HUMANS VS ROBOTS

                                                                                 CHAPTER 1

                                                       The Juice 

  “Go do your homework.” said Nick`s mom. It was almost 9:00pm and he needed to go to bed. “Almost finished!” replied Nick. After a few minutes, Nick finished his homework and went to bed.  He thought about the day ahead in school. He had a big math test coming up that counted for 25% of his grade. His mom made him practice a lot in the past few weeks. He also had a big basketball game to determine whether or not he would go into the playoffs.

 The next morning when his alarm went off, he went downstairs to eat. “Do you think you are ready for the big math test?” Nick’s mom asked. Nick was not thinking about that. He was feeling worried whether or not he would go into the playoffs. “I`m fine.” he said. Even though he did not feel great about the math test he was glad that math was the last thing of the day. 

Once he got out of the car, he walked to his class. Everyone was talking about the big math test. He met his friend Travis in the classroom. “Are you good?” he asked. “Yeah.” he lied. He sat down at his desk. “Time to do writing!” said Mr. Patrick, their teacher. “Now get out your two page summary on insects that you wrote on the weekend.” Nick did that over the weekend. Next class he went to P.E. “This is how to do a crossover.” said the gym teacher. Nick already knew how to do a crossover. He was bored out of his mind. “Now let’s play a game.” Their team won 55-43. They were going into the playoffs!  

                                                                  . . .   

It was recess and Nick and Travis got a basketball and started playing. Nick scored a mid-range shot with Travis not even defending him as he said “You need to improve your defending skills!” Travis was okay at basketball but really good at football. 3…2….1! “Buzzer beater!” Nick exclaimed as he hit a step back jumper. 

Back at class it was the end of the day and so they had math time. “Get out your computers for the math test!” their teacher said. Nick was both worried and scared. He got out his computer and started the test. Once he finished the test he looked at his score. It was a really bad score. 27/35. He asked other people and their scores were much higher. Like 33/35. 

When Nick got home he told his mom his math score and she was very disappointed. She said he needed to practice more math to get better at it. He did his homework (which was dividing a decimal by a decimal) and went to bed after brushing his teeth. 

The next day at school they did not have a test. But, Nick was reminded that he was going to have a test tomorrow. It was test week.  All the grades from 2-5 had to take the test. Nick did not want his writing test to turn out like his math test. 

 “Come on, it’s recess time!” said Travis after they finished doing the science block. “Let’s play basketball! Nick was not in the mood to play basketball but he said “sure” anyway. Outside he was not his usual self. The score was 2 to 12 and Travis was winning. “What has happened!” he said. “You usually win.”Nick battled back but he still lost. He only  allowed 2 more points. The score was 10 to 14. He was more depressed now that he lost. He just hoped that he got a perfect score so that all his depression would go away.  “Why do we have to have so many tests?” Nick thought. Back at his house he told his mom that he had another test tomorrow. “You need to practice handwriting so you will do better. You don’t want it to turn out like the math test.” 

So Nick studied super hard that evening.  When he went to bed he felt very confident about his writing test. He almost felt like he would get a perfect score on the test. Now he did not feel mad anymore.

The next morning it was almost test time. He got ready for the test and started. At the end he got 15/16. He still wanted to improve on his next test which would be the science test. At recess he played basketball with Travis. He was in a much better mood so he played better and more enthusiastically in basketball. The score was 15-22. And out of nowhere he realized that there was only one week of school left!! 

Back at home Nick’s mom was really happy. She was proud that he improved his score compared to the math test. “And I totally forgot that it is the last week of school! 

The next day of school was fun. All they did was watch movies and eat popcorn. They also had extra recess time. Nick got 59 points this time because they had recess for one hour. “Man, you’re on fire!” Travis said. “How did you get that good at basketball all of the sudden? “Well how did you get 47 points?” “Well…. there was one hour of recess today… but”  Travis` sentence was cut off by Nick. “Exactly!” “ But as I was saying that it was only double recess time and you usually only score twenty points.” “ So you only should get around forty points.” “Maybe I just came up clutch today,” said Nick. 

The science test was coming up. Nick was pretty confident about the test to begin with because he got all A+ on his regular quarter tests. But just in case he studied a little bit for the science test. His mom was very proud of him.

The next day Nick looked at his test score after he took the test. He did not keep his hopes high up. But it was a good score. It was a great score. It was an epic score. It was a phenomenal score! A perfect 33/33! He was sure he got the best score in his class. It had to be! Nick was so happy that he nearly fell off his chair and screamed “ I got a perfect score on the last test of the year!” 

