5 Publicity and Sales

Waking up, I sat up into a normal position. I was confused for a second, wondering where I was, but then I recognized that I had been laying on the living room couch, my cute little sister Amelia snuggled up in my arms.

I take a moment to gaze at her sleeping face and then say in a soft voice,"Amy, it's time to wake up."

She groans, shifting around, mumbling what sounds like,"Just five more minutes."

Ignoring her, I pull her up, forcing her awake. I glance at the digital clock on the wall before saying,"It's already 9:30. We've slept in long enough. Get up, take a shower, and get properly dressed. I'll make some breakfast. If you aren't out of the shower when I am done, you better be prepared to be showering with me."

"I wouldn't mind that," Amy mischievously says, dodging the slap that she knew was coming. I hear her running up the stairs, laughing hysterically. Shaking my head at her antics, I go over to the kitchen to cook something up.

I take my time making breakfast today. Instead of some cold cereal and milk, I think I'm going to make some bacon and eggs. I was a decent cook before the apocalypse happened, and I was confident that my skills hadn't diminished much.

Whipping up some bacon and eggs, I make two plates, putting mine in the warming drawer and leaving the second out for Amy.

Heading up the stairs, Amy rushes past, yelling on her way down,"Too slow!"

Shaking my head a second time, I take a short shower and put on some casual clothing.

Coming down, Amy is almost finished with her meal. While grabbing mine from the warming drawer to eat, I turn the television to the morning news.

"...your latest weather. Back to you Scott."

"Thanks Diana, now with today's news. Scientists say that panda populations are dro..."

Tuning out the news from my mind, I ponder over what my next steps are going to be. I'm thinking that I could introduce another product onto my website after a week. There is a certain thing that I have had my eye on that is really futuristic looking and something that nobody else can offer.

What I was thinking about is the Pet AI. It is a robot pet that can move and function like a normal, living animal, but you can command it to do things and tricks, like to clean something up, to make you a cup of coffee, or to just play fetch.

I'm thinking of just introducing the gerbil at first, and then moving up to cats and dogs. The gerbil itself only costs 100 Credits, and I can easily sell it for $2000.

I am interrupted in the middle of my brainstorming by Amy jabbing me with her elbow.

"Hey, stop poking me." I scold her in a exasperated tone.

In an excited voice, Amy responds,"Never mind that, just look at what's on the news!"

Turning my attention to the television, I see what looks like the ending of a video taken from a cell phone.

"Damn, you missed it. Let me rewind." Amy presses the rewind button, starting at the beginning of the video.

Watching it from the beginning, I stare in shock. 'That's my delivery drone! What's it doing on the news?!'

The video shows a massive, truck sized drone which had just landed before the recording started. The voices of the people talking offscreen are clearly shocked, but it somewhat explains where the drone comes from.

The person approaches the drone, fills out the information on the touch panel, and takes the package, which is the vacuum that I sold, back into the house.

The last thing that people can see is the drone powerfully lifting off, creating a downdraft that could rip all the leaves off a tree if at point blank range.

The video comes to a close and the anchorman says,"Well isn't that something. According to our sources, this machines is a delivery drone for Highlander Electronic Appliances, which is a newly created company based in Long Beach, California. We don't have any other details on who designed it or who owns the company yet, but we are hoping to know shortly."

Amy sighs, rewinding and watching the video again,"It would be so awesome if I had one of those. Just imagine all the things I could do."

'I never expected my drones to become famous so fast,' I thought in wonder,'but this kind of publicity will definitely increase my sales.

Smiling to myself, I also thought of something else.'I wonder what Amy's reaction would be if I showed her that I was the one who owned the drones.'

Going through with my idea, I tell her,"Amy, I'm going to take us somewhere to show you something cool. Want to come?"

"Yes, of course. Why wouldn't I want to come?" Hearing her words of agreement, I take her out to the car and drive towards the warehouse.

