Chapter 1: Departure
It was a really long line up, but it was considered to be one of the better lines. My friends were stuck in lines that never even moved! I was smart, so I picked the one that had less people in it.
Everyone around me was either really happy or really sad, but most of them had the word grey and gloomy written all over it. I was among these people. As I looked around, I saw that all the students were about my age and they were all wearing blue, green or red vests that were worn on top of their daily shirts. They had backpacks stuffed with their belongings swung over their shoulders and most of them had another bag at their feet.
We were all in line waiting for the guy in the blue suit to call out our number so we knew which bus to board. After 7 years of school in a place we called "home" for the past few years, we were finally leaving. I actually felt a little upset about leaving because leaving meant leaving my memories behind.
This moment would be the last memory of the my "home" before every single student in the school was to exit the building and board a bus to be sent either to a horrible campus that was outdoors, or to a designated area (DA) of education and studies.
There was one area/place everyone was talking about a few weeks ago. The DA was called Olden Days. People said that it was really hard to get into that DA (designated area). The way I thought of it, I really didn't want to go there anyways. I mean, Olden Days? It even sounds horrible. I know a bunch of people that want to go, but I'm really not interested at all.
"Students with a green vest and are numbers 20-30, please proceed to the front of the lobby!" shouted the man in the blue suit.
Finally, after almost 2 hours of waiting, it was finally my turn. I really didn't understand why they made us go second. Well actually I know why, but it's frustrating. The "blue people" were higher class than us, so they get to leave first. Then it's us, the "green people". Then it's the level under us, the "red people". I felt sorry for them, they probably have to wait for another hour or so before they can leave because we're a pretty big bunch.
I quickly picked up my belongings and I dug through the lot of students that were waiting as impatiently as I was. When I got to the front of the lobby, there were several other blue suited men that guided all of us towards the bus.
As I went through the revolving doors, I saw the bus I was to board. It was completely black. It wasn't shiny or dull, it had this shine that made me happy, but it was black, isn't that supposed to make me unhappy? I don't know, but the luster in the black was really and truly magnificent, but I have no way of describing it.
I continued following the other students with green vests on. It was hard to keep up with them because there were so many people scrambling around to get into their right bus. When I reached the big black bus, there was a man in a white t-shirt that greeted all of us.
Trying to shout above everyone's voices, he screamed out, "If everyone would just listen really quickly, I've got something to say. Please get your student cards out and show it to me when you walk into the bus so I can make sure you belong on this bus. After you show it to me, drop it off in the bucket that will be beside me, you no longer need them."
I could barely hear him, but I got it. As all the students scrambled on board, I was shuffling along just like every other student was, to get in the right line that led to my bus. When I reached the black bus, the man in the white t-shirt put out his hand and I gave him my student card. He took a quick glance at it and he dumped it into the bucket beside him.
Oh well, I didn't like that card anyways, my picture was bad. The camera man didn't even tell me he was going to shoot, so I turned out looking all angry, like I was going to kill someone with my evil eyes.
I was the last one to board the bus, so the man in the white t-shirt closed the door behind himself after I got in. The bus looked nothing like I expected. It looked like a huge cabin that was scratched by a bear that was on crack and now we had to sit in it. This was not going to be good ride and I bet we're going to end up in the worst school of all.
As the man in the white t-shirt told the driver to start the engine, he picked up a microphone and began speaking into it.
"Umm, welcome everyone! On behave of your designated area; I would like to welcome you aboard the Black Rain. My name is Mike and I'll be talking to you about the DA that you are all heading to. The drive will be about 1 hour or so, so we don't have a whole lot of time. First of all, I'd like to tell you that you guys are heading to the DA called Olden Days."
Great! I just entered a rain of black and now I'm headed for DA that's old, how much worse can this be?
