The Adventures of Zack

The following is a version of a story I wrote for my creative writing class some time back, this is an older version before I changed some of the story and grammatical errors… I’ll update with the new version as soon as I find it, but I thought it was still worth sharing.

“Oh yeah! This new game is EPIC! I’m almost on the last level. Then I can face the leader of the alien race and take him out too and save the world! All alien races shall bow to meeeeeee! I’m so glad the store clerk keeps suggesting I play these. I’m almost the top gamer in the country!” Zack said excitedly.

It’s Sunday night, Zack is finishing up a marathon of weekend gaming. The school year is coming to an end, so Zack wants to get a head start on his gaming.

“Awesome big brother! This game looks so cool; I want to play too. Can I have next? Does this game have two players?” asked Elizabeth with anticipation.

“No Elizabeth, not until you finish your homework” interrupted their mother, Sarah, as she walked by with the laundry.

Zack, his sister, and mother all live in a small little suburb in a small little city in the middle of America. Zack and his sister never knew their father; he died when they were young. Their father died in a fire at the local news station. An explosion occurred, by the time the emergency personal arrived the entire building was up in flames; although, Zack and his sister wasn’t told that part. It didn’t bother Zack and his little sister to not have known their father, they remained very cheery children.

Zack just had his thirteenth birthday party. He doesn’t have a lot of friends; however, he has just enough, and he doesn’t have a hard time making new friends. He has learned over time that it’s best to keep a medium size group, about five to seven would do. It’s big enough to have a party but, not too big. He’s also a geek. Zack enjoys video games, comic books, all sorts of science fiction stories and movies.

Elizabeth, Zack’s younger sister, is eleven. She looks up to Zack. There wasn’t a father figure in the house. Sometimes their mother, even when home, would be too caught up with projects she was doing for work that she relied on Zack to watch Elizabeth and make sure she did her homework. She just started middle school; she’s an average grade student but book smart. She loves to read fairytale stories. Elizabeth also likes to play video games with her brother; although, she doesn’t get into comic books and other geek culture things like him.

Sarah works at a local research facility as a physicist. She makes decent money but, sometimes the hours are brutal; however, the job pays for what they need with benefits. Sarah doesn’t enjoy video games like her children, she prefers science books, history books, and other factual material. Sarah doesn’t see the appeal of fantasy, she enjoys living in the here and now, not in some world that doesn’t exists.

Zack is playing his favorite game, Intergalactic War: Sons of Hero’s. It’s a game about, you guessed it, shooting aliens in space. He doesn’t know why but, he’s fascinated by space, aliens, and pretty much anything that has to do with science fiction. His room is decked out in all kinds of space-themed video games and movies. He has stacks of comics around the room, but not too messy or else his mother would blow a fuse. He just finished up a level, then, out of nowhere he sees a big flash of light coming from the backyard. It’s night outside, so it can’t be the sun. He walks over to the window to investigate and sees the most astonishing thing ever. His little sister is slowly ascending up to what looks like an alien spaceship from his video game.

This oval and dark ship with sharp edges, about half the size of a football stadium, has a greenish light beaming down into the backyard. His younger sister is slowly being pulled up, she seems unconscious. The ship is silent, with a faint humming noise, wanting to attract little or no attention. It looks to be a thousand feet in the air.

Zack can’t believe what he’s seeing. Zack is frozen like a stone, almost catatonic; he’s petrified by the sight. Even though he isn’t moving, his mind is racing. He keeps telling himself what he’s seeing isn’t real, he is just seeing things because he has been up too late playing video games. Zack rubs his eyes and still sees everything, his sister slowly being levitated towards the alien space ship.

Zack finally moves, he backs away from the window and starts running down to his mother screaming in terror. His mother is watching her favorite TV show at the time, “Sing with Celebs.” She always said it’s good to enjoy some mind numbing content to take a break, unless it’s fantasy.

“Mom! Mom! Help! An alien ship is taking Elizabeth away! It looks like the ship in my game!” Zack screamed in horror.

“What did I tell you about playing games all night, did you even listen to me? Go upstairs and turn that game off and go to bed, you shouldn’t be playing video games that much” exclaimed Sarah.

I’ve got to save her, we need to do something before they get away, thought Zack.

“We need to do something mom! Call the cops! Call the military! Look in the backyard and you’ll see the alien ship taking Elizabeth away!” yelled Zack.

His mother shook her head, got up just to calm him down and started to follow him to the backyard. Zack runs out the back door with bravado now that he had his mother behind him. The aliens are gone; all they can hear was the chippering of the crickets and the cool breeze of the wind. He looks back at his mother, she stares at him in annoyance because she is missing her show.

Zack looks down and notices his sister’s Leia Organa toy she likes to carry around sitting in the grass.

“See mom! This is where they took her. She must have dropped the toy here when she was being pulled into the ship!” yelled Zack.

