Lost and Found: Chapter 1

A/N: I'm writing this to improve my crappy writing skills. Comment for suggestions on how to improve my trash writing. Narrator POV is be used sparingly. Thanks! I highly suggest you read this chapter, even though it takes place on Earth.

Background Info: The story originally takes place in the Federation of Siberia, but then switches over to Copper 9. I have changed the plot line. Earth is not destroyed, and worker drones still do their jobs on Earth.

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-----Narrator POV-----

Ivan woke up in his dorm room. He didn't have a roommate, as requested. He yawns for a minute, and then does some stretching (ya know, the morning stretch that threatens to break your neck and spine feeling). Ivan looks over at his alarm clock.

"That's odd. Wasn't it supposed to ring like 14 minutes ago?" He asks himself. He puts on his socks and shoes. Ivan runs to the bathroom to get prepared. After brushing his teeth with the ferocity of a manufacturing machine, he stumbles into the small kitchenette. 

By now, it was 7:31 AM. Ivan reaches for the cereal, and makes sure to put the cereal in the bowl first before the milk. Whoever does it the opposite, is a monstrosity, according to him. He sits down in peace, grabbing a fork.

Yes, Ivan eats his cereal with a FORK. No, he is not in a mental institution, rather, in a state-of-the-art college. How? I don't know and I don't care. Ivan starts to poke the cereal with no success.

He twirls the fork around in the bowl, bored and had seemingly lost his appetite. Just then, a small, short robot 'accidentally' crashes into him, not looking where they (robot) was going.

"Uh, Ivan, aren't you supposed to be in class right now? I mean, History started at 7:25 and now it's. 7:49," the robot asked him. "Come on, let's go."

Ivan's pupils recoiled in terror. "Aww, shi--" He couldn't even finish the sentence when the robot pulled him away and dragged him out of his dorm room.

"Ellis, couldn't you have woken me up at the right time?" he asked the robot, whose name was apparently Ellis.

"Sorry, Ivan but I was working on oiling up my joints. I haven't done that in a while, and my arms are starting to feel the tension," Ellis replied.

Ivan grumbled as he walked, humiliated into his class. History. Weren't we supposed to go to a visit to Copper 9 today? He thought, as he walked.

The halls of New Los Angeles College Institute of History were empty, just empty. Not a single soul in sight. Of course, the students were all inside their respective classrooms, learning.

As he turned right, he saw his classroom door come into view. His hands were sweating. What if they left already? What will I do? Will they laugh at me? He gulped, and then turned the handly slowly. 

Ivan's professor, yanks open the door. Professor Ethan (call him Prof) glares at Ivan, as he sees his classmates grouped up behind Prof. They're about to leave. I came just in time! 

"Why are you so late? Come on, let's go before we miss our space flight," Prof says, clearly annoyed. Ivan's other classmates looked pissed by his tardiness. Ivan shoots a glare at each one of them, suggesting them to 'Don't say a single thing or I will personally mutilate your neck so much that people will think you are an alien'.

Even though he looked at them, telling them a message, one of Ivan's classmates, Alyssa, giggles and says, "Ewww. Look at this idiot," Her friends laugh out loud, with her. Ivan ignores their remarks and other crap they yell at him and join the back of the line.

"Yo, Ivan! Why you so late?" Jackie asked Ivan. Jackie was like Ivan's only friend who didn't shout random crap and whatnot to Ivan.

"Damn alarm clock didn't go off," Ivan nonchalantly replies.

"Didn't your worker drone friend Ellis wake you up?" 

"Nope. They were oiling up their joints. Too much tension, they said."

"Okay. Mine keeps on complaining about the living quality."

"Probably because you keep on throwing empty beer cans at it. Also, I don't think it is ethical to just keep it locked up in a cage at night."

"Eh, who cares? They're just robots. They don't have feelings," Jackie dismissed.

Ivan could come up with 29 arguments opposing Jackie right now. Ivan barely had the self-control to not say something, but he managed it. Their class left the college grounds and prepared to get into a bus and travel to the spaceport.

"Here it is!" Prof announced, prompting the student to take their eyes off their phones. Ivan got on board the bus, on the very back of the bus. As he was walking there, Alyssa stuck out her foot and said, "oops."

Ivan didn't see this coming. At this rate, he was basically chasing down Jackie for the first to sit down on the back. Then Ivan's foot made contact with Alyssa's foot.

Because of the speed, Ivan tripped, and fell right on the seat before Jackie could. 

"Haha, I beat you," Ivan told Jackie. Jackie throws a playful punch at Ivan. Alyssa rolls her eyes, disappointed that her plan didn't work out.

"I'll get you next time," he replied, laughing. 

"Okay, everyone, SHUT UP WE'RE GOING NOW," Prof shouted at the students. Everyone stopped talking, and the bus started moving. The second the bus reached ~30 MPH, everyone started to talk again.

Prof was fuming. "I TOLD YOU ALL TO SHUT UP! AM I NOT MAKING MYSELF CLEAR?" Ivan said under his breath, "nope."

Unfortunately, Prof heard him. "WHY WON'T YOU JUST SHUT UP!? I'M TRYING TO DO SOME INPORTANT WORK!"

Now that Prof had stated why he needed everyone to shut up, everyone did shut up.

Ivan was the only one looking out the window. The others were looking at their phones. The Federation of Siberia was pretty good at building structures, as suggested by the large skyscrapers towering ahead.