"I'm going to pass around a few sheets of paper for every one of you. One sheet is the map of the area you are to stay in. The other sheets are directions to get to your cabins and to the "front desk". I would suggest you all to go to the front desk first so you can get a good idea of what's going on. When you reach your cabin area, head to the lobby and you will be given a student card, CD (communication device), memory key, textbooks and your schedules. Then you will be assigned to a room that you share with two other people. Your room mates could be reds or blues or greens, such as yourself. Your first class will be in the gymnasium where you will be taught how to operate your systems. Just to tell you a bit about the systems, they are used to complete your homework."
So as we drove along the road, Mike kept on talking about the school and how it's going to be a wonderful experience and all. As the papers were passed around, I read each sheet and the title it had. Some sheets said Map, Materials list, Procedures, Rules, etc. I read the sheet that said Procedures.
Procedures:
Make sure you go to the lobby and purchase all your materials that are written on the Materials List.
Change into your uniforms
Go into your cabin and settle in.
Make the effort to think of what other items you'll need for your room and roommates
Meet you roommates
Head to your first class
Head to the Dine for supper
Did the sheet just say purchase? I don't have money and I definitely don't have money in my bank either. Great! I don't even have money to purchase my daily needs and my needs for school! Now they're going to kick me out of school! But I am excited about the uniforms part. It seems cool!
Suddenly, the bus stopped and all the students aboard the bus turn their heads to look at the front of the bus. As I looked forward, towards the front of bus, I saw a building completely made of some sort of shiny material. It was probably metal. It was so shiny that the reflection of the sun made my eyes hurt when I didn't even look at it.
Mike stood up from his chair and motioned for us to sit down and listen to him.
"Ok, if everyone would just sit down, I'd like to speak before we exit the bus," Mike told us, "The building up ahead is the "front desk". You can get all your money and information about this place by asking the people in there. After that, just follow the instructions on your Procedure sheet and find your way around your DA using the map I handed out earlier," said Mike, as he motioned the driver to open the door, "Good Luck kids in your new life!"
That was it. I was going to be all alone in this little rabbit maze. I was supposed to run around in this who-knows-what-place to find these little buildings and this place is HUGE! And when I say HUGE, I mean huge! It's like a rabbit in a huge desert looking for a little piece of a carrot!
That's when someone bumped into me.
"Sorry," said a boy about my age with brown moppy hair that almost covered his eyes.
"Umm…no problem…I guess…" I replied. That was stupid, that was my one chance to meet someone for help and I just cut our conversation up! How stupid of me!
"Excuse me, could you help me around this place? I really have nobody to go with and I have no idea what's going on." exclaimed the boy.
"That's what I was going to ask you. By the way, my name's Kazaf. Your's?" I asked politely.
"Oh, sorry, my name is Quint. I'm a green in our school, you?" Quint asked.
"I'm in green too. And it's nice to meet you," I replied.
So, this is how I met my first friend on my journey to who-knows-where. This boy seemed to be pretty nice, but I don't think he's really bright because he talks like he's really nervous and scared of everyone around him. It was pretty funny though.
Chapter 2: Front Desk
As all the students in the bus piled out, Quint and I waited in our own seats for some space to get onto the aisle of the bus. Once most of the students were out of the bus, Quint and I began to walk onto the aisle of the bus. My first step off the bus almost made me fall. The ground was made of big chunks of gravel. They were so big; it could probably twist my ankle if I wasn't careful.
The second Quint and I got off the bus, Mike got off as well, and the bus instantly drove away. I turned to talk to Mike.
"Mike, why did you get off here? Don't you have to go back to school to help other students like you helped us?" I asked.
"Nope, I'm only in charge of your group. I work here now, in a shop where you guys will hopefully be visiting to get any pillows and blankets for your cabin." replied Mike.
"There aren't any pillows and blankets in our cabins? You mean we have to buy it all?" said Quint completely surprised.
"Yeah, that's the way it is in this DA. Not everything is high tech you know. The gadgets and homework tools may be high tech, but the government doesn't care. They just make sure everyone has a place to sleep and a place to eat. They don't' care whether you are comfortable where you're staying. All the government wants is that all of you have a place to stay and eat and that's all they care about! I think it's absolutely outrageous." Mike protested.
