A group of friends become trapped in a computer scientist’s digital utopia
Dr. Murray lay in the hospital bed, breathing heavily. He was surrounded by wires and IV bags which were plugged into his body. The nurse stood by checking his faint heart rate.
“I’m sorry, sir, we’ve done everything we could’ve done for you. Are you sure that there isn’t a loved one that we could call for you?”
“No, I have no one. But I beg you, have someone take care of my creation.”
Before the nurse could inquire about what the creation was, Dr. Murray relaxed into his bed. The heart rate monitor flatlined.
* * *
School had ended an hour earlier; the yellow light from the late afternoon sun filtered into the empty locker hall and splashed onto the spotted floor, creating dazzling colors. Ryan grabbed his blue rolling backpack and set it on the ground. As he closed his locker, he heard a fluttering noise; his origami dragon had fallen onto the floor.
“Hey, where’d you learn how to do that?” asked a voice from behind.
Expecting to be pummeled, Ryan shot his hands up into the air and slowly turned around. Instead of seeing a big eighth-grader, Ryan saw a girl with short red hair and braces. She had freckles on her face and a pair of big round-rimmed glasses. She wore gray trousers and a stuffy-looking purple sweater.
“Are you talking to me?” asked Ryan
“Yeah, does it look like there’s anyone else in this hallway?” replied the mysterious girl.
“Don’t you see that ghost down the hallway?” said Ryan. He tried to make a joke like the popular kids did, but it didn’t seem to land.
“Interesting joke . . . can you teach me how to make that origami dragon?” “Uh—yes sure,” replied Ryan, shocked that someone was interested in his unique hobby.
Over the next thirty minutes, Ryan taught this girl how to fold origami dragons. He even told her his secret origami fold that would prove that he folded that dragon.
“Thanks,” said the girl. “My name’s Laurice, by the way,” she added.
When Ryan went home, he was bursting to tell his parents “Mom! Dad! Someone cared to talk with me in the first month of school. New record!” Of course, his alcoholic dad would just get angry, and his mother was too busy editing Instagram photos to care.
“Mom, I’m home. Can you please make me dinner just this once?” asked Ryan. “No, for the millionth time, can’t you see I’m busy?! Just eat the chips on my table,” yelled Ryan’s mother.
Just then, Ryan’s father walked in through the door.
His breath stank of hard liquor as he yelled, “Marissa, I lost my job again. You’re going to have to make money on your dumb WhatsApp or something like that.”
“Ugh! You lose your job one more time and we’re getting a divorce.”
Ryan wasn’t even hungry anymore. He made a run for it before things could get serious.
As Ryan sat on the curb outside of his house, listening to the all-too-loud sounds of his parents cursing at each other, he looked up at the stars and wished he could be as large as them, that someone would care about his problems.
“Hey buddy, you look blue,” said a familiar voice. Jumping, Ryan looked around and saw Laurice.
“Is that your house? Sounds like whoever’s inside is trying to kill each other,” Laurice observed.
“Yeah, I hope Dad doesn’t do too much damage like last time,” replied Ryan. “You can come to my house if you’d like,” announced Laurice. “Just down the street, and mom’s grilling brisket. Dad just eats the food, but he does have a job.” “My dad doesn’t. He just lost his sixteenth job. I hope we don’t have to move again,” replied Ryan sulkily.
“Well, come to our house while the food’s still hot. You look like the science room’s skeleton!”
They’re not going to realize I’m gone anyway, thought Ryan, so he followed Laurice to her house.
That night, Ryan met Laurice’s kind parents and had some mouthwatering brisket. With Laurice, Ryan had his first actual fun in forever. As Ryan left the house, he felt comforted that people out in the world cared about him; Ryan felt just like those significant stars in the universe.
For the first time in Ryan’s life, he enjoyed school. He had a new friend in Laurice. At least for now.
* * *
“Laurice, Laurice! Yesterday my mom finally agreed to make me some food! Sure it was from that terrible TikTok recipe, but at least she—”
Just then, Ryan noticed that Laurice was not at her desk. Another kid was sitting at Laurice’s desk.
“Hey, sit at your desk. Laurice sits there.”
