LIVE VIRUS [INCOMPLETE]
Crash. Meghan, my older sister, had been asked to clean the basement. The crash sound must have been Meghan breaking another vase. It was almost 10:00 and I was trying to fall asleep. My mom had mysteriously disappeared last year, so now I officially lived with my grama and grampa in Langford. School was out for summer, but I only had a week before it would be open again. I'd be in grade four. Another crash from the basement, and I could hear grama groan as she got up from bed and started walking down the hallway and down the stairs to the basement to see what Meghan was breaking. I could hear Meghan repeating the word sorry, but grama was using the 'really mad' voice. Well I guess it's about time I introduced myself, I'm Kelsey. And I go to Glen Lake Elementary school. Summer was extremely boring. But Meghan had all her friends from school to hang out with. I only had the boring Day Care kids to play with because my two friends had gone on vacations and camping trips for the whole summer. Grama had a small Day Care service, and we were allowed to do anything we wanted. The little boys played cars in the toy room, while the older girls hung out with Meghan. I stayed in my room the most of the time playing my Game Boy, or watching grama knit. I got out of bed because I knew it was impossible to go to sleep after all the pop I had had. I stomped down the hallway and the stairs, and walked into the downstairs family room. Grampa basically owned this family room. There was a TV and a VCR, and he always recorded and watched his Nascar shows here. Upstairs, there was the living room, which the Day Care kids owned. I walked into the family room, and saw that there was a dead rat sitting on the coffee table, and Meghan had the look on her face. Grama turned around as I entered, and did the eyelash flicker thing she always does when she's annoyed. "I'm going outside." I said firmly. Grama nodded, and Meghan simply turned away. I knew she was still mad at me for what happened last year. I turned around and headed for the basement door. Once outside, I un-hatched the door to the backyard and walked into the backyard. It was almost pitch black, but I could see that the two neighbours had their lights on still. The so called 'neighbours' lived on a totally different street, Glen Lake road, but were back-to-back with Grama's house. I saw Ebony, our little dog, walking around the top part of our backyard. I sat down on the small wooden bench, and looked at the laundry room window, and could see that the family room light was still on. Then I remembered that this week was the week that Grama called 'School 'Round Corner'. Tomorrow all the Day Care kids would come to grama 's house like usual, but we would go out on a huge school shopping spree. That ment clothes shopping, supplies shopping, and a little Mc. Donald's lunch at the end. It always went that way. Then I heard something behind me and I turned around. Our cat Sammy Sam had jumped off the small blue gate and was now running away. I got up, un-latched the gate and started running after her. She dashed into the shrubs that surrounded the front yard. I started heading back towards the door and entered the house. Grama and Meghan were gone from the family room, but I could hear Meghan's TV upstairs. I silently walked up the stairs and headed to my room. I could hear Grampa snoring loudly, and Meghan was watching a celebrity channel with the volume very high. I banged on her door and yelled at her to turn the volume down, and Grampa's snoring stopped. I flew onto my bed, listening and waiting for Meghan to turn the volume down, but she didn't. I couldn't believe it! I got up and banged again, yelling louder and asked if she was deaf. "Meghan! Turn the stupid volume down! Are you deaf or something?" And I pounded on her poster-decorated door again. No response, and the volume didn't change. I opened the door, and saw that she was asleep. I grabbed the TV remote and turned the TV off. I could hear Grampa snoring again, and even Meghan snoring. I returned to my room and got into bed.
I awoke the next morning to Grama screaming at the Day Care kids to hurry up. I got out of bed slowly, and walked down the hallway and into the kitchen. Breanne and Autumn were still eating their cereal, and Grama was franticly trying to get the smaller boys to hurry up. I looked down the hallway, and saw Grama hurrying Braydon along, when she dropped her purse. "Oh!" She yelled, and picked it up. Braydon was running away, heading into the dining room. Grama yelled "Oh!" again, and hurried after him. I walked back into the kitchen, and got out the Count Chocola cereal and sat down at the table. Breanne was trying to eat her cereal and play her Game Boy at the same time, and almost spilt her whole bowl. Grama was flustered now, she had caught Braydon and was now attempting to capture Brody, Linden, and Whaylin. Jacqueline was crying in the toy room as Brody screamed and yelled as he tried to escape from Grama. It sounded like Linden, Autumn's little brother, had been captured. I saw Meghan pouting in the living room. "What's wrong with Meghan?" I asked. "Oh she's just mad that Grama won't go to her favorite store. It's stupid." Breanne said. Breanne always ended her sentance with 'It's stupid' or something along those lines. I saw Autumn roll her eyes. I finished my cereal by the time Grama had moved all the boys to the van. All of us were in the van now, and Breanne was sitting beside me, and Meghan beside her. Meghan didn't even look at me or Breanne, she was too busy pouting and making sure she still had the mad look on her face. Breanne was listening to her CD Player. Grama turned around and started talking. "First, we go to WalMart and get some clothes and some supplies for all of you." She pointed at everyone when she said 'all of you'. "Then we go and eat at Mc. Donald's. Sound okay?" Everyone said in unison, "Yes Gram." Grama turned around and started up the van, and drove out of the driveway and out of Church Wood Place. It really wasn't quite a long drive from the house to WalMart, but the boys made it seem that way. They played with their little video games that they had gotten from Mc. Donald's a while ago, and spent the rest of the time trying to punch each other. Grama yelled and tried to maintain order, but it was no good. Braydon slammed his toy truck against the window, and I could have sworn I saw a scratch on the window. But Brody kicking Grama's seat was the final straw. Grama promised that everyone who was screaming and breaking things and kicking the chairs would get soap in their mouths when we got home. The van was quiet for the rest of the ride.
We were split into groups, I was with Autumn and Breanne, and Meghan was stuck with the boys. I tried to catch her glance so I can smirk at her, but she was trying her best to ignore me. Grama was at the Mc. Donald's ordering everything. Breanne was in charge of our cart, and Breanne said that Autumn had the body guard job. I was just the 'watching person'. We stopped at the clothes section, and Breanne grabbed a small basket, and filled it with clothes. I grabbed a few things, but Autumn just stood there watching. She must be taking this body guard job seriously. Breanne threw away the basket into the middle of a jeans rack after adding all the clothes to the cart. Now we headed towards the shoe section, where Breanne picked out three pair of shoes. Autumn still just stood and watched. I only toke one pair of shoes, they lit up when they hit the floor. The cart was basically loaded after we visited the video games section, and I started to wonder how Grama was going to afford everything. I saw Meghan walking around on her own, and I knew the boys were on their own, loading their cart up with hundreds of dollars worth of stuff. But Breanne kept pulling stuff off the shelves and ended up having to get a whole new cart. I was now pulling the over-loaded cart, and Breanne was happily pulling the new cart into the toy section. There was a stack of baskets at the entrance, and Breanne handed us each one. "Split up." She told us. It was obvious that the boys had been here already because the toy car isle was almost empty. I thought that Grama was maybe rich, so I filled my basket to the top with toys. I met up with Autumn and saw she had also loaded her basket to the max. When we got back to Breanne, we added the new stuff to the cart, and tossed the baskets on the floor. Autumn asked to visit the clothes section again, and Breanne agreed, saying that she may have forgot something. We laughed as we pulled away from the baskets that lied on the floor. We saw the boys tearing everything off the racks in the boy's clothes section. In the girl's section, Autumn started filling a basket with clothes, and Breanne now had another full basket of clothes. I decided to go crazy too, filling a basket with clothes. We added the clothes to the cart, but it wasn't full yet. We had just enough room to get school supplies. Before we left the clothes section, we made sure to throw our baskets onto the floor, and laugh as we walked away. "Is grama rich?" I asked Breanne as we were just about to get into the school section. "She said she would spend two million on today!" She replied joyfully, smiling for the first time. Autumn seemed overjoyed now. My mind raced with thoughts of what I could buy. We reached the school section, and grabbed some baskets. We saw some people pass by and eye our carts with shock, and we laughed. I loaded my basket to the brim with the coolest stuff, and I ended up having to get another basket. Breanne was going back and forth instead of getting another basket. She filled her basket three times, dumping the contents of her basket into the over-flowing cart each time her basket was full. Breanne eyed the cart as I walked over to dump my stuff into it. "Go get another cart Kelsey. And bring the other cart over here would you?" She demanded. I put my basket on top of the cart, and headed to the place were they had all the carts. I walked up to a cart, and put in 25 cents. I was just heading to the clothes section were we put the old cart when I saw the boys were clinging onto their cart, and Whaylen was pushing the cart at full speed. The boys that were in or on the cart were screaming, and I could see people taking pictures and laughing. However, the staff were panicking and were racing after the cart. I couldn't help laughing. I grabbed the full cart and pulled the full cart with the new cart towards the school section. There was a loud crash, the sound of the staff stopping the boys. I arrived at the school section and saw Autumn and Breanne waiting for me. I passed Breanne the new cart, and Autumn took control of one of the other full carts. I had a full cart too. I dumped the contents of my basket into the new cart. Breanne saw the pet section and just had to get some stuff for Ebony and Sammy Sam. Me and Autumn decided to load up a basket dedicated to Ebony and Sammy. The third cart was half-way full, but Breanne begged a staff lady to give her a bunch of fish. After Breanne was satisfied with new fish and a complete set of stuff to go with them, we headed towards the Mc. Donald's. There was one in the WalMart. The boys were already with Grama. We pulled into Mc. Donald's, and Grama told us to take her Credit Card and pay for all the stuff. I ended up having to pull two carts, Breanne and Autumn only had to pull one. The boys had to stay with Grama. At the till, it took forever for the lady to put all the stuff into bags while giving us doubtful glances. Breanne noticed that the lady was staring at us for having so much stuff, and Breanne said "You'll see." The lady laughed, and Breanne looked really mad now. Autumn was grabbing extra stuff off the candy shelf and adding them to the carts. After everything was bagged, the lady announced very loud and clear: "One million, five thousand, six hundred, twenty five is your total." The whole WalMart went silent. The other till ladies froze, and slowly turned to look at us. Everyone was staring at us, seeing if we would be able to pay. I showed the lady Grama's Credit Card, and she swiped it into the machine, with a stupid look on her face as if she was excpecting there to only be ten bucks on it. The machine made a few beeps, then said in a computer voice; "Accepted." The till lady looked totally shocked. Her eyes rolled back, and she fell backwards. WalMart was back to being noisy after that, but still some people starred at us as we loaded the carts with the bags. We got to get rid of two carts. We headed back to Mc. Donald's and saw that there were two whole tables full of food. Grama was sitting at one of those tables. She smiled at us as we rushed over to the tables. I parked the carts in front of the tables and sat down. A few people looked at us enviously. We all asked Grama how she had so much money. "Oh just from doing Day Care so long!" and she laughed. We were all shocked. I feasted on the food, and Breanne demanded that we have a fashion show when we got home. When both tables were cleared, me and Autumn pulled the carts outside. Meghan was waiting for us, she had three carts full of stuff. She must have shopped and paid faster than us. "Okay we're ready to go Meghan!" Grama said to her. We headed towards the van, and Grama helped us load all the bags ino the back, but a few bags had to be placed in the back seat with me, Breanne and Meghan. Breanne was of course totally fine with that, but she had to make sure that it was her bags that got put in the back seat. Everyone was extremly excited and talking about what they were going to do when we got home. Brody and Whalen were talking about all the cars they got, and the race tracks that they bought. They requested that I give them all of their bags, but I refused. When we pulled into Grama's driveway, everyone raced out of the van before it even got a chance to stop. The boys hurried to the back and opened the hatch of the van. They quickly pulled out all of their bags, and hurried Grama into un-locking the door to the house. "I'm hurrying.. ok.. ok ok ok!" She said to keep them quiet. Me and Breanne and Autumn hurried to the back of the van and pulled out all of our bags. Meghan was last to get her stuff, she waited until everyone was gone before she got out of the van and got her bags. As I closed the basement door, I could have sworn I saw Meghan smiling a really evil smile.
