The Advanterz

Advanterz


Chapter 1
In the beginning…

Our story is one of timeless proportions. No matter what age, or time, future, past of present, you can relate, for all our hero is, is a thirteen year old girl. If you are from the past, then maybe you can stop our hero from ever having to save the world. If you are from the present, well, try to fix what is happening and open your eyes to the world. And if you are from the future, well, now you’ll know why everything is different from the past. All it will be for you is a history lesson. But in a good way.

The year is 5005. The place is what used to be the remnants of the state called Ohio, when the Untied States of America hadn’t met it’s own destruction centuries before. The day is a cold one, with the rain drizzling outside, pitter pattering on the car windows of a traveling vehicle. And inside that lonely traveling car, is where our story begins…

The car lurched suddenly, and Brittany’s eyes flicked up from the pages of her book. Her eyes instantly went to the drivers seat where her father sat driving. He was still talking to his mother who sat in the seat next to him. They had both come to pick her up from her cousins house, whom she had been staying with for the last few days. It had been fun, but very dull. You see, Brittany’s family lived n the surface. Well, at least everyone but her family lived here. Her small four person family lived underground like normal people, instead of staying up here with all the wild ways of this pathetic world.

In other words, Brittany hated the surface.

Brittany glared at the back of her fathers head. She had caught bits and pieces of the conversation through her i-Pod headphones. She snorted slightly, and rolled her eyes. Yes, she still had an i-Pod. The small little device had been invented in 1999, or 2000, Brittany wasn’t sure. Not like it mattered, it was still thousands of years old technology. True, it had been updated, remodeled and was better than ever, but seriously, she was thirteen and was living in the 50th century and she was still stuck with an i-Pod.

I wish I had blood-songs, Brittany sighed and reached her finger to her temple to change the song. Blood-songs were the best! You didn’t even need wires or any grid to make them work unlike the I-Pod. The I-pod was placed inside your temple so all you had to do was reach up and change the song. To see the song you wanted to pick, you pressed the small up button on the side of your head, and in you left eye, a small screen played itself so only you can see it. Then you select a song, and the music is played through headphones implanted in your ears. Easy. But blood-songs were ever better! No buttons at all. You just had to think about what song you wanted, and it would automatically play. The songs were implanted in your blood cells, so whenever that blood cell with the same song you were thinking of reaches your brain, the blood cell would connect to the landing slot and would play. So much easier.

Just one problem…

Brittany’s parents wouldn’t let her get the surgery.

Bruce and Lisa Abbuhl had this problem with Brittany getting surgery before she was fourteen. Not like it mattered. Brittany had gotten the simple surgery to have the I-Pod put in, and the surgery to put a screen device in her eye so she never had to use a compute again. All she had to do was turn on the I-net on and she could see everything through her eyes. Her eyes were the screen. So neat. But when it came to anything else, anything else that maybe you didn’t need, Brittany couldn’t do yet. It was so frustrating!

While Brittany pouted about being so outdated, Bruce told her to look out the window. The only reason she heard him was because her eyes were still trying to bore into the back of his head and he pointed out to the window and she had heard her name.

She felt like snapping back at her father and telling him she didn’t want to look out of a stupid window that was made of glass instead of translucent metal, but decided better of it. Muttering under her breath, Brittany glanced outside her pathetic glass window.

Outside was the rolling hills and wild of the surface. Brittany didn’t see why people liked it so much. All she saw was green, patches of white snow littering the ground, blue skies, and annoying clear rain. Nothing beautiful at all. But for some reason, the leaders of the world had decided to save it. Preserve it, had been the technical term. To preserve the wild and all of its wonderful creatures. That’s why everyone and everything moved underground. Everyone except a few handfuls of people. And unfortunately, some of those people were Brittany’s family.

As Brittany peered out at the rolling hills, nausea finally hit her. She had been reading with her i-pod on at full blast ignoring the real world, absorbed in the fantasy of the story. Her ears and head had up till now, been oblivious to a pounding headache, and her ears popping and blocking out sound. Her eyes felt as if they were sagging off her face. Maybe three nights of staying up late really wasn’t so smart after all.

