3. Claire
"Am I the only one wondering how we could possibly do anything underwater without scuba gear?" I asked."We might have some in the backpack," said Alex.
She checked inside and found there was none.
"No," she announced. "I guess we can do whatever we're supposed to do without gear."
I stepped into the water and found that I didn't get wet. I walked further in and put my head under to find out what else I could do in the water. I could breathe, see, and talk normally. If you consider inhaling water and exhaling bubbles of (hydrogen, Alex tells me) gas normal. Which most people wouldn't consider normal. I came out of the water and told Alex and John about this latest discovery. They also tried it, and they could both do it as well. We also discovered the backpack is waterproof.
"This is great. Now we can see what we're supposed to do here," I said.
We went out deeper into the lake and looked for clues or anything that would help us figure out what to do. Just then, someone or something pulled me down. Alex and John tried to help me, but it pulled them down too. We were pulled into a large perfectly rectangular room with a cold marble floor and a relatively low ceiling (we could stand under it without any risk of bumping our heads, but the ceiling was at most seven feet). That was definitely not what I was expecting. Alex rubbed her eyes, probably to make sure what we were seeing was real.
"What the heck is this?" she demanded.
"Calm down and let's figure out what this place is," said John.
We found there were ten prison cells. Each one contained a robotizen. I was absolutely confuzzled (confused and puzzled combined) by this.
"It's a prison," I said. "The riddle led us to a prison?"
"And an underwater prison at that," said John.
"Apparently there's something we need here," said Claire.
At the other end of the prison, there was a thick steel door. There was a piece of new paper (paper in Official society was not made of wood, because trees had gone extinct) taped to the door. It said
Dangerous criminal! Do not enter this cell under any circumstances!
For the Officials, dangerous criminals are usually amazing people who are different than the robotizens and try to change their stupid totalitarian society. I decided we must need the help of this "dangerous criminal" if we were brought here by the clue. So naturally we needed to open the door. But the only way to open the door was to know the combination. And we didn't know the combination.
"How are we supposed to find the combination?" asked Alex, who must have come to the same conclusion as me.
"I don't know. But there's someone in there the Officials clearly don't want anyone to see."
"Let's take a closer look at the lock."
There was a keypad. A plaque next to the keypad said the combination was nine digits and each digit from 1-9 would be used once.
"That doesn't help much, does it?" said Claire.
"Wait! There's two numbers above every cell. One number is on top of the other," I said.
"So? They're probably just two digit numbers."
"But there's only ten cells. So having two numbers would be superfluous. Look at that cell over there. The number is 93. But there's not 93 cells, so that must be a clue to the combination."
"Maybe the top number is the order of the numbers in the combination. See? Only the ten doesn't have another number on top."
We looked back at the cells and the combination ended up being 641952873. I tapped the numbers and heard a quiet beep. The door clicked open and moved very slightly from its original position. I pulled it open and we went inside. The cell itself wasn't special at all. There was a small bed, a toilet, and a sink. The door had a small slot in it for food and drink to be sent in. Clearly they wanted whoever was in there alive. We looked around the cell and found the "dangerous criminal".
She had blonde hair and blue eyes just like someone I'd known for my whole life. After thirteen years, my best friend was finally meeting her mother. We were all at a complete loss for words. We just stood there staring at each other in shock.
"Uh..." was the extremely intelligent first word out of Alex's mouth.
"Hello Alex," said Ms. Andeler, who clearly got her voice back before everyone else.
"Mom! You're here! Here! I can't believe I'm actually meeting you! I never thought this would happen! Well, there's a lot of things that have happened that I never thought would happen, but still! You're here! And we're here!" Alex finally remembered basic human speech.
"Yes. I take it that you have started your quest?"
I nodded.
"Claire? Is that you?" she asked in surprise.
I nodded again.
"Why aren't you a robotizen?" asked Alex.
"A what?"
"Citizen. We call them robotizens."
"Oh. Genetic changes don't work on wizards. Or part wizards, for that matter."
"So that means Claire, John, you, and I are all part wizard?"
"Yes. But we are also some of the last wizards in existence."
"WHAT?"
"Claire's mother, John's mother, Stella's mother, Bridget's mother, and I were the last wizards. And you are the next generation. Of course, we didn't know you would all be demigods as well."
"So we are all demigods?"
"Yes. You and Claire already know your godly heritage, I assume?"
Alex nodded.
"Good. John is son of Hades, Stella is also daughter of Poseidon, and Bridget is daughter of Zeus."
"Who are Stella and Bridget?" I asked.
"You'll find out when the time comes."
"Are you going to be going with us on our quest?"
"I wish I could, but I have other things to help with in the other Realms. Here, take this."
She handed Alex a small audio recorder.
"What's it for?" she asked.
"Record everything that happens. And when the right time comes, share it with everyone you find worthy."
And that's exactly what we're doing now. And although you're not the only one who's received a copy of this recording, you are important nonetheless, because you can share it with more people, and everyone will know what happened.
Then Ms. Andeler portalled away and we were there alone. We looked at the back of the cell and found that there was a small wooden door. I opened the door and we found ourselves in another cell exactly like the one we had just come out of. It must have been another high security cell. But this one looked empty.
