K.I.D
By Alex Zhang
WARNING:
THIS IS A VERY DANGEROUS BOOK. PEOPLE HAD KEPT IT SACRED FOR MANY YEARS BECAUSE OF ITS DANGERS. BUT NOW, SCIENTISTS HAD THE CONVINCING THAT IT WAS SAFE, AND THEY BLEW THE SEAL UP. IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO BE HARMED, CLOSE THIS BOOK RIGHT NOW, YOU HAVE A BETTER CHANCE OF SURVIVING. IT IS BETTER FOR YOUR OWN WILL. IF YOU WILL TAKE THIS AS A SCIENCE FICTION YOU WANT TO USE AS YOUR BOOK PROJECT OR SOMETHING, GO AHEAD. BUT FIRST, I, THE AUTHOR, HAVE ONE WORD TO SAY TO YOU:
Beware.
Chapter 1: Maria
My name's Maria. I'm an average teenager at Billboard High. I just turned 18 2 days ago. I had the great feeling like I had accomplished something. Now, people call me a kid around town. I'm still being fussed that I'm a kid. I absolutely HATE being called a kid. It bugs me so much. I shout back to them angrily, 'TO REMIND YOU, I'M 17!'Then they mutter something, give me a stare, and walk away. I loved the feeling. 1 year passed, and I'm now an official teen. I'm 18, and I live with my mom in Illinois. My dad would come visit every Christmas, so I'm always excited for it, even though I'm a teen. "MARES!" that was my mom. She calls me Mares as my family nickname. "Coming, Mom!" I shout back. My phone buzzes. It's a text message from my best friend Lizzie. "My dad passed away yesterday. Sorry if you called me," said the text message. My eyes widened. Lizzie was super sensitive, and she'd recover from a PET dying in a few MONTHS. But apparently, for her dad, she recovered in a day. I guess her mom had a lot of the crying, and Lizzie was the actual one trying to cheer up someone. I try to text back, "Your dad passed away? I'm so Sorry, Lizzie. Want me to come over, to cheer you up?" before I sent it, a loud crash came from the kitchen. I threw down my phone and ran down the stairs. My mom was lying on the floor, with a blue arcade card stuck into her apron. I was stunned for a few minutes, and then sat down on the stairs, crying and looking at her. But then I realized Mom always had random faints like this, so I wiped the tears from my eyes, kissed her on the cheek, took the arcade card, and walked out the door. But I didn't know I would almost never come back.
As I walked out, I thought of Lizzie's dad mysteriously passing away. It made me feel bad, imagining how Lizzie looked right now. She must be in her room; looking sadly at her wall she called Homer. Lizzie had a great expression, but as I said, she was super sensitive. I didn't even send the text! I'll send it after I spend this, I thought. Arcades were my favorite place to go to, and I took it whenever I had the chance. I stopped by the arcade and walked in. I put the card in the slot. The ticket man's eyes glowed like 3 carat jewels. "The game has begun," He said with a glare. My world went black.
Chapter 2: Ryan
I was terrified. My dad was watching T.V. when his beer bottle crashed on the table, his phone babbling. He was on the couch, drooling like a sleeping golden retriever. Well, I know that by experience, since I have a golden retriever named Kenny at my house. I picked up the phone to listen in. But the conversation had faded away into a different one. "Pick up the blue arcade card in your dad's hand," the baffling voice said. "Your fortune is in it." It hung up, and a mysterious blue arcade card appeared in my dad's hand. I took it, and went out to skateboard to my arcade center. Lizzie, my girlfriend, was awfully disappointed and depressed today because her dad had passed away the day before.
When I got there, the door was open but the center was closed. No arcade games were working, but the tokens machine that gave you the coins when you give it money was. That man, whoever it was, I don't care. But he said it was my fortune… I better slide it in, I thought. I slid the card in. The doors locked. The arcade tokens machine showed 3 letters and then the infinity sign. The arcade center overflowed with coins. I was overflowed. I drowned into yellow coins, and suddenly I remembered what the 3 letters were: K, I, and D. Kid, I thought.
