One More Chance

                “If you had the chance to go back in time and save someone would you?”

 

                “Hello everyone thank you tuning in for this special broadcast on PIX 11. Behind me is the giant Empire State Building on 33rd and Madison avenue, positioned above the Empire State Building is a giant black hole slowly growing in size. It seems to be emitting a large amount of powerful winds and lightning, we have the authorities surrounding the place but it seems to be impossible for them to enter.”

                I stood at the tip top of the Empire State Building. In front of me was the gracious view of New York City, the gorgeous place that I grew up in was now in danger of disappearing. Instead of enjoying the view from atop of this sky scraper, I looked down and noticed all the people surrounding it. The authorities surrounded it attempting to enter through the ground floor. But the strikes of lightning stopped them from doing so, they were in great despair the people of New York. I snapped my finger…

                “BANG!” “BOOM!”

                “AHHHHHH!”

                “Was that a strike of lightning? Holy s**t the police car is on fire!”

                “BOOM!”

                A strike of lightning emitted from the black hole above me and struck the ground below me, causing multiple cars to catch fire and explode. I can’t do anything, this was a power I couldn’t control. I covered my face as tears left the corner of my eyes, they dripped down the sides of my cheek. “Maybe a second chance can be given?” I heard a voice….

                “Zwoon!” the sound of something was heard.

                I looked up to see what it was.

                “…..”

                A bright light emitted from the entrance of the black hole, it was slowly being closed.

                “You do feel bad correct?” The same voice spoke to me.

                “There’s still a chance to save the world you know?” The voice was deep and rugged, something that could only come from a man’s mouth.

                “There’s still one chance” The voice said to me.

                I was lightly picked up off the ground and brought inside the closing black hole.

                “What are you doing?!” I quickly reacted as it seemed my death was facing me head on.

                “Quiet down” The voice said “Look” he pointed downwards.

                I slightly glanced to check what he was talking about “The black hole’s entrance is… closed?”  I questioned what I was seeing.

                “I did say there was still one chance left”

                The color of the area around us changed from a dark evil like purple to a pure white paint like color. What in the world is going on? I questioned myself as thoughts raced through my mind. Me and this what I believed to be a man began to float upwards, I didn’t know where he was taking me but I had no way to fight my way out of this one so I just cooperated.

                “I think this is far enough” We came to a hard stop.

                I looked down and noticed that we were actually floating in the middle of the air! This is a sight that seemed unreal like something out of pure fiction. I looked up at the person in front confirming that he was a man, an obvious young man with short blonde hair, he smiled at me while keeping his eyes closed. Creepy much.

                “Flap, Flap” I heard the sound of something slapping against the wind.

                I noticed that the man in front of me had two long, pure white wings sticking out of his back. I only knew of two beings with such a feature, Angels, and Fallen Angels. But since his wings were of pure white color he was a normal angel from the heavens? Confused about the situation I spoke up.

                “A…are you an angel?” I asked the man in front of me but he continued to smile while keeping his eyes closed.

                “Hmph, you catch on pretty fast but I’m sure the wings gave it away” This man gave a smart reply while continuing to keep his eyes closed.

                “W…w…who are you?” He confirmed my thoughts but how could I believe it was true.

                “Oh, you don’t know who I am? Then I shall introduce myself!” The man jumped back and held a golden staff in his left hand. “My name is Gabriel the messenger of God” he had a golden like armor surrounding his body, with an insignia of two hands put together in a praying gesture.

                “Messenger of god? Isn’t that just some flimsy belief?” I questioned the blonde haired man in front of me.

                “Depends your point of view,  but I’m in front of you aren’t I?” The man spoke to me while he ferociously flapped his wings to the side.

                “You could be a figment of my imagination” I said and he gave off a wide smile that reached the top of his cheeks.

                “You can believe what you please, but I’m not here to talk about whether I’m actually here or not” Gabriel said.

                Even if I questioned whether this was real or not, I knew the scenery of New York City being slowly devoured by the black hole above was real. I also knew that bright light that appeared above me and in front of the black hole was also real. The force of someone lightly picking me up buzzed through my body, letting me know at this very moment everything I was seeing was actually there. Gabriel the messenger of God who was in a golden like armor, was actually flapping his pure white wings in front of me. I had to know what was going on.

              “That look on your face, I already know what your going to ask me” Gabriel stopped me before I could ask. “You want to know what's going on here correct?” He asked me.

               “……….” I stood quiet.

              “This is the result of someone winning the game and misusing the power of time” Gabriel said.

              “Power of time?” I tilted my head in confusion.

              “Yes, exactly what it sounds like, someone ripped through space and time purposely causing that black hole to appear. Now God is calling for a rewind, to redo this game and he believes you’re the correct person to win this.” Gabriel explained to me while keeping his eyes closed and a smile on his face.

