Power Relic

Chapter One: Sam and Kenneth Gusterson

Along the shores of Lake Huron, there was a quiet forest full of young trees. It was once farm land, now reclaimed by nature. Deer were grazing happily there, until they perked their heads up due to a ruckus. There were two teenagers that flew by racing each other through the forest.

Thirteen year old Sam Gusterson checked the global positioning satellite from his hover bikes monitor. His location was a yellow dot over the terrain where the match was taking place. The other player was Sam's cousin, Kenneth Gusterson, who was determined to win this match for the minor league recruiters that were watching him play.

"Don't forget to grab the flag Sammy!" A voice shouted at Sam from his bike's speaker. The voice belonged to a nine year old girl named June Peyton. She was watching the game from the beach in the company of other young people. They were all gathered with their eyes fixated upon a large screen showing the match.

Sam was well aware that he not only had to beat his cousin to the finish line, but he also had to capture a hidden flag at a location that was half way before the finish line. As this was a one versus one match there was only a single hidden flag that one player had to find and carry to the finish line.

Kenneth raced past Sam at an incredible speed with his shiny new hover bike, it was more advanced and aerodynamic than Sam's older model.

"Give it up freak boy! You don't stand a chance!" Kenneth shouted as he turned around to taunt him, but Sam would not let it phase him as he looked for the location of the hidden flag.

Sam noticed that there were many wind turbines in what was once a wind power farm. The turbines were now covered in vines and left to decay and return to nature. The flag was attached to a drone that was programmed to find a random hiding spot among the old turbines. Sam was unaware of which wind turbine the drone would be hiding the flag in. He wished that he could gain more altitude to check the top of each wind turbine but it was against the rules of the game and Sam wanted to win without cheating. While his eyes scanned the wind turbine top to bottom he did not see the "Danger do not enter" sign that was also partially covered in vines.

As Sam came close he realized the enormity of these wind turbines. He looked up and counted what must have been thirteen or more. Some were broken and did not have their tops any longer because they had fallen to the ground. Sam passed the first wind turbine and was greeted by a cloud of wasps, he turned on a shield to clear any insects in his path after the first few hit him.

The shield repelled living creatures by activating their instincts to know to move out of the way of vehicles. Sam was headed for one particular wind turbine that was much taller and larger than the others. On this very large wind turbine there were some faded markings. Sam tried to read it, but he could only make out the word "Goals."

Sam thought to himself that the word "Goals," sounded like the word that Kenneth had used many times in history class to describe a sports game's winning objective.

"There's the Goal! That's where the flag is hidden!" Sam exclaimed.

At the beach, June and many others watched as the two raced towards the wind turbines. She turned to her friend Rufus who was not watching the game at all. He seemed rather occupied with eating various snacks that came from his Food-E device, which was a form of food dispenser that materialized energy to matter.

The model of Food-E that Rufus owned came programmed with a wide array of edible items. There were also some that he had programmed into the device himself.

"Are those jelly beans Rufus?" June asked as she grabbed a handful from the devices tray.

"Yes indeed Juniper My Food-E device here comes equipped with a scanner which enables me to manually program the various delicacies that I erm uh. . . sample!" he said with a very confident tone in his voice as June scarfed down the jelly beans. Rufus continued to explain how the Food-E devices food scanner functioned.