D.I.E.

D.I.E.

By Deric Liang 7th grader

~One~ If you looked inside this room, you would be disgusted by what you saw. There were two creatures in there. They had three eyes, one ear, and no mouth. Their skin was green, gooey and slimy and if you looked at them, you would think they were eleven feet tall and weighed five-hundred pounds. Sweat dripped down their skin, which had five feet spikes poking out from them. They wore nothing but a crown that covered their eyes. There were papers and blueprints scattered on the dull, gray walls and slime covering the ceiling.

“So Xerox, would you do about all these planets? It’s either us or them.” The creature whispered.

The other creature, Xerox replied, “Wrangix, you’ve always know what I’ve wan-” “That is my last resort, and I do not intend to do it. It’s genocide!” the creature named Wrangix yelled, as he slammed a table against the wall, ripping some blueprints.

“Well then, we can have a happy death. We can live in the fiery pits of the underworld forever, and we will have the greatest time of our life- oh wait, no, we’ll be dead! We won’t have any life!” Xerox said, gradually raising his voice, which echoed off the walls.

“Stop shouting! We’re not supposed to be here! If the Elders find out what we’re talking about, then we are going to face the Torture!”

“Hey, you also yelled just now! Plus, what do you expect me to do?” Xerox shouted, ignoring Wrangix’s complaint.

“Fine, go release-” The door came off their hinges, slamming into Xerox’s

face with a thud. Xerox collapsed to the floor, poking holes in the floor with his spikes. Monster blood started leaking from his head,and Xerox groaned as he fell into a coma.

The creature that injured Xerox crawled in. This creature, though, was bigger than the two other creatures. His spikes were ten feet long, some of them even poking inside his skin instead of out. His skin was a color of vomit instead of the green that it was supposed to be. He looked like he was fifteen feet tall and weighed eight-hundred pounds. His whole face was covered with scars, and the rest of his body had places that looked like it had been shot a lot.

With his eyes flashing with anger, he crawled over and grabbed Wrangix.

“What are you doing?” the big creature shouted, with little pellets of spittle flying onto Wrangix’s face.

“Uh...hello there...uh...Xachrice...”Wrangix managed “Don’t try to hide anything from me!” Xachrice raged on.

“I know you’re coming up with another plan to get into the Elders Council!”

“Fine, fine! I’ll tell you what we were talking about! So Xerox and I were arguing about releasing the curse because we don’t want to die, so eventually I agreed, right when you came in!”

Xachrice listened intently, not making a single comment.

“Boy, this is the best idea that I have heard come out of your mouth in your whole life. I will notify the Elders.”

“Thank you, sir.” Wrangix started to crawl out of the door.

“Wait up, Wrangix. You and your friend are still getting suspended for conspiring without the Council’s consent. Take your friend to the Medical Dock. I will apologize to him later.”

Wrangix nodded, saluting to Xachrice, and crawled out of the door.

When Wrangix was far gone, Xachrice picked up his disk, which was what these creatures called a phone.

“May I speak to the King?” he said. “The time has come.”

~Two~ I sensed something was wrong. I didn’t know what was

causing this feeling, but over the past few years, I knew to trust my instincts. In fact, I’ve trusted my instincts so much, it was like a sixth sense. So all I knew was that something was wrong.

I started running back to my home. Actually, run was a understatement. More like fly. I could run at incredible speeds that none of my other friends could run. I ran faster then a jet.

Even running halfway across the planet, I was home in seconds.

I am Jack Jay, and I was eleven years old. Or as my friends liked to call me, Jack “Jet” Jay. I thought it was the coolest name ever, and it stuck to me as if someone tattooed the name “Jet” on my whole body. I lived with just my mother, because my father had died seven years ago. Even though I cried for my dad every night since he died, he was kind of a freak on his last days. He even wrote me a strange poem.

Arise, chosen one, to the might of the sun To the thresholds of the gates to prosperity you shall go.

There, you will find peace One concept man has treasured for eons.

Protect it from the sins that lurk outside And it will bear you good.

Freaky, huh? I had a feeling it was supposed to tell me something, but I just didn’t know what. I read it so much, I could recite it without stopping. In fact, just for fun, I made multiple songs for it, but they were really bad.

At home, my mom, Marian, stopped cooking her food and hugged me.

“Jet, why are you home so early?” she asked “I got a strange feeling. Again.”

My mom’s smile disappears, and her eyes get misty.

“Mom?” “Oh yes!” she yells suddenly while coming out of her trance. “Your father had these feelings too. They were always right, just like your-” “Mom! I’ve heard that so many times, I can’t count!” I interrupted, slamming the front door. A look of hurt spreads

across my mom’s face.

“Please. Just stop.” I say. I’m almost crying now. “Just tell me where these feelings are coming from.”

“Come sit down at the dinner table.”

I followed my mom down the hallways. It was filled with pictures of me, my mom, and my dad. There is only a single glowing light bulb above us, and then I situated myself at the dinner table as my mom opened the fridge and poured two glasses of orange juice. She walked to the table, threw her skirt up and sat down. She handed me a cup of juice.

