Road Runner
The sun is shining, falling prettily on the flowing, green leaves of spring. The birds are chirping, and there is a nice little breeze dancing across the field . . . I wish.
Instead, I am in a landscape with bursts of bubbling lava filled with the scent of sulfur so strong my eyes water, and where there is a steep slope that is the only way to get out: up.
Star Lily agents surround me, guns pointed straight at the left side of my chest. On my black suit, parts are slightly ripped open where some agents foolishly tried to kill me. Obviously, they failed. The bullets rebounded off my high-tech black suit that is covering every inch of my body except my jet black ponytail, and that was the distraction I used to escape into this volcano.
The present Star Lilies start to circle me, and I slowly raise my gloved hands, faking surrender. As they close in, I give each agent a look they’ll never forget, and I sink through the floor. No, I sink into the cracked ground of the bubbling volcano on Pico Island, and I escape the clutches of these people again.
In case you are wondering at this point, the Star Lilies are secret agents on the run to end my life in a terrible and tortuous way. The agents are all part of an organization called T.A.P.E: Talented Agents Pursuing Ecology. Totally random, and not true at all. I’ve heard the boss is a guy, and none of the agents have actually ever seen him, because he’s always a silhouette.
By the way, the agents are not all called Star Lilies. There are different levels judged on each agent’s skill and experience. From lowest to highest, the ranks are as followed: Dandelions (also known as the “Weedlings”), Baby’s Breath, Violets, Carnations, Azaleas, Roses, and finally, Star Lilies. Lately, it’s been all Star Lilies chasing me. Great.
I drop down to the top-secret level below the main ground of the volcano that T.A.P.E. uses, and started sprinting, following the dark, damp passageways I memorized a couple months ago. Metal encrusted dirt walls loom over me, casting barely-there shadows underneath my feet. As I jog around the next turn, I spot a tad of laser-beam red. That’s smart, there’s a glowing sign saying ‘Exit’. No wonder the people running this joint are a bunch of buffoons, I think to myself.
Entering the outside world, I squint as the bright sunlight pierces my vision. Now, where in the world did I come out? According to watch (that has a GPS in it), I’m a forest away from a car. Huh, I must have over-calculated something. Too late now. I run toward the tangle of trees, and shimmy up one. Then, hopping from tree to tree like monkey through the jungle, I look behind me to check the Star Lilies’ progress. A couple are already streaming out of the volcano, looking burnt and, I have to admit, rather mad and dangerous.
Suddenly, a branch whips across my face, making me fall to the ground in a flurry of leaves, yelping. Unfortunately, those people over there spot me right away because of that. Shouting, they rush through the dense forest as fast as they can (which isn’t very fast, believe me), and I hurry my way out of the bushes.
Hopping into my specially-designed, camouflaged black car, I put my keys into the ignition and the engine sputters to life. I speed off, and as I look into the rearview mirror, agents are getting into their cars as well. Looks like they made it out of the jungle after all. No problemo. I turn on the holographic image projector, and show myself teleporting away. Soon after, I put a holographic boulder in the road, just to be safe. Done.
I speed up even more, still watching to make sure the Star Lilies are well out of my way. Sadly, they all swerve around the boulder. The agents must have figured out something. To my defense, it was only the size of a small living room chair. What do you expect? The projector was out of battery!
The agents all start to send the wings of their cars out, making every car look like a small jet. They rise into the air slowly but surely, speeding up as they get higher in the air. Guns emerge from the passenger and driver windows of the cars, all pointing at my tires.
Idiots. I think. Bullets fly at my wheels, but I don’t break a sweat. The tires are bulletproof, and bounces back any projectile, so the bullets fly right back at the floating cars. Each one of them explodes, leaving a puff of smoke and debris sitting in the air like a cloud. Hm, must have been explosives.
As I open the sunroof, I slip on my sunglasses, allowing my eyes to get used to the change in light. Poking my head out, I wave a peace sign smugly over at the piles of smoking ash, and then hit the Zoom, Zoom! button on my high-tech car, speeding off into the distance with a trail of purple and blue light streaming behind me like a flame. This is how we do it, I think proudly to myself, humming the song in my head.
Star Lily
I glare down at my screen sitting before me, noticing that three of my 279 cars have been exploded. That stupid Road Runner, how dare she play me like that! I think angrily to myself. I spin around, making my flaming red hair slap against my face. I blow on it to get it out of my mouth, then continue on.
“Jerry, how is the mission going?” I ask one of the many Carnations. I don’t think he understands me, my Irish accent being heavy.
He jerks his head up from his computer screen nervously, pushing his glasses up towards the bridge of his nose. He shakes his head the slightest bit, then answers, “Just fine, Miss Aget. Did you finally get Amaryllis Diem?”
“Is that your business?” I reply darkly, showing I am not in a stellar mood. I whip around and march away with my red pumps clacking with every step. I roll my eyes when he cannot see, and walk to the next office.
Suddenly, I hear a beep in my bluetooth device. Jobe tells me I need to gather Nick Spart and Wanda Smith and go up to his office on the 100th floor. Nick was in the weaponry development section, and Wanda was in the training gym. After I contact both of agents, I meet up with them in front of the elevator leading to the 100th floor.
Jobe is an unknown human being. Everybody knows that he is human, but we do not know his first name, his voice and I’m not even sure it’s a ‘he’. Jobe always uses a fake silhouette when speaking to his (or perhaps her) advisors, or anyone for that matter, and the voice Jobe uses sounds fake. ‘Jobe’ is just a name we use to call this mysterious person that’s our boss. We are all 100% positive that his last name is Jobe, so we call him that rather than always saying ‘Boss’.
The clear elevator transports us to the top floor of the agency. Nick, Wanda, and I all stare at each other, the ground, and the ceiling in complete silence, and in the background, classic elevator music plays. A couple seconds pass, feeling like hours, and a monotone voice declares, “Arriving at floor 100, prepare to exit.” Transparent, glass doors silently glide open, and before us is a dimly-lit room with several straight-backed chairs.
There is a screen sitting in the front of the room with a man’s silhouette. On the screen, a round, white light circles the outside of the shadow. Even though I can’t see Jobe, I know that his eyes are piercing me in the gut.
“I’ve been expecting you,” Jobe says seriously, almost gravely. Jeez, after hearing him say that, I started to think about how much I’ve been dying to turn around in a big black chair and say that while twiddling my fingers.
“What do you need us to do?” Wanda asks.
“Road Runner, also known as Amaryllis Diem. She reminds me of a spider. Spineless, weak, and useless with too many tricks up her sleeve. Every time I see her, I want to just step on her and squish her into a pile of bloody mush, hearing nothing but a scream before her fate reveals itself. But I can’t do that if you keep letting her out of my hands! Cass, you’re the top Star Lily, yet she always manages to escape your carefully constructed plans. So, this time, I’m taking matters into my own hands. You have one week’s time to bring her to me, or, kill her slowly and painfully for me. We have a Dandelion, a Carnation, and finally, my best Star Lily. Yes, you, Cassiopeia, your skills combined with the others should be an effortless mission.”
Why does he have to use my full name? I haven’t heard that since elementary school! I think to myself. Call me Cass, moron.
“So we have the option to kill her ourselves or to bring her to you to do it?” Wanda, being a Dandelion, asks.
“That is correct, Weedling,” Jobe responds, “And I will be very, ah, disappointed if you cannot complete your mission. You know what happens to those who I am disappointed in, no?”
I gulp. “Yes, Boss.”
“Now, that is all.” The screen fades out, leaving us sitting in the silent, dark room, wondering what will happen to us in the future.
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