“Erika,” my father shouted. “Jason and I are going to look for new grounds for camping! We will be back before dark.”
My father and my brother, Jason, are always looking for new grounds to camp. My dad and brother are pretty similar in their interests and looks. My brother is a spitting-image of my dad. He has the same bright blue eyes, neat dark brown hair, and goofy grin as my father. If my brother wasn’t so much younger, they could be twins…Jason’s a teenager like me; he’s sixteen years old, which means he is only three years older than me.
My father is a scientist. All I know is that we aren’t supposed to talk about it. For some reason, there aren’t many scientists around anymore. People probably just discovered everything that hadn’t been discovered, so there was nothing left to study. Now, the robots do everything that scientists used to do.
Anyway, I don’t like to go camping because I would rather sit inside and program some robots; programming is my only hobby. I know it sounds kind of geeky but I love it. We have this new technology where the coding is in the robot. All I have to do is find the part of the robot that has the programming -- it is normally softer than the rest of the metals that the robots are made of -- and hack into it. Once you find that weak spot, you can kick or punch it, and that can “kill” -- which basically just means shut down -- the robot. Also, I can hack using the keyboard on my hand. People used to hack using a computer, but doing it on a virtual keyboard on your hand is way cooler and a lot more efficient. Once I hack in, the programming will come out of the robot on a screen. I can touch that part and change the programming. I know that sounds really complicated, but once you get the hang of it, it’s fun and easy -- at least for me.
I looked at the huge, white window, that matched the entire white house. I always wished that our house wasn’t isolated. Nowadays, the houses are so huge, and they take up so much space that there are no people nearby. I haven’t even met anyone who isn’t part of my family. My dad heard that back in the old days, people lived right next to each other and would play together; he said that those people were called neighbors. I sometimes wish that I could live in that world instead of the world we live in today.
“What are you working on now?” my mother asked me.
My mother doesn’t have a job, but she has never told us why. She just takes care of the house and the family -- like most mothers do. My father practically does the same thing when he isn’t in the lab in our house.
“I’m working on unprogramming a robot and reprogramming it,” I replied.
I’d been trying to unprogram a robot for a really long time, and I’d finally figured it out. I knew this was unrealistic, but I wished that I could try it out on an actual robot...
“You're insane with all this programming! DIEsector doesn’t allow education so how do you have this gift? I know your father is a scientist, but he would never dream of building robots.”
DIEsector is our dictator. He’s the most powerful robot in the world! None of us know the whole story, but I’d heard that DIEsector was just a normal robot that turned evil and took over. Then the religion wars happened in 2050 -- when the robots and people fought against each other. Now, our government is just DIEsector’s dictatorship. I wouldn’t really say there are social classes because the people around here don’t know each other, so I just guess that we all have the same kind of life. If there were social classes in our society, DIEsector would be on the top, any robots next, and then the people.
“Well you keep doing what you’re doing! Tell me when your dad and brother come home,” my mom says while walking away.
It was starting to become dark out so I waited by the window to see my dad and my brother walk in. This is my normal routine; I’ve done it since I was little, and the habit just stuck over the years.
Hours passed and they still weren’t home.
“I’m starting to get worried. Maybe we should look for them,” my mom exclaimed.
“I can go. You stay here. I’ll be back soon!” I replied and left before getting an answer.
My mom is horrible in the woods; once my dad convinced us to have a family camping trip, and my mom got lost before we even got to the camping ground. Honestly, I have no problem with the woods, but I’d rather sleep in my comfortable bed than on the bumpy ground with bugs flying all around us.
When I walked outside, I breathed in the air of the forest. Our house was literally surrounded by woods -- which made it very easy for my dad and brother to camp. Also, if we ever needed to find them, it would be a pretty short walk to find them. I knew that they had to be near by, so I wandered around for a really long time, hoping to find some footprints. As I looked around, I noticed all of the beautiful trees. There were huge clusters everywhere. The trees were so tall that they poked the sky. As I walked, I saw a million more. It was actually more like a hundred, but it was still a lot of trees. Once it had seemed like I had been walking for miles, I spotted something in the corner of my eye. There was a little mark on a tree, which is what my dad and brother always do so they don’t get lost. I moved closer and found Jason’s camping backpack. I knew that they were near, but I didn’t know where to go next.
A couple of hours had passed and I had been finding some more marks on the trees but they weren’t anywhere. I had no idea what time it was, but I knew it was still close to morning -- maybe early afternoon -- because the sky was still light. Soon, I saw a little glimpse of silver where the sun had reflected on. I cautiously inched closer, making sure that it wasn’t dangerous. Soon enough, I found robots with weapons guarding something that wasn’t in my view.