“I told you not to be playing games for that long. You need to go to bed now. It’s late and you have school in the morning. Go… to… bed” shouted Sarah while pointing to the house.

Zack pockets the toy and looks down at his shoes in disappointment and frustration as he walks back in. Maybe he was just seeing things, but it felt so real. He reluctantly marches his way up the stairs as his mother went back to the couch to finish watching her show. Zack approaches his room door and suddenly the TV in his room turns on and he could hear his name being announced.

On his TV sat a creature. The creature looks to be male. He has gray skin, a long oval face and no nose. The creature also looked much older, with a light gray beard. He seems to be a commander because he has a lot of markings on his uniform that others walking behind him lacks, he’s also sitting in a chair placed in the center of the room. The view is wide enough to show the entire room on his 45” television.

“Zack! We’ve been looking for you. We have your sister, the human girl. We want our 3D storage cube your father stole from us three years ago. You need to locate that device and hold it until we contact you. Don’t tell anyone. Do this or your planet will be destroyed! You have one Earth week to complete this task. We will be in contact” said the alien on the TV screen.

The television turned off before Zack could say anything. Zack’s face is in dismay and he runs to the stairway.

“Holy crap! Holy crap! Holy crap! What do I do? What do I do? Mom! Mom!” yelled Zack.

“What?! Why aren’t you sleep?!” shouted Sarah.

“The alien on the TV said he has Elizabeth and he won’t give her back until — -“Zack said.

“Stop! Go to bed now. I don’t want to hear another thing about aliens abducting your sister. Your sister is sound asleep, except you! Go to bed!” interrupted Sarah.

“But she’s not in her room mom! She’s not here!” Zack yelled back.

Sarah turns the television up louder, she has already missed some of her show from being dragged outside, and she didn’t want to miss anymore of her relaxation. She then regretted not getting the DVR for live rewinding.

Zack has no choice but to head back to his room, there was nothing else he could do, plus the sleep deprivation is hitting him hard. He could barely keep his eyes open, the adrenaline seemed to worsen the effects. He didn’t know what happened exactly, all he knows is that at some point he was walking back and forth in his room trying to think of what to do and ended up laid out on the floor. As he was waking up he could hear a voice.

“Hey brother! Hey! Wake up! Let’s play a game!” said Elizabeth with much enthusiasm.

“Huh? What? What’s going on? Elizabeth? Is that you? How are you here?” asked Zack in confusion.

“Let’s play! Let’s play! I’m going to grab my controller from my room” said Elizabeth.

Elizabeth ran to her room to grab her controller for the video game console. Zack is confused. Had she not taken by the aliens? He sits down in his chair and feels something poke him on the side, it’s the Leia Organa toy. Elizabeth walked back into the room, he looked at her in astonishment. He doesn’t know how she escaped, he doesn’t know if that was really her.

He has to play it cool. He doesn’t want her thinking anything was different. Maybe he’s nuts, maybe she isn’t his sister but, an imposter; like in many movies he has seen. Just ask her some simple questions to see if she can spill the beans on last night, Zack thought.

“So, ummmm, what happened last night?” asked Zack, trying to play it cool.

Might have been too obvious he thought to himself.

“We played games all night and you feel asleep on the floor. I thought you were sleeping so peacefully, so I just let you lay there. Didn’t want to wake you” said Elizabeth, without hesitation.

He thought that could make sense, but not sure why she would just leave him on the floor. For now, he just needs to pretend nothing happened until he can figure out what’s going on. They both need to leave for school. If it isn’t really her, then she will stick out at school for sure. He just needs to keep a close eye on her for anything suspicious. Plus, if she isn’t Elizabeth he wouldn’t want to get into a fight and endanger his mother downstairs.

Zack and his sister arrives at school and he begins following her around the school, hiding behind corners or other students when he thinks she is going to turn around. Other students that notice him just assume he’s either playing a joke on his sister, or he is being a typical weird nerd. He follows her around school all day, watching her play with her friends. He even skipps a class or two so that he could see if she would behaves the same in class. She seems to be herself, but he couldn’t believe the aliens would just let her go.

Zack is now standing in some bushes watching his sister after school. A hand grabs his shoulder. He freaks out and turns around in a hurry. There, standing in front of him, was an adult wearing a black hoodie, black shades and black jeans… he just looks weird and has a “get in my van” vibe.

“Zack! What are you doing?” asked the mysterious guy, with a slight authoritative tone.

“What the hell man! Who are you, how do you know my name and why are you sneaking up behind me?” asked Zack in fear and frustration.

“That’s not important right now. I need you to come with me!” said the mysterious man, demandingly.

Damn! Zack thought, he is a creep. I need to get away fast, Zack through. Zack was just about to scream but, the mysterious man figured Zack was about to scream.

“Wait! That’s not your sister. They have your sister and I’m here to help. Will you come with me?” asked the mysterious man in a panic and rushed tone.