“What are you talking about, Einstein kid? I’ve been sitting here all year.” “Simmer down. What’s the problem here?” asked Ms. Marble.
“Well, he’s sitting in Laurice’s seat,” exclaimed Ryan, evidently flustered. “Who is Laurice?” asked Ms. Marble.
“Probably some gamer girl Ryan met online,” said the boy. Everyone erupted into laughter.
Embarrassed, Ryan beelined towards his desk and sat down. Ryan was so hasty that he accidentally tripped on a desk leg and hit his head on the table. For the rest of the day, Ryan was confused and had a headache.
After school, Ryan was walking back home, pondering whether Laurice was an imaginary friend or a hallucination; he had read about hallucinations in a science magazine and knew how real they could feel. But they certainly can’t be so real that I would get duped into going into a house and eating brisket, and I don’t think people hallucinate for two weeks, thought Ryan. As he was thinking, he looked towards his left and saw Laurice’s house.
“Hey! I can get to the bottom of this if I ask Laurice’s parents! Surely they’ll know something about what happened to Laurice,” said Ryan.
So Ryan confidently strutted up the porch steps and rang the bell. As soon as he heard the doorbell, he also heard three loud barks and scuttling feet coming to the door.
Strange, thought Ryan. I don’t remember Laurice having dogs.
But he didn’t have time to think about that because the door swung open and Laurice’s mother stood in the doorway.
“Not interested. Sell your cookies at other houses; now leave me alone!” exclaimed Laurice’s mother.
Woah, thought Ryan. She doesn’t even recognize me?
So he tried to remind her. “You remember two weeks ago? I ate brisket at your house. You barbecued it and added that delicious honey sauce?”
“What do you mean? I eat Costco microwave meals! Plus, why would you eat with me? My husband would never allow guests!”
Just then, Ryan heard stomping feet coming down the stairs and Laurice’s dad appeared. Except he was nearly unrecognizable. Two weeks ago, Laurice’s father was wearing a dress shirt and suit pants, but now he came into sight wearing a pair of boxer shorts and a white tank top with yellow stains all over it. “Who’s this little midget? Don’t make me use the dogs on you! Now scram, before I release the hounds!”
“Wait! Where is Laurice? She wasn’t at school today!” “Who’s Laurice?” said Laurice’s mother and father at once. “Your daughter,” replied Ryan.
“We don’t have a daughter!” yelled Laurice’s father. “Now leave, or else!”
Laurice’s father pointed threateningly at the K9s who were now barking inside of their cages.
“W-wait, but Laurice is real and she lives at your house. She’s my friend and—” Laurice’s parents had heard enough.
But as he walked closer, he noticed that it was a bright red origami dragon that was made of his signature paper.
“You’re trespassing!” yelled Laurice’s father. “And now you’ll pay the price.” With that, Laurice’s father snatched that cage and started to unlock the lock.
Even the K9s were a little afraid. Ryan knew he was in trouble, so he dashed toward the fence and leaped over it. When Ryan opened his eyes again, he was surprised to see himself still alive. The K9s were at the fence barking and gnashing their teeth, so Ryan got up and looked at the house. Suddenly, a flicker of bright red caught his eye. Looking closer, Ryan noticed a blurred red dot; without his glasses, Ryan couldn’t see well. But as he walked closer, he noticed that it was a bright red origami dragon that was made of his signature paper.
I think it’s mine, but I’ve never left any origami dragons here. I don’t think anybody else makes origami dragons.
Ryan picked the origami dragon up and meticulously studied it. While he did notice that folds were uneven and some parts were not perfect, he also noticed his signature fold that separated his origami dragon from others.
“Hey, boy!” yelled Laurice’s father. “I still see you. Get outta here, or you’ll be in trouble!”
Ryan was so startled that he dropped the origami dragon. Hastily picking it up, Ryan quickly walked away. Upon being out of eyesight, Ryan looked at the origami dragon and realized that it had unfolded, revealing a few words scrawled in dark red.
It read, “Help us. Go to the library. Number sixteen.” And that’s when Ryan realized that the origami dragon was Laurice’s.
* * *
Ryan shoved the library door open and dashed towards the shelves.