Chapter 3: Lizzie
My room was dark. It had been 2 days since my dad passed away, and one day since my best friend Maria had disappeared. I knew she was gone, weirdly enough, because she ALWAYS answers text messages, like, in the next 10 seconds. My dads stuff had disappeared [don't ask me why. I'm already stressed out.] And the only thing he had left was a blue arcade card, saying in big letters, GOOD LUCK, LIZZIE.
I de cided to use the card today, by all means. I slung on a T-shirt and some shorts, and got out my bicycle to ride to the arcade Maria and I used to go to, but strangely, it was pitch black, and the only light was from the strange ticket man's eyes. It crept me out, so I rode my bicycle as fast as I could. Then I went to where my boyfriend, Ryan, and I went when we were bored. Again, the room was pitch black, but I could also make out some arcade coins on the floor. I rode to another arcade, and this time, it was full of people. I dashed in, excited, and never to come out.
I shuddered when I put the card in. It was my only memory of Dad. But I slid it in by force. I watched the card; the only memory of dad, vanish. Suddenly, the wild arcade people disappeared. The games disappeared. The letters K, I, and D were slid across the room. The room had turn into an elevator.
Chapter 4: Maria
My fondness disappeared when I found myself in a peaceful place with odd creatures and puzzling mountains. My clothes had turned into a bunch of leather, leather jacket, leather pants, and leather shirt. It felt odd. The birds were singing, just like in the movies. One thing was different. I had my phone in my hand, tucked up as if it was there forever.
I opened it to text Lizzie "WHERE AM I, LIZZIE?" When I opened it, it showed WELCOME TO K I D. LEVEL ONE: Fields of Happiness. Then it went to a selection of CHOOSE YOUR WEAPON. I chose the Katana. Something like a heat wave dropped a Katana down to the ground. I picked it up and put it into my case, [I didn't know it was there] and there it was, in the open.
Chapter 5: Ryan
When I woke up, it felt like I just woke up from a camp that had a ton of mosquitoes. My back had sprung, and my face stun. I could barely walk. I was in my Leather Jacket Dad had gave me a few years ago, some shorts and a smiley T-shirt. My phone was in my pocket, so I immediately took it up, wanting to call Lizzie, my girlfriend. It went BEEP and a bunch of ninja weapons popped out of nowhere… then I remembered the dream. Or was it a dream? The tokens had squeezed me to death, there was no way dreams had that much pain. Plus, I could smell the coin odor on me. There was no doubt. This 'dream' was real for real. I pressed the one for Lizzie's number and pop: It showed up.
Chapter 6: Lizzie
I was greeted by a bunch of LIZZIEs and OH MY GOD BE ALIVE PLEASEs. It was a sunny day, but I woke up in the middle of nowhere, greeted by the strange ones, Ryan and Maria. I muttered 'This is not happening' and hugged them. This place was too strange, and we had to figure out what. We walked around, happy like munchkins. But Maria was suspicious of something, and it was obvious. I asked her what was on. She said it was THE FIELDS OF HAPPINESS. "Sorry… It's just… We'll all die here if we stay… We have to move on." I and Ryan acted confused, but I got it right after I made the 'What?' face. It was supposed to make everyone so happy that they'd die here? "We've got to get out of here…" I said. We were so doomed if we didn't get out on time.
Chapter 7: Maria
I was happy to see Lizzie and Ryan again, but the words Fields of Happiness were clear to me: I had to get out of here. I took Lizzie and Ryan's shirts and ran up a mountain. "We have to hurry if you want to live," I said. I looked at Ryan, and he didn't seem so happy about the fact that we were leaving the Fields of Happiness. We ran and ran, until we saw a sign saying; export out of Fields of Happiness: ½ mile away. Ryan sat down and grunted. I glared at Lizzie, either saying, why'd you be this dude's girlfriend? Or Can I slap this idiot of yours, Lizzie? She seemed to nod and touched her cheek and made an OUCH face. So I walked up to Ryan, and said, "What's up, Ryan?" He replied, "Nothing much, you?" I said, "This is what's up, loser." I slapped him on the cheek and yelped "Ryan Bernard Karee, you better get up this instant!" Ryan shot up and started running. Lizzie and I chuckled, and ran out to catch him.