The road was smooth, allowing for fast and easy travel to other places.

A couple dozen minutes later, they arrived. The spaceport was massive, with a large lobby area and tons of food and other commercial shops. Hell, there was even a 45-room hotel!

Ivan was the last to leave, followed by Jackie.

"This place is massive!"

"This place is tiny!" Alyssa groaned and complained. Everyone shot a glare at her, suggesting her to shut up. She, being the naturally spoiled person she was, didn't shut up. "I've been to better places."

"We'll we haven't, so stop ruining it for the rest of us," Jackie replied.

"You can speak? Oh my god!" Alyssa spoke with disgust. "You sure are nasty."

Jackie had to fight the urge to sock Alyssa in the jaw right then and there, but he managed to kick a dent into a trashcan instead.

As they walked in a group towards the entrance to the spaceport, Ivan wondered out loud, "I wonder if there is beer here."

Jackie laughed a bit, and then replied, "Of course there is! You just need to sneak it into the plane!"

Ivan laughed at his friend, as they walked into the lobby. Prof reserved tickets, so with his phone, he showed the deskperson the information and they proceeded to print out the tickets physically.

Each student got a ticked, and by pure chance, Jackie was stuck with Ivan.

Ivan and Jackie couldn't hear each other over the large amounts of noise coming from other people, so they just did a silent fist bump as they were boarding the plane.

Ivan managed to say, "Prof, is it fine if I go to that shop really quick? I need to get something."

Prof managed to nod, and Ivan ran. He almost crashed into the door. He opened the door carefully and bought a single bottle of beer. He also had to buy some other junk as a coverup.

Ivan returned to the group, hiding the beer in his bag. He held up his new mug as a coverup, 'proving' to Prof that he was really buying something. Ivan boarded the plane and walked to the very back of the plane with Jackie.

"Please buckle your safety belts and brace for takeoff," a monotonous voice said over the speakers. "Remain in your seats until we have reached orbit."

Ivan bucked himself up, and so did Jackie. Ivan looked through his backpack, and cushioned the beer bottle to make sure it wouldn't break. He wrapped his backup hoodie around it, and some replacement socks.

Ivan just finished zipping up his backpack as the plane lurched forward. Jackie looked out the window and saw the rocket engines come to life. They were placed in the same place as where the jet engines on a normal plane would be.

The noise level was insane, and a loud hiss came from inside the cabin as the insides were pressurized, and all openings were sealed properly, to ensure safety in space travel.

The G-Forces were increasing, as the whole plane's passengers started to be pressed against their seats. The second the plane left the runway, it was going 300 MPH. Speed increased, and so did the angle. Soon, the space plane was pointed at a 55-degree angle.

The speed rose up to 500 MPH, cruising speed. Within a dozen minutes of being pushed against the seats, the gravity soon lost its grasp. Ivan felt freer, as so did the rest of the passengers.

"You may unbuckle your safety belts now, as we are in stable orbit. We are going to Copper 9 in 20 minutes."

Jackie and Ivan unbuckled, and they floated. FLOATED!

"Woah, so this is what 0-G feels like," Ivan said in awe. Alyssa just groaned in frustration, and announced, "There's no connection! Stupid plane."

Everyone looked at Alyssa and started laughing at her stupidity.

"We're in space, dumbo! Of course, there's no connection!" Prof said, laughing.

She blushed in embarrassment, then crossed her arms.

Everyone started to just goof around in the plane until the pilot announced, "Passengers, buckle up. We are about to enter hyperdrive. It will take about 5 minutes, so enjoy the trip while you can."

"Aww, man! I was just starting to get used to it!" Jackie complained. 

Ivan agreed, but then reluctantly buckled himself in, this time much harder in zero gravity. Jackie continued to look out his window, and then he saw the Earth moving away, getting smaller and smaller, before a monotonous voice said, "Hyperdrive activated."

The passengers were thrown back by the speed and saw the stars zooming past and the Earth disappearing like a dust particle being sucked up by a vacuum.

Like the pilot said, 5 minutes later, they arrived at Copper 9. A toxic planet.

"We will stay in orbit for 10 minutes preparing for re-entry. Oxygen masks will be provided because the planet's air is toxic."

Ivan takes out his beer, hiding it from view, and takes a swig.

"Man, that's the good stuff. I should have brought more."

He then proceeds to drink down the whole bottle in less than 2 minutes. Ivan looks satisfied but doesn't unbuckle like the rest of the passengers. Probably because he's too drunk. (Ivan has a really low alcohol tolerance)

"ATTENTION PASSENGERS, THE PLANE IS CRASHING! WE HAVE LOST CONTROL! ALL PASSENGERS TO THE ESCAPE PODS IMMEDIATELY!"

In the chaos, Ivan was still asleep, and Jackie forgot about him, assuming Ivan was in the crowd. People pushed each other, desperate for survival.

One by one, the escape pods ejected, leaving behind one person onboard. Ivan. Ivan was still half asleep, so he didn't really know what was going on at the time.

The plane started to veer out of control, but luckily, the whole plane was covered in a heat shield, specifically designed for 2-time re-entry.

The plane heated up, temperatures reached 90 degrees inside the cabin, and then Ivan just blacked out.

The others in the escape pods sighed a breath of relief as they escaped the plane, and watched it enter the atmosphere of Copper 9, not knowing there was still a passenger inside.

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Words: 2051