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Letter to the reader:
 This story is written from the point of view from the main character, Adrian. It’s is a collection of her diary entries that captures the story of when she got “Lost in the Past”. This story is also considered to be a sequel to the real series of where she is living in the past and has to find her way home. Therefore, the end of the story is kind of like a cliffhanger. This format was done purposely, not because it was not finished. Enjoy!

 

October 28, 2125

 

“You remind me of your mom when she was your age”

 

The infamous line, but it has no meaning to me. I say this not because I hate my mom, oh god no! I say this because I never met her. It’s weird though, I feel like I knew her my entire life. I love her unconditionally. You see, my mom died while giving birth…to me. Yeah I know, that’s a hard pill to swallow. Whenever someone brings her up I can’t help but be reminded that I’m the reason that she is no longer with us But let’s be honest I am the reason.

Every year around my birthday, my grandparents tell me stories about my mother. It seems like every year I learn more and more about her. Although I love the second hand stories, I want to know what my mom was like firsthand. The idea may seem a little far-fetched, but I’m almost confident that It will be easy.

Everyday after 6^th period, all of the juniors have to go to Time Capsule class. Before we graduate, we must know how to properly operate a time machine. Even though our training just started a few weeks ago, I feel confident in my ability to work the machine. I mean, it’s as hard as it looks!

Tomorrow, after class, I’m going to hide in the coat closet until Mr. Briggs locks up. At about 6:00 the school should be empty, and then I will borrow a time machine. I’m a little nervous… but hopefully nothing goes wrong. Wish me luck!

 

Xoxo Ariel :)

 

November 22, 2025

 

Wow! It’s been a while since I’ve last written in here… Well let me get you updated! I’ve been in the past for about a month, but in the future it would have only been a few hours. My mom and I are best friends. Oh yeah, did I forget to say that I found her?! I went back into the past far enough that her and I are the same age. It’s so cool! But what’s even cooler is that we practically look like twins. I think that’s part of the reason we became so close. She introduced me to her parents today. Yup, my grandparents. They look so much different so they do in the future. They appear to be a lot younger and happier… but I guess that should be obvious.

Oh yeah, she told me about her boyfriend today. I’m surprised that it isn’t my dad. I wanted to ask her about him but if there is 1 thing I learned in Time Capsule class, it’s do NOT temper with the past. I must follow the rules, especially since my existence depends on it. But I gotta go! I’ll try to keep you posted!

 

Xoxo Ariel J

 

November 25, 2025

 

A few days have passed, and a lot has changed! Where do I start? The other day I met my dad at my mom’s school. He looked nothing like how he does in the future. Anyways, the whole time we were at school she was saying such horrible things about my dad. At first it funny until I started making jokes about how one day she would end up marrying him. She seem utterly disgusted by the thought, and kept repeating that no one would marry a man so dumb. I snapped. I didn’t know what else to do. I blurted out that she would marry “a man so dumb”. I told her I was from the future. I told her I was her daughter. I told her about her death. I told her everything. I was a victim of word vomit. We learned about this in Time Capsule class. Some people can’t handle what they see in the past and as a result, they blurt out the future. It never ends well after that.

            My mom… Catherine she thought I was crazy. She left. She left me there and continued to scream insults at me. I thought she’d understand. I forgot that people from the past cant fathom the things that happen in the future. Immediately after I went back to where my time capsule was… or where it should have been. It was gone! It had self-destructed. I knew this because right where the time capsule used to be was nothing but rubble from the time capsule. I panicked! Then I thought about it… I had altered the future, my future. I remembered back to when we had learned about the cons of going to the past. One of these was that there was always a possibility you wouldn’t make it back because of something you might have said. The time capsule would be the first thing to go. Without a time capsule, I wont be able to get home and no one knows where I am. Back home it hasn’t even been an entire day yet… No one would know to come looking for me. And if they did, they wouldn’t even know where to start. I was trapped, and my only friend… my own mother thought that I was looney. A weirdo. I don’t know what to do, I haven’t completed that chapter in time capsule class. I was lost in the past. 

​

July 18, 2030. 

I’ve finally found it. I’ve found the perfect specimen, who will prove perfect for my creation. Intelligence, average height, devoid of any mental or physical defects, amongst other things. She also shares my dream, the dream of creating the perfect human. Someone devoid of all frivolous emotions such as: jealously, anger, happiness, lust, or sadness. It shall only think through rational thought and rational thought only. It shall be selfless, having no need for such irrelevant things like money or wealth. Too many people of the present are fueled by their emotions and their own selfish needs. Countries going to war because of something like oil? That’s preposterous. How can thousands of lives be lost in a meaningless war just so I can fill my gas tank? Idiots! All of them. We humans are imperfect by nature, too controlled by own emotions. Even as I write this, I’m becoming enraged at the current state of the so-called “human race”. My anger solves nothing, anger begets nothing. Nothing but violence and more suffering. I will create the catalysts for the new world; they will be perfection, perfection that will breed more perfection. I will God and they shall be my Adam and Eve.

 

September 24, 2042. 

I’ve done it. After years upon years they are ready. But not now. I can’t let them go out into the world now. The world isn’t ready for them, it’s full too much of imperfection. I have a better solution, I shall place them in an remote area, we were they shall begin the new world there. This way they won’t have any interaction with those of imperfect nature, and thus taint they’re imperfection. Yes, this is what I shall do. But there is one last thing to do. I must take my own life. I must do this, because I am imperfect. I exist as the very my creation intend to rid of. If I’m to see my dream come to true fruition, ALL imperfection shall be gone. 

Ruben Burenstein
Q2 benchmark
Water stream

Sci-fi story

 

Tony just got done with his third patient for the day, he looked at his “Best Doctor Ever” mug, on the right side of his desk, after taking a long sip of steaming coffee, he looked at his list of appointments for the day, his next patient Tim Mcmillan was supposed to be there in a few minutes for his appointment. Tim has schizophrenia and recently was very unstable, so Tony thought this session could do him a lot of good.

As time passed by Tony got increasingly nervous, Tim was never late to an appointment. Tony decided to do something after painful 30 minutes had gone by, Tony to called Tim’s phone. Tim always picked up his phone and came to his appointments on time, but this time the phone was disconnected. Tony understood the signs; he had seen it enough times with his patients, he knew now all he could do was go home, watch TV, and see where it happened.

Tony arrived home at around 8:40, as he entered his home he thought about adjusting his bracelet for 50% gravity, but decided not to at the last moment. Tony had never liked the government being able to control your gravity, of course as a kid he had played with his bracelet, like everyone had, but now as an adult he knew how controlling these were. Tony had a clean record, meaning that the government would process his requests first if he wanted to adjust his bracelet, and Tony knew this, but he still wouldn’t do it. Tony had worked out that he should only use this when in a lot of danger from someone on the outside, for example if one of his patients brought a weapon to their appointment.

The news was basically the same as every other day; some weather for the next few days, a storm was brewing over the west coast, and then some local news. This was the section Tony was looking for, he was just listening for Tim Mcmillans name, waiting for the inevitable, when he would find out what had happened to his former patient. Tony started to drift off, but then he heard it, “A local mans gravity was raised to 300% today as police surrounded him. Witnesses say the man was yelling gibberish in a hostile manor for about 3 minutes before the police arrived. The police who arrived on the scene shot immediately for fear that this man could cause potential harm to civilians.”

This took Tony a long time to digest this information, he had seen people in the newspaper that were Gravity-bound before, but never to someone who Tony known well, especially not one he would talk to every 2-3 days for almost a year and a half. Tony turned off the TV and laid down on his couch, pondering what he should do about this predicament. Tony realized that the government was getting increasingly strict with their use of the PYC machine, at first they would only use in high-risk, hostage like situations, but as more machine have been built, the use is much more common in every day life, but never used for harmful purposes like it was today. Tony could read the signs better than others, so his final thought before drifting off to sleep was that he should do something to show the government how wrong they were.

The next few months went by in a blur, doing his daily routine over and over, watching the world changing around him. Every once and a while, one of his patients would be Gravity-bound, with the governments increasing intolerability of any type of misbehavior. Tony was slowly loosing patients, everyone that could come to him was either too scared to go outside, or had been Gravity-bound. He pondered what to do, and eventually decided to actually get up and do something about it. Tony had never seen anyone stand up to the government since the PYC machine was invented, and he wanted to make a statement.

Tony spent weeks planning how this would go down, he gathered about 700 people to march on city hall. Tony made signs, having tons of people come over and help him plan for this event. He closed down the office to work solely on this project, not that it mattered; he only had 2 patients left. The plan was to attempt to get in to city hall, and look for the PYC machine controlling the city, or the people who control it, and talk to them sensibly. If they found the machine first, they would stand there until someone they could talk to showed up. The main idea was to not be violent at all, so that the government couldn’t take any forceful action against them.

The time had come; Tony was the first on the scene, observing the landscape until people started arriving. The security guards outside started to notice something was up when about 20 or so people gathered in a group in front of city hall. The group continued growing until almost 150 people were there, then they started making their way in to city hall. Around half made it in to city hall easily before the security started organizing them in to a line, making them walk in between security guards in order to enter.

This is when all hell broke loose, one of the protesters in the line brushed up against a guard. The guard took this opportunity to take out his baton and hit the man. About 6 people around this brawl joined in, while the rest of the bystanders watched. In less than 40 seconds, the 4 protesters involved in the fight had been Gravity-bound, the starter being killed by the guards afterward. The other 3 were led off in handcuffs. Seeing this kind of treatment appalled Tony, especially with the realization that he had caused this to happen.

Things only got worse from here; the protesters arriving outside saw the commotion and ran in, causing a ruckus much worse than before. This started a riot, between all of the guards and many of the protesters. Tony could only stand there and watch as one by one his companions were Gravity-bound and arrested, or Gravity-bound and killed. Tony even watched as one mans gravity was turned up constantly, until eventually his bones were crushed completely.

Tony ran. It was all he could do, his people were getting over run and shut down. Edging his way around the destruction that he caused, seeing fallen comrades everywhere, beaten by the batons of the law enforcement. Past all of the men whose deaths he caused, barely making it under the radar of the guards. 100 feet until the entrance, 50 feet, halfway down the steps, just 20 steps and a small courtyard until he was safe.

Tony made it safely down the stairs, but then he was spotted by one of the guards outside who recognized him as the leader. Tony heard the guard yell out, but ignored him and continued running, then right as he was about to take the last step out of the courtyard, it happened. His body just stopped working like he was used to, Tony was forced to the ground, and couldn’t get up, he had been Gravity-bound. He was surrounded, a gun pointed straight at him.

