As Lizzie's mother stood at the door talking to a man clad in black, Lizzie took the book the man had given her and went into her room, her little mechanical puppy named Kadin following behind her. Lizzie sat on her bed and looked at the book. It was a beaten up old volume with the name “Zig” written in silver on a leather cover. Lizzie opened it cautiously and began to read the note on the first page.
Dear Lizzie,You might not even know who I am by the time you get this, but read my story and remember. I’m your brother and I love you no matter where I am. I'm going on an important mission tomorrow, and I don't know what's going to happen.
"Gyro!" My mother yelled. "Gyro! Time to get up!" I pulled the blankets over my head and tried to go back to sleep.
"Good morning Ember City! It's a beautiful Friday morning in October." My alarm went off. With a groan I turned it off and put on my Forearm Computer, F.A.C. for short. I hit a few buttons on it and heard the countdown for the shower start. I got up and walked over to my sleeping dog.
"Wake up, Bo," I nudged my dog with my foot. He was a medium sized mutt with dark brown fur and short floppy ears. No response. Weird, he's usually on by now. I knelt down and searched around for his “on” button which was hidden under his synthetic fur. Once I found it I pushed, thinking he was still in sleep mode. Still no response. I scratched the area behind his ear. I heard his internal fan start up, and I gave a sigh of relief. Lights turned on in his eyes as he barked happily.
"Good morning," I said, still scratching behind his ear. "Go wake up Lizzie while I take my shower." I rubbed the silkscreen on his stomach in a friendly gesture. The countdown was over and the shower was running. I don’t know what it will be like when you read this but fresh water is very costly and it isn't something that should be wasted. I raced down the hall to the bathroom. I jumped into the shower.
"Shower, turn up the heat, I'm freezing." The water got even colder. “I said hotter, not colder! Please!" It was getting colder by the second. I have nothing against the cold, but not this early in the morning.
"Shower! Off!" I figured it would be better to take a quick shower than a long, freezing one. I hopped drying and dressing my self quickly, I went into Lizzie's room to see if she was awake. With all the trust I placed in Bo, things were weird today. Indeed Lizzie was wide-eyed and fully awake. Yet I couldn't find Bo. I scooped Lizzie out of her crib.
"You haven't seen Bobo have you?" I asked, arranging her so I could walk and carry her more easily.
"Bobo wake me up, and then started to smoke." Her thick brown hair bobbed up and down as she spoke. This worries me; I spent hours working on him in my workshop trying to make him perfect. My workshop was in the backyard, you know the dinky little “shack” in the back yard?"
Gyro! Get down here and take care of Bo!" My mom yelled.I took the stairs two at a time while holding Lizzie tightly. When I came to the kitchen there was Bo, smoking. It was pouring out of every opening it could find. In one fluid movement I handed Liz off to my mom and knelt beside Bo. I burned my hand when I tried to touch his body.
"Ow!" I yelled. I raced to the faucet and ran cool water over my hand to ease the throbbing. My mom set Liz down in her high chair and got some ice from the freezer.
"Here honey," she said soothingly as she put antibiotic cream on my hand and bandaged it. "Hon, what ever you need to do, it better happen soon because school starts in about 15 minutes, and you can't be late again. Your dad left ten minutes ago. He left 20 dollars as your gas allowance."I stuffed the money into my back pocket on my way to workshop in the backyard. (It used to be in my room, but after a nasty little mishap with a prototype robot and a hammer, my parents decided to set up a shed in the backyard for me.)
"Bo, follow," I commanded as I went out the door. I walked up the shed entered the entry code on the lock and said, "Gyro Ziggurt Duffy."
"Access denied," came the reply."
What? I said 'Gyro Ziggurt Duffy'. Please don't make me say it again," So many glitches that day, I would later learn that all of this trouble was caused by a system crash in the neighborhood.
"Access denied," came the monotone answer.
"Don't make me hardwire you!" I threatened. The shed emitted what could have been mistaken as a sigh had it been human.
"Access granted." Ha! I don’t care how pathetic it sounds, but it felt good to win over a machine.
"I think I've finally snapped," I mumbled to myself. The door slid open and Bo and I walked in.
"Table," I said to Bo as I patted my worktable. He jumped and landed on the table with a soft thud.
"I'm going to take a quick look at what’s going on, but to do that you're going to have to be turned off. Okay?" I asked him. He barked in agreement. I opened his mouth and pressed on a couple of teeth.As he was powering down I whispered, "Nighty-night."