----------------------------------------------

"I can't believe that you are the one who owns the drones! SO AWESOME!!! I never knew that I had such a cool sister!"

After showing her the warehouse with all of my purchases, we headed back home.

"Can I please try one out? Pretty please? I swear I use it responsibly."

"No, you can't fly one now. Maybe in the future, when I can trust you not to do anything that will get me in trouble."

I rethought my idea of showing her the drones while listening to her plead and beg all the way home.

Having enough, I turn to her,"I won't let you fly it if you keep asking me to. I promise that in a year, if you behave yourself, that you can fly it." Knowing that the apocalypse was going to happen within that time, I wasn't too worried about repercussions from her doing something with it then.

She didn't agree until I told her that if she did, and if she behaved for at least two weeks, I would give her something really cool to play with.

After that, she happily sat silent the rest of the way back.

-----------------------------------------------

The following day, I had many things I had to do. The number of order forms that had piled up had reached the hundreds, but I don't think that most of them were just to get the vacuum. I had a feeling that there were some really rich people out there that just wanted to see my drones.

Seeing the immense amount of order forms, I realized that I had to increase my transportation ability. Using the last of my money, I only had enough, at this moment, for three more drones. Purchasing the materials, I printed them out and set them to delivering the orders.

'I wonder when people find out that I own Highlander Electronic Appliances? What will happen then?' While pondering over these questions, and various other things, I decided to do some exercising to keep my body in shape and to release some of my pent up energy.

Slipping into some yoga pants and a sports bra, I went to the small workout room, if you could call it that, and onto the treadmill. The treadmill was an old, outdated model which would sometimes make weird noises.

'I really need to replace so many things around the house' Thinking of the many things that were outdated and run down throughout the house, I was hit by a sudden inspiration.

'I hope this works.'

I take the treadmill into my inventory. Selecting the treadmill, I see many options pop up, but I am searching for just one.

"Print, Take Out, Description..." I mumble out the options as I scroll down,"Yes! Here it is! <Sell>."

Hitting <Sell> without hesitation, a notice board pops up.

Selling the treadmill for 900 credits? That was 90% of the original price. I had assumed that it would be at around 50%, this is so much better.

Glancing around, I take all of the workout tools into my inventory, selling them all, including the treadmill, for 2500 credits. I had no clue that my parents had spent so much on working out.

Going through the user store, I buy a treadmill and other workout instruments,'Really,' I consider, 'the user store has everything.' I think this while looking through it, finding a whole section for potatoes.

Getting back to exercising, I continue running, quickly working up a sweat.

I stop after releasing my energy for 3 hours, completely exhausted. 'I need to increase my stamina. After surviving in the wastelands for 10 years, I would have to have run for 2 hours before even getting sweaty.

Mentally making a schedule for working out in my mind, I check to see how the deliveries are going.

Seeing as seven orders have been finished, earning me $7700, I buy the materials for another drone, sending it off to fulfill orders. I then use the rest of the money to buy more vacuums.

Now that I have that finished, I get myself busy selling all of the old and worn down things around the house and replacing them with ones bought from the user store. I note, a second time, that the prices for things in the user store are much lower than they should be.

When I finish replacing everything, I have ended up gaining 500 credits and the house looks so much better, with sleek, advanced looked appliances everywhere.

I'm shocked when seeing the time,'7:00 already? I better hurry and make some dinner.'

Making dinner with all the new things was so much easier, and the quality of my food was even a little better. By the time that Amy came home from who knows where, I had just finished cooking a simple meal of baked potatoes and some vegetables.

"Wow, the house looks so different! Where did you get all of these new things?" Seeing as many things around the house were different, Amy asks, looking at me for an answer.

"That's my little secret for now, you just go and eat dinner." I ignore her question and sit down to eat.

After cleaning the dishes, I head upstairs and take a long, hot shower. After drying off, I put on some pajamas and hop right into bed.

That night, I dreamed many happy dreams.

Next chapter