Chapter 8

Apullu Town-Sam, Sarah, Tony "Ah, ah, Ahem.. Where is that smoke coming from?" said Tony while covering his mouth.  Sarah covered her mouth and vaguely saw the name of the town. Sarah squinted her eyes and replied, "A..Apullu Town, Why is it covered in smoke?"  Sam started coughing and said"let's find a place to sit down first. '' The group started walking in town and saw people wearing air-purifying masks. Puffs of black smoke filled the air around them. The smoke covered the top of the buildings like clouds. The whole town felt like death. Sarah and the group found a bar nearby to sit down and for some information on the town. As the group walked into the bar, everyone stopped and stared at them. The bar had an old-school feel to it. The walls were made out of golden brown cement. The bar had a greasy gritty feel to it. It looked like something that you would see in a western.  Tony whispered, "don't they look...different?"  Sam brushed him off and replied "They can have gills for all I care and remember this isn't our earth anymore" The waiter came to our table and asked us what type of drinks we would like to drink.  Sarah said, "um... just water is fine with me!"  The waiter looked at us confused and asked "You must not be from around here.."  Sam froze up and asked, "Why do you say that?"  The waiter laughed and said "I haven't been asked for water in 100 years...I can get you some Blac Smuk! It's famous in this town..A family secret!" Sam took a good look at the waiter and saw that he had an extra finger.  The waiter saw how Sam is looking at him and responded "I also got 2 extra toes on both feet. Momma said it was a birth defect from the smoke outside. Doctor told us that she inhaled too much when she was pregnant with me."  Sarah asked, "How is she now?" The waiter looked down to the ground and said "She's gone, but how about I get you the town's favorite meal in the house since you are new!" Tony smiled and thanked the waiter for his hospitality. Tony looked around the room and whispered "don't you find the people a little odd?"  Sarah shushed him and said, "stop being rude!" The waiter came back with 3 glasses of Blac Smuk.  Sam looked at the glass and back at the waiter with a confused look.. She asked, "um what is in this.. just asking because of ..of al..allergies !"  The waiter laughed and said "You definitely are not from here..Blac Smuk is made up of cactus juice and the black smoke. Everyone drinks it here!"  Sarah pushed the cup to the side and asked "Where is the nearest spot to find water?"  The waiter gave them a confused look and asked "Where are you folks from again?"  Tony nervously smiled and uttered, "We are travelers, we don't stick to a place...when did the black smoke first appear in town?"  The waiter gave them an odd smile and said "About 200 years ago." Sam's mouth hung open and asked "If I may, how old are you?"  The waiter gave her a serious look and asked"How old are you....If I may ask?"  Sam smiled and said "just a measly 300 years old.. Hehe," Sarah and Tony nervously laughed while looking down at the table. The waiter gave them a questionable smile and said "well if you need anything else, then just give me a buzz!" The waiter placed a buzzer on the table with the name "Clublu" on it. Sarah whispered, "why did you lie?"  Sam looked around her and said "look around you.. Doesn't everyone seem different from us? That waiter ..Clublu talks about 200 years ago like it was yesterday. Something is in that drink or the black smoke..we can't drink or inhale any of it unless you want 2 extra toes. We need a plan, but first, we need to eat some real food."  Tony nervously looked around his shoulder and said "I told you that I felt that something was off..you think that they started mutating from the black smoke? Anyway, we need to be careful because I don't have a good feeling about this town or the people!" Clublu came back to the table to ask us if we want anything else to eat and Tony asked "Well what do you have?"  Clublu enthusiastically smiled and said " We have our special of the day, which is the Blac Smuk Burgers! It's a real crowd-pleaser! It's made of the black smoke, cactus pricks, and bamboozere."  Sarah laughed and said, "What is a bamboozere?"  Clublu replied "A bamboozere is our..." Sam interrupted him and said, "let me guess..the town favorite meat.."  Clublu looked surprised and asked, "How did you guess?"  Sarah non-surprisingly smiled and replied "A lucky guess!"  The waiter left the table and the group finally took a good look at the place and the name. Sarah squinted her eyes and saw that this place is called "Mellow Smuk. That's a weird name for a bar ..don't you think it's weird that most of the dishes and drinks have that black smoke in it? Don't these people know that it can mess up their bodies? I mean.. If you breathe it and ingest it, then of course it will lead to changes in your body."  