Then my mom took a breath, and spoke. “Can I see the poem?”

I reached into my pocket, and brought out a brown, worn-out and dusty wallet made of leather. I pull out the poem, and reach over to give to my mom.

“Ah yes. Your dad had a reason to write this.”

“But why?” I ask curiously.

“No questions until I’m done talking. Got it?”

“Fine.”

“Thank you. When your dad and I met, we went to meet his parents. They talked to me privately, and said that if your dad and I had a baby, the child would have powers far more powerful than your father’s.”

“My dad had-” “Hush, hush. I told you, no questions until the end, Jet. So continuing with the story, I asked the same question that you just asked. His parents explained everything. They said, ‘Your boyfriend’s great-great-great grandfather was a very peculiar man. He made a magic potion made of things he found on the street, and dared all his friends to drink it. It killed all of his friends. But not him. The potion gave him great powers. But his son’s powers turned out to be even more powerful. He didn’t know he had these powers, though, and when he found out he had them, he visited a doctor. The doctor told him that his father had powers too. The doctor also predicted that the powers would be passed on and on with each generation in the family, but not forever. The last receiver of these powers have the best powers out of all of the ancestors. He is prophesied to save the

universe.’”

My mom stopped talking, and I took time to soak it all in.

So I had powers. It was a topic too hard to grasp. No wonder I could run so fast. Then my mom broke the silence.

“Jet, I think that the last receiver is you. The chosen one from the poem. That poem is a prophecy to guide you through the curse.”

I nodded my head. The story was very interesting. I took a long sip of orange juice, and then my mom continued.

“Now, the powers weren’t secret. So everyone thought it was your dad, and a terrorist group managed to kill him early in your life.”

We just sat there, letting the story sink in. I had a million questions swimming in my head that I wish I could ask all at once, like what the curse was, most of all. I also wanted to know what I could do with my powers, especially since I was the last receiver of the powers.

Suddenly, my mom dropped to the floor and flopped like a fish. I jumped out of my seat, knocking over the table and spilling the juice. It felt like my heart was pounding faster than I could run. Then my mom stopped flopping around. I knew my mom was dead, but I felt her pulse in case she was still alive.

But she was dead. I grabbed the poem from my mom and ran over to Joey’s house.

Joey was my very best friend. I’ve known him even before my dad died. We were like brothers, and we raced all the time, even though he knew I would win.

I knocked on the door with our secret knock. No reply.

This never happened. I saw a open window and went in. My footsteps echoed throughout the house, because no one made sound. Because all of Joey’s family was dead too. I knew this was the time. The time for the prophecy.

But I had nobody to help me. Knowing this, I slumped to the ground, leaning against a table leg, and started crying.

~Three~ Since everyone was dead, I lived in the grocery stores I

could find around the world. I took out devices and played with them, while surviving with the food in there. I took new clothes when I grew out of my old ones, and ran over to the water company, the electric company and other places in those cities when necessary to keep the stores running. It sounded like a good life, being in control of the world.

Except for the fact that I have been living this way for five years. I was sixteen years old, and on my way to adulthood.

All I wanted to do was to get out of the planet. But I wasn’t good at math or engineering. I still had the brain of a eleven-year old. So I couldn’t build a rocket. Plus, where could I go?

So I made up a game I could play, and the objective of it was to see how long I could live until all the buildings of the world had no food and I died. I already decided to give up on life a long time ago, so why not have a little fun instead of just suiciding?

So I was having a regular day so far. I woke up, and instead of brushing my teeth, I ran over to the cashier stand, and popped a gum stick in my mouth. I hastily chewed for a minute, and without hesitation, spit the gum on the ground. I ran over to the bread aisle with my stomach grumbling and grabbed some bread slices from the shelf. I started my daily run around the world as I opened the bag containing the bread. I took a jar of jelly from my pocket and used my fingers to spread the sticky material on a slice, and ate it as I was running around the world, like usual. When I was done with my breakfast, I stopped at a creek and washed my hands in them.

Then I saw an object in the bush. I thought the wind blew it here, but I couldn’t help but study the object. I dried off my hands and cautiously tip-toed over to the object as if it was watching me. As I got closer, though, the object started increasing in brightness as it glowed a rainbow color. The rainbow color suddenly disappeared and storm clouds covered the sun, bringing a feeling of sadness to everything. Suddenly the object made two buzzing noises. Then it shut down completely with a draining noise. I tried poking it, but my finger wasn’t even halfway when the scenery around me started

spinning around, gradually getting faster, and I felt puke at the back of my throat. Just when I was about to vomit, I plunged into blackness. ~~~ “Your Highness, you know that person who survived our curse on the planet A-1?” Xachrice asked confusingly “Yes, why General?” the King asked “Because he has just disappeared from our radars. We cannot pick up a signal of him on any of the other planets in the universe either.” Xachrice said. He was confused. He stroked his spikes, which was a gesture of confusion to these creatures, and turned around to look at the King, expecting an answer.

The King started to stroke his spikes too. The two creatures sat there for a few seconds before the King said, “Send the radar application to my disk. It’s about time I downloaded it.”