“Stop right there! You may not go any farther,” the robot shouted, in a mechanical voice.
“What? Why?” I asked.
“That is classified information,” the robot replied.
“What are you guarding?” I asked. The robot hesitated, surprised that I hadn’t left yet.
“None of us know,” another robot answered.
“Aren’t any of you guys -- I mean robots -- like, curious about what you are doing?”
“Yes. But what can we do about it? Do you have any ideas?”
I glanced around for a second, hoping to find a sign of my family. After a moment, I spotted my brother’s water bottle. Near it was a robot, laying motionless on the floor, with electric sparks coming out. My brother wasn’t a programmer like me, but he was smart, and knew how to trick someone or get out of a situation. I realized that he must have tricked the robot by dumping his water bottle on it, which must have scared the other robots, so they ran out of the way to let them through -- something like that probably happened, but I honestly had no idea. All I knew was that my family was in whatever these robots were guarding, and I needed to find out where they are.
I looked back at the robots and found them staring at me. Waiting. I realized a few seconds later that they were waiting for a reply.
“Oh sorry, I was just looking around…So maybe I can look at your programming to figure it out!” I replied, trying to hide the mischief in my voice.
The robots weren’t sure if they could trust me -- which is realistic because I was a stranger -- but they decided that I couldn’t do much harm. What they didn’t know was that I can program robots, even though it’s not really allowed. They also didn’t know that I’ve been programming since I was five years old because nobody can teach themselves that.
I explained to them that all I have to do is find the chip that has their programming and it should say what all of them are doing here. To be honest, that’s not how it works at all, but it didn’t even matter that I had no idea what I was talking about. These robots didn’t know anything -- they didn’t even know what they were guarding.
As I encountered the robots, I tried to remember how I had unprogrammed my robots at home. I went up to the first robot that I had talked to, and looked at it’s back. I’ve learned through my years of programming that the robot’s programming is on it’s back, normally with some switches. This robot’s back was completely unfamiliar compared to my small robots at home; I just made robots out of metal that my dad had in the lab. I saw two switches: a red one and a smaller green one. I went with the obvious choice -- the tiny green switch. I put my hand on the tiny metal, and pushed down on the switch. Once it was all the way to the bottom, a huge red blinking light formed. It read, “SELF DESTRUCT ON. WILL DESTRUCT IN 60 SECONDS.” I quickly tried to flip it backed up, but of course, with my amazing luck, it was stuck.
As the seconds ticked by, I tried to figure out what to do. The robots had no idea what was happening. I soon realized that maybe the green switch would turn that off. As I was pushing that one down, the robots all said at once, “What’s going oooooooonnnnnnnnnnnn.” And that was that; all of the robots shut down. I realized at that moment, that I was completely alone, with robots that were going to explode.
“40 seconds left” the clock read. Time was ticking by and I still didn’t have a plan. I went passed all the dead robots and found what they were protecting. There was an ocean, and in the middle of an ocean was something that looked like a whirlpool. I had heard about a whirlpool because once it had happened before. I knew that there was more to the whirlpool -- something that was worthy of being guarded -- and I had to figure it out.
“20 SECONDS LEFT”, the clock on the robot read. Soon, a big purple glow had come out of the center. I didn’t have much time left, so I knew I only had one choice. I had to jump into whatever that glow was in the whirlpool. As I read the clock count down to 8, 7, 6, 5…My feet flew off the ground, my arms spread out wide, trying to get it so that I would land feet-first in whatever was in that whirlpool. As my feet touched the purple glow, and started sinking in, I saw the clock that read 3, 2, 1. Before my last glance of the world I was somehow leaving, I saw the the big fire that was blazing with anger and the thundering boom that sounded like the sky was falling onto the ground.  At the exact moment as the roar, I saw the destruction of the robots going into the air. Metal pieces crashed to the ground. A huge barrier of smoke covered the sky and the clouds.  It was the biggest explosion that I had ever seen, and a wreckage that no one could’ve survived in.
A few seconds later, my head was in a glow of purple. And then there was nothing. The heat of the glow turned into numbness. It felt like I was in a confused daze surrounded by nothing. One second I felt the pressure on my shoulders -- like all people feel -- but then, I didn’t feel anything. I quickly felt my pulse, making sure that I wasn’t dead. Luckily, I felt the beating -- I was still alive. I was floating with no air, but somehow I was still breathing. Suddenly, a quick tingling came to my fingers and spread through my whole body. One by one, starting from my toes and fingers, I could sort of feel again. Finally, the numbness completely went away.