As Quint and Mike continued talking, I looked around and saw—nothing. Absolutely nothing! There was nothing but a few shrubs and some gravel here and there. There were also some hills of grass and dirt. It looked like a hill for kings, ha, King of the Hill. That was a fun game when I played it with my friends.
"Come on! Let's go to the Front Desk! I'll tag along since I have nothing to do anyways. My shop doesn't open until 6:00pm and its only 4:30pm. Come on!" exclaimed Mike.
As we walked down the little gravel path, none of us said anything. We were just silent and all I had in my mind was, I want to get some sleep and I want to go and settle into my cabin and sleep forever, or at least until this was all over. I hated this place. It was empty and abandoned and there were no building in site at all!
As if reading my mind, Mike asked, "You're probably wondering why there are no buildings around here. Well, I'll tell ya. There are no buildings around here because we don't want other tourists or any sort of people around here. If people come here and see that there's nothing here and it creeps them out, they won't even get out of the car to ask for directions. They would just drive on. The government just wants you to stay here and get educated to help out in society later on in your years. Anyways, let's go to the Front Desk!"
So the three of us walked towards the Front Desk. As we entered the building, I saw that there was nothing in the building. It was just plain wooden planks and it was boring. As we continued into the building, I saw that there was no line up. The reason was that there were so many "front desks" that there was no line up necessary. There were at least 4-5 desks there and they weren't all occupied. So the women at front desk number 2 waved us over towards her.
We quietly walked towards her and with every step of the way; I could hear my footsteps thumping on the ground. It was weird. When we reached the desk, the women began to talk.
"Hello and welcome to Olden Days. My name is Anne and I've worked here for several years already. So, you guys new comers, or you guys past students?"
"Past students? What's that" I asked.
"Obviously, you're not a past student. Past students are students that have already been here for a year," said Anne as she dug into her drawer and pulled out a few items and folders, "Alright, how about we begin our little tour of this new place you guys are going to call home!"
"Sure." Quint said in excitement. I don't know why he's so excited, I mean, what's there to be excited about?
"Ok. So, there are a few things I need to talk to you about. First of all, I want to talk to you about your dorms. Is there anyone in particular you want to dorm with?" asked Anne.
"Umm….yeah, I want to dorm with Quint if that can be arranged…" I stuttered. It's not like there was anything scary about Anne, it's just that I felt really scared for some reason.
"Alright! I'm pretty sure I can arrange that for you. You might want to know this, but each dorm has to have at least 3 people. So that means you guys will be sharing a room with some other student as well. Do you guys have any other friend or person in mind?" asked Anne.
"No. It's only us two. If you need to add another person to our dorm, we don't mind." Quint exclaimed.
"Ok. So the two of you it is," Anne said, as she began to type information into her computer, "Ok, everything seems to be fine. Now, about your monthly payment. In this DA you get money (or more like points because you can't use this money out of this DA) every month and you have a whole month to use it. If you use it all up and you don't have enough money left, then that's your problem. Or, you could get a loan from us, but you'll repay it by getting less on the next month. If you miss behave, you'll lose some of this money too," she said, as she began to count up sheets of paper that I would assume is money, "Alright, any questions that need answering? Cause if not, we're done here. All you have to do now is wait for your dorm key to print out and I'll go get your money for this month, ok?"
"Ok." Quint and I said. As we waited for Anne to return from the back of the building with our money, I looked around, and I was sort of confused. What's with this point system? Why don't they just give us real money? It was all so weird, so I decided to ask Mike.
"Mike, why don't' they give us real money instead of points? What's the difference?" I asked.
"Well, the difference is that if they actually gave you money, you could just run away with all the collected money, and you would be rich for the rest of your life! You know, you don't even have to work for this money, all you do is behave yourself, and you get money put right to your hands!" replied Mike.
"Do people always run away here?" I asked.
"Well, as a matter of fact, yes. They do. Very often, and you know what? Most of them get caught the next day. The only reason why people run away from here is because they want to live their own style and they think this place treats them really badly. Personally, I agree. You should see the facilities they have here. All the walls and doors are beaten up and nobody ever takes the time to fix them. Like I said before, the government wants all of you people to stay in one place and stop causing trouble." Mike explained.