“I will do that immediately, Your Highness.”

Xachrice reached into his robe, searching for his disk.

After a minute of search, Xachrice finally found it and pulled it out.

“Ah, there it is.” Xachrice said. “My disk. I will send the radar app now.”

“You really should clean out your robes,” the King said without emotion.

Xachrice looked up from his disk for a few moments, a look of hurt spreading across his face. He knew that the impression of somebody lowered if the King criticized you, and he was trying to make the best impression on the King. But he continued sending the radar app to the King, to see if he can gain the impression on the King he lost back.

“It should be on your disk now, Your Highness.” Xachrice said proudly “Ah yes. Thank you General. You may take a day off,” the King said.

Pride beamed on Xachrice’s face. He hadn’t lost the King’s impression after all. Xachrice crawled out of the room,

with a happy look still on Xachrice’s face.

Suddenly a boy appeared on a platform next to the King’s throne. The King turned around, surprised by the sound, but then flashed a smile and said smoothly, “Hello there, boy.

I’ve been expecting you.”

~Four~ I was standing next to a creature with spikes poking out of his skin. He had spikes that looked as if they were eleven feet long. He was also seventeen feet tall and eight-hundred fifty pounds. He wore a cape down his back and had a small crown, which he put on one of the spikes on his head. His skin was a dark color of green, but it seemed as if it was black. He turned over to me in surprise but his face grew soft. He smiled and me, and I grimaced. His smile was hideous, as his front two teeth were missing as well as some others, and the teeth that were still there had a punch of plaque and were chipped.

“Hello there, boy. I’ve been expecting you,” the creature said, smirking.

His breath wasn’t any better. I was reminded that I was about to throw up, and I let all the puke out.

His smile disappeared. “That is no way to treat the King of planet C-2. You will start your suspension immediately. After that, you will enroll in the army immediately.”

I was confused. Where was I? What was going to happen to me? Also, there was supposed to be nobody living in planet C-2. All of our best astronomers have proved it multiple times. So how, right now, am I standing in front of a King of this planet? This is actually one of the non-life containing planets that is the most emphasized in class. We have to memorize all the reasons why there can’t be any life on this planet.

The King broke into my thoughts, surprising me.

“Yes, I know what you’re thinking. ‘Sir, there’s not supposed to be life on this planet.’ Well you can suck it up, because there is life on this planet,” he said in a mocking voice.

“Now get your butt to work.”

“But where should I start-” I began.

“Get to work, you little son of a crankle!” He screamed.

“What is a crankle, and where should I start-” I tried to ask again The King screamed a sentence of profanity and flicked me off. So I quickly shuffled out of the room, fearing that if I tried his temper again, he’d kill me.

I closed the door to the throne room behind me. When I looked up, I was greeted with creatures who looked just like the King, except they were smaller. They were hunched, and there were dark circles under their eyes, as if they didn’t sleep for days. Instead of working with energy, they trudged against the ground, and some of them even falling to the ground, fatigued.

They all looked at me for a second, as if I was a miracle to save them in the hellhole they were in right now, but when they saw I was just a boy, they turned their attention back to their work, and soldiered on.

But then I spotted a girl who looked just my age. She was beautiful. She had silky hair, which had crimson stripes in her blond hair. Her hair fell on her face, and the way she blew her hair away was amazing. Her shoulders were slender, and had red, perfect lips. I wonder how she managed to stay clean.

Apparently, she saw me too, and started walking over.

“Who are you?” she asked curiously, studying me. “You are the only person in this place who doesn’t look like all these other damn creatures.”

“Hey, hey, you don’t need to swear. Just tell me where I am, and what a suspension is, and where I can enroll in the army,” I replied.

“The King told you to serve a suspension, then enroll in the army, right?”

“Yes, he did.”

“The suspension room is on the bottom floor. All suspensions last a day. Then after that, you come back to where you are right now, and ask one of the guys to enroll in the army.”

“Wait, this is the place I have to work in? This looks like hel-” “Hey, I thought you didn’t like swears.”

“Sorry.”

I started walking away, but stopped with the realization that I didn’t know where the elevator was. I turned back, and asked, “Hey, do you know where the elevator is?”

“See, that’s what sucks about this place. There ain’t a damn elevator. Use the level changer over there.” He pointed behind the smallest creature in the room.

“Hey, can you please not swear?”

“Sorry. Actually, everybody does it here. If you don’t, you get your little ass kicked by the bullies.”

“Hey!” I said with anger.

“Sorry again.”

“Oh, and one more thing. What’s a crankle?”

“The King called you that, right?”

“Uh-huh.”

“It’s a word the King which substitutes the word piss-off.”

“Dude! You just swore again.”

“Hey, it’s the truth.”

“But why does he say crankle?”

“He likes to make up words that sound ‘cool’” “Thank you. You were a big help.”

“No prob, homie” “Oh, what’s your name?”

“Iris.”

Iris. It added to her beauty. Then she spoke again.

“What about yours?” she said.

“Jet.” “Cool name. I like it,” she replied, making me blush.