The i-Pod sensed her sleepy mood, and changed to a softer, more lulling song instead of the upbeat electronic one that had been playing. Brittany’s eyes slowly became harder and harder to keep open. Gradually Brittany’s will to stay awake weakened and she gave way to sleep.

Chapter 2
The Advanterz

“Silver,” a small voice kept saying. “Silver, Silver wake up honey.” Brittany shrugged the hand off and rolled over. “Come one Silver we have to get out of the cold. Wake up Silver!”

Brittany’s eyes fluttered open to see her Grandma Lotti standing over her. She had fallen asleep on the ride home. Brittany shuddered. She had used the word home. Home wasn’t at all a word that described this place. It was too old, too Riser modeled, and it was, gulp, wild!

Brittany stepped gingerly from the car. After she had slipped on black ice the last time she was here she was always on the lookout for the mindless spots of ice. Another wonderful thing of nature, she huffed, picking up her bag.

The car door slammed behind her and she stopped to take a look at her surroundings. Her other set of Grandparents lived in what the Risers had called a forest, or woods. All around were trees, snow, mud, grass, and furry little creepy critters. Brittany shivered, but not from the cold. The wild was like that, it would creep up on you at any time and could scare you even if you’ve lived there as long as the Risers had. Don’t worry though, Brittany was just ten times as scared as you think she is.

Staring glumly at the wood and brick cabin she began to walk toward the house. Gravel crunched underneath her feet and white faux leather boots. Using real animal fur was just cruel, and so outdated. The wind whistled softly in her ears and rustled her hair. She stopped right before the wall of the garage door. Brittany took in a deep breath letting the wind fill her lungs with icy cold air. If there was anything even the littlest bit worth while about the wild surface of Earth, it was the wind.

Touching her temple sensitively since she had a bruise there from being hit in the head by a wallbanger and walked straight through the wall.

Or, at least she tried to.

Brittany ran straight into the garage door. The hollow sound of ringing aluminum filled Brittany’s throbbing head as she tried to recover herself. She held her head with one hand while she tried to lift herself off of the ground with the other. Slowly she managed to raise herself from the ground her world still spinning. Her white beret had fallen off her blonde head so she took a step and reached for it. That was the one time she had forgotten to look for black ice and she fell. Flat on her face.

Brittany lay there seething in bubbling anger. Her perfectly manicured hand reached blindly for her hat. She felt it and snatched it from the asphalt. Angrily Brittany got off the ground and dusted herself off. Her bag had somehow managed to stay on her shoulder so it was one less thing she had to bend down to pick up.

Glaring Brittany turned to face the wall again. What was wrong with this wall? Why wouldn’t it let her through? All the other walls in Fyett let her through…

She swore. Really loud. How could she have been so stupid as to forget that this was an old unsmartastic building? It was made of plain brick and wood, not intelligent material that would rearrange itself whenever she wanted to walk through.

Brittany took a step back from the wall and leaned backward to see at a farther distance. Looking down the length of the solid wall she saw a large rectangular shape of solid wood instead of brick. It was…it was…Brittany had to think about for a few seconds before it came to her. It was a door. Something that the Risers had used before they had invented intelligent material.

Man, how outdated is that? Brittany thought adjusting her shoulder bag. Well, gotta go inside sometime. Anything’s better then out here. She took a quick glance around her before she left. It was sort of peaceful and serene. Then she saw a small furry creature perched on a tree. A wild animal. That’s it, inside and Brittany scurried inside faster then the small bushy tailed creature could climb a tree.
…

Brittany had to go through three doors just to get inside (Well, actually just two but she had trouble figuring which way to go, so she went through one twice). She was tired of running into walls, her bag was heavy, and the zero gravity factor hadn’t kicked in yet. All the cities had them. If you had something heavy, just press the zero g button on your wrist band and the weight would lift. Easy as that. Too bad people on the surface had never heard of putting a zero gravity grid under their houses and towns to make things lighter than air. So n other words. Brittany was stuck carrying a fifty pound shoulder bag that used to only weigh nothing.