I looked at the clock on my F.A.C. "Frak! I only have eight minutes to get down to Cal's house!" I exclaimed. I touched Bo's body to make sure my workshop wouldn't burn down while I was at school. Luckily he had cooled down.I rushed out, grabbing my backpack, hover board, and helmet on the way. Once the door was closed behind me I told it to lock then gave it my password again. I stopped briefly in the kitchen to grab some toast and say goodbye to my mom and Liz. With my board safely under my feet, and my helmet on my head I was ready to go.I slowed to a stop as I reached Calvin's house.
"Hello," I said, beginning our five year long routine. He was slowly locking his door and walking toward me. He grunted what I guess could be called a greeting. That was not part of the routine.
"What's wrong?" I asked. Again, not part of the routine, but everyone needs a change from the ordinary.
"Shower wouldn't start, alarm didn't go off, lights wouldn't go on... Need I continue?" He replied.
"That's bizarre, my shower was having problems too, and Bo took a while to turn on this morning."
"Hmmm..."
"Something is not right," I mused, as we walked toward school. We started our normal conversation, "Did you get this answer for this problem" "Are you going to that party" and other things along those lines.
As we were crossing the intersection of Subra and Colren, we saw a building completely surrounded by police officers blocking off the road and the sidewalk. The only route left to school would take us 20 minutes. So we decided to try and get through. Cal and I walked up to the nearest officer.
"Um, excuse me. Sir?" I said shyly.
"I'm sorry, but you boys will need too clear out and head to school," the officer replied stiffly.
Calvin spoke up, "But sir we are on our way to school. This is the route we take everyday and the only other path will take us 20 more minutes, which we don't have. Then if we're late, we'll get detention. After that our grades may be lower. No good colleges..." Here was the Calvin I knew, wouldn't shut up unless forced.
"Okay, okay, enough talking. I'll just write you a note or something," the officer interrupted.
"But what if..." I put my hand over Calvin's mouth.
"Thank you, sir" I told the cop as he handed me a note authorized by the Ember City police department. "Before we head off, may I ask what's happening in the building?"
"Somehow the security system was activated, sealing people inside." Oh great more tech problems. So I asked the obvious, “Doesn’t the police have the deactivication code?"
The officer gave me a puzzled look, "Um…the mainframe has… has randomized the… the, um, codes by itself."
"Why hasn't someone gotten on the roof and entered from there?" I inquired."
Because the security system is programmed to immobilized the 'average' person trying to leave or enter through the roof, unless the security system is turned off."
"And what, sir, is the 'average' person?" asked Cal.The cop thought for a minute before saying,” About 5' 5" tall, and at least 120 pounds."
"Oh," I said. "You know I'm just under 5' and about 105 pounds. Just incase I could be of assistance."
"I'm not sure son. You're only, what? 13?"
"14, sir," I said proudly. For once my lack of height could help, and I intended to.
"I'll talk it over with my supervisor. Stay right here, both of you." He went to go talk to someone else in uniform. I turned to Cal, who raised an eyebrow at me.
"What?" I tried to make it seem innocent, and failed.
"Your mom's going to kill both of us. You for going, me for not stopping you," he responded flatly.
"Oh come on. And besides," I adopted a superhero like voice and pose. "I'll be helping my city" Seeing that he was still hesitant I added, "We'll be missing school and you can talk to the press on my behalf"
That worked almost instantly.He attempted to suppress a smile as he said, "Fine, but I still think it's a bad idea."
I smiled back, "I'm sure you do. Here hold my bag." I gently tossed him my bag. The cop came back and directed me to a van, "Inside you'll find Ann. She will give you some new clothes that will suit this task better." I looked down at my grubby "tech geek" t-shirt, jeans with a hole in the knee, and my worn boarding shoes. I nodded and stepped in the van.In the van were a bunch of cabinets, drawers, and shelves. Ann sat at a desk stacked high with paperwork. I stood and waited, she continued to work as if I weren't even there. I tried coughing politely.
Ann looked up from her work. "You must be the boy who's helping." I nodded. "Okay then," she got up from the desk and opened a drawer. "Hm... These pants should be the right size." She threw a pair of black pants to me. The insignia on the back pocket identified them and part of a Special Forces uniform. Ann pulled open and another drawer, "And here's a shirt, size small" Again she threw it at me a shirt with the Special Forces insignia, a white S.F. in front of a fire. I got changed while she searched.By the time she had found all the things I needed, and thrown them at me, I was completely changed into a black S.F. uniform complete with full contact shoes, shirt, pants with and infinite number of pockets, and skull cap. Now Ann was looking in a cabinet filled with gadgets of every kind. Every few minutes she would set aside a tool of some kind. Finally she turned around to face me.
