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Post by Fernpelt on Sept 25, 2010 0:28:40 GMT -6
M'kay, here it is...I hope you don't hate me for the horrible things of copy and paste!!! xD
CHAPTER ONE
Wolfgang sat down on the bench, setting his plate of pork chops and vegetables down. He had been eating the same for weeks; he wished he had been ported to a different boarding space station. His Mom had said this one had the best education and whatnot, but he knew no one there. He miserably ate the spinach and broccoli, saving the pork chop for last. The spinach tasted foul on his lips, they reminded him of one time when his Mom gave him meat tasting medicine, not exactly up to standards. When Wolfgang got to the pork chop, he took small bites and savored the delicious flavor.
The bell rang, loud and harsh, as if reprimanding him for taking so long. He finished off his pork chop, picked up his books and hurried to class with Ms. Bain. The door opened automatically when Wolfgang came close by, and he was glad to see he wasn’t late.
He sat down in his seat and tried to pull out his proper books. It was history at the moment, his favorite subject, though not necessarily his favorite class. He got to learn about Earth. What he disliked about the class was Ms. Bain, she screeched like an angry toddler and her eyes didn’t miss a thing.
Ms. Bain was sitting at her desk with her sharp, pointy noise and her black eyes. “Everybody sit. Now.” The class obliged to her orders and all sat immediately, trying not to look directly at her but still trying to seem like they were paying attention. Wolfgang was glad he wasn’t late; he would have received a punishment that he wouldn’t forget. He was still recovering from last time.
“Today we are studying the history of…?” A girl in the back immediately raised her hand.
“Yes, Paloma?” said Ms. Bain in a sickly sweet voice.
“Earth, right?”
Wolfgang wanted to roll his eyes; Paloma was such a teacher’s pet.
Ms. Bain narrowed her eyes at him, but didn’t say anything. Luckily there was no evidence of his unforgivable act towards her.
Ms. Bain slowly shifted her gaze away from her troublesome pupil, and back to the one that she favored. Wolfgang sighed with relief, the teacher had been known for giving punishments for no actual reason.
“Yes, Paloma. You are correct. Today we are studying Earth’s size and layers.”
The head of the class then ordered them to memorize everything from page 52 to page 65 within the next 20 minutes. Each of the students studied vigorously, none sure they would be able to pass the quiz that was sure to follow. They remembered as much as they could, but the stress made it hard to focus. Sweat dripped onto their textbook pages, and they knew if the teacher found out, they would be in trouble for vandalizing school property. The price was being kicked out of the expensive school.
Too soon, the 20 minutes were up, and Ms.Bain passed out the quiz. Not one of the students was ready for the quiz, especially Wolfgang. Pages 52 through 65 was full of boring Social Studies, size and layers of the Earth were not interesting to him.
Wolfgang and all the students worked as quickly as they could. The 20 minutes of work passed too quickly, and Wolfgang was sure each of his answers were incorrect. Ms.Bain ordered the quizzes passed up, and Wolfgang hesitatingly passed up his, wishing he had photographic memory.
The instructor disapprovingly looked over all the papers, then nasally commented, “You’ve improved, but not by much.” She meant the class as a whole, which meant they were all behind. Wolfgang was angered, she couldn’t expect more from giving them only 20 minutes to study and 20 to finish the test. The whole 13 pages were new material, never before seen to the students, but Wolfgang knew it would do no good to speak out. That was what made him receive his first punishment.
Ms. Bain then ordered Paloma to pass out the homework, an essay on Earth’s demise, due in a few days. “Back to your dormitories, you have 10 minutes to get your books for the next class.” The bell rang again and Ms. Bain shouted, “Class dismissed!” Kids swarmed the exit, afraid of getting in Ms. Bain’s way. Wolfgang went through the usual dull day of school, not paying much attention in any of the classes.
A few hours later, Wolfgang found himself in a hall full of screaming and laughing juveniles, eating food. Some guy, quite a bit smaller than Wolfgang, sat beside him. Sandy blonde hair and sharp, blue eyes. He was eating his potatoes and gravy ravenously. Wolfgang rolled his eyes, you would only earn yourself a stomachache from doing that, he would know. He returned his focus to his own meal. Mashed potatoes and gravy with ribs. He would eat his ribs first; he didn’t want to go through pain before pleasure again.
“Hey, you gonna eat those potatoes? I’ll eat them for you if you aren’t,” the boy next to him offered. There were only ribs on the kid’s plate. Perfect. “Sure, if you’ll give me your ribs.” He nodded eagerly and they traded plates, both happy with their deal.
Apparently, though, this was not the end of the boy. “I’m Tyrell! Nice to know someone who doesn’t give you a wedgie for a greeting.” Wolfgang just nodded, in his euphoric state he forgot to tell him his own name. He just set to work on finishing all of his ribs. Pushing his dark brown hair out of his face, his warm brown eyes were revealed. Wolfgang knew he needed a haircut, but there weren’t any barbers on the ship.
They ate in silence for a bit, Wolfgang thinking of his homework he had to do before bed. He was overloaded with it. What a bummer. A report on the end of Earth, and some grammar, math, and science worksheets, he would stay busy tonight. A ‘ding dong’ rang across the room. That was first warning to hurry up and eat. Wolfgang obliged happily.