Once she had finally figured out how to get into the house, Brittany thrust her bag onto the counter in the hallway, and took off her white bubble vested coat and boots. A simple coat hanger with a mat underneath for shoes was right next to the door. Brittany clumsily hung her coat on an open branch, and her shoes were just strewn anywhere on that mat, it didn’t matter. Her hat stayed on her head.

Walking through the narrow hallway, she heard voices. Brittany really didn’t want to talk to anyone right now, she was too tired to be social so she decided to avoid the voices and the people in the living room.

The hallway led into a bright carpet floored kitchen, with wooden cupboards, and dining table that could fit four. The kitchen led off in two directions, one leading to the living room with a large TV screened wall, the second leading to a dining room. The dining room also lead into a small passageway to the upstairs. And upstairs is where people didn’t want to go to be social, which meant Brittany was automatically drawn to the place.

Skirting the walls, she made her way through the hallway, into the kitchen, through the dining room that led into a back way to the upstairs steps, and then stopped.

Two mirrors were inlaid into the wall. Their edges were curved in a pattern of waves, but were still in the regular rectangular shape. The two were interlocked together so you could almost not see the seam that ran down the length of their middles. Both of them were taller then Brittany by about a foot, and ran along the length of the wall in the small corridor. But it wasn’t because of the mirrors Brittany had stopped, it was because of her reflection.

A girl of about five feet and four inches stood before her clothed in all white and silver. Her white nylon pants shown dimly in the poor light, the small diamonds attached to them sparkled just as brightly as usual. Her feet were bare even though it was the middle of winter. Brittany’s shirt was a plain white T-shirt with the sleeves cut a bit short. Her white beret seemed to glitter and glow just like the rest of her outfit, and her large sliver hoop ear-rings gleamed happily. Even though Brittany’s clothes were absolutely amazing, and beautiful, they were not the thing that immediately caught your eye when you looked at her. It was Brittany herself.

Brittany’s long silver tinged hair flowed down her shoulders like a waterfall under her white beret. Her skin was smooth and perfectly tanned even though Brittany had never been out in the sun more then five minutes at a time. No imperfections covered her body unless they were intentional like her scar on her forehead from an accident in her childhood. But no one would even get to see it for the scar was so close to her eyes. Her big, beautiful, blue and silver eyes. Brittany’s eyebrows arched gracefully over her unnaturally large eyes, almost hidden by her long bangs. She wasn’t supermodel skinny on the contrary she wasn’t even near that skinny. No, she was the perfect amount of skinny, skin, bones, and taut muscles. In other words, she was perfect all the way down to her flawlessly manicured toes and fingers.

Now some of you might think that I’m exaggerating our hero’s appearance but I’m not. She is exactly as I describe her. Brittany was perfect.

However, she was not the only one. Everyone in the world was perfect. No flaws, no mishaps, no disease, no disorders, only beautiful perfection. True, no one was born like that. On the other hand, surgery had progressed so far through the years that it didn’t matter how you looked when you were born. Once you were over three years old, you got a surgery that fixed everything. No more extra large ears, sickness, or crooked teeth. Instead, you were given new features molded by the surgeons who did your surgery. Then you were perfect. You looked perfect, you felt perfect, you were perfect. And even later on you could have all kinds of surgeries to change your looks. You could have your normal teeth filed down to look like a crazed animal, or could have flashing tattoos that covered your entire body. Anything went, and anything goes. The possibilities were endless. So, compared to many people of the time, glowing Brittany was just as normal girl waiting to be fourteen so she could be an adult. Then she could do whatever she wanted, whenever she wanted.

Now that I have explained that, you might get Brittany’s world a little bit more. Even so, you will probably will not get Brittany’s mindset. You see, when Brittany looked into the mirror, all she saw was a normal, boring girl that looked like everyone else. Nothing special just normal. Normal and unfamous.

Not if Brittany had anything to do with that though. Brittany had a plan to make her mark on the world. A plan that she and her friend had come up with years ago. And Brittany would do anything to make it work.

Brittany sneered at her reflection, seeing every imperfection that she wanted to change. Her eyes weren’t large enough for her liking. She wanted diamond implants in them as well to ring her iris. Her nose wasn’t turned up enough, and her hair, ugh her hair! Everyone kept telling her that they loved it, but Brittany knew they had to be lying. It was just ten different colors of blonde highlights and undertones, and only three different colors of silver coloring. Boring! She wanted red highlights, and extensions. Shoulder length was too short. Her clothes sucked too.

