PART ONE- Ch. 2

He was now wearing a white tank top, and grey shorts. He had blue goggles on.

“ Ah it’s you kid. Is this your friend?” He asked, jabbing a thumb at my companion.

“ Y-yeah.” I gestured to Tisha. She waved.

“ Hello! Emund right? Ceena told me about your little skirmish at the factory near our school. I wanted to check what’s goin’ on!”

“ Tisha!” I exclaimed.

“ What? Isn’t that what’s going on?” She responded back.

“ I mean I guess but-”

“ Look. You shouldn’t of told anyone.” Emund said. He inhaled and looked at Tisha. “ But. Now that ya did… you two know each other well?”

“ Yup! This girl is great!” She put her arm around me. I might’ve blushed a bit.

“ Mhm.” I muttered. Emund crossed his arms.

“ Right. Well ya seem like it. Tisha was it? Can you keep a secret?”

“ Sure! What kinda secret?” She asked.

“ What did the kid tell you?”

“ Uh. About the company and the factory. And she doesn’t trust you.” Tisha told him. I felt like shrinking into the nearby bushes. Emund raised an eyebrow.

“ Not trust? I guess that makes sense. I wouldn’t seem very friendly would I?” He sighed and dropped his arms. “ But listen kids. I am not a bad guy. I know at your age you hear all about how not to trust strangers.”

“ Mhm.” Said Tisha.

“ But again. I need your help! I’m in this alone. I managed to escape them and not get hunted down. But they are out there, getting stronger. Whenever Plasamic finds a person who knows their plans but aren’t working for them… bad. So I asked you to come here so I can finally stop them.” He looked worried and guilty again, like he had back at the factory.

“ And so you need two kids to help you?” Tisha asked, putting a hand to her hip. Emund sighed.

“ Yes. I’ve already thought about this. If ya don’t wanna get hurt, then you need to come inside.”

“ And you’re sure this isn’t a rape?”

“ Unless rape consists of training with highly dangerous and high tech weaponry to stop a company.” I snickered at this. Tisha dropped her arm.

“ Alright. Show us what’cha got.” Emund let us into his house.

It was even smaller on the inside. Going down the corridor: On the left was the kitchen, white tiled. On the right was a single bathroom. Past that, a living room. A medium size TV screen laid on a brown shelf. A red couch laid on a green and red rug. A door behind the rug seemed to lead to a bedroom, and next to that was what I guessed was the garage door. Large sliding glass doors led to the backyard, which was the biggest part of the whole place. A wide stretch of grass, set up like a shooting range. With targets, and firing stations. A little covered patio with a table and four seats around it laid down some guns.

“ How the heck do you live like this?” Tisha asked. She inspected the living room television. “ This is way too small!” Emund came over to her.

“ Small? I don’t need anything larger than that! Unlike you kids I can appreciate simple things without much internet usage.”

“ Whadda mean? I can appreciate simple things!”

“ Like what?” Emund asked. Tisha pointed at the shelf below the screen.

“ This is a nice brown for example. It looks glossy. Do you clean it often?”

“ I do. I like things clean. And that isn’t what I was talking about.”

“ Well you know what that’s whatever!” She gestured to the backyard. “ Is that the reason we are here?” Emund looked where she was pointing.

“ Pretty much. Before that, are ya kids hungry?”

“ No. I just ate.” I said.

“ Yeah, together. We ate together. Why do you keep calling us kids?” Tisha asked.

“ Because you are kids.” Emund opened the door to the back. The warm air sweeped into the building. “ Also uh, just leave your stuff by the front. You can keep y’all’s shoes if you want.” He walked out and waited for us. Tisha put her bag down by the door. She faced me.

“ Why are you just standing here? This’ll be cool!”

“ I guess so. Isn’t this illegal and dangerous?” I said.

“ We aren’t doing this again.” She pulled me into the backyard. I just sorta slipped off my pack.

When we got there, Emund was setting up three of the five stations. He waved us over to one.

“ Alright girls look.” He picked up the weapon. It was a pistol, like the one I’d used at the factory. “ We’ll start simple. This is a basic firearm from Plasamic. Think of it as a pistol like you’ve seen. Just hold the handle with two hands, and aim and fire.” He did just that. He shot at the target across the way, blasting a hole clean through the wood. It smoked blue.

“ Jesus!” Tisha exclaimed. “ And you just go around, blasting up your stuff?” Emund set down the pistol and smiled.

“ Yup. But I got plenty of these target things. About three hundred in the garage. Which I can get to from my room.”

“ Why in your room?” I asked.

“ I dunno. Just the way house is I guess. Now then, who wants to try?” He offered it to us. I just stared at it. Tisha grabbed it out of his hand.