                “But-“ he stopped me mid-sentence.

                “There isn't much time for me to explain everything else, I have to send you back now or you'll be stuck here” Gabriel had rushed, he quickly spun his golden staff around his fingers and pushed the top end of the staff towards my heart. “I the messenger of God, beseech thee to go back and change this forsaken future”  Gabriel spoke. A white light surrounded my body and soon covered my field of vision “What?!” I quickly yelled, but before I realized it the smiling angel that was flying in front of me was gone, I was in a dim lighted room covered by white colored sheets, laying down in bed.

               “Beep, beep, beep”

                A loud beeping sound was echoing next to me, I turned and noticed it was an alarm clock with the number “8:30” blinking in the color red. Then I remembered…….

                “S**t! I'm gonna be late for class!” I quickly jumped out of bed and rushed to the bathroom.

                I rummaged around my white sink for my green and white toothbrush which was nowhere to be found. “Screw this!” I stuck my index finger out and put a small dab of toothpaste on the tip of it and started brushing my teeth. I scoped some water into my hand and put it into my mouth, I began to wash away the toothpaste and spat it out. I ran out the bathroom and into my living room, I looked around and grabbed a plain white tee shirt. I turned around and noticed the white and blue collared blazer hanging on the door “Uniform?” I questioned to myself. As I quickly put the blazer on and searched for some pants in my room, my memory was completely blank on the school I attended and this uniformed blazer I have on.

                I looked back at the clock which already signaled for “9:00” I let out a loud sigh and opened the front door to my room, it was empty. I looked to my left and then to my right and noticed a long hallway on both sides, the ceiling was extremely high and the walls were rock hard and colored a metallic silver. I noticed that on both sides of my room were other doors going down, I didn’t count all of them but there was a good amount. I stepped forward, my body started moving on its own without me taking any extra steps, I looked down and noticed a moving walkway under me “Fancy much” I muttered to myself as I followed the walkway wherever it took me. Suddenly the walk way stopped in front of what seemed like two giant glass doors, a ceiling camera came down and a red light emitted from it as it scanned my body from head to toe.

                “ID” A robotic voice came from the camera that floated in front of me.

                “Um” I didn’t really have much to say.

                “Please show my your ID” The robotic voice had told me.

                I dug my hand into my left pocket and felt an unusually long, slim, metal like card “Is this it?” I pulled it out and stared at it before showing it to the camera. “Sam Kipa” my name was plastered right next to a picture of a guy with dark brown hair, hazel eyes, and a slim looking built. “Black Class Keeper” was what read above my name, as well as a long barcode placed at the bottom of it all. I turned it around and faced it at the camera, the red light ran through the card in my hand and quickly disappeared “Sam Kipa of the Black Class Keeper, this way it’s the first door on the right” the robotic voice spoke to me and the giant glass doors opened in front of me.

                “Thank you I guess?” The movement of the walkway resumed.

 

                I stopped in front of a large metal door with a scanner on the side attached to the wall, the front of the door read “Black Class Keeper” which was also on my ID card. I pulled it back out of my pocket and placed it above the scanner, a green light emitted from it and soon after a loud “Beep” sound was heard. The door slid open smoothly, I walked inside and noticed it was filled with students, I counted them quickly “14” I muttered to myself. I took a step forward and made my way to the empty seat in the far back on the right side by the window, as I stepped by the other students desk I noticed there gazes were far off, they paid no mind to one another even though they sat right next to each other. The classroom was quite spacious, it was surrounded by white walls on each side and a teachers podium in the front, followed by a chalkboard and a computer behind it. There was a globe of the earth on a white table behind my seat, there were four windows far and wide on the right side of the room, with no blinds to cover them from sunlight. On the left side there were 5 red lockers lined up with one another, each with three different types of number locks all that looked merely simple to crack. This room was somewhat spacious and compact, everyone continued to mind their own business, there gazes continued to be directed somewhere other than each other. I took my seat and on my right side sat a girl with short black hair , a nice figure and a normal expression of boredom plastered across her face. In front of me was a guy, although I couldn’t see his face he did have a normal cut haircut and his hair was somewhat a dark brown, he also had what seemed like a very strong build.

                “Swoosh!” The noise of the classroom door echoed in this room.

                A blonde haired man stepped in, he had a large smile on his face and he kept his eyes closed as he walked in “Hello everyone!” he greeted us but no one responded. “A bunch of stubborn kids huh” this man stood in front of the teachers podium, he placed both of his hand atop of the podium and began to speak.

                “My name is Gabriel, and I’ll be your teacher for the rest of this competition!” The man spoke happily, but what was this about a competition? “What exactly are you talking about?” The guy in front of me took the words right out of my mouth, but the smile on the teachers face never left “Ahh, I forgot you guys don’t know about it yet. I shall explain it to you as simple as I can” he cleared his throat  and after doing so his once closed eyes had slowly opened.