After, he got some juice because he was thirsty.

  He got some juice and drank it. It tasted weird. Then a voice came from inside his head.             “AAHH!” Nick screamed.

                                  CHAPTER 2

Clueless            

Everyone looked at Nick like he was crazy. “Go home.” said the voice. He did not know why, but his legs already lifted him up and before he knew it he was running. He did not know where but he was happy that he did not have to go to school for a long time. Or maybe he would never go there again. “Never go there again.” “Who are you anyway?” asked Nick. “Wait patiently,” “and you will figure it out.” “Where should I go?” “And why am I not getting tired?” “Oh, now you can run miles and miles and never stop.” “WHAT! Nick screamed. “ What did that juice have in it?” “It had powers.” “Whoever drank it first would get the powers.” “And I was really glad it was you.” “But why were you glad it was me?” “Like I said you will figure it out!” The voice was very agitated. “Why are you inside my head, and how is it possible?” The voice sounded madder than ever. “I told you you will eventually know!”  “ What is my name?” asked Nick. He was now too mad.  “Nick.” Nick was so surprised that he was still running and that the voice knew his name that he almost tripped over a log. Nick was in the middle of the woods for all he knew. But he knew he needed to know how to get back to school. He stopped. He looked at the dirt and saw his footprints. That was it! He could retrace his footsteps back to his school! He started following in his footsteps and then crashed into…air? How could that be possible? “Never go to that school ever again.” “It is very, very dangerous. ”said the voice. But why? The voice answered that question.  “They were trying to kill you.”

                                                                            .    .   .

It was night time and Nick thought about what the voice said. Why was the school trying to kill him? What did he do? Can the voice even be trusted? Nick had so many questions. But he did not dare to ask any of those questions to the voice. Or anybody. Then he had a great idea.  If the voice was someone that had to sleep he could not make an invisible force field. So he got up in the darkness. It was a big risk. What if he tripped over a log?  He built up his courage and started running. He was free! “That was easy!” “What’s the voice going to do now?” BONK!

AAAAAAAH! Nick fell to the floor with a deafening thud. “You thought you could get to school like that?” Nick could not listen because of the sharp pain in his head. He still did not know how the voice could do that. “What is your name?” Nick managed to wheeze out. “My name, you ask?” “ It will surprise you very much.” “You will be very happy.” Nick was already happy. “So what is it?” “I am not going to tell you.” Nick`s excitement quickly went down the drain. “Why not?” “Fine, I will tell you my name. My name is Arnold. Arnold Warren.”

Nick gasped. “Not you.” It can not be you.” “ Oh, yes it is.”  “But I thought you were dead!” said Nick. “Nope. “ People thought I was dead when I did not come back home.” His voice sounded more calm as he spoke. “I just got lost.” “But never go to that school ever again.” “The principal was planning to take over the world with his advanced tech robots he said that were made by himself… But I do not think so.” “I honestly think that he had people working for him.” “Most people did not want to work for him until he announced that he was going to award them a cake every day.” “So that is why they helped him take over the world. Nick tried to absorb all that information. It was a lot. And when he strained his memory when he went to see the principal. He was evil looking. He even talked a little bit evil.

Nobody talked for a while. The whole world was going to go into world war three. But then he remembered something. “We have to save Travis,” he said suddenly. “Who is this Travis you are talking about?” “He’s my friend!”said Nick. “Okay, okay.” “We will go save your friend.” 

Arnold made his hand wave like a figure eight. Arnold was across the world in Australia when he did it. The invisible barrier vanished. “Now run!” Arnold said in Nick’s mind. Nick ran and ran and ran. 

Nick got to the school at last. It took a few hours to get there but Nick wasn’t tired at all. Because of his new “power” he was able to run for so long. “Where is Travis?” Nick thought. He looked up at the sky and then he looked at his watch. It was already 8:00pm. School was already over four hours ago. He would have to go to Travis` home. He was hungry too.

He knew where Travis’ house was because he went to his house so many times. He got to Travis’ house and rang the doorbell. Nobody answered the door. Then Nick remembered that Travis had basketball practice every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday. He had basketball practice with him every day because he was on his team. They were a pretty good duo together. Together they went 5-0. But when one of them was not there they went 6-3. That was pretty good if you thought about it. So Nick went to his basketball practice. He would just say that he was a little bit late because he had another activity or he had to finish his dinner. It took a long time to get there.

