AncilI connected the swing with the metal ball, causing it to spiral out of control. We made a run for the huge hole in the wall, but as we reached, ten other metal balls blocked our path. We turned and tried to run through the front door, but another large group of metal balls blocked our path. We were trapped. We all stood in the middle of the living room, paralyzed with fear and confusion. The metal balls all closed in on us. A few of the metal balls were dressed up in weird costumes. Some of the metal balls had bunny ears, some had Mickey Mouse ears, and some were even dressed in cute little trousers that hung from the bottom half of the ball. Only a small few had costumes on. There was one that had a small circular shaped suit and tie around the bottom. Was this a joke?
“That was not cool, bloke. Not cool at all,” said a voice emanating from the metal ball that I had hit with the frying pan. The voice of the metal ball had a British accent, and as it spoke, the plastic area in the middle of it blinked green. “You almost corrupted my circuit board.”
We were all a bit confused except Melanie. She couldn’t hold back herself from laughing at the accent. She obviously wasn’t accustomed to hearing people speak in a British accent, so it seemed funny to her.
“What’s so funny?” The same metal ball asked in the same British accent.
Melanie just kept on laughing.
“What is this?” I asked. “I mean, who are you?”
“My name is Ray Carter. I’m a British journalist for the International Broadcasting Company,” the metal ball said. “And these other folks around me are my workmates.”
“Nice to meet you all,” I said.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you all as well. We were beginning to lose hope that there were any survivors in the city,” Ray Carter said. “By the way, who are you, fine folks?”
We all introduced ourselves, and after we did, Ray Carter and all his workmates said “hey” all at the same time. It was kind of freaky the way they did it.
“Are you all humans?” I asked.
“We are all humans stuck in a little ball. Right now, I’m home in my office, controlling this little thingamabob here. It’s quite awesome if you think about it,” Ray Carter answered.
It was quite cool. The technology around the world was so advanced to a point where I couldn’t really logically come up with explanations of how things worked. I had no idea how the metal balls were even floating, let alone talking. It looked like magic.
“Do you mind if we interview you on live television?” Ray Carter asked.
We all agreed, Megan was hesitant to agree, but Rajiv convinced her.
“I assume that you will be more comfortable talking to a human. So how about I come out of my little ball, huh?” Ray Carter said.
I had no idea how he was going to do it, so I just waited with eager anticipation. A green light came out of the metal ball and engulfed the entire ball. From the metal ball, the shape of a man appeared. We couldn’t really see his face too well at first, but we could see the pixels in the green light busily moving about to sharpen the image. After about a minute, the image of Ray Carter became clear, and all his facial features were plainly visible. Everything about him was in high definition. We could have seen his pale white skin, orange freckles, and every strand of the blonde hair that crowned his head. The pink fabric that made up his well-ironed suit seemed as real as the ones I had on. Actually, it seemed even more real. The metal ball that formed the image was nowhere in sight. It was most likely at the core of the image forming and processing every little piece of detail. The image was picture-perfect
“Pink!” Ray Carter shouted. He then snapped his fingers, and his top changed from pink to white. “Much better,” he said.
“Are you ready to go live?” Ray Carter asked.
We all nodded, and he began asking us a bunch of questions like how we survived and met each other. There weren’t any cameras, but Ray Carter assured us that his eyes were recording everything. We answered all the questions, and then at the end of the interview, he asked us if we had anything to say to the people of the world. Rajiv and Megan both looked at me as though they expected me to answer. I wasn’t too sure if I had anything to say, but he asked the question live in front of millions of viewers. I couldn’t say no, right?
“I probably do,” I said while trying to speak in as much proper English as possible. I looked directly into Ray Carter’s eyes and started. “Everybody in my family is now dead. Every one of them. All my friends. All the people that I went to school with are all dead. I thought I was the only person alive in Arima, but I found three other people who were able to find a safe place among the danger. We are young, and there isn’t much that we can do, but the little that we can do, we are willing to do. But we need your help. From wherever in the world you are listening to this. We need your help, or else the fate of the Twin Republic will be grim. Thank you.” That was the best speech I could muster. I knew it wasn’t about to be getting awards but it got the message across.
Ray Carter then ended the recording and applauded me. “Well said, bloke! Well said! And just like that, you’re a celebrity.”
“You think the other nations will help,” I asked.
“To be quite honest, it isn’t their place to help. It’s only their place to help if the government personally requests it. Other than that, it’s all just going to be good television bloke. Just good television.”
“I understand,” I sighed.
“Maybe we could convince the Prime Minister to ask for help,” Rajiv said
“How are we going to even get in contact with him? Nobody has seen or heard from him since he got elected last year,” Megan said. “We don’t even know if he’s alive or dead.”
“Well, we don’t have a choice. It’s either that or we all die. Let’s at least try and get in contact with him. You never know; he’s probably coming up with a plan to stop the carnage right now,” I said.
“I doubt,” Rajiv said. “These politicians are a bunch of lazy bastards who don’t care about the country.”
As we spoke, all the metal balls slowly flew off into the sky, back to where they came from. All except Ray Carter, who was still in holographic form. Megan, Rajiv, and I were all talking among ourselves, trying to decide what to do, when Melanie asked Ray Carter, “How come you didn’t fly away with your friends?”
“Well, I was just tasked by the IBC to follow you guys around so that I could follow up on the story,” Ray Carter said.
“What if we don’t want you following us around?” Megan asked rudely.
“Then I won’t get paid this month, and I won’t be able to provide for my baby daughter,” Ray Carter answered.
“Awww, you have a daughter,” Megan said.
“Yeah, she is my world; she’s 8 months old,” Ray Carter responded.
“Awww,” Megan said.
“But don’t worry, I won’t be a menace,” Ray Carter assured. “I might even be of some help.”
“So your job is to see if we die or not?” Rajiv said.
“No, my job is to follow up on the story. That’s it,” Ray Carter said. “My deepest wish is to see you all live through this nightmare.”
“Sounds good to me,” I said.
The hologram of Ray Carter then disappeared, causing the metal ball to reappear. He then floated in front of Melanie and told her to put her arms out. As she put her arms out, he slowly dropped into it. Melanie looked up at her sister with a confused expression.
“Just hold it,” Megan said.
“Okay,” Melanie smiled as though she got exactly what she wanted.
“I think we should probably head to Sando now,” I suggested.
Everyone agreed. We all grabbed as many things that seemed useful in the house, such as money and food, stuffed them in backpacks that we found in the house, and started off on the road once again.
