Containment (Part 1)

Kya

It was so empty.

"No signs of life on the outside, Cap." My voice reverberated off the houses. Man, it never failed to unnerve me. The emptiness was suffocating, and almost scary.

I mean, I knew there were people in every one of the houses I passed, but the lack of movement was strange.

There! A shadow had shifted. Someone was outside.

"You there! By the alleyway. Stop!" I quickened my pace to catch up. "You are now under local government jurisdiction and must undergo testing. Please remain still as the team prepares," I shouted out my memorized and state-approved speech as I approached the figure. Most people didn't really mind the government testings, they figured it was better to protect the weak.

I was less than a yard away from the figure when they finally turned to face me. Most of their face and body was covered. The only thing exposed was their brown eyes. Their eyes bore into me before they turned and took off running.

"Cap, we got a loose one! I'm starting pursuit!" Keeping my eyes on the brown-eyed person, I took off running.

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Milo

Oh my god, this was the worst decision of my life. I should have stayed inside. Why didn't I stay inside?

Even though I was running as fast as I could, I could feel the tears well up in my eyes.

"Milo, you are so so stupid. Mom is going to call you the biggest burro ever."

I glance over my shoulder and see the disease-control soldier chasing me. The two seconds of eye contact intimidated me so much I never wanted to see face to face again.

"Stop running!" She was gaining on me, and she didn't even sound out of breath. I don't want to admit it, but that scared me. A lot.

A little farther, Milo. There! An opening in the wall of houses. 

Pirate of the Sands

Dedicated To Samantha, My Favorite Atiny

Sand, why'd it have to be sand. I would have preferred a bog full of smelly moss. But no, it had to be sand. And it was scorching hot sand, too.

At least I wasn't in the sand for the time being. My current situation wasn't much better.

I was stuck backward riding on a camel, tied to my captor. The one who captured me was a massive man, almost as big as the camel and smelled about the same. Not that I minded, I was used to stinking and being surrounded by stink.

I squirmed in my bindings, half trying to get a little more comfortable and half trying to get my body away from him.

My jailer's gruff voice came quickly. "No use. Stay still." He managed to kick his boot into my leg. How? I wasn't sure.

Giving in to the stubborn spirit that got me into this mess in the first place, I continued to move and writhe my body.

After what seemed like hours on the backs of the camel and the captor who was almost a camel, we arrived at "the place" as my jailer referred to it. I was beginning to think he wasn't too bright.

While I was still caught up in thinking about my captor's brain powers, I hadn't noticed the group of other men that had come to assist my man. All of them appeared as big and brawny as the first one I had had the pleasure of meeting.

I watch them trade payments as well as trinkets my jailer had brought back. While they all seemed distracted, I worked on cutting the ropes that held me. They had checked me for weapons when they first picked me up but forgot to keep their own weapons out of reach. Oh well!

There! I cut through, but I could see that the group was started to disperse. Unfortunately, that meant the attention was turning towards me.

"Hello, boys. Nice to see you all came out to greet me!" I called out in my cheeriest voice.

"Shut up, water scum," was their response.

"Alrighty, I guess I'll just be going then. As I'm clearly not wanted here." Lithe as one of my mousing cats, I jumped down from the camel and waved.  I managed to snag one of the bags of rations as I turned to run into the sand. Clearly, this was their first time kidnapping, as they left all of their supplies on the camel.

Then, slinging my stolen bag over my shoulder, I was running. When I dared look over my shoulder the looks of shock were honestly enough of a reward I was willing to be stuck in the sand for the next few days. They didn't even try to chase me! And I quickly found out why.

Apparently, running in sand was hard. Really hard. I made it over just two dunes before my strength left me and I collapsed into the scorching sand.

"That's strange," I thought. "Sand shouldn't be this hard to run in." I picked up my hand, examining the specks that stuck to my hand. I had seen many different types of sand tracked onto my ship. But these grains looked strange and completely different than anything I'd ever seen. They were green in color and they all seemed to be a uniform square shape. I scooped up a handful of the sand, checking for more of the green particles. And when I looked, I saw something more disturbing than anything I could have imagined. The green sands were not only strangely shaped but they were also taking over regular sand, turning normal sand from brown to green.

Dropping the sand immediately and standing, I tried to get all the sand I could off, fearing that I'd be next to be turned green. I needed to get out of here, as quickly as possible.

Okay. Okay. Okay. I got this, now think. I was spinning around in the sand, almost shaking with anxiety and nervous energy. I was SO completely out of my element.

Then, it hit me. Sand, and deserts, were just dry oceans. Oceans are my thing. All I needed was a ship. And I knew just where to get my desert ship.

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Watching people walk around aimlessly got boring, really really fast. If only I hadn't tried to fit one more lot of crates into my ship. I could still be on my ship, with my crew, with the winds and the storms. No. I shook my head. I had to focus.

