CORRUPTED

BY APRIL WITHEE

My name is Halo, and I live in Staropolis- a city that experiences

a total solar eclipse every single day. Unfortunately for me, I have this illness
called “corruption” that kicks in everyday because of the eclipse. My parents
were told that I had corruption, but didn’t believe the doctor. Truth is, I DO
have corruption, and nobody knows about it except for the doctors.
Corruption is a complicated disease. Nobody knows how to cure it,
nobody thinks I have it, and worst of all, our city is the only communist one
in the entire COUNTRY. Our three evil dictators are completely against
corruption, so they just catch whoever has corruption and kill them, with no
mercy or time for them to get back to their normal self, which is guaranteed
to happen after an episode of the disease.
The three dictators of Staropolis became what they are now
because they are filthy rich, so they bought every building in our town, so
they control the land. And us. We didn’t sell the buildings to them, they just
threatened to arrest us and execute us in the worst way possible- which I’m
not even going to explain because they are just downright cruel and evil.
Instead of caring about the people like they should, they just care about
themselves. They treat us like slaves and make us follow their every
command, having the power of a thousand nuclear weapons at their
fingertips.
Ugh. School. Have I mentioned that? I don’t have any friends, so I just hang
out with my two brothers who also don’t know I’m corrupted.
All anybody can talk about at our school is this stupid eclipse. But
it’s not just any solar eclipse, it’s the New Year’s Eclipse, which apparently is
going to be accompanied by a meteor shower. They also say that it’s
supposed to have all sorts of colored sun rays coming out from behind the
moon. To be honest, I don’t think it will look that cool, but everybody just
keeps gushing about it. It’s exactly like the eclipse of August 21,
2015. That time, we didn't see Bailey's beads or the diamond
ring effect, both phases of an eclipse. Everybody just kept talking about that,
and I watched it from inside in a locked room, and we could barely see it. It
barely looked like night, and like usual, my corruption kicked in. My doctors
told me to try to not let any light hit me, but when I tried that, it didn’t work,
and I went crazy like all corruptos do.
“Alright, class. You all know that the New Year’s Eclipse is coming.
Are you excited? If you are, LET ME HEAR YOU!” my teacher yelled.
The class screamed in excitement.
“Today, you will be writing an eclipse themed card to our three
wonderful dictators to show how happy and thankful you are to be getting
an invite to the middle of town to see this wonderful event.”
Like I said. Our dictators aren’t any good for us or our city. I think
everybody in my class got some of that poisonous gas that our dictators just
happen to have hidden in the secret compartment in their castle. Don’t ask
me how I even know that. Mr. Galaxy talks about it all the time to his rich
friends. Mr. Galaxy is one of Terra Hellers’ assistants, who are treated like
they are diamond encrusted shoes made out of tiger skin or something. For
all I know, Terra might have a pair of shoes like that.
For the rest of the day, we just did other solar eclipse related
activities, and when we had to draw things, I just drew the same thing over
and over again: the diamond ring effect, a phase of the eclipse right before
the total eclipse when there’s this huge section of light that makes the sun
and moon look like a giant diamond ring, which is where it probably got its
name from. And speaking of the diamond ring effect, I didn’t do my letter. To
be honest, I don’t care if I get an F on it. That’s just how much I hate our
rulers.
When I got home, I forgot all about the letter that was sent to the
whole town! I couldn’t believe that I forgot to take it and shred it before my
parents got to it. I knew I should’ve tried to crash the mail truck…
“Oh, look! The New Year’s Eclipse is tomorrow! I’m just so glad
that Mr. and Mrs. Hellers took time to send this lovely letter to the whole
town. And thank goodness that we don’t have any corrupted kids,” said my
mom.
I started to get nervous. I went up to my room and started to think
about what would happen if my parents forced me to go see the eclipse
(which they always do) and then my corruption kicked in. Would they be
mad, sad, disappointed, or little bit of everything? I know that Terra
intentionally put “bring your corrupted kids with you” into that invite just so
she could smile at the thought of killing us off, one by one. I don’t even
know what to say, so I just passed out.
When I woke up, I realized that I was in our car and that we were
going to see the eclipse, and I couldn’t escape. When we got there, my
parents started talking to all of their friends. While they were doing that, I
ran off and started to meltdown like the one time the nuclear power plant
had a nuclear meltdown. Unfortunately for me, my nosy brother Skyler
followed me and just stared at me like I was stupid or something. Thing
about Skyler is that he doesn’t talk much unless he’s had a lot of sugar.
The eclipse was about to start. Suddenly, I felt my hands shaking,
and when I looked at them, they had glowing green computer chip designs
on them, which is the first step of corruption. Luckily, I brought a pair of
gloves with me, but when I took them out of my pocket, I only had one, and
the other one was probably with Jay because he likes to steal my stuff and
mess around with it. He probably filled my glove with water to use as a
makeshift water balloon. I really needed that glove right now, but since I
didn’t have it, I just put my other hand in my pocket. I hoped nobody would
see it. I was wrong.
“Mommy! What’s wrong with that boy’s arm?” a little girl yelled
out.
Next step of corruption: those green marks travel up your arms
really fast. And I just now noticed that Jay cut off the arm of my jacket to use
as another makeshift water balloon. At this time, I really wish water balloons
didn’t exist.
Everybody stared at me, and Jay laughed until he saw me. Tears
were running down my face, which was also covered with green computer
chip designs by now. Suddenly, I stopped crying and became angry. So angry
that I felt like attacking somebody, especially Jay. And in an instant, I became
fully corrupted, acting like a wild animal, since I couldn’t control myself. I
can’t remember what happened next, but I think I attacked Jay along with a
few others, and the only thing I can remember is getting a poisonous dart in
my back and passing out.
“Well, well, well. Who do we have here? Poor, helpless Halo. Stuck in here
and now hated by all the citizens of Staropolis. I feel so bad for you. Because
you’re never going to see the world or say goodbye to it either,” said Terra,
whose icy blue eyes burned me.
After Terra talked to me, her guards picked up my cage and threw it into a
dark room, where I just sat there, hopeless. I should’ve run away
from Staropolis and returned the next day or something to hide my
corruption. But of course, I made the wrong decision and got captured and
now I have to be executed for some stupid reason. If there's one critical
thing I learned my condition, it's that it can NEVER spread. It only happens to
you if you’re born with it, or you have a computer chip inside of your body
somewhere, and it got damaged in a severe injury.
I'm not sure what time of day it was, but a few hours after I got
thrown into the cage, somebody came into the room, and I screamed. When I
saw who it was, I was relieved. Relieved, but mad. It was Jay and Skyler, who
had laughed at me before, and now apparently came here to "rescue" me.

