HighRise

‘I, Misti Tisha Raze, the only child of Trent and Tisha Raze solemnly swear to pay my loyalties to the O.A.T.H. I swear to protect and deliver the messages of the O.A.T.H. I swear to secrecy of the O.A.T.H, the whereabouts of its head-quarters and the whereabouts of its members and allies.’

‘I, Duece Zachary Warren, leader of the O.A.T.H’s S-Squad, hereby announce you, Misti Tisha Raze, a member of the O.A.T.H.’ he dropped the strong voice and continued in a gentler one, ‘welcome.’

The large booth I was standing on lowered to the ground, mirrored by Duece’s on the other side. He walked towards me while I waited, holding my breath. I was brave, heck yeah, but not when I didn’t know what to expect. He stood in front of me and nodded his head. Nearing the door of the room, he looked towards the right side of it, where an odd shaped device was on the wall. A laser shot out of the odd box and aimed towards Duece. I was about to jump at the laser but the door opened and Duece led me out of the large room, into an even larger room. I gazed around in awe. Even for 2121 this was next level. Around 50 people sat on platforms that moved without instruction. They all had dozens of wires around their heads, but not attached, just floating around them. Most people were busily staring at their screens, where words were appearing without any typing. The few that weren’t working looked towards me lazily and sent me small smiles that I returned graciously.

‘You, I’ve seen you before somewhere...’ the girl put a finger to her temple, trying to recall where she had seen me. I knew where this was going…

‘Erm… yeah… well… I’m Misti Raze-’

‘Daughter of Trent Raze! What are you doing here? We do not associate with the filthy Razes!’ She set her face into a scowl and looked at me with disgust, as though I was a bit of rubbish off her shoe.

Duece spoke before the girl could make any move towards me,’ Calm down Tessie! Tessie, this is Misti’ he pointed towards me,’ Misti this is Tessie,’ he pointed towards her. A look of envy and revulsion shot through her eyes, but was quickly replaced by a fake warm happiness. I could tell from the look on her face that she was going to be a handful but-

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

My train of thoughts was cut off by an annoying and extremely loud beeping. Small holes appeared in the ceiling and large fishbowl shaped glass pieces descended from them and were placed above everyone. Everyone but me pulled down the bowls and attached them to their suits. Click! Click!’s everywhere. Before I could argue, Duece pulled the bowl that was floating above me, onto my head and clasped it into the neck of my suit. Click Click! He turned me around and flicked a switch on the back of my suit. My mask began to fill with oxygen.

I learnt in History that since the human race moved to the moon, which we now call Sinec, in 2053, we developed a lot. But, even though we could now control computers and machines without the need for physical movement, we still needed oxygen to breathe- oxygen that wasn’t in Sinec’s atmosphere.

My train of thoughts was once again interrupted, but this time by a sickeningly bright neon white light. A gate (that I hadn’t realised was a gate) opened up on the far side of the room. A large black silhouette blocked a lot of the light but the light still pierced its way through the room. It was impossible to make what or who was blocking the light. The silhouette continued forward into the room until the shape of a human was visible. Yet, no features could be made out, I couldn’t tell if it was a man or a woman, or something completely different for that matter. You never know what to except on Sinec!