Zack can’t believe what he just heard, someone else just acknowledged the same thing he had suspected. Plus, this person couldn’t have known because he didn’t tell anyone else except his mother, and she brushed him off. Zack cautiously nodded his head and followed him, watching the man. Of course, the man is driving around in a broke down van… he took a deep breath and got in the van. He wants answers and this man seems to know more than him.

Zack and the mysterious man drives around the corner and pulled into an alleyway. The strange man pulls into an alleyway and stopes at a wall. Zack looks at the guy in confusion. The wall unexpectedly slowly moves upward. The now removed wall reveals a driveway leading down below ground. They take this pathway that winds around for a few seconds. They approached an elevator door that the mysterious man parks the car in front of. He looked over to Zack.

“We just need to take this elevator down to the facility. There, I will answer all the questions I know you have” said the mysterious man.

Zack doesn’t think for a second. He wants answers now. Zack opens the door and walks toward the door without hesitation, the mysterious man follows.

They reach the elevator door and the man presses a button and presents both his eye and fingerprint. The elevator makes a confirmation sound and the door opens. The elevator takes them deeper underground, this time for about twenty seconds. The elevator door opens revealing a very big, brightly lit hanger like area. All he can see is a hive of desks and monitors mounted all over the place. People walking all over, carrying transparent tablet looking devices and some people swapping things by gesturing documents towards the other devices.

The mysterious man stands in front of Zack with a smile.

“Welcome to Galactic Investigations Bureau, I’m Major Scott. We monitor everything that goes on in our galaxy, well, as much as we can. We have outposts on multiple planets, dwarf planets and space stations. We started this back in the early 80s. We have been working with multiple governments to keep this quiet. This all started when we found a downed alien ship, we believe it was doing reconnaissance.” said Major Scott as he extends his hand out, presenting the facility.

Zack is in awe. The facility looks like a futuristic, technologically advanced government facility that you would see in a science fiction movie. It doesn’t take long, reality hits Zack and he remembers Major Scott’s promise.

“But what about my sister!? Who has her? And what does this have to do with my dad?” asked Zack demandingly.

“The aliens that have your sister is called Crytonesians. They took your sister so that you would give them back their 3D storage cube. The cube contains information about: space travel, Crytonesian history, blueprints for ships and a lot of other information we need for a coming war with them. Your dad was the one who retrieved the cube for us” said Major Scott.

Zack is in astonishment, very close to what seems like a panic attack. His dad is working with the government and waging intergalactic war against an alien race? This is unbelievable to Zack, his eyes move back and forth between this man and the facility. This is all becoming a lot of Zack to process.

“The little girl that’s pretending to be your sister is one of them. As we speak I have a crew tracking her and getting ready to take her out. Don’t worry though, we will get your mother to safety. This crew is good at being discreet and protecting assets” said Major Scott reassuringly.

“Oh shit! My mom, I never went home, or contacted her. She’s probably worried. She’s going to kill me” Zack said in panic.

“Don’t worry, we will bring her here… your father made that pretty clear” said the Major Scott.

“My dad!? He’s alive?” exclaimed Zack.

Zack can’t believe what he was hearing. Aliens, war, imposter’s, his father? This is becoming a bit too much for him. They then start walking down to a nearby conference room. This room looks over the main area of the facility with big screen monitors all around showing perimeter statuses, cameras throughout the facility and icons showing the status of remote bases.

“Yes Zack. Your father is alive. He’s a Major General. Major General Geer. My next instruction is to introduce you to him. However, he’s not on Earth right now. He’s taking care of issues on the Mars base. We will have to go meet up with him.” Said Major Scott.

“Meet up with him? On another planet? What? How? Why would I even go?” asked Zack with too many emotions to know how to feel.

“Your dad has been training you and millions of other people for this day. All those days you’ve been playing those games, it was your dad’s plan to train as many people in the world for this day. All those shooter games, RTS and simulation games were to get the world ready to fight. That ship looked a whole lot like the ships in the game, didn’t it? We’ve spent lots of money on the video game industry to get everyone as ready as they’ll ever be. We’ve also spent money in the movie industry to get non-gamers ready for the ideal. The whole world isn’t ready yet, there’s more things we wish we could have done but, we simply don’t have time.” said Major Scott.

Just then Sarah and a group of men entered the room. Zack and Sarah ran towards each other and embraced, as if they haven’t seen each other in years; Sarah being more confused than Zack as the men didn’t inform her of what was going on. Sarah held her son, not wanting to let him go.

“What the hell is going on Zack!? And where the hell is Elizabeth?” asked Sarah with a tone of sadness, confusion and anger.

Zack and Major Scott explain everything that is going on, as a result Sarah broke down in tears. She thought there was no way her husband could be alive, and no way could aliens have abducted her daughter. Just then an alarm goes off. Two soldiers entered the room in a panic.

“Sir, we’ve lost communications with Mars base, it’s under attack” said one of the soldiers.