Awake (20 page)

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Authors: Egan Yip

Tags: #adventure, #fantasy, #young adult, #science fiction, #fantasy adventure, #humor and comedy, #fiction adventure, #fiction fantasy, #fantasy action

BOOK: Awake
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Andrew watched the chaos in horror. “This is
horrible…”

“I don’t like it either.” His eyes
narrowing, Kevin said, “But that’s war.”

Geese and ducks flew overhead.

Reminded of their previous, and rather
disgusting, encounter with birds, Kevin flung his head back and
gaped. Then he ducked behind a car and watched the dots in the sky
warily. The birds dropped something, though he couldn’t quite tell
what it was.

“What is that?” said Andrew.

“It could be more rocks,” replied Kevin.

One of the objects fell onto the ground
before them. It was a bag of water that gushed and splashed when it
slammed into the ground.

“Water,” said Andrew. “They’re going to wash
away all the tomatoes!”

Kevin said, “That’s not all. A plastic bag
full of water can hurt from that height.”

The bags of water splattered left and right,
drenching some of the animals. The streets were being washed clean
of the tomato juice.

Kevin said, “This is bad. Send out the
signal for the air division! Don’t let them wash it all away!”

“Yes, sir!” exclaimed Sophie, the white cat.
“Caterwaul!”

The cats began making a shrill sound that
made Kevin cover his ears. Andrew pointed to something flying
across the rooftops. Budgies, parrots, cockatiels and canaries
glided above them.

“This is Blue and I’m taking charge,” said
one of the budgies proudly. “Follow my lead boys and girls. Let’s
wreak some havoc!” Blue stretched out his wings and veered
slightly. The other pet birds followed after him, one after the
other.

“Full speed ahead,” chirped Blue. Blue beat
his wings and zoomed into the flock of geese. All the pet birds
copied him and engaged the geese. They flew right into the enemy
birds as fast as they could.

“Two fold assault,” said Blue. “Parrots and
cockatiels will attack directly. Budgies and canaries will focus on
taking out the bags.”

The pet birds all replied,
“Acknowledged.”

The parrots and cockatiels struck the geese
at their backs, attempting to pluck the feathers off their wings.
The budgies and canaries ripped the bags of water from their beaks.
The ducks tried to shoo the pet birds away. The HPC’s air division
fought back, going around in short circles and pecking at the enemy
with their beaks whenever they saw an opportune time.

Screeches sounded through the sky. Blue
glanced back. Squadrons of eagles, ravens and falcons dotted the
clouds.

“Enemy reinforcements coming from the rear!”
shouted Blue. “We’ve done enough damage! Everyone dive, dive!”

Blue led his band of birds down to the level
of the highest city buildings. He was at the front of their
formation and they branched out behind him; the mass of birds took
the shape of an arrowhead.

“We can’t shake them!” shouted a canary.

A parrot screeched, “Awk! They’re closing
in!”

Falcons rocketed into their formation,
scattering it. The pet birds were disoriented in their panic and
some accidentally flew straight into the windows as they
desperately attempted to flee.

“Oh gosh,” said Andrew, gaping at the sky,
“they’re not going to last!”

“I know,” said Kevin grimly. “That’s why
we’re going to make the final push right now!” Kevin grabbed Andrew
by the shirt and shouted over the loud noises around them, “Follow
me and keep close!”

Rusty led the way for the boys. With his
band of mighty dogs, Rusty plowed through the weaker points in the
Forest Army’s formation. It was like trying to break through a
solid cement wall by chipping rapidly at it. There were so many
animals that it was nearly impossible to simply move or push
through. Rusty relentlessly tried to find cracks in the front line
and bravely fought to dig deeper and deeper into the heart of the
army. When they were about to make it out, Rusty encountered a wall
he could not cross. Grizzly bears.

Andrew staggered back at the sight of them.
“W-why are there grizzly bears?”

Rusty snarled and barked at the large bears.
A grizzly bear slammed Rusty to the ground with its paw. The pack
of dogs jumped all over it, snapping at its hide, but the bear
easily brushed them away.

Kevin pulled Andrew back. With the frenzy
behind them, the two boys had no place to escape. The bear
approached them, overshadowing them as it stood on its hind
legs.

“Not good,” said Kevin. “It could probably
break us in two if it wanted to.”

