The World Through Muddy Vision

No one was expecting the nuclear attack, that’s for sure. It was a sudden attack, on an area of no real significance to the government. The attack was broadcast on the news, merely seconds after it had happened. The television showed in bright HD the small area, peaceful and quiet in melancholy thought, seconds before their lives would end. I watched as the screen flashed green, and two large objects struck the cities, sending earth flying in all directions. My family behind me, watching intently, all gasped in horror. I glanced at them, and I clearly remember my mother, Nora, trembling, worried that our small town could be the next attacked. My sister, Noami, covered her brown eyes with her small hands and hid behind her long brown hair. I remained silent, enveloped in the terror happening in front of us.



I remember my mother telling me, “Roxanne, turn this off now. I can’t stand to watch this happen.”



The threat of this terrorism act did not occur to me, as I was too wrapped up in my own world. It was a popular topic of conversation at my school and work, but I ignored it when it came up. Instead of joining in the worried rambles of my classmates, and went to my friends, and busied myself with their affairs and troubles.



I was always told I was a bit self-centered, and I knew definitely that I was oblivious to most problems around me. Normally I would be one of the last to even know about it, and when I finally got the news, there was no drastic change in my emotions, no idle worry, and hardly any caring at all. I knew my life was fine, and I didn’t care about others’ problems.

Needless to say, I was rather unfazed by the nuclear attack.  Another country wants to start war. Big deal. My area wasn’t attacked. Back then, I didn’t sense the oncoming terror, but after a great deal of ridiculous tasks and shocking discoveries, I see the world with new eyes.



It was a Thursday evening, and I was walking home from the small café where I worked. The night shift had come in to relieve me, and I made myself a cup of coffee and started home to my mother and sister. The sidewalk was relatively empty, which was unusual. I could see the graffiti sprayed onto some chunks of cement, along with loose change that had fallen into the cracks. Chips were broken from the edges, and small gravel was littered across it.



I had barely stepped over the puddle, when I was unexpectedly pulled through a wall, blindfolded, and struggling to escape my captors grip. Their strong hands held me back and I wriggled, but my attempt to flee was futile.



I felt us lurch upward, as the enclosed area I was being held in started to shake and move. An elevator? I wondered as it stopped moving, and I hear something that sounded like a door opening. A few footsteps echoed inside and I heard a man’s voice.



“You have secured subject twenty, I see?” The man said, his voice slightly course, resounding through the elevator.

There was no reply from behind me, but I heard the rustling of clothes as if they were nodding a yes.

The elevator moved up several more floors, until it reached its destination. I was pulled into a new room, which echoed loudly with angry voices, sat down in a chair, and had my blindfold removed, finally being able to see again. I studied the room I was in.



It seemed to be a conference room. There was a large brown table, fitting nine-teen other people around the sides of the table, and a man in a business suit at the head. On the top of the table were small robots equipped with various amounts of drinks, and cups. The chairs we sat in were a matching light brown, with soft cushy backs, small armrests, and wheels on the bottom. Several large windows lined the side of the room opposite of me, providing a spectacular view of the town, and leading me to conclude we were on the top floor.



An image of the last nuclear attack was projected onto a screen behind the head of the table. An elevator was behind me, with two large guards in front of it. They were armed with what looked like guns, but were advanced even beyond the technology of 3012, and emitted a soft blue light.



The faces around me were all unfamiliar, but held the same expression, angry. They must have received the same treatment I had. I listened to the conversations being held by some strangers, some complaining, some threatening to sue, and others organizing escape plans.



The head of the table stood up, his loud voice silencing those in the room. I recognized him from the elevator trip to the room. He cleared his throat, and began his speech.



“I would like to thank you all for coming today. I have brought you all for a very specific reason. We, the G.N.W.A., need your help. I am the head director of the G.N.W.A. You have been chosen for specific reasons which you will find out on your own, for a series of important missions. I apologize for the lack of notice, information, and scare from bringing you here today, but this is a very covert and unapproved mission.”



With those words out of his mouth, the room broke into chaos. Robots flew, spilling copious amounts of water; chairs were flipped into the air, and the head director turned very pale in the face.

***

Several days later I found myself in the dull blue confinements of my room, with two of my close friends near me, sitting on the multicolored beanbags. Ferra stared at me intently, blue eyes not moving an inch. Devin leaned backwards, arms behind his head, taking in my story ridiculously calmly.

I told them about the head director, who later revealed himself as Brian, who stood at the front of the table, dropping a bomb of information on us. I told how in the room heck broke loose, and angry faces were everywhere. Brian’s preposition, after the security had calmed down the room, of the pay from the mission, and the urgency of it. The rules I had to follow now, and the places I would have to travel.