Irately, Brittany stomped off and up the steep green carpeted stairs, gripping the smooth wooden handrail so tight that it squeaked as she made her way to her room. Turning right, she ran her hand along the wall and seized the black and copper doorknob, pulled down and slammed the door behind her.

She stared at the door for a long time, not wanting to turn around and see her room, for she knew what she would find. It would be exactly the same as it had been for the last thirteen years of her life. The room never changed even though Brittany had complained openly about the inadequate furnishings and style. The bed stood at the far side of the room to the left of the window. The design on the covers were brightly covered squares with different shaped borders and patterns inside. The covers were also laced with sickening frills at the edges. The small window had the same patterned curtains draped on the sides. A small armoire was placed up against the closets wall, with pixel pictures floating above the wooden surface. Also a dresser was set to the right of the bed. The dresser had a mirror on the top of it. A large mirror. But it was covered up so Brittany didn’t have to see her reflection whenever she passed it.

Turning slowly, fingers crossed, Brittany faced her room. Her hopes of a newly decorated room fell as she saw the same childish bed, dresser with the mirror covered in a dark cloth, and stuffed animals and dolls hidden in every corner of the room. Brittany hated it. However, at the moment Brittany was too sleepy to care what she slept on as long as it wasn’t the ground.

She tossed the decorative pillows aside, and pulled down the covers. She placed her beret on the bulky black chair next to her bed, and hurled herself into the bed. After tossing and turning to find a comfortable spot, Brittany fell asleep. In her dreams she was haunted by her horrible appearance, and dreamed about her plan to become the most famous person in the world.
…

“Silver! Silver get up the Advanterz are on TV! The show is about to begin! Silver get up!” Brittany rolled over ignoring the little voice in her head. “Silver!” the little voice yelled at her again.

“Up shut,” Brittany mumbled and turned over in her bed.

“You can’t tell me to shut up, I’m in your head. Now Silver get up!”

“My name ain’t Silver,” Brittany muttered again, her words indistinguishable, muffled by the pillows. “It’s Brittany.”

“Silly, your name is Silver. Brittany is just a stupid normal nickname. You should use your real name, it’s much more you.”

“Ha,” Brittany snorted, “Silver is unusual, and normal names are back in style. My name is Brittany.”

“Humph, that’s what you think. Just you wait until you become an Advanterz then you’ll want to stand out an-” The little voice shut off when Brittany pushed her temple. Snooze button.

“As if,” Brittany said to herself as she stretched her long legs and arms, “What is my reminder thinking? Advanterz only come on at sixteen o’ clock and it’s only…” Brittany didn’t finish her sentence. She immediately pressed the small diamond located at the outside edge of her eye and her eye screen came on. At the bottom a small block read 16:00 pm.

“Oh pixel computers!” Brittany yelled as she flung herself out of bed. “No way, I can’t miss this game. Player Jael is playing. Dang it!” Brittany practically flew downstairs as she dashed down to the living room. The large TV screen was already turned to channel 101, with her dad, sister Jenna (such a strange name, what a freak), mom, and her other set of Grandparents, Mimi and Papa.

A small blonde girl turned her vivid purple eyes onto Brittany. She smiled smugly at her and said, “Great you finally feel like socializing. And just in time for the game too.”

“Up shut Jenna.” Brittany sneered at her little sister. Jenna shrugged and looked back at the TV screen. Brittany sat down next to her dad and mom and turned her attention to the screen as well.

Brittany had made it just in time. The games were about to begin.

Hard metallic like music filled the room as the show began. A man with a deep voice began talking, but Brittany didn’t care. As she watched the beginning credits and images rolled onto the screen all she could think about was finally getting to meet Jael after this match. Only if he won of course. You only stay on the show as long as you kept winning. Once you lost, you were off the show and no one saw them ever again. And who really cared? They were losers, unfamous, unworthy of the attention they were getting. Once you lost, you might as well have never been born.