The Life emulatar

The moon is rising again and the mutant birds are chirping . (Yawn). The air smells of fresh cow butt and the sky is as green as my new string beans. That’s Venus for you. It is 9 o clock in the morning again and another day  I have to go to work. Oh excuse me I forgot to introduce myself. I am Zuruck Chew the IV. I am a single father with 12 kids and blab bla bla. I’m sorry it is the same everyday.

         Driving to work can be a real drag. It’s the same as always. Just seeing the same thing everyday makes me ill at ease. Broken houses, parks with no tress, stinky diapers on the floor. You know the usual. But driving to work is not the worse part.  The worse part is actually being at work. As a national service guard I do absolutely nothing. I just sit here, look at this virtual box and see if any enemies try to attack us. But it’s so boring. First of all, of living Galactic creatures in the Milkyway, who the hell would be stupid enough to attack us. We have absolutely nothing here to take unless people want recipes on how to make bunny chow. So yeah this job sucks. I mean who the hell wants to sit there and watch a box that does nothing . And I have to watch it with an idiot. And trust me when I say idiot I mean idiot. His name is Ghahu Betch and he says 1 + 1 = 2 . What an idiot. But it’s not that bad sitting next to him. In fact he smells like Strawberries.

So anyway today I had enough. I’m not going to take this anymore. I had finally arrived at the halls of death walked up the endless flight of stairs to my station and sat down and wait. Now Ghahu is talking about how we are dumb and uneducated. I’m pretty sure the one who thinks there are living creatures on earth. Is he an uneducated one.  He just kept on blabbing on about something. And that’s when I blew up. That’s when I told him. AGGGHHHH!!!!! “I had enough. I’m not going to do this BLEEP anymore. ” My rage of furry took over my body and I stormed to the bathroom. I sat down on the slimy and relaxing stall and finally I got some peace. As the big brown and wet poop came from my butthole I notice a strange smell. It was like a hint of fruity sensation. Almost like Strawberries. That’s when I realized oh god no. Not strawberries.

 “ Hey dude you seemed upset out there”

“ I’m fine Ghahu I was just”

“ It was just that lately you been acting like a douche and that explosion outside….”

“ I’m fine Ghahu”

“ Are you sure?”

“ Yes, now leave me alone shouldn’t you be watching the box”

“ It is a high-tech state of the art mega super Del 7000. It’s not just a box. And we should maneuver our way back pronto before something god-awful happens”

“ First of all me and my butt have a little date with Mr. Toilet right now and second of all who’s going to care? Nothing bad will ever.” Little did I know I would later regret those words.

         As soon as I rose from my toilet I heard a boom sound. Almost like an explosion. Then the power on Venus turned off. In the span of 5 minutes, Venus shook,  there was an episode  of maddening   flickering lighting and  a lot of screaming. Normally a red-alert like that would make the Venus’ sirens go beep beep beep. But Ghahu and I were still in the bathroom. As soon as we got out we left towards our station when our 4 arm,  7 ft , 500 pound of muscle body building boss was sitting at our station.

“ Now you see what you had done” I said

“ You and moi are in this predicament together.”

“ BOYS!!!!!!

“ By all means monsieur, what could possibly be bothering you today?

“ Your smartness can’t get you two out of this one. You two should realized that our world was just attack by earthlings.

“ Um s s-s-sir  w-w-what exactly are earthlings?”

“ Obviously people from PLANET EARTH. Now Listen. I”M REALLY ANGRY. BECAUSE OF YOU TWO, the planet of Venus will go into a planet shut down. NO LIFE WILL BE  HERE. If you idiots didn’t get  our world ends .  They stole our life emulator. I need you  to go to planet Earth and take our Life emulator back. You have one week or your both FIREED Grrrrrrrr.”  As he stomps out of the room Ghahu whispered, “So I guess we have an adventure together partner.”  All man.

         To make a long story short we jumped on a rocket, took about a 17-hour hyper speed flight and landed on earth. The ride was boring listening to this man talk and talk. short,  I’ll resume the story to me and Ghahu landing on planet earth. Once we landed I was in complete shock.

“Dude are we at the right place?”

“If my scientific theories are correct I must conclude that we are indeed on planet earth.”

         I guess we were on earth. But the place is so different than from Venus. The sky was blue instead of green. The air was a lot fresh then I could ever dream. But we were  on a mission. I could not waste time gawking at this new place We had to  find our life emulator.

“Ok so we need to move forward to a place called the DC.”

Luckily there was a nice earthling kind enough to tell us where DC was. But that was  really far away. But Ghatu said that on the way here he read somewhere on how to get free rides. He puts one hand out with his thumb sticking up and the other hand is behind his head. If I didn’t know better I would say that he was in a sex position.

Oddly enough this creepy guy came and gave us a free ride to DC. I still feel guilty about not paying him some Galactic money. But he seemed to be in a rush when told him weren’t woman. But he did give us some great information. He said the President is in something called the white house. We went to this big white building with a big pointing thing on top of it. We asked one of the stylish earthlings to let us speak to Mr President. Then we found out that we were in the wrong building. But then we were arrested because Mr. Smarty thought it would be a good idea to tell them  we wanted to speak to the President and take something from him.

At this big building that seems like it needed major renovations someone called a judge gave me and Ghahu a 30-year sentence for attempted robbery. But somehow Mr. Smarty found a way to escape. He just took his finger nail and clipped us out of our handcuff. We somehow escaped from earthling prison. We walked for what seemed to be forever or it could have been  about 5 minutes . We found another big white house. This one was a bit flatter then the last one but I got that feeling that this could be the house. But Ghahu probably almost saved my life. He seemed to elude several men dressed in black suits, talking in miles  and wearing guns . Luckily , we joined a group of people  touring the house. So we made our way inside the house and we had found the emulator. So we tried to not walk suspiciously   and we made our way back to the ship. Once we took flight we heard explosions. The nice old humans were shooting RPGS at us. That was when Ghatu took us on hyper-speed and we made back to Venus safely. So now Venus is saved, I am taking my job seriously, I had an adventure and now enjoy smelling strawberries

Sabrina Stewart McDonald

Keiren reached into the locker he had rented at the recreation center, locker 13. His back was to me, he pulled something towards him and froze. His shoulders stiffened. 

“What is it? What’s wrong?” I asked.

He turned and looked at me while holding something out. There were two of them; little bronze, metal hearts with gears showing. They were both on bronze chains.

“Do you know what these are? Or how they got here? I’ve never found anything in this locker before and I always rent this one out.” He stated.

“Maybe someone else rented it and accidentally left them; they could be best friends necklaces or something. See how they’re identical?” 

“But what’s with the numbers?” He asked.

If you looked really close at the hearts, you could see numbers through gaps, on three of the gears. 

“It looks like a date. What’s the sense of having that, time moves faster than the days do. Most people carry watches that only show the date as an extra feature, not as something primary.”

“Why’s it frozen on that one date?” He questioned. “It isn’t today’s date.”

“Maybe the...batteries died.” EHHHH, wrong. I could hear the buzzers going off in my head. I turned one of the hearts over in my hand. There was no battery cover, nor anywhere to fit a battery. Maybe it’s solar-powered? There aren’t any little black squares to collect the sun’s energy with, so no. That couldn’t be it. 

“Maybe it’s a type of remembrance thing, ya’know so the owner could remember an important moment in time?” Keiren suggested.

“I don’t think so. It looks...too complicated for that.” There was a little button on the lower end of the right side of the heart and two on the top left. I tapped the left side button that was closer to the bottom. It made a clicking noise and changed to today’s date.

“Hey. The date on mine just changed to today. Like magically.”

I bet it was because I pressed the button on mine. I pressed the lone button that was located to the right. It moved a year backwards.

“Did anything happen to yours?” I asked Keiren.

“Yeah, the year changed to last year, that was weird.”

“Every time I change something on the one I have, yours changes, too. Hm, curiouser and curiouser.” When I looked back down, I saw that there was a light in the middle of the heart that glowed bright green. “Hm, what’s this?”

“What’s what?”

“It’s glowing...look so is yours!”

He looked down at the heart in his hands and turned it over and over, looking over every square inch to try and see what was making it glow. I decided to just push the light to see if it were some type of button.

As soon as my finger applied a slight amount of pressure, I felt like I was a ribbon being pulled behind a running child. I felt like I was being twisted this way and that, I felt like I was being waved like a flag. Everything was pitch black, then all I saw were stars that expanded so they became the light of day. I was pulled to the concrete sidewalk, like a screw to a very powerful magnet. I wobbled slightly and steadied myself as I came to a stop that left my head spinning. I heard a snap and Keiren landed next to me with his hand on his head. He almost fell over as he tried to steady himself as I just had. 

“What was that?” He asked with a slight slur. He, then shook his head and asked again more clearly.

“I don’t know. What I want to know is how we’ve gotten outside. I don’t remember stepping through those doors.” I said matter-of-factly hitching a thumb at the doors of the old recreation center that loomed behind us. We both looked around. Things looked a little different. Where was the bench that was out outside last month? They couldn’t have brought it in already; the nice weather just started. There was a newspaper booth behind us. It looked old and rusted, though a new one had been bought about 3 months ago. It was supposed to be shiny and red, with maybe only a few scratches or evidence of wear. I felt a pull towards it. 

“Hey, can you grab a paper?” I asked Keiren as I turned to look at him.

“A paper? For what?”

“I don’t know. I just want a paper, can you get one, please?”

He walked over to the old newspaper booth, grabbed a paper and handed it to me. He then walked over to the window of the recreation center and peered through. A few people were walking on the street, but no one paid us mind. I recognized them all, that’s a good sign; things couldn’t be as out of whack as they seemed.

I looked down at the paper. The news story on the cover was something about a house fire that had happened. I don’t remember hearing about this. In this small town, news traveled fast. Way too fast for my liking; if there was a fire, I probably would’ve known and there would probably be some type of donation box at the recreation center for the family. I looked at the date of the paper: “April, 15, 2010.” But today was April, 15, 2011. That is a nasty misprint; something the editors definitely wouldn’t have overlooked.

“Evie! Look here!” Keiren still had his faced pressed to the window.

“What is it?”

“Look, it’s Miss Daisy! I thought she died this past December.”

“You must be mistaken, maybe it’s someone who looks like-” but there she was. Sh even had her metal walker, which was adorned with pink tennis balls on the legs and the teddy bears attached to the top bar. She was walking slowly toward the door to the hall they reserved for bingo. She smiled at everyone who she scuttled past.