It had taken me hours to walk the same sand I'd traveled over just days before. I think that the weird green sands were draining me of more energy now that I knew they existed. I was still thinking about the strange properties of green sand when a shout from my captor's camp brought me back to reality.

"You there! New boy, are we ready to go?" The burly man I had guessed was the leader was now shouting a variety of orders around the camp.

Here was my chance, to sneak just one camel away and then travel a day or two behind them, making them lead me back to the port. Or if that didn't work, go the exact opposite direction.

I moved slowly towards the corral where the camels were kept, keeping my eyes on the group of bandits. Just like when I had escaped, they weren't paying attention to their surroundings.

Low to the ground, I slipped into the camel pen. The camels barely opened their eyes to see the intruder, probably because I left as quickly as I came.

There, in the makeshift closet, hanging on the wall was one of the few items I always carried with me. My carpet.

I stood to grab it off the hook when the door was swung open. I whirled around. It was the new boy the bandits had been bossing around.

He looked as surprised as me. "Wh-what are you doing here?"

"Okay, I'll let you in a secret. This carpet," I gestured to my carpet, still hanging off the hook, "will take us anywhere we want. And now that I've told you, I'm going to have to kill you."

The new kid's eyes widened, "please. I'm begging you, don't kill me."

"Convince me not to." I flicked my wrist, bringing the stolen knife into my hand.

I didn't think it possible, but the kid's eyes widened even more. He was just stammering now. I would feel awful killing this kid or even tying him up. I'm sure the other bandits would not be kind to him once they saw the carpet had been stolen.

After a moment more, I gave into my pity. "Say, kid. What's your name?"

"S-san. My name is San."

"Alright, San. What would you say if I offered to take you with me on my fancy carpet?" As I offered this to the kid, I stuck my knife into the wall and reached to pull the carpet down. "I could use a new deckhand."

"Please, I'll do anything." The kid, San apparently, regained his voice enough to answer.

"Perfect," I turned, tossed the carpet to the floor and sat down. "Hop on, San."

He obeyed without question and I commanded the carpet to fly us back to my ship. Finally.

We burst out of the closet, making enough noise to startle the bandits. I threw back my head and laughed. I felt San give a half-hearted wave before tightening his grip on the edges of the carpet.

As we flew up into the bright blue desert sky, I shouted a question back to San. "Will you be my friend?"

The Shimmering Dark (Part 3)

Well, I thought I had turned away from it. But there it was in front of me again. Strange.

Shaking my head, wondering what kind of strange mess of a world I had stumbled into. I turned around again. But there was the curtain. Again

Okay, this is really getting strange now, I thought to myself. I tried again and again, to no avail. Maybe I can trick it, I thought, so I spun around in a circle, trying to be smart.

Now, I realize that was my greatest and dumbest mistake. And for next time this happened, I learned that when you encounter a giant, dark, shimmering, grandma curtain on your way home from school, don't try to trick it.

As soon as I started spinning, I couldn't stop. I was caught in a painful rotation. My hands were pinned at my sides and I couldn't move my head a centimeter in any direction.

All I could move was my eyes, so I did. Desperately.  I tried to focus on one spot or at least get an understanding of when was going on around me. Then with dread settling in my stomach, I saw that, around me the curtain began to change and curve onto itself. Curving all around me, I realized. And I was stuck in the middle, spinning without a way of stopping. I noticed with horror, to my left, the curtain had completed its circle. I made one last, desperate attempt to stop the spinning when I was plunged into the darkness.

After what felt like an eternity and at least a thousand turns, I felt my body slow its rotations. Whatever the hold the curtain had released and my legs caved under my own weight. In the pitch darkness, my eyes tried hopelessly to adjust and see my surroundings but wherever I seemed to be, was devoid of light.

Just then I was proven wrong. What seemed like light was starting to filter in from somewhere. And as my eyes continued to try and adjust, I saw the horror of where I really was.

The Shimmering Dark (Part 2)

Well, technically never expected to see in real life.

Let me explain that. At this point in my life, I was used to my unusually vivid dreams. Most of them were just random conglomerations of bits of my daily life combined with a completely nonsense plot-line.

But this thing in front of me something that often showed up in my dreams. I had always chalked it up to some sort of sci-fi idea my brain figured I needed. But now, staring it down, it was definitely something I didn't need.

Whatever this dream thing was, it was almost as tall as a skyscraper and at least as long as two schools stuck together. And it was just floating in the middle of my neighborhood.

I pondered it for another second. Actually, it looked like a giant grandma had strung her dark curtain across the street. Weird.

Once making that connection, I probably stared at it for ten minutes, with a mixture of fear, pure annoyance, and maybe a little excitement.