"Come on, let's not waste our time here," I said.
"Alright. Let's go," said Alex.
"Wait! Don't go!" exclaimed a voice coming from the dark part of the cell.
We hadn't noticed anyone else there. The girl came out of the shadows and over to us. She looked about thirteen or fourteen. She was shorter than the rest of us. She looked scared, which made sense considering we weren't robotizens, we had broken into her cell, and we were about to leave her there. She had bright red hair and green eyes just like mine. Then I remembered Ms. Andeler had just told us about Stella and Bridget. This must be Stella, the other daughter of Poseidon.
"Are you Stella?" I asked.
"I am," she said. "Who are you?"
I introduced all of us.
"Well then. I'm Stella Jackson, and I'm from the Institute of MIchigan."
"How did you end up in here?"
"I'm not exactly sure. One minute I was in the Institute, the next thing I know a Controller says evil criminals were looking for people like me, who are different than the other citizens."
"So they took you because you're not a robotizen?"
"I guess so! They gave me some kind of needle and when I woke up I was here. So...where exactly are we?
"We're under Lake Superior. You're in a high security cell in an underwater prison."
"Are they trying to protect me or something? I'm not sure what criminals have to do with me."
"We're those 'criminals'. But we're not actually criminals, of course. The Officials have just been spreading that around because we managed to escape from our Institute. And, of course, because we're not robotizens. We're looking for everyone who's not a robotizen."
"Why should I believe you?"
"Because we are your only chance of getting out of this prison. So if you're satisfied with staying in here for the rest of your life, we're fine with that and we'll be going now. Or you can believe us and come with us to save the world. Now make your decision fast, we don't have all day."
"But what's the point? Four kids can't defeat the Officials."
"You're right, we can't do it alone. But we'll have plenty of help."
I explained everything that had happened at our Institute and how we found John. Stella's expression went from confused to shocked as listened to my story.
"You've got to be joking with this, right? There's no such thing as magic."
"That's what I thought too. But you can hardly say that when after taking a portal and riding a hoverboard."
"So bringing back the Greek gods will defeat the Officials?"
"Iris said it should. And I'm sure you believe what a goddess says."
"Fine. I'm in. After all, we can't make things any worse than they already are."
"How do you know how horrible the Officials are?"
She pulled out an iPhone from her pocket (that's another thing - all robotizens wear gray shorts and shirts with no pockets. I have no idea how Stella managed to get shorts with a pocket.) The iPhone looked just like ours, except that it was red.
"We got phones just like that. Where did you get yours?"
"I found it in a box at Christmas last year."
"Now that we're all on the same page, we have a bit of problem," said Alex.
"What?" asked John.
"How the heck are we supposed to get out of here? I closed all the doors behind us. It can only be opened from the outside. We're locked in here."
"So we can't go back the way we came. But there has to be another way out! The Officials who bring the prisoners in here and make that same mistake must have a way out. The Officials may be cruel, but they're not stupid," I said.
"The air vent," said John.
"What?" asked Stella.
"There's an air vent here. The other cell didn't have one. We might be able to crawl up that vent and out of this cell."
"I can't believe I didn't think of that," said Stella. "To think I wasted the last few hours of my life locked up in here for nothing."
"If you had escaped, you wouldn't have met us," I said.
"True."
"I don't know about you," said John. "But I would like to get out of this place sooner rather than later."
"Right. How are we supposed to get up there? The ceiling is pretty low, but we still can't reach it," said Alex.
"You can climb on my shoulders. That should be high enough for you to pull off the covering," I said.
"Alright. And I'll send down the rope once I get in so you can climb up."
"Rope? We have a rope?"
"Yes. We do. It's in the backpack."
Alex went up into the vent pretty easily. I, however, am not very good at climbing rope, so it took me a few tries to get up there. John was fine, but Stella barely made it up at all. Robotizen exercise doesn't focus on strength much, because that would show differences between ability levels. And of course we can't have any differences.
Once we got into the vent, we were absolutely shocked by what we saw. It was a huge machine. It kept all the lake water out of the prison, and it kept the prison from being crushed by the water pressure. It also brought fresh air into the prison. We crawled until we reached another exit, which was right exactly at the other end of the prison.
"Now how do we get out of the prison?" asked Stella.
No one had any ideas for that.
"Claire, have you ever considered how incredibly hopeless our situation is?" asked Alex.
"What are you talking about?" I asked.
"Everything that's happened! Don't you think we're in over our heads here? How is a group of kids supposed to bring back ancient gods and goddesses and defeat the Officials?"
"Do you remember all that research you did back in May? When you accessed that site about everything the Officials had done?"
"Yeah. What about it?"
"You barely turned off that computer. You wanted to leave almost more than I did by the time you finished reading the site. Now we finally have a chance to defeat the Officials. However impossible it may seem, we can do it. Don't waste this opportunity. It won't come again."
"Think about it. We're stuck in a prison and we have no idea how to get out. Don't you think that's an issue?"
"No. We accepted this quest, and we will finish it, no matter how hard it may be."
"There might be a reverse setting on the machine that brought us in here. It might be able to send us back out."