After Breanne's little fashion show, the boys rushed to the toy room to set up the new race tracks and build the Lego sets. Grama simply did some of her kniting. Meghan did not come in the house. It was seven o' clock and she had still not come in. Brody and Whaylen had gone home, and it was only Breanne, Braydon, Autumn, Linden and me. We were all watching TV when Grama got a phone call from Breanne's mom, Librety, that she and Braydon would have to have a sleep-over. Grama spent an hour setting up the toy room with a bed for Braydon so he could play with his cars, and Breanne had to sleep on the floor in my room. Breanne was enraged about sleeping on the floor, so I said she could sleep on my bed. Grama set up a mini bed on the floor for me. It was going on to ten o' clock and Grama said she was going to go out to the van to check up on Meghan. Me and Breanne played our Game Boys while Braydon played with his cars in the toy room. The phone started ringing, and I had to go answer it because Grama hadn't come back from outside yet. I picked up the reciever and said "Hello?". "Oh hi this is Winter, Autumn's mom." My heart skipped a beat. Winter. Winter.. no way. Maybe they just had the same names.. it didn't matter. "Hi! What do you want?" I said. "I was wondering if Autumn and Linden could stay the night? I need to take a trip to Vancouver for a buisness meeting. Can you check with your grama to see if that's alright with her?" She said. "Yeah, I'll go and ask right now. I'll get Breanne to talk to you while you're waiting okay?" I said, and she laughed. "Okay then!" She said. I yelled for Breanne to come. She came rushing into the kitchen. "Keep her occupied. I need to ask grama if Autumn and Linden are allowed to stay the night." I said to her. She clapped her hands and jumped into the air. "Oh goodie! Sure!" She rushed to the phone and picked it up. Okay, I thought. I started down the stairs, when I saw that the door was closed, and a note was attached to the door. I skipped down four steps and landed in front of the door, and tore off the note.
Dear Kelsey or Breanne,
Do not attempt to find me. I have left to search for ReDart. Say hi to Sammy for me.
From: Your sister or your friend, Meghan.
I panicked. Meghan was looking for that stupid club that she went to last year, and almost got me and my friend Amber killed because of it. I teared the note to shreds, and pushed the door open. Coast was clear. The basement door was open, and grama was no where to be seen. I stepped outside, and looked around. The van was empty, and it was clear that Meghan was gone. Maybe grama had tried to stop Meghan, and Meghan had done something to grama to get her out of the way. I heard something over in the neighbour's yard, and ran back in the house. As soon as I slammed the door, the power flicked. I instantly dashed up the stairs in fright, and returned to the kitchen to find Breanne staring at the phone. "The line was cut." She said as I approached. Autumn walked in, with Braydon and Linden behind her. "Something's wrong with the light in the toy room." She said. Me and Breanne hurried to the toy room with them, and saw that the light was flickering. None of the other lights in the house where though. "Strange." I started. "The same thing-" without warning, there was a loud boom from downstairs, and the whole house was plunged into darkness. We stood still, none of us moved. I could hear the boys starting to cry, and Braydon said "I'm scared.". Autumn carefully took a step towards the window and looked out. She turned around, wide-eyed. "The van's gone." She said. I wished she wouldn't have said anything. Another bang from downstairs, but this time not as loud as the last one that knocked the power out. We stood there for at least five minutes before we dared peek out the toy room door. The lights flickered as we walked slowly down the hall, Breanne in the lead. Everything seemed normal. This reminded me of last year, when there were strange people haunting the house, and they scared me and Meghan out of the house (and out of their way) with a walking pair of pants. One of their tricks was to make the doors blend in with the walls to make us think that we were trapped. But I looked at the front door and saw that it was still there. This couldn't be the work of the strange people. We walked into the living room, the only room that had light from outside. We stood still, waiting for something to happen. Clang! There was the sound of something falling hard to the ground from downstairs. Shortly afterwards, we could hear someone or something walking up the stairs. Breanne signaled us to the sliding doors, and we rushed. Breanne pulled it open, and we ran onto the sun deck, then went down the stairs in a flash. The boys were screaming now, and we tried our best to keep them quiet. Breanne was yelling out commands as we un-latched the gate, and ran out of Church Wood Place. This reminded me so much of last year, runnning out of the house. But Breanne insisted that we go back and check. The boys were crying now. "I saw a note on the basement door before I went outside." I told them. "It was from Meghan. Told me to not try finding her. She's looking for that so stupid club!" I said. Autumn groaned. Breanne turned away and looked at the house. I could hear Police sirens, and thought it was just the usual teenager doing something bad, but the sirens grew closer by the minute, until the cop cars pulled into Church Wood Place. We stood, frozen. Maybe we were the kids getting in trouble this time, and some other kid thought what I had thought. The Police man stepped out of their car, and started towards us, taking quick glances towards grama's house as he walked towards us. "You have a problem with your power?" He said, notioning towards the house. "Yep." Breanne said. "Mind if I take a look around? I've never seen such a sudden power outage around here." He said, and we all nodded. He turned towards the house, approached the front door, and stepped inside, closing the door behind him. "Maybe we should just go." Autumn suggested. "Y-yeah.." Braydon tried to say. Linden stayed silent. "I want to go to the swamp and find out what Meghan's up to." I said. Breanne finally turned to look at me, and nodded. Autumn said yes as well. We started walking out of Church Wood Place, when Breanne stopped us. She turned around to face the boys. "No noise okay? Everything is going to be alright when you are with us." She told them. "Yes Gr-Breanne." They said in unison, and they almost said Gram because they were so used to saying just that.
We stopped by the old yellow gate that led to the swamp because Breanne was 'tired'. We had only walked for about two minutes or so. I tried to see if I could spot the huge tree that was ReDart, but failed. I could see the tree, but there was no light coming from it at all. Maybe it was only open when school was in. Maybe Meghan had simply been asked to help set it back up again, as school would be back in soon. "Let's go." Breanne said. Autumn opened the gate, and we started in the direction of ReDart.