“ Me! I’ll go first since she’s too scared.”

“ I am not scared!” I protested.

“ Oh sure you aren’t. Don’t worry. I’ve got this!” She aimed the gun at the target. Her right eye closed, her face concentrated. She fired, the bullet hitting the rim of the target. “ What? Come on!” She complained. I laughed.

“ Seems like you have to try harder, Crucible Queen.”

“ Hey! Dontchu start making fun of my Destiny skills! You try it.” She put it in my hands. I took it. I remembered when I had shot and missed at the factory. I guess now was the time to practice. I raised it up, focusing on the red and white target. I fired, completely missing. The bullet hit the fence. Thankfully it was made of metal so it didn’t dent too much.

“ Alright. You two need to keep at it.” Emund advised. “ Get a grip on using the basics first.”

“ Well when can we use the bigger stuff?” Tisha pointed to the larger rifles sitting on the other stations. “ Those look cool.”

“ Once you actually learn how to use this first. Or else there is no way you’ll be able to use those.” Emund brought over another pistol. He gave it to Tisha. “ Get going.”

“ Wait what are you gonna do?” I asked him.

“ Watch you.” He laid down on one of the seats, hands behind his head.

“ No tips?”

“ Just treat it like a normal pistol. It’s not hard, just get used to the aiming.” And he watched us. “ And before you ask. Those things are gonna do more damage to the targets with a low charge than it would to a human because of the way the plasma is made.”

“ Are there different kinds?” Tisha asked.

“ Yeah. The ones I have/stole, are ones that aren’t gonna kill on low charge but will with a high charge for skin and flesh.”

“ And that works how exactly?”

“ Stuff with the intensity of the plasma fused with the metal, don’t worry about it. Just go, practice.”

Me and Tisha spent a good hour practicing. I know since I checked on my phone. The first few times I didn’t get how I was supposed to hit the middle. Tisha got it faster than me. She messed up the target after her fifth try. So Emund had to replace it. Lucky her. I keep going unto my sixteenth time of missing completely before I started to hit it. Finally however, we managed to fluidly shoot up the target. Once we did, Emund clapped.

“ Ok! Good! Now, you ready for bigger guns?”

“ Heck yes! Which ones?” Tisha asked eagerly.

“ These.” Emund walked over to the station farthest to the left. Where two rifles sat. They were the about the size of a normal army assault rifle. “ So with this. You’re gonna want to hold it by the handle and the leather here, in the front. Also don’t worry about running out of bullets. Like you saw with the pistols, infinite ammo.” My friend took hold of one, weighing it.

“ Not bad. It’s heavier. Good thing I’m strong.” I held my weapon. It took me a second to get used to the added weight of it.

“ Are these automatic?” I asked our trainer.

“ Yeah. The other ones aren’t.”

“ Can we handle full auto?”

“ Probably. Just keep in mind to pull the gun down when you do fire. It tends to jump.” Tisha aimed.

“ Alright. Shouldn’t be too bad.” Then she fired. The gun’s barrel flung upwards, spraying bullets into the sky. She yelped and dropped it. “ Nevermind! God dang dude.” I faced Emund.

“ Will that alert other people?”

“ Naw. They don’t make much sound. Ya noticed?” Now that I thought about it, I did. These energy guns didn’t make the big bang that most military guns do. That helps I guess. I aimed my rifle, ready to hold it downwards. I fired off, pulling the barrel down as it shot upward. I managed to hit the target a few times.

“ Hey. I did something.” I said.

“ Mhm. Keep going.” Emund sat back down.

“ Thanks for being here with us.” Tisha exclaimed, and retried. This went down similar to the last time. We spent over an hour trying to consistently get shots to connect. Tisha got it after about ten times and me after twelve. I was getting better! By the time we were done the sky was turning darker. I realized I should’ve texted my parents.

“ Can you guys give me a minute?” I went back inside the house and texted.

“ HI mom, dad. I should've told u i was at my friends house today. Sorry for not saying anything sooner.” I sent them. Thankfully they let me stay the night, since it was friday. I felt bad lying to them, I mean I was with a friend. But still. I turned around just as Emund came in.

“ Hey so what time do you kids go to sleep normally?” He asked. I raised an eyebrow.

“ Sleep? Why?”

“ Well.” He checked his phone. “ It is currently 9:30pm. And I need your help with another factory tonight.” This surprised me.

“ Wait you want us to go with you to another location where they are manufacturing weapons this same night?”

“ Yup. Reason being: If it’s night time, then there won’t be as much resistance above ground. And maybe even underground. Who knows.” I shook my head in shock.

“ Hold up! Underground? Where the heck are we going?”

“ It’s a construction site. I told you Plasamic likes to do things while under cover. They won’t just open a building like this out in the street where the government can easily find them. I know where it is. Now we just gotta blow it to hell.”