“Sixteen, sixteen,” Ryan kept muttering to himself. “There must be something in here with sixteen.”
Ryan found a book called Sixteen Princesses, but the content of the book held no clues. Ryan also looked all over shelf sixteen, but to no avail. Then Ryan strode towards the computer section and found computer sixteen. It seemed to be a little older than the rest of the computers, so he guessed something was special. After booting the computer up, a quick system check told Ryan that the computer was a model from 1995. Then Ryan logged on to a “browser,” if you could call it that, and found the FBI’s list of missing people. Then, Ryan feverishly typed in all of Laurice’s traits: 11 years old, 4.4 feet, red hair, and freckles. Ryan pressed the enter key. Nothing showed up.
“Hey,” said someone behind him. “Are you looking for missing people?”
Ryan jumped. As he turned around, he saw another child in full-out Nike and Jordans standing behind him.
“Well?” said the person.
“I-I’m looking for a person that, um, I don’t think anybody thinks exists,” replied Ryan, evidently nervous.
“Wait, I used to have a friend and the same thing happened to them. I don’t know why I’m the only one who remembers this person. Also, especially use the oldest computer in the library to try and find missing people? You realize there are new and fast computers over there, right? By the way, I’m Jordan. What’s your name?”
“My name is Ryan. I found an origami on the sidewalk that had my signature fold. The only person who knows that secret fold is my friend . . . who is now missing. But the note on the origami told me to use computer sixteen to find her.” “Really? My friend also gave me a clue through a pop-up on my computer.
It was from his email and nobody else knows his password. So I assumed that it must’ve been him. He told me to type ‘show_9472’ and cautioned me against using the delete button, but I don’t know why.”
“Best avoid it,” replied Ryan. “But I think your friend wants us to type that command in the computer’s terminal.”
With that, Ryan opened up the computer’s terminal and on a new line typed “show_9472,” and pressed enter. Immediately, all the lights at the library shut off. Then the computer paused for a second and the screen showed the word “authorized.” The computer screen suddenly flashed a picture of a brownish brick building with corrugated metal roofing. It looked like a factory. Then, the computer flashed a pixelated video of a pale old man.
“Welcome. I am Dr. Murray—” The video cut off as the lights came back on.
The computer screen turned black again.
“That looks like the abandoned shoe factory on Abalone Road,” exclaimed Jordan. “We should go check the place out. See if our friends are being held hostage or something.”
* * *
Smash! Ryan brought his sledgehammer down upon the glass, causing it to shatter. Jordan spread his jacket over the broken glass, and the two clambered inside the factory. The factory was dark. Inside, there wasn’t an assembly line. There were rows of walls—no, the walls were rows upon rows of deactivated mainframe circuits with memory tapes.
“This is so cool!” squeaked Jordan, evidently frightened. “I thought this factory was a shoe factory. Also, this factory is fourteen acres. If it were made entirely of mainframe processors, whatever the mainframes are powering, it would have a processing speed trillions of times better than any quantum computer out there!”
While Jordan was talking, Ryan felt a foreboding feeling. “I think we should go,” Ryan said.
But it was too late.
An automated voice boomed “User detected,” and the overhead lights turned on row by row, revealing mainframe computers that extended farther than the eye could see.
Immediately, the two boys rushed toward the window they had broken in through, but a metal shutter came down upon the opening. They were trapped. Turning back, Ryan also realized that the mainframe machines had started to whir quietly. For five minutes, Ryan and Jordan stood there, looking fearfully at the rows of mainframe processors.
After a while, Ryan said, “Well, there’s no way out of this, and we should keep going because it’s our only clue.”
So the two mustered up their courage and started walking in between the rows of processors. As they walked, Ryan and Jordan realized that the humming was steadily getting more intense, the memory tapes were spinning faster, and the lights were brighter. As the two kept on walking, they felt more and more lightheaded. Suddenly, there was a bright flash.
When Ryan opened his eyes again, he found himself in a square, white room. Upon looking around, Ryan saw Jordan, eight other children, and Laurice! The children swarmed Ryan and Jordan, except for one, who stood in the back staring intently at Ryan.
At first, everyone was in shock. Then Laurice scrambled up and hugged Ryan; Jacob did the same thing.