Then I remembered what I had to do and turned again to face the stairs. I started walking over, and walked to the level changer. But when I arrived, I didn’t see whatever a level changer was. I just saw a drop. How did people use these?

Surely they would die. But I had to suck it up. I took in a breath.

Then I closed my eyes and jumped.

~Five~ I landed in five seconds. I opened my eyes, and wondered why I didn’t have any broken bones. The ceiling was just two feet above my head, which was weird, because I

should have landed on top of the ceiling. So how did I go through it?

I tried to touch the ceiling as if I could find out how I went through it. Suddenly, the scenery around me disappeared and my body somehow shot up, defying gravity. I felt wind hitting my face, and it felt weirder going up than down. Maybe because I was aware of my situation.

Finally, I saw the army around me again. Surprisingly, Iris stood right next to the level changer, as if she expected me to come back up. Apparently she did.

“Hey there,” she said in an unsurprised tone.

“You didn’t tell me how the level changer worked! I was scared out to my wits!”

“Yeah, sorry about that. I just wanted to see how you would react. You know, I like your attitude. Everyone else would just start crying like a two year old. You seem unique compared to the other people I’ve met.”

I smiled at my comment. Maybe she liked me. But I shook my head. She couldn’t like me. I was ugly, while she was so beautiful.

“So how does it work?” I asked.

“It’s complicated. But I’ll try to explain it. The level changer uses weird engineering stuff to read your mind, and it determines where you want to go. Then it sends you there. If you touch the ceiling, then it assumes you want to go somewhere else, so it reads your mind again to determine where you want to go. If you use the level changer without a certain destination, it just sends you back up here to the main level, unless you’re already here, in which case it sends you to the suspension room.”

“Why the suspension room?”

“It assumes that you don’t know how to use the changer and you’re new to this planet.”

“So?” “Every new person talks to the King, and the King likes to give every new person a suspension.”

“That’s the biggest piece of crap I’ve ever heard.”

“Yes it is.”

I took time to take it in. But then I realized a mistake.

“But the ceiling was two feet above me, and the other guys are bigger. How are they supposed to fit?” I asked.

“Oh, that. The ceiling is virtual. It looks different to each person, depending on how tall the person is.”

“Well, I better get going.”

“Good luck.” She suddenly reached for me and hugged me.

For a second I forgot who I was, even when she let go.

Then she shoved me, and I dropped back to the suspension room. ~~~ When I landed, I looked around again, wondering where I went from here. All there was were cages lined up. This place was even more of a hellhole than the main level. Then I saw a creature sitting at a desk, sleeping. I walked over and poked him.

“Hello?” I said.

He jerked up in alarm, but then calmed down and stared at me.

“Reason,” he said.

“What?” I said.

“Why are you here?”

“I made the King mad.”

“Punishment?”

“Suspension.”

The creature looked around, then said, “There’s no more cages. Follow me.”

He stood up and suddenly held my hand. I tried to jerk away, but then he reached his hand up, and the scenery around me changed.

I was in a cage now, and the creature let go of my hand.

Then suddenly, robotic arms came out of the wall, grabbing my legs and arms. It slammed me against the wall. I cried in agony, but the suspension worker slapped me in the face. Hard. I shut my mouth to avoid getting hit, and then a metal belt wrapped

around my waist.

“When your suspension is over, the arms will release you. The level changers will be activated and you can resume your normal activities,” he said, as if he said it a million times.

He reached his hand up, and he disappeared. This was going to be the longest day in my life.

~Six~ “Food for Jet!” a voice said.

Food dropped from the ceiling and onto the ground. I reached for the food, but the robotic arms held me back. So they put the food here just to starve and torture me? That’s stupid. Then I realized something. How did they know my name? I didn’t tell anybody but Iris.

Another robot arm came from the wall to pick up my food. Then it slammed in my face and I tried to lick the food to prevent myself from starving, but then I spit out the food. It tasted like bugs combined with dirt.

“What is this stuff?” I yelled, even though nobody could hear me. “You trying to kill me?”

But was I expecting a feast? Was I expecting a spoon and a fork to eat with? I needed to get real. I was in a place I didn’t know, abducted by some aliens on a planet that wasn’t supposed to support life. My day has been really weird.

Then my vision finally cleared from the food. The cell was a disaster. There was food on the floor, covered with blood.

Worse of all, I saw little rats eating it. That’s gross. But where did the blood come from? I looked down and saw that my nose was bleeding. I tilted my head up to try and stop the bleeding, but then a metal belt went around my neck, preventing me from tilting my head. It just wanted to torture me, huh?

My day really sucked. I wanted the neck belt to get tighter and strangle me so I wouldn’t have to suffer the suspension anymore. I decided to sleep so I wouldn’t have to suffer anymore. I let my thoughts drift, and eventually I was able to sleep. ~~~

My body slammed against the ground, covering me in the blood and food I spit out yesterday. I opened my eyes and saw the robot arms retracting into the ceiling. Had it been a day already. I couldn’t believe it.

“Yeah, I survived! Take that!” I said, I threw a punch in the air, then a kick. “I’m free!” and started running around the room. Suddenly a voice came from a loudspeaker that I hadn’t seen before.