“ More bombs?”

“ Yup. I know it’s extreme but I have to make sure their stuff is ruined permanently.”

“ And what about the explosion you caused near my school? That could have killed innocents walking by!” I said, a little loud.

“ Hey, calm down. Again, it was at a time when not that many people were around. And like I have been saying to you, this is serious! I cannot let them have this stuff. If a couple of randoms are hurt, then so be it. I don’t want this. But Plasamic can’t keep going either. I ain’t a goddamn maniac alright? So please. Calm down. When do ya kids sleep?” He sighed and looked at me. I was still unsatisfied with the way he dealt with the factory near my school, but I let it slide.

“ I normally sleep at around ten.”

“ Oh bull manure. I’ve been to your house over night. You do not go to bed at that time!” Tisha came inside, holding a rifle still. “ And plus, you’ve even admitted staying up later.”

“ Thanks, but I wasn’t lying.” I said sarcastically.

“ Well, y’all oughta go now. Since we are leaving in three hours for the construction site.” Emund told us.

“ Construction site??!” Tisha exclaimed. Emund told her what he had just told me. She looked intrigued.

“ Alright. So we bust into this site at night and do what exactly?”

“ The exact room was built into the ground. I surveyed the area before. There is a big drilled hole that they built it into. If we sneak down it and get into the room we can set off another bomb and get rid of it.”

“ What is with you and blowing stuff up?” Tisha asked. Emund shrugged.

“ It’s not like I enjoy doing it. I just feel like it is a sure way of putting each factory out of commission. So that, you know, nothing is retrieved from it.”

“ And you are serious about us sleeping over here with you?” Tisha asked.

“ Yes! I hope you can trust me enough to stay here for a few hours and then continue to help me!”

“ Ooooh. I dunno. Trusting is a hard thing to do.”

“ Agh. Please? I’ve gone through the trouble of showing you girls how these damn weapons work. Can’t you at least show me you know how to use them in a real fight?”

“ Hmm. A real fight. Like a shooter game?”

“ Yes! Sure, like that.” I realized what he was doing. Tapping into Tisha’s love for FPS games. And using that to persuade her into trying out a real gun fight.

“ Tisha.” I put in. “ This isn’t a game. You need to understand that.”

“ I get that. But these guns are seriously pretty cool. And I wanna try them out. When exactly?”

“ I already said in three hours.” Emund repeated. “ I’m suggesting you two get some rest. Unless you want to be tired on our trip there.”

“ How far is it from here?” I asked.

“ Oh. Let’s see.” Emund pulled out his phone, checking Google maps. “ Not too far. A few miles. It’ll be easy though. Since it’s late at night there should little to no one on the roads.” At this point, I was conflicted. On one hand, this was really stupid. There was a good chance something could happen to us while we slept in this man’s house. On the other, I would feel guilty if I didn’t do anything to stop Plasamic. I mean I did come all the way over here, so I must be into this thing now. I sighed.

“ Alright. I guess we can do it. What do you think Tisha?” My friend smiled.

“ Yeah! Sounds fun. What kinda guns do we get to use?” Emund put his arms to his hips.

“ Heh! I’ll figure that out. You two just head into the guest room.”

“ There’s a guest room?” I asked. I hadn’t seen one earlier. Emund pointed to a door adjacent to his bedroom door.

“ That one. I don’t ever use it, since I live alone. There’s only one bed. So either y’all sleep together or on the floor or somethin’.” Tisha walked over and opened the door. Inside were plain white walls, and a gray rugged floor. A single bed, a night stand, and a window were inside.

“ Ok, I can sleep on the floor.” Tisha decided.

“ Wait. You don’t have to.” I told her. She waved away my offer.

“ Naw it’s all good. You seem more stressed about this. So I’ll let you have it. Is that fine?”

“ Uh… sure. Thanks.”

“ Uh huh. You got a sleeping bag E-dude?” She asked.

“ Hey don’t say that to me! I’m the elder here. And yeah I have one. Hold on.” He went into his garage, and came back out about two minutes later. He was holding a wrapped up, dark blue sleeping bag. “ Here.” He tossed it to her. Tisha caught it.

“ I dunno about the elder. But thanks.” She went into the guest room, spreading out her bag and plopping down on it. “ Hmm, not bad. Ceena, come on in! There’s no pedophiles in here.”

“ Oh really? Not funny.” I said, laughing. I laid down on the bed, under the sheets. It was fairly comfy. I had the window right next to me.

“ Those blue sheets work for you?” Emund asked.

“ Yeah, sure.” I replied. They were enough for what it was.

“ Ok good. Well, goodnight, I guess. Well, more like see you in a little bit. You get it.” Emund closed the door.