Brenne asked me if the club was any good, and I always said no to all of her questions. As we approached the tree, I knew for sure that it wasn't open. We got right under the tree, and looked up into the branches. I could hear people talking, and I could hear Meghan. At least she was alright, but I was still mad that she was still attached to this stupid club. Suddenly, the lights in the tree turned on, adn I could hear the music turning up. Maybe the club started today. There was a colorful show of lights coming from the tree's branches, and I knew that one of the club members must have did something to the branches so you could not see any light from outside the club. But we could still see everything from underneath. I turned and stared at the stump of the tree, also known as a small elevator that led to ReDart, I could have sworn I heard voices. Breanne and Autumn seemed to have noticed as well, and we all ran and jumped into some tall grass. Breanne started complaining that there were snakes. "Ew! There could be snakes! No!" She screamed. "Shut up and just get in the grass! Before someone comes!" I hissed back at her. The boys decided to camp in another patch of grass, but I didn't care. The three of us stared at the stump, and sure enough, someone walked out. I freaked out as the person came closer to our patch of grass. Autumn gave Breanne a look, but she ignored her completely. I looked at Breanne too, then at the person. I looked closer, and sighed in relief. It was only my friend Lindsay. I stood up and walked over to her, but the girls remained in the grass. "I didn't know you still went to ReDart!" I said to her. She smiled. "We had a huge increase of members last year, so we decided to keep it going." She said. "Come inside! You'll like what we did!" I turned back to the grass, and decided to leave everyone behind if they were going to be so scared. I followed Lindsay to the stump, and the door opened revealing an elevator. We stepped inside, and the door closed. The elevator rose, and before I knew it we were in the middle of a huge dancefloor. I quickly looked around to make sure Meghan wasn't here, and she was nowhere to be seen, luckily. "C'mon!" Lindsay said. Now I followed her down a long hallway to the left of the dancefloor. There was a huge neon sign on the clean white wall that read: "Feel Good INC - Gorillaz"
Lindsay saw that I was staring at the sign. "It shows us which song is playing. There's one in the dance room and the dining hall" It sounded like this was a pretty big club, all in one tree in the middle of a swamp. Nobody would have guessed! We arrived at a door that had a small neon sign that read: "Computer Room". Lindsay opened the door, and I peered inside. This room had about ten computers against the walls, and they were all on. The wallpaper in the room was a dark blue. There was a small window, and from here I could see through the branches of the tree outside. Lindsay sat down at one of the computers, and moved the mouse to turn the screensaver off. There were wires from the computers and other electronics all over the floor, so I had to watch my step. "This is the room where we play on the computers. But most of all, download music and control what music gets played in the dance room and all around ReDart." Lindsay said. She opened a program on the computer, and she clicked and typed a bit, and the music in the tree changed. We left the room, and walked further down the hallway. We turned a few corners, and I realised that we must have been walking around the perimeter of the tree. Sure enough, on the wall there was a bunch of old design plans of ReDart. Apparently ReDart had been made by 'The Keepers' from someplace called Ladysmith. "Lindsay.. I really need to go. My friends are waiting for me outside and I really don't want to leave them out there in the cold." I said. See turned around and nodded sadly. "Well.. okay.. but come back some time okay!?" she said, turning around and now starting to lead the way back. I could hear the dance music changing. Suddenly as we turned the corner, we were stopped. It was Meghan. I quickly tried to hide, but Meghan didn't buy it. She pushed passed us and continued down the hallway. "I think it really is a good idea for you to leave.." Lindsay started, then opened the computer room door. She walked inside, and I could hear her opening the closet and moving a few things, then she came back. ".. but not without this!" She held a grey laptop to me. It had a small little logo on it that must have ment ReDart. I took it from her. "Uh.. thanks much.." I tried to say. Now I finally had my own laptop that wasn't infected with a bunch of viruses because of Meghan downloading way too much stuff! I had to quickly dash down the hallway and down one or two steps to reach of elevator. Meghan had only seen me once, but I knew she was going to be even more mad at me now. I pressed the down button on the elevator, and stepped inside. I couldn't wait to get back to the house. But then I remembered the power went out. Maybe the police officer had fixed it? As the elevator reached the bottom, I saw the day care kids standing around in the grass. When they saw me they quickly ducked. "It's alright guys! It's me!" I shouted to them. Breanne slowly stood up. I ran over to them, and they all stood up. They stared at my laptop. "What happened? Was Meghan there?" Breanne asked. "Yeah she was there." I said. "This is some sort of free gift I got from my friend." I said, pointing at the laptop. "Anything new with you?" I asked. "We need to get back to the house. The officer hasn't driven out yet. Something may have happened to him." Autumn replied.
When we entered the culvasac, the cop car was still there. Everything was silent. We decided to wait for a while to see if he was almost done or not. There was a small grass hill that had a one of the neighbour's fences on it, we sat there and I played with my new laptop. I thought that I would not have any Internet, but after trying the Internet out it worked! It must be wireless or something, linked to the computer room back at ReDart. Breanne walked over to see what I was doing on the computer, when the lights in the house came on. We all looked up, and the front door opened and the officer stepped out. I closed my laptop, and Breanne led us all towards the officer. "Did you find anything?" Breanne asked in the usual fake angel voice she used with adults. "Just a minor surge. Nothing seems to be wrong." He said, and fast walked towards his car. We watched him get in the car. As soon as he got in, he picked up his communicator and started talking into it. He looked very, very worried. I turned and looked at the house as he drove away. The lights were on and everything looked safe. "But what about grama?" Autumn said. As if on que, the front door opened yet again, and grama stepped out. We all ran fast towards her, and just before we could get to her she slammed the door. We all stopped. The boys took a few steps back. "What's her problem?!" Breanne asked. I so wanted this day to be over with. Then, I had an idea. Maybe we could all stay at ReDart for the night! "Breanne, do you still have the Credit Card?" I asked her. "Uh.. yeah. Why?" She replied. I smiled for the first time today. "Follow me guys."
We were back at the swamp, standing in the grass. "So you're saying.. we go and spend loads more money tomorrow.. without grama?!" Autumn said, shocked. "Well look what she did to us back at the house! I say she deserves it!" Breanne said. "Okay LETS GO!" Braydon yelled. We all froze. ReDart's music still went on and nobody seemed to notice. "Shush!" Breanne hissed at Braydon, and we all started walking towards ReDart. I pressed the 'up' button, and we waited. There was a loud 'ding-dong', which still didn't seem to disturb ReDart. The trunk of the tree opened, and we stepped inside onto the elevator. The elevator slowly started to rise, and out of the blue Braydon started screaming. "My ears! My ears! Waaa!" he screamed, and Breanne desperatly tried to make him stop. Then my worst fears were confirmed, the music shut off. "Braydon! Shutup!" I pleaded, but he cried and continued to scream, holding his ears. The elevator moved slowly, and I could hear people coming over to the door at the top. I heard Meghan. Braydon dropped to the ground, and started pounding against the floor and the walls. "SHUTUP BRAYDON!" Breanne yelled. She kicked him, and he stopped yelling, but continued to cry silently. I stared at Breanne, and we listened. We had reached the top, and I could hear people waiting at the door. When the door opened, I saw over a dozen people standing there, crowding the path down the stairs. They all stared, and I saw Meghan looking at me. They looked at Braydon on the floor, Linden chattering his teeth, Breanne standing there wide-eyed, and Autumn trying to smile. I looked down at my feet. "Let's go!" Someone yelled, and they all walked away. The music resumed, and order was restored in ReDart. It took a while for any of us to move, and when we did, I lead the way up the stairs, trying to avoid the club members's glances. We started down the hallway, and I was trying to figure out where Lindsay would be. "This is stupid." Breanne said. I turned around and told her to be quiet. Braydon started crying again because he was scared. "Put a sock in it, Braydon!" I hissed at him. Then we came to Lindsay's room, and I knocked on the door. "What?" someone said from behind the door. "It's me." I said, and pounded the door again. The door opened, and Lindsay was there. She looked at the day care kids. "How many rooms do you have?" I asked in a quiet voice. "Lots!" Lindsay said, back to her bubbly self. Now we follwed Lindsay down the hallway, and Breanne would not stop asking me dumb questions about what I was doing. "But what about Grama?" she asked. "You said that she deserved it. You said so yourself before we left, so who cares." I responded. I eyed Meghan's door as we past it, and Linden reached his hand out and knocked on it. I grabbed his arm, and gave him an icy stare. We passed a bunch of doors with no names. "Go check 'em out and decide what room each of you wants. Everything's already in them. I gotta go do some stuff on my computer." Lindsay said. "See ya later!" she said as she walked away down the hall back to her room. Breanne instantly flew into a room, as well as everyone else. I took the door at the end of the hall. It had a big bed, a small window, computer, desk, bookshelf, and a closet. I decided that this would be my room. I heard Autumn walk out of hers, and I went outside to see her. Breanne and Linden walked out of their rooms, and Breanne looked estatic. "It's PINK!!" I heard Braydon scream from his room. "Would you rather be at grama's haunted house?" Breanne asked. Braydon walked out of his room with a grumpy look on his face. "No!" We all stood there. "...So, do we just own these rooms now? That's it? They're ours?" Breanne asked. "I guess." Autumn said. We stood there silently. "I'm tired." Linden said, and walked into his room. "Me too." And Braydon headed into his room too. "Well maybe we should just wait for tomorrow." Autumn said, and she walked into her room. Breanne just stared at me, then walked into her room. I was pretty tired too, so I went into my room and closed the door. I knew it would be hard to go to sleep with all the music playing, but I put my computer on top of the computer that was already in the room. I jumped onto the bed, and was thrown into the air. This bed was extremly bouncy! I bounced on the bed, and I could hear Braydon in the next room, bouncing on his bed as well. I fell back onto my bed for the last time, and turned on the bedside lamp. There was no main light in these rooms. I heard someone knock on my door a few minutes later, and Breanne walked in. "What?" I asked. "Well Braydon and everyone else says that we should head back to Wal Mart tomorrow." She said. "Why?" I asked again. "No not to buy stuff. To.. cause chaos!" She said with a smile. "Sounds like fun!" I replied. Breanne pulled a piece of paper out of her pocket, and tried to throw it at me, but it only flew around in the air. I got up and grabbed it, and examined it. It was writen in bad printing, but it looked like a list. 'Re-dress the mannequins' was number one. "Braydon and Linden wrote that all up a few days ago. They had Autumn's help with the spelling." She said. "Sound good to you? Read it all and let me know in the morning." I nodded and she walked out of the room. I examined the sheet. There were almost eighty things listed, and there were other sheets paperclipped to this one. 'Contaminate the entire auto department by sampling all the spray air freshners.' was number five. It sounded like so much fun!
The next morning, I told Breanne that I was looking forward to going to Wal-Mart. We were out of ReDart in a flash, and I could now see the Wal-Mart sign in the distance. I clenched the 'To Do' sheet in my hand, and smiled. Breanne started to laugh as we walked up to the Wal-Mart door. People eyed us when they walked in and out of the store. We all huddled at the side of the store to discuss the plan. "Okay Kelsey, I wanna give you this new sheet, it has everything you and you only will be doing." Breanne whispered. She took my sheet, and gave me a new one. "Autumn, here's yours. Braydon and Linden share one sheet." She handed everyone there sheets. "Now. I have some quarters for all of you. You know, to operate the machines." She handed each of us a small plastic bag that were filled with quarters. "Move out!" Breanne said in a normal voice that got a lady's attention. We walked casually towards the entrance, and entered the store. Everyone ran for there first destenation, and I scanned my sheet for my location.
'Take shopping carts for the purpose of filling them, and stranding them at strategic locations'
The first one said just that. I stufffed the list into my pocket, and grabbed a cart. I tried not to smile as I walked through the store. I randomly grabbed things of shelves, and threw them into the cart, not even looking at what I just put in my cart. People stared as I went by. Then as I was heading into the toy section, I saw Braydon crawling around on the ground, meowing like a cat. I couldn't stop myself from laughing! Braydon crawled up to someone, and rubbed against their legs like a cat. The man kicked him off, and Braydon hissed like a cat back at the man. Braydon meowed as I walked by, and I gave him a thumbs up. When my cart was full, I headed into the garden department, and abandoned it there. I laughed as I walked away. I hid in the washroom to look at my sheet for the next task.