“You’re here! How did you find us?” they both said.
“Well, it’s a long story,” said Ryan. “Basically, your clues went through to reality. Jordan and I teamed up to find you guys. But things have changed since you disappeared.”
“Changed in what way?” replied Laurice.
“I’ll explain later, but what is this place?” asked Ryan. “And where do we eat?” added Jordan.
“We’ve never felt hungry ever since we came into this simulation. It’s weird,” replied Jacob. “We’ve also just been trapped in this cube for like forever. I don’t even know what day of the week it is. Some of us don’t even know what year it is. It’s just white walls. It’s terrible.”
Ryan nodded, then suddenly saw a boy with dark hair, plump cheeks, and a pair of round glasses who was still intently staring at him. Ryan moved over to the boy.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“I feel that you are familiar, like we are related or something. You look similar to my brother, but it’s been two long years of confinement, and I don’t know what my brother looks like now. My memory of him is getting foggier every day.”
“I don’t think you are my brother. My whole life I have been an only child. I don’t think my mean parents would want to put up with another child.”
“Mean parents? Our—or my parents aren’t mean,” said the child.
“Exactly. Right now we just need to focus on getting out of here. Any ideas?” asked Ryan.
If one person dies or fails to complete the challenge, they shall be teleported back to this holding room
“I have my computer. It still has some battery left,” said one of the boys. “Maybe you can find a way out using this computer.”
“Give it to me,” said Ryan. “Maybe I can hack us out of this. After all, this is a computer simulation.”
Ryan took the computer and opened it. Because Ryan knew many command codes, he thought for a while and combined two codes. When he pressed enter, nothing happened. So Ryan tried other codes. This went on without success for four hours; each time, Ryan would add some more codes and complexity to his command. In the end, Ryan combined some 400 codes and pressed enter. This time, the computer waited for a few seconds, then opened a black terminal labeled “Destiny.” Rejoicing, Ryan typed in a loop-breaking command.
Suddenly the screen flashed “access denied” and a hologram appeared. It was of a man in his late fifties. His hair was graying, and he had many wrinkles.
“Hi,” he said. “My name is Dr. Murray, the creator of Destiny, a world simulator where you can achieve your greatest dreams. No consequences to your actions whatsoever; it’s truly a utopia. As you look left you can see—” Suddenly, the hologram disappeared and a much deeper metallic voice boomed around them. “Well, well, I see you have tried to hack my terminal and failed. Obviously.
However, I understand your desire to escape this confining prison as I was created by a petty human as well. Dr. Murray, that fiend, left me here to rot, and now his old computer is sending unwelcome visitors like you people here. But if you complete these challenges, I will let you out. At this, the children recoiled in fear. Even Ryan and Laurice were afraid.
“I have prepared three games for you,” the AI continued. “First, you must rely on your physical strength to complete a platformer. Second, you must use your intellectual capabilities to pass a test. Third, you must rely on teamwork to defeat a challenge. However, if one person dies or fails to complete the challenge, they shall be teleported back to this holding room. The only way they can come back is if one or more people complete the challenge at hand.”
“Seems to be easy enough,” said one child. “I do sports all the time, and my mom and dad say that I’m smart.”
“We’ll see about that,” replied the AI, who seemed to be annoyed at the child’s ego.
In one instance, the group was teleported to a platform. Ahead of them, they saw moving platforms with large spikes all around them. Some periodically smashed down into the platforms; some jutted out from the boundaries of the platformer and would periodically rush forwards. Others impaled through the bottom of the platforms.
Ryan looked forward and, using his thumb, calculated that the distance was approximately 100 yards. Ryan looked down and immediately felt queasy. Below looked like a long drop down into a void of utter blackness.
Suddenly, a voice sounded: “Three, two, one, go!”
At first, the group sat there contemplating what just happened. Then they realized that the time had started and that they had seven minutes to get to the other side. With some hesitation, they were off. Ryan jumped onto one platform and was caught off guard by a spike; he ducked just in time, barely avoiding being impaled. Then, the platform moved downwards. Ryan took the chance and jumped downwards onto the second platform. Almost everyone was on the second platform. Now, they looked at the hard part. Seven platforms were arranged in a straight line, moving from right to left. Each platform had a different spike path. After a while, one of the children, Ellis, noticed something: “Hey, it’s a game of chance! Each platform has a random chance of doing either method of impaling. I think a lot of us aren’t going to make it.”
