Well, back to school far a little bit, then break again.

Welp, its Thanksgiving break, and its time to write the final project. This is going to be a good week.

Lost

                      This is a short story I wrote for a class in my local homeschool group, I thought I wouls post it here and see what you guys think of it.                                         

                                                                          

       ‘’Come on Samantha, Dad is going to town to trade those new gyro processors and that old steam engine he found,’’ Thomas called out to his sister, who had just been helping her mother do the laundry.

      ‘’Cool, we haven’t been there in a while. Let’s go,’’ she said as she ran towards their father’s flatbed truck, which he had loaded with the last month’s pickings.

       ‘’Alright, is everyone in? Good, here we go’’ their father said as the truck accelerated down the small dirt road that went from their house. As they went down the road, the sun peeked over the scrap hills of Duren, and sunlight was reflected off shiny bits of metal sticking out of the heaps, which went on as far as the eye could see. Samantha looked out of the left window, and observed some early risers like themselves going to town as well. By the time they had gotten to town, the sun had risen completely above the horizon, and several airships hovered over the city’s southern air docks, waiting for clearance to land.

‘’Okay, you two know the drill, right?’’ their father asked Samantha and Thomas as they parked the truck next to the part collectors loading dock.                                                         

      ‘’Yes sir,’’ they said together dully, ‘’don’t wander off.’’

       ‘’Good,’’ their father said as he went to help the workmen unload his truck. Thomas sighed and looked out over the people and market stalls crowding the center of town. The conflicting smells of cooking food, grease, and many other things he didn’t want to think about filled his nostrils. As he looked at the crowd, he noticed several steam men carrying large crates for some traders from another town, their joints hissing with each step they took. I wish we had a automaton like that, Thomas thought to himself, but he know they never would own one, unless they pieced one together themselves.  Their father had no building experience at all, and they barely had enough to sustain themselves, so the chance of that was very slim. There were stories of men finding fully functioning sentient automatons deep in the Hills, as collectors called the mountains of scrap, but that would never happen to them.

       When their father and the workmen had finished unloading his truck, they all got back in and headed back to their house. As they drove through the now crowded streets, several military scout walkers crossed in front of them. They were about eighteen feet tall and had two long, spider-like legs; all were made of steel and bronze, which reflected the sun’s rays like mirrors, dazzling all who looked at them.

       ‘’I wonder what is going on. The police don’t call those out for nothing,’’ their father said as they walked in front of their truck. Thomas and Samantha weren’t really listening; they were too busy looking at the walkers’ Tesla guns and rocket tubes.

       When they had gotten out of town and arrived at home, it was around midday. As they went into the house, their mother walked up to them, an angry expression on her face. ‘’Why weren’t you home earlier?’’ she demanded of her husband, as the two children, seeing their mother getting worked up into a fury, quickly went to their rooms in the loft of the house. As the sounds of their mother’s fury drifted up to the loft, Thomas and Samantha sighed and looked at each other.

       ‘’I sometimes think that Mom doesn’t care about either one of us,’’ Samantha said after some time.

      ‘’Oh, Mom doesn’t care about us. She hates us,’’ Thomas replied dejectedly. ‘’I just would like to know why. We get good grades, don’t we? We help her around the house, yet for some reason….’’ He trailed off, lost in his own thoughts. As they set about to go to sleep on their small beds, Thomas suddenly noticed that the loud shouts echoing from the floor below had subsided, and that all was quiet. He crept out of his bed and put his ear next to the opening in the floor that served as the door, and listened to his parents talking fervently.

      ‘’We need to find a way to get more money, the amount you got for those miserable parts you found was pitiful,’’ The children’s mother whispered angrily to her husband, who as sitting across for her at the table, and dreading what was coming next. ‘’We need to give the children away, or we will all starve to death. The money from those parts won’t be enough to see us through the month. We must act,’’ she said with a strange look in her eye.

      ‘’I don’t like where you are going. I will not murder my own children, even if it means we all die of starvation’’ he retorted angrily.

      ‘’Don’t be a fool! We don’t have to do it with our own hands, just take them part collecting deep in the scrap hills, and simply forget to bring them back. They wouldn’t last long,’’ she said back.

       This went on through most of the night, the children’s father supporting them, and their mother plotting their demise. At about three o’clock in the morning, they finally had an agreement: the children would be left to die in the depths of the Hills, and he and his wife would live. When morning arrived, Sam and Thomas got up expecting to go to school as usual, but their father said something at the table that surprised them.

       ‘’How would you two like to go scrap collecting with me? I know you both have been asking forever to go with me, and I have finally changed my mind about it,’’ Their father said, a forced smile on his face.

