SOAR - Book One: DEAD HEROES

CHAPTER 9: THE PLANET, THE PROJECT, AND THE GENERAL

9

the planet, the project, and the general

Aloud banging noise woke Iris up with a jolt.

“RAINE! Hurry up and get dressed, we’re going to Gallfinae!” Flynn’s loud voice made her flinch due to her newly awoken ears.

“Okay.” She mumbled as she scratched her eyes lazily. She was used to getting up early and didn’t know why she didn’t that day, though she had a feeling it had something to do with the fact that she was in - what can be considered - another dimension.

She pushed herself off of the bed with a yawn and waddled to the wardrobe and threw it open. She pulled out a pair of red skinny jeans with black stripes, a bright pink, long-sleeved shirt and put a green t-shirt over it with purple socks from the drawer in the bottom. She threw the clothes on hastily, brushed her hair and then tied it with a hair tie she had on her wrist. She swung the door open and ran to the washroom where she brushed her teeth. The morning reminded her of her daily routine on outer Earth and was surprised by how normal the alien land of the Core felt to her.

After brushing her teeth, Iris padded down the stairs and ran across two halls and entered the door to her right, following the scent of something that smelled a lot like chocolate. She entered the meeting room to find that there was a plate of steaming hot chocolate pancakes awaiting her. She looked around to see that Flynn was wearing a dull gray t-shirt with a blue hooded sweater with the words, ‘ALIEN BOI!’ written on it and he was stuffing various items from his desk into his pockets.

Korwyn was wearing a plain black tank top with beige cargo pants and her black army boots. Her hair was still tied up in a high ponytail and she had her tool belt wrapped around her waist and her bag open; she was stuffing things that looked like weapons into the bag.

Wire was tapping away at his T.S.T wearing a pale blue shirt tucked into gray jeans that were being suspended by multicoloured suspenders.

Locke was wearing an outfit that looked extremely similar to his one yesterday; a black button up shirt with a yellow vest and a matching bowtie, along with a black suit jacket, black dress pants, pointed leather shoes, and his wild mop of hair.

Locke was reading a book whilst twirling himself in circles in his swivel chair but when Iris walked into the room he looked up, “Took you long enough newbie, you’re holding all of us up. Catch!” He pulled out of his breast pocket a brown paper bag. Iris caught it awkwardly using her just-woke-up reflexes.

“What am I supposed to do with this?” Iris asked Locke, holding the paper bag in front of her confusedly.

“Place the pancakes inside there. You can’t take plates through teleport machines, we’ve tried. You always end up in a diner for some odd reason.” Locke answered.

Iris looked at the brown paper bag and then at the pancakes hungrily. Locke, Flynn, Wire, and Korwyn had finished packing and were heading out the door. Iris ran to the metal desk and picked up the two pancakes awaiting her. She tossed them inside the bag hurriedly and ran after the rest of the group. She skidded to a halt as she caught up with them.

“So, what are we going to do?” She asked, munching silently on a delicious chocolate chip pancake. Flynn looked at her with a smile and his hair suddenly changed from purple into a navy blue that looked almost black. Iris stopped walking and her jaw fell open in surprise, dropping morsels of pancake onto the floor and then jumped back again as the food dissolved.

“Sorry, I never know when my hair changes and the dissolving food is just a way to keep the floors clean. Don’t worry, it’s safe.” Flynn explained as the group began to walk again and Iris took two hops to catch up. Flynn reached up and pulled the extremely floppy bits of his hair downwards to inspect it, “Hmm… Navy blue, not my colour but it’ll do.” He let go of the hair and it jumped back into place.