Nicks

"Kilana, wake up," my mom yelled from downstairs.

When I woke up, Ai asked me if I wanted to continue with my daily routine. If I said no, I knew the consequences, so I nodded. "Alright, then." The polite female voice in my head always unnerved me.

Everyone else thought it was peculiar for me to even think twice about Ai, but I felt like she was always there...Watching. Ai, (which stands for Artificial Intelligence) was basically the voice that was installed into all newborn's brains. She was kind of like a mother. In a weird way, she protected us. She could activate alarms that only certain people (of her choice) could hear. This was great use for times of need and disaster. It was also helpful in subduing criminals. Ai could also give you information about any other person she was implanted in. Of course, she only shared when it was necessary.

Suddenly, Ai activated my MAS, and I started screaming, "Mom! My alarm systems have been activated! What do I do?" She didn't answer.

"Calm down. Calm down immediately, please." Ai's voice was the same. No matter what the situation, her tone was polite and sweet. She never inflicted any other tone into her voice. No emotion ever showed. What would you expect from Artificial Intelligence?

My alarm was still going off as Ai gave me directions to the safety shuttle.

"Please enter the Compact Travel and Facilities Pod for your evacuation."

"I'm leaving?"

"Please, move towards the designated area, or I will be forced to increase volume."

"I got it! But could ya please turn it off? It's really unnecessary to blast me with a ringing noise, just to get me to Evac," I shot back.

"Please continue to designated area. Once the Pod is reached, all alarm systems with deactivate."

"Fine. And stop saying please before you talk." The alarm systems got louder.

"Please run. You are in formidable danger. Risk is growing. Risk is growing. Your mother has been damaged. Please, quickly."

"What? What about Mom?"

"Please go faster. Kilana, run faster." I heard Mom's voice through the Com Unit also installed in my head.

"Mom? Are you there? Ai said you were hurt!"

"I'm fine. I'm in Evac. Come quickly."

I could hear static as she disconnected. "Mom? MOM!"

Ai's voice came back on, "Please hurry. Immediate danger."

I ran through the ship's hallways. I remembered the route from the monthly drills. I ran into the Evac Pod. I knew I was prepared. Until the ships power shut off.Then, all of a sudden, the pod’s doors closed, and I had to grab a seat before the gravity was turned off. Objects around me started to float in the air. I looked around, hopefully. Mom was nowhere in sight.

Well, no one was actually. I sat alone in the craft and waited for Ai to explain what was going on. All of a sudden the pod was jerked, and I felt my stomach do flip-flops as the weightlessness of a no-gravity-environment took effects. I decided to stay seated until I felt better. I ended up falling sleep.

A few hours passed after I woke up, and I decided to see if any provisions were in the pod. I unbuckled and floated over to the control panel beside of the door. With shock, I realized that the control panel was new. it should've been outdated by about 20 years, but it was almost completely updated. Nothing was this new in the Lower District, my district. Of course, I kind of wasn't in my district anymore, but I decided to leave the technicalities for later.

After I gave the pod the uni-code, gravity was activated and I slowly levitated towards the ground. I surveyed the pod in appreciation. It had definitely been updated since the drill last month. The walls had a fresh and white coat of paint, and the floor was no longer covered with flecks of dust and paint chips. It was so clean that I wondered if was the actually pod that had been here last month.

I quickly rummaged the cabinets for snacks. What I found was more than promising. I found orangukles and grapes. I hadn't seen fruit since before Dad died, and we we're cast into the Lower District.

This was the food of kings and queens. But what was it doing here? I thought about it no longer, as I quickly disected one of the orangukles. The purple fruit's aroma danced through the kitchen's interior. I inhaled the scent deeply, and started to devour it. As soon as my teeth sunk in, I almost died. Who knew that fruit was tasted so amazing?

But, wait, where had this come from? What was the purpose of this fully stocked pod? Someone was watching me.

My head quickly scanned the room. But where from? I immediately went back to the control panel on the wall. I punched in some numbers and searched for the pod's destination. I scanned the data quickly. It said that my destination was "not available", but that I had already arrived.

I stood for a few minutes and watched the door. No windows were in the pod, so I had no way of knowing where I happened to be. I thought about opening the door, but I had no clue what waited for me outside.

My imagination started to soar. What if I was on an actual planet instead of my normal spacecraft? Planets were the home of cannibals and other savage beasts, who roamed free, untamed and ungoverned. The killed without thought, and some thought that the humans on planets couldn't even communicate. I started to shake. What was going to happen to me? I slowly took deep breaths and calmed myself. I know that Ai would never let something like that happen to me.
After a couple of minutes passed, the door slid open and a boy about my age, 15, stepped out. He had black hair with red and silver streaks. I wondered what that meant. Hair colors had always been important to aristocrats, and I could tell he was just that by the way he waltzed in the room.

