Experiment #13

My name is Lina. Lina Mayhew. And I'm going to turn 13 soon. For a while, I had always wanted to go see the city of San Francisco. I don't know why, I always thought it just looked like a really cool place to visit. My parents surprised me with a planned trip to San Francisco and I was so excited to finally see it for myself. Right now, it's just me and my dad driving up there. My mom has work and my older brother has school, but they planned to meet us tomorrow. Before we left, my mom gave me an early birthday present for the road. It's an iPod! I've always wanted one of these! I love listening to music and now I can listen to it wherever I go! No more lugging around a heavy CD player and wondering where to plug it into. All the music I want to listen to is right here. Plus, my dad says it's gonna be a long drive, and having hours of music will definitely keep me sane. I hope the drive isn't too long though. I'm too excited to wait to get to San Francisco! Lina sits horizontally in the backseat of the car while her dad continues to drive in a seemingly straight line. Lina had a pillow behind her so the vibrations of the car wouldn't keep bumping the back of her head. She had a blanket over her legs for added comfort and most of their packed belongings were in the back of the car. They still had a long way to go. Lina yawned and stretched her arms, adjusting her earbuds and looking down at her brand new iPod. The screen flicked on as she scrolled through her many downloaded songs and selected a song to play. She leaned her head back against the pillow and let the music carry her into another world. She often gazed out the window, but there wasn't much to see. So far, it had all been long, flat fields, some farmland and a lot of nothing with the occasional small trees and bare shrubs. Lina looked at her iPod again, deciding what song to play next, but then decided to just leave it in shuffle for a while. But when she turned back to look out the window, something caught Lina's attention. Something coming up over the horizon. It didn't seem like another roadside attraction. Something about it looked... weird. Lina sat upright and leaned to the right, trying to see if she could get a better look at it through the windshield as they got closer to it. But there were a lot of tall trees and other foliage beginning to block their view. But whatever the thing was... it was really tall. "Huh...?" said her dad quietly and Lina felt the car slowing down. She looked over to what they were approaching and what she saw ahead of them was even stranger. It looked like a toll booth of some sort with a gate stopping them, and a couple guards in white armor stepped forward as the car stopped in front of the gate. Lina thought this was the strangest thing she had seen out here. Why were they dressed like that? It almost looked something like you'd see in a movie. Lina paused her music and pulled the earbuds out of her ears. She wrapped the cord around the music player and shoved it into her back pocket. "Dad, what are they doing?" "I don't know, honey. Hang on a second..." One of the guards in the white armor approached the drivers side of the vehicle and Lina's dad rolled down the window to speak to them. Lina shrunk back in her seat and looked out the window subtly to get a better look at the guard. They wore a helmet which prevented Lina from seeing any part of the guards face. Everything about this was just really, really weird. "Hi, is there a problem?" Lina's dad asked polietly as the guard leaned forward. "Sir, where are you headed?" asked the strange guard. The helmet they wore made their voice sound like it was coming through a radio. "We're just trying to get up to the highway. We're going to San Francisco." "Why did you come up this way?" "Uh, the GPS said there was a lot of traffic, so we took this road to avoid it. It said we'd be able to get back on the highway and avoid all the traffic." "May I ask where you came from?" "What? We... drove up the coast. I'm sorry, do we have to pay a toll? I don't have any cash on me right now, but-" "Sir, if I may ask... do you have any children in the vehicle?" "What? What are you talking about?" Lina was unaware of a second guard walking around the back and startling Lina as they approached her door. She leaned back and pretended not to notice them. Until the doors unlocked with a click and the guard opened Lina's door. "Hey! Wait, what are you doing?" Lina shouted as the guard reached out to grab her arm and dragged her out of the car. "Excuse me, what do you think you're doing? That's my daughter!" The guard put Lina's arms behind her back and kept her restrained. "Dad! Dad, what are they doing?" Lina's dad stepped out of the car and started yelling at the first guard. "What the hell is going on here?! Let her go, she's my daughter!" "Sir, please calm down. You can get back in your vehicle now. We'll take it from here." the guard spoke calmly to him. Lina began to struggle against the guards' grip, trying to free herself. "Let me go! Please, just let me go!" "Sir, I urge you to get back in your vehicle and continue driving. She's not your concern anymore." Lina's dad took a swing at the guard, before glancing back at Lina. The guard grabbed his shirt and punched him forcefully, knocking him down against the hood of the car. Lina began screaming at them to stop. Two other guards ran up to restrain him. "We've got the asset! Get it inside, quickly!" On of the guards shouted. Lina continued to scream and struggle, but she couldn't get herself free. Another guard approached her with something in it's hand and suddenly, Lina felt a sharp pain in her neck. Until it disappeared instantly. She continued to squirm, but the world around her began to spin and she felt weak. She looked over at her dad who was lying unconscious on the ground until her head felt too heavy to stay on her shoulders and her vision faded to black. My name is Lina. Lina Mayhew. And I'm going to turn 13 soon...