“Get your butt to the main floor before you have to serve another suspension!” the voice said. I recognized the voice. It was the stupid King’s. I quickly touched the ceiling so I wouldn’t have to serve another suspension, and the scenery changed. ~~~ I was in a bathroom, and I saw a bathtub with a shower head. I was tempted to take a shower, but reached up to touch the ceiling again. The door slammed open, which made me pull my hand back. It was the King.

“Ah, I thought you’d end up here,” he said. “Go ahead and take a shower. After that, I’ll give you a disk and some new clothes.”

Why was he being so nice? I wanted to see if he would answer my questions nicely.

“Can you answer some of my questions?” I asked.

“Go ahead.”

“First off, if you use the level changer, why do you have to use the drop on the main floor, but touch the ceiling on the other floors?”

“That’s just a mistake our architects made. Nobody minds it.”

“Second of all, what’s a disk?”

The King had his mouth open.

“What?” I asked.

The King closed his mouth, came out of his trance, and said, “Sorry. A disk is your carry around device. It’s essential, as you can play games, download and share files, call, and text people. It teleports you anywhere outside this building-”

“There’s places outside this building?” I interrupted.

“Yes. This is only the world control and army building.”

“Oh, okay. Is that all?”

“Pretty much.”

“Yes. Go take your shower.”

“Thank you.”

I had one question burnt in my head as I undressed.

Why was he being so nice? But I turned on the water and let the warm water engulf me to forget about it.

~Seven~ I poked one of the creatures. He turned around, and I almost threw up. Some of his spikes were poking into his skin instead of poking out. His whole face was covered with scars, and instead of his skin being green, it was a color of vomit. He also had several spots on his body that looked like it was shot by a gun.

But I swallowed and asked, “Ex-uh, uh, uh, excuse me sir, can I sign up for the army?”

“Boy, you’re making the best decision in your life,” he said. “The army is great. It helps you in many different ways. It helps...”

I couldn’t hear what he said after that because I tuned him out. But when it looked like he finished his lecture, I nodded my head.

“Go to station 5-1 over there.” he said, pointing to a machine next to the level changer.

“What should I do there?”

“Make sure the level changer operates properly.”

“What, may I ask, does that have to do with the army.”

He took in a breath as if he was going to start a lecture, but all he said was, “It teaches responsibility skills.”

“How long is my shift?”

“One week.”

He said it as if it was normal. I couldn’t believe it. That’s why these people looked so tired. I couldn’t from blurting out, “But that’s too long! Look how much these people are suffering right now! And nobody’s doing anything about it-”

“DO YOU WANT TO BE A MAN OR NOT!” he yelled. His voice echoed through the whole room, making everybody look.

This must have been the most interesting the they’ve seen in a while. “YOU STUPID, LITTLE BASTARD! ONCE YOU GO INTO BATTLE, YOU’RE GOING TO LOOK EXACTLY LIKE ME! AND YOU’RE SAYING THIS IS HELL? GET YOUR LITTLE ASS MOVING!” In my common sense dictionary of life, when people start yelling and cursing in your face, it’s time to shut up. Hastily, I shuffled over to my station and looked at the machine. It had a keyboard and a screen with programming codes that made no sense whatsoever to me. I decided not to type anything, since I knew that the level changer was probably working fine. So I sat.

And waited. And waited. Crap, this was boring. I wondered if lunch would ever come. Hopefully it was better than the lunch in the suspension room.

As if reading my mind, a bell tolled. Then the King spoke from the loudspeaker.

“You may now take your lunch break. Stay any longer in the cafeteria than thirty minutes sharp, and I will kick your ass into the suspension room!”

As if I wanted a suspension again. I quickly dropped into the level changer so I could have more time to eat, and went into the cafeteria. ~~~ “May I order the steak from the special menu please?” I asked.

The creature grabbed a steak and threw it in my face. It slipped down on my tray and I took a look at the steak. Gross. It was completely green, just like the creatures.

“Ma’am, what is this?” I asked.

“Are you blind? What the hell does this look like?” she said.

“A steak.”

“Good.”

I found a table, but everybody sitting there started

shouting.

“Hey! You’re not welcome here!” one of the creatures said.

“Get your ass moving!” another said.

“Don’t be a piss-off! Move!” the person next to him screamed.

“Fine I’ll move! You guys seem like bitches!” I yelled, scrambling away.

Wait, did I say what I think I said? I can’t let these creature’s cultures influence me. If mom were here, she would be upset and lecture me for about five hours.

But I ignored it and went to another table. Everyone there shouted at me to “get your ass somewhere else” like the previous table. I went around the whole cafeteria, but found nowhere to sit, as I was rejected by all the tables.

The loudspeaker blared, making me jump back.

“Lunch is over in thirty seconds! If you ain’t at your station by then, you know what happens!” the King said.

Was that thirty minutes already? I literally spent all of lunchtime finding a table? That’s stupid! Enraged, I shoved down all my food, and threw the tray at one of the lunch ladies.