“We’re doomed,” squealed Andrew.

While they cowered in fear, sinking down to
the ground, they saw something fall upon the bear’s face. The bear
swerved its head vehemently. The courageous Helios had arrived and
began his assault on the bear’s scary mug. He tugged on the bear’s
eyelids and tickled the inside of its nose.

“Helios!” Kevin shouted. “Watch out!”

The bear’s giant paw came out of Helios’s
blind side. Helios back flipped out of the way, leaving the grizzly
bear to smash its own head. Dazed, the bear twirled around once
before falling and losing consciousness. Helios then hopped along
the faces of the three other grizzly bears. In their confusion they
swatted each other silly. When all the bears had knocked each other
out, Helios climbed up Andrew’s clothes and hopped into the pocket
of his pants.

“It sure took you a while,” said Kevin,
crouching over to speak with the rat. “What were you doing all this
time?”

“What was I doing? I was trying to find you!
I’m tiny and the city is so huge!” Helios exclaimed, lifting up a
foot, “I can only run so fast with these small feet of mine!”

Kevin laughed. “Good job. I think we can
make it to the lab from here.”

 

The two boys sneaked out of the battlefield
and found their way to the city park. As they suspected, the hidden
entrance of the underground research facility was left unguarded.
The Forest Army had no idea about this alternate door. Kevin
crouched down in the grass and pushed aside a large rock, unveiling
the hole beneath. As he did so, he heard a sudden rustle in the
bushes. A pair of beady eyes was staring back at him. A deer had
been watching them the whole time. When the deer realized it had
been seen, it dashed away.

Running after it, Andrew said, “I’ll chase
him down! We can’t let him report to Kain!”

Understanding the urgency of the situation,
Kevin quickly descended down the tunnel into the main corridor of
the facility. He treaded lightly across the floor to avoid the
possibility of alerting the strange bacteria monster that lurked
the halls. Then Kevin walked up to a door with a sign that had the
words
New Development
and opened it. He looked inside and
saw a massive warehouse full of giant machines, perhaps power
generators. After Kevin entered, he tried calling the Internet on
his phone.

The Internet picked up. “Kevin, is that
you?”

“Yeah,” Kevin replied, “I’m here. What
should I do now?”

“Hold on just a minute. I’ll be right there
to greet you.” The Internet hung up.

“Huh?” Kevin wondered what that meant.
Feeling rather confused, he turned off his cell and looked around
the building. While he waited, a small silver ball came rolling
over to him. It was Shiro, the ball-shaped robot.

“Shiro…” Kevin swallowed nervously. “Uh…it’s
nice to see you again. I’m sorry about what happened the last
time—”

“I’m not Shiro,” said the robot. “It’s me,
FriendlyFire.”

“What?” Kevin looked shocked.

FriendlyFire replied, “I’ve taken control of
the entire facility. My consciousness currently resides in…well,
everything here, including this robot. Anyway, we must hurry. I’m
not sure how much longer you’ll be able to stay awake. Follow me.”
The robot rolled quickly to a room on the far left and Kevin chased
after it.

When they went inside the room, Kevin saw a
strange thing upon the metal table. It looked like a large white
centipede, except it didn’t look organic. It was long, flat and
segmented with thin needle-like claws running down both sides; at
one end, seeming almost like a head, was a thick round device.

“This is it,” said the white robot. “I used
all the data I could find to construct this device.”

“What is this?”

“The device you asked for,” the white robot
replied. “This is a Nervous System Interface—or NSI for short. It
will attach directly into your spinal cord and brain. With this, it
should be theoretically possible to force yourself awake whenever
you want to.”

“Cool.” Kevin thought for a moment. “Wait…so
I have to find someone who is asleep and plug this into them?”

“You can do that. Sure. But that will make
things complicated.”

“How so?”

“Well, they have to activate it themselves.
If you plug it into someone and they don’t want to wake up or don’t
know that they can wake up, then nothing will happen. Also, if they
do wake up and you accidentally fall asleep, they won’t be able to
remove the device from their back.”

Kevin groaned. “I don’t get this. How is
this a solution then? How am I supposed to wake up the whole world
with just one device? Am I supposed to go around waking everyone up
one by one?”

“I’m sorry if this does not comply with your
specifications,” said the robot. “This is all I could do. This is
all I could come up with.”