“Hey coach!” “Sorry I am a little late to practice today!” He was trying to stay casual. “That is fine,” said the coach. Just go do layup lines.” Travis was next in line. He did a nice and easy layup. When Nick got into the line he was next up.

After practice Travis offered a ride home. “No thanks,” he replied. I can run home.”  “ But it is so far from here,” you will get exhausted!” “ And why did you scream and run away from school today?” “Did that juice have anything bad in it?” Travis asked. “No.” Nick lied. He did not want to tell anybody about the voice yet. They just won’t get it. He tried anyway. “NO way!” “That can not be true!” “That is one of our new funny jokes right?” “I forgot to add it to the list.” “No it’s not.” “It is true.” “You are trying to trick me, right?” “It is impossible to have a voice inside your head.” “Or is it?” “AAHH!” Nick screamed. “See?” “I can not control it.” “My dad just gives me advice or just comes randomly when he wants to.” “I actually think he can listen to every conversation we have.” “Including this one.” “I still do not know how he does this.”  “Your dad!?” Travis asked.” 

“Yes my dad.” “But I thought your dad was dead!” “I guess he is not.” “Plus, when I drank the juice my dad said that I had a power that I could run forever.” “And that is why I did not take the offer to go on the car ride with you.” “I wanted to use my running powers.” The pieces all fit together for Travis. Now it all made sense.  “And we are going to go into a revolution.” “The whole world.” “NO!” Travis screamed.

The noise of the scream was earsplitting. Everyone turned around to find the source. Nick and Travis ran until they were tired. (or maybe until Travis was tired). Travis was panting. By his expression, Nick knew that Travis did not understand how he could run for that long. He did not know either, but he did know that if he had the power of running for such a long time, he must have some new powers that he never even discovered. He closed his eyes calmly and relaxed his body. He discovered that he could see a minute into the future! He was so surprised. He told Travis that the Nets were going to lose.   Travis was so surprised at this fact too that he almost toppled over. “How do you do that?” Travis asked mind blown.

CHAPTER 3   

A MINUTE IN THE FUTURE                                                                           

If Nick could see a minute in the future, he could win many more games, tests, and maybe kahoots! He could skip ahead and know the answers before anybody else could.  He could congratulate anybody who won in the kahoot before the kahoot ended. He could do so many new things. 

He just realized that he was standing in the middle of a road with Travis not even there. He quickly got off the road and then realized that he must have run for about thirty minutes straight and Travis should be coming any second now. And sure enough he was right there coming towards him, Nick. “ How do you run that far without even getting tired?” Travis asked, panting. “I already told you, it is those weird powers that I got from drinking a weird tasting juice I swallowed.” he said. “ But how could juice give you these cool powers?” Nick had the feeling that Travis was getting more jealous the more they talked about it. He also had a feeling that a bomb was dropping.

BOOM! The whole ground shook. There was an explosion! “RUN!” Nick screamed. He ran as hard as he could away from the explosion for a long time.  He tripped and fell hard onto the ground. He knew that he was already far from the explosion.  The war had started. World War 3. 

Right then he heard a voice. “You will come with us.”  Nick looked up. His body felt sore from the fall. He found some strength to get up and see who said it. They were the robots Nick’s dad had told him earlier that his principal was building these because he wanted a human-free world except for himself, of course. His wish was to have himself to be the last human living on the planet.  Anyway, he needed to do the thing right now in the present.

The robot took him to a place called QUARN Robot Facility. It took a long time to get there. He struggled to get out of the robot’s hands. The robot had a powerful grip on him. When the robot finally dropped him he wanted to run away, but as soon as he tried to get up even, another robot grabbed him and took him away.

A moment later… “Kill him. He has powers. Weird powers. Things we can not do. We do not need him to fight.”  “But, (another robot had a point) we can use him to our advantage. He can help us fight against the puny humans.” “OK.  Do not kill him. He will be on our side then. Keep him safe.”

Nick did not want to help the robot’s side. He wanted to help the humans’ side and win it all. He knew it might take a few years to finish, but it did not look good by the way how the robot was so strong and he struggled to get free. With guns they would probably still not kill the robot or even damage it. He needed a plan.

Travis was lying face down on the ground on the rough, black cement. He probably had a broken nose or something like that. He knew that he was far enough from the explosion that it was safe. BANG! He heard a gunshot in the distance. Or maybe not. He heaved himself up and ran. Little did he know that he was running the wrong way.   