She didn’t mind, as if what I just did was normal. I was glad she didn’t mind. I don’t know why I even threw it at her. I touched the ceiling to go to the top floor, and the cafeteria dissolved. ~~~ When I finally settled in the main level, I quickly jumped into my seat, just as the bell tolled. I assumed that bell signaled the end of lunch break. I stared at the screen, still not knowing what any of the codes meant. So I started thinking about Iris.

She was so beautiful. I wanted to kiss her, and marry her, and live with her and sleep with her...

Wow. I am getting carried off. Sleep with her? Get real.

She’s never going to like me. I’m too uncool, ugly and weird. Iris is cool, beautiful, and far from normal. But I still wanted to marry her. She has this thing about her, but I just don’t know what.

Wait. Where is Iris?

As if in answer, she walked up and patted my shoulders, sending a tingling feeling in me.

“Hey Jet, how are you doing?” she asked.

“Good, now that you’re here.” I replied. She glanced at me, but I quickly continued, “Because I just can’t figure out what any of this means.”

“You have this station?” she said. She lifted an eyebrow.

“Yes.” “Wow, you are so unlucky. I feel bad for you. This is the worst station you can get.”

“Well, I need to go now.” she said.

“Nice talking to you,” I replied.

I nodded, and looked back at the screen. But I saw the codes differently this time. I could understand the codes as if reading a book made for a preschooler. I read the codes, and everything seemed fine. Until I got to the bottom activation code. I tried to call for Iris to come back, but she was already gone.

I called her disk. No reply. This was bad. Desperate, I retyped the code as if I had been doing this for years. But the machine shut off as I was typing. I thought about Iris and how I wouldn’t be able to kiss her now. I started crying and slamming the machine, as if that could make the machine turned on again. After five minutes of this, I pressed my palms against the machine, giving up. Suddenly energy surged through me and the machine buzzed. I looked up, and saw the screen flash on. I jumped back in joy, but remembered Iris. I retyped every code the same sequence as before, except for the last one, which I retyped like I tried to do earlier.

I entered all the codes, and many creatures, including Iris appeared in the middle of the main floor. They looked around for the level changer operator, and their gaze fell on me.

They ran over and threw me up in the air.

“Our savior! Our savior!” they shouted. I felt proud. With the brain of a child, I was still able to put engineering skills into use and save these creatures. Iris came up to me, and I felt something coming. She put her arms around me, and looked into my eyes. She parted her lips, closed her eyes, and came

closer. I did the same. Our lips brushed, repeatedly and repeatedly. As we kissed, she led me to a more private place. It was her room. She threw me into her bed, and we held each other, still kissing. All the things I said would never happen were coming true. I didn’t want to stop. It was the best feeling ever.

She never did stop kissing me until nighttime. As we opened our eyes and stared at each other, we both knew there was something new between us. More than just friendship. It was love, something I didn’t expect so suddenly.

Finally, she pulled blankets over us. “I love you. You saved my life,” she said.

Iris closed her eyes. I kissed her again, and she kissed back, as if expecting it. We stayed like this, hugging and kissing, as we fell asleep.

~Eight~ I woke up, but Iris was already gone. I jumped out of the bed, grabbing a piece of gum in my pocket to freshen my breath. I exited the door, out to the main level. The ugly soldier was waiting for me.

“How long did I say a shift was, boy?” he asked.

Reality hit me like a bullet to my chest. “Thirty hours.” I said.

“And did you serve thirty hours?” he pressed.

“No.” “Boy, I know what love is like. I know that you and Iris were enjoying it back there. So I’ll excuse you. But next time, you get a suspension.”

Relieved, I sighed. He’s nicer than I thought. But I put a serious look on my face and said, “I understand, sir.”

“Good.”

I started to walk away, but the creature spoke again.

“I have considered your ability to save these people yesterday. I want to put you in station 1-0 now,” he said, pointing to a machine next to Iris’s room.”

“Okay sir. I will get started right away.”

I turned to walk away again, and sat down. This station had a different layout than the other. There was a big machine

that looked like a cannon, with a cage attached to the back of it.

The front of the cannon came out of the building and was pointed at the sky. and next to the machine laid a capsule filled with fumes. The station consisted of me, an army guy and Iris.

She looked at me, smiled, and looked back to the creature.

“You another newcomer?” he asked.

“Yes.” “I was waiting for you so I could tell you and your girlfriend about something crucial that we do at this station,” he said with a wink. Iris looked at me again and smiled. I smiled back.

“What is it?” I asked.

“It’s called D.I.E.,” he said. “D.I.E. stands for Death In Everyone. It’s a disease that we launch to surrounding planets, as scientists and prophets predicted that these planet’s pollution would spread gasses that would kill us. So we launched D.I.E. and killed them before they could kill us. D.I.E. does this by spreading acidic fumes that when people breath in, they are instantly killed.”

I took it in, by realization struck me like a lightning bolt.

These were the guys responsible for killing my friends and my mom. Angry, I clenched my fists, wanting to punch him, but let go instantly, as I remembered that he might wonder why I’m angry. Apparently Iris reacted the same way. Except that her anger was more obvious.