"Okay, Zig was it?" I nodded. "Here is a Zapper, head set, pliers, wire cutters, screwdriver, and a flashlight," She handed each of these and explained their uses. Once they were all safely in my many pockets, she explained what exactly I was supposed to do. After I put my headset on I got out of the van and walked over to Cal, whom I had left my board with. He was talking to the police officer I had spoken to earlier.
"Nice clothes," Cal said as soon I was within ear shot. "Officer Noren was just telling me that our school has been notified of what's going on. He also said I could stay and watch as long as I didn't interfere."
"Are you ready?" Nolen asked me.
"Ready as I' m going to be, sir" I said, taking my board from Calvin. I checked to make sure everything was working correctly. Finding everything to my liking and the fuel tank full, I strapped my helmet on and followed the officer over to the side of the building.I set my board down on the ground, stepped on it and turned it on. I nodded to Nolen and Cal, who stood a safe distance away.
Instructions came through my headset, "Be ready on my count." I got into position. "3, 2, 1, NOW!"I rode my board straight up. Making sure I kept my footing, I took a quick survey. I was about 15 feet above the ground with the roof about 5 feet above me and rapidly getting closer. I waited until I was about a foot above the roof then pressed a button on my F.A.C. The board didn't stop. So I had to come up with a new plan, quickly. I pressed another button and my board shot forward over the roof. I jumped off and landed on the roof with a thud. The board fell onto the roof and skidded to a stop with a very unpleasant grinding sound. I really hope that still works later. I didn't have time to check. Keeping low to the ground I made my way to the entrance panel. I eased the panel open and slid inside.
"Are you in?" Officer Nolen asked through my head set.
"Yeah," I responded quietly.
"Then head down the stairs. Once you're in the hallway make your way to the third door on your left."
"Okay," I slowly walked down the hall. One, Two, Three. Ah ha, there it is. I quickly found the third door. It was labeled "mainframe". I attempted to locate the key to the door in my many pockets. It was a while before I found the key card and swiped it in the door. The card didn't work. I tried about five more time before I finally called for help.
"We have a problem here, sir, the key card won't work."
"Do you think you can pick the lock?" Nolen asked.I responded in an angry whisper, "It's not that kind of lock, sir."
"All right, can your arm device handle it?"
I took a deep breath, "I can try, sir."Inside my pockets I always keep a couple spare wires, just in case. With these I connected my F.A.C. to the lock. A few buttons, and some colorful words, later the door popped open. "I'm in"
Once I slipped inside, I sat down next to the mainframe and began opening it up.
"Okay, I'm in the control room and the panel is open," I reported. "Good. Now disable the system, count to one hundred and turn it back on. Then, get out of there as fast as you can."
"Why?"
"When the system restarts itself it sends test charges through the building to make sure all the panels are receiving information, so once it's reconnected, run.
"Pliers in hand, I untwisted a couple of wires and waited. As the lights were going out, and the building was powering down, I found my flashlight and turned it on.1, 2, 3...I started my countdown. Through my head set I could hear cheers of people leaving the building.
"Good job kid, we're getting the people out now" 99,100! With a quick twist I reconnected the security system. The effect was immediate; the air around me was alive with electricity. I felt pulses surging through me, dully at first, but quickly intensifying. I grabbed my tools and shoved them in to random pockets as I ran out the door and up the stairs.By the time I reached the roof, the pulses were almost paralyzing. In staggered steps I managed to get over to my hover board. To my dismay I found that my board wouldn't turn on. I was running out of options, with only one thing left to do. I needed to alert the police to if I was going to pull this off.
"I need some kind of mat or landing pad on the side of the building where I launched from," I ordered picking up my board and running toward the edge of the building.I had forgotten any of the military manners I had learned in school, and Nolen noticed.
"Was that an order? Did you just ord-"
"Just do it!" I shouted. The pulses were growing stronger. I was barley able to suppress a moan of pain, when a jolt went straight up my leg. In one motion I jumped off the edge of the building and place my board beneath me in hopes that it would add to my air resistance. I turned on the microphone in my F.A.C., “F.A.C. turn on force field. Now!" In seconds I was surrounded by a light blue haze. I tested the strength of the field by pushing it with my hand. It bent slightly where I pushed, but did not break. Weak, but it should help at least a little bit. Keeping my knees bent, I prepared for impact. Landing caused my entire body to throb. As I attempted to stand my vision began to ebb away.
"F.A.C. force field off," I coughed weakly. I stumbled a few feet towards a paramedic that was running to me.
"I'm fine" That was all I could manage before slipping to my knees.Then everything went black.
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