But that was only the beginning of our trip to death.
Chapter 8: Ryan
After I got slapped by crazy Maria (A.K.A Lizzie's crazy best friend), we ran out the Fields of Happiness, or that's what Lizzie's crazy best friend said. I was happy there, and I wasn't done there yet. I still had to catch a dozen butterflies to beat my record. And guess what my record was? -7. That's right. I, so far, killed 18 butterflies. I had to get -6 to beat my record. You're probably thinking failure, right? I agree I'm the type of very many failures.
It was a pleasure to meet the slapping-a-boys-face girl in a game like this happy one, stalking our every step. But I and Lizzie never knew…
We need Maria, and literally.
Chapter 9: Lizzie
We marched through the several woods, plains, and mountains before we got to the exit of the Fields of Happiness. It was nothing as we expected. Many people were sitting in benches like they were there for the whole year. I hated the look of it.
As we looked around the station, we also saw a bunch of signs saying LEVEL 2: THIS WAY, THAT WAY. We were already at level 2, and there were a bunch of doors leading this way or that way. I explained that if we went one way, dangers would cross, and if the other way, moves on to the next doors. Ryan seemed to understand, nodding his head like a demented dog. Maria was shivering at the thought. We would go through lots of risks to get to level 3. And we all knew that, even though we were all afraid to walk one step forward to the door of death or the door of heavens. The door of heavens would just lead to another door of death, and eventually something tragic would strike. As I stood up and motioned for Maria and Ryan to come, they were too scared to even move a foot.
I was too scared.
Chapter 10: Maria
We were on our way to our quest in this way that way, but me and Ryan were not getting up, no matter how hard we despised our bodies or lifted them. Lizzie was standing there waiting, and I couldn't leave her to the quest herself. So, with all my might, I lifted my body. I didn't look, but I could tell that Ryan was frowning. So I backslapped him.
I pointed to the door on the right, and we all agreed. I opened the door to a creak. "Looks like we just got our road to the door of heavens!" I shouted. We all cheered. I walked in-
Chapter 11: Ryan
We ran inside. Maria went up the ceiling on the first step into the room. Lizzie glared at me worriedly. I turned my back on her, and stared at the ceiling. When I looked back at Lizzie, she was gone. I gripped my Kunai. The only person this could be… I knew. "Here lies Maria Stry…" Anubis jumped down. "Don't do a funeral yet, Mr. Karee. I need more then two in this room. And that means I need one for…" Anubis pointed greasily at me. I grit my teeth and threw a Shuriken at Anubis. He simply waved it away like it was a big exercise ball. I threw more. He waved more. The more I threw, the more he waved. I threw a Shuriken and charged with my Kunai knife. Anubis grunted and bent the Kunai. I took out another one. He grunted and I screamed," I NEED A SHIELD!"
But nothing came.
Chapter 12: Ryan
(Authors Note: Lizzie's side of the story would just be MMFFF RRFYYY! So we had to stick with Ryan telling the story.)
I thought that if my last Kunai in stock was bent by Anubis's 'grunt', I would be dead. But I was wro- [don't get your hopes up Mr.] right. Anubis kept screaming sonic booms at me. We were equally matched. Nobody could touch each other, and my battle went on for hours, until my arms became sour.
I was tired. My back still swarmed from the squeeze of the coins. I just wanted to plop down, say "you win" to Anubis, and go to sleep. But I couldn't. My friends were up there, and I couldn't just go with them. I had to rescue them…
But how would I rescue them? I began planning out. There was no furniture here, just an empty room with some weapons, me and Anubis and his body weapons. Anubis was the Egyptian god of funerals… That was it! He'd somehow take over Anubis's mind with that information! "Hey… Anubis." I managed to put a slight grin on my face. Anubis looked confused. "Are you going to give up?" My grin went away. Fury rose in my chest. "No, and I'll never. You and your clumsy funerals… you call yourself a god? What is this?" Anubis looked offended. "My job is nothing but a…" "Piece of junk?" I interrupted. Anubis crept down and turned into a jackrabbit. He charged toward me. I squinted. This was my chance.