Before Tyrell could say a word, as his eyes dictated he might want to, the ding dong came again, that was last warning. Wolfgang hurriedly dumped his tray on the trolley and sprinted to his dormitory. He waited as the door automatically opened and sprinted to his study room. At least here Tyrell couldn’t bother him. Everyone had their own private room, and Wolfgang was glad for the solitude. He could actually concentrate in a room like this.
Wolfgang took a seat at his desk, sleepy though it was only 7:00. He yawned tiredly, and then began working. He finished his worksheets quickly, he always did the easiest stuff first. For the Earth’s downfall he would have to explain everything slowly and deliberately. He began writing his outline so that it wouldn’t be too overwhelming. First, Russia declared war on North and South America. Russians began making nuclear tools to destroy the Americas for an unknown reason, and the North and South Americas knew they had to get away as soon as possible. That was the first body paragraph.
Wolfgang rubbed his temples. Already he was getting bored of this tedious essay. He sighed and kept on writing. While Russia worked on their nuclear weapons, the Americas worked on finishing their space stations. They had already been in progress for astronauts to be able to stay up in space longer, but had not been finished. The soon to survive continents just merged forces and made many more, and ones to support more life.
Wolfgang leaned back and admired his work so far. It explained what had happened so far, but didn’t have too much detail. That’s alright, it’s only an outline, Wolfgang consoled himself. All the space stations were done, but now the Americans had created a new problem for themselves. They wanted to keep the memory of animals alive, just in case they found a new planet to live on, so they took DNA samples of all the animals they could. They didn’t know how to create life, even they couldn’t do that, and bringing more animals on board would result in less oxygen to go around. So the scientists found a way to give people the ability to change into whatever animal was bestowed upon you. It usually was based upon your personality.
Wolfgang frowned. This wasn’t everything he needed to say. He would have to do a six paragraph essay, instead of a five. Oh well, it might result in a better grade. The people originally on board, the first generation, were given animal morphing abilities, but afterwards offspring didn’t need an injection, they were born with the capability to alter their shape. Although this resulted in many irregular animal traits, it was still the same species. Meanwhile, the Russian failed to notice that the Americans were gone, and blew up the entire west continental area. But they miscalculated the amount of nuclear bombs to use, and blew up Earth.
A chime gently reminded everyone that it was time to sleep, no matter what was going on. Wolfgang didn’t have a problem with that. He was ready to sleep like a log; he had spent some considerable time on his outline, though by the quality of his work, you wouldn’t think so. All his homework was done, he had made a friend (somewhat), and, most importantly, survived another day with Ms.Bain.
He clambered into bed, in his regular clothes, and fell asleep like a baby. He slept deeply, not a wisp of a dream entering his shut-down brain. He was enveloped in a warm and friendly darkness.
Chapter Two
Wolfgang awoke with a yawn, hoping without hope that they would have something other than toast and cereal for breakfast. The toast was way too toasted, and the cereal... Wolfgang shuddered; just thinking about the cereal gave him shivers. He jumped out of bed and stepped into his small closet to dress. The light automatically went on, and he was able to find some clothes that might’ve matched without too much trouble. Wolfgang opened the door and reluctantly made his way over to the dining tables.
“Yuck, cereal and toast. Do you like it? Not me. Except for the nuts in the cereal. Those are good,” commented and questioned Tyrell. Wolfgang blinked in surprise, where did he come from? He certainly hadn’t seen him come up to him earlier. He must have followed him from the start. Yes, that was it.
“So, you the strong silent type? Me too!” exclaimed the bundle of energy. Tyrell started trying to make a determined, angry face by furrowing his eyebrows deeply. Wolfgang couldn’t help but laugh at the face that was supposedly ‘strong and silent’.
“No laughing or talking in line,” a nasal voice reminded. Mrs. Grender was the head lunch lady, and she was the only one who used that rule. She could rebuke all the students she wanted, no one was going to listen to her. Tyrell stopped straight in his tracks. “I don’t know your name,” he realized.
“It’s Wolfgang, sorry I forgot to mention that earlier,” Wolfgang grinned. Tyrell seemed happy with this newfound information and smiled wider than Wolfgang would have thought possible. Wolfgang shook his head in wonder, this guys animal would have to be energetic, bold, and somewhat stupid.
“Spoons and napkins to the left,” another lunch lady directed in a monotone voice, the same words repeated every morning. Wolfgang picked up a spoon, but didn’t bother with the napkins. He never got enough food on his face to aggravate any teachers, and the napkins were made out of some spongy material that creeped Wolfgang out, anyways.
“Hey, can I have your walnuts?” pleaded Tyrell eagerly. Wolfgang nodded enthusiastically; the walnuts were one of his least favorite parts of the meal. Well, he loathed it all equally. Tyrell was definitely some chipmunk or maybe a squirrel, ‘cause Wolfgang couldn’t think of anything else that loved nuts so much.
“Mmmmm!” Tyrell exclaimed, eating a few before they even sat down. He must seriously love walnuts, thought Wolfgang. Most definitely a squirrel or chipmunk, otherwise this guy was a super abnormal animal, more abnormal than most abnormal ones. Wolfgang liked that word, abnormal. Sounded a bit weird, just like it meant.
“Let’s sit…over there!” Tyrell suggested, and without waiting for an answer, bounded off towards the table. Wolfgang just smiled and followed him, this guy had somehow survived this first month without being chewed out by a teacher.