'Ride a display bike through the store; claim you're taking it for a test drive.'
So I fast walked into the sports section, or the section that they would have bikes. Breanne was there, and she already had gotten a bike down for me. "Have fun." she said, and skated away on roller blades. I got on the bike, and started peddling out of the isle. People stared at me, and a clerk tried to get me to stop. He ran after me, so I peddled harder, and I nearly hit a customer. People panicked and fled into aisles to get away from me. I sped into the men's clothing department, and just before I hit the wall, I jumped backwards and the bike went flying into the wall. The employee that was chasing me stopped to cover his eyes. I took this operatunity and jumped into the middle of a clothes rack and watched. The man looked around a bit, then ran for a telephone. Darn it! He's letting his suppervisor know what we're doing! I ignored him and got my piece of paper out.
'Move the Caution: Wet Floor signs to carpeted areas.' Do another task along with this one.
'Test the fishing rods and see what you can catch from the other aisles.'
I waited for the man to move away, then I walked out of the clothing rack. I searched for Wet Floor signs, and saw one near the baby section. I ran over to it, and made sure no one was watching. I saw Linden running around with a blanket around his shoulders yelling out "I'm Batman! Come, Robin, to the Batcave!" He bumped into a lady holding a bunch of shoe boxes, and the lady yelled as she fell to the ground, and the shoe boxes went flying. I laughed. Right when everyone's attention was focused on Linden, I picked up the Wet Floor sign and moved it onto the carpet area. The floor wasn't even slippery where the sign was before! Linden escaped from the hands of an employee, and then the employee saw me. He gave me an icy stare, then walked away. The lady was helped to her feet. Now I had to get over to the place were they would have fishing rods; the Outdoors section. When I turned down the shoe section, I saw Braydon, flailing his hands around, and kicking the walls. He looked like a total maniac. To put it simply, he was 'dancing' like mad. I laughed as I walked past him. A man took a picture of him. I ran into the Outdoors section, and grabbed a fishing rod. I casually walked back to the shoe section, and Braydon was gone. I really had no idea how to use a fishing rod, but I tried my best anyways. I stood as far back as I could, and cast out the line. It went right over the wall, and I heard someone yell out. It sounded like Braydon. Something tugged on my line. I tried to real it in, trying to look as realistic as possible. People stared as they walked by, and I waved at them. Whatever was tugging on the line stopped. All of a sudden, shoe boxes and papers were flying over the wall and were showering onto me. I knew this was Braydon. I dropped the fishing rod and grabbed a few shoe boxes, and flung them over the wall. Braydon threw his shoes over the wall, and one of them hit my shoulder. It sorta hurt! I grabbed another shoe box, and took the shoes out. I grabbed as many shoes as possible, and flung them over the wall. An employee nearly saw us. I dodged another shoe, and I had an idea. I grabbed a shoe, and brought back the fishing line. I attached the shoe to the line, and attempted to fling it over the wall. I had to try again, because it didn't go all the way over last time. This time it went over the wall, and I put out more line. Braydon tugged on the line, trying to pull the shoe off. I peeked through the shoes on the wall and I saw Braydon was holding onto the line pretty good. I tried to real in the line, and Braydon yelled as he gradually lifted off the ground. He was pretty heavy, and I heard the line snap. I flew backwards into another shoe wall, causing a bunch of boxes to fall down and bury me. I heard Braydon slam into another shoe rack too. The people around us stopped and stared. "We gotta go!" I yelled over to Braydon. An employee was already heading our way. I threw shoe boxes off of me, and threw one at the employee as I ran over to the next aisle. I helped Braydon out of the shoe boxes. We ran for our lives, the employee was on our six. We ran into the outdoor section, and saw that Linden had set up a tent right in the middle of the aisle. "Linden! Let us in! Hurry!" I yelled. Linden un-zipped the tent, and we flew inside. I heard the employee yell at us. Linden got up and pushed on the sides of the tent, and jumped. "C'mon!" he yelled at us. We both joined in, and the tent moved forward. I could hear people outside gasp. There was a small plastic window at the front of the tent, and that was the only way of us knowing where we were going. We jumped into the toy section, and we seemed to have lost the employee. Right when we felt safe, he was right in front of us. "There's only one way! Ram him!" Linden yelled. The employee came right for us, and we jumped at him at the perfect time. We blew him back into the wall, and toys fell down and almost buried him. We climbed out of the tent, and ran for the change rooms. I dashed down the girl's section of the change rooms, and blasted into a stall. I waited. My heart was pounding like crazy. We lost the employee. For now. I knew that he was going to call his manager too, and they would be looking for us. Someone had to have called the Police by now too. I sighed, and took out my piece of paper.
'Contaminate the entire auto department by sampling all the air freshners.'
I saw this one on the list before. It was the last one, thank god. As soon as I stepped out of the change rooms, I saw that Braydon and Linden had left the change rooms a long time ago, and were now fighting with tubes of gift wrap, and an employee was trying to stop them. I took this chance to slip away while the employee was too focused on Braydon and Linden. I saw Autumn over by some old typewriters, typing stuff on them. Every few seconds she would pause to look at what was writen on her paper, then start typing again. I hadn't seen Breanne at all, though. When I reached the auto department, I searched for any sign of air freshners, preferably the spray kind. When I got to the aisle where they had the things that you could put on your steering wheel, I saw the air freshners. I smelled each of them, to find out which one smelt the worst. I found that the mango one smelt horrible, so I made sure that no one was watching, then started spraying. When I had sprayed everything in the aisle, I paused and took a sniff. Ew! I quickly moved to the next aisle, and contaminated that one as well. When I got to the last aisle, the can was almost empty. I was wondering what to do with the last bit, when the same employee that was chasing us last time saw me. He ran towards me, and I pointed the sprayer at him, and sprayed him right in the face. I finished off the can of spray air freshener and sprayed him all over. He tried to grab me, but I was too quick. I grabbed two more air freshners from the other aisle, and started running. I sprayed the air freshners all over the place, and saw that Autumn and everyone else were waiting for me at the door out of Wal-Mart. Employees were all over the place, trying to contain me. I sprayed two in the face, and when one of them grabbed my shoulder I quickly turned around and sprayed them too. A few retreated, but I noticed one of them ran over to a check-out, opened a small door and slammed down on a big red button. The lights went out, and a siren blaired. I saw Braydon run over to me with a load of spray air freshners. Breanne joined in too. People franticly evacuated the store, and the employees were circling us. Autumn and Linden could not be seen. Me, Breanne, and Braydon sprayed the employees, and ended up having to actually fight. Breanne climbed onto an employee and punched him right in the face. An employee grabbed Braydon, but I couldn't save him because there were two that were trying to grab me. Linden came out of nowhere, and whacked the guy that was holding Braydon with a gift wrap tube. Autumn knocked out the twosome that were attacking me too. The rest of the employees fled, and we did too. "C'mon guys let's book it!" I yelled, and we dashed out the doors.
We didn't want to go back to ReDart after that, at least not for a while. Breanne still wanted to cause trouble around town, so we did just that. Hours of painting on the side of buildings and messing up Zellers still didn't tire Breanne out. We were now running for our lives away from Zellers employees. Breanne was first to the movie store. Gasping for breathe, I finally started complaining. "Look, Breanne, we have been to almost every store and every house so far! CAN WE GO BACK NOW?!" I complained, yelling in her face. "Just chill okay? The movie store is our last stop today. Let's grab some video games and head back to ReDart." Breanne explained cooly. Autumn cut in front of her just as she was heading towards the movie store. "You're suggesting that we just walk in there, help ourselves to movies and games, and just walk out?! We could get arrested for that!" Autumn said. Breanne laughed. "Yeah, we could get arrested. But not if we don't get caught!" Breanne pushed Autumn aside, and ran to the door of the movie store, and waved us over. "The doors have alarms though!" Autumn continued, but Breanne still didn't seem the least bit concerned. "Then I guess we can't use the door then!" And that was end of discussion. Braydon and Linden shrugged their shoulders, and headed into Rogers Video. Me and Autumn followed Breanne into the store also.
Breanne shushed us as we walked quietly into the store. Nobody was at the desk right now, and Breanne gave us the signal to start collecting movies. We branched out accross the store, grabbing movies off the shelves. Breanne told us to take as much as we wanted. I was only interested in games, so I quietly ran to the games section. I took four Game Boy Advance games, then decided to get a movie too. I picked out Pokemon 2000, and ended up getting Pokemon the First Movie too. We all met up with Breanne at the front door. The employee that was supposed to be at the front desk still had not returned yet. "Okay guys," Breanne started. "Autumn is going to stand right in front of the doors, on the other side of these detector-things." Breanne pointed to the alarm system that was set up in front of the door. Autumn walked over to the other side of the system. "Luckily, these alarms are the really old 1980 style, so they can't see a movie if you run through, or throw it through." I didn't really get what she was saying, and judging by the look on the boy's faces they didn't either. "Now, everyone throw your movies and games over to where Autumn is standing. Autumn, open the door." Autumn obeyed the command. "Hurry! Throw your movies and games out the door!" Nobody moved at first, then Braydon tossed his movie over to Autumn, and it flew out the door and into the parking lot. The alarm didn't go off! We all chucked our movies outside, and once they were all safetly outside, we joined Autumn on the other side. "C'mon! Before the employee comes!" Breanne warned, and we all dashed outside. Picking up our movies and games, we looked back and saw that the employee had returned to the desk, and was now staring at us. "Stop. He's looking at us." Breanne said suddenly. "Act natural." She ordered. Braydon pretended that he was tying his shoe, and Autumn pretended that she was talking to him. I turned and looked at the employee, and he turned away and typed on his computer. "Coast clear!" I whispered to Breanne. "Let's go!" Breanne finished for me. We picked up the remaining movies and games, and ran fast. The employee must had seen a movie lying on the ground, because he was now yelling after us. "Darn!" Braydon said, and we ran faster. The employee started after us. Linden started crying about how scared he was, and Breanne was instantly enraged. "Shut your mouth and beat your feet!" She hissed. We were heading towards the direction of the swamp. "We have to lose him! We can't afford him knowing where ReDart is!" Breanne informed. Autumn glanced around quickly for ideas. "Over there!" She pointed at the gas station. "Run into the bathrooms and stay quiet! But we have to beat him there!" Autumn told us. Linden and Braydon were falling behind, and the employee was catching up to them fast. "Braydon and Linden!" I tried to tell Breanne, but she wouldn't listen to anything I said. We got to the gas station, and quickly dashed into the station, and flew into the bathroom. We heard someone walk in, two people. The bathroom door opened. My heart skipped a beat at the moment. "Autumn? Breanne?! Kelsey!?" I heard Braydon. I opened the stall I was in, and saw Braydon and Linden. "Hurry! Get into a stall!" I told them. They quickly obeyed, and I slammed the door of my stall just as I heard someone else enter the gas station. "Did two kids come in here just now?" I heard the employee demand the cashier. "Uhh... no!" He lied. "Lyer!" The employee shot back. I could hear the employee tear the station apart, then pounded on the door to the washrooms. "I'll call the police! Leave at once!" The cashier threatened. The employee kicked a candy stand over (that's what it sounded like) and stormed out of the station. I heard him curse as he left.