I think Tisha said something to me. But I didn’t catch it, because I fell asleep almost immediately. I was more tired than I thought I guess. This time I had another odd dream. I was standing in some brown, boarded building. I could see leaves out a window. There were some crates scattered around, and a computer to my left. In front of me was a boy, about my age. He was looking at me in shock.

“ Why are you here?” He asked me. At first I was confused. What was happening? I studied the face of the boy, trying to give it a name. Then it hit me.

“ S-Spaik!?” I asked. I didn’t know what to think. This was just a dream, so maybe it was a flashback. But we never had come to a place like this before, and it wouldn’t explain why he was so surprised. I tried talking some more, but the dream ended. I woke up feeling kinda awkward.

That is, besides my dream, it was still late at night when I woke. Which I am not used to at all. I looked out my window. The sky was still pitch black. I checked my phone. It was 12:50am. Jesus, I wasn’t sure my parents would be ok with me staying up this late. But then again, my parents wouldn’t be very happy with anything I’m doing right now. I leaned over and looked at Tisha. She was still dead asleep on her bag. How had I woken up so fast? Then I heard it. A faint alarm set off in the living room, by Emund probably. The noise was shut off, and the door opened.

“ Alright kids, get up. We don’t wanna waste time doin’ this.” He glanced down at my friend. “ Is she gonna move?”

“ Most likely not. I got this.” I climbed down from my bed and tickled her neck. From my experience with sleeping with her, it seemed to work a good amount of the time. This time it did. Tisha jolted awake.

“ Hey! Stop! What’s going on?”

“ It is time for us to leave.” Emund threw two small packs down next to us. “ Take these. They each contain a pistol, a communicator and a bag of chips.” I looked through my bag.

“ Are these for the mission?” I asked.

“ Yes it is. What else would it be for? Now Ceena, I’ve been thinking, and there’s something you need to know.”

“ W-what is it?”

“ You seem to be hesitant to pull the trigger. While I can appreciate the worry, it can also be a weakness. You need to know when it’s ok to just fire at the enemy.” I flinched.

“ I-I know. But I don’t like shooting people!”

“ I get it! I really do! But like I’ve been saying. You won’t get in trouble for this. Not if you stick with me you won’t. I don’t like it either, understand? I’m just telling you that you need to do this in order to save everyone! Because, like it or not, a few person’s death over thousands is better than the other way around. So please, just try not to give into the hesitation, please?” I could hear the pleading in his voice again. I set my bag down.

“ O-ok. I’ll try.” I muttered. Tisha sat up.

“ I sleep for only three hours and I wake up to drama like this? No. Girl it’ll be fine I’m telling you! We are in this together!” She gave me a reassuring smile. I was glad she was here, I would’ve had a harder time without her.

I got up, slinging the bag around my back.

“ Ok, fine. Let’s go.” Emund nodded.

“ Well now. Seems you two do work for each other. Alright.” Tisha got up and retrieved her bag.

“ Hey, we aren’t romantic or anything. But yeah, we do!”

“ Mhm. Right. Then come on, let’s get in my car.” Emund began for the garage. I saw he had a pack as well.

“ I didn’t know this nerd could even drive.” Tisha said, and left the room. I followed suit into the garage.

Our trainer’s car wasn’t anything special. It was a simple yellow car, with two front and back row seats. It looked kinda classical. He got into the driver’s seat.

“ Let’s go. I know it ain’t anything special.” Me and Tisha filed into the back. The garage door opened and we drove out onto the street. As we went, I saw a family pass by. A mom, dad and a kid. I didn’t know what they were doing out so late. The little boy had on one of those red and yellow propeller hats. The parents were discussing something, but I couldn’t hear what it was. We drove for about ten minutes. The stars above us gleamed, the cold air cutting my skin when I reached out of the car. As usual, the weather was against me. Why did I have to be wearing a T-shirt at the wrong time, again? Anyway, we made it to the construction zone.

It was fairly large. A piece of land sectioned off by green wire fencing. Inside was a field of brown dirt. Bulldozers, mats, drills, movers, pushers, and other equipment laid scattered around. In the middle of it was a big circular hole made by one of the machines.

“ Ok. So back to the plan. Y’all see that hole? We sneak down there, and get into the factory. Got it?” Emund asked.

“ Wait how do we even get down there?” Tisha replied.

“ I’ve been here before. They have a ramp that goes down it. For inspection purposes or something. Regardless, that’s what we are using.” He got out of the car. We did the same. It was really cold this late at night. I wish I had my jacket when I was about to perform illegal actions. Emund walked over to the front gate, which was naturally locked.

“ Ok. Do y’all wanna climb over?”

“ I can!” Tisha exclaimed.

