A Dying Breed

Lance slowly opened his eyes, not knowing what he was going to be seeing. He saw that his clothes had been taken. His entire body was covered in gauze. Lance slowly turned his head to look around. He appeared to be in some sort of home. It was bare except for a single portrait that hung in the middle of the room. It showed the face of a beautiful woman dressed in transparent clothes. Her eyes were light blue and her hair was long and of the same color. “I see our visitor has awakened after his long sleep.” Lance turned and saw that a short balding man had walked into the room. “Where? What?” The man held up his hand. “I don’t know much more than you, so please don’t bombard me with questions.” Lance took a deep breath. “Where am I?” The man looked at him for a moment. “Your where you’ve always been,” he said. “On Hearth.” Lance gasped.
The man ran to Lance. “What’s wrong?” he asked. “Are you in pain?” Lance shook his head. “Then what’s wrong?” Lance was silent for a moment, but then he spoke up. “I came from Earth.” The man was silent for a long time before he spoke. “I figured as much.” Lance stared at him. “You didn’t exactly come and knock on the door,” the man said. “Can you stand?” Lance slowly got to his feet, surprised that he was already able to stand. Then something struck him. “How long have I been asleep?” The man scratched his head. “For about a month.” Lance nearly fell back down. “Anyway, let me show you where you arrived.” He went over to the window and pulled back the curtain. “I’m pretty sure that you’ll be able realize where you arrived.” Lance looked out of the window and his mouth nearly fell open. A hole the size of a small town had been made almost right outside the man’s house.
“I fell there?” Lance asked in shock. The man nodded and helped Lance sit down. “Not only that, but you survived it, so I decided to try and patch you up.” Lance sat there, silent. “I don’t know what to do now?” Lance said in a low voice. The man raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?” “I don’t have anything here, it was all destroyed on Earth.” “Well,” the man said, scratching his head. “It’s a lot easier to get things here on Hearth than Earth. You can have this house if you want. I have more that I live in.” Lance looked up at the man. “Are you serious?” The man nodded and smiled. “All that you have to do is go to school and get an after school job. I’ll check on you at least once every week to make sure you doing good. Agreed?” Lance nodded and smiled. They talked for a while longer before the man had to say goodbye. During which time, he gave Lance all the advice and directions that he needed about his new planet. Lance closed the door and took off his bandaging. He found the bathroom and went into it. He got into the shower and ten minutes later emerged. He put on his night clothes and fell asleep on his new bed.
Chapter IV, First Day
Lance woke up as soon as the sun began to show through his window. Beside him were the school clothes that the man had promised him. He went into the restroom and looked himself over. “For someone who was almost killed by a dumpster, flew through space, and then plummeted into the ground of an alien planet, I look ok.” Lance smiled and ran a hand through his hair. He stopped halfway through and looked at his hand. On it was marked the number 478. He rubbed it with his thumb, but it wouldn’t come off. Lance shrugged and threw on his school clothes. He went back into the main room and picked up his school bag. He grabbed the key from the shelf and closed the door behind him as he left. Just as the man had told him, a bus stop was almost right beside the house.

Lance walked over to it, wondering about this new planet. “What all is better here?” he wondered to himself. He went into the bus stop and sat down. Just before he had left, the man had given him a watch. Lance checked and saw that he still had some time to kill before his bus came. He watched as the city slowly came to life. First, the cars began to pass by. Then, people began to come out of their houses and walk places. It fascinated Lance to no end before he knew it, time had elapsed and his bus was sitting there honking for him to get on. He shook his head and boarded the bus. The driver nodded at him and Lance made his way to the back. Apparently, he was the last student pickup, so the bus was pretty crowded. He spotted an empty seat and sat down in it. He was aware of the sets of eyes that were drilling into the back of his head, but he ignored them.
Along the way to school, Lance looked outside to take in all of the new surroundings. He couldn’t help but be amazed at how much the technology had increased here. Nothing seemed to really run on gas or any other harmful chemicals. When the bus pulled up to the school, Lance wasn’t in any hurry to get off. He got up after the last person and looked at the school. He was speechless as he looked up at the colossal building. He gulped and headed in. He felt strange walking down the halls of such a magnificent building. Luckily for him, his class was located at the very end of the last floor. It made locating his class easy. He took the elevator up to the 8th floor. He found his classroom at the end of the hallway and stood there. He took a deep breath and pushed the door open.