We were back at ReDart, and Lindsay had installed T.V.s and DVD players in our rooms so we could watch our movies. A young boy who 'worked' at ReDart supplied us with chips and pop, and loads of candy to eat as we watched movies and played games. Lindsay also informed us that ReDart had a variety of game consoles that hooked up to the TV, so if we ever visited the video store again we could get console games.
It was about ten o' clock at night, and I was watching Pokemon the First Movie, when there was a knock at my door. "Come in!" I said, and Lindsay walked into the room. "What's up?" I asked. "Amber called. She wants to talk to you." I was shocked. Amber was supposed to be away camping. "Here." Lindsay passed me a cordless phone. "I have to go. The club helper is having trouble in the kitchen." Lindsay explained, and walked out of the room, closing the door behind. I put the receiver to my ear. "Amber?" I said. "Hey Kelsey! Long time no see! Actually, I havn't seen you yet, so I shouldn't have said that.." She replied. "Anyways, have you had any strange power-outages lately?" She continued. "Yeah, at my grama's house just yesterday. Why? Did it happen to you too?" Amber gasped. "So I wasn't just imagining it.. I have to tell you something. In person." "Okay, where should we meet?" I asked. "Meet me at the empty field right behind Erin's house. Seven o' clock in morning." And she hung up. The phone beeped, and a long ring followed. I placed the phone down on my bed-side table, and turned out the light. I had to wake up early to meet up with Amber at the field.
I woke up at five the next morning, I didn't want to wake anybody up. The dance floor was silent, and everybody was still asleep. I quietly slipped out of my room, and hurried out of ReDart. I brought my laptop with me, just in case.
Field was near Amber's cousin's house. It was a wide, empty field that never got mowed. Nobody could think of a good name to call it, even though teenagers hung out there a lot and threw parties. It was named Field. Plain and simple. As I approached Field, I could see Amber waiting. I rushed over, and saw that she also had a laptop. When Amber saw the logo on my laptop, she grinned. "Ah so you're staying at ReDart now, are you?" she asked with a smile on her face. "Well it's not like I want to, grama kicked us out of her house after a police man talked to her. I swear I did nothing!" She laughed when I started panicking. "I've found out why the power-outages have been happening all around Langford lately." Amber started, her tone more serious. She grabbed her laptop, and opened it. We sat down on the thick grass. "Remember Hexadeonawhy?" She asked. I nodded. "Well, she has another family member that was not copied from the original Hex." She added. I watched her open a text file on the computer. "According to this journal, Hexadeltora is the one who started the Hex family. She was degraded and sealed away a long, long time ago." Amber read a few pieces of the document, then continued. "It wasn't Hexadecimal who was sealed away in Pitfall Valley, it was Hexadeltora. She was a very powerful ruler of the Tetra Galaxy way back when, and she had the ability to step through time. Her element was electricty." I stared at the document, trying to read. "But one day, a Renegade by the name of Chaos stepped in. He decided that he was going to take her place. He had developed a secret, dangerous weapon that is banned to this day. It had the power to degrade life forms, which is what he did to Hexadeltora. Chaos made it look like an accident, and was made ruler of Tetra Galaxy." Amber opened another document. "So the Galactic Federation, knowing that they could not destroy her, sealed her away in a suspended animation capsule, and launched it down Pitfall Valley. It was then that they hired miners from all over the world to close the entrance to Pitfall Valley. Apparently, something or someone stopped them from completing the task, and it is still open. Somewhere." I shivered at the thought. Amber toke a huge breath. "Chaos's brother, Havok, went to Pitfall Valley to bomb it. When the Federation launched Deltora into the Valley, they made a huge mistake. They forgot to time lock it, so Hexadeltora could not escape by traveling to the future. And that is just what she did, but she went to the past instead. She made an error in the capsule's design, weakeing it's structure. So Havok ventured down into the Valley, but was destroyed by Hexadeltora, who had gotten free." Amber paused. "Her element is electricty." She stared at me. Then I knew that Deltora was behind the power-outages. "That's right. But she's not doing it herself, she's got someone else going around and doing it for her..." Amber closed the laptop, then stared at her watch. "So where do we start? How do we stop her?" I asked. "Your grama's house was the first place she attacked. Even though she reached other houses, it's most likely that the creature-whatever it is, has set up 'shop' in your grama's house. We start there." She said. She was already starting to walk away. "Well? You coming?" She said, looking back. I hurried after her, in the direction of grama's house.
From what it looked like on the outside, grama wasn't home. I had asked Amber how we would get in her house, and she responded by pick locking the back door. We slowly stepped into the house, not daring to make a sound. It was dead silent, and Ebony nor Sammy Sam could be seen. Ebbies always came rushing to the door when someone came in, but I couldn't even hear the bells on her collar jingle when she ran. Amber quickly turned around to face me. "Where's the power source-thing?" I pointed to grampa's workshop. "Probably in there." I replied. Suddenly, there was a noise from upstairs. "Amber.." I said quietly, but she was already in the workshop. I was already too used to black figures walking around in grama's house, but I was still scared. This seemed different, somehow. "Aha!" I heard Amber say in the workshop, I wished that she would stop talking so loud. The sounds upstairs continued, and I decided to take a quick look. Maybe it was just Ebony or Sammy. I started up the creaky, old stairs, and nothing seemed unusual. The doors and windows were still in place. When I reached the top of the staircase, I quickly glanced around. Everything looked normal, even down the dark hallway. Not a single sound. I was probably just being paranoid before. Right out of the blue, grampa's drill turned on downstairs, and turned off seconds after. I listened hard, and hoped that Amber had simply hit the on button by accident. "I'm okay!" I heard her yell. But the drill turned on again momments later. This time, Amber did not reply, and I started to panic. I heard the bottom stair creek, and the drill turned on for a breif two seconds, then turned off. I heard someone slowly walking up the stairs, turning on the drill from time to time. I rushed into the kitchen, and picked up the phone. Darn! The power was still out. Then, I screamed. Whoever was walking up the stairs was holding onto the drill with both hands, and was going one step at a time. The light that was filtering from the living room window reflected off the drill's shiny metal body, which made me scream even more. Out of fear, I started kicking the air, and stubbed my toe when I hit the counter instead. I heard the figure laugh, but something was wrong. I turned around, and Amber was standing in the kitchen doorway, laughing her head off. "THAT WAS NOT FUNNY!!" I scolded, but she kept laughing. She threw the drill down the stairs, and stared at me. "I wouldn't do that if I were you.." I started, but she inturrupted. "Nothing's down there! Not a single trace of anything unusual being there!" She said, and shoke her head in confusion. I was expecting a sound from downstairs, but nothing. "I'm hungry. Does your grama have any good junk food?" Amber asked, and opened grama's snack coboard. "There you go. Dig in." I said, and left the kitchen. "Oh my god! WAGONWHEELS!!" I heard Amber yell for joy. I looked down the hall, and saw that the toy room door was open, when it wasn't the first time I looked. I listened, and told Amber to shut up about Wagonwheels. It was quiet for a moment, then there was a muffled sound from the toy room. I slowly spied the open bedroom door, and knew that the window wasn't open. I poked my head into the room, and saw a horrible sight.
I screamed, and Amber rushed down the hallway to my side. Ebony and Sammy were lying on the floor. Dead. Blood stained the carpet, and I saw two hand guns on the dresser. Amber and I froze, and I wanted to be out of grama's house right now. Then I knew what I would see in grama's room. I pointed to grama's door, and Amber was shivering in fear. Until now I had never noticed that someone had writen on grama's door, but not in pencil. In Ebony or Sammy's blood. It was a bunch of symbols that I couldn't understand. Amber whimpered, and poked me. I slowly turned around to see what she was looking at, and another suprise awaited me. Ebony wasn't dead, and neither was Sammy Sam. They were standing, but something looked wrong. Ebony lunged in Amber's direction, but luckily she dodged just in time. Sammy leaped forward, and just missed my head. We quickly turned around, and they were gone. I peered into the bathroom, no sign of Ebbies or Sammy. It was as if they just disapeared. Then I remembered the guns, and saw that they were also gone. "Let's get out of here!" Amber screamed, and as if on que, I heard a gun load from behind us. I didn't bother turning around. We dashed into my room, and opened the window. "We can't just jump! We'll kill ourselves!" Amber complained, so I pulled every sheet and blanket off my bed, including the teddy bears, and tossed them out the window. "That's still not good enough!" Amber whined. "There's a guy with a gun... AT THE DOOR!" I screamed back, noticing that the figure was now standing at the door. "Jump!" Amber cried, and screamed as she jumped out the window. I followed, and landed safely on the blankets. "RUN!" Amber yelled, and she didn't need to tell me twice! I looked back to see the figure at the window, aiming his gun. "He's gonna shoot!" I informed Amber. We were now bolting down Glen Lake Road, towards the swamp. "Where to?" Amber asked. "Keep going. Wen we reach the bottom of that hill, we go through that gate that'll take us to ReDart. It'll be safe there!" I replied. Gun shots pierced the air, and I knew that we were still being followed. "There it is!" I said, pointing at the gate. "Hurry!" I ran up to the gate, but it would not budge. "It's stuck!" I yelled at Amber. The man was catching up, and we would be dead any second now. "Climb!" Amber was already clinging onto the gate, climbing up. I grabbed the top of the gate, and jumped, and hung on. Amber safely got over, and with one last jump, I was on the other side too. The man ran past on the other side of the gate, he didn't even notice us. I saw him bound towards the school, and I wondered what he was going to do. "No." I told Amber quietly when she got up. "I wanna know what he's doing." The answer came quick with an explosion. "Can we go now?!" Amber said, shaking. I got up and dashed towards the tallest tree in the swamp, ReDart, with Amber following close behind.