                “I and the others are observers, while you 15 students compete for the power of time and space.” Everyone’s attention was focused on Gabriel now “What? Don’t believe me? It’s alright soon you’ll find out” after seeing everyone’s reaction he stopped talking and turned away. “Uh, Mr. Gabriel?” a student in the front raised their hand and called out to the teacher “Yes, my dear?” he turned around once more and faced the student that called for him “What did you mean by the power of time and space?” the smile returned on Gabriel’s face “Oh don’t worry because soon enough you’ll all understand” was his answer and he slowly turned around as his smile disappeared from his face.

                “Alright I’ll be doing roll call! When you hear your name just say “here!” in a loud voice” Gabriel had said as he held a pen and clipboard in his hand.

                “Alyssa!” He yelled “Here!” a girl seated in the middle of class quickly raised her hand.

                “Amanda!”

                “Here!”

                “Baily!”

                “Here!”

                “Brandon!”

                “….Here”

                “Delayed response”

                “Tch”

                “Don’t click your tongue at your teacher”

                “Whatever”

                “Cathy!”

                “H-here!”

                “Chris!”

                “Here!”

                This went on for around an extra 5 minutes, as he went down the list I noticed that this class was overtaken by more girls than guys. A part of me was excited, it gave me a chance to experience a love life but the other side of me was nervous but I don’t know why. Eventually after he called roll he began talking again.

                “Alright! You are the new students of the Black Class Keeper, you’ll also notice that it’s just you 15 students living in this giant building, I said before that I was your teacher Gabriel.”

                “Only 15 students in this giant building? Are you out of your mind?” A student sitting in the middle of the class stopped Gabriel’s talking with questions.

                “Does that surprise you?” Gabriel asked,

                “Why wouldn’t it surprise me?” The same student said.

                “Maybe your right” Gabriel said and the student just stood quiet confused on what to say next.

                “Now back to what I was saying before I was rudely interrupted, you “15 students” live in this giant building by yourselves consider each other neighbors because all your rooms are right next to one another. This school is built on an artificial recreation of New York’s Manhattan, so many of you will be familiar with it as soon as you step outside.”

                “A recreation of Manhattan, is that even possible?” Someone in the front of the class had said.

                “Once you step outside and explore of the city you’ll see how possible it is.”

                The more Gabriel talks the more questions people have, he has yet to give us anything that is easy to believe coming from anyone’s mouth.

                “In front of you is a black card” I looked down as he spoke and noticed that a black card was there “When did?” but I knew it just appeared because it wasn’t there when I first sat down.

                “This black card, is what holds your funds for this school, you can buy whatever you want and may need in the streets of this recreated Manhattan, everything is billed to the school and paid for by the school.”

                Unlimited funds coming from just this card, it was identical to any debit card issued from any bank.

                “You’ll come here at 8:30 in the morning and I’ll teach you whatever is in my schedule until 2:30 and the time after that is all yours, I hope you guys have fun in the Black class.”

                Everything Gabriel just said seemed so fake, how could there be an artificial Manhattan suddenly built somewhere on the earth? Why were we given an unlimited funded card for free use? Did this card even have unlimited funds? I had so many un answered questions in my head.

                “Class is dismissed and you may have this day to yourselves, explore the school grounds and the artificial Manhattan made just for you” Gabriel picked up his clip board with his eyes closed and exited the classroom swiftly, just before he stepped out he said “If any of you want to speak to me I’ll be in the main office.”

                “Weirdo” someone in the class had said as soon as he stepped out, everyone else laughed at his comment. Eventually everyone in the class started to speaking to each other, others got up and moved across the room and others stood in the seat they sat in. The guy in front had turned around to face me with a smile on his face saying “What’s up?” he seemed like a cool guy. Now that I had a chance to get a good look at him, he was an average looking guy with a very strong build on his body, he started a conversation so we started talking to each other.

             “The name’s Christian!” he said as the smile on his face never withered away.

             “I’m Sam nice to meet you”

                “That teacher is kind of crazy in the head don’t you think?” He said.

                “That’s definitely true, the guy said this was an artificial Manhattan, that just sounds ridiculous”

                “Haha that’s true, but what does artificial mean?” I stared at him as he said those words and let out a deep sigh.

                “Artificial means that this wasn’t created naturally, it was built by humans” I told him.

                “But wasn’t Manhattan originally artificial then?” He questioned and I thought about it.

                Though he was correct, the original Manhattan had tons of manmade buildings built all over the place, leaving a majority amount of Manhattan being artificial. So what makes this place artificial?

                “Hahahaha” we heard another coming from next to us, it was the girl with short black hair who sat next to me, it seems her boredom has wavered away.

                “I’m sorry my names Bailey” she introduced herself with her soft voice and a smile.