“Tyrell, how long have you been going here?” Wolfgang suddenly asked. Tyrell would’ve had to have serious sneaky skills to pull off running around, being rude, and all the stuff you probably shouldn’t do.
Tyrell’s face showed the faintest bit of moroseness. “I don’t know, like, 5 years?” Wolfgang inhaled sharply, this guy had been here 5 years, that’s pretty long for a boarding school like this. It was super expensive, but what more can you expect from the best of the best?
“I’m sorry,” Wolfgang apologized. You don’t get to see your parents except for one day out of the year, and even that costs a lot of money.
“What for?” inquired Tyrell, who had resumed his bouncy self. So he doesn’t really think about it, thought Wolfgang. Okay, whatever, he resolved. Wolfgang finally reached the faraway seat Tyrell had pointed out and started eating.
The bell rang, ringing in his ears. Wolfgang sighed and threw away everything on his plate, then left his bowl on the breakfast trolley. He wasn’t going to eat much of it anyway.
“Hurry, we’re going to be late for first period!” shouted Tyrell. Wolfgang half grinned, amused by Tyrell’s over-animation, getting worried over the slightest thing.
Wolfgang had Mrs. Drefher for first period, math. Now, math wasn’t bad but it wasn’t his best subject, and it bored him out of his mind, too.
Tyrell ran shouting something ahead of him that Wolfgang couldn’t hear over the ruckus of kids hurrying to first period. Whatever Tyrell was saying had him all animated, moving his hands back and forth, trying to emphasize what he was saying, but only looking like he was drowning.
As Wolfgang was watching interestedly, a muscular looking guy interrupted his view of Tyrell for a moment. He looked like a bully, and didn’t seem like the friendliest kid around. Wolfgang was pretty sure he wasn’t in any of his classes, but he didn’t really notice anyone else in class, he just hurried to get through the day without being killed. His eyes were almost pitch-black, and Wolfgang didn’t have a good feeling about him.
Looking at his eyes, Wolfgang wanted to throw-up. He couldn’t though. Not in front of everyone. Wolfgang swallowed the bile rising in his throat and kept on walking. Tyrell did a swift turn-around, and whispered in Wolfgang’s ear, “that’s Damien, try and steer clear of him.”
The bell rang again, last warning, which meant he had 5 minutes, and his class was halfway across the school. The carbon fiber composite floor shined in the fluorescent lights, the setting doing nothing to help Wolfgang’s flopping stomach. Tyrell wasn’t helping either, looking back and forth anxiously, so different from his usual light mood that Wolfgang had come to know well.
“Hurry, we’re going to be late for first period!” shouted Wolfgang, mocking Tyrell from earlier that day. Tyrell smirked and hit Wolfgang on the head with his notebook, the tension temporarily forgotten for Wolfgang.
“Hey! You get back here!!” yelled Wolfgang gleefully as Tyrell ran ahead. With an irrepressible grin, Wolfgang was on his tail. There were plenty of kids running and jumping about, so they weren’t out of place.
As Wolfgang and Tyrell came to terms with plenty of playful punches, they realized the halls were a bit less crowded and significantly less noisy. They looked at a hall clock and realized how little time they had left.
“Oops,” Tyrell apologized guiltily. They would most definitely be late if they didn’t sprint to class. So, of course, they sprinted to class. Teachers who glanced out of the window at them shook their heads disapprovingly. Hopefully the two youth’s faces weren’t too distinguishable.
They made it to first period successfully, without any teachers actually leaving their rooms, nor any kiss up kids reporting a couple of kids running in the hallway. The two unruly kids hadn’t mentioned to each other that they had the same first class. How typical of them.
Two desks sat empty, as if accusing them of not being exactly on time. The pair of desks weren’t as close as Wolfgang would have liked them to be, but that was the price of being late. Tyrell and Wolfgang hurriedly sat down in the seats, and not a second too soon, for the bell rang just then. Tyrell smirked mischievously back at Wolfgang, his mood lightened again now that they were safe in the classroom. Tyrell’s companion was bewildered that he had missed out on such a friendship for so long, one that started because of potatoes.
“Um, pardon?” a timid voice floated up towards Wolfgang’s ears. The girl next to him looked up at him pleadingly. Wolfgang was about to ask her what she needed, when he realized he had dropped his books on her feet.
“Oh, I’m so sorry!” repented Wolfgang. She must think I’m an idiot, Wolfgang thought sheepishly. He picked up the books and set them on his desk. The girl looked relieved now that the weight was off of her fragile feet.
“Pleasure to meet you, I’m Kite,” she introduced formally, and then stuck out her hand for a handshake. Wolfgang responded slowly, not sure at first what he should do. After a while he caught on, and was about to take her hand when she withdrew awkwardly.
“Sorry,” she mumbled, “I was always told my social skills needed working on.” Kite then retreated behind the curtain of white hair with light blue highlights. Wolfgang wasn’t given the chance to respond because just then Mrs. Drefher pressed an overly large red button that sent a deafening beeping through the classroom.
The teacher stood up, looking the class over with cold eyes. “Attention class,” she said in a monotone voice. “Today you will be pairing up with a classmate. You will be discussing how to find the volume of half of a cylinder. Nyheg will be passing out the assignments. Nyheg?” The boy in question dutifully retrieved the papers and passed them out.
“The assignment’s too easy, if you ask me,” grumbled Mrs. Drefher. Wolfgang took no note of her comment, they had such an easy task! Mrs. Drefher signaled them to get up, and the moment she did a loud buzz of partner choosing began.