"Possibly. After all, the Officials who come here need some way to get out, just like back in that cell. Although I'm sure there's some way to get out other than crawling through an air vent."
"Let's go take a closer look at the machine," said John.
The only thing on that side of the prison was a landing mat and a small metal cube about 1'x1'x1'.
"I'm guessing that cube is our machine then," said Stella.
There were no levers or buttons or markings on it. But there was something inside that tiny cube that could get us the heck out of there.
"This is brilliant," I said.
"There could be a control panel in the cube," Alex said.
"Have you forgotten? WE CAN'T OPEN THE FRICKIN' CUBE!"
"Not necessarily. There wouldn't just be a big chunk of metal here. There's something there that's important."
"I don't know, Alex. It doesn't look like it opens."
I was very frustrated at this point. We had been stopped by a stupid chunk of metal. I examined the entire cube.
"Alex, look at this."
It was a rough patch on the smooth surface of the cube. It was about one square inch. Alex came over and looked at it.
"A fingerprint scanner. Of course. That way the machine wouldn't let anyone but an Official out of here."
"That's just great! Where the heck are we supposed to get a fingerprint from an Official? There's not even one here!"
"We just need a print."
"Are you not listening to me? There aren't any Officials here! Besides, none of them would give us a fingerprint willingly! We're practically the most hated people in the entire world right now!"
"Like I said, we don't need an Official. We just need a print. There's probably plenty of them around here from when Officials brought Stella here. We just need a dark one."
We went to the high security cell (making sure this time no one closed the door) and went to the door between Ms. Andeler's cell and Stella's cell. Alex found lots of good prints on the white frame of that door. She took some thin clear tape and put it over the best one. Then she lifted up the tape and the print was on the tape.
"Now. Let's get out of here," said John.
We went back over to the machine. Stella stood on the landing mat and Alex placed the tape over the scanner. For a second, we were afraid it wouldn't work. Then the thing started making noise and then Stella was out of the prison.
"Wait," said Alex.
"What?" I asked.
"What about the other prisoners?"
"They're robotizens. Who cares about them? I'm sure they'll be released eventually."
"No. I think we should free them. Even if they are robotizens, they're probably the best robotizens in the world."
"Fine. Have it your way."
Alex found the key hanging on the wall near the front of the prison. She took the key and freed all ten robotizens from their cells. The rest of us left the prison and waited for her to finish. She told them to get onto the mat one by one. Of course they listened, because robotizens are taught never to disobey direct orders. Then once they came out, one of us would help them to the surface (because although Stella could breathe underwater, robotizens can't). Then Alex came out last, and I saw her drop a small red ball into the prison.
4. Claire
Once we were all back on land, I looked at Alex."Okay. Explain. Why would you want to free a bunch of stupid robotizens? They're all the same. No one is better than the rest," I said.
"I'm not gonna let them die either," she replied.
"What are you talking about? I'm sure they were going to be released. You know how the Officials don't keep anyone imprisoned for life or execute anyone except those who are found guilty of rebellion or treason."
"I know. That ball I dropped into the prison will burst into flame and destroy the prison."
"WHAT THE HECK WOULD YOU DO THAT FOR?"
"No one deserves to be in a place like that."
Just then, the prison burst into a blend of red, orange, and yellow
"How is that burning underwater?" asked Stella.
"It's a special underwater fire," said Alex. "Here, you can look at the instructions if you want."
"There's actually instructions?"
"Yeah. I guess Iris didn't want us accidentally setting anything on fire."
I took the instruction sheet from Alex. The fire could burn anywhere, even underwater. It was designed to burn down one building and stop, so it wouldn't do more damage than desired (although who would want to set a building on fire is another story). Alex is absolutely nuts, I thought. How did she come up with this elaborate scheme so fast, and why didn't she tell us?
We stood on the edge of the lake and watched the freaky underwater inferno.
"That's your brilliant plan?" asked John.
"Nearly get us all killed?" continued Stella.
"Well, it worked. We're out of there, aren't we?" said Alex.
She had a point.
Then one of the robotizens spoke. I honestly couldn't tell which one.
"You have violated Official laws and procedures. You must be reported immediately. Come my fellow citizens, and we will find an Official and report this evil," he/she said.
"Oh crap," muttered Alex.
"I may not have a photographic memory," I said, "but I seem to recall this was your idea."
"Don't rub it in."
We all stared at the procession of robotizens in awe. This was definitely not what we were hoping for at all. I was absolutely horrified by this, because after Alex had let them live instead of letting them burn along with the prison, they go to report us to the Officials. No, nothing could be easy, obviously.
"We set them free and this is how they reward us?" demanded Stella.
"No, it's all my fault," said Alex. "I should have expected this from robotizens. I'm an idiot."
"How could you possibly have known this was going to happen? You did what you thought was right," I assured her.
"Darn my stupid niceness."
"Now the Officials will hate us even more because they know we've found their two most important prisoners."
"Right. We have to be careful not to be seen by robotizens or Officials," I reminded everyone.
"But what do we do now? We're supposed to find another land, but we have no idea where that's supposed to be," said John.
So we dropped the subject of the flaming lake and focused on the next part of the riddle, which announced we would find "another land" somewhere, somehow.