                “Christian”

                “Sam”

                After all the names were out of the way we continued to have a conversation, it seemed like everyone already had there group of friends including myself. Christian and Bailey seemed like normal individuals trying to have fun so we clicked easily due to that, then Bailey made a suggestion.

                “Why don’t we check out this “artificial” Manhattan out?”

                “That’s not a bad idea it would be good to get familiar with this place” I said

                “Sure but let’s check out the school before we even head to the city itself” Christian said.

                “Yeah that’s probably the best thing to do Bailey” I said.

                Bailey nodded her head and we all agreed to check out the school before leaving its grounds, I grabbed my black card and stuffed it into my right pocket, the three of us stood up from our seats and made our way to the metal door in the front of the class.

                “Where you guys going?” a student in the front asked.

                “Were gonna check out this place and see what it has to offer” Bailey had said

              “That’s a pretty good idea don’t you think?” the other students started saying to one another and it seemed they soon got the same idea as us, as some of them started getting ready to leave the classroom.

                “We’ll see you guys later!” I said and the metal door in front of us slid open “Swoosh” we stepped out and walked to the right on to the moving walkway. The hall in front of us was long and narrow, but the ceiling was very high. Everything in this place was colored a metallic like silver, from time to time spots on the wall would gloss over with light and as it sneaks its way into your field of vision it forces you to block the light blinding you. Imagining this place at night would be the total opposite of how it is now, the silver would be dull and non-appealing but also dark and mysterious, those who travel this hall at night would be interested in going deeper in.

                As we traveled down this moving walkway we stumbled upon different kind of rooms which all had labels on the front door explaining what that room was for. Things like the chemistry room, or the science room, were plastered on the front door but at the bottom of those words read a small fine print “Once the competition begins, rooms will change” that was put in small fine print on the bottom of every label for every door except for one.

                “Isn’t this the main office?” Christian pointed out although it did say “Main Office” in front of the door.

                “Look it’s Mr. Gabriel” Bailey pointed out, he was sitting down at a desk reading a book in front of him.

                “Wait a minute, this guy has his eyes closed! How can he read like that?!” I said. Ever since I met him around 45 minutes ago he’s had his eyes closed for everything! How can he see anything like that?

                “Haha that’s true. Hey let’s check out the office” Christian quickly suggested while Bailey just nodded her head in agreement.

                I wasn’t against checking out the main office because who knows one day I might have to step in this room and I at least want to be familiar with it beforehand. I slid open the door leading inside and was greeted by a scene different from the hall. While the hallway and everything around it held a metallic like silver color this room didn't, in fact it was actually a colorful room filled with pictures. The walls in here were light blue, and many pictures of crosses and of people praying in groups were put up around. Many desk crowded the middle of the room, they all held a matte silver color, each desk had piles of paperwork stacked on top. Just by looking around this was a normal office, besides the abnormal light blue walls and pictures, I also noticed that there were 5 lockers in the back of the office behind of where Gabriel was seated. They were exactly identical to the ones in our classroom, all lined up next to one another with what seemed like simple number locks. The sound of a book closing was heard at the end of the room and right after a voice was heard “So, what brings you three here?” Gabriel put his book down and directed his attention towards us.

                “Just exploring” I had said, trying to avoid any direct eye contact with him.

                “Hmm, well the school grounds by itself is really big, I advise you check out the courtyard and then make your way towards the city” Gabriel had let out a small smile as he spoke.

                “Thank you!” Bailey thanked him in a happy voice and pushed us out the room.

               

                She smiled at him once more and slid the door shut, we stepped back into the moving walkway and down the hallway we were just in. “That guy gives off such a creepy aura” Bailey said as we journeyed down this hallway, though she wasn’t wrong Gabriel would speak to us without opening his eyes and he would slowly smile about everything for no apparent reason, so I can understand why she thinks he’s a bit creepy. We were finally reaching the end of this long narrow hallway and noticed the moving walkway had ended, we stepped off and I noticed that to the right of us was a pair of stairs heading up and to the left were a pair of stairs heading down “Come on, were going outside!” Christian who was oddly excited pushed us to the left and down the stairs. With each step I took a small vibration ran through my body, it relaxed my nerves and kept me calm “Weird never seen stairs like this before” I said as we hit the floor under us and continued to go down.

                “These are the new nerve calming stairs” Bailey had said.

                “Nerve calming?” I questioned.

                “Pretty much they were built so people can calm their nerves whenever they really find it necessary” She said.

                “Really? So the entirety of New York has these?” I said but Bailey’s face made a confused look.

                “No” She said.

                “Nah” Christian had also said.

                “No? Then why are they here?” I obviously questioned.

                “Well the stairs were more of a testing project, I guess after this island was created they decided to implement the stairs here and see if it ended having any kind of complication to send them into a severe crisis and or worse re designing and debt” She explained.