“Tyrell?” Wolfgang asked. The question in the name wasn’t too hard to discover. “Sure, let’s be partners!” Tyrell exclaimed enthusiastically, with a merry glint in his eyes. They did their exercise quickly, and then spent the rest of the time talking and laughing. Wolfgang was relieved he had a friend, finally. He had had a rough start at this school, but friends made everything so much easier.
The rest of class passed uneventfully, with only a little homework to do. Tyrell turned back in his seat and beamed happily at Wolfgang while Mrs. Drefher was turned around. Wolfgang couldn’t help but be filled with pleasure at this modest gesture. The bell rang, and the teacher dismissed them with a wave of her hand.
Tyrell and Wolfgang parted ways, with only a playful punch as their farewells. Wolfgang perked up a little. English was next, and it was pretty easy for him. The day passed quickly, Wolfgang doing moderately well in each class. Lunch was ordinary, with only Tyrell to make it more exciting. But as Wolfgang headed for History, he passed by the boy again, and the sick feeling returned to his stomach. Wolfgang had never had to stand up to a bully; he had usually been left alone. But here, this boarding school, it was different. The teachers didn’t really care, as long as they got their money. He would have to stand up for himself.
Last warning bell rang, and Wolfgang ran to class. He was surprised to see Tyrell in class, a happy kind of surprise, but it was soon squashed when he realized the black-eyed boy was there, too. He slowly walked in class and took a seat next to Tyrell. He knew a few people in here, fortunately. There was Kite in front of him, still hiding behind her hair, Armina behind him, her long hair in a pony-tail, and Nyheg on his other side.
He had met Armina on his first day. He hadn’t been paying much attention to where he was going and, well, he had accidentally found himself in the Women’s Bathroom, where he thought the Men’s Room was. He had instantly found himself outside of the door. On his butt.
He looked straight ahead, hoping the slight color on his cheeks went un-noticed. No guy wanted to be caught wandering in a girl’s restroom, it gave off the wrong impression. Ms. Bain walked into the classroom, her face gaunt and pale. Simultaneously, the bell rang.
“Attention, class,” she demanded. Everyone unenthusiastically turned their heads towards her. “Today we are going to be pairing up in groups for the event that we have been talking about.” No one knew what she meant. They hadn’t been talking about any events. Ms. Bain cleared her throat. “Although we already have an assignment out, we will still be doing this. You can finish it when you get back.”
This was even more uncharacteristic of the day. Ms. Bain never gave them a break from homework, at least as far as Wolfgang knew. This would have to be some event!
“There will be three groups in this class. Alpha, Beta, and Charlie,” declared the insipid teacher. Everyone, or almost everyone, remained in awe. Even Kite had managed to peek out of her curtain of hair to confirm this was happening and not her sleeping again.
“In Alpha group A, there will be Damien, Altair, Zahid, and Quirina. Alpha group B, Kite, Nyheg, Armina, Wolfgang, and Tyrell.” Ms. Bain continued talking, but Wolfgang stopped listening. He was overcome with horror of who he was paired with. Oh, Alpha Group B was fine, but Alpha Group A intimidated him. He was sure that they were going up each other somehow. He hoped this ‘event’ was extremely safe.
Wolfgang apprehensively turned around and snuck a look at Damien. The spiteful minor apparently had been waiting for it, and gave him a wicked smile. Wolfgang turned around quickly and felt like fainting. Tyrell, on the other hand, felt like whooping his joy into the air. He was too self-assured to care about Damien at the moment. His newfound best-friend was in his group.
“This event is to see how well you have learned to survive on a planet. It has only been a month, but this will replace a regular paper test, and will give you the actual experience of how to do this.” Ms. Bain sounded like this was scripted, and sure enough, she was reading it off a piece of paper. “Group A and Group B will be competing against one another to see who survives the most successfully. There will be no violence, and if anyone is actually injured, a shuttle will be sent right away. The planets you are being sent to have already been altered to be inhabitable and are perfectly safe.”
Wolfgang sat up in alarm. He knew something would go wrong, he just knew it. His stomach twisted in anxiety, and he hoped he would get sick or something so he couldn’t go. Tyrell, oblivious of his friend’s distress, grinned widely. He couldn’t wait to get going.
“You will be sent our first thing tomorrow after eating breakfast. You will bring nothing but what you wear at the moment.” A few girls complained about how disgusting that would be, but for the most part it was silent. “You will go to sleep early today, right after this next period. Dinner will be very light. Thank you and class is now dismissed,” the monotone teacher informed.
The dismissal bell rang, and everyone left class. Not everyone was happy with their group. Armina groaned, and glared angrily at Wolfgang. Kite hid behind her hair, and Nyheg smiled idiotically.
“Isn’t it awesome!? We’re in the same group! We get to spend time together on a real planet! So cool!” Tyrell was overexcited; he obviously couldn’t wait until tomorrow. Wolfgang just wanted to go to sleep and never wake up. Wolfgang just nodded miserably and headed to Science.
Wolfgang paid hardly any attention in class, and received a C on the quiz he took. He usually did better than that, but he couldn’t think straight. What would Damien pull off? Or was he just overreacting and Damien was just messing with him? Wolfgang decided to forget about it. After all, they would be on camera the whole time, he would be perfectly fine.