       ‘’Sure, we would love to go!’’ they said as they hugged their father. Thomas was playing along with his parent’s plan, in order for them to believe it had worked. As they got into their fathers truck, and left for a remote part of the scrap hills, their mother appeared at the door, a large smile covering her thin face as she waved goodbye.

     As they drove into the Hills, Thomas saw several other collectors like themselves digging through large piles of loose metal, small tinker bots tunneling into the mountains, and helping with the collecting. When they had gone deep into the scrap hills, which now towered over them like cliffs of steel, their father shut off the steam intake to the trucks engine and turned to his children. ‘’Okay, here is the plan; we are looking for anything of value, like small engines, computer chips, automaton parts, and other stuff like that, but I have yet to find such rare things as full steam bots,’’ he finished as he looked down at Thomas and Samantha’s faces. ‘’Well, let’s get to work,’’ he said as he went to go get his tools

       The day went by quickly as they dug through heaps of loose metal and garbage over several miles, finding only a few things of interest. At about seven thirty, their father suggested that Thomas and his sister go look to the south a-ways to see what they could find. When they disappeared over the top of particularly large mountain, their father quietly loaded up his tools and went home, his heart aching with guilt and sadness. When he got home, however, it was a different story with his wife; she was thrilled that her plan had worked so well.

       Thomas and Samantha dug for about another hour before they started back to where their father had been, but when they got there, he was gone. By this time, night had fallen, and Duren’s two moons had risen into the night sky.

     ‘’Oh no!’’  Samantha cried. ‘’Where’s Dad? He was right here an hour ago. Now we will never make it back home,’’ she said with tears running down her face.

     ‘’Don’t worry,’’ Thomas replied, ‘’as we were coming here, I dropped some of those worthless iron bars from behind our house every so often as Dad drove. The moons will shine on them and make them shine. We can follow them home,’’ he said with a sly smile.

     ‘’Oh, but why did you do that in the first place?’’ Samantha asked, astounded at his words.

     ‘’After you fell asleep, I overheard Mom and Dad talking about how to get rid of us so they could live. Dad was against it, but Mom convinced him to do it. Didn’t you notice how when he told us to dig over there, he had tears in his eyes? It must have broken his heart to leave us. Now let’s go home, it’s starting to get cold out,’’ he finished.

       They began to work their way through the massive hills of scrap, finding the bars every fifty feet or so, just like Thomas said. But unknown to them, two orange eyes followed them along their way, tracking their movements. When they had nearly reached their house several hours later, Thomas stopped his sister and told her ‘’Alright, we know it was mom who thought this up, so let’s just pretend that we somehow made it out without knowing of her plan, and we just happened to find our way home, alright?’’ he suggested to Samantha.

       She nodded in agreement, and together, they walked up the front steps of their house and knocked on the steel door.

       When the door opened, their father stood in the doorway, looking as though he had just gotten out of bed. When he saw who was on his door step, his face went from disgruntled and sad to happy and relieved. He bent down and embraced his two children, who returned his embrace with joy. Through his father’s arms, Thomas saw his mother walk into view, her expression going form shock to fury to false elation.

      ‘’You poor children, we thought you wouldn’t make it back,’’ she said with a fake smile on her face. ‘’We were just getting ready to go looking for you, but here you are, safe and sound,’’ she finished, trying to keep her composure happy, trying to hide the rising anger inside her. Their father was very much relieved that the children had made it back, but knew his wife would try to get rid of them again tomorrow. But for now, he was content again.

      When morning came, Samantha and Thomas knew that their mother would try once more to get rid of them, so when their father asked if they wanted to go part hunting with him, they accepted with eagerness. They again left the house; their mother waved them off, a sneer on her thin face.

      This time, they went a different route into the Hills, and they went deeper than yesterday. They went so far in, that when they finally stopped to start collecting, there was hardly any trace of collectors having been there. Their father once again reminded them of what they were looking for, and they began to search. After a few hours, Samantha pulled out most of a complete automaton leg from a particularly large pile of loose metal bits. Her father was very pleased, but knew the time would soon come to abandon his children yet again. At around seven thirty, the same time as the night before, he asked for his children to go looking for parts on a hill about two miles distant. Knowing his intent full well, they did as he asked, but not before they saw a small tear run down his cheek as they turned to go. They went to where their father had instructed, and found nothing of interest, and when they returned to where their father’s truck had been, it was gone.

     ‘’Oh, we are never going to make it back this time!’’ Samantha cried. ‘’We are so far into the Hills, it would take us a whole day to walk back, even if we could find our way back at all.’’