So of course, Brittany wanted Jael to win this match. Her friend James had bet on Jael to win, and if he won, James might be able to become an Advanterz too. It was a small chance, but if he did get in, he had promised Brittany he would put in a good word for her.

If only Jael would win. Brittany was staring straight at the screen, waiting for the competitors to be shown on the screen. A small fat man who had been talking for the credits, appeared in a flashy black suit. His smile was sickening. He had obviously hadn’t had surgery to make his pug like face like that. Brittany wrinkled her nose. She was either trying to imitate the man, or she was just cringing from the sight of him. Either way, Brittany still looked beautiful with her nose scrunched up like a snotty person.

The man kept on talking. Brittany wasn’t really sure what he was saying for she was searching in the crowd for a familiar face. She scanned the crowds looking for him…then she saw him.

“James!” she shouted out loud at the screen waving her hands wildly around as if her friend could see her through the pixel wall. He sat there as usual with his dark tanned skin, round but somehow skinny face smiling a smile full of perfectly white teeth. His golden eyes glinted and swirled. Brittany rolled her eyes. James had gotten another surgery on his eyes, which was sort of pointless for his wispy feather like brown hair blew to and fro in front of them all the time. His red electronic band T-shirt moved and danced as he cheered, whistled and waved at Brittany through the screen. Brittany blushed as she saw what was around his neck. It was a interchangeable silver star necklace she had given him when she was seven. Brittany had a matching one as well, and wore it always. He used to not wear it, until Brittany told him that it was magical. James had never taken it off sense.

Brittany could Jenna out of the corner of her eye. She turned and gave her a quick sneer before pressing the diamond button at the corner of her left eye. A small electrical zip went through Brittany, and she could hear crowds screaming behind a bunch of static. The static cleared slowly, and she could barely make out a guys voice on the other end of the line.

“Brittany?” a small voice came on inside her head.

“James!” Brittany said happily, glad that her friend could still hear her through the mindmail link over the crowd.

“Hey Brittany!” James cried back, waving extra hard now.

“I can see you James,” Brittany said, “You’re on TV.”

“No duh Brittany,” James said, his lips moving on the screen while he waved.

Brittany rolled her eyes. “Duh is so last millennium James. The new thing to say is “complete quay”.”

“Complete quay?” James repeated, his face looking utterly confused on the screen.

“Yeah pixel head. Complete quay.”

James shrugged on the screen, then his eyes began to swirl extra fast. “I can see him Brittany!” he yelled. Brittany cringed at the volume of the yell, but still she screamed too.

“Where James? Where is he?” she said super fast.

“There, right there!” The James on the screen was pointing at the ground. The crowds in the stand began to scream louder on the TV too. Brittany screamed and forgot all about the mindmail link that was still on. James cringed for a second but not much. He was too busy jumping up and down screaming. The camera zoomed out and Brittany laughed as she saw what James was standing on. Just like every other person in the stands, they had their own chair that was separated from all the others. And did I mention that they were floating all by themselves up in the middle of the air? James was jumping up and down so hard that his chair was moving up and down with him, the floating connection with the grid below cutting in and out.

“Looks like James is having fun.” Brittany’s dad commented, taking a sip from his invisible cup.

“Yeah, so much fun he’s gonna fall off his seat and plummet sixty feet down to the hard ground.” Jenna spat back. She was still in a bad mood since she didn’t have a mindmail hook up yet.

“Oh shoot,” Brittany said as she realized her little sister was right. “Hey, James stop jumping so hard, you’re going to fall off!” she yelled through the mindmail system.

“Oh, right!” James stopped jumping up and down, but he still waved as hard as ever. “Thanks Brittany. How would I ever live without you?”

“Ha, you wouldn’t.” Brittany teased.

“You’re right.” James replied, his voice almost as if he were still sleepy.

“Uh, James,” Brittany asked, wondering if she heard right, “What did you say?”

“Nothing. Just nothing.” he answered quickly, trying to change the subject, “Brittany, can you still see me on the screen?”

“No, they’ve zoomed out into the rest of the crowd. Why?”

“Good-I mean no reason.” Brittany imagined James was smiling now. She rolled her eyes once more and stared at the screen.