“ I can’t.” I said melancholy. Emund raised an eyebrow.

“ Oh? You can’t huh? I got an idea.” He did something I wasn’t expecting at all. He went over to me, picked me up by the waist, and tossed me over the fence. I broke the silence of the night with my screaming as I flew over and tumbled into the dirt. Luckily the dirt was soft, so it didn’t hurt that much.

“ What the hell was that for???!” I yelled over the fence.

“ SORRY! I had to do something quick! We don’t wanna waste time.” Emund said back. I could hear Tisha laughing so hard. The two of them climbed over no problem and landed back down. Tisha jogged over and helped me up.

“ Mi amiga. Are you good?” She asked. I wiped dirt off of my clothing.

“ Mhm. Emund seriously. WHY?” I asked.

“ Again. We need to do this before anyone sees us. If the public gets involved then that’s not good. Can you forgive me.”

“ Sure. Whatever. Where are we going?”

“ That way.” He pointed. The hole wasn’t too far away. We began to move toward it.

Unfortunately, there were two guards standing in front of the ramp. They each had on black plated armor, and holding rifles. The three of us moved behind a dormant machine.

“ Get out your pistols kids. Now we get serious.” Emund ordered us. Tisha excitedly dug out her weapon.

“ Got it! Is it like the ones we had at your house?”

“ Yes!” He took out a rifle for himself. I got out my pistol.

“ Hey! How come you get a bigger gun?” Tisha asked, disappointed.

“ Because I can use one! Now quiet down! We need to think of a way to get those guards out of the way.” We hid there for a good few seconds.

“ I got something.” Tisha said.

“ What?” I asked.

“ Ok so, you see those large movers over there? I’ll shoot over there, to get their attention. Once they move there, we shoot ‘em!”

“ Eh I dunno.” Emund said.

“ I’m gonna try it.” Tisha aimed her gun, and fired. It hit the front of the mover.

The two men looked at it in alarm.

“ What was that?”

“ Must be intruders!” They rushed over to the mover. I just stared at them. Emund sniped the first guard’s head, He hit the dirt. The other located us.

“ Hey YOU! STOP!” He shouted, and aimed his rifle. Before he could shoot, he was hit in the gut by Tisha’s pistol. He fell over. I looked at the bodies. Before I could reach any kind of negative conclusion, Emund pulled me up right.

“ You ok? Get to the hole quickly! Start going down, I’m gonna cover up the bodies.” He jogged over to the guards. Tisha and I ran over to the hole’s edge. It was a lot bigger up close. A spiraling ramp let downwards. At the bottom was a pool of water, and a tunnel. We descended down. Our feet made deep, hollowed stepping sounds as we walked. Once we got to the bottom, we stepped into the tunnel. It led for a few meters to a metal door. Emund joined with us.

“ Alright. That door should be it.”

“ Why haven’t the workers noticed this?” I asked.

“ Most likely from legal contracts and what not. Disguising themselves as a different company. Who knows what they make others think.” He began for the door. We followed. As we approached it I had to try and make myself stop shaking. I had survived these guys once, I could do it again. Even though I might die. Hopefully not. Or Tisha.

“ As soon as I open the door, run to the nearest hiding spot. I’ll cover y’all. Got that?” Emund asked us. We both nodded. He flung the door open.

Instantly me and my friend bolted. I saw a conveyor belt. I dove behind it, Tisha following suit. I heard gunshots, and men shouting. Emund ducked under next to us.

“ They know we’re here. Get ready!” He exclaimed. Bullets flew over us, hitting the wall.

“ Aw yeah! This will be fun!” Tisha leaned over the conveyor, firing off her pistol. She quickly dropped back down as a bullet almost hit her. “ Ok, that’s hard to hit.”

“ I told you it wasn’t like a game!” I said.

“ I know that! We need a strategy. You have one?”

“ That’d be nice.” Emund said. He shot, I heard someone grunt and hit the floor. I panicked, but I thought. I looked around. The belts had large crates on them. They would be large enough to fit me and Tisha. The control mechanism was situated right next to Emund. An idea formed inside of me.

“ Emund! Hey!” I yelled over the gunfire. He turned to me. “ Me and Tisha are gonna hide inside those creates! Use the lever to move the crates over to them! They won’t expect that!” He looked at me like I was crazy.

“ How is that supposed to work?” He asked.

“ If they see boxes moving, that won’t be interesting to them, since they are usually doing that I’m guessing.” Tisha put in. “ So we can get the surprise attack! We can get in these crates right here so they won’t see us.” Emund looked nervous about this.

“ I guess we don’t have a choice. Go get in. I’ll move ya. You’ll probably get hit.” With those encouraging words, we climbed in. I put the top over my crate. Jeez was it cramped. My arms and legs ached within seconds of me being in there. I pressed against other parts and gadgets that Plasamic owned. I even saw a few guns.