When I was just about to ask him about this whole problem, Anne came back from the back of the building. She was holding a nice big envelope in one hand and two plastic cards in the other. I was guessing that the envelope must hold the money and the plastic cards must be the dorm keys.
I was right.
"Ok, here you go," Anne said as she handed me the envelope and Quint the two cards, "Quint is holding your room dorm keys and you, Kazaf, are holding the money that you both get for this month, a total of $160.00, $80.00 for both of you. With this money, you can spend it on what you want, your necessities, books, and furniture. We don't care how you spend your money, but we do care that you don't take a loan out everyday because you would be broke if you did. So, you better be heading off, the bus that brings students to the dorm you guys are heading to only comes every 2 hours or so, so get moving!"
And that was it; we were on our way to our dorms. I wonder what our dorms look like. According to Mike, it was like sleeping in a closet, only it's long enough for you to completely stretch out, but that was about it.
We had to wait about 10 minutes before the bus came. We boarded the bus and we were on our way. The bus driver told us that the drive would be about 1hr or so, so he suggested us to go to sleep and get some rest. So I did because I was really tired…and so we go, towards our dorm, our so called "New Home."
Chapter 3: Journey into the underground dorms?
"Psst…Kazaf? You awake? It's time to get up…" right away, I knew it was Quint because of his little tiny shaken voice, plus, he was shaking me violently.
I slowly opened my eyes and tried to focus it on Quint. The sun streaming through the windows of the bus was shining into my eyes, so I sat up and said, "Quint? Are we there already? It feels like I've only been asleep for 10 minutes…"
"Yeah, but it's actually been an hour already. We've stopped, so I think we've arrived at our dorm," said Quint. I slowly unfolded myself from my curled up position and stood up to stretch. It felt good because I've been stuck in the same position for the past hour.
As I looked out the bus window I saw a more populated little town. There was still gravel everywhere, but this place had little tiny stores everywhere. Each store seemed to have its own unique item. One store would sell clothing and only clothing, and another store would sell food, and only food.
"Alright, let's get going, don't leave anything behind!" Mike shouted over the clanking of the bus. With that, Quint and I took our luggage and dragged them behind us and followed Mike off the bus. Once we all got off the bus, the driver quickly drove off, leaving a cloud of smoke for us.
"Ok, let's get you guys checked in and if we have time I'll tour you guys around this place. But you don't want to be late for our first class, which is learning how to use the tools given to you, more on that later," exclaimed Mike.
"Sure." I said. Mike just smiled at me and then he began to follow the gravel path that lead to a building that looked fairly big. It was bigger than the front desk and the front desk was considered huge! The building wasn't made of shiny metal though. It was just wooden planks put together. It didn't look high tech at all.
When we arrived at the door way, Mike turned to face us and said, "Get ready…because this is your new home." I was getting really excited to see this new home of ours. But even if I don't like it, I'm going to have to get use to it, because I'm not going to be going anywhere.
When we walked inside all I saw was—nothing. It was just an empty room. The only thing I saw other than wooden planks were the maps and pictures that were stuck to the walls. Other than that, all I saw was four sides of the building, a floor and a roof. This was totally crazy!
"So….." I said looking around, "this is where were going to live for the rest of my life?"
"Haha…." Mike laughed, "No. Of course not, don't be silly! This is only the beginning. Follow me this way. So Quint and I followed Mike as he began to walk towards the back of the big empty room.
When we reached the back of the room, he looked at us and said, "Not everyone can access your dorm you know, that's why we have all these secret passwords and stuff. Now remember what I do." So we all starred at what he was going to do.
Mike went over to the wall and kept on poking the wood, as if finding some sort of contraption.
"Umm…what are you doing?" I asked, and giving him a really confused look.
"Oh, I'm just looking for that speech hole. The speech hole is where you say your password to get in," Mike replied, and then suddenly, his finger disappeared into the wall, "See? There…this is the speech hole. Now this is what you say, you say 2.18.15.4. This is your code. You want to know how to remember this code?"