      ‘’Don’t worry, I brought some bronze bits from home and scattered them as we went,’’ Thomas said in reply, ’’We can follow them back as we did last night.’’ Thomas said in reply. But as they tried to backtrack, they couldn’t find any of the bronze scraps; the tinker bots of other scrap scavengers had found them and taken them away. Samantha sat on a large sheet of steel and began to cry. As much as Thomas tried to comfort her, he knew it would do no good, they were stuck here, and it would be a miracle if they could find their way out of this maze of metal. They wandered around the whole night and most of the next day, searching for some sign of humanity. When they had almost given up, Samantha suddenly grabbed Thomas’s shoulder and pointed and exclaimed ‘’Look Thomas, look. A house! We are saved!’’

       As they approached the house, they noticed several odd things about it, like that it appeared to have been thrown together and welded crudely to the hillside it rested against. There was also no electrical generator of any sort connected to the house. When they were only about ten feet from it, Samantha noticed several valuable bot parts stuck to the side of the house that faced them, and she reached out and took one off. As she removed the part, a loose piece of metal on the house suddenly fell to the ground, making a loud clanging sound as it hit a stray piece of iron. There was a noise from inside the house, and a voice as rough as gravel called out, ‘’What is outside my house, and why is it trying to take what is mine?’’  The two children froze with fear; whatever had spoken, it had sounded big and angry. Suddenly a door they hadn’t noticed before opened and out stepped an automaton. It was about seven feet tall and had large splotches of rust on its body, which had long spindly legs, and one arm that was shorter than the other, as though it had tried to repair itself, but couldn’t quite do it right. It towered over them, two orange eyes regarding them with something between anger and curiosity.

       ‘’What, might I ask, are two organics like you doing in this part of the hills? I have never seen anyone come out this far,’’ It said in the same gravelly voice they had heard before. ‘’And why have you attempted to de-construct my dwelling? That is not very polite, as I’m sure you know,’’ It said with slight irritation.

       ‘’Oh, are you all alone out here? Do you have no owner?’’ Thomas asked, interested in this lone automaton.

       ‘’No, I am not under the service of a human meatbag,’’ It said with sudden anger, causing the two children to back up in fright. ‘’Sorry, I did not mean to frighten you. So, why are you so far away from the company of fellow humans?’’ It asked, its voice going back to its gruff politeness.

      ‘’We are lost. We were with our father, but he forgot us when he left for our home’’ Thomas answered.

      ‘’Well, since you are here and in need of shelter, come in,’’ It said as it re-entered the dwelling, Thomas and Samantha following behind.

       It was a well-lit house, with what appeared to be a large smelting furnace in one corner, and a rudimentary table in another. There was another door at the far end of the house, which presumably led into the hill that it was resting against. Along the walls were all sorts of rare and valuable parts, and several airship engines on the floor. There were several other objects the two children had seen before, but guessed that were extremely valuable. As they walked in, the door shut behind them, causing them to spin around nervously, but the automaton called out to them, ‘’Don’t worry, you are safe in here,’’ But in its electrical mind, it was secretly delighted with its own scheming.

       Later, the automaton brought out some old canned beans, which it called ‘’organic sustenance’’ and cooked them for the two children, who were still fascinated with their surroundings. When the two children had eaten (the automaton just watched) they were shown to their room, which appeared to be another smaller workshop converted for their use. They went to bed immediately, exhausted by the last couple of days. When the automaton had seen that children were truly asleep, it went into its main workshop and began to lay out its plan, which, it told itself, was a very brilliant plan.

       When Thomas and Samantha awoke, they went into the main room of the house and found the automaton already cooking their breakfast.

       ‘’Thank you,’’ said Samantha, ‘’It was very good,’’

       ‘’You are welcome, but now, I will show you something of great importance to me. Come,’’ it said as it turned and walked towards a corner of the house. The two children followed, and it was then that they noticed a strange machine next to the smelting furnace. It was large and had long pipes and tubes coming from it; it looked as a human could easily fit in it. As they stepped closer to examine it thoroughly, the automaton steeped behind them, grabbing a bronze pipe from a nearby workbench ‘’That, young humans, is the source of my life; because I run on steam, and water is hard to come by this deep in the Hills, I require water from organic life forms to survive. I am sorry it had to be you two,’’ it finished as it smashed the pipe on the head of the very surprised Thomas. There was a sickening crack as the pipe connected with his head, and he dropped like a stone. Samantha’s strangled scream was cut short as the automaton grabbed her neck and raised her head up to his. ’’You will help me find the parts to repair the machine, or I will kill your brother, right here, right now, understand?’’ She nodded her agreement, and the automaton thrust her roughly to the ground.

