The Journey

by Arnav Koppala

  I panicked for just a second, but then I called Alex’s name. I had no time to hesitate. The last thing, I needed was to lose the little bit of resolve that I had and make a decision that would cause the entire house to go up in flames. This was like a science experiment gone bad. I needed earplugs right about now to avoid my eardrums from been busted but there was no way I could get to them in time. The noise coming from outside was deafening enough.

  Without thinking twice about it, my survival instincts kicked in. I pushed off the safety clip as fast as I could. My adrenaline went into automatic overdrive as I gripped the launcher tightly in my right hand and held down the lever and pulled the pin with my left hand. I used some of the sewage as I froze before pulling the second pin. The lever popped off as I lobbed it and threw the grenade back out the window.

  I started trembling because I had gotten it back out of the house just in time. Whew. That was a dangerous close call. The grenade exploded with dust and debris went into the air. This would have been a nightmare if we would have been hit with the shrapnel. “How many?” I asked Alex. “163.” He replies. This is getting way too old. This was not good. 163 launchers were thrown at us.

  One thing is for certain that we needed to use caution because of the metal fragments that were flying from all over the place. We were not suited for this and did not have the proper gear or equipment for the amount of grenades to be flying at us. Maybe, if we had a tanker of some sort we would have been better off but we didn’t.

  Where do they even get supplies like that in the first place, I wondered. The grenade itself was equivalent to a firecracker. I could only imagine what other types of explosives were out there that we didn’t know about. We had better pay attention to the signs and just observe. The infrastructure of the whole place seemed to lack in almost every aspect including being unsanitary.

  The whole place reminded me of Maze Runner. It sure would be nice to have a television set to go back and watch that movie and apply some of the things I had seen. This was one of those times for us. Only thing is, we are stuck on a dimension that we don’t even know anything about trying to survive off what we have here. If only someone would come and pass us a note with instructions of how to get out of here.

  Looking around, there are worn homes that do not even stand the chance of being remodeled because the constant eruptions of explosives. Our lives were in grave danger. I could not see anyone coming in to try and rebuild here. There are destroyed buildings. What I am really trying to say is these buildings are dilapidated and need to come down completely. They looked like they might impose all kinds of safety hazards.

  There was no telling what was lurking inside of them they looked that bad. We almost needed to call in a demolition crew to tear it all down but then that would be putting other people’s lives at risk. Now, at the center of it all, was this rugged but tall building with black smoke dripping down the sides. There is no way anything could survive in that. The water and the smoke seemed to spread all over the ground. It was like it was oozing down the side and made a huge puddle that just kept growing. We needed to get out of here and fast. The more I observed, the more I noticed just how bad things seemed to be getting.

  The Kalamanians of Z were the worst of the worst. Everything was in disarray and we were in the center of it all. Our number one focus, was to get as far away from this dimension as possible that is how bad it was. There was a teleporter, but it could not teleport us directly to Kalamine X. It could get us to another planet that is much safer than where we are right now. I really wish the teleporter was easier to get to. Unfortunately, it was on the other side of the dimension.

  I look back at Aunt Glalie and she is just trying to work her gadgets. There were so many to count. Many of them had no power because power sources were so limited. She is in some kind of overdrive mode, having multiple devices and gadgets sprawled all over the floor each one very important to our present predicament. From what I could tell, she struggled to just ensure that she could find them when she needed them. It was dark where we were so her vision was limited.

  There was nothing I could do but watch her furiously type code after code after code, trying to get a signal to get her teleporter working. I could sense her increased frustration because each time the code did not work, she had to try a different one. I so desperately wanted to chime in, but I would have only been getting in the way. The teleporter looked like a regular ordinary phone, but usually, anything and everything related to Kalamine X, Y, or even Z is bound to be out of the ordinary. Mind-boggled, she kept fidgeting with the gadgets.