“What is it, girl?” he asked Iris.

Iris suddenly came out of her trance, and took my hand.

“Can I talk to Jet for a second?” she asked the creature.

He looked at his watch, and thought for a while.

“Ten minutes,” he said.

“Great!” she shouted, and dragged me to her room.

Once inside, she closed the door and locked it. We both tried to talk at the same time, but then Iris pressed her lips to mine to silence me.

“I’ll talk first, okay?” she said.

“Go ahead.” I replied.

“I was in my yard, dancing around the yard. My mom kept telling me to come inside, as it was getting dark. But as my

mom said that, she stopped in mid sentence and I heard a thump. I ran over to my house to check if everything was okay.

When I got over there, my mom was on the ground. I felt my mom’s pulse, and she was dead. I survived by using the food in the grocery stores, but one day, I saw a object in a bush. It pulled me in and I ended up right next to the King. Now you can talk.”

“The same thing happened to me, except my mom and I were sitting down at the dinner table, and she fell out of her seat. When I felt her pulse, she was dead. I too, survived on what the grocery store had, and as I was jogging, I saw something in a bush, just like you. It pulled me in, too, and I too ended up next to the King. I think this is caused by this disease.”

“Me too,” Iris said. “I say we stop these people before anyone else dies. It’s not right, committing genocide just to have your own race live.”

“I’m not so sure. What if we fail?”

Iris hugged me, and said, “Don’t worry about it. We make a perfect team.”

“Okay. I might have something to show you something that might help us.” I pulled out the poem.

“I can’t make any sense of it,” she said.

“I can. Iris, you’re my inspiration. You’re where I get my energy and happiness. Like a sun,” I said.

“You really think about me like that?”

“Yes.” She kissed me, and said, “You’re just adorable. I love you too.”

This time I smiled. But I continued.

“With the sun’s might, which is you, I will be led to prosperity, which you gave me with happiness and love, so I am prospering with these. Happiness and your love has given me peace, but I still need to protect it from these creatures, which are the sins. If I fail, my peace will be taken away.”

“I want to be with you, Jet. I won’t let these creatures take me away from you. I want to help you in any way I can.”

“Okay. Let’s go back before the army guy get mad at us.”

“I agree.”

We both stood up and went back into the main level.

~Nine~ The creature who was in charge of our station spotted us.

“Ah, about time. Right now, what we’re doing at this station is investigating planet X-5. We have gathered up evidence of heavy pollution, and that planet must be wiped out at once. We have very strict rules on how to release this. If this hits the wrong planet, you will be arrested before you can even say ‘planet’. All you have to do is slide this capsule into this cage over here. To aim, you don’t even have to push the machine. What you do is connect your disk to the machine, and you will see options of which planet to aim it at. Tap on X-5, and you will be okay. Got it?” he said.

“Yes, we do,” Iris and I said in unison.

“Get to work,” the creature replied. Worried, as if we might not do it right, the creature walked away, watching us.

I looked over at Iris. “What should we do? I just can’t bring myself to do this,” I asked.

“Shh, the guy’s still looking at us. Just pretend you don’t know what to do,” Iris hissed.

So I faked a confused expression on my face, and pulled out my disk. Without turning in on, I tapped the screen multiple times, and then I casually dropped my disk to the ground, breaking it to a million little shards. I had to try really hard to keep myself from laughing.

“Oops,” I said. I tried to say it in a scared way, but ended up almost as I was laughing.

As the army guy came over, I truly got scared. But with a look of forgiveness on his face, I knew that he thought it was an accident.

“You’re welcome to use my disk. Let me just connect it.

Afterwards, I will notify the King that you need a new one,” he said.

He gave me his disk, and I saw a list of planets. I knew which one to click on. But I acted like I didn’t. I was about to

click on planet A-1, but the army person slapped my hand away.

“No, it’s planet X-5 you need to click on,” he said impatiently. He snatched the disk from me, and scrolled down the list until he saw the phrase. “PT X-5”. He said, “Click on this.”

I hesitated. I couldn’t do this. I was genocide. It was heartless. My finger hesitated above the button, and the army guy gazed at me suspiciously. I looked over at Iris. She mouthed, “I don’t you have any choice. I’m afraid you’re going to have to do this.”

My shoulders slumped. But I knew that she was right. So I clicked the button. The machine fired up, but nothing happened.

“That’s strange,” the army guy said. He walked over to the machine, and exclaimed, “Oh! Guys, you forgot to put the capsule in the cage. Oh well. We’ll have to do this tomorrow.

You guys may do whatever you want.”

Iris and I walked back into her room, and we shut the door behind us.

“We can’t let them do this anymore,” I said.

“I know, I know. I’m thinking,” she said.

“Wait. My mom said I had powers. Maybe that could help,” I replied.

“But how?”

“Well, so far I found out that I can crack engineering codes, and run fast.”

We sat there thinking, but the King suddenly opened the door to Iris’s room. He threw in a box, which probably contained my new disk. I opened it and it did. Except it contained two. A idea hit me once I saw the second disk.

“I have an idea,” I told Iris.