I started to think, maybe I could finally be like those kids in the books. The ones who got to go on all sorts of wild, exciting adventures. Traveling across magical lands or flying through space.

The insane, impulsive voice chimed in, saying do it! Be who you've idolized!. And my heart sided with that little voice.

No! I thought, I'm not going to just walk through a giant grandma curtain because my heart wants to be a book character. I'll probably die anyway.

Despite all my internal reckoning, I let myself stare at it for a few more minutes.

Then I turned from the curtain and took the other path home.

The Shimmering Dark (Part 1)

Something in the air was different today.

Something in the ground was different today.

Something was changing the world around me.

Making existence heavier, deeper, darker.

The feeling changed in intensity almost constantly, fluctuating in power. Sometimes, but rarely, it just felt as if I had eaten too much. But most of the day it had felt as if this heaviness was trying to push me into the dirt, so hard that I would cease to exist.

I tried all day to shake it off and go through my day as normal as possible, going through the motions with classes, friends, teachers, but every moment felt so off somehow.

In every breath in and out.

In every twitch of my hand

Every heartbeat keeping me alive

Every muscle movement was wrong.

Everything is wrong, my body was screaming at me. Get out, it said, get away from this place and never come back.

I was so tired by the time school was over. I just wanted to get home, get food, and hide under my covers until this awful feeling went away. Or until my mom forcefully pulled me out for dinner. Whichever came first.

I was still lost in a sort of mentally drained daydream when I saw something so awful I felt as if my body was shocked into another dimension. All thoughts of what I was going to do when I got home fell away.

What was in front of me was so glaringly wrong. It was so wrong that on the first actually beautiful day of the year, whatever this was had to appear. In the middle of my little Montana neighborhood, was something I never expected to see. And it was awful.

Alone in Manteiv

It was strange, how I didn't fit in here, even though I should, even though I thought I would. 

I adored it here, don't get me wrong. I loved walking the streets, watching the sun rise and set, learning as much as I could about the culture, the language, and the people. But despite how much I loved it, it didn't love me back.

I had moved to Manteiv to study, more specifically study the language. So I did. Now I can say confidently that I am nearly fluent with the standard dialect and I'm learning the other dialects slowly. 

At least, school is easy here, for me at least. The tests match how I remember information so I ace one after another. But school quickly gets lonely if every day is spent alone, alone but surrounded by people staring at me. 

I tried to make friends, I really did. I talked to kids in my classes. The kids in my neighborhood. I talked to the kids that hang out in the parks after dark. The kids that worked in the convenience stores near my apartment. Most of the time they were pleasant and curious, making small talk with me, but as much as I tried none of them really wanted to be friends. 

So I was alone, but I was working on it. I stayed in touch with my friends from home, keeping those friendships strong. And I wasn't going to stop trying to make friends here, eventually I will find that person that won't stare at me, amazed at my skin. And I will make a dear friend with that person, so that even if our friendship falls apart, I will have hope that I can find another person, who won't stare.

Lies and Liars (Part 4)

Once I realized that I only had two choices, the decision was easy.

I would go to Etia and give Alaska Hess her book myself or face punishment from the Elders, exile or... worse.

Immediately, I started, a solid plan motivating me to move, pack, work as fast as possible. In a flurry of action, I packed all I thought I would need. Food, clothes, tools, and of course, Alaska Hess's book.

OK, I thought, staring out into the black abyss of space, Etia the corner of my vision, you can do this. 

I stepped off what had been my work, my home, my one safe place in the universe and I fell into space.

And I fell.

And fell.

And fell.

I fell.

I didn't grow up wanting to be a mechanic, nobody did in Etia. No, being a mechanic was reserved for the people who were deemed damaged goods, damaged brains. The people who didn't fit into Etia's perfect ideal of a lifestyle. Most often, mechanics were low-level criminals, people who stole, people who vandalized, the one's with desperate minds, the hidden needy. 

I hadn't been desperate because of being poor or hungry, nobody was on Etia. I was desperate because I needed an escape and that wasn't allowed. 

From afar, Etia was paradise. Nobody was hungry, poor, cold, disadvantaged. But if anyone from the Creches bothered to look into what was actually happening, they would find that Etia wasn't as perfect as it was designed to be. 

Everything from sports to hobbies to school had at least seventeen rules in place to supposedly keep it running smoothing. But with the rules, I always felt closed in, restricted to the point of death by suffocation. 

So I rebelled. At first it was little things like putting away my school supplies a little bit different, then taking notes different, then not taking notes at all. I kept pushing my limits to see what I could do different. I never got caught, probably because no one cared to look at what I did anymore. 

Then, I pushed too hard. Hard enough to break.

And when it broke, my whole life collapsed around it. 

And I fell.