Ferra interrupted my spiel first, “So, you’re getting paid to travel around on random missions for a basically unknown cause, completely unprepared? I knew it. You are insane. I knew ever since I first met you. That’s why you’re my friend.”

“That’s basically it. I need the money for some new clothes anyway. And I’m not unprepared, they gave me this. It’s called the REM.12, said it’s stocked up with everything I’ll need,” I stated proudly, and reached for my bag to show them.



I pulled the medium size robot of out my bag, its metallic surface glinting under the light. Blue, green, and yellow buttons flashed brightly as I hit the red power switch, turning it on. They eyes lit up next, illuminating most of the room, and its miniscule mouth moved slightly, as its head turned to the left, then the right. It had skinny arms and legs, with a medium sized torso full of buttons, and a head that seemed to fit the proportion of the robot perfectly.



“This looks like any old robot you can buy from the store,” Devin huffed, obviously expecting something a bit more special, “You ought to just sell it for actual supplies.”



“It’s cooler than it looks. Watch this, they showed me how to work it,” I smiled as I  pressed a few buttons on the back, and the eyes flashed a brilliant green, as the front of the robot opened. “Now look here, inside is a teleportation device, any item in the world that I might need, gets sent to me immediately.”



“Caramel latte, arriving from HQ.” The REM.12’s computerized voice echoed.



“Along with any item I will need, it comes with a communication device,” I showed them, pulling an antennae out of the top of the robots head, and taking the caramel latte out to drink.



Ferra looked at it, excitedly, brushing her dark almost black hair out of her face, “You got to name it now Roxy. Let me do it. I’m calling him...Remmy. Remmy with two m’s.”



“This is top notch government technology. No wonder they haven’t released it in store, it makes life so much easier, but it would definitely make crime that much easier too. Now is there a tracking system where they can monitor this?” Devin mused, picking Remmy up and holding him in the air, examining him carefully.



“Please put me down.” Remmy asked, the small arms waving quickly in the air.



Devin put him down, surprised by the advanced technology of the robot. Remmy started walking across the room aimlessly, almost as if exploring the environment.



“I don’t think there’s a monitoring system on it, but it’s made from a piece of the human brain, giving it human-like qualities. There are only a few like it.” I grinned smugly, as the REM.12 wandered across the room before stopping at the door, and lifting it’s arm up.



“What’s it do-”



Ferra never got to finish her sentence, as Remmy’s arm changed into some sort of laser gun, and fired a hole through the door, big eyes flashing orange, repeatedly saying, “Outside threat. Spy alert. Outside threat. Spy alert.”



My little sister stood behind the gaping hole, shocked, holding a plate of snacks. She coughed some of the smoke away, and brushed crumbs from what used to be a door, off of her shirt.



I scrambled to grab the robot, telling it “No, that’s my sister, not an enemy!”



Naomi stood there, frowning at me, “Where did you get that?”



I looked at her sheepishly, as the robot shut itself off in my hands, “I bought it.”



“I don’t believe you,” she crossed her arms, and pouted.



“Alright ladies,” Devin said coming to the rescue, “Let’s just leave this whole thing alone. You’ll find out later on Naomi, ok?”

She huffed and walked away, sliding back down the stairs and out of site.



I glared at the robot in front of me, as it turned itself back on,

“The REM.12 sorry for destroying object. But there was a spy on the other side.”



“No. That was just my sister, you could have hurt her. And the object was a door. I’m going to have to teach you a lot, huh Remmy?”



“Remmy is…my name?”



Ferra giggled, “It knows its name! Please let me help train him with you! You have to teach him to speak better, what things are, who people are…Oh my gosh this is so exciting.”



“Hey don’t think you’re leaving me out of this.” Devin grinned mischievously, “I want to see just what this little troublemaker can do.”



“Well,” I said, brushing a blue streak of hair from my eyes, “Brian did say I was allowed to bring a few friends on my missions to help out. You guys want to tag along?”



The both nodded eagerly, smiling like no tomorrow, as Remmy stepped over to them, shaking both their hands, as if approving them for the missions ahead.

***

Our plane landed roughly half in the water of the Solomon Islands. When you imagine a remote island, you think of crystal clear waters, with apparent sea life swimming by your feet. You think of coral reefs, abundant with fish. Sea turtles swimming through the water gracefully, and dolphins jumping through the waves while the sun sets oh-so perfectly on the water, leaving the sky a mixture of colors. The Solomon Islands were nothing like this.



Dirty brown muddy water greeted our bare feet as we stepped out of the plane. The sand was steaming hot, and mixed in with a deep layer of mud and debris. Trash littered the shoreline, and there wasn’t any sea life swimming around happily enjoying their lives. I scowled at the dirty beach, before turning around and marching up to the guide who was supposed to help us tour the country.



