Daniel lay in the grass looking at the clouds. School was for jerks. School and learning and P-scores and being a happy citizen: these things were already over for him anyway and he decided he wanted to have fun or at least not listen to Mr. Trotter tell him about what a screw-up he was and would continue to be.
On a test day it was relatively easy to sneak away and ditch the second period. In fact, it was almost expected that some students would be missing— it gave the teachers a chance to grade.
Shawn and Len were over by the creek messing around with some stick and a turtle but all Daniel wanted to do was look at the sky. He watched the clouds. There was a huge white one that looked like a tiger—a tiger about to eat a grape.
“Dan, get over here,” Shawn screamed.
Shawn, get bent! Daniel thought. Damn, what did he want now?
“Dan!” Shawn screamed again.
“What, Shawn? What the f—- do you want now?” Dan screamed back. Sometimes he just hated Shawn.
“Check it out,” Len yelled.
Daniel wondered. Len was usually pretty trustworthy insofar as stuff that Daniel should look at so maybe it was important. He opened his eyes. He did not sit up though. He just opened his eyes.
That’s when the boom happened. It was loud. So loud that when it was over, Daniel found himself standing on both legs looking at the sky. And there it was— the hover-car.
“Dude, is that—?” Shawn wondered out loud.
They all knew what it was. They had been taught about the F-650 series their whole lives. They knew how fast they flew and they knew about sonic booms. They knew who built them. They knew just about every detail that the Alliance would reveal. They also knew who flew them: Champions. They just never thought in their entire lives that they would ever see one here—that an F-650 series would ever have any reason to visit Territory Five.
“Oh—!” Len stammered. But they all knew what he was trying to say: that this was a truly awesome experience that might also be extremely scary.
Daniel caught himself. No, he thought, I am not scared, he decided. This is lame. Being scared is lame.
“Who cares?” he declared. “Stupid Alliance.”
Len and Shawn looked at him. They knew that this was something that Daniel’s grandpa might say—just words to look like he wasn’t going to be impressed by something so cool. Len rolled his eyes. Shawn couldn’t let it go.
“Shut up. This is awesome,” Shawn stated defiantly.
“You think that’s awesome? You’re lame, Shawn,” Daniel corrected. “Absolutely lame.”
“Better get a good look, Dan. May be the only one you ever see. Not too many come to the Territory,” Shawn retorted. “And after today, this is where you’re gonna stay.”
Daniel was stunned. He could feel his checks getting hot and red. He hated Shawn for saying that but he knew it was true. He would never leave the Territory. He was stuck. Daniel could see the hazy outline of the Force Wall off in the distance. It kept out radiation and the Outlanders but now it seemed it was there just to keep him in. He walked away from his friends.
Stupid losers, he thought, getting patriotic and crap for a bunch of government flunkies. Probably some bureaucrats coming out to check on the rations —making sure nobody gets off easy this season, he decided. Nobody important. Why would anybody important come out here, he asked himself.
He looked at the hover-car traveling across the sky. He squinted one eye and raised his thumb and forefinger, angling just right to make it look like the hover-car fit right between his fingers. That’s right— nothing important, he thought. Dumb Alliance flunkies just coming out to raise some stupid problems. He squinted his eyes and concentrated on the hover-car. He squished it with his fingers.
And that’s when it happened: the second boom. The hover-car, up in the distance so far away drifting through the air, exploded. Just at the moment of being squished between Daniel’s fingers.
Boom.
Len, Shawn, and Daniel watched as it shattered into a million bits out of the explosion. The largest section flipped downward with a black cloud of smoke and fire trailing it. It seemed to happen in slow motion. They couldn’t move. They watched with widening eyes unable to close. The crash of the debris knocked them off their feet as they grabbed their ears and fell on the ground.
Len and Shawn immediately started to run for the school— wanting to see their classmates, their teachers. They wanted to get away from this horror.
Daniel stood in shock. He watched the smoke trail as burning debris fell into the valley and he was truly, truly scared. Oh no. He had done that. Oh no. How? It didn’t make sense. He had crushed that hover-car in his fingers and it exploded. He had done that. It was his fault. He stood in a silent shock watching the smoke in the air and then he ran.
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