At ReDart, Lindsay accepted Amber into the club. Breanne and Autumn freaked out about me disappearing, and demanded that I tell them everything. I told them that it was officially not safe to go back to grama's, with the gun man being there and all. I didn't say anything about what Amber had told me back at Field. As I walked into the kitchen to get my supper, I noticed that Megan wasn't anywhere to be seen. I approached Lindsay and told her about Megan. "Yeah, it's strange. I havn't seen her since yesterday!" She replied. I was walking down the hall to me room, when I knew I had to go after her. She had been acting strange ever since that day at Wal-Mart, and now this! She would never abandon ReDart, maybe something had happened to her when she went shopping or something. I stopped at Amber's door and knocked. She answered, and I handed her her supper. "Wait," I said just as she was about to close the door. "There's something I want to talk to you about." I said quietly. "Sure." She replied, and welcomed me into her room. I noticed that there was only a bed in this room. No closet, no window, no laptop, no nothing. I decided I wouldn't ask her why. "Megan has gone missing. Lindsay told me that she hadn't seen her since yesterday." I said in a low voice. "Maybe she's at some other club. Then she'll come back her in a few days. The reason can't be all bad!" She said. "But Amber, she was acting really weird when my grama took us all to Wal-Mart. She sat in the van for the whole day, and when grama went to check on her, she never came back. That's when the lights started going out." I said, pushing my voice even lower. "Even the police man that had came to check out the house was scared. When we knocked on the front door, grama answered, but she slammed the door in our faces!" I continued. "So you suppose that Meghan has some sort of connection with what's been going on?" Amber said. I paused before I said anything. "I do. And I want to find out why and how."
I awoke the next morning to a blood-curling scream. I instantly sat up in my bed. It was still dark, but the light from the window gave me a path to the door. Silence followed the scream, and I wondered if I had only imagined it. I walked slowly towards the door, and cracked it open. Everything looked and sounded normal. I crept out into the hallway, looking left and right every step I toke. The scream was so realistic, there was no way I could have imagined it. I heard a door open right behind me, and I spun around to see a panic-striken Breanne. "Is everything allright?!" She asked. She had heard the scream too! "Yeah, how about you? Were you the one who screamed?" Breanne looked even more scared now. "You mean.. that wasn't you?" She asked. I shook my head. "Check all the rooms." I said. "We have to make sure everyone's safe." Breanne nodded, and entered Autumn's room. I knocked on Linden's room, and recieved no response. I opened the door quickly, and saw Linden's empty bed. I moved on to Braydon's room. Empty bed. Breanne was waiting for me in the hall. "Any luck?" She said. "Their beds are empty. Either they left, or someone made them leave." I responded. Breanne shook her head. "No sign of Autumn either. Let's search this place. Maybe they're hiding." She suggested. I nodded. "I'll check the halls. You check the dance floor and the kitchen." And with that she walked passed me. Before I bothered to go to the dance floor, I wanted to quickly check Amber's room. Her room was next to Lindsay's. I turned the corner and started down the next hallway, when I saw a figure. I stopped dead in my tracks. It looked like a normal person. "Kelsey? Is that you? Breanne? Autumn?" It said. It was Lindsay. "It's Kelsey, Lindsay. What's going on? Where is eveybody?" I said, walking towards her. "Some freak power-outage. The elevators are'nt working, so we're trapped until the power comes back. Everything else is fine though." She said. I was suddenly very panicked. This wasn't any ordinary power outage! "Where is everyone?" I asked. "In the kitchen. No matter how hard we try, we just can't get the power back on!" I was just about to walk past her, but she grabbed me. "Kelsey. I'm serious. We've had power-outages a lot in the past, and we've always gotten the power back up. Please, you have to help us! We could be trapped her forever!" She let me go, and I rushed to the kitchen without another word.
The closer I got to the kitchen, the more confused voices I heard. Brayden was standing watch near the door, but abandoned his job when he saw me. "Kelsey! Kelsey! The power is out!" He informed. "I heard.. so which one of you screamed?" I said. He looked confused. "Screamed? Someone screamed?" I rolled my eyes. "Nevermind." I said, and continued on passed him. Autumn was feasting on the junk food in the cuboards, and Linden was trying to help the bigger boys fix the power box. "Hey, Autumn." I said as I approched her. She put a box of crackers back into a cuboard. "Oh, hi." She said. "Did you hear someone scream?" I said. I got the same confused look back. "Well, no. Not really." "What do you mean, not really?" I asked. "I didn't. We've been here for hours. Seems as if-" The screams of the boys trying to fix the power cut her off. I turned to see them being violently electricuted with some sort of strange bluish electricty. Then I heard it. The same scream from before. It was defenetly not human, the scream was mixed with the sounds of electricty. The boys fell to the ground, only Linden had managed to escape the electricity. The power box continued to spark, until finally it exploded. The power flickered, then finally died down for the very last time. Lindsay rushed into the kitchen, and examined the damage. "This is so not good! This is the end of our lives as we know it! We'll never escape now!" She yelled, and broke down into tears. Autumn left the kitchen, and I followed her. Linden and Brayden bolted out of there in a flash. We all met in the hallway right next to Amber's room. "We can't just give up and stay here our entire lives." Autumn started. I eyed Amber's door. "Well what can we do? The elevator doesn't work without power!" Linden complained. "I heard Lindsay saying something about an old trapdoor that they used to use when ReDart was first made about ten years ago. It's in the basement, which is underground." Autumn said. "No way! Basements are always dark and scary! Especially if no one's been down there for ages!" Linden whined. "Well, we either stay here and starve to death, or escape and find out what's going on." Autumn said. A long silence follwed. I opened Amber's door. Her bed was empty too. "Hey, was Amber in the kitchen with you guys?" I said out loud. "No. What, she's not in her room?" Autumn asked. Everyone looked into her room. Empty. "Oh my god. Who knows where she could be now?" Autumn panicked. "I know where she is. She was smart, and escaped through that old trapdoor. Which is what we need to do if we want to survive!" I said. I got no response from anyone. "So are we just going to stand here, or are we going to bust our way out of here and find Amber?" I continued. Autumn nodded. Linden gave me a thumbs up. I stared at Brayden, waiting for a response. "Sounds like a plan.." He managed to say. "Good. Everybody, get some sleep. I'll wake you guys up at twelve. That way it will be light out." I said. I waited for everyone to nodd and walk to their rooms before I moved. Breanne had probably found the trapdoor too, and had escaped safely. I walked proudly into my room. The only place that felt safe right now. I climbed into my bed and tried my best to go asleep.