"Sure! I'm having trouble remembering it right now. Ha!" Quint exclaimed.
"This is how you remember it. What bus did you guys board to get to this DA?" asked Mike.
"Oh, I know! The Black Rain! Right?" Quint replied in excitement.
"Correct! Now, where are we now?" Mike asked me.
"Umm…in Olden Days?" I answered, not quite sure I was right.
"That's right Kazaf. Ok, now take the first letters of all the words in both these names and put it together," instructed Mike.
As I thought of it for a while I didn't really understand what this guy was saying. What two letters? Of what names? Huh? But as I thought about it some more, it was clearing up. Black Rain, B-L-A-C-K R-A-I-N. The letter B and the letter R should be the two letters form this name since Black starts with B and Rain starts with R. Then, there's Olden Days, O-L-D-E-N D-A-Y-S. The two letters should be O and D. Then Mike told us to put it together, and we get B-R-O-D. But how did Mike get 2.18.15.4?
"I got it! But I don't know how you got the numbers." I told Mike.
"That's ok. I'll tell you now. Did you get the letters Quit?" asked Mike.
"Yeah, I got it. B-R-O-D right?" Quint asked.
"Yeah. Alright now count from A-Z and find out what number B is and what R is and what O is and what D is. Those numbers should be the password code, 2.18.15.4! Cool eh? Try it out!" Mike exclaimed.
I immediately began counting my letters, and to my amazement, he was right! That was really cool!
"Mike, did you make up the codes? It's so cool" I said with excitement.
"Oh, not me, I'm just here to help students like you that's all," exclaimed Mike, "So, shall we get going?"
Mike stood there and said the code in front of the speech hole and about 2 seconds later, I heard a click sound and Mike slowly pushed the whole piece of plank wood aside. When I looked into the open space, all I saw was darkness. Who knows what lies ahead of us, waiting to kill us. But Mike didn't hesitate at all, he just walked into the darkness briskly and I followed with Quint behind me.
Shortly after we all immerged into the darkness, the wood plank closed.
"Mike, where are we?" I asked.
"Well, this is where the adventure begins! Follow me, we've got lots to see!" Mike replied with excitement.
So we followed. I expected him to keep walking forward but he didn't. Instead, I saw his head slowly; bit by bit sink into the ground. It was so dark it was hard to see that Mike actually wasn't sinking; he was climbing down a set of ladders to get down to a lower platform. When I could no longer see his head, I followed. I slowly crouched down on all fours and tried to use my right foot to find the first step. I fumbled around until my foot touched something. I was pretty sure it was the step, so I slowly rested my foot on it, and my other foot followed the ladder down. It was a really long climb, and I thought I lost Mike on my way down. But no sooner did I think that, Mike shouted towards us.
"Hey! Everything ok up there? I can't tell because it's too dark," said Mike, "We should reach the floor soon, so just keep climbing and if there's any need to stop, just holler. Ok?"
"Ok," Quint and I said.
We continued climbing and I was really scared to climb too fast because if I did, I might catch up to Mike and step on his hand or something. So I climbed down at a pretty average speed. The way down wasn't pleasant. Just stepping on the steps of the ladder was weird because there was some sort of slime all over it. I would take a guess and say its moss and I was grabbing these bars too, it was really nasty!
Suddenly, my left foot couldn't find steps to stand on. What am I supposed to do? I think I'm at the bottom, but if I'm not, I'm going to fall and plummet all the way to the bottom! I didn't have time to think, so I made a quick decision, I would keep going and whatever happens happens.
When I stepped down, I stepped on solid ground, which meant I was right about it being the floor! I slowly stepped down and saw Mike. In fact, I saw more than just Mike, behind Mike was a whole little market place where there were little tents put up to sell things to people that were walking around. But this place didn't look ordinary at all. We were in an underground mine! This place was completely surrounded by moss. Water trickled down the sides of the rocky walls. This place was probably used for mining, but now they turned it into a huge cave to sell us their products! Now I'm wondering, are our dorms here, in this mossy cold area?