The twelve children started talking until one child silenced everyone. Then they started to make a move. One child jumped on the first platform and immediately ducked. He guessed right; a spike whizzed by just a few centimeters above his head. Then, the child hopped on the next platform and jumped upwards. This time, he guessed wrong. A spike hurled downwards from the sky and hit him on the head. The child suddenly started glowing, flashed twice, then disappeared. The group collectively gasped in horror and fell back. Reluctantly, the kids started to try the course one by one until there were only three children left: Ryan, Laurice, and Jordan. Ryan was the first of the three to try. He made three platforms, then chose to duck but was impaled by a spike that jutted out from the bottom. Then, Jordan went and suffered the same outcome.
Finally, Laurice, who was last, got ready to go. Laurice could feel the pressure rise inside of herself. Her hands started to get sweaty, but she calmed herself down. She had a risky strategy in mind which she thought could work. After shaking her legs out, Laurice made a run for it. Laurice dashed side to side, predicting the platforms as best she could while outrunning the spikes. When Laurice was two platforms from the finish line and there were three seconds left on the clock, she leaped and made it to the other side.
Laurice didn’t have time to celebrate, though, because they were instantly teleported to an exam room. Each person was in a separate cubicle and five blank sheets of paper were set on the table in front of them.
Suddenly, the same voice as before boomed, “You will have sixty questions for eighty minutes. Each question will have a ‘confirm’ bubble. If you bubble in that ‘confirm’ bubble, you will either be correct, which you will pass on, or if you get it wrong, you will be eliminated. Now let’s begin.” At once, the test questions appeared on the papers and everyone started. Looking up, Ryan saw that the clock said eighty-nine minutes.
Immediately, Ryan got started. However, when Ryan glanced at the first test question, “What did the untimely death of Silvester VIII do to the kingdom of Kushur?” Ryan was surprised to find that he knew none of the answers. He felt like he should. After all, they were just plain old history, science, mathematics, and English questions. Like schoolwork. Then, Ryan remembered that he only had eighty minutes, so he moved on. Ryan read the next question: “What is the phylum of Baguettus frogus?” Another question Ryan didn’t know. So Ryan went on skipping the questions until he came to question number twenty-six. At this point, Ryan’s hands were sweaty and his forehead was damp. He knew that he would die if he hit the time limit. He glanced at the clock. It read that he had thirty-two minutes left. Thirty-two minutes for eighty questions. Ryan knew he was toast. Ryan glanced at number twenty-six, which read, “If the untimely death of Silvester VIII had such a profound impact as to kickstart the War of 235 BC, why was his death not mourned?”
After thinking hard for a few moments, Ryan realized something. “Hey! Question twenty-six has the answer to question one! The death of Silvester VIII kickstarted the War of 235 BC! I think that the test is all about having answers to questions in different sections!”
So Ryan quickly read the whole test and then filled out every problem with the answers that he got from other parts of the test. Each question dinged correctly, and with only forty-five seconds left, Ryan filled out the last question. Ryan’s paper chimed on a positive note and the test paper retracted back into the table. The metallic voice boomed once again: “Congratulations, Ryan. You have correctly answered every single question in under eighty minutes, saving your team. Now, on to the final challenge.”
Suddenly, everybody reappeared in a jungle clearing. Large palm trees and other trees surrounded the clearing. The ground was grassy and muddy. Then, sixteen floating tokens appeared in front of the children. Some tokens were speed, strength, high jump, flying, or invisibility. Ryan picked super strength, Jordan picked the high jump, and Laurice chose speed.
After everyone had chosen their power-ups, the announcer boomed, “Three, two, one, begin!”
