Book the 1st
-19-
By Jack Newall
Changes.
For my beloved
friends that
taught me
to never leave
anyone behind.
Hello. My name is Moxie Montgomery. It has just occurred to me that, as this is the 10th millennium and my vocabulary is from the 21st century, I most likely sound like William Shakespeare. It's actually quite possible that by now, the human race has forgotten that name. Honestly, there have been so many changes, it's hard to call this place earth. I remember everything now. It all just makes sense. I remember my parents, my childhood. It's almost a sense of freedom. Let me tell you, just exactly how everything began.
(Day 1)
"Hello and welcome to CHANGE laboratories and test facility. Correct me if any of the following provided information is in any way incorrect." a screechy robotic voice woke me.
I quickly sat up, rubbing my eyes. Shivers from the cold ground jolted through my bare feet as if to make sure I wasn't still sleeping. Soon, I noticed a pair of sneakers at my side. I slipped them on. They were a perfect fit. I looked around and was puzzled by exactly where I was.
"You have been identified as Moxie Montgomery, test subject 221-B. Birth date: April 13th 2007. Age: 7993..." the robotic voice continued.
"Sorry. Um, 7993? 7993 years old? Blimey, I'm quite sure that that information right there isn't very accurate!" I assured the robot.
"Negative. This information has been verified and confirmed. Allow me to introduce myself. I am the official automated voice interface of CHANGE laboratories and testing facility. You can call me Missy." the eerie tone of the interface's wretched voice gave me an unsure feeling about what in the world was happening.
"CHANGE labs is also a world renowned prison and funeral-home." the voice explained.
"Ah! that's a great first impression!" I exclaimed sarcastically. There was no response. As I thought more and more of the matter, I asked myself "If this place is world renowned, then why have I never heard of it?" There was a long silence so I guessed that the interface or "Missy" rather had shut herself off. I checked around the crammed white room. On one side was the intercom I was formerly talking to, and printed above were the words "CELL #221B". On the opposite wall was a toilet in the left corner, and in the right was a small door labeled "WATER". Inside was, as I expected, a plastic cup of water. In the middle of the wall was a huge, chunky, round, tempting door. "Ugh" I thought to myself when I found out it was locked. I checked my clothes just once. I was wearing a nice bright orange dress with a symbol on it. It was a circle that consisted of six black dots and in the middle, was a "C". I tried to remember what I would usually wear, but I couldn't. I couldn't remember anything. When I tried to remember, it hurt. It was absolutely painful.
(Day 2: Test 1)
"Ah." I thought to myself. "I'm locked in some insane, bonkers prison cell or something, I'm almost certain that this is some coma endured dream, I can't seem to remember a thing and..." as I was gathering my thoughts, I was interrupted by the screeching sound of the door at my side opening. The disruption was followed by the charming sound of simultaneous gunshots coming from behind the huge, chunky, tempting, round door. I jumped to my feet and very steadily peeked my head in the doorway. For only a split second I had the chance to glance at what was at the door before whatever it was opened fire at me. Beyond the great chunky door, I saw yet another white room, with a thing in it. A weird pod like thing. It stood on three legs and stared at me through its large red eye. It was a turret. It immediately started shooting at me, however, I jumped back out of it's view before it could hit me. My heart skipped a beat and I could feel sweat dripping down my face and my long curly hair catching it before the tiny drops could hit the ground. I took a moment and thought over my options. "I could be cowardly and restrain from moving at all or rather, doing something stupid and end up getting myself killed, or..."suddenly, I thought up a brilliant, slightly risky idea! Okay, maybe 50% risky idea. The ceiling panels. "With much ease" I thought to myself "I could pop out a couple of those panels from that metal frame!"The panels sat effortlessly above. It was so much so that it was as if they were asking to get booted out actually quite literally. With a sneaker. About two layers of those could be bullet proof." I guessed. I then took my shoe off and, one by one, knocked out the tiles. I used them in such a way to make them a full body shield. I quickly waddled past the little robot without being harmed. Finally, when I was behind it, it was harmless. Without hesitation, I tore out its batteries and bullet packs, and kept its shell in my cell, in case it could come in handy. I placed it facing the wall that it had just recently damaged and waited for something interesting to happen. Anything to happen. And for several days nothing interesting happened at all.
(Day 4: Test 2)
On day four there was a leak in the ceiling, The little turret was shooting sparks, and in the testing room through the huge, chunky, tempting, round door was a small metal box. An anxious whirring sound was coming from inside it. It was heavy and weird and had a key pad with the numbers
"7 8 9
4 5 6
1 2 3
0"
It was a curious little thing. Trying to type in the correct pass code was quite an efficient way to pass the time, and every time I typed in the wrong sequence, the box let out a giant shriek. When the corrupted turret started shooting sparks absolutely everywhere, I was fed up ad threw the box at it. The sparks stopped. Hooray.
(Day 5: Test 3)
I was wearing a bit thin by then thanks to limited food. I was actually starving. And in the test chamber was a root-beer float. It smelled phenomenal. Perhaps it used to be one of my favorite foods.