                She was a pretty attractive girl, but at first glance you wouldn’t expect her to know so much, well at least I didn’t. “Smack!” she quickly smacked the back of my head with full force “Ow! Wh-“ she glared at me with angry eyes “I know you were saying something rude about me in your head!” she yelled at me. I couldn’t help but let out a full burst of laughter “What’s so funny?!” I could tell from the way she questioned me her anger was rising “You know if you have something to say about me, I’d rather you say it to me! not in your head!” I continued to laugh. Her face became more irritated, she began to wear the expression of a small child after eating something really sour, her lips were puckered out and her eyebrows were slanted indicating her anger, this only caused me to laugh harder. The more I laughed the funnier her face got “Hahaha, alright, alright, I’ll tell you what I was thinking just stop making that face” her expression slowly positioned itself back to normal “So what were you thinking?” Bailey questioned so eager to know what I was thinking. I put my hand on the back of my head and said “Well it’s just that from first impressions, you wouldn’t really assume you know as much as you do” her left eye twitched and she opened her mouth “Your trying to say I’m dumb!” I started to run my fingers through my surprisingly soft, dark brown hair “Hahaha, I guess Bailey’s kinda dumb” and now Christian jumped the gun and actually made fun of her. “OHHHH you tw- AHHHH!” she tried to speak but instead she let out a huge sigh and quickly diverted her gaze away from us, she pushed through and directly in front of us as we all continued to step down the stairs.

                When we reached the bottom of the stairs and on the ground floor we looked around, we saw a bunch of doors and empty rooms down both sides of the corridor but we also saw a huge light coming from the middle of both corridors. I assumed that was the way outside so we walked over, as we walked I couldn’t help but look around, this school abnormally huge, the amount of stairs it took for us to even get down here is oddly ridiculous. But this floor was tremendously different from the floor we were originally on, not only did this floor have the giant light illuminating the middle of the corridor but it also lightly illuminated the sides of the corridors going from left to right. The closer we walked to the light the more I noticed the difference, this place was colorful, the left side was white but on the right a crimson red shined as the light from outside hit the paint. The floors didn’t have a moving walkway installed it was just a plain marble floor that seemed like it was somewhat slippery as if someone had just waxed it.   

                “At least something in this school looks completely normal” the other two laughed as we walked down this hall.

                This place had lines upon lines of empty classrooms, I peeked in each one we passed by but they all looked the same on the inside, at least 30 prepared desk for students, a teacher’s podium with a chalk board and computer placed behind it and 5 lockers lined up on the with a simple number lock. Although this hallway was a different color the inside of the rooms wasn’t, it shared a matte silver color which made the rooms seem really simple regardless of everything else inside. We eventually reached the middle of the room where all of the light was coming from, we stopped and turned to see that the sun was shining bright over this place and was emitting a strong stream of light into the front door causing all of us to put our arms above our faces. In front of us were metal double doors, we stepped close and the sensor went off as it slowly slid open, we stepped outside and a robotic voice was heard from behind us “Have a great day and make sure to come back before 9:30PM” it said.

                “Curfew?” Bailey questioned.

                “Probably, and it wouldn’t be all that surprising either” Christian said.

               “I imagine they want to keep all the students under watch, and since it’s just us were talking about then they want to keep us 15 students under watch” I said and Bailey shrugged her shoulders.

                “It’s not like they can simply stop a teenager from being a teenager, don’t you think?” She said.

                “That’s true, we all have our own minds and we’ll do whatever we think is right at the current moment, I don’t think a simple 9:30 curfew can stop that” I agreed with her while Christian laughed about it saying “Curfew? 9:30? I’ll be out as long as I please hahahaha” Even with it being our first day here we joked about a curfew being instated, something we were never told about.

                “I kind of want to see around the outskirts of the school, maybe we’ll find something” Bailey had said.

                “Find something?” Christian questioned.

                “I don’t know something that could explain about this competition” She said.

               

                She had a pretty good idea, maybe searching the outskirts of the school would let us understand why our teacher had suddenly brought up the competition of time and space. None of us who sat in the classroom knew what he was talking about, yet he smiled and was confident that soon it would begin, but what is this competition? We didn’t know, Bailey walked in front of us and we followed behind her, the inside of the school was pretty huge but the size in their doesn’t compare with the size out here, this place looks like it can go on forever. One distinct feature is that the color never changes, the entire exterior of the school was a metallic like silver that glistened in the sun that shined above. The building went on and on as if it had no end to it, the crystal clear windows we passed were as clean as the first day they were brought in, each window we passed I took a quick glance and noticed that the other students from our class were exploring as well, as they walked in each classroom they passed. Some of them  tried to get into the five lockers in the back of the classroom, but it seemed that simple lock was bit harder to open than I thought.

                “This building is way to big” Bailey said.