~Ten~ It was nighttime. None of the army leaders were around, which was good. I picked up the capsule, and using the modifications I put on the extra disk, I morphed it into a capsule look-alike. I studied it, satisfied with my work.

“Who knew engineering could be so useful?” I said to myself, walking back to Iris’s room. ~~~ I woke up, and rubbed my eyes. I was still very tired but I had to get to my shift. I woke Iris, went into the bathroom to shower and change out of my pajamas and into other clothes, and dashed out of her room.

I turned to the machine. Good. The army guys was there.

I took out my third disk, and connected it to the machine. I picked up the fake capsule and put it in the cage. When the army person wasn’t looking, I also put the real capsule in. I tapped on planet X-5, and the machine fire up, like yesterday.

Then there was a clogging sound in the machine, and it fired both items weakly. Exactly what I wanted. Proud, I stood up and walked to the cafeteria.

At the cafeteria, I saw Iris.

“Hi,” she said. She saw my happy face. “You executed the plan, right? What was it anyway?”

“You know when I got the extra phone?”

“Yes.” “I modified that to make it able to take the form of other things. So I made it take the form of the capsule. Except it was slightly larger than a regular capsule, but not so big that it will go through eventually. So just now, I put the fake capsule into the machine, and the real one behind it. When I released it, the fake one clogged the machine, just like I wanted to. This slowed down the acceleration of real capsule, and by now, it’s coming right back down on the planet.”

Iris kissed me. “You’re a genius!” she yelled.

Just as she said that, everyone in the cafeteria fell to the ground. They were all dead.

“Now, time for the next part.”

I grabbed Iris’s hand and used my disk to teleport us out of the building. ~~~

It was chaos outside. Everyone was dead, and flying vehicles were crashing other vehicles and falling down, as no one was controlling them.

“Let me try something,” I told Iris.

I went underneath a dropping vehicle, wanting to see if my superpowers included super strength. As the vehicle got closer to my head, I started to worry. What if I didn’t have super strength? Surely I would die if I didn’t catch it.

But I did.

The vehicle felt like a feather in my hands.

“Jump on!” I yelled at Iris.

Just as Iris got settled in, I started the vehicle, and we sped off.

“Where are you going?” Iris asked.

“To the space station. I read online that astronomers were building a spaceship. We’re going to use it to get off this planet.”

At the space station parking lot, we didn’t even bother to turn the vehicle off, and instead we jumped off, dashing over to the space station. When we were in there, we searched every room. But found no space ship. Depressed, we went out the back door, and the spaceship was there. It was first class. We were about to board it, when the vehicle we were riding crashed right into the spaceship with an explosion.

“Ah shit!” I yelled. This was worth swearing about.

“Tsk, tsk,” a voice said behind us. Iris and I turned. It was the King.

“How are you alive?” I yelled. “That’s impossible!”

“Do you know why I’m King?”

“Why?” “I’m immune to it. Just like you and your little girlfriend here.”

“But how?”

“Son, there is a legend. It said that a ‘heartless’ curse would be released on day. But one person on each planet was immune. That is you, Iris, and me, boy. The whole reason why you’re on this planet was because I planned to kill you, as you were destined to stop me. The whole reason I was nice to you

in the bathroom was so you would trust me. But that didn’t work, apparently. So now, I’ll do this the hard way. If you want to escape, you’ll have to get past me.”

The King threw out his fist, pounding me in the face.

“Jet!” Iris screamed.

I got up, just to get kicked in my privates. I fell down again, clutching it. Angry, I got up again and without realizing it, I had two of the King’s spikes, one in each hand. The King screamed in agony, with his hands covering the place there I pulled his spikes. I jabbed one of them into his head. He screamed louder. Then the other spike went into this heart, and the King fell, lifeless.

I stood above the King, not able to believe that I killed somebody face to face. But I remembered that I had to get out of here.

“What are we supposed to do without the spaceship?” I asked Iris.

Iris wasn’t listening to me. She was looking through the King’s items. She pulled out his disk, and gasped.

“What is it?” I asked.

“It’s an interplanetary transportation device!”

“What!”

“Jet, grab on to my hand.”

I took Iris’s hand, and Iris pressed a button. The scenery changed around me as I fell into blackness.

~Epilogue~ Iris and I opened our eyes. I looked around. There was green grass, people dancing around, and a bright sky.

“Where are we?” I asked Iris.

“My friend’s house. Hurry up!” she replied.

Iris grabbed my hand, and we ran over to a big mansion at the end of the road. It was amazing. It was a pure white color, with bright windows, and abstract designs.

Iris knocked on the front door. A young lady came to the door, and her face filled with excitement.

“Why hello, Iris! Who is this fellow!”

“This is my boyfriend, Jet!” she said. Then she turned to me. “Jet, this is my friend, Mary.”

I shook her hand.

“Hello there,” I said.

“Aw, you’re such a nice man! Come inside, and I’d like to know how you got here!”

“Well, it’s a long story,” I said.

I realized that the last part of the poem was fulfilled. I protected my peace, and that protected all the victims of the curse, and now Iris gave me a place to live.

I was going to be able to relax now.