"This test is a measurement of willpower." Missy said. The sound of that voice put me in shock. The last time I heard that dreary artificial voice was five days ago.
"Have you considered the possibility that the drink presented in front of you is a little something more than just root-beer and ice-cream?" the voice continued.
"Any of the scenarios you choose will probably result in death. Poison, starvation, or perhaps, you won't starve, or the float isn't poisoned. It's your choice." the annoying garbage coming out of the intercom wasn't very relaxing. At all. Who knew resisting food while starving was so hard. I picked up the box and mashed down keys. The annoyance of the shrieking overpowered the temptation of the float. Minutes and minutes passed until the door shut. Even if I changed my mind and wanted it I couldn't have it. Fingers crossed I don't starve!
(Day 7: Test 4)
I could hear intimidating roaring coming from inside the test chamber. The roars echoed into my cell like an earthquake focused in my direction. The huge, chunky, tempting, round door hasn't opened yet. I put my ear up to the door to try and figure out what it was. Suddenly, I was started by scratching at the door from the other side. It was probably a lion. A huge, bulky, intimidating, ferocious lion. The door started making groaning wheezing noises, and then it opened. I was correct on the huge, chunky, intimidating, ferocious lion theory. It slowly entered my cell in a sly fashion as if it was its domain. It made snarling noises whilst it circled me, trying to decide when to attack. I could almost feel adrenaline rushing through my body. I tried everything to tame it. I attempted to pet it but resisted and scratched my leg. I shushed it, and sang it a lullaby, and played dead but nothing seemed to work. It started breathing heavily and getting closer and closer. Finally it pounced but I dodged out of the way, being missed by an inch. It skidded on the floor then once again ran at me. This time it scratched my arm. I couldn't run anymore, as my leg wound started to sting. I now knew that this was the end. I had to do whatever I could to survive. Panic rushed through my head until I let out a piercing whistle. The lion practically froze, then let out a whining whimper and then proceeded to return back to the test chamber, walked around in a circle twice then plummeted itself on the ground and dozed off to sleep. After that was taken care of, I was going to tend to my claw scrapes. They both stung but then I noticed that I was bleeding BLUE blood. BLUE BLOOD. Not to brag, but I'm smart. If I don't have red blood, it must mean that I'm not breathing air, but some other gas instead. Now that's just plain creepy.
(Day 8: The final Test)
On day eight, there was a round, curious looking elevator in the test chamber. It appeared kind of flimsy and consisted of a couple of bars with foam protection, and a round platform. I grabbed the box and slowly stepped on until it begun descending. It lead way, way down through a clear tube. It kept switching from being speedy to sluggish. I was actually in there for roughly two minutes. It began slowing until it came to a stop. I stepped out into once again a white room. But this time it was round in width. And this time, there were others. I saw another girl, about my age, 16, I saw a young boy, maybe 9 or 11, and I saw a boy, also probably 16, who stood up immediately to shake my hand and introduce himself.
"My name is Turfield "Turf" Split, and these are Marceline and... sorry, what's your name?" the boy asked.
"Axel!" the younger one exclaimed.
"We were all just introduced. I'm from 2046, Marcy's from 1963 and Axel's from 2118, and you are..." Turfield waited for me to finish his sentence.
"Moxie Montgomery...2007. Heheh, yea, that's it. 2007. It's funny how you can forget those things." I said. Suddenly Marceline burst into a coughing fit. She spewed a bit of blue blood onto the white floor.
"It's oKAY! THIs has been haPPENING FOr a while now!" She managed. We all rushed over to her. I was unsure of what to do and panicked.
"Umm um uh um, did you take the food from the test chamber?" there was a pause.
"...yea." she spoke. Then she stopped moving. Her pupils started growing until the swallowed her eyes whole. Then she began bleeding out her eyes. Her entire body was still and her heart stopped beating. She was dead. We all stood back and we shed a some tears. I lifted my head and stared at the security camera.
"hhhhh." I shivered. "hhhhhooOW DARE YOU!...y yy yy y you mONSTERS!" I wailed. By now my face was covered in tears. Suddenly a door opened and caught our attention. I walked to the door with Turf, with Axel standing close behind. I sensed him look back just once at the body and let out a small gasp as if he was sure that what just happened wasn't real. What we then saw was a huge corridor with a great long platform, about 200 meters, that stretched across through the middle of the room all the way to the other side. In the wall were shelves with turrets all lined up in a row and below the platform was what seemed to be an acidic pond; if you fell off, there would be no coming back. Halfway down the platform was a tent marked "HALF-WAY POINT".
"Hold on, what was that box you brought down?" Turfield asked. "I don't know." I responded
"I found it on my fourth day in the test chamber."
"That's funny." Turf said. "On my fourth day I got a piece of scrap paper. It says 1576." Just then I gasped.
"Of course!" I scrambled onto the floor and typed
"7
5 6
1
"
Then the box opened and inside was a... T-bone steak.
"O k a y...?" I said in confusion. "I wasn't expecting that."
"Lets get going then, shall we?" Turfield said in his sharp British accent.