Wolfgang headed to dinner a new person, happy and light hearted. He received his mashed potatoes and ribs with no complaint, and chatted with Tyrell excitedly. The whole dining hall was buzzing excitedly, everyone was anxious for morning. No one ate much of their food, a big mistake as where they were going food would be scarce in spots. Wolfgang, though, did the trade with Tyrell and they both cleaned their plates. They talked and argued until the bell rang, and they headed to the dorm after putting away their plates.
Even though Wolfgang knew this was against the rules, he snuck some granola bars he had saved from dessert (pretty sad dessert) into his pockets. He would need all the food he could get. Looking around to make sure no one had seen him; he slid into his bed and was immersed in sleep.
Chapter Three
Wolfgang yawned lazily. If he had been on Earth, this would be a summer afternoon, birds chirping and bees buzzing around flowers. The poor boy had never experienced any of this, only stars as his sightseeing. Green was something seen on textbooks, clothes, and pictures of Earth only.
The brown haired adolescent awoke from his dreamy trance to have his memories rushing back from the day before. He couldn’t remember if he should feel excited or anxious, but it was enough to make him fly out of bed, hit the showers (for once) and brush his teeth in 10 minutes altogether.
He brushed his hair until all of his tangles were out, who knew the next time he would be able to brush his hair? He didn’t bring the comb, though. What would a respectable appearance do when you’re fighting for your life? Wolfgang put the brush away and power-walked over to the dining hall, stuck between an urge to run and an urge to go as slowly as a snail. The running temptation was stronger, so he at last gave in, blending with the crowd of cheering students.
Breakfast, sadly, was the same as usual. The toast a bit too toasted, the cereal soggy. But there was an air of excitement filling the room, a quiet buzz filling the silence that would’ve been there otherwise. Wolfgang hurried to find Tyrell, and they just beamed eagerly at each other, their new way of greeting one another.
Wolfgang soon found himself sitting down next to Tyrell, eating his cereal. He didn’t remember walking over here, or starting to eat, but that didn’t matter. Right now, all that mattered was the trip. The trip filled every child’s mind that day; no one’s thoughts could stray very far for very long.
A loud voice boomed out over the dining hall, probably the PA system. “You will join your groups now. There will be 6 separate groups all in all. Walk towards your group’s flag.” The message ended abruptly, with a static crackle. Wolfgang shook his head, ashamed. The school had better communications systems, why were they using such old fashioned equipment?
Tyrell jumped up and down, his eyes sparking. “Come on, come on! Let’s go!” Tyrell certainly was excited, a grin as large as a banana glued to his face. Wolfgang just shook his head (again) with a slight grin and followed his friend to the flag with an A on it.
Wolfgang noticed the other people in his team making their way over. Nyheg was still grinning like an idiot, and Armina glared angrily. Kite still shyly smiled, wondering if that was the right thing to do. These people of his group didn’t bother him (much), it was Alpha Team A that intimidated him. He just inhaled and exhaled slowly and deeply, hoping to calm down.
No one in his group spoke; they were too happy, too shy, or too angry to talk. Wolfgang just was anxious. He didn’t know what exactly to think. He massaged his temples softly, wishing he was back home again.
“The pods will now be released into the hall.” The voice crackled out again, and a hissing sound filled the room. A few kids cowered, but it was just the machines dropping the pods onto the long rug in the hallway. Many of them looked as if they were going to faint, they hadn’t seen any transportation for a long time, and they were also probably wowed by the thought of actual ground.
The ground opened up to reveal a long track that led to a steely looking door that was forbidden to the students to go near.
“You may now enter the pods,” the deep voice resonated. The doors of the shuttle opened with a quieter hiss, and the children wonderingly peered at it.
“Go on, get in there!” a teacher exclaimed angrily.
“But…we don’t know how to steer it,” a timid voice floated up.
“Pah! You won’t need too,” the teacher exclaimed impatiently. “We have a pre-set course. Just don’t press any buttons,” the instructor dictated dangerously.
Students slowly made their way into the pod, everyone a bit hesitant. Wolfgang was terrified, but his demeanor just showed he was slightly nervous. He was going to be in a claustrophobic area with Damien for a long time. It couldn’t be too long, though, Wolfgang reasoned. There are no toilets or food, they can’t starve us…right? he worried.
The doors hissed shut, and everyone but the A crew jumped and spun around. A voice resonated through the pod, “Please sit in your seats and buckle yourselves promptly. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1...” Everyone in the pod sat down quickly. As soon as they did, the pod began to slowly move on the metal track.
Wolfgang was extremely glad that Damien didn’t have much time to hurt Wolfgang or give him dirty looks...yet.
The voice came again, “In exactly 1 minute the pod will take off. 60, 59, 58, 57, 56, 55...” Wolfgang and several others (even in team A) started breathing heavily. They thought they might give them a bit of time before they shipped them all off into space.
Too soon, the voice reached 0. The pod was jettisoned from the track, and screams from other pods could be heard until they actually exited the hall. Through two little pod windows Wolfgang could see the doors in the process of opening. Hurry hurry hurry hurry, thought Wolfgang desperately. He didn’t want to go by being smashed against a wall.
The walls did open in time, and Wolfgang felt the pod being thrusted into space. After a little while, the engines kicked in and the pod began to move.
Not much later, a fainter voice floated into the pod, “You may now unbuckle yourself and get up. Remember, don’t press any buttons!”