"There has to be something. We don't know who created these riddles, but no one would be cruel enough to leave us with absolutely nothing," said Stella.
"You're right. Let's look around the rest of the lake," I said.
"But don't we have to wait for the fire to go out?" asked Alex.
"Right. So let's wait."
We sat on the edge of the lake and played with our iPhones while we waited for the fire to go out.
I guess I'll explain a little more before I continue with the story. Let's start with the Officials. It started as an idea with good intentions (or so Alex tells me - she was the one that read the site). The idea behind the Officials was that the government would regulate certain parts of your normal lives and make sure everyone was given the exact same rights and be treated exactly the same way. People wouldn't have to worry about anything. The Officials would guide everyone, and by making everyone essentially the same, no one would be left out or persecuted. Then the Officials wanted more power. They gave people less and less rights. Then they started making robotizens. With no one to oppose them, they started doing whatever they wanted and destroying things that were "trivial and unimportant" (like, I dunno, EVERY SINGLE ANIMAL AND PLANT [except those needed for food]).
Alex and I know that people weren't meant to be robots the way they were in Official society. We know the environment and everything in it is just as important as the human inhabitants. That plants and animals are not just occupying space that could be used for building houses or things for people. But if you said any of that to an Official, you would be "disposed of" right away.
Now, let's get back to the story, which actually pretty much leads right back to more explanation.
Alex pulled out the book Iris had given us.
"What are you doing with that?" I asked her.
"I'm looking for how bringing back the gods can stop the Officials. I want to make sure we're not just wasting our time here," she announced.
She found the explanation. In Greek "mythology", every god controlled part of the world. So by bringing down the gods, the Officials could take over those parts of the world. Since they had taken down all of the gods (with very few exceptions, like Iris), they could control everything. So theoretically, by bringing back the gods, they could reclaim the earth and be able to set things right again. For example, by bringing back Artemis, we could bring back the moon, some of the animals, and possibly archery.
I still thought it sounded really far fetched, but it was our only chance to defeat the Officials. But, said a little voice in my head, what if the gods can't defeat the Officials? What if they are defeated again? What would we do then? Or what if we fail the quest and don't even find all the gods? I ignored it. This had to work. It just had to. Or eventually there wouldn't be anything left for anyone.
The fire went out, and it was safe to enter the lake again. We all went back into the lake. The lake was huge, even in Official world. It would have taken much too long to swim through the whole lake, so we decided to swim around the perimeter. After all, only we could breathe underwater. So Officials would probably hide something important in the shallowest part of the lake, which was the edge. But, of course, there was the minor detail that they built a prison underwater. Either way, they probably wouldn't bother to go out into the middle of the lake to hide something.
It took a long time to even swim around the perimeter. By the time we finished, John was the only one that had found anything interesting.
"I found this bottle," he said, after we had finished our swim.
He held out the bottle, and we saw there was a piece of paper in it. Alex took out the paper, and we saw it was a map of the United States. There were seven points and there was a line through all the points. And chances were it was a map to the other land we were supposed to go to. It was exactly what we needed.
"This is perfect!" exclaimed Stella happily.
"I don't know. Just following this map sounds a bit too easy," I said.
"Oh, Claire. Don't be a downer," said Alex in a teasing voice.
I was very happy about what we had just accomplished. But I had a strong feeling this wouldn't be easy. Alex put the map in the backpack and the bottle as well, but only because she didn't want to litter. She pulled out the hoverboards, and we were ready to start our search for another land.
4½. Stella
[I wanna tell this! It's my favorite part! I DON'T CARE IF IT'S YOUR TURN, CLAIRE! Oh... the recorder is on? Whoops.] I guess we should get right to it then.It wasn't long before we were hopelessly lost and confused. Apparently, I had been holding the map upside-down the entire time and we had been going towards the wrong point. I TOLD Alex she should have given the map to someone who is at least a LITTLE more geographically inclined than me. How the heck was I supposed to know we were supposed to follow the line? I had never seen a map in my life! At least Alex and Claire had read geography books!
Claire was the one who noticed something wasn't right when she saw I was holding the map wrong. She told everyone to land their hoverboards.
After seriously messing up the map, I handed it to Alex. She shook her head.
"I'm not very good at geography either," she said.
She handed it to Claire, who tried to sort out the mess and get back on the right track. The biggest problem was we had no idea where we actually were, and the Internet connection on our iPhones wasn't working. Probably because we were in the middle of nowhere. There wasn't even an Official building. And from what I could tell, it was almost midnight.
"Why don't we stop and keep going tomorrow?" I suggested.
"Okay," agreed Alex. "But we should make sure there's no robotizens or Officials around."
We looked all around. There was no one else. It was safe to set up our tents. Alex pulled out a tent and a sleeping bag for each of us from the backpack. Alex looked for some food and found a frozen pizza. None of us had ever eaten pizza before. We were all really hungry because we hadn't eaten anything since lunch. Claire started a fire with some wood and matches from the backpack (don't ask why there was wood in the backpack, I couldn't tell you if I wanted to). Using some of the leftover wood, a hammer, and some nails, Alex made a rack. I'm sure Alex would give you every last scientific detail as to how she created it and why it stood without falling, but I'm just going to say it was a large flat piece of wood that stood over the fire. It was supported by more wood around the sides of the fire. We could put the pizza on the rack while it cooked.