We collided and I chucked a piece of Shuriken at the jackrabbit. It merely even tried to dodge it. I squinted harder. 3… 2… 1… Now! I thought to myself. I swiftly threw another one and this time it got him. He moaned crazily while he turned back into human form. Sweating, panting, I collapsed.
But before I collapsed, I heard thumps of bodies on the floor.
Chapter 13: Lizzie
I watched every part of Ryan trying to defeat the Egyptian god of funerals. It was terrifying, seeing him like that. I haven't even seen him in his life like this. His whole body was sweating horridness. I couldn't take it anymore, but there was nothing to break out of Anubis's famous mummy wrap. You'd have to kill him. So Ryan did exactly that, and he succeeded. We decided to rest a while before we even tried to touch a doorknob. As I slept, I dreamed of Anubis. "Young lady," he said. "This is only the beginning of your journey." Anubis handed me a fork. "Put it to good use." He said. I stared at the fork and before my manners took over I said, "What the heck is a fork going to help?" Anubis glanced at me wearily, like the I have no hope in you now, child face. I glanced back at him, giving him the Hey, the person who just killed you would protect me face. The dream cleared, and I was standing on a hill. I recognized it perfectly. It was where my Dad died. Suddenly all of my memories came back. My family was walking on a hill when dad decided to go get some hot dogs.
When he came back, we were set up for a picnic. It started raining, so Dad told us to run in the car. "Not without you, Daniel" was what Mom said. But he shooed us away anyway, and he was electrocuted while picking up the fruit basket. Anubis said something I made out as: Kid Identification Dome.
I woke up. Unfortunately, everyone was awake too. I felt something in my pocket. I made out a 3 pointed… I took it out. It was a fork. Ryan sneered at me. "You bring random things at random times," he said. I shrugged. "Must be from breakfast," I said. I was cleaning out the fork, when I had to say, "What's a Kid Identification Dome?" They shrugged. "We heard it too," Maria said. Suddenly, Ryan bolted up from where he was sitting and said, "K.I.D! Can't you see? K.I.D means Kid Identification Dome!"
Chapter 14: Maria
Yes, it was GREAT to think about. We kids are being identified by something or someone who wants to take over the universe. Unfortunately, we were all too tired and scared to open the next door. We decided to take the left one this time. Ryan opened the door, and it felt like a campsite. There was a man roasting a fish, sitting. "Don't worry," he said, "This is the heavenly door." He had a beard, and looked like one of those people who were stranded on an island for too long. "Who are you?" I demanded. He smiled. "What's my name? It's Garrett, for your information." Garrett said. We nodded. "I have a question, Garrett, why are you here, sitting in this room?" I asked. Garrett smiled glumly. "They captured me and put me in this room, guiding the people who opened the heavenly door." "They?" Lizzie managed to ask. "The people who are managing this game," he said. "I cannot give you that piece of information, for they will take my head if I do." We stared at each other. These "Managers" are bullying everyone… I blinked. This can happen. "I know why we're here now," I said.
Chapter 15: Ryan
Maria's face was priceless, but I managed not to laugh. "Ok, ok, Ms. Know-it-all, why are we here?" But Maria was serious. The grin on my face vanished. Who would be happy when someone was so solemn? "The managers of the game summoned us to see if we could destroy them. Obviously, they're strong, because they're taking serious chances to test out their abilities. We have to train our strength, or else we have no chance of surviving." Maria exclaimed, making Lizzie bite her fingernails till they broke. The sight was dreadful. I closed my eyes. I tried to understand the subject. Ok, so we're going to die if we don't 'train'… I thought, to destroy the managers of the game our lives our in… "Guys," I said. "They can banish our lives from the game if we get too close to them… We'll need some kind of hack." Garret whispered, "Count that on me. Banishing lives in this game is illegal," He said. "They wouldn't do it even if they had too. But they're strong, so they're not really taking any chances. You guys, all 3, have absolutely no match against them. You have to train your skills at level 3." We nodded. "We should really get going," Lizzie exclaimed. "I'm in the sort of determined mood. Let's go, guys and girls." We nodded again. I stood up, and motioned for Maria to come.