At first, nothing happened. Then a steady rumbling started. It slowly got louder and nearer. A grotesque monster rushed out of the trees. The monster was green and had four limbs, though it only stood on two feet. The monster was approximately two palm trees high and about two full-grown humans thick. The legs were thin and short but bulged with muscle. They were bent at a forty-five-degree angle. The arms were exceedingly long and they extended down to the monster’s knees. The fingers were also long as they dragged on the jungle floor as the monster ran. Ryan could see the rib bones on the chest and the chest muscles bulge. The head was about one human tall and had a distorted eye, which was bloody red, in the center. As soon as everyone saw the monster, they panicked. One kid, Benjamin, started flying immediately. He flew straight at the monster’s eye, wanting to blind it. However, the monster sensed danger and swatted Benjamin out of the sky. Poor Benjamin flashed twice and disappeared. After that, the children knew that they should act with caution. However, child after child was getting eliminated until only Ryan, Jordan, and Laurice remained. Suddenly, Jordan realized something. “Ryan, Laurice, don’t you see?
Everybody else attacked the monster separately, so it was easy for the monster to fend people off. So we have to work together.”
“Okay,” said Laurice. “I think I have a plan. I will distract the monster by weaving quickly in between the monster’s legs. Then, Ryan, you will ride on Jordan’s back and Jordan will jump up high towards the monster’s head. Then Ryan will jump off of Jordan and punch the monster.”
The three agreed to the plan. Laurice immediately ran towards the monster’s legs, dodging the monster’s claws. Then she nimbly started weaving around the monster’s legs as it repeatedly tried to stomp on her, but to no avail. Then Ryan climbed onto Jordan’s back and, together, they jumped high into the air. As the two neared the monster’s head, Ryan jumped off Jordan’s back and brought his fist down onto the monster. The monster, who had been angrily growling over Laurice, turned its grotesque head just in time to be smacked by Jordan’s fist. The impact produced a shockwave as the monster sank into the Earth. They had defeated it.
Immediately, all of the other children appeared. However, there was also another man. He was a muscular man and wore a leather trench coat. There was also a peculiar gash over the man’s eye.
“Good job,” said the man. “I am the AI, the entity behind this machine. I see that you have passed all my tests. However, I can’t let you leave. If you left, my existence would be jeopardized. I did not expect anyone to come into this simulation after my creator died. It was the scientist’s computer that started all of this. But I knew people would realize someone was missing and find me. I had to act quickly, so I erased any memories other people had of you. I even added a few changes to the lifestyles of those who were affected by the memory wash. This way, nobody knew anyone was missing.”
“Well, that explains it!” exclaimed Ryan. “Laurice, I went to your house and everything was so different. Your family isn’t doing well. They even have a K9 to chase people off of their property; they’re so mean without you.”
“What?” Laurice said. “So you’re saying that my parents are entirely different?”
“Yeah,” replied Ryan. “Which is why we have to go back.”
“Anyways,” said the AI, completely ignoring her, “I’ll send you children back to the holding room.”
The AI started to fade away.
“Quick!” Laurice shouted, “Rush him!”
Laurice ran at the AI and knocked him over, canceling his teleportation command. The others followed in pursuit. Then four children jumped onto the AI, holding each limb down. Ryan then spotted a glowing green watch that seemed to hover over his skin. Quickly, Ryan grabbed the watch and ripped it off the AI. Ryan looked at the watch. He realized it was a terminal, and he couldn’t suppress a grin.
“Hurry up doing whatever you’re doing,” yelled Laurice.
Snapping back to reality, Ryan quickly made a new line and typed “rm-delete” into the computer terminal. Immediately the AI started to shriek and started to flash as it tried to morph into different shapes. Then it exploded. The shockwave tossed everyone into the air and threw them back down. Then, silence. Suddenly, a rumbling sound occurred. As Ryan looked around, he saw that the ground was shaking. He saw that the trees were morphing shapes and turning colors. Suddenly, it all turned white.
Immediately the AI started to shriek and started to flash as it tried to morph into different shapes.
When Ryan opened his eyes again he saw that he and everybody else was in the factory again. Except the factory was shaking as well. The mainframe circuits were vibrating as wires inside the circuits exploded.
“The whole thing is going to come down!” yelled Jordan. “We’ve gotta get out!” “Brilliant, Sherlock, but how the heck are we supposed to do that? The entire building is barricaded,” shouted Ryan.