The camera was taking one more sweep of the crowd before turning to face the competitors. Jael was standing there beside another man. Brittany guessed that was who he was going to be competing against. She didn’t think much of him. He was skinny, and frail looking compared to Jael. Brittany had no idea how someone like him had become an Advanterz.

Advanterz. The greatest thing to be in the world. Brittany sighed and looked upward to the heavens. If only I could be one. Brittany snorted and shook her head as to get rid of that silly idea. You had to be like super awesome to get into the group. Brittany guessed that you had to be recommended by someone or something like that because only certain people ever got get in. But when you did get in, you were a god. Or goddess. Either one, doesn’t matter, you were still treated great. And that’s all that anyone cared about. All Brittany cared about.

Brittany gaped in awe at Jael. His face was perfect unlike hers, except for maybe one thing. The beak he had instead of a nose.

That’s the way all Advanterz were. Well not all, most didn’t have a golden glinting beak sticking out of their face, but they did have animal parts. Mechanical parts, non Earth like being parts, or anything they wanted. The possibilities were endless.

You see, Advanterz only lived for one thing. To win. And if you didn’t win, well you were out, simple as that. But before you were kicked out (or whatever, no one really knew what happened to them) you were allowed to have a life changing surgery unlike any other. This surgery let the competitors choose what sort of parts they wanted added on, or taken off, whatever would give them an edge over their opponents. Some things were just for decoration, like Jael’s nose, however, some things did have actual use. For example, wings, talons and claws, super strong muscles, hands for feet, etc. Only the Advanterz could have this surgery, and it made them well, stand out. Big time. In a good way though, nothing bad.

You didn’t have to get the surgery, but most did. Apparently the man, or boy standing next to Jael wasn’t one of those people. He had normal muscles, toothpick skinny legs and arms, and squinty eyes. Not much to look at.

Jael on the other hand, was a more impressive figure. He was tall, broad shouldered, with muscles popping put everywhere. His feet and hands had talons sprouting out of them, all a coppery gold. Much better than silver.

The crowd had no doubt who would win. The poor skinny man didn’t have a chance.

Brittany heard a small pinging noise inside her head. Her screen eye was flashing on and off, James’s name in bold big letters in the center. He was trying to talk to her. Brittany pressed the diamond answer button near her eye once more and James’s voice reached her ears.

“He’s gonna be creamed.” James’s voice was solemn as if he was really sorry for the guy.

“Just means his retirement plan will kick in a whole lot faster than he would of hoped it would. Who cares? We still get to see him flattened.” Brittany answered back, wondering what was wrong with James, he usually loved to see unfairly matched games.

“Brittany, how can you say that?!” James snapped back, as if he was genuinely surprised by her reply.

“I can, and I did. Now how much did you bet on Jael to win cause it’s gonna be easy money.”

“Four mulas.”

Brittany whistled loudly. “Boy, you are so taking me out to dinner when you come home. You can not have that much cash stuck in your pockets walking around the underground. I’ll help you with your problem.”

“And how will you do that?” James asked, his voice sounding amused.

“I’ll help spend it of course! My dad helped your dad get tickets so I get half the profit.”

“Half!” James screamed at her. “Are you kidding? One mula is way too much to give away and now you’re askin’ me to give you a whole two? You’ve lost it roaming around in the wild up there. It’s infested your mind.”

“Ok,” Brittany whined, “You can just get me something nice instead.”

“How about I just take you to a nice dinner at Lupe’s?” James compromised, for he really had no idea what to buy Brittany anyways.

“Lupe’s? I thought you didn’t like Mexican food.”

“I don’t, but I’ll make an exception just this once.”

Brittany smiled. “Thanks James, you‘re the greatest.”

“Hey,” James snapped at her, “I gotta win this bet first, so don’t go all mushy on me until I have the money in my hand and I’m on my way to come pick you up on the tram.”

“You’re gonna pick me up on the tram! Since when?” Brittany cried excitedly as she watched the screen of the TV.

“Since your daddy said I could.”

“Brittany stole a quick glance at her dad, then sighed. “I can’t wait.”