  Jack walks over to her in a hurry. “Do you need anything from me, Aunt Glalie?” He asks assuredly. She responds. “I need some of your elemental power. Just grab that plug over there and release your magic.” Jack sprints over to where the plug is, but it looked very unusual. There was a long black cable connecting from the teleporter over to these metal bracelets that clamps over a person’s wrists. This did not look good at all. “Go ahead now, Jack.” She exclaimed.

  Jack puts them on and starts to build up his magic. A small golden aura seemed to outline him as he focused on the magic intensely. The color seemed to be draining from him. All I could do was look on intently and hope that nothing went wrong. I had a gut feeling that Aunt Glalie somehow knew what she was doing. It would be interesting to see how this panned out being that Uncle Peter was not here.

  Slowly, but steadily, he released some magic at a time while the bracelets sucked the energy and transformed into some electrical energy to be stored in the back up reserve stored in the teleporter. It reminded me of a generator and Jack was the generator. A small whining sound seemed to emanate from the teleporter itself as it started to power up. “It’s working, Jack.” She shouted as if excited.

  The teleporter started blinking, and it felt warm to touch. We did it! That was some serious bravery on Jack’s part. I wanted to give him a huge high-five for taking a risk. I decided against it when I still saw that the color was still drained from him. He looked almost as if he was turning purple.

  The relief in me stood out very prominently. We could finally get of this unsafe planet. Yes. Now, let’s get out of here before anything else bizarre happened, I thought to myself. I let Aunt Glalie and Jack finish what they were doing and directed my attention onward.

  I looked into the pit that I dug in for the fire. I tried to do it as best that I could. It was like we were on a campsite and needed a bonfire. We were not accustomed to this and did not have an inkling beforehand of all this was about. We were trying to survive in the midst of the unknown. I might as well raise the temperature just around us to help keep us warm in this cold and dark world. I kept adding some of the fallen branches to the fire to keep it lit. It was hard sometimes because some of the wood was damp and moist.

  Soon, we will be up and away from this creepy dimension. The teleporter was our best chance of escape. All I could do was recount the details of the communication that Aunt Glalie was able to finally have with Uncle Peter. My mind went to what the others might have been experiencing where they were.

  Two days back, Aunt Glalie had gotten a message through to Uncle Peter and told him that we would meet up in Kalamine X. I remember the conversation vividly because there were several attempts of them trying to make contact. It was hard because there was so much static interference that it made it hard for them to stay connected. There was no clear signal. I knew it was coming from the area we were in and the reception was bad.

  It was like they had all this feedback coming from both ends as if they were talking on walkie-talkies. At last, they were finally able to make contact. All Uncle Peter kept saying was to journey towards the center to Kalamine X. Aunt Glalie, kept repeating that was the plan. Then communication was lost and that was the end of that. This was exactly what we were trying to do. A mere recollection indeed helped just a tad bit.

  I got up to walk over to Jack when I heard some rapid beeping. This is exactly w
hat I meant when I said earlier that we needed to get out of here. Everything just kept erupting. I am tired of this already. It was already messed up enough from all the sounds going off and everything that we had flying at us and now this.

  “Do you hear that?” I question. Here, what? He asked. “Listen closely, Alex. Do you hear that sound?” I asked again. “Yeah. What is that beeping?” He asked. I look down at the floor, but the soil was as black as soot. I set my hand on fire to search the floor. There was a small button on the floor. Luckily for me, I didn’t suffer from third degree burns or anything. It was not like I had a fire extinguisher within reach either. I start to panic. The last thing I needed was for fear to creep in.

  The beeping was coming from there. “Alex, get over here now!” I shout. He runs over to where I am and starts to help me dig up around the button. Right now, might be as good time as any, to cross my fingers. This was too much. We didn’t have the protective gear for any of this. I hit some metal and start to dig even faster now. Then out of nowhere, Aunt Glalie tossed me this gas mask looking equipment and told me to put it on.