                We had finally reached a gap at the end of the first building, I say first building because when I looked forward there was another building just as big as the one we were just in “Why is this place so big, the first building should be enough no?” I questioned but Bailey and Christian were as confused as I was. I noticed that Christian had took his gaze off the second building and was staring down the gap, he didn’t move and his gaze was sharp “What are you looking at?” I asked him and he lifted his left arm and pointed down the gap “It’s a field” Bailey and I looked down and noticed that it was a field. A really big field, we walked through the gap and stopped right in front of the white line that outlined the field, it was huge, there was an beige pavement with read lines running across it meant for students to run around, it was an oval shape and continued around the field, basically for some kind of gym class. But the inside held a giant grassy area which could be used for any kind of sport if necessary “So in some way this place is normal” Christian had said, as he stepped onto the grass of the field.

                “Ahhhh, the wind feels so good from right here!” Christian spread out his arms and a small gust of wind blew by.

                Bailey pushed her hair behind her left ear and spoke “Guess your right about that one” she let out a deep breath and smiled.

                The wind slowly blew by and we stood in the middle of this giant field embracing it, Bailey and Christian smiled and I had my gaze on them, I smirked and decided to shift my gaze, I looked down at the end of the field and noticed something out of place. I felt a cold chill run down my back and my body started to heat up, my forehead had suddenly broke into sweat as it dripped down the sides of my face. “Wha…” but I was quickly cut off before I was able to say anything, “We should check out this artificial Manhattan before it gets dark” Bailey had suggested and Christian nodded in agreement and started to walk ahead of me. I continued to stare at what caught my eye, but I couldn’t make out what it was “Sam you coming?!” Christian had yelled at me after he and Bailey walked half way through the gap that lead back to the front of the school “Yeah!” I quickly turned and caught up to them. Even as I walked away my eyes wouldn’t shift away from that obscure thing at the end of the field, I tried keeping it visible from the corner of my eye as we walked through the gap and back from where we had left the school. Once we turned from the gap, the cold chill I was feeling had left and my forehead had stopped sweating, I had no choice but to put my thoughts about it away and focus on really checking out this “Artificial” place. 

                We stopped at the front door of the school and made a left, we walked down this stone walkway which lead us to this shiny silver gate that covered the front of the school. “Talk about fancy” I said, this thing seemed like it cost a pretty penny although it wasn’t gold, the silver was not rusted seemed brand new and it continuously shined although the sunlight didn’t shine upon it, this was one of those things that normal schools would never have had due to their budgets. “Vroom!” A loud car engine was heard behind us as it quickly drove by, the air was ferociously blown back, the three of us turned our heads and watched the car disappear into the distance. Sometimes a break like that is needed, it allows you to clear your mind for at least a second as you hear the roar of a car engine.

“Now this is Artificial” Bailey had said as we stood in front of the shiny silver school gate.

In front of us was Manhattan, not the normal Manhattan but a vast collection of tall silver buildings overshadowing the island that was called Manhattan. “Beep” A sound was heard from across the street it was the streetlight changing from a red hand telling us to stop, to a white man walking telling us to cross. The street had a crossing line with white lines following in a rectangular stack to the other side, if I remembered correctly this was how all the streets of Manhattan were designed. As soon as we crossed we started walking down the street as it soon lead us to a bridge that we had to walk over, it seemed our school was separated from Manhattan in some sort of way. We stopped at the crossover of the bridge, the walkway was up leaving us no way to cross unless somebody put it down and into place. There was a small white booth to the right of us, a shiny silver door gleamed brightly as it slowly opened and a tall lanky person appeared wearing a white and black uniform of sorts.

“Uh, sir?” I said, as the tall lanky man approached us.

“ID please” A robotic voice came from what I thought was a tall lanky man. It’s face came into vision and it was a mist grey color with red shiny eyes, and it’s face resembled that of a normal male human being.

“ID please” The voice had said again.

The three of us stood quiet in shock, the robot standing in front of us was what you would call a humanoid, a robotic replica of the human body. His eyes shined a bright red and he stuck out his lanky robotic arm towards “ID please” he repeated one more time, the three of us quickly pulled out our ID cards and the humanoid quickly snatched them away. He held the three ID’s towards his face, his eyes emitted a light scanning the ID’s in his hand.

“Sam Kipa of the Black Class Keeper”

“Bailey Rivera of the Black Class Keeper”

“Christian Will of the Black Class Keeper”

He repeated all of our names and handed back our ID’s, once we had hold of the ID’s his eyes changed from a bright red to a bright green, he turned and started to walk back to the small white booth. He stepped inside “Please stand behind the white line in front of the bridge” we heard his robotic voice echo through a small speaker that was placed at the top of the small white booth the humanoid stood in. The three of us walked up to the bridge and stopped behind the white line just like we were told, “Please enjoy your time in New  Manhattan!” the robotic voice spoke again through the speaker.