“Man, I thought this was going to be like, a luxury cruise. Look at this. I can’t enjoy it,” Ferra huffed, studying the area, making her disapproval of the island clear to us.



The tour guide greeted us, saying, “Yes. With all the years of the poor living conditions, this place has fallen deep into the dark ages. We are nowhere near as advanced as the rest of the world. Be careful not to show the natives anything too technological. There have been problems of theft and murder because of it.



The guide looked as if he was in his mid 30s, but he talked wiser than that. Years of living there had probably given him more wisdom than living in a city and going to a professional high class school would. His skin was a medium brown, sort of the color of wood, or a coffee table I had at home. His face had few wrinkles, and he had a melancholy smile, that matched his grey-blue eyes.



“I am called Bay, please follow me,” he beckoned us with his hand, and we walked up the beach into a small forest of trees unlike ones we had ever saw before, and a dense growth of various bushes and flowering plants.



“A plant just tried to bite my leg,” Devin muttered behind me, swatting at a few bugs out from his sight.



Once out of the forest, we emerged on the dirt road of a town, where a small crowd soon gathered to see us. Most of the villagers were dressed in sort of rags, with were falling off their shoulder, and had plenty of holes and rips. They were the thinnest human beings I had ever seen. I was afraid to touch one, because I imagined they could shatter into pieces. They looked unnatural and sad, It didn’t look as if any of them had eaten in weeks, and they probably hadn’t.



It was obvious this wasn’t a big city like I was used too, this was a island, so dirt poor, they still lived in huts and shacks, probably like they had a hundred years ago. I thought I heard Ferra start crying behind me, and I felt my eyes fill with tears also.

***

I had been with the G.N.W.A for a while now, I had done several missions, all of which had made me upset for the poor countries of the world. As I went up in the elevator, I thought about all the countries I had saw. Some were at war, some were starving, and some had been destroyed. I clearly remember a small boy, younger than me, holding a gun that was almost his height, his tears wetting the ground as the world around him closed in, as another country came in from behind to attack the troop he was in. I remember a city having a nuclear meltdown, cramming ourselves and strangers into our plane, as we watched from above, and their country burst into green flame and smoke.



This whole year of missions, has really opened my eyes to the world around me, and the fact that they have problems much greater than mine. While the rich kept climbing up, never once looking back to stop, the poor and sick could only watch from below. As the elevator rose and I literally rose to the top inside of it, I realized my life wasn’t much different. I was only collecting data for this company, like so many others. We hadn’t done anything yet to help anyone, and after all I had seen, I wanted nothing more than to help.



In the middle of my thoughts, I felt the elevator drop then freeze, and something exploding outside, not far from where I stood. I heard millions of screams, and panic flew through me as I realized we were under attack again. I took a deep breath and back into the corner of the elevator. I tried to block out what was happening, but the elevator soon start falling from where it was near the top floor, and I began plummeting into despair and fear. Something caught it before it hit the bottom, and it took a few seconds before my scream’s echoed cleared from the small room. I can say for sure, that I started valuing life a lot more after that moment, and something sort of like an epiphany hit me. I knew the next step.

***

“What do you mean you’re quitting?” Brian asked me, worry etched his face.



I looked at him, and smiled, pulling my black and blue dyed hair into a ponytail, “I mean I’m quitting. Not for a bad reason believe me. This whole experience has actually opened my eyes to other’s problems. Now I’m going to set off to try and help others, not just myself. Thank you for everything,” I quickly hugged him, before turning and walking off.



Before I left, I saw his reflection in the glass of the window. He smiled, his eyes lit up, and before the elevator door closed behind me, I heard him say, “I’m glad this program is working how it’s supposed to. Now people will try to do something for other countries, even if the government is disapproving of this.”

***

I’ve spent around two months trying to do something for the world, but the cost and hardship is great. Especially hard for one person. Trying to save the world is a big job, and I know I need a few things before I try again.



“Ferra. Devin. Hey, it’s me.” I smiled as I walked into Ferra’s house, seeing them sitting on the couch. “I got a new mission today. Not for the G.N.W.A though.”



Ferra’s eyes lit up, as she saw me, glad to see me back from my long journey. Devin smiled his sideways smile, awaiting orders from me, ready to head out on my word.



“What is it this time?” Devin asked, grabbing the REM.12 from the side table, turning it on again, for the first time in two months.



“Oh, you know. We’re going to try to save the world. But we need to gather as many people as we can. You up for the challenge?”



The both nodded, and I heard Remmy’s voice again,

“What are you waiting for? Let’s move our butts out of there.”

End