“Hi, Miss Daisy. Nice day, huh?” “Here, Miss Daisy, I’ll get the door for you.” It was definitely her. But it just couldn’t be. I backed away from the window slowly. The Pizza shop across the street had its Thursday special board hanging in the window. Today was Friday. I jogged across the street with Keiren on my heels. I went up to the shop clerk.

“Hi, how can I help you?” the clerk asked with generic happiness.

“I was wondering why the Thursday special was in the window, today’s Friday isn’t it?” I asked very quickly.

“No, today is Thursday, thanks for your concern though.” the clerk replied as she hitched a thumb towards the calendar on the wall.

I went to look at it. Sure enough the heading read: April 2010. The kittens on the calendar looked down at me with their big eyes. It felt like they were begging me to understand. I realized I still had the metal heart clutched in my hand. The smallest gear read: “4,” the middle sized one: “15” and the biggest one: “2010.” I saw Keiren’s head shoot up in surprise. He was looking at the metal heart in his hand, too. I think he came to the same realization that I had.

“Evie. I think we traveled a year in the past.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~❤~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We went over to the recreation center and sat down on the steps in front. 

“I don’t understand. All I did was press a button. I didn’t turn any dials or anything. I don’t see why it would send us to today.” I said with a bit of exasperation. “And how are we going to get home, to our time, if we don’t have any clue as to how to work them?”

“Well, let’s retrace what happened before we traveled here.” Keiren said. “Ok, so first what did you do to it?”

“I pushed the bottom, left side button and it changed to today’s- well the present time’s- date. Then I pushed the right side button and the year changed to 2010.” I said with my my fingertips pressed to my temples. “Then I pushed the glowing green button. And finally we ended up here. I didn’t do anything else.”

“Maybe we should try that again. Then maybe it’ll change back to 2011. What do you think?”

“Okay, we can try. If it doesn’t show “2011” we just won’t press the green button to make us travel.”

“Alright. Sounds solid. Ready when you are.”

I nodded at him and pulled the metal heart closer to my face. I pushed the bottom left button. The heart clicked, but nothing seemed to change. Then I pushed the right side button. I stopped breathing for a moment. What if it didn’t change to 2011? What if we couldn’t figure it out? What happens if we can’t get back to our present time? 

I tried willing it. I kept saying a steady mantra of “2011” under my breath. I pressed the right side button. The click seemed to echo, my eyes squeezed shut at the sound of it. Please, please, please. I carefully opened them and exhaled easily. On the biggest gear “2011” was displayed. The green light started a steady glow and I showed Keiren with a smile. 

This time, he pressed the button. Then everything went pitch black and the sky ignited into stars.

We ended up back where we were; at locker #13 in the recreation center. The florescent lights were buzzing at an almost inaudible level. I was surprised that I could hear them over the sound of my beating heart. We decided not to put them back in the locker. What if someone who didn’t know how to work them found them? They’d be stuck.

“So, what should we do with them?” Keiren asked as he kicked rocks across the concrete.

“Hide them, I guess. So no one will find them. Who knows what trouble they could get into? Besides, many people today believe that wishes don’t come true.” I replied with a smile.

Keiren looked at me strangely. I looked down at my feet. I was skipping over all the lines in the sidewalk. After all, wishes really do come true. I just wanted to see my grandma. One. Last. Time. I just wished I could’ve brought her daisies.

He said to me: "It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life.

- Revelations 21:6

Chapter 1

“Finally we’re here!”. You could hear all of the kids rejoicing, finally having arrived at our destination. New Haven, the city of wonder... But how could this utopia have survived? After all the bombs dropped, how was it possible that an entire city survive? I wasn’t the only one but hell it was rough. I still couldn't believe the fact that a whole city stood, in a Utopian state in all it’s glory, unscathed and untouched by the Great War. It seemed almost surreal. I thought back to the times when I had to kill just to make it through a day. Not just animals…but the raiders…even some of the wastelanders. But things were going to be different here, I thought. But I could not have been more wrong.

After being shown to our living quarters, we were all given standard issue clothing. I couldn't say that they were stylish, but hell, it was better than my ragged, war-torn battle gear. The one rule that I despised was no weapons. But hell, in a utopia, shit ain’t always pretty and prim is it? I kept my gun close and my family closer and nothing was going to stop that.

Chapter 2

Damn it. I knew this was gonna happen. As he awoke to the sound of a door closing ever so softly, he turned to confront his son. Silently, almost effortlessly, he got up from his bed and approached his son. "Where have you been?". I could see it in Blake's eyes… Searching for some wise ass excuse to his mischief. "Uh… nothing. I just came back from a short walk." he retorted. He just didn't get it, I guess. "Bullshit and you know it. I don't want you sneaking out like that. At least tell me next time. Now go to your damn room." A sigh of relief filled the air as I eased up. "Blake," he said, almost expecting a response. 

"Yeah Dad?" 

"I love son. Don't ever forget that. But don't pull this crap again o.k.?"

"Yeah Dad. Sorry, I just wanted to go out and have some fun you know?" he responded groggily.

"Yeah I understand. Now get some sleep."

… 

It was 6 o'clock. God the time flied. As I got up, I felt a sharp pain in my hand. "Uh." I let out a short groan before getting up to check if Blake was still sleeping. Sure enough, he was out like a light. I decided to leave him a note and let him get some more rest. "Hunting time." I said to myself quietly, as I grabbed the keys and my hunting rifle. I frantically scrawled a note on a crumpled piece of paper lying on the table.

Blake,

I left out to do some hunting. Hopefully I can catch something half decent. Don't go anywhere until I come back. Food's in the fridge and there's still some cola on the counter if you want it.

Dad

That would suffice, I thought. As I grabbed my duster, I had a feeling it was going to be a long day.

Walking through the serenity of the apartment almost made me wish I had stayed just a bit longer to clear my head. Before leaving I grabbed my gas mask, locked the door and headed out into the bright sunlight. "Damn," I said. "Near goddamn blinding out here." Quickly throwing on my duster and shades, I began the walk to the gates. After picking a breakfast in the market, which consisted of eggs, a small steak, and a slightly irradiated water; I stopped into a few stores. None of them had what I needed. But every one of then had what I was looking for. Ammunition. The easiest and cheapest commodity to buy and sell. Hell, come across a dead man out in The Wastes and you could have one hell of a dinner that night. I guess this time I would be rolling out with just 30 .308 Armor Piercing rounds and just 4 standard .308s. Capable enough to stop a few coyotes, or raiders for that matter. Out here, there was no good or evil. There was only survival. What I once thought was evil became my good. Living in The Wastes really could blur a man's sense of morality. Even when a raider begs for their life, you take it. Because if not, they would've taken yours, even if they say otherwise a million times over.

Those guards always seemed to have an affinity for my rifle. Always stopping me to see the gun, even when I didn't have it they wanted to talk about it. Hell, maybe one day I'll find a near useless one that I can fix up for them.

As I finally exited the gates, just after talking with the guards, I looked out and saw emptiness. A vast emptiness left only by a post-apocalyptic desert. Not even a trace of life…But somehow, somewhere there was the waters of life… just like Revelation 21:6…"To him who is thirsty I will give to drink freely from the waters of life."

Chapter 3

Finally I arrived at my planned spot. It felt so good to be back in a familiar place. Home sweet home. I started to unpack my gear and lay out the days plan. Water, check. Armor piercing rounds, check. Variable optics scope, check. Now all I had to do was make sure the rifle was ready. All the time I had at home, I still couldn't resist cleaning and checking it in The Wastes. 

As I began to check my rifle and next thing I know, I got 2 raiders staring down at me. I could hear their footsteps before they even found me but damn, this was gonna be a rough one. As one began to reach for my shoulder, I flipped him over my back and onto the ground. In one swift motion, I picked up my rifle and fired a shot right into the knee of the 2nd raider. Instead of reloading, I knew it would be quicker to use my combat knife. In a whirlwind of precision, I swept down, avoiding a lunge from the wounded raider and slit the dazed raider's throat. Then, swiftly removing my blade, I slowly walked towards the injured raider.

Spinning the knife around my hand, I was his God now. I determined whether he lived or died. I could be his saviour or the harbinger of death. I could have spared him, but I couldn't show mercy to the merciless. So I took his knife, tossing it aside carelessly and hugged him, driving my knife deep into his heart. I knew my face was the last image to be burned into the recess of his mind.

1/10/12

Sci-Fi Story

Upon earth, 15 hours after the first of the pods launched, it crashed to the ground. In the middle of a concrete road in a small town, the villagers came to observe the uniqueness of this foreign object never before seen. At the moment of impact this first Martian felt the impact through its body. Like nothing it had even felt before, as the cylindrical capsule was forced by the intensified gravity of a much bigger planet, sent it smashing into the ground. The weight of its safety belt squeezed it down, tight against the seat. So tight the belt squeezed against it’s wearer threatening to cut it in half. Meekly he raised his tentacle easily pushing it away from him, as lifting it was too heavy without the gravity equalizer activated. It slowly crawled across the floor of its ship as it felt that the sheer weight of their air was forcing his body through the atomic holes in the floor. Luckily to activate the equalizer the switch needed to be pulled down, and with ease after several earth hours the Martian managed to reach it.  With a grunt of strength it lifted one of it’s extremities against the weight of this world and forced the lever back down. In an instant the machine buzzed and hummed. It rumbled and snapped as the engine came to life, equalizing the gravity inside the capsule. Now there was work to be done, to construct the war machine. Freely it’s tentacles whipped around and throughout the capsule putting pieces of metal, screws, and joints in place. It tightened and loosened them, to construct the machine that it had to memorize back home. As it constructed it thought of home. What will happen if this doesn’t work? What is their future, so few of their people remain. The future relied upon its actions. The idea was frightening almost too much to bare.

He was ready as the last screw was tightened into place. To begin, pushing a button lifting the cylinder straight up against the gravity and above the lip of the crater.  The view from inside his metal home was fantastic. The hills of flourishing plants along the countryside and rolling hills that went for miles were all in view. A blue sky that it’d only heard about in the temples of old, before they were destroyed. In the distance it saw the clouds meet the land in the form of a fog that blurred into the distance. The beauty of this world, so fresh, overtook it, this world was innocent of the troubles that its planet had endured. But it had a mission; it was race against race and for its race to survive this one could not.