Wolfgang and everyone else eagerly undid their buckles, wanting to figure out exactly what was in this pod. As Wolfgang had thought earlier, there wasn’t a toilet or a food supply, so they couldn’t take much longer than half a day.
He was looking at the wall of the pod, pretending try to figure out what they were made of, but really trying to ignore Damien’s burning gave boring a hole through the back of his head. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Armina and Kite sitting in their chairs, Armina whispering furtively into Kite’s ear. He knew what she was telling her about, and he turned a slight shade of red again. He hoped Tyrell would come to his rescue.
Just then Tyrell did come to his rescue, but he didn’t have anything particularly helpful in Wolfgang’s situation.
“Wow! Can you see those planets! I’ve never been that close to one before!” Wolfgang just absently nodded, focusing on Nyheg for the moment.
Nyheg’s face lit up with joy, he was standing over the control panel, figuring out what they all did.
“Look, guys! I found the dial that speeds up the shuttle! I can get us there faster!” Nyheg was obviously overwhelmed by this, probably thinking it would gain him a few friends.
“Um, are you sure about pressing any buttons, that teacher said we might do something pretty bad if we messed around with the controls,” Wolfgang warned cautiously. Kite and Tyrell nodded, they didn’t want their chance of going to a planet ruined by someone who thought they could help and ended up blasting them into a black hole.
“No, no, let the kid try it. I’d like to make it there as soon as possible,” Damien said in his gravelly tones. Nyheg suddenly shrunk, not so sure of himself anymore.
“Oh, uh, erm, they’re right, I, uh, probably shouldn’t,” Nyheg stumbled over his words, terrified.
Quirina, a large girl, swaggered up to Nyheg. She had a smirk on her face and wouldn’t let go of the option of being at the planet early.
“It’ll be fine, just press a few buttons, do your magic, and it’ll be fine,” she said in not a particularly comforting voice.
“On the other hand, if you don’t…” Quirina’s voice trailed off, implying something that would definitely not be enjoyable, letting Nyheg’s wild imagination take the reins and lose them almost immediately.
“Yep, uh, definitely, I’ll do that…Just a quick turn here, a button there,” Nyheg hurriedly spoke, his words slurring, his head bobbing furiously. He turned to the control panel, and by all of the buttons he was pressing it was clear that it wasn’t just ‘a quick turn here, a button there.’ Wolfgang would’ve intervened to stop Quirina and Damien from forcing Nyheg to do it when the pod lurched forward.
Nyheg’s frail body lurched forward, pressing some buttons and turning dials on the total other side of the control panel. Now the pod wasn’t just going quickly, it was apparent from the view of some planets they were looking at that they were also changing course.
Wolfgang ran to Nyheg and helped him off of the panel.
“Listen, Nyheg, we need you to put us back on course,” Wolfgang requested relatively calmly for this extreme turn of events. Even Damien and his team looked a little bit shaken up.
“I-I can’t!” Nyheg sputtered frantically. “I don’t know what the co-ordinates were before I messed them up! I’ve never been on a real working control panel before! I only knew the basics!” Nyheg’s voice began to crack, and his eyes showed the hysteria going through his brain. The eyes really are the window to the soul thought Wolfgang.
“Can you read what the co-ordinates are for our destination? Maybe we can contact someone and tell them where we are,” Armina suggested, thinking brilliantly in this horrible situation. Nyheg nodded rapidly, going over to the control panel and murmuring things that wouldn’t make sense to the rest of the crew.
Kite had retreated behind her curtain of hair; Armina was beside her, rigid, her whole body apprehensive. Tyrell, who had been silent for a while, was beside Wolfgang. His eyes were wide with fear, looking like he was about to faint. Damien, Altair, Quirina, and Zahid looked very calm. Almost as if they had anticipated this.
Wolfgang patted Tyrell’s shoulder to revive him, all the while staring suspiciously at Damien’s crew. They couldn’t have known, but it seemed strange of them to not be going into hysterics.
“I know w-what the co-ordinates are. I j-just need a p-piece of paper and pencil to write it down,” Nyheg said, stepping down from the control panel. Wolfgang looked around the place again, searching for something to write with. He had noticed a few drawers set into the wall earlier, but had paid them no notice. He thought they were empty.
Tyrell made it to the cabinets before Wolfgang could, rummaging through its contents quickly until he found a paper with some typing on it, probably telling them how to act on the pods, Wolfgang noted, and a pencil.
Nyheg quickly took them from Tyrell and began to scribble a jumble of numbers that made no sense to anyone else, but was perfectly understandable to Nyheg alone. It only took a little while for him to write it down, a second at the most, but somehow it felt longer. The short line that Nyheg wrote was only about 10 numbers long, but looked to take up a whole page.
Wolfgang quietly took the paper, folded it up, and gave it back to Nyheg for safe-keeping. No one knew where there would land, when, or if it would be an inhabitable place that they could survive on until help arrived. If help arrived. They still didn’t know how they could send a message out. Maybe the pod had something…
Wolfgang slumped onto the ground and began to fall asleep. He was tired and wanted to get away from his problems. Everyone else was doing the same, and the feeling of dread and loss hung heavy in the air, as if someone had just died.
If they had been looking out of the window they would’ve seen a large, imposing planet looming over them with several moons.
Chapter Four
Wolfgang awoke with a start, his eyes blearily seeing the ill-lit room. He staggered to his feet, forgetting the moments before sleep took him for just a moment. As he looked out of the pod window, he remembered everything. And apparently they had now landed.