  I grabbed it and put it over my head and down to my face. It was a little too big for me but it would do the job. The beeping accelerates. I clear the soil from this surface. A timer counting down read 15…14…13…12…11…10. Oh, no. I scramble away from it as fast as I could. This was about to be disastrous.

  It was a landmine. I scream from the top of my lungs until my voice cracked. “Get down! Hurry and get down everyone.” I yelled. I held my breath. Were we about to have to take cover. 9…8…7…6…5…4…3…2…1… Would we make it in time? In a split second, the whole place goes white. The mask that I had on my face popped completely off and all I saw was stars.

  I moan as I fly across the sky as the gray smoke trailed on my path. The rim of my pants slowly being eaten away by some hungry embers. I tried to fan off the little flames. There was a huge hole left from where the embers were. I fly twenty feet before plummeting back onto the ground with a hard thud. I groan as my shoulder dislocates from its proper position and my ear starts to ring. I knew I was in bad shape. I try to look around but all I see is nothing but blackness all around me.

  My vision starts to blur as I struggle to get onto my feet. I struggled to stand. I was bruised making it nearly impossible to keep my balance. I look at my feet and they are covered in droplets of blood. When I try to stand up, my legs start to tingle with pain. The more I tried to stand up, the more I lost my balance and landed back on the ground.

  I let go of my burning desire to find everyone else and see if they are okay. I caught a glimpse of just all kinds of particles and debris still falling down to the ground. I try to keep my eyes open, but they want to close and never open. I had to live. I had to maintain my composure and be strong for the others. I heard scuffling but didn’t know where exactly it was coming from. I look up and my heart starts to slow.

  I needed to sleep and get some energy. I—someone walks over to me. I try to shoot some fire at the person but nothing comes out. The person walks closer and closer over to me. It was Alex. He did not appear to have a scratch at all. Boy, was I glad to see his face. He knelt down next to me and covers my body with water except my face. The water feels icy cold, but there was a strange warmth in it. He poured some of the water in my mouth so I could be refreshed.

  My vision dims for just second only to get better until I can see Alex’s face. There were no scars on his face at all. What?! How was that possible? Did he protect himself? Did he dodge it just in time?

  No. It was a landmine. How could he have not been affected? I look back at my legs. No blood. Wait. What is going on? My arms and legs have been healed and my shoulder is back in the proper position but nobody had to push it in. The water guided me back onto my feet. Alex explained the situation to me.

  He discovered two new abilities. He could shape-shift and the water he controls has healing properties. That was a big surprise for me. I did not realize that I had two abilities too. No one else has Terako but me, and he has tons of knowledge so that means I have wisdom as one ability.

  I could unlock time flowers to glimpse into the past and the future along with visions of the past and even the far future at completely random times. I did not know if this was the time for me to be uncovering all of this. I think that is my time traveling ability. Alex completely surprised me though.

  He inherited two abilities at the same time in the middle of a crisis. Talk about perfect timing. He grabbed my hand and yanked me up. I was actually able to stand this time on my own. We ventured off to go find the rest of them. Then it almost hit me, that we were in the middle of a battlefield. I switched a part of my eye to spirit vision. I could sense anyone’s spirit, even if it was 10 miles away. I could tell what they were experiencing. It was almost like I was having an outer body experience and became them. I set my radius as 20 feet.

  I see Alex standing next to me, but I also see another person walking slowly toward us. I start to walk away from the person, but it seems to keep following us. Alex takes his water and freezes it instantaneously into ice spikes ready for battle. The person walks closer and closer. We find out that it was only Jack.

  I keep using my spirit vision when I find a bunch of spirits surrounding one spirit. The spirit seems familiar. It was Aunt Glalie. I panicked, but then I calmed down. Panicking was not going to get me anywhere and I knew that so I prepped to fight. I rush in and I see Aunt Glalie sitting on the floor. This spirit vision was something else. I was even able to zoom in and zoom out on different things. Who knows this might be beneficial for me going forward.