"WhAt do YOu want?

You lAUGhed at mE and nOw you wAnT to reSCue me afTEr yOU fiGure OuT
I'm WoRthleSs," I said. Note: another thing you contract when you become
corrupted is a glitching voice, which happens because the computer chip
inside of you starts to control your voice.

"We're here to save you, and I'm sorry I took your glove. I'm sorry I took the
arm of your jacket. I'm sorry I embarrassed you, and I'm really sorry I laughed
at you. I promise I won't do any of that stuff ever again. At least to you. I'll
find somebody else to do it to after we get out of here," said Jay.

"Too bad you won't be able to do that stuff to anybody else anyways.
Because you aren't going to get out of here," said Mr. Hellers. "MR. GALAXY!
WE NEED YOU RIGHT NOW, AND IT'S FOR A VERY IMPORTANT REASON!"

"Yes, sir, do you need more cages for corruptos, more nuclear
weapons, or a cup of coffee?" asked Mr. Galaxy.
"Actually, I need two more cages for these idiots. And a cup of coffee would
be nice too. SO GET TO IT!" yelled Mr. Hellers.
After Mr. Galaxy got more cages (and a cup of coffee for his MASTER), Mr.
Hellers left, leaving us with the strongest guy around.
But one thing that made all three of us shocked: Mr. Galaxy didn't put us in
the cages. He just started talking to us.
" Why aren't you putting us in the cages? Aren't you loyal to the Hellers?"
Skyler asked.
" I am. I just can't make myself do it. I was in a cage too, once. Thing is, I'm
not from this planet. People just call me Mr. Galaxy because they're scared of
me, and they'll do anything so I don't beat them up. That was in grade
school, though. When the Hellers found out that I had no parents, they took
advantage of me and asked if I wanted to live with them. I said yes instantly,
but that was my biggest mistake ever. All they really wanted me for was for
heavy workloads so they didn't have to do it. You see, I came from a city on a
completely different planet that went into a nuclear winter, so my parents
had to move to a different planet. The only problem with that was the
escape pods could only hold two people, so I had to share a pod
with my best friend, who doesn't even go to this school. Sadly, my parents
didn't make it to this planet, so I had to live with my best friend, who got
adopted and then moved. Then I was on my own. And that's when the
Hellers asked me to live with them," said Mr. Galaxy.

"If you hate working here that much, then why don't you just leave?" asked
Skyler, who tapped Jay so he would pay attention.

"There's one problem. The Hellers are huge haters of corruption. So if I leave,
then they'll think I'm corrupted and then they'll kill me with poisonous gas
from the secret compartment of this building."

"You always talk about this secret compartment. What's exactly in it?"

"I've been there only once. There are a few weapons and a lot of cash. That's
all I remember. They told me to tell everybody else who asked about it to tell
them it was weapons and only that so they would be intimidated and even
more scared of Terra and her family than they are already."

