know I will.
"I love you." She kissed me on the forehead.
I smiled, a soft, baby smile.
She put me in the small hole she dug and covered as much as she could, leaving small gaps, for air. I looked out one gap to see my mother walk up to the solider, as he shot a bullet through her heart. She screamed in such an intensity, no baby would know.
My baby cries, were loud but not loud enough to go through the gaps. I fell asleep listening to the screams and gun shots of people.

~~~

I did belong here, I was fighting for peace, for my mother. I had to succeed, I had to. Or everything will be destroyed, everything. My father can never understand though, he always think he knows, but he's no worse than the soldiers. In truth were all blinded, and that's why we will die, but my plan wont work without a human. That's what I needed to find, a human, but that, could be deeply hard. I'm not like them, and making them believe, is a skill I don't have without resourcing to mind control, and I believe that if it must should be the very last resort.

~Kenna London~ (Chapter 2)

The wind whistled past my ears, blocking out everything as I ran, arms pumping, full speed ahead. I could make it. I could get to the shelter if I tried.
And. Went. Faster.
My iPod was still in my pocket and the timer was blasting out of the speakers, out of everything the government could possibly tap into.
"One minute, twelve seconds." said a calm, mechanical voice in my ear. Much calmer than I felt.
Just a little bit faster and I could make it. Why did Grandmother have to live so far away from the city? I still had half a mile to go. I could sprint it. She was safe, though. They'd taken her out on a helicopter twenty minutes ago, the speaker in the unmanned vehicle telling me, "I am sorry. This ride is only for the elderly. Please find another means of transportation."
And what other means were there? Just my own two legs, as it seemed. That was one of the reasons I hated the anemetronics they seemed to use everywhere. A human could think, but a robot could only do what it was programmed to. Follow the rules without exception.
"One minute, ten seconds." chimed the speaker. I threw it from my pocket. I didn't need to be reminded.
The shelter was just on the outskirts of the city. I could see the shining buildings that surrounded it clearly now, less than a mile away, I was sure. I could make it. Just maybe.
Every computer, every television and portable electronic device in the city was shouting the same phrase, in the same smooth voice, all simultaneously.
"Zero minutes, Forty-five seconds."
Emotions clouded my head, threatening to burst it. Hot tears ran down my cheeks, misting my vision. The shining city in front of me was blurred. Just one dismal, chrome mess. It numbed my muscles and made it hard to keep going.
Reality was harsh. I wasn't going to make it.
"Zero minutes, twenty seconds."
The asphalt under my feet was rockier, more used. I was getting close. Maybe, just maybe, I could get there in time. It takes a lot of practice to lie like that to yourself. Unfortunately, I had none.
"Zero minutes, ten seconds."
I began the countdown in my head. The countdown until death. I stopped running, finally breaking down. it was still so far.
Three
Two
One.
I braced myself for death, and in that split second I wondered what it would be like. If it would hurt. I figured I would find out.
The voice resonated through every fiber in me. "Zero."
And nothing happened.
I waited for a long time, afraid of what would happen if I opened my eyes, but then I heard the voice again, low and smooth.
"Hello, New York City. You, outside of the shelters, have now been selected to participate in an experiment. You will be escorted to the private location immediately. Thank you."
And with click, the speaker turned off.
There was a low mist on the ground, only a passing white vapor, like dust, I thought. But it made my mind blank, like it was filled with cotton, and the strength leave my legs. And I was falling.
There were two sounds.
One was the thunk of every person trapped outside of the New York shelters as they hit the ground.
The other was the sound of the security mechanisms of the shelter kicking into action, trapping everyone inside.
And then the world went dark.

~Lucious~ (Chapter 1)

"Luc! Wake up! Hurry!"
I got up quickly and started packing my duffel bag. I'm not usually this responding right after I wake up, but I knew this was coming, so I was prepared. I stuffed everything I had -that is everything I hadn't put in the shelter- into the bag almost mechanically, and quickly.
"Come on the television says five minutes." That was my sister Margie. She was already done packing. I quickly grabbed my wallet and ran out of the door. Marg was right behind me, at least I think she was. I paused for a moment, taking in all of the fresh air I could get.
"One minute, thirty seconds" said the speaker on the light post.
"Come on Marg!"
"Right behind you!" She was tugging her duffel bag. What was in it that could be so heavy?
"Go to the elevator! I'll get your bag."
"One minute." I picked up the duffel bag and sprinted to the drop-elevator. Marg jumped in and I pressed the drop button. It feels like you are falling, but at just the right second, the elevator catches you and you gently fall the last foot. As soon as we stepped off of the pad it shot back up the two hundred foot drop.All around me people were getting out of the elevators. Children were crying, parents were wearing worried looks on their faces.
"Were lucky." Marg said suddenly.
"Our country is about to be destroyed." I retorted. I don't know why I always do that, but I have to be right about everything, and at that moment, I didn't feel very lucky. That's so like Margie to find the light in a dark situation.
"I know, I know, but we don't have to worry about anyone but ourselves." Some light.