Character Profile - Zoe Sasaki: Zoe is a 15-year-old girl. She has pale white skin, rosy cheeks and long turquoise hair that she wears in a vertical ponytail. Her hair partially covers her shiny brown eyes and she has a small pointed nose dotted with freckles. She’s 61 inches tall, just under average height for her age, though her hair makes up for it. She likes to wear hoodies, preferably blue or black, jeans, and Converse shoes. In school she’s always been above average, though she excels in the creative arts. However, due to her shy nature, she tends to stay away from performing and keeps her drawings and music, for the most part, to herself. She is also very kind natured and loves to hang out with her small group of friends.

Zoe looked around frantically for something, anything, to grab onto. She was still falling and really didn’t feel like landing head first onto whatever the ground was made from, assuming there was ground beneath her and not just an endless, bottomless pit. Then, as if someone had heard her inward cries for help, a light appeared in the distance. “What is that?” she wondered, hoping it was an angel that had come to save her and take her away to somewhere more glamorous than the black purgatory she was currently stuck in. As the light grew larger the ground beneath her became more focused and Zoe began to recognise rectangular shapes covered with yellow specks of light. That’s when she realised; “They’re buildings.” Zoe held her hair out of her eyes to get a better view of the ground. “I’m above a city.”

She was sure she would have realised this sooner if the circumstances weren’t so strange. The only noise coming from below was the faint trickling of what Zoe assumed was a river or stream. There were, based what she could deduce from so high up in the air, no people walking around, no cars or trains transporting commuters from A to B. Nobody. The place was empty. This confused Zoe even more. “Surely this place has been abandoned,” she thought; “But if that’s the case, why are there still lights on? Who would spend all that money powering an abandoned city?”

Zoe was now only about 1000 metres from the ground and had a clear view of what she was going to land in. Her guess that she was above a river was correct, and she was very relieved to find this out. “I just have to make sure I don’t move too much,” she said to herself reassuringly. “As long as I land in the water I’ll be fine.” On either side of the river there was nothing but buildings at least 50 metres high. However, almost as if it were on purpose, there was a small gap, an anomaly in the wall of buildings, that was low enough for Zoe to be able to climb onto after she landed in the water. “If I can just reach that ledge I can find somewhere safe to rest. Then all I have to do is find out where on Earth I am, assuming I am still on Earth.”

Zoe put her plan into action. She had never been one for swimming but understood the basics. She stretched her arms out above her head and pointed her fingers to make herself as streamlined as possible for when she landed in the river. She was nearly at water level. Concentrating hard she kept looking either side of where she wanted to land, making sure she wasn’t about to crash straight into the top of one of the buildings. Then, with a tremendous splash, she landed in the water. Zoe hissed in pain, realising that the water was much colder than she had expected it to be. She quickly swam to the surface and made her way to the ledge. She grabbed onto the stone and pulled herself up to safety. The water had soaked her clothes and she was now freezing in them. She pulled her hoodie and t-shirt over her head, wrung them out and tied them around her waist in an attempt to stop the water making her any colder than she needed to be.

Zoe looked around at her new surroundings. For the most part, the three walls that towered above her were blank and grey. However, one of them had a set of metal stairs on the side that zigzagged up the concrete leading to a small wooden door. After a while Zoe decided it was time to stop resting and that she should try to find out what was going on. She stood up and walked over to the stairs. Cautiously, she lifted one foot and pressed it onto the first step. Zoe shrugged; “Seems stable enough” and she continued up the stairs to the doorway.

Soon Zoe made it to the door. Instinctively, she tried twisting the knob to open it, but it didn’t. She tried again, shaking the door more vigorously than before. Still, it didn’t open. Zoe stood back from the door, defeated. She had no idea what to do next. The only other place to go was back into the river and she didn’t feel like doing that anytime soon. Then, she heard something. Zoe moved closer to the door. “What is that?” she wondered. She pressed her ear up against the wood and closed her eyes in an attempt to maximise her hearing. There was a strange sound coming from inside the building. Zoe concentrated more; it sounded as if someone were hitting a metal bar against stone, but the sound came in pairs and it repeated itself over and over. Bu-bump, bu-bump, bu-bump, bu-bump. Then it happened. Zoe felt the door move; it swung open so suddenly that she didn’t have any time to respond. Her feet span around on the spot causing her to fall. She hit her head on the ground; then, slowly, everything faded away. She’d fainted.