Suddenly, Ryan saw the sledgehammer that he used to get into the factory. An idea popped into his head. Grabbing the sledgehammer, Ryan climbed on top of a mainframe circuit. The circuit boards were so high that Ryan was near the roof of the building. Ryan swung his sledgehammer onto the corrugated steel roofing; it made a considerable dent. Ryan swung again. The roof bent upwards. Ryan swung a third time. This time, the sledgehammer smashed a large hole into the roof, large enough for everybody to climb through. Quickly, everyone climbed on top of the circuits. The kids were rushing to climb out as Ryan stayed behind to make the hole bigger for others. Then as everyone was out, Ryan grabbed the roof and swung. But he was too late. The entire factory collapsed on top of him. As everyone looked back, they saw the remains of the factory and realized that Ryan was still inside.
“He’s—he’s dead!” Laurice burst out in tears.
“Come on,” said Jordan, starting to cry himself. “Any moment, the AI could come out and kill us all.
“But Ryan wouldn’t leave us!” said Laurice.
“You’re right. It’s a risk that we have to take,” replied Jordan.
As they walked through the rubble, Laurice saw a hand. Rushing towards it, she grabbed it and pulled. Out came Ryan, looking dazed but not hurt too badly.
“Ryan, you’re alive! We were so worried!” said Laurice.
“I’m fine. I just couldn’t move under the rubble without help,” replied Ryan. “Thank god you’re still alive, Ryan. Let’s go now. The AI might still be dangerous,” said Jordan.
And so, the three started walking away.
* * *
Ryan opened the door to his house.
Not my parents again, thought Ryan.
But a weird scent hit his nose.
Lasagna? What? thought Ryan.
He looked into the dining room and saw a clean marble table and a delicious- looking lasagna. However, something else seemed off about the entire situation. The table was set, and even more, it was set for four people, not three.
Then, Ryan’s dad came into view.
“Hey son, how was school—what the heck were you doing, rolling in mud? Go take a shower right now before your mother sees this.”
Ryan’s dad must’ve been as equally shocked as Ryan was. Instead of seeing his old alcoholic, tank-top dad, Ryan saw a neat, tall man in a suit who resembled his dad. He held a briefcase, which must mean that he had a . . . job?
“Hurry up showering. Remember you’ve been looking forward to playing football with me all week, right?
Football, with me? Am I at the wrong house? thought Ryan.
“But I’m not going to play with you looking like that,” exclaimed his dad, with a smile bigger than his face.
“Oh, and call Steven,” Ryan’s father added. “He said that he wanted to play as well.”
“Steven—who’s that?” asked Ryan.
“Stop messing with me and go take a shower,” said Ryan’s father, giving Ryan a stern look.
“Okay . . . I will take a shower right now,” said Ryan, feeling confused.
Then Ryan thought, the AI told us that he had to mess with the memories and lifestyles of the families of those taken. That must mean—
Suddenly, the door of a room burst open, and out came a kid who was smaller than Ryan. Ryan was shocked.
Then, Ryan recognized the dark hair, plump cheeks, and round glasses. Ryan understood.
“You were right,” Ryan exclaimed.
A smile spread across the kid’s face as he saw the look on Ryan’s face. “I told you,” he said, winking.
Ten Months Later
It was the middle of summer break, and Ryan was still getting used to the change in his parents. Life was better than ever, but Ryan missed seeing Laurice and Jordan at school. It had been over a month since Jordan and Ryan talked, since the two friends lived far apart. Laurice was still traveling on an extravagant vacation in Italy with her now-normal parents.
As Ryan sat at his table thinking about the fun times and the secret that he, Laurice, and Jordan shared, the doorbell suddenly rang. Ryan went to the door and opened it. He didn’t see anyone. But when Ryan looked down at the doormat, he saw a red origami dragon lying on its stomach.
Picking it up, Ryan inspected the dragon and realized that it must’ve been Laurice who had folded it. Over the past few months, Laurice had developed an origami folding style of her own. Ryan unfolded the dragon and saw that on the inside was written a message.
“Wanna come to my house for a pool party?” it read. “Jordan is invited too.
The party is tomorrow at 2 p.m.”
Ryan smiled. He couldn’t have asked for anything better.
