Zircon
On a futuristic planet called Zircon, all the people are intertwined together. This world depends on moving gears like in a clock. If it stops the world and the people that live in it will come to an end.
But only a few people every one hundred years are selected to escape this fate. There is only one or two which are telepathic help the world when they are needed. Those who are chosen are the only ones who can save the world. It all began with a fourteen-year-old boy named Darin.
This boy was very different even from infancy, from the color of his eyes and hair. Everyone else had brown hair and brown eyes but his were green and his hair was black. That was not the only thing that made him different from the rest. He was the slowest learner within his kind. His grades were the lowest in all his subjects. He was always late in a place where everything ran in perfect time. This was not good because every person was on one time for everything and all their actions in their life were in sync with one another.
As soon as the people found out that this boy was one of only a few, they treated him as if he were a part of a machine that wouldn't gyrate with the rest so they would toss it into the trash to be recycled to be remade to work in sync with the rest. This did not work because he was a person who would never give up. Soon the time will come when he will play his role and they will understand why he was chosen.
One day like no other, Darin was walking down the street on his way to run some errands for his mother. He would have to hurry because he had to be at home with the food at exactly 6:00. This was difficult for him since he was not able to arrive at the exact time for any destination.
He saw that everyone around him has not been acting like themselves. They were getting weaker; it might be the flu he thought to himself. But he was too much in a hurry to get home on time to care what was wrong or to really notice. When he got home he saw that his mother was on the sofa and looked ill. He asked her, "mom, mom, what's the matter with you and everyone else?" "I don't know Darin," she said as though she had surgery on her throat. He turns on the TV to find out what the heck was going on. But the news team was not on when they're supposed to be broadcast everything that was happening.
Suddenly he hears a women's voice calling ever so softly like someone so quietly whispering in his ear but not quite like his mother's. She calls out what seem to sound like "help me". He turns to his mother and asks if she said or heard anything, she replies, "no".
He then went outside to investigate more about what was happening so he went to the center of Zircon. Again he hears the same voice but this time he tried to follow it, so when he did he heard it getting louder and louder and so did his heart with great anxiety. Right when he heard it, it was as loud as a person would be if they were talking right in front of your face then he bumped into a girl.
As they got up and patted off the dirt from their clothes they both said they were sorry to one another. When he really noticed was her features. She was blonde and had the same color of green eyes as he did. Then he thought to himself maybe I'm not the only person who is different in this world; which filled him with the greatest relief.
The girl told him her name, which was Angelina and then he too introduced himself. He asked her if she heard a young woman's voice that seemed to be following him and was quite distinctive. She said, "no, only the people in the streets but suddenly it got very quiet: why?" He then tells her about himself and what little he knew about the strange things that were happening. Angelina tells him about her herself that she has been xenophobic her life too; within that short time they became friends.
He almost forgot that he was going to the center of Zircon. Darin starts to run and Angelina asks him if she could come along too and so she did. They made it to Zircon's center where they saw a humongous monitor. Darin's eyes started to widen with great terror. Angelina asks," What's the matter? The look on your face is scaring me what do you see?" He looks at her and said, "You see what's on the monitor over there" as he points to show her and she nods in reply, "this is connected to the heart of this world. The heart is progressively slowing down in stead of running like a healthy heart. If it stops the world will immediately come to an end. All the people that live here will die within a couple of hours.
Darin put his head upon the monitor in despair he turns his head to the right and something caught his eye. It looked like what was a part of a gear that was carved in the wall. It had some antique writing on it.
He grabs onto Angelina's hand and tells her that he has seen this writing before at the Grand Library which is full of antique books. It's the very place that his dad works too. When they walked in Darin called out, "Where are you," to the voice. The voice then replied to the both of them. "Did you hear that too?" he asked. "Yes but it was very faint," she replied. As they looked over the Library on the second floor Darin saw his father and ran to him as fast as he was able. "Dad, Dad" as he went to his side "did you hear a voice?" he answered, "no, I only heard your voice".
At that moment the two of them heard the voice again and followed it to a door that was about ten feet long. It too had the same type of writing that they saw on the gear. They tried opening it but it was locked so they turned to leave to look for find a key. Suddenly the door automatically opened then both looked at each another and walked in. The room full of darkness with only a beam of light shining through it seemed to fall upon an old book on a stand.
They walked up to the book and could not read a single word so they took it to a computer to scan and translate it for them to comprehend. It told about the ostensibly world and the truth of their beings. So now they know what they must do, it was up to them. Right before they left, Darin's father wanted to see him. He handed his son a necklace with a small gear that was made from a stone that he had never seen before. His father told him that he found this the day Darin was born. He always had it in a safe place and it reminded him of the day his son was born. He knew that he might not last much longer so he wanted to give it to Darin so that it would be with him and remind him of his family and how they are always proud of him. Darin cried and wanted to be with his father but Angelina knew they had didn't have time to lose so she grabbed his hand and they left.
They went to Zircon's center on last time, Darin put his hand upon the wall; the necklace started to glow and then suddenly the wall glowed as well. All of a sudden a passage opened for them. It was full of darkness and long way down; neither had time to be afraid; used the glowing necklace for a flashlight. When they went down to the end of the spiral staircase they looked up to see how far they traveled. They saw a speck of light like a star that you would rarely see in a solar eclipse there was so much darkness. Then the two of them turned around and saw three passages. Once again they heard the voice and chose the far left passage and hoped nothing would happen to them. The voice got louder and louder as it did before.
They finally got to the end of their journey, the room was dark but they could see a reflection like metal that bounces off a glowing necklace. Soon the room slowly lit up until they could see everything. It looked like the inside of a grandfather clock. The two walked and walked until they got to the end of the room. It looked like there was an anachronism or a small piece missing. I looked about the same size as the pendent on Darin's necklace. He took it off and right when he was about to put it in the spot the ground starts to shake. The alarm went off that sounded to let the people know that they needed to evacuate the planet and then the count down began showing a screen with a clock.
Angelina tells Darin that he needs to put the missing piece in exactly when the countdown hits zero. She doesn't know how she knew this; it was a strong gut feeling that this is what he needed to do. The time went so fast and everything was shaking, he told Angelina that he has never been on time for anything in his life but this is his last and only shot. The both closed their eyes and held each other tight, ready for the worst to come; in that moment everything stopped.
The gears started to turn; they looked at one another with great joy. "You did it Darin!" she said, and gave him a hug and a kiss. A great light appeared in the form of an exotic woman which came out from the wall and said, "Thank you for all that you have done." It was the same voice they were listening to this whole time. She explained to them the reason why she picked them, to see if anyone in the world would still do something to save all they cared about even though people have treated them differently and could have escaped this fate. She also said to them, "I want more people like you to help guide this place, to help it prosper and create a better life for future generations; I know the two of you can make that happen, thank you again for all that you have done."
Then when all was said and done they were both sent back to the time when they first met. Everything and everyone was back to normal; it seemed to be as if it was a weird dream but Darin and Angelina knew it wasn't.