Ahead it saw mechanical beasts, similar to it’s own in material but much lower and that seemed to move, almost fly across the ground so smoothly. Humans ran across the ground, running from the standing tripod. A bang isolated its attention, coming from one of the humans vehicles. The explosion shot metal right across the top of the Martians war machine. This undoubtedly was a violent act, a show of aggression that stopped any thoughts of “is this right?” in the mind of this first Martian. So it in turn fired away, a heat ray shot a beam across the space between its and this planets machinery. The target turned white, burning any humans in it alive and began softening much like any metal would do under intense heat. This was the beginning of their mission, neutralize resistance, take control, and make it suitable for the remainder of the Martians to arrive. This was its constant reminder of its duty, all for the mission.

The Ayngel’s Bell

 

Chapter One:

            3000 feet underground laid a cavern that was transformed into a lab by one of the greatest scientist of that time period. Bleeping lights and flashing noises filled the lab. His machines and gadgets where a symphony of chaos. “Dr. Chase, we’re running out of time. They’ll be here any moment.” Mr. Heddings yelled over his shoulder as he scrambled back and forth around the lab gathering supplies and equipment. “I only need a couple more minutes Heddings. Just a couple more minutes. She’s almost ready.” He leaned over the body of a young woman who was laid out on a cold steel table. Her chest was opened with wires and cables hanging out. Sighing, Mr.Heddings nodded in acceptance and continued packing. He located only the essential blueprints and documents and stuffed them all into a folder as Dr.Chase put final touches on his latest project. He was creating an “angel” as he constantly would refer to it.  She was seemingly human with the exception of a few things. Her internal make up was all wires, chips, and plugs; creatively arranged to be connected to one main motherboard located in the center of her chest. She was a robot glazed in synthetic skin.
            Just as Dr. Chase closed up her chest and locked it with a blue tinted key, the wall in front of them exploded. Smoke and debris from the equipment lined along that wall erupted inward followed by lines of red laser lights. A team of armed men filtered in the room within seconds yelling and pointed their guns towards Chase and Heddings. “Step away from the android!” they yelled as they charged towards them. Chase slid the key into the pocket of the android’s pants just as one of the men grabbed him and threw him to the ground. “What’s our order Alpha?” the man holding down Chase asked. An armed man, noticeably larger than the rest of them, walked in through the hole blown into the wall and looked around. “Extract then dispose the Android. Clean Everything Else.” The man holding down Chase nodded once and then without another second stood and shot him in the head.
            Heddings flinched and looked away from the now lifeless Doctor. “The Ayngel’s Bell will sound... and you all... will rue this day” he mumbled to himself. He stared into the goggles of Alpha with sympathy. “If only you weren’t so stubborn.” Alpha shrugged casually to himself. “If only you weren’t so naive.” In one timeless motion, he raises his gun to Heddings’ forehead and pulls the trigger.

 

Chapter 2:

            I was sitting at the bottom of a hill on the side of the river bank. It was my secret hide out because it was shrouded by shade from the trees and bushes at the top of the hill. I had built a shack down here a couple years back as like an escape from life. I stocked it with everything I needed like food, clothes, a bed, and my tool kit. I was a self proclaimed robot engineer. I tinkered here and there, made little bots to help around, and worked with a team of techs. We hack systems, and screw with the government for a living. The governments been corrupt and working on something big for the couple years. Our plan was to eventually break past their security system and find out exactly what they were planning. 

-Brrrringggg-
My cell phone goes off, breaking my thoughts. 

“ Oh my gosh Lawrence! We need to meet. Like now. KT found activity with the gov’s shadow team.” 

Just as I’m about to respond to the excited voice on the phone, a female body comes tumbling down the hill and topples over the edge of the bank into the river. Reflexes gots the best of me and before I actually realized it, my phone was on the ground and I was jumping into the river after her. Her body floated a couple feet ahead of me, being pulled by the current. The river would get rough if we floated too much further down stream. Kicking a little with my legs I covered the distance between us and caught her by the arm. She was unconscious, but hopefully not dead. I caught hold a large branch handing in the river and with much effort and exertion pulled the two onto land. My body begged me to relax for a moment but my mind was too locked on making sure I didn’t just save dead weight. 

“Hey lady, come on and wake.” 

I pushed down on her chest a couple times but nothing happened. Placing my ear to her chest, I could hear something. It didn’t sound like a normal heart beat but it was something. I scrambled for my phone and called my car. It locked onto our location and with a couple minutes my car came gliding down the hill and spun into a perfect park. The door jutted open and I lifted her into the back seat. Sitting down next to her the doors close and the car’s auto voice asked “Where to, bro?” 

“Nearest Hospital.” 

The car shifted gears then blow up the hill, skidded onto the road, and zoomed off. Horns and yells rang around the car as I sat in the back of the car trying to figure out what to do with the her. After a moment I remembered something I had learned in a health class; CPR. I pushed her silver hair out of her face and leaned down. When I touched my lips to hers there was a sharp electric surge that shoot through me and sent me jutting up and hitting my head on the car roof. “Are you okay?” the car asked me. “Y-yeah. Just focus on the road.” I could feel the car tense and speed up  but then suddenly the car jerked and pulled over to the side. 
“Losing Power. Please remove source of energy loss bro.” 

Pushing down the passenger front seat and climbing into the driver’s seat I pulled open the car’s operating menu. 
“Unknown source of energy lose. Please Remove. Unknown source of energy loss.”

The words scanned across the screen repeatedly as the car’s battery meter continued to drop. “We do not have time for this!” I yelled half at myself and half at the car as I slammed my hands on the wheel. Suddenly from the back of the car there was a loud crashing sound and then a thud. I turned around to see the girl trying to climb out of the back window frantically. I grabbed the side of her leg and pulled her back into the car. 
“Let go!” she screamed and then pressed her back into the door of the car like she was trying to melt through it. Her face was panicked and confused and her eyes were...well... I don’t even know... they were an electric blue color. “Calm it down, k. I just saved your life.” The insides of both her eyebrows creased down and she stared at me intently. “What is going on?” 
I looked at her confused then climbed into the back seat to sit next to her. She was cautious but said nothing. “You came rolling down a hill and went straight into the city’s main river. I saved you’re life. Was taking you towards a hospital but I see you’re fine now.” 
Her body physically relaxes and she stares out my broken car window. “I don’t... remember...anything...” 

I sighed excessively and stared down at the floor of my car. “Look, I have to get...somewhere. Can I drop you off, uhm...” 

“Canta” she said cutting me off. “My name is Canta... Can... I come with you?” 

Her eyes locked to mine and she tilted her head in a way that made her silver hair fall perfectly over half her face. “Please...”

There was no way I could say no so I simply nodded twice. “But we’ll have to walk. Car needs to sit and recharge.” 

We stepped out the car, I turned on the solar panels on the roof of the car, and we headed towards my tech team’s headquarters. 

Chapter 4:

 

It’s been about 2 months since the day I first met Lawrence and his band of rebels. So much has happened. That first day when I met them I knew something was wrong with me. Something was… unnatural. When I had first awakened in Lawrence’s car, it was like I was being electrocuted and overwhelmed with this surging energy. I felt it again when I had touched my fingers to that keyboard in their headquarters. It was like I could link to the systems and feel them; I could physically and emotionally feel them. I told Lawrence about it that night when him and I were alone and he told me not to worry about it. “Don’t worry about anything Canta. We’ll take care of you.”

They made me a room within their hq and despite the fact that it upset the rest of his team, Lawrence took me out every day with him to do different things. Some day’s we’d run errands, other days we’d watch ‘normal’ people living their ‘normal lives’. We lived in a world where humans and robots co existed under a government run by a super computer and three old men. Normal people had families and went to schools and had normal honest jobs. They were, for the most part, oblivious of the world Lawrence and I lived in. We could see things for what they were because we looked at the bigger picture. After looking over the files that we downloaded that first day we realized that the government was creating android, robots that could pass as humans, so that they could use them to infiltrate the other countries and take over. It was a world-wide law passed at the beginning of the AI- robot coexistence Era though, that it was illegal to make a robot that looked and acted human. Anyone caught doing so would be sentenced to life in prison or even death depending on the AI they created. 

As of this moment, Lawrence, his team, and I were the only people who knew exactly what was going on in the core of the Government and we were the only people who could do anything to stop it before it went too far. We had a program called ‘The Ayngel’s Bell’. It was the strongest virus on the planet, designed to totally crumble the government and annihilate all the androids. The Super God Virus Code. It was going to be my job to install the program since out of the five of us, I was the best coder and hack. Over the past two months we’ve been planning our infiltration plans and battle tactics. The one thing we didn’t go over though was the code for the Super God Virus. Last night I finally asked them how exactly they were planning for me to install it. I could hear Harrison and KT’s body stutter and raise a few degrees. I caught the weird jerk in Lawrence’s laugh as he tried to shake off the topic.

“We have all that under control, Canta. Don’t worry about it at all.” Erika said when the boys didn’t speak up right away.

They were hiding something. I couldn’t tell what but from their bodies I knew it was something they thought would be problematic for me to know. I pretended to be clueless, smiled, and said “Okay!” and then walked off to my room to do intense thinking. By now though, Lawrence knew my habits and patterns. The others accepted me dropping the subject but he knew better that that. When I went into my room I could hear them arguing.

“She needs to know the truth! We need to tell her now while we have the time.” Lawrence pleaded.

Erika snorted, like she did often. “We don’t have to tell her anything. We’ll tell her when we get in.”

“Do you not understand how this is going to end? Don’t you think she has a right to know?”

“Right!? She’s a -“

I think they remembered that I could hear them and because Harrison and KT hushed her and the conversation stopped. Lawrence burst in a couple seconds later.

“C’mon. We’re leaving for a while.” He said staring at me. There was something odd in his eyes. Sadness? Maybe worry.

He took my hand and pulled me through the base. Erika was glaring at him, Harrison was giving me a sympathetic look, and KT was doing something on the left desk system, trying to stay out of the situation.

Lawrence led me outside and then let go of my hand and relaxed. “What’s wrong?” I asked trying to piece together everything but my mind just couldn’t connect the dots. He looked at me again with those odd eyes. “Look Canta. I need to tell you something. I don’t care if it upsets any of them. You deserve to know.”

“Know what?”