"NO! We can't! There's turrets out there that'll blast hour head off in a second flat!" Axel piped up for the first time.
"Well, what did you do to get past them the first time?" I asked in a slightly sassy tone.
"Hid." said Axel in ashamed tone.
"Told it to self-destruct." said Turf in a prominent tone.
"Wait. You can just tell it to self-destruct?!" I asked.
"Yep!" Turfeild said.
"And it worked?!" I asked.
"Yep!" Turfeild said.
"Then why don't we just tell them to self-destruct right now?" Suddenly, a blasting screech interrupted. It was the intercom.
"Hello kids!" it was the disgusting robot known as Missy. "And Turf." She said in a snarly voice.
"Missy and I have a close argumentative relationship." Turf said under his breath.
"Today, you have the honor of attempting to survive in our final test. Although, I have measured each of your IQ's and physical states and science concludes that you aren't capable of succeeding. If you happen to make it to the end alive, you will be given the chance to leave CHANGE labs once and for all or stay, and become a RoboForm like me." the despicable voice explained.
"What's a RoboForm?" I asked and both Turf and Missy answered simultaneously.
"A RoboForm is a human or any other life form of which has been executed, however, the intelligence is saved to a hard-drive. It is superior to any human, as it has the ability to delete any previous flaws or imperfections and add external data and intelligence simply through code."
"That is all. You may begin." said Missy.
"Ahahahahahem!" Turf cleared his throat. "You ready?" he asked Axel and I in a very quiet voice.
"Whenever you are." I responded.
"...ACTIVATE SELF-DESTRUCT!" he hollered. Then it was so silent that it was almost as if the room were mocking us. Absolutely nothing happened.
"Okay then. What did you do to get past your turret?" Turf asked. And soon enough we were all back in the round room throwing or shoes at the ceiling. When we were all covered in ceiling tiles and I grabbed my box, we slowly and steadily walked across the beam careful not to fall into the acid below. I was in front, Turf was in the back and Axel was in the middle. I could tell that we were all shaking with fear. Just once, Axel started to lose his balance but I stepped back and Turf stepped forward and together we kept him stable. Eventually we made it all the way to the tent. We took off our armor and took a moment to relax. We took a deep breath and stepped out from the back of the tent. On this side there were no turrets but there was a gurgling sound coming from below. The acid pool started rising. At the end of the beam was a dark room. Along with the gurgling was growling, and out of the shadows stepped a lion. The three of us all whistled at the exact same time but that didn't change the lion's mind. It continued walking towards us and the acid continued rising. I looked up and noticed bandages where it's ears used to be. Our hearts started pounding in our chests. By now we had a 5% chance of survival. All of the sudden, Axel ran back into the tent with an idea and threw out the steak. The lion pounced at it immediately. It was satisfied whilst it tore at it savagely. Suddenly, the lion tripped and fell into the acid pool.
"Oh Axel, I could bloody kiss you!" I exclaimed. The acid was still rising so we ran as fast as we could into the dark room and through a door. We slammed it as our lives depended on it. We took a minute to catch our breaths.
"Congratulations. You made it out of the final test chamber." Missy said.
"We made it out of HELL." Turfeild argued. It is in a situation like this when you do not argue with someone who provided you with seven deathly scenarios for the soul purpose to see how easily humans die.
(The End)
We made our way through a turret factory and past a lion training room. We found ourselves in a dark grey room. This was the end of our journey. There was a huge, chunky, tempting, round door, except this time, it had a timer just above it.
"This is a timed door." Missy explained. "You have 10 moments to decide whether to leave the facility, or to stay as a RoboForm."
10.
Turf and Axel stepped outside without hesitation. I stayed in the room.
9.
"C'mon, what are you waiting for!?" Turf yelled.
8.
"Remember how we were test subjects #200 and something?" I said. "There must still be hundreds of people still in there." I said.
7.
"Moxie, stop it, you're scaring me." said Turf. "You're not staying there. Now get OUT!" Turf screamed.
6.
Axel began tugging on my arm but I made him let go.
5.
"Moxie, I..." Turfield said. A tear dripped from his face. Both of the boys had worried expressions on their faces.
4.
They were worried that I was actually going to stay. "So many people are going to suffer and die. I need to do whatever I can to save them." I said. I was crying now too.
3.
2.
1.
And the door shut. The light that shone from outside gave me hope. It gave me power, and now I have to do my part. Hello. My name is Moxie Montgomery. It has just occurred to me that, as this is the 10th millennium and my vocabulary is from the 21st century, I probably sound like William Shakespeare. It's actually quite possible that by now, the human race has forgotten that name. Honestly, there have been so many changes, it's hard to call this place earth. I remember everything now. It all just makes sense. I remember my parents, my childhood. It's almost a sense of freedom. And this, is only the beginning.
Hello. My name is Moxie Montgomery. Honestly, there have been so many changes, it's hard to call this place earth. They do cruel things to people here. I looked around and was puzzled by exactly where I was. I tried to remember, but I couldn't. I couldn't remember anything. When I tried to remember, it hurt. It was absolutely painful. So let me tell you, just exactly how everything began.
-19-