The classroom was fairly big, but there weren’t many students in it, which suited Lance just fine. “Ah, here he is,” the teacher said. “Our new student.” She extended her hand, which Lance took. “Hi, my name is Ms. James and you must be Lance.” Lance nodded. “Introduction would be meaningless, so just find a desk and we’ll begin class.” Lance turned and went to the furthest seat in the back by a window. Class passed by and Lance found that it was rather challenging. He left class feeling rather pleased with the fact that he had actually been pushed to try in a class. “This hour is my club hour,” he said to himself. “They put me in the Karate Club which should be right this way.” He turned and pushed open a door. Almost as soon as he did, a foot came sailing towards his head. Lance dropped to the ground and rolled. The foot barely missed him. Lance jumped up and stared at the boy who had done it. He was tall and muscular. “Your pretty good to dodge my kick,” he said. “Why did you do that?” Lance said. “Chill out dude,” he said. “I do it to all the newcomers.” He bowed. “Welcome to the Karate Club.”
Lance was given his clothes for the club and led to the mat. “Since it’s you first time, we’ll need to gauge your abilities to see where to place you. Understand?” Lance nodded. “Good and your opponent will be the most popular and fiercest girl at school. Jordan.” “What?” Lance asked. A door opened to the right of Lance and sure enough, Jordan came out of it. She showed no signs of realizing who he was as she took her stance. “Jordan it’s me Lance,” he said, going to her. “Start,” the boy said. Jordan leapt at him and Lance had to jump back to avoid the kick. “Hey what are you doing?!” he yelled. “It’s me, don’t you recognize me?” Jordan stood up slowly, as if realizing who he was. She walked up to Lance and put her hand on his face. “Lance?” He smiled. “Yea, it’s me,” he said. Then, a split second later, Jordan’s eyes changed. “You’re so gullible.” Lance doubled over painfully as Jordan buried her knee into his gut. She spun and kicked the side of Lance’s head, sending him to the ground. She stared down at him coldly, then looked over to the boy. “He’s our punching bag,” she said. “Have fun.”
The rest of the hour was one of total humiliation for Lance. One after another person would pound away at him, yelling insults while they did it. All the while, Lance looked at Jordan. She stared back at him coldly, smiling while her cronies beat the living daylights out of Lance. He wasn’t sure what hurt more, the physical pain or the emotional pain. After his beating was over and he lay there, bleeding and humiliated. Jordan stood over him smiling coldly. “Your so weak Lance, I can’t believe I ever liked you.” Lance felt tears spring to his eyes. “Why?” he asked weakly. Jordan frowned at him. “Here’s your answer.” She pulled her head back and spit in Lance’s face. Lance closed his eyes as the mucus made it’s way down his face. “Tie him up and set him somewhere while we go eat,” she said. Her cronies picked Lance up and began to tie him up. “Hey what’s going on in here?” someone asked. Lance was picked up and roughly shoved into a locker.
“Nothing much,” someone said. “Just practicing. Care to join us on our way to lunch?” “Well, I guess not.” Lance heard the door shut. He slowly pushed open the locker and fell out flat on his face. He undid the unfinished knot and went to his locker. He got back into his school clothes and opened the door to leave. His vision swam and he fell to his knees. “Oh my gosh, are you ok?” Lance looked up and saw a girl standing there, staring at him. “Here, let me help you to the office.” She helped Lance to his feet and helped him to the nurse’s office. She sat him down and then went into the other room. She came back out with supplies and began to fix up some of Lance’s wounds. “You know,” she said, wiping some of the blood from his lip. “They don’t usually go this far.” Lance was silent. She tried a couple more times to make conversation, but they all failed. “Well, your ready to go to your next class.” Lance got up and wordlessly exited the office.
He finished the rest of his day in depression. After school was over, he rode home on the bus. Nothing seemed to matter to him at the moment and he wasn’t capable of any coherent thoughts. He got out of the bus and walked to his house. He unlocked the door and pushed it open. It took a moment for him to realize that the lights had already been turned on. Lance looked up and saw a girl his age sitting on his bed staring at him with a whistle in her mouth. She was a very attractive girl with orange hair and yellow eyes. Lance stared at her for a moment. The girl got up and walked up to him. She took the whistle out of her mouth and began to twirl it around her thumb. It began to make a buzzing sound and Lance was sure that something bad was about to happen. At that moment, she swung the whistle at him.