       Over the course of several days, Samantha and the automaton scavenged the scrap hills for the parts, finding several of them. As they attached them, the automaton seemed to become more and more pleased with itself, and more and more impatient.  Samantha was only allowed to see Thomas when she went to bed, and that was only for a short while, but when they talked, she told him of the automaton’s plan. The mysterious machine, she had figured out, was a large dehydrator, and the automaton planned to use the machine to harvest the water from their bodies as fuel, and that they only had a few parts to collect.

    About four days after the automaton had enslaved her, it found the last part it needed. ‘’Come, young child, and fit it in for me, I wish to see it with my own eyes,’’ it said as they re-entered its house. When she took the part from its rusted hand, she knew that they were about to die.

     But luckily for her, they still needed some sheet metal to cover the innards of the machine, so the automaton fired up its smelting forge and fashioned a crude cover for it. When it had been installed, the machine called to Samantha ‘’Come and install the part for me. I cannot fit my hand into the innards now that it is covered,’’ Its eyes seemed to blaze in anger at this fact. When Samantha had almost fitted it in, she realized that the automaton was so angry and impatient, that it would kill her now instead of going for her brother, so in desperation she pretended that she couldn’t reach it either.

       ‘’Move out of MY WAY!’’ it shouted as it pushed her aside like a rag doll. It grabbed the panel covering, and with a heave, ripped off the machine. As the automaton did this, Samantha noticed that it was standing next to the opening of the smelting furnace, which it had forgotten to close. She saw this opportunity and took it. As it tossed the piece of sheet metal on the floor, Samantha sat up and rushed at the automaton, which seemed not to notice her. She smashed against it with all her strength and it was knocked clear off its feet and into the furnace, which seemed to glow brighter in welcome. It fell through the door with an animal-like cry and fell into the fiery depths of the furnace. The last thing Samantha saw before she slammed the furnace door shut was the automatons eyes, looking at her as they sank into the molten metal.

     The automaton’s last moments still haunting her, she ran from the furnace and freed her brother, who was overjoyed. Together, they gathered supplies for themselves, as well as some of the rarest and most mysterious parts and chips, and left the house. Using a crude compass they had found in the automaton’s house, they set out east, in the direction of town, but not sure they were heading there or not. After two days of this, they found themselves facing a lake of diseased water, with what appeared to be a scavenger boat floating on its surface. They called out to it, and it chugged to the shore near where they were. There was only one man on the boat, but he was a kind man, and when Thomas asked where he was from, he said he was from their home town, which not far from where they were. Thomas then asked if he could ferry them across, to which he said yes, but at a small price. Samantha then gave him two of the parts they had taken from the automaton’s house, which the man gladly accepted.

        When they had gotten off the boat and were in sight of town, they stopped to rest before entering.

       ‘’Okay,’’ Thomas said after a while, ‘’our parents are probably very sure we will never come back, so we need to be careful how we explain ourselves.’’

     Samantha agreed, and they set off towards the town. When they entered, the familiar smells in the air seemed to reinvigorate the two children, and they ran along, not noticing the brand new assault mecha on display in the town center, or the traders that would have interested them many days ago.

When they began the trek up their road, they began to wonder what their mother would say when she saw them. But as they saw their house, they noticed their father on the front porch, as though he was waiting for someone. When he saw his son and daughter, he ran off his porch to meet them. Their embrace seemed to last a lifetime, and when they finally let go of each other, they could see their father smiling through the tears in his eyes.

       ‘’Oh how, how did you make it out of there alive?’’ he asked them later, when they had all eaten some good food. As Samantha and Thomas finished explaining their tale, their father was in shock, but he had news for them as well. Apparently while they had been lost, their father and mother had gone collecting together, and she had been in such a hurry to find valuable things that she had dug at the base of and unstable hill, which had given way and crushed her to death. But none of them had been overly sad at her departure; she had made life at their home miserable anyway, and they agreed that their house was better off without her.

      Their father was speechless when he saw the parts his children had brought home with them. He knew most of them were extremely valuable parts, and would fetch a very good price. The ones he couldn’t identify, he knew were quite rare indeed, and he loved his children for it. So from that point on, Thomas, Samantha and their father lived with wealth and happiness for the rest of their days.

Okay yall, this here is my list of 10 reasons why I write.

10. To waste time on something besides school work.
9. Its good alone time to think.
8. ITS FUN!
7. Some things are just worth writing down.
6. To get the ideas out of my head so I can think straight.
5. Because I can write about whatever I want.
4. To make myself laugh at witty comebacks I write in my short stories.
3. To make my dreams come true (at least on paper).
2. So that when I have a burst of inspiration, the ideas that appear won't be gone forever.
1. To create worlds, universes, places, and people that no one else will ever take away from my mind and heart.

I think thats about it.
;)