Arnold's Adventure: A Life On Earth

Chapter 5: The Fifth Land

The power had went out in the ship. It was completely dark, no one could see anything. Arnold felt around the walls feeling for the door button. It took him around five minutes before he found the button.
He pressed down on the smooth circular button. The triangular door opened but as it did, a wind of dust and gas entered the ship.
Graham rushed over to Arnold and Adrian and gave them a blue masks with air filters each.
Arnold swiftly pulled his gas mask over his face and gasped for air.
"the air around here is toxic, so just don't take your masks off until I say so" Graham ordered.
They all took slow steps out into the misty orange air.
The air was a deep orange fog.
"oi, who the hell are you?" came a shout from a woman with a Jamaican accent.
"Mary?, Is that you?" Graham asked in a bewildered voice.
"GRAHAM?!" she shouted.
Graham ran to Mary to give her a warm hug but she simply slapped him hard across the face.
"what the hell are you doing here?!, It's dangerous!" She asked Graham with a stern face under her mask.
"oh and where the hell have you been? It's been 17 years!" She shouted
Graham went to explain but Mary just interupted him
"just get inside, it's too dangerous out here"
She indicated to s large square metal patchwork building.
"it only has one floor" exclaimed Arnold surprised
"of course it does. Earth only really had buildings with one or two floors, well, they were the most common buildings at least" explained Adrian
"how do you know so much about earth?" Arnold asked Adrian Curiously
"I studied it in school" Adrian replied
The fog around them seemed to be getting more thicker and unclear.
They all pushed through the dusty air to the shelter.
Mary pushed open the heavy metal door with struggle.
They all stepped inside and the door swung shut behind them.
"A dust storm is on the way" Mary stated
"the air is getting dustier and filthier, which means a horrible dust storm is coming" she said
"my name is Arnold" Arnold informed Mary as he extended his hand.
Mary shook hands with Arnold
"Mary, Mary Moledas, nurse of the royal protection unit of earth" she replied
"so who's your friend here?" she asked as she nodded her head towards Adrian
"we're together" Arnold stated
"aw how cute. Y'know it's good to see someone who actually knows how to love"
She said in a soft tone
"unlike Graham here" she added in a more strict tone.
She walked over to a table with multiple needles, ladles and little gadgets.
"what do you mean?" Arnold asked curiously as he never knew his father ever had a relationship.
"if he never had a relationship, then he could never have had you" Mary replied while picking up one of the gadgets - that was completely dark blue, had a small screen on it and a little scanner on the tip- that was bleeping rapidly.
"actually on Mars they do it differently" Graham informed
"instead of doing the usual stuff, they mix the partners DNA together in a machine and it makes a child, however the accent and a few other things are randomly picked by the machine" he explained.
"well in that case Arnold, I'll answer your question. Yes I was in a relationship with your father but he left to go to mars and never came back" Mary explained
Mary scanned Graham with her bleeping machine and it went PING.
"the real question is Arnold, who is your other parent?" she said while scanning Arnold, the machine pinged loudly.
She turned last to Adrian and scanned him aswell the machine went PING.
"You're all clear, none of you are infected, you can take off your masks" she told them.
"infected?, Infected with what?" Adrian asked curiously
"earth is no where near as good as it was, there's many diseases but this one is the worst. It's called the tremba virus" She answered
"it infects you with one touch from the infected. It cancels out most of your brain functions. It makes you only think, touch the uninfected. It completely changes them. They have no other thoughts. They're basically mindless. The only way to cure them is with a medicine of my own making and they need to be cured within three days before the virus reaches the brain."
The trio stared at Mary in shock.
"so this is what's happened to earth then" Adrian said to himself
Suddenly the ground started to rumble violently, shooting dust up from the floor.
"EVERYONE GET DOWN!" Mary shouted loudly to fill the whole room with her order.
Everyone ducked down, even the soldiers visiting the wounded.
A large roaring noise echoed throughout the building as the walls made banging sounds as if something was hitting against them from the outside.
Suddenly the lights in the building flickered before completely shutting off.
Nobody said anything until five minutes later when the storm finished.
"we're safe now" Mary assured
We get dust storms about once or twice a week, and trust me, they are deadly"
Mary invited them all over to her office where they proceeded to have some tea and biscuits.
"so Mary, what do you do here at this place" asked Adrian
"i am a nurse for the infected. I cure and help them. They help me in return" Mary replied
"hang on. Where on earth are we?" Arnold asked
"this land was formally known as America, but is now known as the fifth land. You are on the British sector of the fifth lands"
She told them while sipping down the last of her tea.
"hang on you said fifth land. How many lands are there?" Arnold asked
"Just five" she said
"the fifth land, also known as North America, the fourth land, South America, the tinker land, Australia or at least what's left of it, the secrando land, basically Africa, and finally the motherland, Russia, China and India is all that remain of Asia"
Arnold and Adrian both looked at each other in shock
"anyways let's get to the point, what are you all doi'n here on earth?" she asked
"mars is under attack and we needed to evacuate" Graham explained
Mary gave Graham a stern look
"you brought them to earth of All places"
She said in disbelief
"why not Mercury or Asardos or Muldan?"
She stared at Graham for a second with a look that said you better answer correctly.
"Mercury is attacking Mars so we couldn't go there and my ship wouldn't hold out to make it out of the solar system to get to Asardos or Muldan" Graham said in a defensive voice
Mary looked out her dirty office window and she took one look at the ship - which was now covered in dust and scratches from the storm - and said "you're ship didn't even hold out till you landed, I saw you crash'in before you even passed the atmosphere or at least what's left of it"
Suddenly unclear shouting came from outside and a soldier burst through Mary's office door.
"I thought I told you to knock" Mary said with a stern look and the worried soldier replied with
"its a matter of urgency. The infected got past the borders"