We sat in silence as we waited for the pizza to cook.
"What if the Officials defeat the gods again? They've already proven that they can do it," considered Alex.
"They won't," said Claire. "Because now the gods have us."
Alex looked ready to interrupt when I had a vision. As in psychic vision. Alex was holding a key and opening some kind of coffin. The rest of us were behind her. We looked nervous. No, scratch that. We looked terrified. Whatever was in that coffin was scaring us a lot. Then the vision ended and I was staring at three concerned faces.
I explained what I saw in my vision. Alex frowned and stared at the stone in her hand.
"That's interesting," she said.
Then suddenly the stone flew out of her hand without her throwing it. We all stared at her. Then Claire disappeared into thin air. John's plate melted.
"Okay. What is going on here?" I asked.
"I have absolutely no idea," said Alex, looking at the stone that was still hovering above her head.
She pulled the book out of the backpack. She flipped through the pages until she found what she was looking for.
Wizards get their powers when they turn thirteen years old. If a wizard is in a clan, the entire clan doesn't get powers until the youngest member comes of age. Every wizard has a special power that comes naturally to them. This power is something that other wizards can't do or only wizards who have advanced training can do. This is the first power they know how to use, and it is also the power that is displayed when the wizard discovers their powers.
"But shouldn't we have gotten our powers earlier today then?" asked Claire, who had just reappeared.
"I was born at 11:59 PM on September 13," she answered. "I guess that makes sense. It's 12:01 now. That means Stella had her vision at exactly 12:00."
"Okay. I guess we should figure out who has what power," I said.
"Then let's see," said Claire. "If Alex moved that stone, wouldn't that be levitation?"
"Telekinesis," said Alex. "Moving things with your mind."
"Claire's is pretty obvious," said John. "Invisibility."
"Right. John's must be being able to create high amounts of heat, and Stella is obviously psychic," said Claire.
"Great. But there's one more problem," I said.
"What?" asked Alex.
"We're not a clan!"
"Maybe we are. Maybe we, along with whoever Bridget is, are a clan," said John.
"In that case, we're a team. And teams need names," said Alex.
"I suppose so," said Claire.
"Why don't we call ourselves the Clan? I mean, if there are no more wizards, then we're the only clan. So we might as well call ourselves the Clan."
"That makes sense. It's fine with me."
We went into our tents. I almost instantly fell into a deep, dreamless slumber. And for that one moment, everything was absolutely perfect.
The next morning was just like every other: gray. Alex had a box of granola bars, a box of cereal, and a big bottle of apple juice. It wasn't very different than breakfast at the Institute, but we still ate it happily. Alex put everything we didn't eat back in the backpack.
"Anyone have any idea where we are?" asked Alex.
"I think I found where we are," said Claire.
"Really? How?"
"I managed to get a very weak Internet last night. There's a big area of nothing in northwestern Wisconsin."
"So what does that mean?"
"It means we went west. We were supposed to go southeast."
"So where were we supposed to go?" I asked.
"Orlando, Florida," Claire answered, looking down at the map.
"Well, now we know where we are. We can just take the hoverboards to Florida from here. We know what direction to go," said Alex.
"The problem with that is the trip would take ten hours by hoverboard."
"Hmm...I know! We'll take a real airplane! That would shorten the ride to only two hours."
"But the planes are loaded with robotizens! We'll be super obvious. And even with the disguises we were given (the backpack had a few disguise items, such as glasses, wigs, Official clothing, and colored contact lenses), our faces aren't like robotizens."
"We have potion! We can be invisible!"
"That would be incredibly risky."
"We have no other options, Alex."
"Fine. But where is the nearest airport?"
"Look, there's a plane. It's coming from the west. So we keep going west until we reach it."
We got back on the hoverboards. I struggled to stay on mine. I wasn't very balanced to begin with, let alone on a tiny flying metal platform. By some miracle, I managed to make it to the airport without dying or being seriously injured. That's a very good thing. Then we managed to find a good hiding spot to take the potion. Alex, John, and I each took nine drops. I'll tell you right now invisibility potion tastes like a dirty sock dipped in dirty water. Then someone took said sock and left it outside for a month. It was absolutely revolting. Each drop lasted for twenty minutes. Nine drops would last three hours. The flight wouldn't be that long, but we decided to stay on the safe side.
We walked in, not relaxing at all despite the fact that no one else could see us at all. There are no security checks for robotizens, because robotizens don't have any dangerous objects like guns or bombs. Luckily, there was a plane about to leave for Orlando. Literally. As in about to take off. We went as fast as we could to the terminal and onto the plane. That was also when we discovered we can run faster than any normal human (robotizen or not). I was the last one into the plane and the door closed just as my back foot got in.
We found a group of four seats and waited for what would happen next. The plane ride was absolutely nerve-wracking. I kept feeling like disaster would strike at any second. I'm sure the others felt the same way. Every minute felt like an hour. Luckily, nothing happened.
Then the plane landed and and we came out of the airport. Then we saw Orlando for the first time and prepared for the next part of our adventure.