I awoke to the sound of my alarm clock going off. I slammed my hand down on it to make it shut up, and jumped out of bed. I must have fallen asleep while I was reading a book, because my book was lying on the ground and I was still in my clothes. It didn't matter. I rushed out of my room, and knocked on everyone's door. Something felt strange. The dancefloor was silent, in fact, the entire place was as silent as a graveyard. When Autumn came out of her room, I knew that everyone else in ReDart must still be asleep. Perfect. Autumn and I spent about ten minutes waking up Brayden. Linden was easy to wake up, because he had fallen off his bed and was on the cold floor. After everyone was awake, we all assembeled in the hallway. "I think I have a pretty good idea where the basement is. But we have to be really, really quiet, so we don't wake up any of the other ReDart members." I whispered to everyone, and gave Linden a look. "I promise!" He hissed back. "One more thing. Does anyone have a cell phone, anything we could use as a flashlight? Just in case it's dark in the basement?" Brayden snickered at what I said. "Just in case? It's a basement, dummy! It's going to be pitch black dark down there!" Autumn rolled her eyes. "I have a Game Boy. I'll go get it. It has a light in the screen." Linden piped, then ran off to his room. Autumn must have woken up on the wrong side of the bed, because she seemed to be in a very impatient mood. She tapped her foot on the floor while she stared up at the ceiling, with a less than happy look on her face. Linden returned shortly, and handed me his Gameboy. I tucked it into my pocket. "Thanks, Linden. Okay everyone, this way." I said, and pointed towards the hallway to my left. That was the hall that Breanne had gone down, and hadn't returned. Hopefully Breanne had found the basement and escaped. Autumn seemed concerned as well. "How do we know that Breanne didn't get herself killed by going this way? What is she didn't escape, and now we are going to die or get trapped the same way she did!" She complained. "Well, do you have any other ideas? We could either starve to death here, or take a chance and escape and ultimatly stay alive. Autumn?" I said. She didn't reply. "I thought so." I finished. We walked for about two minutes before we finally reached the end of the hallway, where a red door was. It seemed to be made of metal. Brayden started whimpering from behind me, and I heard Autumn slap him accross the face. I instantly turned around to see her scolding the now crying Brayden. "You have gotten us in enough trouble already with your whining and sniveling! So SHUTUP!" She screamed. I stared at her. That just wasn't the way you treated little kids, even when they got on your nerves. Autumn put her hands in the air. "Look, I'm sorry. I've just been feeling really weird latly. You just have to put up with me until we get out of here." She confessed. I nodded. "It's okay. I know how you must feel, with the power going out and grama kicking us out. It's not your fault." I patted her on the back, and continued towards the door. I was just reaching for the doorknob, when I heard someone walking down the hall behind us. "Who's there?" A boy's voice said. All of us were suddenly in a big panic. I turned the doorknob, but it would not budge. The door was looked. I kicked the door franticly, when Autumn suddenly shoved me aside. "What's going on down there?!" The voice yelled out again. I watched what Autumn was doing, and saw that she was fidgetly trying to pick lock the door with two paper clips. Obviously she had done this before. Linden was hissing at Autumn to hurry up, and I put my hand over his mouth to keep him quiet. I shushed the boys, and heard the footsteps getting closer. I looked to see how Autumn was doing, and she removed the paperclips from the lock and kicked the door. It swung open, reaveling a dark spiraling staircase. I reached into my pocket while Autumn pushed the boys into the basement. I turned the Gameboy on, and shone the light around the basement before I stepped inside. Autumn slammed the door behind us, and locked the door. The boy outside pounded on the door, and started yelling for help. "We have to get out of here, before the entire club starts chasing after us!" I whispered. Autumn turned to look at the boys. "You guys have to try to stay quiet. No crying, no whining, no whimpering. Only talk when you absolutly have to. Remember, as long as you're with us, you're safe." She tried to reassure them. She looked at Brayden. "And I'm sorry for hitting you. I'll never do it again." She said. She stood up and nodded at me. "Let's go." I said. I lead them down the spiraling staircase, holding Linden's hand. Autumn held Brayden's. I looked down, and saw that we had about two more levels of stairs to descend before we would reach the bottom. I could still here the panicking club members above us, punching and slamming against the door, obviously not having the key. I could heat Lindsay's voice too, yelling out demands. I could even hear her say my name. She knew that we were trying to escape. Without them. I wished I had brought her with us, because our friendship would be ruined after this. After she knew that I up and left without her. We reached the bottom, and I flashed the Gameboy's light around. I spied a door, and started towards it. Locked. I waved Autumn over, and she pulled out her paperclips and started lock picking the door. The lock must had been old, because it only toke her about five seconds. We rushed inside, and Autumn closed the door quietly behind us. Then I heard the sound I wish I would have never heard. We all stopped when we heard the metal door upstairs crash open, and fall onto the metal stairs. The other kids were already on their way down the stairs. Autumn quickly locked the door behind us. I saw light in the distance, on the wall. I hurried over to the source of light with Linden and Brayden, and noticed the two doors blocking the light. The trap door! I called Autumn over, but she would not move. She gave me a very worried glance. "Get the boys out of here! The door won't lock! I must have broken the lock when I picked it! Hurry!" She said. I wasted no time. The trapdoor didn't have a lock, and I pushed it open. Light shone into the dark room, and I saw the strangest thing. It was around mid-day, but it was dark out. I didn't care though. I helped Brayden and Linden up through the trap door, and called to Autumn. "They're at the door right now! As soon as I let go, I'm coming for that trap door! They'll be coming in here!" She said. I nodded. She let go of the door, and ran towards the trap door. The door Autumn was guarding collapsed onto the ground, and about five kids came rampaging in. After Autumn was through, I jumped through and slammed the trap door shut. Autumn toke over and locked the door behind us. "Run!" She said, and I grabbed Brayden's hand, and Autumn grabbed Linden's. We ran towards the yellow gate. I glanced behind me to see that the kids were still trapped in the basement. When we reached the gate, we discovered that it was still unlocked, and we continued on through towards the school. "We'll hide in the forest behind the school!" Autumn informed. We ran into the parking lot of the school, and cut through the gap in the fence that led to the primary playground. We ran past the dinosaur-thing, the playground, the swings, and past the small forest. We traveled onto the top field, and continued on towards the fence, the end of school grounds. There was a hole dug under the fence from other kids escaping the school this way. Linden went first, crawling under the fence using the deep pit. Brayden went next, then Autumn. I checked to make sure we weren't being followed, then crawled under the fence to join the others on the other side.
Autumn was trying her best not to complain about everything, and every time she did she would throw her arms in the air and declair that she was senceirly sorry. We had all decided that we would sit around until it got light out. Obviously the clock in my room back at ReDart was wrong. There was no sign of any ReDart members coming after us, so far. "This is boring! We've been sitting here for at least three hours! And my Gameboy's battery is dying! Can we DO something?" Linden whined. Brayden woke up from his deep sleep at Brayden's crys. Autumn turned to look at me. "Linden's right. We need to at least find out what time it is. Maybe we should look through one of the windows of the classrooms," Autumn pointed towards the school. "and find out the time by looking at the clock." She suggested. "Good idea. Brayden and I will go. You stay here with Linden, Autumn." I said. She nodded back, and I let Brayden crawl under the fence first. After we were both on the other side, I let Brayden run ahead of me towards the school. I was fidgetly scanning the area for any sign of ReDart members, but none. I caught up to Braydon, and searched the school for an accessable window. They were all two high, even for me. There was one that I could reach, but I couldn't see what the clock said. I jumped down from the window, and sighed. "I guess we'll never know for sure." I said in defeat. Brayden tugged on my shirt. "We could.. we could break in! We could get Autumn to open the doors for us!" Brayden suggested. I actually considered his idea. "And.. we could steal stuff.." Brayden continued. I drew the line at that. "No. We're only going to break into the school to find out what time it is. Nothing else! I'll be watching you, by the way. If I see you take-" I started to lecture, but he cut me off. "Alright! I won't touch anything! I promise!" He begged. I patted him on the head, and we headed back towards the fence. Autumn stood up and watched us as we approached. "Well? Time?" She asked. I shook my head. "Sorry. I can't reach any of the windows. We need to break in. Still got your paperclips?" I asked. She looked at me in doubt, but reached into her pocket and pulled out her two paperclips anyways. I stepped back to let her crawl under the fence, and Linden followed. "Wouldn't there be a security system? How old is this school?" She asked once she was facing me. "Well, my grampa went to this sch-" Autumn cut me off. "Enough said. Let's get in their." She said, and ran towards the school. There was a door in the back of the school that got lock picked all the time. Even after all the break-ins, there was never any mention of a security system in the school. We had to hope it was true. Autumn fiddeled with her paperclips, then inserted them into the lock on the door. Linden sat on the rails on the stairs while Brayden played hop scotch. I watched, facinated, as Autumn picked the lock. She stared into the lock, and moved the paperclips back and forth, then turned one of them. There was a strange sound from the lock, and Autumn tried again. When she got the same strange sound five times, she sighed. She switched the paperclips, and this time she turned one of the paperclips while moving the other one back and forth inside the lock. Then I heard the wonderfull clicking noise that all locks made when they were unlocked. "Yes!" Autumn cried in joy, and the boys rushed over. "You're awesome at lock picking, Autumn!" Linden complimented. Autumn turned around and smiled at us. "Okay, let's go in there, quietly, and find a clock. Kelsey, you still got the Gameboy?" Autumn asked me, and Linden sadly passed me his Gameboy. I toke the game out of it and gave it back to him. "That way the battery won't die as fast." I said. "Yeah, as fast. It'll still die sooner or later." He said. Autumn slowly creaked the doors open, and I flicked the power switch on the Gameboy on. Autumn signaled us inside, and we all walked into the school. Autumn closed the door behind us, and looked down the hall that led to my old grade three class. I checked the girl's washroom that was to our right, and the boys looked down the main hallway next to the washroom that led to the kindergarten room. When Autumn announced that the coast was clear, we continued down the hall that led to my old classroom. The door was closed, and locked. Autumn grasped her paperclips, and began picking the lock. "You guys go look around. I'll be right her. Stay with Kelsey, boys." She whispered to us. We all nodded. I held the boys' hands as we walked down the hall towards the kindergarten class. It had two doors, which were both closed. And after testing them both and finding out that they too were locked, we turned down the next hall that led to the higher grades. The Brayden checked the boy's washroom, and we continued down the hallway. Every single door that we passed was closed and locked. But we reached a very shocking sight when we reached the end of the hall. The grade seven classroom door was wide open. As we approached the open door, I couldn't help but feel scared. An open door ment that we were not alone. I told the boys to wait by the cloak room area, while I peeked into the classroom. All the desks were empty, including the teachers. I took one step inside, and got to look around the entire room. I stopped dead in my tracks. We were defenetly not alone. A tall, dark figure was standing in the middle of two rows of desks. When the figure saw me, it walked towards me. I backed away, but stopped when I heard the figure speak. "It's okay. I won't hurt you." A girl's voice said. I stopped and stared hard at the approaching figure. It was a girl about one year older than me, wearing a black sweater and a black dress. She had bleach white hair, and was wearing a strange cow boyish hat that was also black. She stepped right up to me, and examined me with her green eyes. She reached into her sweater pocket, and flashed a piece of paper at me. I shone the Gameboy's light on the paper, and saw one word that really concerned me. 'The Keepers.' That was the same name on the design plans at ReDart. I toke the piece of paper from her. "I am Sasha Rhodes, one of The Keepers of Ladysmith. As you know, we designed ReDart. We have recently come into knowledge that there has been a great power-outage at ReDart, causing most of their members to become trapped." She said, and stared at me. "How did you come to escape, and turn up here, while the other members are still trapped? Kelsey?" I looked at her in shock. "How do you know my name?" I asked. "If you are a member of one of our clubs, of course I know about you. But that wasn't the question. Tell me why you left the other members behind." She demanded. I paused. I really didn't know why. "I don't know." I responded. "And you purposly did your best to make sure that they could not follow you." She continued. I really started to realize the horrible thing I had done to all those kids, who had done nothing to me at all. Lindsay would hate me, and would never talk to me ever again. What had I done? How could I have been so selfesh? "I'm sorry. I was stupid, and I promise never to go back to ReDart. Ever again." I tried my best to apologize. She smirked. "It's okay. We were going to close down ReDart, and just wanted to see what our members really thought of the dump. Keep that paper. It'll tell you how to contact The Keepers if you have any futher questions or comments." She finished, and started to walk past me. I stopped her. I glanced over at the open door, and saw the boys peeking into the classroom, and they retreated when they saw me. Sasha looked at me slowly, and smiled a really twisted smile. "Ah, so you have brought friends with you." She said. The smile on her face looked so sinister and evil, I could hardly stand it. She snickered when she noticed my fear. "I don't want you to close down ReDart. My friends go to that club, and they like it alot. My sister even-" I started, but Sasha cut me off angerly. "Then why, Kelsey, did you abandon your 'friends' in that club? You realize that they are now going to die in there, don't you? The food will eventually run out, the water will stop flowing through the tap, and the heat will turn into an arctic chill. Ultimatly killing them all. And I am defenetly not going to clean up the mess you've made and free them. Killing all of those people was your choice. You need to start learning from your mistakes, Kelsey. You need to learn from your choices, good or bad. Find out why you chose to abandon those kids in ReDart." She was breathing heavily. Sasha toke two steps back from me, and put a hand on her hat, making it cover her left eye. "Time to take responsibility for your lock breaking friend, Kelsey. And your little trouble-causing friends. Tah tah." She said, and pulled her hat off of her head with one skillfull move of her hand. Her very body seemed to explode into a cloud of silver dust. I shielded my eyes from the explosion, then quickly exited the room. Brayden and Linden were gone, and I was panicking. I ran as fast as I could down the hall, and towards the grade three room. My worst fears were confirmed when I saw that Autumn was also gone, and the grade three door was wide open. After looking inside and seeing no sign of Autumn or the boys, I was really worried now. I quickly searched the room, checking the cloak room area and behind Mrs.Morrison's desk. The room was clear, no Autumn or any sign of the boys. I thought that maybe they had left the school and had returned to our hiding spot behind the fence, so I dashed out of the room and flew out the back door and out of the school alltogether. I bounded up onto the field, past the playground, and charged full-speed towards the fence. I was staring at the ground the whole time. I didn't want to know the truth until I got right up to the fence and saw for myself. I felt myself running out of breath, but I forced myself not to look up. I slipped on the sand pit in the middle of the soccer field, and was sent flying forwards. I closed my eyes, and crashed into the fence. I listened hard. There was no sound of kids coming for me. No panicking. No voices. I opened my eyes, and looked through the fence, and faced the deadly truth. The area was empty, and the others were no where to be seen.