Travis ran and ran the wrong way. “You will stop right now!” A robot said. Travis immediately stopped running. He was captured and about to be killed in he did not know which way. He just hoped that it was not a painful way to die. “Kill him!” “In a painful way!” said one of the robots. Travis was taken aback. He never knew that the robots could read his mind. Or maybe it was just a coincidence.  Or maybe the robots just kill everyone they kill in a painful way. And they don’t feel guilt just like humans do when they kill someone. Or maybe some humans do not feel guilt when they kill. Anyway, he was about to be exterminated too like all the other people. “You will come with us right now.”  Travis followed the robots into a dark, dark tunnel.

Travis had no idea what this place was.  It was muddy, damp and the floor was as bouncy as a trampoline. He jumped. He soared high up in the air and came back down. “Wow!” Travis yelled. He totally forgot that the robots were still there. See, that was the robots best thing they could do. It worked on every little puny human. Distract then kill. 

Nick was hungry and he needed some food. He did not dare to ask the robots for food. They would not give him anything anyway, because he just declined the offer to help the robots fight, of course. They were going to go to their first decision of killing him, so he had to find a way out of the QUARN Robot Facility. He finally decided to sneak out of the building when the robots were not looking. He knew that would be hard though. That was his best chance. 

The robots were talking about something that he could not understand fully. The robots had their backs turned to him. This could be my chance. Nick thought to himself. He tiptoed out. It was pretty easy to get out. The door was open. Once he got far away, he started running. Once he thought that he got far enough he took a break. Even though he could run for much longer, he was as hungry as a panda. He did not know where to find food. There were no restaurants where he was in the forest. His stomach growled like a bear who was hunting.

While Travis was jumping up and down, the robots were deciding how to kill him. They finally decided to kill him with a sword. They will slice, dice and kill. The robots thought that was the most painful way to kill. Meanwhile, Travis knew they were going to kill him. He just needed to find a way to escape. He  thought of just running on the spot and being chased for a long time, but he did not know how fast the robots were. But he tried it anyway. He ran for his life. He ran faster than ever before. He ran out of the tunnel, hoping that the robots could not see him in the dark. He hoped they would not say, “He is trying to escape!”   

Nick did not know what to eat for food, and he was starving. He looked up. He saw the branches of the tree swaying in the air. Then he realized that he was resting on an apple tree! Even though he hated apples, he was so hungry he wanted to eat anything that was edible in the whole wide world. He climbed the tree (he was very good at climbing trees) and grabbed three apples to eat. He got off the tree and started eating super fast. He was thinking that he might try to go back home. That was the safest place to go. But going towards the school is very risky. It is. He thought.  He chewed hard into his apple. He was thinking what route he was going to take home. It was going to be a detour home. And a long one. “Hey, kid!” someone suddenly yelled in the distance. “Have you read the newspaper?” “A war is starting!” “Humans v.s. Robots!

                                                                                    CHAPTER 4

                                                                          RACE TO THE FINISH

“You will be killed!” The robot put out his hand and a laser beam shot out of it. The robots have gotten some better upgrades now.  AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Travis yelled and hit the floor hard. He was not dead, for some reason. He was immortal. And that is why the humans were going to win this war. Everyone has a different power.

  Even though they didn’t know that yet, they were starting to discover their powers. Not everyone knew their own powers yet, so they were still fighting like regular humans. People were finding out fast though, so the faster they found out, the sooner they would win this war. After they found out they would be OVERPOWERED. But the robots can be overpowered too. Yes they got new upgrades, but that did not mean they are going to win. The robots’ upgrades are no match for the humans’ new powers. “FIRE AT WILL!” Someone said in the distance. “This is it!’’ “We have our powers now. We are unstoppable.” 

It was true. Some people had ice freezing powers, to fire powers. All different, if you could say that. No one had the same exact powers. Anyway, the war continued on. The humans were winning. Of course.

Nick was trying to fight as hard as he could. He had multiple powers like explained in the previous pages. There were only 100 robots left, and they did not think they would win, but that did not stop them from trying though. The robots started to die out after a few days. The principal tried so hard to make more but the humans kept on destroying them. Now there were about 21 robots left and the principal stopped making even more robots. The war was over. Nick and Travis went back to their normal lives, without the robots, and lived to have a nice, happy, long life.

The End