5. Stella
"We did it," said Claire. "We're here.""What's the most important thing about Orlando?" wondered Alex.
"Disney World!" I exclaimed.
We all agreed, so we took our hoverboards to the first Disney park, Magic Kingdom. It was completely abandoned, because obviously there's no such thing as fun in Official world. Robotizens have no need for fun. So there was no need for Disney World. None of the rides were operating. Some of them were beginning to rust and break apart. But that happens after 28 years of being unattended.
"Gosh,"said Alex. "I didn't think Disney World would look like this. But I guess it makes sense if you consider no real books were written after the Officials except that mythology book. And I'm sure the Officials didn't know about that one."
"We have to be here for a reason," said John. "We might have to find something."
"That makes sense," I said. "There's seven locations, so we might need to find something at every location. And once we find all seven things, we can get to the other land."
"But we have no idea what to look for!" exclaimed Claire.
I heard a loud banging coming from one of the nearby stores. It sounded like someone had knocked something over and broken it. But that was impossible, because no one had been to Disney since the Officials made robotizens. Unless this was Bridget, the last Clan member? Everyone else heard it too, so we decided to go check it out. Alex quietly opened the door and saw two people inside.
One of them turned around. Her hair was long and wavy. It was dirty blonde, although it was closer to light brown than blonde. Her eyes were light brown and she was wearing the most fashionable of robotizen clothing. She was about as tall as Claire. She smiled at us and moved away from the table she was standing next to. There was a vase on the floor next to her. I guessed she was the one who knocked it over and made the sound. From the back, the other one looked like a robotizen. She was about regulation size, and her hair was the same color and length as the robotizens.
Then she turned around to look at us and that instantly disproved what I was thinking. She had hazel eyes and she was frowning. She was looking at the other girl, probably mad at her for breaking the vase and attracting our attention.
"Hi," said Alex.
"Who are you?" asked the hazel eyed one.
I introduced everyone.
"I'm Kate, daughter of Zeus."
"Both of you must be part wizard if you're not robotizens. I'm guessing one of you is Bridget," I said.
"That's me," said the dirty blonde one.
"How the heck did you know that?" demanded Kate.
"Long story. But how are you not a robotizen? My mom didn't mention anything about - "
Alex cut off abruptly because she must have realized something.
"You said your father is Zeus? Do you know who your mother is?"
"No, I've never met her. I just remember someone at the Institute saying something about not being a citizen."
"Odd. Your birthday doesn't happen to be September 13, does it?"
"Just barely, by ten minutes."
"And you're thirteen, right?"
"Just turned thirteen yesterday."
"There's no other explanation. You're my twin."
"You're joking, right? We look nothing alike!"
"That doesn't necessarily mean anything. Think about it. We have the exact same birthday. We have the same father. My mother is not a robotizen, and you hear something about your mother not being a robotizen. And when my mother was talking about being wizards, she said Claire's mother, John's mother, Stella's mother, Bridget's mother, and her. If she didn't mention anyone else, that means there are no other adult wizards. So she must be your mother, too. Take all this evidence, and it makes sense. You have to believe me."
"It's absolutely nuts, but yes I believe you. So what exactly do you want from us? Or do you just want to hide here with us?"
I explained everything that had happened so far. Kate and Bridget just stared at me as I talked.
"Well, I'll just say one thing right now," said Kate. "It would take a very active imagination to make up something like that."
"Do you believe me?" I asked.
"It can't possibly make anything worse than it is now. And it's the only possible way we could get rid of the Officials. So yes, I'm in."
"I am, too," said Bridget.
"Great. So how did you end up here? Shouldn't you be in an Institute?" asked Claire.
"We were in the Institute of Florida. Then we ran away when we were ten and ended up here," said Bridget. "We were so sick of the citizens. Or as you call them, robotizens."
"Where did you get food and water? New clothes? Showers?" asked Alex.
"We wear the clothes in the stores that fit us, there are showers in a nearby hotel that we can easily sneak into, and we get food and water from a special cabinet in this store. It makes unlimited amounts of supplies. The last thing it produced was two iPhones, one for me and one for Bridget," said Kate.
"Look at this!" exclaimed Bridget.
A vine had come shooting up next to her.
"That's great, Bridget!" said Alex.
"That must be your special power," I said.
"Have you guys found anything suspicious around here?" asked Claire.
"Suspicious?" asked Kate.
"You know, something magical, potentially dangerous, and very powerful?"
"No, we haven't seen anything like that. But we've only been in this park. There's three others."
"Well, before we leave this park, we should see if there's anything you've missed."
We looked at every ride, every store, every restaurant. And there wasn't a single thing that was of value to us. Unless, of course, we needed a plush Mickey Mouse toy. Although that option was possible, it definitely wasn't at all probable. And the condition of the park was seriously starting to freak me out.
"How could you stand being here for three years?" asked Alex.
"We knew it was better than the alternative, going back to the Institute or being caught and being sent back to the Institute," said Kate.
"Let's try Epcot next," said Claire, looking at the map of the parks.
"Sure. Why not," agreed Kate.
"Who wants to hear the word of the day?" asked Alex, just as we were about to walk out of Magic Kingdom.
