Historical Holograms From A Runaway Punk

Finally, we reached the last road that would take us to the lighthouse, and I got a good whiff of salty air that tickled my nose. I’ve never seen the ocean myself, so I was excited too.

Later on, I saw a tall white peak jutting up out of the horizon and heard water crashing in the distance. This part of the world differed from where we originally came from. But I welcomed this foreign territory; it felt so open and free with no walls and Skypoes!

Our new seaside village was getting organized quickly so that people could set up and build their new homes. Zi-Yen and I struggled to put our giant green fabric tent house together. But Zora came right over and quickly snapped it in place.

“Where did you learn how to do that?” I asked her.

“The Marine Corps. Learned from the best,” she said, then walked away.

“The what?” I asked Zi-Yen.

“Military, before us,” Zi-Yen said with pride.

I wondered about that. What did she do in the military?

That night I ventured out to check out the ghostly white-painted lighthouse and climbed the stairs to the top where the light used to shine. Zi-Yen followed me. Once I got to the top, I saw the glass was busted, and giant jagged, dirty shards replaced what used to be a nice clean glass panel.

I traced a jagged shard with my finger, creating a cut that started to bleed. Some of the blood got onto the Mil-RAT I was holding in my hand, and it began to vibrate. A little side flap opened up and shined a hologram map right in front of Zi-Yen and me. I recognized that it was a map of Tech City, got angry, and threw the ball off the ledge of the lighthouse, never wanting to return to that city.

“It’s a map! I show mom!” said Zi-Yen chasing after it.

I sat down on the ledge and looked out across the ocean, listening to the ocean waves crashing on the beach. Then I heard Zora calling, “King, come down here, please.” But I refused to move.

I heard Zora come up the stairs and then sit down right next to me. She signed a big sigh and then said, “I see you are not happy about something. Is it because of this?” She tried to give me the Mil-RAT, but I did not want to touch it.

“I see,” she said.

“I don’t care about Tech City,” I said.

“Zi-Yen said he saw a map. Did you see it too?”

“Who cares?”

“I do. It’s still our home. That’s where we came from.”

“Why do you care? You were exiled. You’re never going back.”

“If this is a map to the underground of Tech City, then we have a chance to take back the city from Mayor Sye.”

“Why, when we have so much more freedom out here? We can move anywhere. We can go where ever. We get to be around nature. There is nothing like this in Tech City,” I said, getting sad and realizing how much the city was more like a trap.

“Because, King, good people are still living inside the city. They deserve to have freedom, too,” she said.

I felt a loss for words because I knew she was right. She held out the Mil-RAT again in front of my face, “So take this back and come back down to get some rest. We have a journey ahead of us.”

I reluctantly grabbed the ball out of her hands and was left to be by myself. I didn’t think of all the other people trapped by Mayor Sye; I was only thinking of myself. I thought that maybe my mother would know more about this Mil-RAT. I climbed my way back down the lighthouse knowing we were one step closer to finding my mother.