When we opened the left door, it was completely outdoors. There was an auburn sun, and below it the colorful beach and shells. Oddly, though, no one was playing in the beach or ocean, so we helped ourselves with happiness. "HEAVENLY DOORS RULE!" Lizzie shouted.
But it was a trap.
Chapter 16: Lizzie
Oddly, we were back in the real world 'til Ryan yelled, "ITS A TRAP!" This gargantuan laser came streaming down to the earth onto Maria. Someone screamed. "What was that?" I yelled, wishing I had my asthma inhaler. The smoke was everywhere. "Sorry," Ryan said. "That was me…" Wow, I thought. But there was no time to think. I had to save Maria. She was just hit by this… this… thing!
Maria was badly hurt. Her leg muscles were showing. She was shivering in the hot breeze. Ryan seemed to understand when I hit him in the thing. GO GET MEDICAL HELP, I transferred. He ran to the road and got in a hybrid and down he went. I shook my head. Maria was grasping her breath. The only thing I heard from her was "Uhhh. Unggghhh… Unghhhh!" I cooed in, "Maria, don't worry alright? Ryan's going to get medical help!" Maria tried to speak, and I made out something like I can't depend on that stupid idiot my life! I didn't smile at all. In fact, I frowned. Maria was shaking her body. Her bones clattered. I didn't know what to do next.
Chapter 16: Maria
I couldn't move. I had a million broken legs right here, and Ryan is going in a hybrid to seek medical help. When he came back, I was so glad, I went into tears, but I couldn't cry. The pain was to strong. The two things Ryan had in his lap was this robot thing in the shape of a leg and a knife. He was glum. "We have to amputate Maria's leg," he said. "And replace it with this leg." I freaked. Lizzie had to hold me still. "I'm scared, Ryan." Lizzie said. Ryan was silent. I closed my eyes. Well, until this sharp pain in my leg started.
Chapter 17: Ryan
I hated the squish splash of Maria's blood. I hated violence. I hated gore. I hated everything that has to do with blood. I wouldn't eat stake since it had blood. Poor cows, I thought. But I had to cut into Maria to save her. It was my only choice. I got to the bone and cut all the skin off. I tightly closed my eyes, until Maria gave me The Great Moan. I started sliding in the robotic leg. It wasn't transparent, but the bone would disappear when I slipped it on. I was relieved. But Maria still had some pain. I said, "Go to sleep." Maria murmured something like "Stupid Bryan," and went to sleep.
Quality time with Lizzie was 10 % nice and 90 % awkward. We just sat on the beach, looking at the ocean. No one spoke a word, except maybe Maria snoring in deep sleep. I had to admit, the sight was nice. It was like someone out there rewarded you for overcoming your fear. But why was it all me? Why did I have to do the work?
I had no idea what was coming next. We would have to team up or die.
Chapter 18: Lizzie
I couldn't stand it. Maria just got a robot leg. And it looked terrible. And the color red? Please, I hated it beforehand. Ryan carefully put Maria's leg in the ocean to be washed, and then we made a grave to bury it. Maria was fast asleep, but looking at her leg was one of the most horrible things in this world. I always dare myself to peek at the leg. The sun was beautiful. The memories came back. I heard this Pew, a blast on Maria's leg, and there it happened. I don't know what caused it, but I could tell that we had to get out. I took out Marias Katana and started drawing things on the sandy beach floor. I drew a bunch of things. My phone, iTouch… just all that a typical girl would have. Then I drew this door to symbolize we needed to get out. I drew it heavenly so maybe it could… Then something in my pocket moved. I took out the fork. It was growing into something like a twig. I drew a door with the twig, and BAM. A door appeared. I grinned. "Ryan," I said. "Get Maria out of her sleep. We're going out of here."