He gripped my shoulders and stared at me with the most conflicted stare I’d ever encountered. Just as he was about to speak I could hear something shoot off a couple hundred feet away from us. Some deep inner instinct made me push Lawrence to the ground and raise my hand up. Before I could understand to motions, I was holding three bullets in my hand. “What are you-” he began but something inside was telling me we were in a dangerous situation and needed to relocate. I could feel something switch inside of me and then my thought process seemed to increase it’s speed by 100 folds. My mind couldn’t keep up with my motions because within seconds, I was picking up Lawrence, swinging him onto my back and then sprinting off down the pavement. Sounds waltz around me. Barely audible gun fires. I could hear each and every bullet splitting through the air and dodged them with a precision that wasn’t human. Up ahead was a large flight of stairs that lead to a walkway that went through the city’s center. I jumped on the railing and my feet shifted into wheels.

The next thing I knew I was skating down the railing, landing on the ground with sparks on my heels, jerking around a sharp corner, and then speeding down a very steep hill. For some reason I  knew there was tunnel about a 400 feet ahead. My legs swayed faster and for an instant I was flying. Unfortunately, I had gained too much speed and so when I tried to stop in the tunnel I tripped over myself and started to fall. Within the one instant that I was falling though I manage to shift Lawrence infront of me and skidded across the ground on my back. There was an odd smell of burnt rubber and my body felt… damaged. Too much was happening. I laid there, refusing to move until I got a grasp on what exactly was going on.

            Lawrence looked at me, gripped my shoulders like he had the second before all this had started and shook me. “Canta, Canta don’t shut down on me please. Respond.” He talked to me like I was some command system. My eyes shift to meet his. “Canta Respond.” He repeated as he started to lift me. I pulled away from him and stood on my own, ignoring the fact that as I stood the skates on the bottom of my feet retracted. I hugged myself for a moment, afraid that the confusion would tear me apart if I didn’t defend myself from it.  I could hear foot steps back at the stairs about 500 feet off. They didn’t come up as a threat to me even though I could tell they were trying to be. “What... Am I Lawrence?” I turned to look at him and he tried to look away but I caught him but his stubble-haired chin. “What am I?” His eyes averted mine and irritated me. Not paying attention, the hand holding his chin receded and a fine knife took its place. “You will tell me the truth.” I could feel the volume of my voice sharpen as my arm rotated backwards and fired the knife off and into the throat of someone trying to sneak up from behind us.

“You’re the Ayngel’s Bell, Canta.” He mumbled as he stared warily at the dead man behind us. Locking eyes, he continued, “You’re an Android. Built with the Super God Virus in you.”

My brain processed all the information in a second and concluded “You’ve all been using me…You’ve been lying to me all this time just to use me and them get rid of me.” He shakes me once in aggravation. 

“I’ve wanted to tell you. When we realized what you were, what would happen to you once all this was over. I wanted to tell you”

Sudden above us I could hear something coming towards us. Something heavy with propellers. A helicopter. I pulled away from him and went down to the entrance of the tunnel. Looking up I searched for the helicopter. My eyes automatically locked onto it and zoomed in. My arm raised and after a moment I could feel it dislocated, detach, and blast away from me. It shot up towards the helicopter and after a moment exploded. The copter exploded in the air and flaming pieces of metal fell to the ground.

“We need to go. We need to crash the Government’s system tonight.” I said as I walked back to Lwarence’s side. He nodded once and without another word I threw him back on my back and headed back to headquarters. Tonight had to be the night that we do what I was designed to do. I could not stay another day in a lie.

 

Chapter 5:

            Without any warning, Canta and Lawrence came exploding into hq. Erika, Harrison, and KT immediate were woken up. “Let’s go guys. We’re activating Ayngel’s Bell tonight.” Canta said walking over to the right desk and clicking on the tower. Harrison stumbles out of his bed and rushes over to her side. “Woah there Canta, what the problem? We’re not scheduled to attack for at least another week.” Canta stripped down the security systems of the government ‘s made building while she listened to Harrison ramble. “Can’t wait that long. We go in tonight. I just took out all the power in their main building. It should stay down for at least two hours. You guys get me in there and I’ll do the rest.” KT tried to pull her chair away from the desk but Canta’s hand shifts into a gun and points at him. “I’m not asking.”

            Erika looked at Lawrence. “You told her?” Canta shook her head before Lawrence could answer. “Not in this life time. We were attacked. They know where we are, okay. This mission has been compromised. We need to go in now or not at all.”

            KT tilted her gun away from him, afraid she’s accidently fire it off with him standing in front of it. “You don’t even know how to active the Ayngel’s Bell do you?” She let her arm drop and felt through her database. “ I have the capability to active it. I just need to get to the super computer at the center of the central base… You all can stay here if you want but I’m going.” She looked over them as they all processed. The human brain’s thought processing skill was 10 times slower than hers.

“Fine, We’ll go in tonight, but you need to be careful. There will be androids there defending the core.”  Harrison said.

Canta looked up at him and smile “I’m well aware.”

            -To Be Continued. 

I quivered and shook. There was blood drenched in various pools across the cloths that my mother had presented me with when I became of age. This was also the same day my skills had reached their prime and I became the special woman of my village. Unlike most, my power to control the sacred talismans, had developed unusually fast. Along with the three princesses, our world’s moons, the talisman allowed the ability to travel in and out of the present. The gift to control the talisman was a gift that was within only worthy women, the few of them that remained. Although, the other women were forced to wait for the alignment of the moons to begin their journeys through time, I did not. My natural born power allowed me to travel at various cycles of the princesses. However, no matter how special my power was, it only allowed me to venture as far as a few years.

 My father was the only one who had forewarned me of the allurement to disobedience my gift would bring. The temptations urged me to abuse the gift other chosen women did not have. The priestesses, the most powerful of the women, were law and as law they forbade the travel to the past in fear that it would alter the future. The chosen women, such as what I once was, were limited to only the future and to explore what we did not know. As new women were born, the priestesses deemed worthy only few and bound the sacred talismans to them. The power to control them was something that you must posses at birth, it’s in your blood.

The place where my implanted talisman, the key to my venture home, located in the palm of my right hand, was beginning to fade and along with it the flesh that surrounded it to bind it to me. I had disobeyed and I was paying the price. The price that had been only rumored about among the chosen, for no one had ever tempted to do what I had done. I then understood that even the curious ones that may have tried and strayed from altering the future had no key home. Even with all the power flowing through us chosen ones, we are subjected to time like all others without the precious talismans.

Although clear in color, I could see the stone burn with crisps of red and black. It was dying and my chance to return along with it. The pain of the burns made me scream with agony and beg for the princesses to just take the hand in whole. Soon, there was nothing left but a hole, a permanent reminder of just what I scarified.  

“Priestesses of Uriel, please, save my fate and grant me the power to return to my origin!” I begged to nobodies.

I pleaded for another alignment but alas the three princesses of our world had not yet been created and for all that I knew they would never be created due to my presence. I had tampered with the balance and was destined to be here, in the past, for, what appeared to be, the rest of my life force. I was stuck in an ancient world; one much like my own but was surrounded not by moons but instead plasma and stars. One detail in particular made me especially curious if not fearful of this world; it had a star brighter than any star that had lived in my world. The star was burning, ending its life, I imagined, but not even the death of any of our large stars could compare to the light that radiated from this time’s star.

I redirected my attention from the emptiness in my palm to the streaks of pure heating energy, skewed once more to a haze in the far distance of the sands. The desert that I had landed into when I made my venture was visibly dense containing grains and tiny unscathed pebbles and met the sky at every border. The haze, foggy and mysterious, crept out from behind a sand dune and almost hovered in my direction. With the sand’s unique abundance of purple quartz, I began to recognize this desert as the desert of Aliquam, a desert infamous in my time for it’s luxurious treasures and stones. In my time, however, there was not such an extraordinary source of the stones.

I wrapped my hand, now numb with constant heat, in a patterned sash that my father weaved for me when I was still a youngling. I screeched in utter agony as I pulled it tighter to prevent further bleeding. The blur, once so far in the distance, had made its way to only but a short distance from me. I saw what could be none other than a man, strong and balanced, that walked with such grace that it was as if he were walking on stone instead of caving sand. His wisps of hair slapped around through the fog of air and sand particles.

As he approached me I observed his hands, they appeared as if molded by clay, his entire body had this resemblance. His face, a beautiful mix of lone and wild, only implied other speculations of who he really was. His strange presence tickled my imagination the way not even this forsaken time had once done. I knew not a name but a legend of this creature that was rumored to be born of the sands it self.

“ Why do you travel in this desert? This is the desert of Aliquam and I forbid those who seek petty jewels for mere appearance. Speak your title or my hand shall be forced to steal your life force from your body and spill blood on these already drenched sands.”

  He spoke gently but I could note the piercing fierceness in his tone. He underestimated my persistence and sheer impatience at that point. Disappointingly, I was all but ignorant to this type of being, despite the legends.

“ Peasant,” my voice crackling still rattled with subdued pain, “ you are unknowing of my abilities and my uniqueness among women. I am not who you believe I am to be. I am not an enemy to this time, I am a victim.”

            He stood like stone only but a few steps in front of me, in clear view of my steady drip of blood and yet was not phased, affected, or concerned in the least bit. Although, I didn’t expect much of a reaction to my self inflicted misfortune. He responded contrary to how I believed a warrior would act.

“ Leave.”                                                                                                                                                                                           

With that he turned and walked with such grace it made me stare in awe, never had I seen a man with such pose.

“Wait!”

 I swiftly moved to grab for him and surprisingly for his lack of distance from my reach he managed to evade me and had disappeared from sight.

“ My vision must be deceiving me he must not have been…”

He was gripping the wrist that acted as a passage of blood flow to the empty palm. In that instance I felt nothing but anguish and the instinct to reach for my dagger concealed under my cloths beside my hip. I struck, and missed. The air but only made a hissing sound as the blade sliced through the spot where he was standing only a moment ago.

“ How do you manage to move so swiftly?”, I questioned.

He replied but left himself cloaked or hidden, unsure but surely he was not visible to my eyes.

“ I am not. I am here with you. I wish not to hurt you. Injured as you are you pose no threat to me and any battle will end with haste”

“ Present yourself. Only the sly cower and disappear.”

I threateningly said but the confidence was a mere façade.

Making himself known, he came forth.

“ My name is Abeo. I am a child of these sands and firstly protector of its existence. If have come to posses their crystals for your greed you shall be vanquished at my hand.”

“I wish you and your giver no harm. I am from a foreign world, a different time and place. By my own doing I am now apart of this world and wish only to coexist if no other option of returning home presents itself. My name is Adalia.”

“Adalia, why have you traveled to this world if residing was not a desire?”