What he saw was green. Lush jungles, yellow streams, clouds. The clouds amazed him. He had never seen them before, except, of course, in the textbook. Wolfgang’s face was glued to the window; he had never seen so many plants together. Never seen real grass, even though he wasn’t too sure the spongy-looking material on the ground was grass.
His eyes hungrily devoured everything to be seen, rejoicing to no end. Until he realized the trouble they were in. Stranded on a strange planet, possibly livable, but as far as they knew no way to communicate with the school. And worst of all, trapped with Damien.
It seemed almost as if Ms. Bain paired them together on purpose. He didn’t know for sure, there really wasn’t a way to know for sure without asking, and he knew he wouldn’t get a favorable response from either of them.
Wolfgang tore himself from the window and made his way to where Tyrell was sleeping. He crouched down next to him and gave him a slight shake.
“Hey, wake up. We gotta go,” Wolfgang said with some urgency. Tyrell yawned hugely and blinked a few times.
“Five more minutes? No? Why do we have to? It’s so warm…” Tyrell drifted off after the memories came back, and his eyes were wide open. Tyrell stumbled to his feet and trudged over to Armina, Kite, and Nyheg who weren’t sleeping too far off from each other. He shook them all, telling each of them that they needed to wake up it was an emergency.
After some time, Alpha Team B was all up. But Team B was still asleep. They were on the other side of the pod, each as far away from the other as possible.
Wolfgang gave Tyrell a look, asking if they should awake them or not. Kind hearted Tyrell, noble child, smirked. Wolfgang wanted to laugh, but the oppressing weight of the situation was too much. It was so silent, no one was speaking. Not Armina, Kite, Nyheg, Wolfgang, and amazingly, not Tyrell.
Wolfgang took a few steps towards the opposing team and shouted as loudly as he could.
“WAKE UP!!!”
Damien and the rest of the team were startled into wakefulness, though they all looked savage, if not bewildered, when they woke.
“Where are we?” Quirina questioned after getting over her initial shock. Armina shrugged at her, and looked out of the window. Everyone in the ship looked straggled, even Tyrell with his almost non-stop perkiness.
Wolfgang didn’t really believe this was happening. It was surely a dream he was having. Or a nightmare, he had figured out on his first week of school that those mashed potatoes really had powerful effects.
Armina, always the reckless one, raised her foot to kick open the door. Wolfgang noticed this motion, and was about to shout stop when her foot made contact with its target. Everyone but Armina and Kite held their breath, wondering how long they could go like this.
“Really? Does anyone see those animals? If they can live, so can we,” Armina ridiculed the crew, rolling her eyes. Wolfgang would’ve retorted that they could’ve been an alien organism, but he would’ve had to breathe first. His face was turning bright red and he was sure he was going to faint when he saw Tyrell breathing the air, so Wolfgang cautiously let down his hand.
“U-uh…What are we gonna do? We don’t kn-know where we are!” Nyheg exclaimed, his hysteria returning now that the weight of the situation was back with them. Everyone but him was unusually silent, not having the heart or reason to speak much.
“Uh, here. I have some granola bars left…” Wolfgang trailed off, looking in his pocket until he found them. He split each of them into four pieces, trying to distribute them as evenly as possible.
Team A made no move to take them, though their eyes shone with hunger.
“Here, I’m not hungry,” Wolfgang offered, putting the granola bar out where they could reach. Quirina, who was a bit wide, stared hungrily but didn’t touch.
“No, we wouldn’t like any,” Damien refused stiffly, though he was obviously hungry too. Wolfgang just left the granola bar with Tyrell to dole out. Everyone was still in the pod, but they all knew they would be driven out at some point by the need for food and water.
Nyheg was in a corner, holding onto the paper, trembling just a little. Wolfgang wanted to comfort him, and would’ve if he wasn’t already exhausted. His mind needed rest, but his body was telling his mind that it just finished resting.
Not too long after they finished eating, Armina stood up. Wolfgang already knew what she was going to say, they were wimps to not get up and see how they could survive on this place, but at the moment Wolfgang didn’t have the heart.
“Come on! You guys are wimps! We are never going to make it until the school finds us if we just sit around here! We need to be out there,” Armina announced, pointing to the open pod door, “looking for food and water. I’m going, and Kite already said she’s coming too. You can stay or leave, but only one will result in life.”
Wolfgang was little surprised at her long announcement. Armina didn’t speak much unless she knew you, and he had never seen her speak with such passion. It was as if they were going to war.
Tyrell silently stood, and as soon as he did, unstable Nyheg rose, too. Wolfgang was still on the ground; taken aback that she had roused Nyheg, too. After a few seconds, which seemed like a few years, Wolfgang stood, too. He didn’t expect anything from the other team, but he still looked over at them expectantly.
The group avoided his gaze, focusing their attention on Damien. He was staring resolutely at Wolfgang, a look on his face that Wolfgang had never seen on anyone before.
“Go play your games, but I’m sure things will be much more difficult than you think they will,” he said with practically no emotion or tone to his voice. Wolfgang was extremely disorientated by this turn of events, not expecting such a hostile response. In truth, he was quite lost for words. But Armina, as always, wasn’t.
“Okay, stay here. We’re going. See you,” She said without a look back. Wolfgang knew that she really did care about what happened to them, but wasn’t going to give them the satisfaction of seeing her concern.