Apparently, every day Alex finds a word she likes from the dictionary and announces it. Although I didn't think that was the best time for it.
"Sure. Go ahead," said Claire.
"Triskaidekaphobia. It means fear of the number thirteen, which is ironic since thirteen is my favorite number. I guess that would be triskaidekaphilia."
"Is that even a real word?" asked John.
"I don't know, but - "
"I don't know about philia, but triskaidekaphobia is definitely a very real word," interrupted Bridget, pointing to a letter A that had come down from the Magic Kingdom sign and was drifting in Alex's direction.
"What the fudge? Did a letter just float down from the sign?" asked Claire in shock.
It floated down onto the backpack and became a printed letter.
"Maybe there's a letter at every location. And once we find all seven letters, it'll spell a word and that'll get us into this other land," said Alex.
"There's probably a key word. And if you say the word, you get the letter," I agreed.
"We might find the next word in another park," said Kate.
"How did you know the word?" John asked Alex.
"I didn't. It was the word of the day on my dictionary app," she answered.
"That's a phenomenal coincidence," said Claire.
"Come on! We have to get to Epcot before - " Kate started to say.
"Before what?" asked Alex.
"Before that."
She pointed towards the gate. A group of about five Officials were coming. They were going to search the park.
"Hide!" hissed Bridget.
"No duh!" retorted Alex. "But where?"
"Invisibility," said Claire.
Alex pulled out the potion and quickly made sure everyone had a drop before the Officials arrived.
We stayed still until the Officials inspected the entire park. One drop was almost not enough. I was about to give everyone a second drop when the Officials finally left.
"Why are they here?" I asked, once I was sure we were safe.
"We don't know," said Bridget. "They've been coming here every few hours since earlier today. They seem to be looking for someone or something. We think they might be looking for me and Kate. But if that was the case, why would they just start now?"
Alex gasped.
"They're looking for us," she realized.
"How the heck did they know we're here?" asked John.
"They must know we would be heading here. Either that or they're somehow tracking us," said Claire.
"Well, this definitely complicates things," said Kate.
"No, it makes every SO much easier," said Claire.
We went and checked the other parks. It was a long and boring process. And we also got absolutely nothing out of it. And now we were totally out of options.
"Wait...isn't there Universal Studios too?" asked Alex. "We should try there."
"That's a good idea," agreed Bridget.
Alex opened her iPhone and found directions to Universal. When we got there, we saw it was in the same condition as Disney. We decided to check the Islands of Adventure first. We made our way through the park until we reached the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Alex stopped when she saw the castle.
"OH MY GOSH! IT'S THE HARRY POTTER CASTLE!" she exclaimed happily.
"Let's go check it out," said Claire.
Well, obviously we had to check it out. Sure we were on an important quest and all that, but there was no way we were missing out on this Harry Potter world. Although, now we knew that wizards were real, it might be a bit awkward. But it would still be an absolute injustice if we didn't, because all of us had read Harry Potter, either in eBook form or printed book form.
We went into the first store. Everything was still on all the shelves, unlike Disney where everything had been packed into boxes. It looked like everyone had left in a hurry. But that was absolutely impossible. The Official takeover didn't happen that quickly. It had taken years for the Officials to gain complete control. The Official party had been formed in the United States and an Official president had been elected. They had slowly started taking over the world, tightening their grip on people and controlling more and more of what they did. They eventually eliminated all basic rights. Then they started making robotizens, who can barely think for themselves. Alex tells me the Official president was elected soon after her mother was born. By the time the president's term would have been over, most of the world had already gone to the Officials. By the time her mother turned five, the entire population was robotizens (the Officials had just learned how to flawlessly manipulate genomes, and they were then able to make all the people the same. Otherwise they probably would have made robotizens earlier) and the Officials had complete and total domination.
"There's something weird about this place," Alex decided. "I don't know what it is. I think something important happened here. I can feel it."
"Could it have something to do with the word?" I asked.
"I don't know. It should be around here somewhere."
Just then, a girl with a tangle of dark curly hair and light brown skin came running up to us. When we got a closer look, we saw she was about fourteen.
"Thank the gods I finally found you!" she exclaimed.
"You were looking for us? Who are you?" asked John.
"My name is Isabella, but you can call me Bella. I am Isis's messenger."
"Isis? Isn't she Egyptian?" asked Alex.
"Yes. She has been watching over you, but she has been instructed by Ra not to intervene."
"Wasn't Ra sent away by Isis?"
"Yes. He watches over the Realm, but he does not participate in godly or mortal activities."
"Oh. If Isis isn't allowed to intervene, why are you here?"
"She decided that since I am not her, that if she sent me, she's technically not intervening."
"I didn't know there were Egyptian gods here too. I remember my mother's note said something about Egyptian gods. But why didn't the Officials defeat the Egyptians too? And isn't it awkward to have two sets of gods?"
"You think the Egyptians are here? Heck no! They have their own Realm, the Egyptian Realm!"
"Then why has no one told us about this?" demanded Claire.
"It was never important for you to know. But now the Officials are expanding. For the first time, Officials have been seen in the Egyptian Realm. That's why the Egyptian gods have to act now. That's why Isis sent me. We believe the Officials are trying to take over the entire UR, Universe of Realms."
