Photos

I turn on my TV as my photos developed. I had what many considered an odd hobby for a teenage boy to have. I don't know why taking artistic polaroids was considered weird for a teenage boy to have as a hobby, but it just was. I then snap out of my thoughts and turn my attention back to the TV as the 4 o'clock news came on. It was always the same, but it always sucked me in for some reason. It started with the date, year, month, and day of the week, today's is Saturday, January 22, 2077. Then the leading, most important story came on, this is the part the always enthralled me.

"Gas is now up to five dollars a gallon in most places in the United States. This is because of the Syrian-Afghan War taking place over the last remaining oil reserves on the border. Scientists predict that once this last big gas reserve is tapped into that we will have 5 years until we are out. Many have predicted that this day will hold the greatest war in history. The last drops will herald a new age of civilization. A new age of either an age clean energy or an age of recovery, whether that be from the greatest war or from energy deprivation our civilization will surely suffer. With news on the war that is going on now from the front lines is Scott."

"Thanks Jenn. The United States has recently joined the war on the Syrian side. This is a last second attempt to keep Syria's democracy intact and not get overrun by the Afghan dictatorship. Ever since America started helping the Syrians with their government back in 2033 the United States and the Syrians have been great allies. After becoming great allies with Syria the price of gas dropped in the United States, and cause the United States to stop buying gas from Russia entirely causing a further drop in the Russia's currency, the Ruble. Joining the war accidentally backfired on the Americans though, due to Russia joining the Afghan side in an attempt to get their currency to come back up and buy what is left of their barreled oil. After about a week after the United States joined the war they have pushed back the Afghan and Russian armies back about one hundred miles. One of the main weapons that helped to do this is sitting right behind me," Scott says as he gestures to the desert camouflaged vehicle behind him, "This is the new L-121, a compact, close combat, fighter tank that uses the latest in laser technology to take down aircraft, tanks, and wipe out whole lines of troops. Back to you Jenn for the weather."

"Thanks Scott," Jenn said as I turned off the TV. I went to go check on the developing photos and saw that they are done. I started to look at the dry photos on my couch. All of the pictures of the park turned out nice, well almost all of them. In some of them there was a blue aura around a person in the photograph. Taking a closer look at the photographs I saw that it was all the same person, more specifically a male teen. I decide to look for this teenager, for I was sure I could find him, and I wanted to know why there was a blue aura around him. I walked to the first place I found him, picture in hand, the park that was two blocks from my house. I sat down on an old, wooden bench and started to scanning the park for the teen in the grey sweatshirt with a picture of a beaver and the word 'Roots' on the front in blue felt to contrast the grey. Then I saw what I thought was him sitting on the ledge of the fountain playing with the water. I walk up to the fountain area and sit down on a bench. Holding up the photo of the teen earlier and confirm that it is him. I approach him saying,

"Hey, what is your name?" He jumps at my voice, splashing water on me. He looks away from the water to look me in the eye and say with anger,

"Go away."

"No, there is something different, something special about you. I want to know it, because I know that you know," I say with conviction. He clenches his fist and says again,

"Go away, you will never know." Contemplating showing the photo I say,

"Oh, so you admit that there is something special about you." He looked down into the water, I could sense his mood changing and said,

"I never said that, you are simply twisting my words, so I ask again, go away."

"I will go away when you tell me."

"I have nothing to tell."

"I believe you do."

"If I did have something to tell you, why should I?"

"Because of this," I say as a show him my ace in the hole, the photo.

"How, how did you get this, my aura isn't supposed to show up in photos. That’s what they told me!"

"Slowdown, who is they?"

"I have said too much already, I must go." I am suddenly hit with a lot of water that he must have grabbed from the fountain. After regaining my sight I grab my photo which had fallen to the ground and chased after the teenager. The kid was headed off into the government section of the town away from my house. The tall buildings loomed closer as I chased after the kid. He was faster than me so I decided to use technology to my advantage. I pressed a silver button that I had attached to my chest, by pressing the button I called my hoverboard to my position. I keep running toward the teenager, who keeps getting further away with each step. Then I hear a familiar whir behind me, I speed up my run knowing that I will not have to run for much longer. As I am running my board comes up beside me. I time my jump between steps and hop on to my hoverboard. I lean to my target, the teen, to tell the board where to go. I finally start to gain ground on the teen, but now we are in the government district now, the most urban of the districts and the busiest. I step down with my back foot, making my board careen upwards into the sky. I had almost lost the teen but I spotted him from high up due to his contrast of everyone else's suits. I aim to cut him off by seeing which building he is headed for. To me it looks like he is headed for the only deli in the government district, which was conveniently for its business located next to the biggest government building and the biggest hospital. I press my front foot down causing a steep, fast, forward decline towards the deli. It was going to be close, but I managed to spin in front of the door just in time to cut him off.

"Hey! Get out of my way! You don't know what you're messing with!" the teen yelled at me. I looked around and noticed the crowd was starting to back away as if this had happened before. Suddenly an explosion happened to the left of me throwing me into the wall and away from my hoverboard. I tried to get up to stop the teen from getting away, as he was still standing firm on his feet, but I couldn't move. As I watched from the sidelines as a man did what I tried to do, block the teen's path. I could see that the man was saying something but I couldn't seem to hear him anymore. The man then distracted the teen as another man snuck up from behind him and picked him up. Then the man came over to me and was now close enough for me to read his lips which said,

"Thanks for your help kid. You created the distraction we needed, but you've seen too much so we have to bring you to our place. We will fix you up." The man then picked me up causing almost enough pain to make me blackout. Out of the corner of my eye I see the man motion for someone to get my hoverboard. The man then walked over to a helicopter that was hovering a foot above the ground. Placing me on the floor of the helicopter he and then the guy with my hoverboard jumped in. The world started to go black. I was just conscious enough to feel the helicopter take off. The last thing I saw before the world went dark was a medic standing over me.