As they dumbly followed Armina out, their minds still numb, Wolfgang thought he heard Armina mutter, “Hopefully.”
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After what was probably only 2 minutes of walking, Wolfgang’s mind began to awaken. He noticed things he hadn’t before. Just a few seconds ago his main purpose in life was to stare at Tyrell’s shoes and copy their patter. 1, 2, 1, 2. Now Wolfgang noticed the sounds of water, the huge tress, the bouncy grass, everything.
Wolfgang looked around, trying to decide where they could sleep for the night. With five people, it would be difficult to find a suitable shelter.
“What about that cave?” Tyrell asked, pointing to a crevice between a tree’s two massive roots. Most of the crew moved forward, but Wolfgang, Kite, and Armina stayed back
“No, an animal could be in there,” Wolfgang and Armina warned at the same time, but not acknowledging the fact. Tyrell looked at it disappointed, obviously wanting to spend the night in a creepy, mystical den. Wolfgang wanted to heave a sigh of relief and exasperation, the old Tyrell was back.
“Er, couldn’t someone go in there and check?” Kite asked shyly, hoping her suggestion wouldn’t invoke arguments. Wolfgang knew it was the best shot they had, but he still didn’t like the idea of it. They had no idea what the life was like here, and who knew how strong these people’s animals were.
For the sake of not embarrassing Kite, though, Wolfgang was going to agree. He wouldn’t be able to stand insulting the fragile girl, even though he knew little of her.
“Sure that’s a great idea,” he said gently. He knew he had an animal that wouldn’t be considered weak, but everyone knew wolves were best in packs.
“Armina…?” he asked, his question quite evident in the single word. Despite his humiliating past with her, they weren’t very different.
Armina nodded, knowing exactly what he was asking of her. No one at a boarding school had much experience changing shape; it was against the school rules. Even if you did morph, you might not be able to figure out what your animal did, even though you always study it in primary school.
Wolfgang promptly began to try and change his shape, though he wasn’t sure it would work. He saw Armina changing out of the corner of his eye, and also saw the team self-consciously looking away, but curious as to their animal shape. Morphing wasn’t grotesque, as he had first believed it would be, but was actually a smooth changing, very fast.
He finished before all of his thoughts were through his head, and he turned to look at Armina. What he saw was what he expected, though not exactly. She was a small, spotted cat, almost like a leopard, but about half the size. He was about to ask what animal, but he had never had experience speaking wolf.
Wolfgang took in a breath and cautiously moved forward. He knew from morphing a few years back that he was a medium sized brown wolf, brown eyes. He didn’t look much different from his real self, but was very contrasting at the same time.
Tyrell was staring, as was Kite and Nyheg. Armina cautiously looked at Wolfgang, asking with her eyes if it was time to enter the cave. He nodded, thinking to himself, I really need to figure out how this animal language thing works.
Wolfgang slowly crept into the hole, trying to ignore the burning gazes of the other three. Armina had his rear, and Wolfgang really hoped to not make a fool of himself while she could watch every single embarrassing thing he did. He didn’t want her whispering more things to Kite.
As he entered the dark hole, he immediately noticed with his keen sense of smell that it was omitting a strange odor. He paused for just a bit to let his eyes adjust to the darkness, and then pressed forward. He wanted to find the source of the stench so he could remove it.
He stopped quickly, sensing something other than Armina’s presence. It wasn’t so much of a living being, but a thing. He turned around to warn Armina, but her feline eyes told him that she knew already. He faced forward again and slowly moved forward until his nose bumped into the wall.
Something squishy pressed up against his muzzle, making it impossible to smell. Wolfgang was curious at first, about to pull away and investigate further, but then he felt it begin to creep up around his jaw. Wolfgang sharply pulled away, but this strange fungus was not letting go. Before his muzzle was fully enveloped, he let out a sharp yelp to warn and ask help from Armina.
Once the yelp had left Wolfgang’s throat, he realized that it held meaning. “Get out and get the others! This squishy thing is starting to cover my mouth!” Both Armina and Wolfgang were surprised at the meaning they were able to translate from this yelp, though pleasantly. Armina would’ve loved to stop and chat in animal language, but it was vital that she got help for him.
Armina shot out of the hole, Wolfgang sensing her paws pounding against the dirt floor quickly. He hoped she was fast enough, though, because the plant had begun to wrap itself around his neck, and he was hoping so fervently that it didn’t eat wolves.
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Nyheg, Kite, and Tyrell looked at Armina quizzically as she surfaced from the hole. She knew she didn’t have time to leave her animal state, and decided to try out the strange language for herself.
“Wolfgang’s in trouble, some sort of ‘squishy thing’ is hurting him!” Armina caterwauled loudly, her first attempt at speaking animal being a bit rusty.
Tyrell was the first to rise from his sitting position. He couldn’t tell what Armina was saying when he was human, but he was almost positive he could from his animal form.
“Come on guys, time to get shape shift or whatever you want to call it!” Tyrell yelled, quickly ‘shape shifting’ into his animal. Instead of growing or getting longer, Tyrell shrunk immensely. In his place was a squirrel.
No one had a chance to laugh at Tyrell, not even Armina, they were too intent on changing and getting into the hole, where the danger was. A mole, squirrel, white-tailed kite and an ocelot charged into the hole, hoping to find their friend alive and kicking.
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