“Good. Now up shut so we can watch the game.”

“Alright.” Brittany agreed. “See ya later!” And she turned off her reception before James could answer.

Now was the good part of the entire game. If you can call it a game that is. The title of the show was The Advanterz Games , so I guess the show was a game show in a way. The arena was surrounded by yelling floating people, with glass barriers to make sure the fans didn’t interfere with the games. Inside the arena, the ground was covered in dirt. Brittany sneered. Dirt. Another surface word. The world was much better without the stuff. But it was a part of the game, so Brittany kept her PG-13 thoughts to herself. The two competitors took different sides of the circle shaped arena. They both had a hold of a long rope. The rope was made of steel, with rippling cords connecting the entire thing together. The small part of the rope the competitors were holding were just plain steel, but as you went down the length of the rope, small barbed wire pieces were intertwined with the steel. The looked sharp and glinted in the solar powered stand lights.

“Looks like tug-a-war. You know, the game the Risers played all the time? When you hold onto the rope and pull until you drag the other team to your side. That one.” Brittany glanced around and saw nods of agreement from her family.

Jenna remained pouting in the corner.

Brittany knew she was right, and that Jenna also agreed with her even if she was trying to ignore her, so she turned attention back to screen.

She finally heard what the small announcer man was saying.

“Ladies and Gentlemen,” the little man shouted over the clamor of the crowd, “I’m proud to present to you the final game fro this year of 5005! The next game will be on New Year’s Eve, where we will be recruiting new Advanterz to come play with us.” Brittany’s eyes flashed for a second. Her hearing banked out a second so she missed the ending of the small man’s speech. All she heard was, “-and without further ado, I present to you the champion Jael, and his competitor, Skinnyman!”

Skinnyman is right, he doesn’t have a single fat cell on his bones, Brittany commented to herself.

“Now, at the count of three, the games will begin!”

“Ready, set…”

“ONE!” the man’s voice was droned out by the screaming fans. “TWO! THREE!”

That’s when everything changed.

A huge rumbling noise rippled through the crowds and stadium. Then, you could see a line starting to crack down the middle of the arena floor. The two sides began to spread apart, creating a rift between the two competitors. The dirt slowly began to slip down into the darkness below. How far did it go down? Who knows, Brittany only knew that she didn’t want to be the one thrown in there to check it’s depth.

Jael was the first to recover his stance. He pulled his end of the rope sending the over end flying out of Skinnyman’s hands. He ran after his roped and Jael reeled it in. When he had finally picked up his end again, he was only a few meters from the edge of the rift.

The game lasted only seconds. Jael slung his rope over his shoulder and with brute strength, drug Skinnyman to the edge. Skinnyman dug his heels in, even turned around slinging his rope over his shoulder, but it was no use. His feet slipped out from under him and he fell and trickled down like the dirt waterfall to the depths below.

Everyone cheered as they saw Skinnyman fall. They could have waited until he had fallen all the way to the bottom of the pit. You never know, he might have made it out. But no one waited, because no one cared. He was just another defeated loser, not worthy of living a life of luxury and fame anymore. Besides Skinnyman being the only unhappy person at the moment, everyone else who had bet against him were screaming and jumping around hugging anyone in sight. All you could hear for miles around were screams of joy. Brittany was bouncing up and down in her chair, screaming for pure happiness. James had won! And he was picking her up on the tram. Jael had won, and James had won his bet. Her plan was working out perfectly. Everything was wonderful. Nothing could ever go wrong now! Brittany ran and hugged her father, thanking him over and over for letting James come to pick her up and take her away and out of this dump. No offense she told her grandparents, but this life wasn’t for her.

Brittany hurried upstairs, and began to pack the rest of her things. She didn’t come down for dinner. Instead she fell asleep in the big bulky chair next to her bed, a book in her hand, dreaming of how perfect her life was.

It was perfect. Nothing could destroy it as she slept, sounds of a tram whirring through the Woods to her, with James waving in the window. Her refuge to take her back to her perfect life, the new beginning. And she would make sure everything would stay this way.

Yeah, and I’m sure ya’ll know exactly what happens after someone says that. Right, the world comes crumbling down.