Star Hunters

A Story by StarHunter

Ben is 16 years-old and lives in a dystopian world. Something tragic happens and changes his life for the better or worse

The sound system blared into my ears and displayed the message, “WAKE UP BEN.” I could hear clatter in the kitchen and my family talking and laughing. I slowly lifted myself out of bed and rubbed the sleep out of my eyes. I told EMIM to turn on the shower to 70% warmth. EMIM is an artificial intelligence system that stands for Entertainment Maintenance and Intellect Mechanism. Everyone has one these days. After taking a shower and getting dressed I strolled into the kitchen and saw my Mom typing something in midair as if she were at a computer. I opened EMIM's calendar. It was a standard calendar that would display an animation depending on the event. There was a light blue outline on todays date and displayed an animation of a birthday cake's candles being lit. I totally forgot that today was my birthday. Most people don't remember their birthdays anyway, it has been on of the many things that have lost significance over the years. Everyone figured that it was just a random day that no one really wants to spend the time and money on. I sat down on a half-broken wooden chair and opened a breakfast pack distributed by the government. “Good Morning Ben.” displayed on my eyes. It was a message from my sister Yui. Even though she was right next to me, she sent messages because talking is also a thing that lost purpose. “Good Morning,” I messaged back. This was the last time I spoke to my sister. I ate my breakfast pack which contains small pieces of dried fruit and stale oats. I strapped on my oxygen mask and took an oxygen pack with me as I opened the door to take a walk. My neighborhood is more like a junkyard than anything. There's a couple of other trailers and small houses but thats about it. No parks, or pools, or baseball fields. Nothing. As usual, no one was outside, so I continued walking to my favorite(and only) place. It was a pile of antiques like TV's, Playstations, XBOX's. All stuff that people in the 2010's used for entertainment. I like this spot because of all the old stuff I can find. My oldest and most impressive find was a touchscreen cellphone from 2015. When my Mom found it she sold it for money without asking, but I didn't mind much. Then, I spotted a black dot racing towards me about 1,000 yards away. I could tell my the jagged shaped logo that it was a government issued ship. Nothing fancy like in the old 1900's movies Star Wars. More like a plane except jet-black, flatter, faster, and can sustain space and atmospheres. They usually only come to drop of food packs but this ship looked different. As it zoomed closer I realized what kind of ship it was. My hands looked liked I had just washed them from how much sweat my body was creating. I hardly anytime to think. The ship was roughly 400 yards away and getting closer and faster. I suddenly run to the junk pile and pried open all the junk as much as I could and barely slipped myself inside it. The plane had another logo on it, it was a series of lines overlapping each other. The old word for it was an asterisk. The logo mean that there was a star bomb issued on the plane. The name is self-explanatory, a bomb that can destroy a star. I heard the booming turbulence from the plane as it surged over me. And then a sound emitted from the sky, it was an iconic sound feared by everyone. Similar to a LEVEL UP effect from video games. And then everything went white, then black, then dark purple. Then black.