Chapter 19: Maria
Dawn broke and I woke up. In my face was ugly Ryan. "Well that's great," he said. "Lizzie, she's not in a coma." I sat up strait¸ and there was a door in front of me. I stood up, stumbling down. I looked at my right leg sadly. It was gone, buried, in deep sand. I managed to stand and walk. Lizzie helped me along.
We walked in the door, and this time we were in the village. LEVEL 3, it said. TRY TO DEFEAT THE MAKERS. Our eyes widened. "No," Ryan said. "Garret was a trap. All 3 doors were traps. Where is our luck?" He exclaimed. "We didn't get any training and now we have to destroy them," I whimpered. "That's not exactly true," Lizzie said. "I got some at the beach… I taught myself.'' Lizzie grabbed the fork out of her pocket we teased her about a while ago. It turned into a brown like cylinder. She drew something like a sword and it popped out and dropped to the floor. "I'll take that," she said proudly. "That's… amazing." Ryan said.
We were having a fun time with Lizzie's power until the village tuned into darkness. We backed up like back to back in 3 wise. There were a bunch of lizards spiraling towards us. "Here we go," I said. We all concluded we were in BIG trouble.
Chapter 20: Ryan
The dazzling sight of Lizzie's fork disappeared when these monsters you see in movies started coming up. A man showed up on a platform. Lizzie gasped, and fell onto her knees. I looked at the man. When I saw who it really was, my jaw opened automatically. "Well, well, well," Lizzie's dad said. "My daughter, you've brought some company. Great, we'll start with that one." Mr. Rackey pointed at Maria. She flinched and backed a step. Lizzie whimpered crazily. "DAD! Get out of my life! You get out of our family's lives just to take over the world?" Lizzie got out her fork. "You jerk!" She growled. Mr. Rackey was furious. Lizzie Rackey, you throw one more needle at me you will…" Lizzie drew a needle and picked it up. She chucked it hastily at her dad. It went into his wristwatch, and the crystal stair below him broke. He fell to the ground, us looking at his every attempt to get back up. Maria did this thing with her hands and something blue appeared in front of us. "A shield…" Ryan whispered. Maria shrugged. "How should I know?" was her answer.
Mr. Rackey got back up and something formed in his hand, like a glowing sphere. He threw it at us, only to banish at the shadow of the blue shield. Mr. Rackey swore a bunch of words and yelled, "Banish from KID! And take your greasy parents with you!" He said, groggily with pain from the dazzling 400 feet fall. A pink and blue portal lay before us. We walked in to the real world.
Epilogue
Maria
I woke up in my bed, feeling nothing. It couldn't have been a dream, I thought. I looked around. Everything was normal. "Mares!" My mom called. I, surprisingly, said, "Yes, mom?" I heard footsteps. "Thanks for being my child, Mares. You saved me." I was confused. If it was just a dream, how could I save my mom? Mom must've noticed, so she said, "Here. Stand up." I stood up, but then I fell to the floor. I checked my foot. It was robotic. I smiled, I finally understood. "Your welcome, mom." Tears came out of four eyes.
Ryan
The moment I realized it was just a dream, I went depressed. Nothing could ever be such a sight. The dream was intense, everyone knew. I came down the stairs, and my mom was said, "Clean this junk up, whatever it is." She was pointing at something. They were some ninja weapons. Bent kunai, too. I grinned. "Alright, mom, I will."
Lizzie
Even though I was sad of my dad's failure, I was happy when I saw a present out my door. I opened it, and it was a small box, saying, "LIZZIE, I'LL BE FINE. I WON'T OVERCOME THE UNIVERSE. I'LL KEEP YOU AND YOUR MOM COMPAN MOM COMPANY. YOU WERE RIGHT. SEE YOU AFTER WORK.
DAD."
I tore apart the gift. It was a fork.
Authors note
Thanks to everyone who encouraged me to write K.I.D. It was a pleasure to start writing this story. Thanks to The Lost Hero, The Phantom TollBooth, and the comic Psyren. Thanks.