"I have an idea! Let's get out of here, grab some cash for you, and find a
good family that will accept you, Mr. Galaxy. Then without their most loyal
slave, the Hellers will have to do everything by themselves, and all of us
citizens can finally break free from the Hellers' grip," said Jay.

"Alright! Just one more thing I have to tell you. My real name is Saturn, so
just call me that. Now let's get out of this prison!" yelled Saturn.
Saturn led us to the secret compartment of the castle, where we took all the
cash we could carry and an electricity jammer (to knock out all the cameras
and wipe their memory clean) and got out of there. Getting out of there was
pretty easy, except for when one of the entrance guards asked us what we
were doing.

"Where are you going, Mr. Galaxy?" asked the guard.

"I'm not going anywhere of importance, just need to get some more cages,"
replied Saturn.

"What do you mean, more cages? There are many more in the ba-… hey!
Where do you think you're going, Mr. Galaxy? You aren't supposed to leave!"

We just kept walking past the guards.

"YOU CAN'T JUST LEAVE LIKE THAT! WE HAVE TO SERVE THE THREE
DICTATORS OF THIS LAND! MR. GALAXY! GET BACK HERE!" screamed the
guard.

We just kept walking, and eventually the guard set an alarm off. We started
to run, and luckily, we hid behind a building and stopped to catch our breath.
Unfortunately, the side we did hide on had a huge group of people in front of
it, and two of those people were my mom and my dad. People probably
weren't too happy to see me, especially the ones who had bandages all over
their bodies (they were probably the people I attacked).

"It's the corrupted! GET HIM!" screamed one person.

"WAIT! Don't attack Halo! It's not his fault he's corrupted, the Hellers
embedded a computer chip inside of him, and it has just become damaged,
so he's a little different. Just because he's a little different doesn't mean you
have to kill him, does it? To the people that Halo attacked, it was
nothing personal, it’s just when you become corrupted, you can't
control your body. It's all the Hellers’ fault that he's corrupted. And that
weapon compartment of their castle, it's only a few weapons and the rest of
it is your cash! So how about we stick up for each other and give them
nightmares like they did to us? Stealing our cash and hurting us both
physically and mentally! Unlike this eclipse, they can't cover up their dirty
work anymore. SO LET'S GET THEM!" Yelled Saturn.
We marched right up to the Hellers' castle and pinned the guards to the wall.
Then, we split up, and half of us went to the secret compartment, and the
other half of us went into the throne room to capture the Hellers.

"Mr. Galaxy! I thought you were supposed to be doing my laundry! And doing
the dishes! And doing my math homework!" cried Terra.

"I’m not your slave. From now on, you'll be doing the dishes, laundry, and
your own homework. I'm not scared if you're threatening to kill me.

I know that you don't have any fast-working weapons. Just the poisonous
gas you were planning to release into the city after everybody went to bed
tonight," said Saturn. "Oh, and one more thing. My name is Saturn."

"Don't say that there's only weapons in the secret compartment, because
there's the citizen's cash back there, too," said Terra.

"If you're not stupid, then why did you just give away the contents of that
compartment that's no longer a secret?"

"What? Whatever. I'm going back there now. And one more thing- we aren't
friends anymore."

"To be honest, a person like you doesn't have friends. I wasn't your friend to
begin with, and all those girls who are your “so-called friends” are just as
brainless as you are."
When Terra went to the so called “secret compartment”, she looked in there
with horror in her evil blue eyes as people took as much many weapons and
cash as their arms could carry. All of a sudden, the citizens pinned Terra to
the wall as Saturn pulled out a small mechanism kind of shaped like a gun.
Then he pulled the trigger four times. All I can say is that
four giant boomerang-shaped projectiles came flying out of the barrel of the
mechanism and pinned her arms and legs to the wall so the citizens didn't
have to hold her anymore.

"So you like people doing everything for you huh? Well, from now on, three
people will be coming in everyday three times a day to feed you and your
parents like children. And if you don't like what we're serving, then your luck
just ran out. And your entertainment for the day will be about the alphabet,"
said Saturn.
After we left the castle, I still had one question for Saturn.

"WhAt AbouT mY CoRRupTiOn, SaTURn? Is THeRe any WaY I cAN FiX it?" I
asked.

"There is definitely a way, and I can fix you myself! The computer chip is
buried right underneath the first layer of your skin in your upper right arm.
Best of all, you don't even need to be put to sleep, and the removal only
pinches a little bit," said Saturn.
After he explained that to me, he removed the computer chip, and I went
back to normal. As for the Hellers, well, they got what they wanted,
somebody to do everything for them. Saturn got a permanent family and
was appreciated at school for releasing everybody from the Hellers' grip.

And one more thing: I made a new friend. His name is Saturn Galaxy.

POWERED BY