Tony looked around and said "The extra finger surprised me...If one person is mutating then it's a good chance more is out there just like him. Not seeing the harm in it or trying to do something to fix it. He just accepted it, like it was normal. I don't know..but something is not right in this town." Sam gave Tony a worried look and muttered "Well it is not our problem! All we are doing is just exploring this place, then we are leaving and going back to our earth!" Tony looked at the girls and said "speaking of that... What is this whole place called? Is it another dimension of Earth or a different planet or we somehow just time-traveled? BUT HOW...this is the first time that I don't have an answer to my own questions..."  Sarah gave Tony a worried look and uttered "Let's just take this a day at a time. It's no rush to find everything out in one day. The first thing on the agenda is where is my smuk burger..now it ain't like a burger on our earth, but burgers are universal things. It's something that everybody should agree on.." Sam interrupted her and asked "Um I hope you are not actually going to try that, like what if it gives you an extra eye or something? We don't know the cause of that black smoke outside or how dangerous it is...we can't eat anything in this world."  Sarah laughed and replied "Sooo you want to starve us..yeah that's a GREAT IDEA. Sis... humans adapt and that's been known for like forever so we can adapt our food choices and survive while we are in this world. It starts now so at least take one bite just to try it out! Who knows you might actually like it."  Tony chimed in and said "I mean it won't hurt us..I think. Comparing it to the food choices we had growing up..I'd say it's even. A lot of the food we ate had chemicals, pesticides, acid, and a lot of bad stuff that weren't supposed to be in our bodies. Yet we still ate it and people kept getting sick. My mother used to tell me that she would rather spend her days eating the food she likes, than spend 100 years on a healthy diet. That path leads to pills which mess up our bodies even more than death... on a hospital bed with a $100,000 bill that someone has to pay. Our earth wasn't all that good either." The table suddenly became silent. Clublu walked to our table with 3 smuk burgers on a tray. Clublu smiled and said"so we got your burgers, enjoy! Let me know if you want something else!" The group thanked him and looked down at the burger. Sam picked up the bun and asked "why is the bun green and sticky?" Tony looked at the meat and said "yep it does have cactus pricks in it..at least they are small so we won't choke while eating it. Also, why does the meat have a purple color to it?"  Sarah went ahead and took a bite out of the burger. She chewed slowly and was surprised that she enjoyed it. She uttered, "This may be better than the burgers from earth!"  Tony scoffed at her and tried the burger. Tony's face lightened up and began to demolish the burger. Sam picked a small piece of the burger and tasted it. Sam looked at the group and said "It's alright...I wonder how they mix the black smoke inside the burger?"  Tony responded "eh, I'm not worried about that..I just want another burger! CLUBLU!!"  Clublu came over and asked, "How might I help you?"  Tony said, "We want 3 more of these burgers!"  Clublu smiled and responded with "Alright that will be 300 Ulers!" The group stopped eating and stared at Clublu.  Sam smiled and asked "What are Ulers? Where we come from, our currency is different!" Clublu looked at all 3 of them in the eyes and asked "Where is that again? You never told me, but it's fine if you don't want to tell me. We get people like you here all of the time. Ulers are our way to exchange items ..kind like your currency thing, my people can buy things with ulers. A 100 ulers can get a burger or drink." Tony said, "That's a little expensive for food.."  Clublu responded with "That's how the Rulers made it..if you don't have any ulers, then finish your food and leave. Like I said the first round is on the house. Just a bit of advice, some of people in this bar..are getting antsy with your group." Sam looked around and saw that everyone is looking at them. Sam replied "Uh thank you for helping us, we really appreciate it! How can we get in contact with you? What is your number?  Clublu gave her a confused look and said "What do you mean? Sam looked at Clublu and said "A phone .. you know.."  Tony interrupted and replied, "We will just come back to this diner if we need to talk to you."  The group waved goodbye and Tony whispered "I don't think they have electricity like we do...like I have yet to see a cell phone or a tv." Sarah looked at the group and muttered "cover your mouth since we are going outside." As the group walked outside, they saw an elderly couple walk towards them. As the couple continued to look at them, Tony pulled the group to continue walking.  The old man uttered, "I haven't seen humans in a long time." The group stopped in their tracks and turned to look at the couple. The old woman began to smile at them and said "My name is Lyndda and this is Lynor. Nice to meet you."If you got to the end then you might as well like, comment, and follow me!Italics-Internal Dialogue