The conveyor belt began to move. I felt my crate rumbled as gunshots blazed past. There were multiple occasions where I thought I was gonna get accidentally hit and killed. Thankfully I wasn’t. I felt the box come to a stop. I didn’t know what we were supposed to do now. We didn’t assign any signal. That was until I heard Tisha jump out of her box.

“ HEY GUYS WHAT UP!?” I heard shuffling and gun fire. The thought that my friend could be shot at that moment was what made me burst out also. It was a scary scene. Two men were on Tisha. Advancing on her, guns raised, two were firing at Emund still, and one was facing me. He aimed to shoot. Arms wobbly I raised my pistol and fired. It hit the guy’s knee. He let out a yell and grabbed his leg. Emund shot his head and he fell over. The other two saw me. I shot one guy’s crotch. He screamed like a woman and gripped his comrades arm. While they were trying to untangle each other, I jumped down off of the conveyor belt. Emund sniped one guard, and I placed my pistol against the other’s chest, blasting a hole in it. They both fell. Tisha was having issues. She was cornered. One guard grabbed her. The other aimed to finish her. I yelled. I bashed the right guard in the back with my pistol. He staggered, dropping Tisha. He turned around, and slapped me, hard. I fell to the ground, my head spinning. Tisha shot the guy’s head and he hit the floor. The final tried to shoot her, but she ducked out of the way. Emund sniped him in the back. He collapsed against the belt.

Emund ran over to me.

“ KID! Are you ok? You’re fine. Come on, get up.” He slowly sat me up. I took a minute to get over the pain in my head as Emund set up his bomb against the crates. “ There we go. You two did a great job. I mean wow. You really hit them! Ceena, that was some hit you gave to that guy’s back.”

“ Are you being sarcastic?” Tisha asked.

“ NO! Really. I’m glad you came. Certainly makes my job easier.” He set the bomb to detonate in five minutes. “ We need to leave now.” I stood up, angry.

“ No. I’m leaving you! I am not going to be apart of this anymore!” I said. They both looked at me.

“ What? Kid?” Emund said, confused.

“ No really! Me and Tisha could’ve died doing this! Tisha was close to dying! I can’t handle this! I won’t risk me and my friend’s life for your stupid cause! I shouldn’t have done this in the first place! It is way too dangerous! If you wanna keep going then be my guest. But I won’t be with you!” I was practically yelling.

“ Ceena.” Tisha said softly. “ This isn’t right. You don’t need to be upset about this! I’m fine! We all are! I get why you’d be mad. But please, it’s not how you think it is! I’m ok!” She tried to give me a reassuring smile. I still wouldn’t take it.

“ No Tisha. How can you act like this? It’s something that can KILL YOU! Are you just too dumb to understand that?” I wasn’t speaking logically anymore, just out of anger. “ Maybe you are.” Tisha looked offended.

“ Hey! Don’t be a jerk just because you’re too worried all the damn time! We were perfectly fine until you randomly jumped at us like this!” She retorted.

“ Yeah? I’m just looking after us! Go with him then, and get yourself killed. I’m leaving.” I turned to head back out the way we had entered. I threw my bag on the ground. “ And keep your trash.”

“ Ceena! Be reasonable!” Emund yelled. I stormed out of the construction site.

I used my phone to find my way back home. I rung the doorbell, and my dad sleepily opened it.

“ Ceena? My god why are you here at this time of night?” He asked.

“ Sorry dad. Things got kinda crazy at my friend’s house. Too much partying, so I came home.” I lied.

“ You kids have way too much fun sometimes. Come in, and get to sleep!” I did try to sleep. Even though I was in my comfy bed, I couldn’t. I just kept thinking about the factory. Was I wrong? Was I acting too aggressively? Should I have stayed with them and continued onward? No. I couldn’t have. I was too scared, to be honest. Seeing my really good friend come so close to harm, and even death… it was too much. Had she stayed? Stayed with that man? The man who dragged me and her into this whole thing? Or, rather I dragged her into this. It’s my fault Tisha is in this now, and why she wants to do this. Something she could very well die from. But, if I stayed away, would I be hunted? Would Plasamic find me, and murder me? Would the two of them succeed without me? Sure they could, they didn’t need me. I could move on with my life and they finish this. I decided as I went to sleep.