"What's a Realm anyway?" I asked.
"It's basically a world. All the Realms are completely parallel to each other and the only way to travel between Realms is by portal."
"How many Realms are there?" asked Alex.
"53."
"Why haven't the Egyptians helped before then? Why did they have to wait so long?" asked Claire.
"The Greeks and Egyptians have been arguing for centuries. They want nothing to do with each other. But you seem to have gotten pretty far on your own."
"I know, but it would be nice if we didn't have to do everything alone!"
"Well, now I'm here. And I hope I can help you."
"Do you know the word?" asked John.
"No, but - "
"Then let's hurry! We can't be wasting time!" exclaimed Kate.
"That's weird. Why does that store say nucleotide on it?" Alex asked herself.
"What are you talking about? That's Ollivander's," I said.
"I know. But the Ollivander's changed to the word nucleotide. It's right there in big letters."
"Alex, you must be seeing things. It still says Ollivander's," said Claire.
"I think Alex has the Sight," said Bella.
"The what?" asked Alex.
"The Sight. Those with it can see things that others can't. It's a rare gift, only those who deserve it have it."
"What can I see?"
"Like the word nucleotide, for example! I don't know! None of the gods are sure. That's how rare it is."
"Well, either that or I'm insane."
"I'd like to hope it's the Sight," said Claire.
"I don't believe this. First I find out that I'm a demigod-angel-wizard mix and now I have special powers? Don't you think this is a bit much for anyone?"
"Oh! You're complaining? You don't see us flying or seeing words that no one else can see!"
"YOU DON'T SEE ME TURNING INVISIBLE NOW, DO YOU?"
"Look," said Bridget, trying to defuse the imminent argument. "Right now, it doesn't matter who has what powers. It only matters that we know the word and we know what's going on."
"You're right," Alex realized. "No need for useless fighting. We can't defeat the Officials if we're arguing amongst ourselves."
"Claire, where's our next place?" I asked.
"In Nevada," she answered.
"Alright everyone," said Alex. "You know what to do. I just hope we have enough potion left."
And this time, disaster would strike. That sounds like fun.
Points:
Time spent:
Canary word: Present
Possible AI signals:
Original Text:
Are you sure you want to delete this comment? This cannot be undone.
Mark this comment as a review? Points will be awarded to the poster.
Your comment was posted, but it wasn’t long enough to count as a review. Reviews need about four complete sentences (at least 250 characters). Try writing another review that explains your thoughts in more detail — the author will appreciate it, and you’ll earn points for it.
125,018 Literary Works • 672,857 Reviews
Wow this is long.
It's easier to review shorter chapters so I broke it up into section. This review is for chapter 3.
Okay so I've seen some change in your writing but I don't think you really got to that level of perfection.(Yea I know nothing can be perfect)
Heres what it was like reading:
Mom told me to go to the grocery,she gave me a shopping list. On the way I met my friend tom.
"Hey Tom."
"Hi.You heading to the grocery to?" he asked. I nodded.I could feel the wind blowing. It was harder than usual. Tom wasn't bothered by it like I was.Suddenly the shopping list blew out of my hand. I was going to get scolded again. I ran after it and jumped as high as I could and got it.
"That was close," I sighed.
I'm not saying yours is exactly like that but they are similar in one way. It mostly is just stating events that happened, like a journal in a way. It doesn't go into the story deeply and the same for yours. It's like watching a movie that skips parts.You see the scenes that tell you the main idea of whats going on( like seeing the moon then a kid in pajamas then a bed. You can understand whats happening) There was one part in particular that you wrote about that could have been way better. It had so much potential.that would be
I think you could have made it a more emotionally touching or something. After not seeing her mom for 13 years and then you wrote that they went to a jail cell and then...oh! theres my mom! Maybe you could have slowed it down there. You did however striked me (emotionally) by a smitch because I was picturing the scene.
Take Harrypotter series for example. Think about how J.K Rowling wrote her story out and see if you can get what I'm saying. Any auther would do.
I'm still not settled with this whole wizard demigod thing.maybe showing readers a bit of the world of wizards and demi gods and stuff, showing that type of society where they co exist and stuff, might make it more believable if they mix...I don't think I made that point clear enough here.
Anyways. Heres my review for chapter 3. You should just submit a chapter on it's own because it's easier for people to review shorter stuff.
Okay. Remember my last reviews? This is a repetition of those, but I'll go ahead and extract a few more pieces for your perusal.
Again, tense mistakes.
Was waterproof.
Were usually, were different.
Keep it real. Real emotions, real reactions. Real challenges.
Do you think that the highest-security prison in the modern world would be deserted, unmanned by human or AI? And that there would be actual clues to help the would-be escapist along? Not going to happen with such a systematic and thorough government. There would be cameras at least. They're smart, remember. How else did they repress an entire planet?
When Alex meets her mother, make it perhaps a bit more emotional, calm, slow and intense. Also some conflicting emotions, questions and suspicions would make it more realistic. Alex and Claire are way too naive to have survived this long.
This is only a review of the first chapter, but it applies to the rest.
Focus more on individual characters. Develop them. Currently, they're all the same to me.
Keep writing!