“Bang!” the bridge in front of us, was dropped into place.

“Are you people crazy! Don’t just drop a bridge like that!!” Christian began to yell at the humanoid in the white booth.

“My apologies, Mr. Christian” the humanoid had quickly and right after his windows began tinted pitch black not allowing anyone to see inside.

“The hell?” Christian questioned but we pushed him forward.

“I don’t think we came here to argue with a robot Christian” I said and he just waved his hand and trotted on forward.

Once we crossed the bridge we were left on an bland empty street, no buildings were to be found and no people were to be found. Just an empty grey colored sidewalk leading straight down, with no were else to go we continued down this path until we reached the end, the walk was long and seemed never ending. With every step we took the walk seemed the get longer and longer, and just thinking about reaching the end and finally seeing what this “New Manhattan” looked like exhausted my body. We walked next to one another in complete silence, that might’ve been the reason this walk was taking so long, we were all rushing to see what this placed looked like and it seemed as if the sidewalk was not in our favor. So I started a conversation.

“Have you guys noticed that so far the only normal people we’ve seen are our classmates and the teacher?” I said.

“I don’t know if you can consider Mr. Gabriel a normal person but it seems like all the workers we’ve run into so far are nowhere near being normal humans.” Bailey had said.

“I mean that robot guy from the bridge wasn’t the first one to scan my ID today, right before I entered the classroom there was this floating camera like thing that asked for my ID” Christian had said.

“No it happened to me too, a bit shocking but I did show it my ID right away” I said.

“Well lucky for you because I didn’t, it continued asking and I just kept telling it no “Get the f**k out of my face” and well eventually it threatened to take security measures”

“And?” Bailey asked.

“Well guns were drawn towards me from both my left and right side and it asked for my ID one more time. And I showed it to the floating camera.”

“Well then, sounds like a rough morning”

“You don’t even kno…”

“Look!”

Christian was quickly cut off by Bailey’s yelling, “Don’t just cut me off damn it!” but I ignored Christian’s angry response and directed my gaze to where Bailey was pointing. She was pointing at bright lights shining in the middle of the street, at giant silver buildings over shadowing every corner in sight, at street lights changing from red to green even though no cars drove by, at the exceptional attractions built to catch anyone’s eye as the stepped in the middle of the place. “Whoa” I looked around and noticed a jumbo screen that was turned off, this place looked a bit familiar “Where are we?” I muttered to myself as I stared at all the shining lights around us.

“Toys R Us” I heard Bailey whisper behind me.

I turned around and noticed she was staring up at a sign that had multiple letters in different colors, which was neatly upon a silver board that was placed over our heads, there was a giant screen behind the sign that had a blue star with a yellow R plastered in the middle, then I remembered where we were. 

“Toys R Us! This is 42nd street!” I yelled out loud.

Seeing this store excited me and gave me the urge to rush inside, I pushed through the revolving doors and was greeted with a strong cold breeze from the air conditioner inside and a ramp leading up to the main floor, at the top of the ramp I saw someone dressed up as Geoffrey the Giraffe, I rushed up the ramp to hug it. “Sam, wait up!” Bailey and Christian had pushed through the doors trying to catch up, “Geoffrey!” out of excitement I yelled and quickly wrapped my arms around him and tightened my grip “Your such a big kid now” Bailey had said as she walked up the ramp positioned behind me, but I noticed something as I hugged “Geoffrey” instead of a soft fur like feeling, I felt a cold hard feeling. I quickly let go and took a couple of steps back and looked up “Tch” I clicked my tongue “Another f*****g robot” seeing him in a different form than I remember really ticked me off “Childhood ruined.” His glass eyes glowed slightly and finally caught sight of us “Hello there young ones! Welcome to Toys R Us, the fun land for kids of all ages! Please take a look around! Or would you like a picture with me? Hahahaha” the three of us stared at him for a second, then suddenly busted out laughing.

“What’s with the creepy laugh!!” As I couldn’t control my laughter, I yelled out.

“Or would you like to take a picture with me? HAHAHAHAHA” Bailey repeated “Did they input that creepy line into your system” she yelled as she cracked up.

Geoffrey’s body stood up straight and posed like a superhero. Christian walked up to him and posed in the same position as him “I guess he’s super Geoffrey now”

“HAHAHAHAHAHAHA” We all simultaneously started dying in laughter.