I stood my position although I was visibly swayed by the question. It was a question I had never once thought to ask myself. Suddenly, without warning, Abeo drew his blade and stood on guard, his eyes were peering at something in the distance behind me. I turned to face the place of his focus and I began to see what he saw. There was thousands, an army of men. When I turned to face him with questioning eyes I saw another strip of men lining the horizon where the sky met the desert.

“Abeo, what is this? What knowledge have you had of this?”

“Nothing of the sort of treachery your tone accuses me of. These are greedy men having war for power. Leave, now.”

“If you are not my enemy and here we are both victims, I shall stay and fight. I do not cower like most women.”

He grabbed at the sand beside his feet and although there was nothing but grains that initially slipped through his fingers he picked something of solid matter. He tossed me the blade and regaining my composer, I stood with him and waited for the catalyst that inevitably changed what I knew about the world forever.

 

           

 

https://dl-web.dropbox.com/get/%20spanish/Spanish%20Interview.m4v?w=7e2e408f

https://dl-web.dropbox.com/get/Public/My%20First%20Project.mov%20%28iPod%20%26%20iPhone%29.m4v?w=07700f63

Lupe De Jesus

Spanish Script

 

La Preguntas:

Hábleme de usted.

¿A dónde fuiste a la escuela secundaria y la universidad?

1. ¿Qué puede traer para la empresa?

2. ¿Qué tu tienes que es diferente de los otros?

3. ¿Donde trabajaste antes?

4. ¿Si usted tiene una de las principales en español porque está aplicando aquí?

5. ¿Por qué eligió el diseño gráfico y el español como su mayores?

6. ¿Puede trabajar bien con los demás?

7. ¿ En que es mejor en la comercialización o diseño?

 

Ella-Mi momma

Lupe- Yo

 

Ella : Hola

Yo : Hola

 

Ella : ¿Como estas Señor  De Jesus?

Yo : Bien.

 

Ella :Hábleme de usted.

Yo : Me llamo Lupe De Jesus. Tengo veinte uno años. Vivo en Filadelfia.

 

Ella :¿A dónde fuiste a la escuela secundaria y la universidad?

Yo : Yo fui a Science Leadership Academy, una escuela para bio química. Yo fui a la Universidad de Ohio para Español y el Diseño Gráfico. Tengo mi maestro en Mercadeo.

 

Ella :  ¿Qué puede traer para la empresa (Trill)?

Yo : Yo puedo traer mucho, como creatividad y cosas diferente para las personas.

 

Ella : ¿Qué tu tienes que es diferente de los otros?

Yo : Yo soy diferente porque yo tengo expiernca en diseño y en español. Tambien yo tengo muchos ideals para la ropa.

 

Ella : ¿Donde trabajaste antes?

Yo : Yo trabaje en el Instituto de Arte de Filadelfia. Y programas de mercadeo online.

 

Ella :¿Si usted tiene una de las principales en español porque está aplicando aquí?

Yo : Porque el español mi puede ayudar en el diseño. Pero el diseño es mas intersente

 

 

Ella : ¿Por qué eligió el diseño gráfico y el español como su mayores?

Yo : Porque mi mommas me anima en español. Y el diseño es como yo diferente.

 

 

Ella: . ¿Puede trabajar bien con los demás?

Yo: Si pero si yo soy la nuca trabajando no me gusta porque y no puede hacer lo todo.

 

Ella : ¿ En que es mejor en la comercialización o diseño?

Yo : Soy mejor en el diseño porque mi momma me ensenyo

 

Peer-editor	Fecha	Comentarios / Recomendaciones
1. Rosalinda	1/11/12	It was a very good rough copy. Just speak up louder but other than that it was great!! <3
2. Tito	1/12/12	Good job.
3. Merceds	1/11/12	Did very well, good answers and questions.
4. Anita	1/11/12	You did very well, especially your grammar.
5. Margarita	1/12/12	I like the way you did the responses. Very well put and good questions. Did a good job J

 

​ Soy Heather Campbell. Soy de Central de Cuidad de Filadelfia.  La Mural es creada por el barrio de Central de Cuidad. El nombre por la mural es ‘Viva de la Cuidad.’ La comunidad es en el centro de los museos, empresas, tiendas, comida i cultura. En 1682, Filadelfia fondó por William Penn. En la era de colonial Filadelfia tuvo un importante parte en la historia de los Estados Unidos. En 19 siglo la cuidad fue el puerto mas activad y tuve el habitantes mas grandes tan otro cuidad. La creciente habitantes y empresas fueron significativa para la construcción de el horizonte de la ciudad. La ciudad y horizonte de la ciudad seguido para crecer en 20 siglo. Para 21 siglo Central de Cuidad fue muy diverso en cultura y habitantes. Central de Cuidad es un mejor y grande cuidad en los Estados Unidos. La Central de Cuidad es la case de mucho de historia, cultura, empresas, vida en Filadelfia.

La mural es de la horizonte de la ciudad de Filadelfia. La horizonte de la ciudad simboliza el crecimiento de Filadelfia en habitantes, cultura, y industria. Los edificios y rascacielos son icónico del Central de Ciudad de Filadelfia. Vive en la ciudad es un movimiento por cambio y evolución en la futura. La horizonte de la ciudad conta la historia de la ciudad y lo progreso. La mural es diseñada a empoderar la comunidad del Central de Ciudad a continuar progresando y mejora por la futura, por una futura mejor. La bandera verde en la parte superior con expresión ‘Viva de La Cuidad’ es hecha a inspirar la comunidad en su intento a será respetuoso medio ambiente y moderno. El propósito de la mural es representar la belleza y ambición de la cuidad y comunidad. El color verde representa una nueva página y moda en Filadelfia sobre ser respetuoso del medio ambiente y derechos humanos. Los colores en el horizonte de la ciudad es muy vívido pero natural y realística. Los colores deben inspirador las personas que verlo.

En mi opinión arte público es más importante porque lo hace no pensar. Tanto grafiti, murales, y todos arte público es muy importante. Todos arte público conta la historia de una país. Yo pienso que mi mural conta la historia y la futura de el barrio. Yo pienso que la mural es muy sencillo pero efectivo. La mural es no ridículo y desordenado pero muy sencillo, y para que, me gusta.

 

 

Juan Rivera

  El mural se trata de un sueno de el barrio, si tienes un sueno puedes hacer cosas buenas y grandes para tener un vida mas mejor que la vida pobre. Todos de nosotros tiene o teníamos un sueno para ser algo grande para hacer dinero suficiente para la familia de nosotros. El mural es para dar los personas en el barrio un chance para ver que cambio es mejor que hacer lo mismo cosas que los personas están haciendo.

            El mural es un retrato de un niño dormido en una cama teniendo un sueno de los cosas el querré hacer cuando el es un adulto. El barrio esta en mala condición hoy en día y esta mural es para ver lo que pueden hacer para ser mujer en su vida. En el barrio no ay mucho cosa bueno. Ay drogas, violencia, y personas malas. Pero el mural puede cambiar la vida de mucha personas. Si ellos ven que todo es posible ellos pueden hacer mejor y tener un vida buena .

            Sueños son cosas muy grande que unos saben perseguir lo, unos saldría de los sueños. Unos veces nosotros tenemos que hacer sacrificio para hacer la imposible. Los colores tiene que ser brillante por que es un mural de algo muy claro y grande no solamente para usted o yo pero para el mundo entero. Dicen que un mural puede hacer un barrio ser mejor que estaba. Tiene un significado para todos lo que viven ay lado y también para lo que pasan en el barrio. 

Sasha Sapp

1/12/12

English Q2BM

Final

 Slums

The sound of quick steps splashing through thick, mucky puddles caught the ears of grey silhouettes moaning agonizingly, at dusk. They jerked painfully towards the footsteps increasing in speed and with animalistic growls they tried to communicate with what they knew was a person from “the world”. The world of which they wish they could return; but their jagged movements and inability to stand thwarted these futile thoughts; their distorted faces and contaminated existence prevented them from returning.

            Though nonetheless, they stirred like the starving animals that they were perceived as by humans, for fragments of humanity was lost when the Third Flash hit.

            As the bodies in the once great city of Azeroth vacillated erratically, the footsteps stopped. Axus scanned the denaturalized landscape in search of one figure in particular. She furrowed her brows; squinting violet eyes at the general area where the young slum girl usually had lain. Where could she be? She thought perplexingly. She knew that the girl could barely move a few centimeters without howling in pain, so the idea of her trying shift somewhere else was out of the question. After looking around the general area of the wasteland, Axus reluctantly continued toward the warehouse while trying her hardest to ignore the shrieks and deathbed moans that penetrated her non-gas tight suit.  After all, the suit was designed to lockout contamination. Yet presently, Axus began to wonder if the suits should also be sound proof; she wondered if the tightness in her heart was a contamination of their wails.

 

            She reached the oxidized steel doors of the warehouse, and stood above a circular pod that dropped her below once it recognized her Vitanumber. Sliding down the shoot for about 3 seconds, she landed in the Abeochamber- the area that neutralized any toxins that settled on the outside of her suit. She released a great sigh as she removed her facemask and as the near suffocating body suit dropped to the floor and revealed her petite frame. Glancing momentarily at her reflection, she quickly threw on some loose slacks and a blouse. Suddenly, a low whistle caught her ear, and the sound grew closer and closer to her. She realized that it was Videi coming down the shoot- Yukan had damn near lived in the warehouse recently, so it couldn’t be him.

            Confirming her hunch, Videi landed gracefully with his knees slightly bent, and flashed a goofy grin at Axus.

            “Salve Axus,” he greeted in his usual cheery tone, “I- oh, you don’t look so well today, are you lacking supplements?” His deep blue eyes flashed with worry for a moment as he inquired her present state.

            “I thank you for the concern, but I’m quite alright Videi- greetings to you as well- it’s just that…” Axus habitually swept choppy brown locks away from her face and inhaled as she continued, “I can’t seem to find Elvira…I haven’t a clue of where she could have gone! Hell, she can’t turn on her rib-exposed belly without releasing the most horrifying shrill!” It hadn’t occurred to her that she was practically shouting at him, but her worry overcame her. Internally, Videi shrugged in annoyance. He didn’t know what the hell was the point about caring for a slum girl! She was bound by death! Her fate was sealed along with the crash of the Third Flash! As much as he loved her, he didn’t agree with her infatuation with that creature. But that mattered not, because she loved Yukan.