Shortly after, Quint came down from the ladder tunnel and Mike turned to talk to us, "Alright, that climb was a little freaky, but not to worry, we're not going through any more of those climbs until a long while later," Mike said, while brushing dirt of his white t-shirt, then he said, "Well, this is where you purchase all your little items and high-tech gadgets! Sure it looks like a huge market like the ones you see in Hong Kong, and in fact, it's very similar to one. Which means you guys have to go around finding the materials you need, and of course, try to get the cheapest price too!"
"Cool! Let's get started and make bargains!" Quint screamed in excitement. And he immediately ran for the different shops that were put out.
"Hold it there Quint, there are a few rules I need to tell you before you go spending all you money," Mike said while grabbing Quints arm to stop him from running away, "Now listen, you have to keep in mind that you only have a limited amount of money to spend this month, so don't go getting things that look good and cost a million but works the same way as a crappy looking one. Get something that works and looks "ok" to you. Got it? Also, not everything here is what you need. Look at your materials list and only get the stuff the list tells you to get. Oh, and by the way, there are no refunds here, so don't buy something you're not sure you really want, because then you're stuck with it! Now, go and get your materials and we'll meet back here in an hour," He said, the looked at Quint, who was looking very impatient, and said, "Now, you can go." Mike said, and he let Quint lose.
As I looked around, I saw many clumps of students huddling around different tents. I took out my Materials List from my backpack and looked at it…
Materials List
1. Student card
2. CD (communication device)
3. Memory key
4. Textbooks
5. Schedule
I quickly skimmed the list and looked up to see all the different tents that were selling products. How was I supposed to find a good deal when there are so many shops to shop at? Where do I start? I really had no idea, just then I realized something. I was holding the envelope with all the money in it! Quint didn't even get money and he just ran off! I looked around, hoping to find him among the crowds but I didn't see Quint.
I quickly shoved the Materials List back into my bag and I ran around trying to look for Quint. As I ran around the market, people looked at me, I bet they thought I was some psycho running around this place.
Suddenly, I heard a little commotion and I hear arguing. I chose to ignore, and continued my search for Quint, until I heard some kid say OW, and it sounded a lot like Quint's voice. I immediately ran in the direction of the arguing and I ran through a group of people and saw Quint on the ground. I also saw a bunch of people huddling around him.
I quickly ran to help Quint. Then one of the people around Quint shouted, "HEY! Who are YOU? Get out of my WAY! This kid has touched some of my father's products and now he's not buying them all! What kind of student comes into this DA without money?! And plus, he hasn't got a clue why he's here! HA!"
"Hey! We're new here, so leave him alone! It's not like you were never new here!" I argued.
"Yeah? So what? I am new here, but at least I know the rules here and I have money in my pockets to pay for my mistakes! Loser!" yelled the kid, "Now are you going to pay for this kid or am I going to have to give him a one way ticket to the hospital?"
"I had his money and I forgot to split it with him before we separated to buy our belongings, so there's no need to punch people!" I explained.
"Oh yeah? Whatever, just pay up or else!" the kid said while raising his fists.
"Ok, how much is it going to be to pay for all the trouble?" I asked.
"Hmm….let's see, about… $60.00!" he said.
"WHAT??? That's crazy! That's almost half our money for this month! How do you expect us to live for the rest of this month? Plus, we didn't break anything of yours, we just touched it!" I protested.
"Yah! You're right, you didn't break anything, but I'm gonna break something soon, like your neck!" the kid threatened.
I put a lot of thought in this. Here I am and I had no idea we couldn't touch things unless we bought them, and now we have to give up $60 of our monthly payment juts because we touched something! But the more I think about it, we don't really have much choice, it's either pay, or die…I think I'd go with the pay. We'll just have to live in a very low standard for this month, or maybe even go on a loan…
"Alright. $60 it is." I said, and I handed the kid the money.
"Hehe," the kid snickered, "That's better…better luck next time kid, ha!"