Kevin sighed. “I guess I’ll just have to
make the best of it.”

Kevin tried calling up Andrew on his cell.
The phone rang several times before Kevin finally got a
response.

Kevin said into the phone, “Hey, Andrew. Get
back over here. Forget the deer. The solution I got might work to
wake up a few people but I need you here to help me.”

There was a voice on the other end, but it
did not sound like Andrew. The low, scratchy voice replied, “Andrew
will not be coming back. But I will be there very soon—”

Kevin immediately hung up, looked
apprehensively at the phone and turned it off.

“Who was that? Was that Kain? This is really
bad. He’s coming! I have no time!” Kevin turned to the robot and
said quickly, “Bring me to the nearest person! There should still
be some people in here! I remember seeing the test subjects. I
could use them. I could try to wake them up before Kain arrives. I
could…” Kevin slumped to the floor and held his head in grief. “Who
am I kidding? It’s over. Tom. Katie. Andrew. All gone. I’m the only
one left. And that place with the test subjects, it probably has
that bacteria monster inside. There’s nothing more I can do. This
stupid device will take forever to use. Even if I can save some
people, what’s the point? What’s the point if I can’t save
everyone? Will they want to be saved if the others around them die
anyway?” Kevin closed his eyes.

“Forget this. I’m done.”

 

- Paradise -

 

Kevin opened his eyes. Next thing he knew,
he was sitting on an empty wooden barge in the middle of the
crystal-clear ocean. The climate appeared tropical in nature,
rather bright and warm. Looking across the waves, he marveled at
how beautiful, crisp and blue the water was. There were large
islands, hundreds of them, dotting the ocean as far as he could
see.

The barge didn’t seem to have a motor or any
method of propulsion. Nothing was towing it either. It merely
drifted steadily toward the shore of the nearest island.

Initially, he thought he was alone on the
barge. A second glance around made him realize otherwise. A man in
dark robes sat opposite him.

The man said, “Ah, someone has arrived. It’s
been a while since a person has come.”

Kevin studied the man carefully and said,
“What is this place? Was I warped to the Caribbean sea or
something?”

The man replied, “This is no longer the
world as you know it.”

“Then…am I dead?”

“No, no,” the man said, laughing, “you are
not dead…yet.”

Kevin tried to collect his thoughts. “Then
this is a dream?”

“You can say that,” said the man, chuckling.
“Yes. A dream.”

“That’s right…I fell asleep!” Kevin suddenly
remembered what had happened. “And I couldn’t even do anything. I-I
failed! Everyone’s going to die…” He clenched his fist and slowly
brought it to his face, tears dripping lightly over his knuckles.
“All that was for nothing!” He punched the deck of the barge.
“So…that’s it? I just sit here and wait to die?”

The man shook his head. “No. This is not
where you’ll die. Not on this boat. But on the island.” He pointed
to the beach. “That shall be your final resting place.”

“No! I won’t believe it!” Kevin stood up,
walked to the man and lifted him up forcefully by the robes. “Tell
me how to get out of here!”

“Why should I?” replied the man darkly.

Kevin thought for a second and said whatever
came to mind. “Because…of the goodness of your heart…”

“There is no goodness in the world.” The man
smiled widely.

“You’re lying! What have I fought for? I
fought for good!”

“Look deep into your heart and realize,
foolish child.” The man disappeared in a trail of smoke and said in
an echoing voice, “You fought for yourself…”

“Hey,” Kevin said, scanning the area
frantically, “where’d you go? Come back here!”

There was no reply. The man wouldn’t come
back, he suspected. Kevin slouched into a seat and sullenly watched
the scenery pass him by, the world reflecting perfectly in his
eyes. His boat hit the shore in a matter of minutes. Kevin climbed
out, sloshing his feet out of the shallows and onto the beach.
After he left the boat, the boat suddenly vanished. Kevin shrugged.
It wasn’t of much use anyway, he thought.

The sun traveled quickly over the sky, and
before he knew it, it was almost time for the sun to set. The way
that everything glowed in a blurry haze was quite pretty to look
at. There was an undeniable beauty to the place. Red, blue and
green seashells protruded out of the golden sand. The palm trees
swayed back and forth in the wind. Ripe coconuts littered the
beach. As he looked past the trees, he saw the remains of simple
huts.

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