After dressing himself, and shooting her an even more worried look he replied, “I don’t know what to tell ya Ax, but honestly, we have more important things to tend to right now.” She would have been taken back by the seemingly heartless remark, but she knew Videi, and she knew that he was right.

“You’re absolutely right Videi,” she said weakly, “We must speak with Yukan! It’s been an entire month and he’s been down here doing God knows what!” After scanning their Vitanumbers, giant doors slid open, leading the researchers into the main branch of Likon. The dimly lit, dome-like lab consisted of thousands of machinery, constantly creating an unintentional mockery of the human heartbeats, with the buzzing and beeping of monitors. Videi sat at his computer and brought up a projection of the present state of the universe. He made a sharp intake of breath before relaying what he saw.

“Axus” he whispered as she cautiously turned in his direction. She could feel her face growing pale just at the possibilities of what he could say. Seconds later he finally spoke, “we’ve got less than 100 light years until the Fouth Flash.”

A hushed silence swept threw the room and Axus felt paralyzed in it. She wanted nothing more than to try to better the conditions on Earth, which is why she joined Likon a few years ago. Videi felt her strong distress in that second, and suddenly felt that same wave of sorrow crash over him- but for a more sinister reason. He wanted to comfort Axus, but for some reason, a different word choice crawled out from his mouth.

            “Axus, we are Likon. We are dozens of underground, slum dwelling researchers who share one common trait: we are hell bent on preventing this destruction yet again. We are here to try to ensure protection to the best of our abilities, and that’s all. No matter what it takes, we must protect our race. Take Yukan for example. Yeah the guy has lived here for a month, but he is head researcher. We better be happy that he does most of the work for us!” His chuckles were cut short by the low creak of a much older door opening slowly. A deep, baritone voice emerged from the darkness.

            “Glad that I can be of help to you Videe” started the deep voice, “Worry not Axus, hope is found yet again.” Axus stared in amazement at Yukan. His uncanny ability to function normally as a time like this was astounding. It was one of the many reasons that she loved him. The splashes of grey in his hair lit up when light was shone upon it only reinforced the obvious attraction that Axus had for him. She approached him warmly and tried to catch her professional mask before it slipped away.

            “Yukan! We’ve been worried sick about you! For an entire month, the lead researcher at Likon disappears! More importantly, whatever you have been doing, you haven’t bothered to even cue Videi and I in on it! We’re your partners, and we have been so for four years now! Yukan please! No Secrets!” her words seemed to have merely scrapped the exterior of Yukan. He had very deterministic ways. Nonetheless, he smiled while placing a calloused hand on her slender shoulder.

            “Of couse my dear Axus, no more secrets,”

            Her same weak smile appeared on her face at the moment. She felt…strange. It was like the pit of her stomach was boiling and the heat traveled to her heart. Something was off. She shoved it off for the moment as the 3 proceeded through the lab casually, even laughing lightly at minor jokes being tossed around. Like their jokes about the near crumbling ozone layer they helped repair by recapturing the lost nitrogen and oxygen molecules. Or even their pretentious attitudes towards the past usage of coal for energy. She noted how passionate the two men became when it came to this subject. They bashed and badmouthed the ancestors for not being more innovative, and remarked that solar energy should have been the first energy alternative when humans could even process this idea. According to Yukan, he would’ve changed the entire world if he had been born during that time period.

  Though, with all the lighthearted small talk being thrown around the room that same feeling welled inside of her once more. As if a parasite had been eating away at her innards…that’s how she felt; as if slowly and steadily, they gnawed at her major organs making her feel hollow.

            She knew what it was; she knew why this hollow feeling was surfacing in her. Throwing suspicious glances at her partners, Axus slowly paced around them as she finally spoke.

            “Something…something is wrong,” Videi and Yukan immediately snapped their heads upwards and gaped at her intensely. Habitually, she swept her shabby bangs away from her face. Inhaling sharply, she continued, “Videi, you just said that we were less then 100 light years away from the Fourth Flash and now…you’re so calm. Yukan, you’ve been hiding away from for one month, one month! We return, and you act as if nothing has happened or even changed. And moments ago, you just mysteriously said ‘hope is found yet again’. What exactly do you mean Yukan? I just have a terrible feeling that something is horribly wrong!” Once more, she found herself near shouting. Yukan and Videi exchanged confirming looks at one another, signaling that it was time. This did not go unseen buy Axus, who was now looking with bewilderment at the two men before her. Yukan approached Axus sternly, sighing as he did so. He knew…he knew from the start that Yukan would be against him completely. But you love me don’t you? I can see it in your eye’s Axus; you will not oppose me. 

            “Axus…come with me. It is true; I promised that there would be no more secrets between us. Come now, you want to see what I have been up to for the past month? I will show you,” He grabbed her hand and led her to the outmost test room located in the lesser used part of lab- Test Area C. The cylindrical pod scanned their Vitanumbers allowing them entrance. Upon entering, simultaneously a dozen lights bright lights flashed, one immediately following the other, guiding their eyes to a massive hourglass-like machine with what appeared to be an entity hovering inside of it. Walking in closer to the machine, Yukan began to speak.

            “Axus, you know this machine before you. It is one of most powerful devices on Earth- Model Dergon 90Y1- or better known as the Energy Harnesser,” they finally reached the base of the machine, when Axus could now see tubes transferring the black aura to a much smaller Energy Harnesser adjacent to it. She gasped realizing what was in the smaller harnesser. It was the power of the Flash. Yukan observed her gaze and continued on.

            “As you know Axus, the Third Flash, much like the Second, and the Infamous First, are accumulations of the photon particles being released from the sun. But as we’ve witnesses first hand, these photon particles have wiped out vast civilizations across the face of the earth, and the surrounding areas experienced the backlash of the rays- resulting in their terrible deformities, and the denaturalization of the terrain. I’ve studied the behavior of the photon particles. And to cut to the chase- they can be counter acted-” He paused when he heard sharp gasp.

            “It’s true? You’ve found a way to counter act the particles? How,- oh! It must be this energy that you are harnessing! What is it?!” She waited anxiously for an answer- though she felt as like she answer you would receive, would be one that she would oppose to her grave.

            “Much to your dismay Axus,” he caught Videi’s eyes once more, and went on, “the energy that I have discovered that will counter the power of the photon rays…is the power of human energy.”

            Axus’ eyes widen to the point where she felt it was possible for them to pop out of the sockets. She didn’t understand...How could he harness human energy? It was wrong!

            “Yukan! How could you! Humans! Why! We are here to protect our race! Not to take innocent lives! I don’t undestand!” she cried furiously. Yukan’s eyes flared red for a second- he had lost.

            “Axus, my dear. This is the only way. There must be sacrifices to be made if you want to prevent the Fourth Flash. More importantly, the specimen that I used was just a creature of the slums. Not a person, so worry not- although, I’m aware that for foolish reasons, you still oppose me”

            Axus stopped breathing in that moment. Her heart ached, and her stomach felt as though it was disintegrating inside of her. The taste of hatred swelled in her mouth.

She was bemused by the words that Yukan spoke. Then she lost control. Thorwoing her arms in the air like she was mad, she began,

            “Have you too turned you back on humanity, Yukan! Yes they may be deformed, but they are still humans! How dare you dehumanize them! -“ Yukan interjected before she continued.

            “Don’t act as if you are the savior of the slum people, Axus. Don’t let conceit get the best of you. You cannot save them. They are doomed for death. The young creature whose energy I am harvesting will save us all, I just need at least of all of the bodies from the slums, and then we can completely counteract the Fourth Flash! Don’t you see!” he paced swiftly as he spoke, “THIS WILL SAVE HUMANTIY!” He stopped once again, and saw her sobbing, “Poor Axus, you have too much love to give. You give it to these slum people, when indeed; their sacrifice will save us. In fact, you have no reason to love them any longer. The one that you loved has made the greatest sacrifice of all.”

            Just when she thought she couldn’t sob harder, she did so. She realized that the black floating entity that was being harnessed was Elvira. She fell to floor. She wondered, when had the world become so cruel? Yet to her dismay, you knew that she could not save the people of the slums. She knew that even if they could prevent the Fourth Flash, they would still suffer. But…even so, treating them like animals to be proceeding was the most morally unjust thing that she could contemplate. Yet, she saw for herself; the power countered photon rays. This is what I joined Likon for, is it not? I wanted to save the world, and now I can, she thought sickeningly.

            The two men just stared in pity at the woman before them. When you finally stood up, she waked over to the machine and hugged it tightly.

            “I’m so sorry Elriva,” she muttered, “I won’t allow your death to go in vain.”

 

            Looking upon the slums the three researchers gazed over the land, as it was now pitch black. Axus stared blankly and realized that she would physically and mentally be walking into the darkness. Yet, it was for the sake of the world right? She kept that thought in mind as the three researchers began cultivating the "creatures" of the slums in the night. 

 

 

 

           

           

           

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Me llamo Whitney y soy de oeste Filadelfia. Mi comunidad es pequeño pero tiene mucho cambos. En 1856, Oeste Filadelfia tiene un festival que celebraba la 100 aniversario del firmada del declaración de independencia . Oeste Filadelfia tendrían el primer zoológico en los Estados Unidos. En Mayo, 1985 la policía de Filadelfia arrojaría una bomba a una casa a 6200 Osage Calle y asesinado cinco gente de la organización de MOVE. Universidad de Penn, y Drexel Universidad dan mucho estudiantes y otro gente a Oeste Filadelfia. En 2010, la populación de Oeste Filadelfia era 250,433 gente. Mucho gente de el populación están morenos y rubios. Oeste Filadelfia tiene sentimiento diferente que otro partes de Filadelfia. La índice de crimen es mas alto pero los ciudadanos no permitan eso efecto ellos. Oeste Filadelfia esta separa en cuatro partes para la policía. El titilo de mi mural es “Oeste.”

 

En mi mural, Yo tengo las palabras “ Oeste Filadelfia.” Los palabras es en dos formas. Por ejemplo, “Oeste” esta en los piezas de Scabble. “Filadelfia” esta escribe en graffiti. Los dos maneras relacionan con la época actual. Una vez durante el año, Colegio de Oeste Filadelfia tiene un competición de Scrabble. Graffiti es una grande problema en Oeste Filadelfia pero no significa graffiti es feo o no arte. Yo tengo los códigos de arias para Oeste Filadelfia. Mi mural tiene la forma de Oeste Filadelfia y la populación también. Un grande parte de me mural es la sección que dice “MOVE” con un bomba que representa la letra “O”. Por último, yo tengo un tren porque SEPTA es more importante a las vidas de Oeste Filadelfia y los otros partes de Filadelfia. La tema de “Oeste” es capturar los partes importante de las vidas de Oeste Filadelfia. Solamente tengo dos mensajes, darse cuenta de las partes de historia de su comunidad y darse cuenta de donde su vivas.

