A Modern Day Journey To The Center Of The Earth

Chapter 4

Chapter 4:

            We all woke up enormously refreshed and headed down to a breakfast buffet down at our orientation floor. I was stuffing my face with a delicious chocolate chip muffin when mister cyborg face walked in. I herded my wandering thoughts in and kept them under check incase he was scanning my mind.

            Why what a nice shirt that is. It compliments your red little mechanical eye. I thought.

            I could have sworn he barely grinned before he launched into a lecture about responsibility and respect on our mission. I zoned out and stared at a hazy bee drunkenly buzzing around the room in the autumn heat. I bet they’ll be no bugs on our mission. Shame. What would life be without disgusting little roaches?

            “And Felicius,” Mister Cyborg Face hissed. “You can take one small animal with you, to study and understand how they adapt. You are required but limited to take one duffle bag filled with entertainment items, which we will also give you a budgeted amount of money to buy,” Blah blah blah more stuff. I had to figure out what animal to bring. A bee? No. A cat? No. A fish? No. What about a narwhal? Ok brain now you’re just being stupid.

            Everyone started shuffling their stuff together so I picked up the queue and started to leave. I packed a few yummy treats to take to my room when a platinum armadillo hand griped my shoulder.

            I whipped toward mister Cyborg Face. Everyone else had left. My stomach churned, remembering what he said yesterday. “Well just as quickly, you can be out.”

Was I off the mission?

            He flipped his eye thingy up. His piercing blue eye seemed even scarier, as if it were melting my green eyes but just meeting his stare.

            “Just for the record, I’m Dr. Cyborg Face, not mister. And you can call- think of me as Dr. Jordan. He held out a hand for me to shake. I sheepishly shook it. The platinum felt hard and cold under my skin.

            I rushed out into the hall to catch up to my friends when my foot snagged on a table leg and I sprawled out on the floor, hitting it hard. I winced and my bruised knee and heard the same lecture we just got from Dr. Jordan coming from a different room. I peeked in and made out the hair of someone our age. Everyone in there was our age, as far as I could tell from the ghostly shadows of them I saw. I smiled to myself. We did have partners! I just had to tell the others.