Instantly, I had entered a new world. “A PORTAL” I accidentally said out loud, very loudly. Then I noticed many people, walking around in a place that looked very unfamiliar. As I looked around, I was so excited to find the person I had been looking for.
“DAD!” I shouted. “I’m so happy that I found you! Where’s Jason?”
As I looked closer, I realized that my father looked almost 10 years older. I started to wonder if the portal made me look older too.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” said the man.
“You’re my father. You and Jason left and never came back, but now I found you!”
“Um, I’m not your father. And I’m not exactly Jason.”
“What are you talking about?” I asked demandingly.
“I’m Jason’s doppleganger,” he replied.
“His dopple-what?”
“His doppleganger. Wow! On Earth, DIEsector doesn’t tell you guys anything,” he said, talking like I would no longer be confused because of what the he just said.  I waited patiently for him to go on, but he didn’t say anything else.
Since he didn’t feel the need to continue, I asked, “So are you going to explain any of this to me or not…”
“Oh, right. Ok so I’m guessing you know where you are, right?” he replied.
“Well, actually, I have no idea where I am. All I know is that I accidently made all those robots explode because I flipped the wrong switch, and I also know that I just entered something like a portal. My dad and brother are somehow down here too and I need to find them,” I said with a hint of frustration in my voice. I didn’t like not knowing things.
“Hmmmm.”
I waited some more, but he still didn’t answer. He just stared at me blankly. I decided that I wasn’t going to get any answers unless I asked specific questions. I started out by asking what a doppleganger was. He explained to me that it’s someone that is identical to someone else. The cool part about them is that they age backwards. I didn’t really know what that meant -- because how was I supposed to understand all of this without a really good explanation? He must have seen the confused look I gave him, because he continued to explain. The doppelganger tried to make it simpler for me by telling me that Jason was born the same day that he was. He started out at age 0; I start at the age he dies. I knew that I wouldn’t get a better explanation of a doppelganger, so I moved onto a new topic.
“Ok. So, where am I?” I asked.
“You’re on Fluzz, the opposite of Earth -- it’s on the opposite side, if you were wondering. You just went through the portal that leads here. Also, it’s still the year 2116. Earth and Fluzz are always the same year.”
“Wait, how is their an opposite side on a round planet?” I ask.
“The world isn’t round. Christopher Columbus discovered the world was flat long ago?”
“Who’s Christopher Columbus?”
“The guy that discovered that the world is flat.”
I was starting to get frustrated because there was a whole other world that nobody knew about. Although, somehow this “other world” knew all about us. He explained to me that DIEsector’s doppelganger is their dictator, but he informs them about everything that is going on.
“Wait, so you’re saying that even DIEsector has a doppelganger?”
“Yeah.”
“This is insane. He’s a robot! How does he have a doppelganger?” I said with fury.
“I do not know, but you should explore a little; find your father and brother. I’ll still be over here.” Before he left, I asked him
“Thanks for all of your help but one last question. How do you know all of this -- like, about my family?” I asked, extremely curious.
“The people on Fluzz know all…”
“Ok then. Well, thanks for all your help,” I said while he walked away.
As soon as I started wandering around, I saw a shadow in front of the tree.. As I inched closer, it seemed to be moving closer to me. Finally, I was able to see the person’s face. It looked exactly like Jason, but I couldn’t be sure yet.
“Erika! I can’t believe you’re here!” Jason exclaimed with delight.
“Jason. Is that really you?”
“Yeah it’s me!”
“I’m so happy to see you,” I said while jumping towards him for a hug.
“Mom and I had no idea where you and dad were. I have so many questions. First, where’s dad?”
“Well, I have a lot to tell you.”
“Ok. You start -- it might answer some of my questions,” I stated happily.
“So, me and dad were just walking around, when we saw the robots -- the ones guarding the portal-thingy. Then dad went all nuts--”
“Why did dad go nuts?” I interrupted.
“I’m getting to that. Anyway, so he pulled me over near a tree and told me everything. So, you know how our house is kind of closed off and how there aren’t many scientists around anymore?” he asked.
“Yeah. I thought it was just because they don’t need any more scientists.”
It turns out, I was completely wrong. Our house is isolated because we are hiding.
“Hiding? From what?” I said with interest and fear.
“So DIEsector and his army of robots--”
“He has an army of robots?”
“Yeah,” my brother responded.
“Why doesn’t anyone know what this?”
“Well the scientists do.”
“Ok, whatever. Go on.” I was starting to get impatient with all of this. None of us knew about any of this, even when my mom and dad did.
