Machine Story

Colony Five

The bell sounded, signalling an end to another day of school. “Alright class, that’s a wrap for today’s history lesson. We will continue learning about the history between humans and the despicable Mecheons tomorrow.” Said the history teacher of the grade 10 class. All the students were gathering their things and were heading out of the room. All except one.

Siri was still packing up her books as she had to take extra notes down for today’s lesson. As she gathered everything into her bag, the teacher came up and approached her. “Siri, I see your friend David hasn’t shown up again.” Caught off guard, she tried to find her words. Before she could respond, he interrupted, “No matter, please kindly let sir David know that if I don’t see him tomorrow in class, I will have to report him to the principal’s office and have him expelled!” He immediately turns his back and leaves Siri alone to finish packing.

She stepped out of the school and back into the town known as Colony Five. It was a small establishment with a population of about 250, where everyone knew each other by name. The streets had small markets and merchants selling their goods making an honest living. Children roam around the streets freely as the adults tend to their business.

As she left the market area, she passed by the military camp. There she could see a group of teenagers on the floor doing push-ups while one man was standing and yelling orders at them. He was the commander of Colony Five’s militia and his name was Roman.

“Come on maggots, put your backs into this, we can’t be messing around! We can be attacked at any time!” Commander Roman yelled. His soldiers were working hard as he had his eyes on them the entire time making sure none of them was slacking off.

Moments after, Commander Roman was interrupted by Siri who had a question. “Oh hi Siri, what can I do for you today?” His tone completely changed from yelling to an indoor voice. “Sorry to bother you Commander Roman, but I was wondering if David has been around here?” She asked kindly.

The commander thought for a moment but could not recall seeing David in the past few hours. He then turned to his soldiers to ask them if they might have encountered him. As he turned around, he noticed one of his soldiers was no longer doing push-ups.

“WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING PRIVATE?” He yelled at the top of his lungs. “Taking a break sir! I need to be well-rested if I want to take on the future threats to Colony Five.” replied the young private named Ajay. His response caused the commander’s blood to boil, “THE ENEMY DOES NOT REST AND NEITHER DO WE! NOW DROP AND GIVE ME TWO...!” Immediately Ajay did two push-ups but the commander repeated, “TWO HUNDRED PUSH UPS!”

Realizing the commander wasn’t going to be much help, she continued along her way towards the entrance of the colony. She had a feeling David wasn’t in the colony which meant he could have only gone to one other place.