 

En mi opinión, el sentido de arte publico es representar historia, traducir los sentimientos, y exponer emoción. Mi mural representa mi opinión de el sentido de arte publico. Yo represento historia, yo traduzco mi sentimientos de Oeste Filadelfia, y yo expongo emoción con los colores. Mi mural es arte porque cuando la gente expongamos emoción y mostramos un situación o ellos con papel, pintura, un voz, o palabras, esta arte. En mi opinión, mi mural tiene muchos partes linda. Pero un otro vez,  necesitó mas partes a describir que es adentro Oeste Filadelfia. Me gusta me mural.  

Should There Be Hope?

 

I feel like I’ve been with her before. Vividly I can picture her in my mind, yet she still seems so foreign. This plan cannot fail; I don’t know how much longer I can go without assuring my motherin’s existence.

“Elisa! Elisa!” my fatherin screamed over the intercom breaking my thoughts.

“ Yes fatherin?” I replied

“Antonion is here for you…”

Before he completed his sentence I was in front of the door unlocking it. I hadn’t seen Antonion all weekend and craved his presence. I dragged him up to my room before I said anything. When we reached the room he was flustered.

“ Um…Harty Elisa…” he greeted me in-between breaths.

“ Sorry I’m just very anxious, I haven’t seen you all weekend.”

“Yeah I know, I missed you. But what is this plan that you want to inform me of?”

At that moment Antonion gave me his full and undivided attention. I explained how I couldn’t go any longer without my motherin and how much I yearned to have one moment with her. I poured my heart out to him and he took the time to listen. For this I am greatful.

“ So are you going to go with me?”

“Anything to support you.”

The plan is to leave early in the morning without my fatherin catching us. Then we will head North to Nerm where my aunt lives. I haven’t spoken to let alone seen her since childhood but hopefully she will be able to tell me a little about my motherin, enough for me to start a search for her.

The anxiety stressed my mind enough to keep me up for half of the night. Eventually I trekked downstairs to find something calming to drink. With my back turned to entrance I heard footsteps. Slowly I turned around to find my fatherin standing in the doorway.

“How are you down here but I heard movement in your room?” he questioned me.

 

“Well um..” I stammered.

 

“ I know you and Antonion are planning something so it would be best if you told me now then waiting for me to find out myself which requires me to go through your belongings. Sit.”

 

“I guess I have no choice to be honest…You know fatherin as I get older I begin to wonder about my motherin. I mean I can’t go through life without knowing she is out there somewhere and she cares about me.”

 

My father gave a loud sigh, “ I’ve been preparing myself for this conversation. The story is extremely complicated.”

 

“ I’m willing to listen…” I urged him on.

 

“ Your motherin made a great sacrifice for her family. Your greatmotherin died a few months after your motherin was born. Because your motherin was so young the line of rule was past to another family. To get the line of rule back to her family, your motherin made a big decision.”

 

“Fatherin please get to the point. Where is she?”

 

“ Elisa you are her.” He mumbled.

 

“ For a second I thought you said I am her.” I chuckled a little knowing that isn’t possible what he said.

 

“ Elisa that is what I said”

 

“Wait how is that possible? How can we be the same person?”

 

“Elisa when you made a big sacrifice for your family. I know you don’t understand that right now but in the future it will become clear. I’m here as a support to show you what you have to do in order to get your families rights back.”

 

“ So you are not my real fatherin? ” I replied utterly confused

 

“ No I’m not.”

            En mi barrio, la mayoría de la gente son Puertorriqueños. Vivo en el norte de Filadelfia y el mural que e creado es maravilloso por muchas razones. Los propósitos de este mural serán que mi comunidad se beneficiara del mural, tendremos una comunidad mas unida y también muchas de las  personas podrán parar o pasar por ese mural y poder sonreír. Tendremos menos grafiti en nuestra region de la ciudad.

            En la comunidad en que quiero pintar el mural tiene mucha influenza. Quiero pintar el mural esta ubicado en un Puente que pasa por la calle 2 y Clearfield. El Puente es usado para caminar y para carros pasando por la calle.

Debajo de esa forma de arte publico había un tren que pasaba pero ahorra hay gente sin hogar que abusan de las drogas. Pienso que mucha gente no saben lo que esta pasando abajo del tren pero los que lo saben lo ocultan. Me contaron que hasta los policías saben que están de abajo del Puente pero no hacen nada para ayudar a los hombres que viven en ese lugar y después terminan abusando de las mujeres que pasaban por el Puente de noche.

            Ahorra mas que nunca el barrio a donde vivo necesita una imagen para que la comunidad se alegre. En mi comunidad, mucha gente vive como una familia y se consideran familia por que se an conocido por mucho tiempo. En el barrio adonde vivo, hay mucho grafiti. No creo que es una forma de arte publico si no vandalismo. El barrio perdió algunos miembros que apreciaban eternamente. Mi mural tiene flores que representa la felicidad de cada persona que vive en el barrio. Este mural va a traer mucha felicidad. Mi mural tiene mucho sentido por que cuando lo ves, vas a ver que tiene dos caminos. El camino largo y el corto.

El camino largo va a traer muchas flores para la gente y también va a enseñar como mi barrio tiene muchas cosas que la gente no reconoce. Flores blancas para las almas inocentes que están el cielo. Flores de diferentes colores para ofrecerle a nuestra madre divina de la providencia María. Le ofrecemos las flores para ayudarnos a estar sanos y también nos ayuda estar mas seca de dios para que nos proteja siempre. Cuando el barrio vea este mural van a inmediatamente ver que somos una comunidad no que tenemos que estar separados si no unidos. El segundo camino es muchas flores rotas. Ese camino representa alas cosas que no debemos de hacer. Un camino corto pero malo. Si lo comparas con el camino largo, vas a ver que el camino corto no te va a traer felicidad sino al contrario te va a traer muchos problemas en la vida. En lugar de marcas feas, debemos de tener un mural que le guste a todo el barrio.

Por eso es que debe de haber un mural en mi comunidad. El mural tiene mucho proposito, le va a traer felicidad y tranquilidad a la comunidad y tambien nos va a enseñar una leccíon importante.

​Preguntas:

 ¿Cuál es su nombre?

·      Mi nombre es Rosalinda Maddox

¿Cuántos años tienes?

·      Yo tengo dieciséis años.

¿Dónde fuiste a la universidad?

·      Yo fue Universidad de Delaware y Universidad de filadelfia.

¿Cuál es su grado?

·      Tengo un doctorado en bioquímica y una maestría en cosmetología.

¿Dónde trabajó antes?

·      Yo trabaje como voluntario en la Universidad de Temple. Tambien, yo trabaje en el laboratorio.

¿Por qué tu quiere traer para la compañía?

·      Porque yo soy inteligente y muy creativa.

¿Cúal es sus especialidades?

·      Me especializo en la ciencia y la química. También me especializado en productos para el cabello.

¿Por qué son importantes?

·      Yo so importante, por que soy bueno en comunicación y socialización.

 

Peer-editor	Fecha	Comentarios / Recomendaciones
1. Pepita	1/12/12	I like how you pronounce your words. I can understand everything your saying , and it makes sense to me. I would say just try to look more confident because what your saying could be correct to.
2. Margaíita	1/11/12	Your video was very very good, and your spanish sounds very fluent! Maybe during the parts where you see the questions appear you could have a little music or something just so it stands out more' or someone actually saying it as the words appear.  Also make sure your video is a little louder.
3. Lupe	1/12/12	Did very well, I think the way you described your answers are good. Job well done J
4. Jesús	1/12/12	I liked your presentation. Just work on the sound of your voice. Other than that, it was good
5. Anita	1/11/12	It was a good project and you pronounced your words really good. I think that it’s a great start to the final copy.

 

 

 

 

 

Hola mi nombre es Ryan. Yo vivo en Nicetown, Philadelphia. Mi mural ubicado en Butler y Smedley st. La mayoría de personas en mi barrio son africanas americanas. Mi barrio tiene algunos personas de razas diferentes pero es un pequeño número de personas. En el pasado, Nicetown tenía muchos campesinos y herreros de Europeos. Además, Nicetown tenía muchas fábricas de acero. Las fábricas eran muy útil de la comunidad sin embargo las fábricas no pueden funcionar en el presente. Ahora, personas blancas no viven en Nicetown. Así lo veo, en el presente yo no pienso que mi barrio tiene una sensación muy positivo desde mi punto de vista. Muchas personas en mi barrio no son cariñosos con sus barrio. Yo creo que eso, porque yo veo basura todos los días en los calles o las acercas a veces. El titulo de mi mural es “El paz y la violencia en armonía.” Yo creo que mi mural simboliza los dos temas muy profundos de Nicetown, en mi opinión. Los temas están religión y la violencia en Nicetown. En mi barrio yo veo y escucha sobre de mucha violencia de pistolas y drogas en barrio pero por el otro lado, mi barrio tiene muchas iglesias también. Como lo veo yo es el religión es un cosa muy importante de personas en mi barrio. Además, yo veo que es muy interesante que religión puede existir con mucha violencia. Mi pieza demuestra como los temas puede existir con juntos. El cruz en mi pieza represente el religión de Cristianismo porque es religión muy popular en mi barrio. El cruz simboliza felicidad, y unión con el gente, entonces la violencia simboliza el odio y los delitos de drogas o pistolas. En el interior de el cruz, hay fotos de armas y drogas a apoyar el tema de violencia. Como yo lo entiendo es mi barrio es muy similar a el mundo. El mundo tiene los símbolos de paz (U.N., UNICEF) por otro lado, el mundo tiene símbolos de violencia también (las guerras). El propósito de mi mural es a demostrar que los dos temas de paz y violencia existen todos partes. Yo quiero mi arte ser el opuesto de el vandalismo y el graffiti en my barrio. Yo pienso que el papel de arte público es a demostrar las influencias en su barrio. Otro propósito es para personas que estar en contra de el gobierno. Una muralista de Banksy de Inglaterra, es un muralista muy controvertida y sus obras represente las cosas polémicas en el gobierno de Inglaterra. El arte público puedo ayudar los problemas en su barrio también. Si un barrio fuera terrible, encargarían un mural a ayudar el barrio ser una comunidad que juntos.