He continued to explain that since dad is a scientist, we are hiding in the house, because if they find us, the scientists get taken to Fluzz jail. He had heard that Fluzz jail is the scariest place ever. I soon realized that my father probably wasn’t the only person that knew about this. 
“Did mom know about this?” I asked, already knowing the answer. My father couldn’t keep such a big secret from my mom. I asked anyway, sort of hoping that she didn’t.
“She did. That’s why she doesn’t have an actual job -- to keep us safe. It would be too dangerous for her and our family for her to be working with other people. If anyone figured out that dad was a scientist, they would take all of us to Fluzz jail!”
“Another thing that our parents never told us...” I said with a hint of anger and frustration.
“Don’t be upset with them. This information would put us in even more danger.”
I was starting to get annoyed with my whole family, so I changed the subject. I told him about how I saw the robot that was dead because of water. I asked if he was the one that did that. He said yes, which I wasn’t surprised by. He told me that the robots can detect scientists in their programming. When dad was explaining all this to him, they saw them. They started taking my dad away. One robot tried lifting Jason up -- to take him too -- but he poured water on it and killed it. He tried pouring water onto the robots that had dad, but he was too late. Then, he followed them into the portal and wandered over to here.
“I still have many more questions, but we better find dad!” I said with enthusiasm.
After about a two minute walk, we found the huge jail. Jason was right about what he had heard -- it was terrifying. The sky suddenly got darker and storm clouds came -- even though it was a beautiful, sunny day before that. It was covered by these huge, high-tech robots; they were much more powerful than the robots guarding the portal.
“I’ll take down this one,” he said, pointing to the robots towards the left, “and you can take that one.”
I was horrified. I asked him how he possibly expected me to take down robots, but he didn’t hear me. He had already started toward them.
As I approached the robots, I thought about just trying to unprogram the robots. “That would be easy!” I said to myself, trying to be convincing, but as I got closer to the robots, all of my hopes were lost. These robots were way too complicated -- way more complex than the robots at the portal, and I couldn’t even unprogram those robots. That’s when I had a moment of truth, I couldn’t count on my programming skills to help me now. I had to do something way out of my comfort zone. I had to fight them.
“What do you think you are you doing?” the robot screamed, in a deep, scary voice; it was not mechanical at all -- which was another big difference from the robots at the portal. I quickly took a step back, terrified of the robot. Then I realized that it made me look weak to do that, so I casually took two steps forward.
“What are you doing?” I said confidently, but then realized that it made no sense. “I mean. I’m here -- ummm -- I’m here to fight you.”
“Then go ahead,” the robot replied -- but before I knew it, it was powering up. It unexpectedly got almost 10 feet taller and then back to its regular size to intimidate me. As I turned slowly, I took the robot by surprise and tried to kick it, but I completely missed. Once he realized I was still there, he took out a weapon. He pointed the gun straight at me and started to fire. I dove under the first one, jumped over the second one. I quickly moved to the side to avoid the third one. As the bullet glided past me, I noticed that it wasn’t a regular bullet; it was like a ball full of fire. Before I had time to think of my next move, the robot tried to punch my nose, but at the last second, I ducked down.
Out of nowhere, it held out its wrist and on it were knife blades; then it started coming towards me. I kicked to the side and hit the robot in the head; it probably hurt my foot way more than its head, but it weakened the robot a little. I saw that the metal faintly faded a bit, and then quickly got back to normal. That’s where the weak spot is -- the head! I thought to myself. I quickly punched its head but it was too quick. The robot came hurdling at me, now with blades all over him. He was about to cut my neck, when all of a sudden, it’s blade disappeared and it’s head drooped. I punched him in the head, but it didn’t do anything to him. How did this happen? I thought to myself. Then, I saw my brother.
“Jason. You’ll never believe what just happened. The robot was about to kill me but then it just -- died.”
“I know. I shut it down!” my brother said with pride.
“How?” I shouted, a little bit jealous. I was the programmer in the family.
Jason explained that he had escaped from the robots and was coming to get me from the other side of jail. While he was running, he banged his hip into a weird thing that came out of the concrete. On it was a bunch of buttons, so he just pressed them all at once, and then it said, ‘Robots shutting down’ As he told me this story, I just stood in awe. Jason had saved my life by just fooling around with buttons.
“So what are we waiting for? Let’s find our father!” he shouted.
As we walked into the huge double doors, all I saw was darkness. Suddenly, a small light shone down on a man that was banging on the cell doors made of steel. He had dark brown, messed up hair, sad, blue eyes, and a huge frown. It looked nothing like the man I knew before -- so different that I almost didn’t recognize him -- but I had no doubt that it was him.
“DAD!”