I quickly helped Quint up and he said, "I'm sorry this happened Quint, I didn't mean for this to happen. I was just shopping….what are we going to do now?"
"I don't know Quint, but we'll have to do something... Right now we need to get our materials and get out of here before we get into even bigger troubles." I replied.
"Right!" said Quint. We spent the last half hour and went to many different shops and we found some really nice shop owners and some really nasty ones. We managed to get 2 bargains, and by the end of the hour, we had $34 left in our envelope, which meant each of us only had $17 left for the rest of the month. Luckily, it's already the middle of September, so we don't need to spend as much…but we're still in a lot of trouble.
We were done shopping in exactly an hour, so we headed back to where we came from to meet up with Mike. After a 5min wait, Mike came running towards us.
"Sorry I'm late. I had to prepare the rocket shoot for you guys. Now you guys don't have to wait in line!" he said excitedly, "You guys all got your student cards right?"
"Yeah, I like this picture of me more than the one I had last year in my old school." I exclaimed.
"Good! I'm glad you're satisfied with your cards because these are your cards for this whole year. Now, take those student cards out and take a look at the last number of your ID number." Mike said.
I quickly looked at my ID number and my last number was a 2. I looked over Quint's shoulders and his was too!
"Yeah, your number at the end should be a 2. This tells the people working at the rocket shoot what dorm to send you to. Now, why don't we head to the Rocket Shoot Room, shall we?" asked Mike.
"Ok…." I replied. This was weird. Rocket Shoot? What is that supposed to be? I was a little nervous and at the same time, sort of excited to find out what it was. So, I just followed Mike.
Mike led us across all the tents and people that were shopping. We went right form one side of the room to the other far side of the room. When we reached the other side, there was a metal door and Mike gently turned he knob and it made a little squeaking sound that almost hurt my ears.
When we entered the room, this place completely amazed me! I was expecting the exact same looking room as the other room I was just in. Rocks everywhere, mold all over the walls, and water dripping down walls. But no, this room was completely new looking. The whole room was made of shiny metal. Well, maybe it wasn't metal, but it was definitely some sort of shiny material. It wasn't so shiny that it hurt my eyes, it was just, shiny.
As I walked into the room, I saw many tiny landings that were suspend from the ground. I couldn't see what was on top of these landings, but every so often I would hear a whoosh sound, and then followed by a leaking gas sound. I had no idea what it was. But it made me excited to find out.
Just then a person dressed in a green sweater and blue jeans, walked up to Mike and said, "Hiya Mike! So, you here to escort some kids to their dorms again?"
"Yup, that's right John. So, do you have that tube rocket ready for us yet? I told these kids there would be no waiting..." Mike said joyfully.
"I got it all, no problem! Come on over here!" exclaimed John happily as he waved his hand to follow him.
As we followed him I looked around. If I were to take this room and tell someone how many levels there were, I would say 2, but in fact, there's really only 1. But with all the elevation from the grounds, it seemed like there were two floors here. On the real floor, there were machines, pipes and pumps all working to get something working and moving. What I don't know.
"Alright now, watch your step. I'm going to bring you up to this platform," John said while pointing up at a platform, he said, "by using a little elevator that comes up from the ground and up. It's the only one we have so you guys are really special. As you look around no other platform has something so high-tech. But I must tell you to keep close to each other and stay away from the edges, if you fall off there's no guarantee that you won't break some ribs and wrist bones. AS long as you follow me, nothing can go wrong, ok?"
"Ok," Quint and I replied.
Slowly, John walked onto a piece of metal that was completely flat and merged into the ground. We all followed him onto the piece of metal and then it suddenly began to shake a bit.
"Ok, it's going to go up, so stay close. It may be a very short distance, but if you fall off….I wouldn't know about that…" John explained.
Within 2 seconds or so, the elevator began to move upwards with us standing on top. It was a scary experience. It was like being on a rollercoaster except there were no seatbelts. I felt so vulnerable and that if I moved one inch I would tumble off the platform!
After five seconds of horror, the elevator platform stopped and I immediately jumped off and landed on a tiny platform. This platform had lots of empty space and there was plenty of room for everyone to move around on it.