They always had this haughty air about them, as if everything they touched turned to gold, and everything we, the common people, touched turned to grime. He had some weird grimace type expression which showed his teeth, which were quite straight and white, might I add. He had a formal suit on which was all black. Not a wrinkle dared to show itself. Whoever this boy was, he had quite an aura to him. I immediately straightened up to my full height. I could not have him thinking that hewas the one who had the most powerful presence. Well, he did, but he didn't know who I was, so I had a chance to put up a façade.

"Kilana?"

Scratch that. He did know who I was. Epic fail, if I do say so myself. ( I do.)

"Yes, that just might be my name. Who might I be speaking with here? It's polite to introduce yourself and inquire the other's name rather than being crude and demanding. Knowing where I would happen to be would actually be nice, too."

The boy just stared at me strangely. He shook his head and muttered under his breath. "Of course."

"Excuse you," I shot back.

"No manners, whatsoever. That should be expected from someone coming from a craft. Filth."

I stared indignantly. "What is your deal, dude? Manners? If you want to talk about manners, why haven't you answered any of my questions?"

He glared and turned out the door, motioning for me to follow. I watched his silhouette gracefully trot out of the sliding door and disappear behind it. I frowned.

It was either in the pod whose white walls were about to drive me up them or the eerie and unknown outside where a multitude of cannibals could be waiting for me. What if the boy was a planet savage? Hhow did he learn to speak so well? And his clothes were so clean. Cleaner than mine.

He has said "craft" like spacecrafts were the savage place, so maybe I really was on a planet.I had no idea if I had just flew around our spacecraft and onto another one or if I had landed on a new planet entirely. Again, the words "eerie", "unknown" and "cannibal" came to my mind.

Eerie and unknown had the connotation of some awesome adventure. Cannibal made me feel like a slice of cake or a piece of pie on display. Either way this was going to be very, very interesting.

With a weird sense of excitement, I started toward the door. Of course, I took a bag packed with emergency supplies...Just in case. Then, before I turned out, I stopped. It hit me. A weird boy had just came into an escape pod, which I had been ushered into by Ai (who had yet to respond through my comm unit) with the mention of my "hurt" and yet to be seen mother, and told me that I was to follow him for no apparent reason; however, even though this was about the crazy situation ever, I was getting ready to go out on a limb and trust him.

Then, I shrugged, cackled, casually grabbed a couple of orangkules (just in case) and attempted to "gracefully trot" out of the pod.


No more than I had stepped out of that Godforsaken pod, something crunches at my feet. I scream, bound back into the closed pod door, and wildly flail my leg down onto the thing at my feet. I lift my foot up and look triumphantly at the some sort of crumbled, paper-thin, brownish sheet of some sort of material. I pick up the biggest part of it left to examine it. It has weird vein-like things running through out it from a small brown structure that seemed to hold it together. The veins made me wonder if it had been alive. The structure in the center of the weirdly shaped thing was made from a different material then the thin part that spreaded out from it. It wasn't flexible at all, and broke from the slightest bend.

I jumped as I heard a laugh in front of me. My head jerked up as the boy from earlier shook his head and chuckled at me. His look made me feel like I should be embarrassed. "What?"

He snorted this time and his laugh became louder. He started out in a baby voice, "Leaf? Leaaff. Do. You. Under. Stand. Me?"

My forehead crinkled. "Why are you talking to me like I'm stupid? And what is a leaf?"

This seemed to be even funnier than whatever he was laughing at before because his laughs started to shake his whole body. He doubled over.

My eyebrows pulled together in frustration. "You are impossible. What is up with you?" I pretty much shouted it to the heavens. Then, I felt embarrassed when I could feel tears building up in my eyes.

He looked up and quickly quieted down. He seemed to notice that I was upset, and his head kindly tilted to the left. "What..." His voice drifted off, and he just stood there, gazing at me.

Then my hot tears finally burst. Bothered my show of such a strong emotion, I quickly swiped my face and glared at the boy. "What," I asked indignantly. "Is there something on my face?"

He shook his head and turned, looking on ahead of us. "Are you alright?" He said it with his gaze straight forward.

Wow, I didn't know that he was actually decent at times, I thought. I decided to let the whole "leaf" thing go, but I figured it was the thing I had stepped on. Who knew it would make such a loud snap? I shook my head. Who cares? I'd ask when I actually met someone around here with a brain.

"Well?"

It took my awhile to realize that he'd spoken, or that I was spacing out and leaving his question unanswered. He probably thought I was sulking. I was, in a way, I guess. And even if I wasn't it sounded like a good strategy, but after thinking it through, I decided that pouting was just another method of running away.

I marched up to him and declared, "I am perfectly fine, except for the fact that I have no clue what is going on OR where I am? Care to elaborate?"

He turned and met my eyes. "No. I'm good on that offer. Let's go." With that, his hand reached out, searching wildly for something that just so happened to be me. He latched on to my hand and practically jerked my arm out of its socket as he dragged me along.

Keep going Please.