Stars Gods Wolves by Dan Kirshtein (good books for 8th graders .TXT) 📗

death. It was either that or die of thirst, which was also a horrible way to go. But it was a way out. These things sped through his mind as his bare toes reached the end of the tray. His long white hair hung down, reminding him he’d forgotten to tie it back. And while his vision was impaired by it, he heard a voice.

“Poison,” it whispered in plain English.

He nearly leapt from his skin. Whipping a hand through his hair to view the corner, he leapt backward. He’d landed half on the bed’s rails as his eyes tried to make sense of the empty corner.

Nothing was there.

Clear as day, he had understood the word. Poison or not, he’d still eat the sustenance. As he tied his hair back into a misshapen ponytail, he considered the outcomes. They all led to some form of break from the mundane routine, even if it was a painful one. Still, he took the tray to his bed, crossed his legs, and ate the galaxy’s worst pastry. As he did, though, his eyes remained fixed on that corner. That damned corner.

The Wendigo:Entering the Milky Way Galaxy

It took a long time, but the Wendigo finally quieted down. Her rowdy passengers settled down into a dull roar; with very few things left to celebrate, even the smallest of jobs ended with slight debauchery. Josie watched Nitro throw a racquet ball at the wall for all of the thirty seconds for which it was interesting. The others looked calm, as if she were a puppy among lizards. They bored her, which led her to realize that she hadn’t seen Zerich in some time. Slapping the shoulder of their terrified prisoner, Josie stood up and walked to the cockpit. The door opened and the ship’s familiar hum filled her ears. She smirked when she saw the top of Zerich’s head as he leaned back in his seat.

“Zerry, where’s the beer?” Something on one of the screens caught her eye: the word ‘auto-pilot’ slowly pulsed on the screen in red letters. Her brow twitched, but she walked forward to get a better view of the front of the pilot’s chair. “Zerr.” She found him leaning back and pale. Her eyes fell to the floor and found the red spike at her feet. A green stain was still visible under the crimson blood at the spike’s tip.

She looked back to him to see a gray color washing over his face as he met her eyes and put an index finger to his lips. Josie nodded and froze in place. A softer expression appeared on the pilot’s face as his middle finger slowly rose as well. His lips pushed out, and Josie gave him a soft nod.

She fumbled in her pockets and pulled out two cigarette cartridges, tossing one on his lap. With shaking hands, he slowly took out his auto-pipe and loaded it as Josie sat in the seat next to him and loaded her own.

Their cigarette cartridges were very similar to Earth’s electronic cigarettes of the twentieth century, but, aside from the nicotine, most of the toxins had been replaced by vitamins. Tobacco companies had found that people were more creatures of habit than of self-destruction. Josie found herself to be an equal mix of both.

After a quiet moment, Zerich coughed and frowned. “The hell is this?” he grimaced, examining the cartridge underneath his pipe.

Josie smirked, putting her feet up on the console. She exhaled a trail of smoke before speaking. “Apple.”

Zerich’s frown lessened. “Apple?” he murmured as if hearing the word for the first time. He grumbled, his head bouncing in resentment of kids these days.

Josie’s eyes followed the trail of smoke as it was slowly pulled into the vent, but she was distracted by the patch of gum on the glass. She then looked to him, with a quiet realization of how he’d put the safety of the crew above his own health. Her eyes softened, but she tried not to look at him, not wanting to watch the red color slowly dissipating from his skin. They smoked for a long time, neither of them saying a word.

Josie noticed fewer and fewer puffs of smoke from the pilot’s side. His exhales, which came at longer intervals, were occasionally punctuated by a cough or two. But even they grew softer as his breathing slowed. After not hearing a cough for a long time, Josie looked over to see that the now gray-skinned Obbitale was no longer holding the auto-pipe. It rested on his lap, just outside of an open hand. She sighed and stayed there for a moment before getting up.

She took the pipe from his lap, turned it off, and then put it back. She closed his eyes before silently leaving the cockpit.

Bridos-1:Main Street

What people called cars hadn’t come that far, aesthetically; this was especially true on planets like Bridos, where newly founded Human civilization had strived so hard to replicate old civilization. Some functional updates, however, did occur: they were devoid of wheels (replaced by a hovering magnetic system) and completely autonomous (a navigation screen was all that was needed, and the cars drove themselves, with a networked program that was universally followed). Passengers—meaning literally everyone now—would sit behind a large screen, dial in their destination, and leave the sanctity of their schedules to the mercy of the machines.

Gally and her mother sat behind such a screen in silence as the humming of the magnet system filled the cabin. Ariel sat with her hands folded, anxiously watching her daughter try to type with tears in her eyes, [which just looked like a frustrated, amateur pianist]. From her seat, she could see the search bar of what her daughter was looking for, despite the many typos. After building up the courage to do so, Ariel moved to take the tablet away. “Honey, it’s not important.”

Gally wanted to snap at her, to tell her that she had no idea what was important