Chapter 2: Puzzling Occurrences
The dark sun rose upon a sleeping earth as Rachel stretched and rose
from her bed. She looked outside and saw that it was still pitch
black. She darted her eyes to her battery powered alarm clock and saw
the number 12 glare up at her. "What?!" Rachel gasped. "It can't be
midnight!" She closely examined the clock through sleep groggy eyes
and saw the small red dot glowing defiantly that symbolized "PM" on
her alarm clock. "It's noon, and its still dark out?" Rachel asked
confusedly.
"Rae, you're awake? It's the sun. I woke up an hour ago. The sun is
still eclipsed."
"But how can that be possible?"
"I don't know, but whatever is blocking the sun, it is definitely not the moon!"
"Let's ask John, he'll know what to…" Both girls stopped and
remembered that John was no longer "with" them. He had ended the
MINDLINK without even an echo. He was somewhere in the forest behind
Franklin High School, dead, or in a deep deep sleep.
"He's probably ok," Jenn said, trying to stay on the optimistic side.
"He probably just got knocked out and got taken to the hospital.
Rachel peered outside her window and saw only darkness. "I wonder when
the power will come back on. The only reason I was able to use the
computer last night was because I was using the laptop which uses a
battery. We had to have cereal for dinner. UGH!"
"Well, we had a turkey dinn… Wait a minute! Why didn't our power go off?!"
"What!?!?!?" asked Rachel, dumfounded. "This is the biggest brownout
in the history of the world! When I was on my laptop, surfing the net,
the new bureau said that the entire east coast is out of power!"
Jennifer got up from her bed, which up to this time she had been
sitting upon, and opened and shut the door to her room as she entered
the living room. She rushed to the kitchen and briskly knocked on the
basement door. "Zack!" CRaaaash! BAnnnng! Jennifer rolled her eyes and
listened to someone in the basement shout and then begin to ascend the
stairs.
Zachary quickly opened the door and glared at his sister with
malicious intent. "What do you want!? Me and Jared were working on
something!"
Jenn look sarcastically at her brother. "You know, Mom and Dad are
gone, and they left me to look after you. And, since they're not here
to protect you, you better answer my question truthfully or you're
gonna get it!"
"Okkk… what question," ask Zack, impatiently as he eyed the basement
door, longing to get back to his work.
Jenn looked at the sealing, "Oh… I don't know, maybe something on the
lines of 'what did you do to our house to give us power when the
entire east cost is in the middle of the world's biggest brownout!?'"
Zack's mouth dropped open as he stared blankly at his sister's
triumphant face. Zack spun around and dashed down the basement steps.
"Jared, Code 225A delta!" Zack screamed as he reached the bottom.
Jenn quickly ran down the steps after him yelling, "There's no place
to hide Zack! I know you're down here, and I know ever inch of this
place like the back of my hand!" Jenn heard an enormous "BOOM!" as she
entered the 2nd room in the basement. Zack was gone.
"Jenn… what's going on?" asked Rachel who had been listening in on the
whole series of events that had just taken place.
"Uh… Rae, Zack just disappeared into thin air. I mean there is no trace of him!"
"Did you check to see if he left through the back door?"
"Yes, he's not outside… besides the doors are all locked, so he
couldn't have left through them, and then locked them again."
"I guess," sighed Rachel, as she logged onto her laptop. "Oh no!"
"What is it now?" asked Jenn, who was beginning to think that life,
was changing for the worse.
"My battery is almost dead. And I can't recharge it because the power
is out. What's this?"
"What is it?" asked Jenn as she continued to scrutinize every inch of
the basement, and then continued up the steps and to the rest of the
house, just in case.
Rachel's eyes lit up as she quickly opened an e-mail from
thewritersquest@cs.com entitled "John." "It's an e-mail from John, I
think," Rachel said as the e-mail slowly materialized on her dimming
screen. "No, wait a minute… it's from his dad. He wants us to help
find John!"
"Whaaat?!" Jenn exclaimed and almost fell over from shock.
"He's missing. After the fire finally went out, the firemen searched
the woods and couldn't find a trace of him anywhere."
"Wait… does his dad say anything about the metal ball that John saw
right before our MINDLINK with him was severed?"
"Umn… yes, right here, it says, "The fireman were able to locate what
they believe to be the source of the fire: A glowing metal ball of
some kind."
"Well we have to help find him. As soon as my Mom and Dad come home, we'll…"
"Wait… there's more: It says, 'The fireman took the ball to…' What!
NO!!! Not now!!!" Rachel screamed.
"What? What happened Rachel?!" asked Jenn concernedly as she saw the
form of Zachary appear in the corner of her eye, as he peeked up from
the basement steps.
"My computer just flipped off! It's out of power! GAH!!! Why now!? Why
do these stupid computers always flip off the moment you need them the
most?"
"Umn Rae? When has your computer ever before flipped off when you,
'needed it the most'?"
"Ummn… never," Rachel said beneath her breath, "But that's beside the
point! GRRrrr… I can't believe this."
"What's all the yelling and screaming about?" asked Rachel's Mom as
she entered her room with a load of clean laundry.
In the meantime, Jenn got up from her chair and seeing that Zachary's
form had slid back down the stairs she gave a vengeful "Humph!" and
shut the door with much vehemence and firmly locked it. And if that
was not enough she propped a chair up against the doorknob. "Let's see
you get out of there you little twerp!"
"Ok," said Zack who was sitting serenely at the table as her calmly
poured Jared a glass of milk. Jenn gave a start and then took an empty
chair. "You want some milk Jenn
?" asked Zack, poisoningly sweet.
Jenn gave him a harsh look from across the table. "Don't think I don't
know what you're up to. I'm on to you mister!"
"Ok then, what are we doing?" asked Jared confidant in Jenn's
ignorance of secrets that were held in strict confidence between
himself and his brother.
"Fine," said Jennifer, defeated. "Tell me!" she yelled as she grabbed
at Jared's shirt.
"We don't have to," said Jared, who had somehow gotten up from his
chair and sat down in front of the PS2 in a matter of milliseconds.