The next day was saturday. I thought about being able to move on, maybe. Perhaps focus on something else to ease my mind. My mom always tells me to go outside, and walk around, draw or sleep. The thing about sleeping was, I didn’t think that would help at the moment. Considering my last two dreams weren’t exactly too swell. So I decided to go for a stroll around my neighborhood. I don’t do it often, simply because I like being inside more. But it was a nice day out. The sky was blue, only a few clouds scattered here and there. The temperature not boiling hot or freezing cold. Which allowed me to wear a comfortable blue short sleeve shirt and dark blue long pants. Sometimes, matching can be annoying. Since my hair is always green, and I’m not into dying it or wearing hats. Hats make my hair itch for some reason and I never liked how my hair sticks out the back. I won’t squish it up on the top of my head simply because I need to look better. Not if it makes me uncomfortable.

I left my house, heading over to the nature trail just across from it. It’s convenient to have a mini forest like path so close, it gives Gina a more interesting place to go. At least from what I’ve seen. I can count multiple times were I’ve found her wandering the ground. Scavenging for...whatever she is looking for. Normally Gina finds nothing. Though one time she returned with a water bottle, containing a tiny broken watch inside of it. Who leaves their watch inside of a water bottle? Anyway, my parents just threw it away. This time when I climbed down the slope to the path, Gina was there. Like I’ve said, she kinda comes and goes when she wants. Is that dangerous? It might be, but normally she’s fine. Since our cat is so good, we reward her. She is always back in time for dinner anyways and it’s less work on me, so who’s complaining? Not me.

Gina saw me and scuttled over, stepping on leaves and sticks scattered throughout the dirt. She rubbed against my leg and purred softly. I smiled, and stroked her back. I appreciated how affectionate she was. Always wanting to be scratched, and never being aggressive. That is unless it’s been a bad day, or you’re trying to attack her. Gina has some crazy fighting moves. Once, our neighbor, Johnathan’s dog tried to fight her. The dog ended up with new cuts and she was perfectly fine. Thankfully our little yellow cat ain’t like that all the time.

I continued past Gina and went down the nature trail. It was nice. The trees, the bushes, dead logs and plants on the ground. Some ants running in formation along the trunk of a tree. A spider forming its web between an old sewage pipe. A lizard dodging to get away from me as I stepped closer. I could see why some people use this as a daily exercise, to remove the stress of life from their shoulders, if only for a little while. A little is better than none. I came to a split in the path. Go up and you’re taken to another street. Keep going forward and there was more of the path, before it ended onto another street. I checked my pockets. My phone and credit card were in there. I realized it was about lunch time. Why not get something to eat? There’s a shopping center just past the street to my upper left. I decided on it.

The center itself is pretty good. There’s a shopping mall, StarBucks ( again ), and some other nice things like a dry cleaning, and a karate training class, and other food restaurants. It was lucky to have all of it so fairly close to my house. I scanned the buildings, deciding what I would want to eat. I settled on Z Pizza. It wasn’t the best pizza, but it would do. I headed over into the building. Inside was pretty small. Only a single hallway extending to the back of the building. Five tables to your right, and the counter and kitchen to your left. A TV monitor up above played a sports game. I remember that my dad, and this one kid in my science class, Robert, would always get so pissed when the game was spoiled for them. For my dad I wouldn’t hear the end of it while I did my homework. He’d come home after his day at work all upset.

“ I swear if I get spoiled one more time.” He’d bust into the house complaining. “ I’m not looking at another television screen today!” Then he would go right and watch the game himself. It was worse with Robert however. This kid would come storming into physics class, completely triggered about his spoiler. I don’t really care about sports myself, but he definitely does. More than my dad perhaps. When all the kids in the class were beginning to settle in for another period of torture, Robert walks in.

“ GUYS! I just got ruined! Ruined! That football game? Arizona Cardinals won. Can you believe that?” Then before anyone answered him, he’d continue ranting. “ No, actually don’t answer that. I don’t need an answer. I just need some bleach to clean my dirty mind, because I can’t unsee that SPOILER!” The teacher would force him to shut up and sit down. Fortunately he wouldn’t rant at all during the rest of the period, which I appreciated.

I waited in the small line at the counter. There were three people ahead of me. The kid in front of me I recognized. It was Knox. I tapped him on the shoulder.

“ Hey! How are you?” I asked him. He turned to face me. His black hair squished under a light green cap, kinda like my hair. His purple eyes, worried but thoughtful. His light skin covered by a black jacket. He smiled.

“ Oh hey Ceena! I’m fine. You?” He replied.

“ Mmm, ok I guess. How was that english essay for you? Did you pass?”

“ Yup! I got that integrated thesis on point!” He said, we both laughed.

“ Nice! Yeah, I got an A on it.”

“ You always get As on these essays.”

“ I guess.”

“ You do! Anyway, isn’t it interesting that George Orwell chose to talk about humanity using animals?”

“ Yeah it is. But maybe that way it’s more effective. You know, like having a hidden meaning behind what’s going on.”