As everyone got off the elevator platform, I turned to see what was on the platform that made all these gas sounds. When I turned around, I saw something that I saw on television. What I saw was some sort of clear tube that led from the platform and into the wall just in front of me. I was standing behind this crazy object, so I walked around it to see what this thing actually was. As I made my 90° turn towards the front of this object, I saw something that I didn't actually quite understand. What I saw was a smaller and skinnier metal tube that was sitting comfortably inside the clear tube. This metal tube was colored in a dark green color, with shiny silver on the sides, along with screw heads that was sticking out and also visible to the eye. In my mind, a million thoughts ran through my brain. What was this? My best guess would be that this tube looking object that sat in another tube was some sort of transportation that shipped fish or something into space. I actually wasn't sure at all…
"Well…here we are!" said John, while walking towards a set of controls, he said in a cheerful voice, "Welcome to rocket express!" Instantly the little green tube that I was staring at opened up. I don't mean like the whole thing blowing up and opening up. I meant, a little lid opened up from the top of the green tube and when I looked into it, I saw something that really freaked me out. And no, there weren't any fish jumping around in there. What I saw scared me even more.
"Uh…umm…John, why are there seats in this thing?" I asked, afraid to hear his answer.
"Well of course there are seats in there! It wouldn't be very comfortable to sit in if there weren't now would it?" he said laughing at me.
Quint, who was standing behind me, slowly peered over my shoulder to see what we were talking about and then he said, "We're sitting in this? What on earth for?!?"
"Whoa…calm down," John said, and then he turned to Mike and asked, "Hey, didn't you tell them about this? There's so surprised and freaked out!"
"Ha…nah, I wanted to surprise them! And look, it worked! Ha!" Mike exclaimed.
"Oh I see…well you sure got them alright!" John replied, and then he turned to me and Quint, and said, "Well, you guys have to sit in this or you guys can't get to your dorms. This brings you right to your dorm and that's it. If you have to go shopping in that town you saw before you came down here, you just have to…"
"…I'll tell them about that when they get to their dorms..., not need to worry John, you just get us there!" Mike interrupted.
"Right! Alright guys, let's get going! We don't have a lot of time so you guys better get going or you'll miss your first class. I know you guys are scared, but it's very safe and you won't get tipped upside down on your way there. Just sit in there and wait until you arrive at your destination! It's perfectly safe! Although you guys can't see outside of your "rocket", it's not completely dark in there; there is a tiny light in there so you guys can see yourselves and each other. When you guys are done this ride, you will want to go on it all the time!" John explained.
Quint and I exchanged looks and then he said, "Alright, we don't have much of a choice now do we?"
"Great! Now, it's only 2 to a "rocket", you and Kazaf will ride in one and Mike will ride right behind you in a separate one." said John, then he went around us and took our luggage and brought it to the rocket. He pushed a button on the rocket and a hatch opened up. In the hatch was some space to fit in our luggage and that's exactly what John did, he took our luggage and managed to stuff it all into the little hatch.
Then he waved his hand to gesture us to climb into the rocket and said, "All aboard!" Quint and I slowly walked up towards the rocket and we both climbed into the rocket. The seats were made of leather and it was actually fairly comfortable. I sat in the front of the rocket and Quint sat right behind me. Between him and I was a tiny bit of space which was where we put our backpacks since there was no space left in the hatch at the back. In front of both of us was a metal bar, and I assumed that we could grab it and squeeze as hard as we wanted when we travel through that crazy rabbit hole that's in the wall.
John told us to buckle up our seat belts and then he said, "Alright, ready…..? Ok…closing lid….. and we're going to launch in 5 seconds…."
As the lid closed on us, it was dark. I slowly reached to find a button that would turn on the lights and I found it about 2 seconds after. I turned it on and I saw how scared Quint's face looked. I think he was really nervous. I waited and suddenly, I heard an someone's voice.
"Alright boys, you guys ready, because we're launching in 3 seconds……3……2……1…safe trip!" exclaimed John.