We started to walk around the floor, around us were nothing but different type of animal plush toys and Barbie dolls stacked on top of each other “Not much to see her” I spoke and I slowly cracked my neck to the side. “Want to check downstairs?!” Christian stood extremely close to me with excitement glowing in his eyes “Alright, just back up a little bit” he bawled his fist up and pumped it into the sky “VIDEO GAMES!” he yelled and he quickly rushed down the e scalators ahead of Bailey and I. “Another big kid huh” I turned slowly as Bailey spoke “What are you talking about? Video games are the best!” I said as I rushed down the escalator towards the bottom floor “Christian wait up!” I yelled at him as he quickly ran straight through the video games section, towards the back of the room. I rushed in and saw Christian standing in between the aisle’s separating the PS4 and Xbox One games “What’s up?” I stopped next to him and saw him continuously moving his head as he visualized the room. “Christian?” I said his name again but he put his index finger up and said “Do you hear that? As he said that, I stood quiet and waited. “Grrrrrrr” At a distance I heard the sound of something growling, since the three of us were the only ones in here the sound echoed. “The three of us should stick together” Christian had said and I quickly nodded then something clicked in my head “Where’s Bailey?” I turned around and noticed she never step foot in this area, then we heard the growling turn into a loud roar “ROARRRRRRRRRRRR!” I got a bad feeling in my stomach and didn’t know what to do. “The sound came from above us” Christian had said “Let’s check it out” I said in a shaky voice, I was truly terrified after hearing that loud roar but I was also scared of the fact that Bailey was nowhere to be found.

Christian rushed up the escalator and I followed behind him, we reached the first floor and rushed up another set of escalators past the moving Ferris Wheel in the middle of the store, and quickly up to the last floor. “Ha” Christian and I were trying to catch our breaths as quickly as possible, I lifted my head and noticed Bailey was standing in front of a line that separated her and the 20 foot T-Rex in the middle of the room “Bailey!” I yelled and she quickly turned her head towards the two of us. “Done playing your video games?” she joked and giggled, we walked over to her “How about next time you tell us your coming up here!” I yelled out of frustration “Alright, alright next time” she smiled and turned back to the T-Rex. I let out a deep breath and looked up at the T-Rex and noticed that it’s whole design was different. Instead of its green colored skin it was completely metal, I looked down and noticed his feet weren’t screwed into the ground either, I picked my head up and noticed it’s eyes were glass and it’s hands had shard metal nails. “They gave this guy a makeover” Bailey said “I guess they thought it would be better if it matched the technology of this place” she continued and Christian and I stood quiet listening to her “It’s interesting at how far technology can go” I nodded at her words and continued to stay quiet. As we stared at the newly designed T-Rex, I realized that the bad feeling in my stomach was still there and started to feel worse.

“EW! Is it drooling?” Bailey had yelled

“What that’s not possible, it’s not supposed to be real” Christian had said put his hand under the T-Rex’s mouth. “Wait it is drooling!” he pulled his hand back and had this gooey stuff dripping between his fingers, he brought his hand towards his nose.

“What are you doing?!” I yelled as he sniffed the gooey stuff on his hands.

“It’s oil” He said.

“Oil?” Bailey questioned.

I looked up at the T-Rex and it’s head started to move, it looked up at the ceiling and roared “ROARRRRRRRRRR!!” it quickly dropped his head down above us “Watch it!” I quickly pushed Christian to the left and wrapped my arm around Bailey’s waist and pushed her to the ground on the right. “What are you doing Sam?!” she yelled as she picked her head up off the ground “SHHHH!” I put my hand over her mouth and turned my head “BOOF!” the T-Rex took one foot off the ground and stepped forward over the line “BOOF!” and another step forward “ROARRRRRR!” it roared once again. I looked back at Bailey whose eyes were wide open, I felt her body trembling from the arm that was wrapped around her waist, the T-Rex was turning his head left and right. It stopped for a moment with his head facing the left and suddenly it’s glass eyes glowed red and his head didn’t move from the right side, it took one step forward “BOOF!” and continued moving.

“F**k, is this thing for real?!” I heard Christian yell as the sound of him knocking things over was heard.

“S**t!” I quickly let go of Bailey and stood up.

“BOOF!, BOOF!” the T-Rex continued to walk over to Christian. I looked around me but couldn’t find anything I could use to grab his attention, but then I looked down in front of me and noticed a table with a bunch of toys stacked on top of it “Better than nothing” I dragged my arms across this table in an attempt to brush off all the toys. “Bailey?” she quickly got up and gripped the lower part of the table “He’s my friend too” I smiled at her words and gripped the lower left half of the table “Ready?” I asked her and she nodded, I took a deep breath and the both of us lifted the table towards the moving robotic T-Rex.

  “BANG!”

The sound of the wooden table slamming into the metal of T-Rex echoed, the table broke into pieces immediately “F**k” I said, afraid that my plan failed. But the T-Rex’s head turned to look at Bailey and I, it took one step forward “BOOF!” and I took a step back, but I noticed Bailey stood in place. I think her body froze in place out of fear, it took another step forward “BOOF!”  

Author's Note

Would like feedback on all things, grammar, on dialogue, and the story telling in general. This chapter is incomplete as I have yet to finish it but really would like some thoughts.