“ Right right. It is definitely cool how words and stories and can be used to portray almost anything. Emotions, feelings, thoughts, ideas. All those plus more.”

“ Yeah true. People will certainly listen to a piece of art when it can do that kind of thing. You know it’s funny. Nowadays, not as much people read books. They play games or watch movies or something.”

“ Mhm, do you read a lot?” He asked me. I thought about it.

“ No. I mean I do read, sometimes, if I feel like it. But normally I draw, or grow my plants in backyard or that kinda stuff.”

“ Oh right, yeah that’s cool. I do read a lot. I suck ass at writing, but reading is fun for me. I mean you know how much I read in school.” I chuckled. I’ve seen Knox read a good amount at school, during lunch or in classes. Maybe it was where he got some of his conversational ideas from.

“ True. But, what can a game teach you? Isn’t it just for fun?” I asked Knox. We moved up the line. Someone up front was arguing about getting a larger pizza.

“ What game…? I have no clue honestly. Maybe ask Tisha, she would know. With the amount of games she talks about I would be surprised if she didn’t know.”

“ Oh, yeah.” That brought up what happened yesterday again. I tried to not show my killed mood. We got to the front of the line. Knox offered to buy me a pizza, but I rejected him. I would be fine getting it myself. He got a small box of olive pizza, and I just got two slices of cheese. Once that was done, we said our goodbyes. He had to go meet a friend at the lake. I sat down at one of the outside tables in front of the restaurant. The pizza itself was pretty good. Good tasting cheese, and the sauce wasn’t overflowing or anything. Z Pizza seems to be flat a lot, which is interesting, but it’s nothing that won’t stop me from eating it. While I was eating however, my phone buzzed. I thought it could be my parents, asking how I was doing. It wasn’t, instead it was exactly what I feared it would be. It was Tisha.

“ Heyo! What up girl?” She asked.

“ Eh, not much. Still trying to figure out yesterday. How are you?” I texted back.

“ I’m… I dunno. Me and that dude Emund were going to head on over to the final factory, but I wouldn’t go.”

“ Why? I thought you wanted to stay with him.”

“ I do. But I won't go without you. I was there because you were there. I won't go without you! It's not as much fun then.”

“ Tisha! You have to, people could be in danger if you don't!””

“ You're telling me that? YOU should've stayed with us if that was how you felt!” I felt like I had been hit.

“ W-well. I'm still not sure ok? I don't want to get hurt, and you shouldn't either!”

“ Ok, what is it? Do you want this to happen or not? One second you talk about me doing it to save people, and the next you don't want me to go since its dangerous. What is it?”

“ I don't know!.... Look, Im sorry. I just don't want us to get hurt or worse!”

“ I get that, and I appreciate your worry. It's one of the good things about you! But, I feel like you should come back, we can finish this together! I can protect both of us if you are scared we will die. You know we wont get hurt that way!” I laughed. Tisha could still do that to me even in a time like this.

“ Heheh. I'll think about it. Can we talk about something else?”

“ Sure! What up?”

“ Hmm. Do you know if a video game can have an artistic value to it? Like something for people to connect to, and learn from?”

“ WHAT? DID YOU REALLY JUST ASK THAT?”

“ Woah, why are you screaming?”

“ Girl, you seriously need to be educated in the ways of gaming arts. I can do that!”

“ Over the phone?”

“ Yeah! Why not?” She asked. I realized that this was pretty typical for current day standards. Seems like a lot of people, teens especially, use their phones for a lot things. Like talking, which wasn’t used a few decades ago. Weird how culture changes so fast.

“ Ok. Tell me.”

“ Alright. Prepare.” There was a pause as Tisha created a long message. I readied to read it. “ So. Artistic value? Ok. Have you heard of the game Undertale? I know by 2018 its kinda obsolete to most people, which is stupid. It's an amazing game. You know of that game right? I think you played it. Anyway, that game has a lot of messages. Mainly about morale. The game is built off of a system of sparing or killing the monsters, remember? Through this you can either befriend them, getting the good ending, where everyone goes free from the underground and its all happy and stuff. Or the bad ending, where you slaughter their entire race, resulting with a bad time from a certain lazy skeleton, oh yeah, and the erasing of the entire planet! This system teaches you about choosing what's right. Doing things to make people happy, and making positive choices. To not do something just because you are curious about it. Because it might get you in trouble. Its a message taught through fun and interesting characters, and music. The gameplay is, ok, but the monsters you meet is where the game really shines. This showed people about morale, and that's why it was so highly acclaimed. Does that make sense?”

“ Yeah it does. Thanks.”

“ No biggie. Hey, I gotta go, my grandma needs my help baking cookies. Bye!”

“ Cookies? Lucky! Alright see ya!” I closed the text.