  I create this fire tornado standing right next to Aunt Glalie. Alex lays Aunt Glalie down and starts to heal her as fast as he can. He looks up to me with an intense stare. It is not working. Dang it. We need something to help heal her faster. I start to feed Alex’s spirit some power and Aunt Glalie’s spirit too. Alex says its working but not fast enough.

  Jack comes in and uses his enhancing magic and Aunt Glalie starts to groan. Yes, it is working. Aunt Glalie moans and starts to open her eyes. What a relief. The fire tornado disappeared and all of the Kalamanians ceased to exist. For once, I didn’t really feel sorry about the destruction that came upon them because they caused a whole lot of pain for us. The fact still remains that I destroyed them and naturally when you harm someone, others may want to do the same thing back to you. It was just the chance that we took. We ran as fast as we could, but they kept on following us.

  Wait. Fire and water make steam. Come to think of it, steam could confuse the Kalamanians to help get them away from us. Well, it was worth a try. Alex shot some water, and I burned it up really fast to create a steam explosion. That left the Kalamaians dazed trying to find us in the steam, when we were long gone.

  We kept until we saw this teleporter station sign leading us underground. That is it. Our ticket out of this place! We go down the steps hurriedly without a second thought to precaution, and what luck did we have when we saw all of the teleporter destroyed along with dozens of Kalamanians destroying the place and vandalizing the walls.

  Aunt Glalie forgot that Sakuta destroyed the KUN, so all the teleporters except the Kalamine Z leader was working. This was bad. Alex shoots some water and I shoot some fire. Bam. You get steam. Simple Science. We race back up the stairs and we totally forget about Amelia. Were we ever going to catch a break?

  Couldn’t she ward off the Kalamanians? I betcha she could if Rocky had of been there. But, the problem was she just disappeared. On the first day itself, she disappeared, and we could not find her. Then she sends us a message that she infiltrated the center tower and is trying to steal the teleporter from the leader.

  What a stupid idea that was. There she was again always getting into something that she had no business. So, with no other options, we left to meet Amelia at the base of the tower. She was glowing in the dark. Oddly, enough, no one was scared by her. She walks over to us and tells us to wear t
hese weird masks. We put them on and……nothing happens. She just could not be trusted.

  I expect something to happen but nothing happens. I try to understand the importance of the mask. “Just wait and see.” Amelia smugly says. This Kalamanian walks over to me, but he does not do anything. In fact, he walks right past me. It was as if I was invisible. This gadget is the coolest thing I ever saw. Maybe, Amelia knew what she was doing after all.

  Really, I am super impressed, not by sheer quality of the masks, but the how-in-the-world-did-Amelia-get-her-hands-on-such-a-cool-device/mask-this-fast outcome? What did she know that I did not know? Amelia was supposed to be the good one. The key word supposed to fits her perfectly. Apparently, she still has a little bit of bad in her with just enough to counteract the goody-too-shoes girl spirit in her. She was super strange.

  The mask felt cool against my skin, along with the memory foam-like padding for long but comfortable use. I really felt relief by having these Kalamanians not think of us as the enemies but as our friend or ally. We did not need any adversaries. We were trying to find an opening into the tower. In the meantime, Amelia explains the story from when she was in the light dimension.

  When she was in the light dimension, she tried to search for some device that would mask us from the dark Kalamanians. We needed to be hidden from their sight.

  Eventually, she came across the masks we have now. She took them and got them here. There is nothing worthy of saying goodie goodie on being a thief by what she did. She waited in the dimension for as long as she could before getting out. I completely forgot about the dimensions. This even included the spirit dimension. The one where I can enter in and heal myself slowly.

  I tried, and nothing happened. I realized then and there, I could only go into the dimension once every five days. The immense power that flowed from the spirit dimension was unlike anything anyone had ever seen or known before. No wonder why I had to wait for five days. That meant that now I have to wait for five days and then I could get back into the dimension.