I had left the school grounds, and was now on my way towards Field. It was still dark out, and I was alone, walking through the deserted streets of Langford. It was freezing cold out, and I felt like I was going to die from frost bite any momment now. Field was just up ahead, and I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw someone sitting down on the tall grass. They seemed to be working on a laptop, and had a bunch of devices and books scattered about the grass. I walked stealthly towards the person, trying my best to identify them. Then I recognized the red hair. It was Amber. I screamed to get her attention, and it sure did. She yelped, and spun around, eyes wide with fear and shock. "Oh god! Kelsey! Don't do that ever again!" She yelled as I ran over to her. "How did you escape from ReDart?" Was the very first thing I asked her. "The same way you did. Breanne came with me too." She responded. Amber passed me one of the many sweaters she had wraped around her as I sat down. I eyed the little setup she had going on with her laptop. Looked like she had a wireless router, a printer, and two other devices I couldn't identify. She also had a medium-sized generator that had several flashing lights and switches on it, and a bunch of power chords plugged into it. "Where did you get all that?" I asked suspiciously. Amber laughed. "From the Wal-Mart. I used the Credit Card that Breanne had. Don't worry, there's still over four million on here." She said, and waved the Credit Card at me. "What happened to Breanne. Tell me." I asked firmly. "Whoa, you don't need to get all upset! She and I went on a shopping spree, then while I'm waiting for her here, she doesn't come back. I've done absolutly nothing, I'll have ya know." She countered. I was starting to notice that she had a bit of a southern accent. Now I was even more worried. I decided not to tell Amber about what happened at the school, so I didn't say anything more. "What're you doing with all that?" I said, pointing at all the devices she had hooked up to her laptop. "I'm trying to find out why even more power-outages have been happening, and why daylight has not returned. I've just hacked into the Galactic Federation's database, and I'm listening into all of their incoming and outgoing communications. I think they know something." She said. I stared at the computer monitor. And application called 'Remote Server Link Rootkit', and it appeared that it was waiting for any available communications from the Galactic Federation. Amber dug into the ratty backpack she had beside her, and passed me a headset. "Here. You might find what they have to say interesting." I fitted the headset onto my head, and tried to find were to plug it into the laptop. "Here." Amber said, and pointed to a small circular jack in on the side of the laptop. "Thanks." I said, and plugged it in. Amber was fiddling with the printer, when I heard a beep from the computer. Amber scanned the computer monitor, and double clicked a flashing icon on the application. It said 'GF6789 Outgoing PREY5260'. A man's voice filled my ears. "-as been quite a few errors in the loading of Sector Cod and Sector Ares. All up and down the island as well. Especially in Sector Dust. Pretty abnormal activity around that area. Your insights are?" The language the other speaker spoke was so strange. I couldn't understand a word of it. However, the computer was recording the words of their conversation, and the letters of this language was even stranger. Amber whispered to me, and I removed the head set to listen to her. "He speaks Vulcan. I think I may be able to translate it." Amber said, and I replaced the head set back onto my head. Amber clicked several times on the computer, and a matter of seconds later, the alien's language transformed into the voice of a human man speaking english. "-ome to that same spot in Sector Undefied. That place is called what again?" "We call that Alberta. Sector Undefied has never been explored. All of the soldiers we send in their never return, so we stopped trying to get in. Have you and your troops gone in their yet?" "Never. I've had one troop return from Undefied, said he saw some massive thunderstorm, and red eyes in the sky. Never heard such nonesense in my entire life!" The alien laughed the weirdest laugh I hoped I would ever hear. "Anyways, there appears to be nothing we can do about Protoform ZX. We tried our best. We had the best miners on the job, but it seems to be impossible to contain that monster, no matter how good your employees may be. The least we could do is surround the area with voltage-distructive material, to stop ZX from causing any more black outs in Sectors Cod, Ares, and Dust." "Agreed. I will see what I can do. I will contact you again if anything else comes up." And with that the connection was cut. We both removed our head sets, and stared at the computer screen. "So I guess by 'Sector Dust' they mean Langford. Cod must be Sooke, and Ares Metchosin. But it seems that we have it worst here." Amber said. "So what are we supposed to do? If I'm thinking correctly, Protoform ZX must be Hexadeltora. And if Hexadeltora is at the Pitfall Valley, and she's causing all this chaos, then how are we supposed to get there and stop her? We don't even know were the Pitfall Valley is!" I complained. Amber didn't respond for a while. She stared at the computer screen, thinking. "I've heard, that Pitfall Vally was in a desert, and it was surrounded by huge mountains. Strangely enough, there's a jungle about five miles away. So let's break it down. Are there any deserts on Vancouver Island?" She asked, looking at me. "Well, no. Of course not." I said. "How about on the main land?" Then I knew were a desert would be. "Saskatchewan. Isn't there a desert there? Isn't it right on the border between Saskatchewan and Alberta?" I suggested. Amber smiled. "Now you're getting it! That means that the jungle must be in Alberta, right on the border." Amber continued. Ideas were suddenly flooding into my mind. "Didn't you say that Pitfall Valley was surrounded by big mountains? What if those mountains were actually the border!" I said. Amber looked like she was getting excited. "Yeah! It's totally possible! That saves us five miles of walking through the desert!" She smiled, and started working on her computer. I started to feel worried again. How on Earth were we to get off the island, leave British Columbia, and get all the way to Alberta's border? It sounded like a fool's errand to me. "Amber, I know it's possible, but how exactly are we supposed to get all the way to Alberta? We don't even have any identification or anything! There's not even a defenite chance that we can get on a ferry to the mainland! This is crazy!" I said. Now I had totally lost hope. Grama would remain my enemy, and the daycare kids would be in grave danger for who knows how long. And Meghan would be my worst nightmare and sworn nemesis for the rest of my life. Amber didn't respond, she was too busy typing away on her keyboard. I watched what she was doing on the computer screen. She was on some kind of website, obviously she had just hacked her way into some place she wasn't supposed to be. "Maybe we can't get there the normal way.." She started, and continued to click and type. "..but what if we could take another way. To bypass the security guards and the police officers." She said. "What, you're suggesting that we either hop onto a boat and sail accross to the mainland, or swim over there? Amber, I think you're going crazy!" I whined. She did a little wave with her hand, making me look at the screen. "I just finished saying that we weren't going to get there the normal way. These people here," she said, and pointed at the screen. There was a picture of what looked like a small train, traveling on a thin black rail. "..are going to make this all possible." I gave Amber another doubtfull look. "Maybe so, but how are we supposed to get to them? Says right there that they're located in Cranbrook. On the mainland. We still have to cross the ocean! You still haven't answered my question!" I said. Amber hummed as she thought. Then she snapped her fingers. "We easily crossed the ocean from Sooke to Parksville last year! Remember? We could do it again!" She exclaimed. I still wasn't convinced. "Amber. That ocean was different from the one we're going to be crossing. The area between the island and the mainland is heavily, and I mean heavily guarded by police officers. If they see us, we could be sent back to the island." I said. Amber still seemed confident in this matter. "Fine. I have a better idea. We might be able to get onto the ferry if we have identification, no matter how old we look. We could use your grama and grampa's ID cards. It would be so easy." Amber suggested. Then I remembered what had happened the last time we broke into grama's house. "Are you mad?! Don't you remember what we saw in her house when we were there last time? We almost got killed by that gunman!" I freaked out. I was defenetly not going back into grama's house, no matter what Amber said. "What ever happened to 'We could take a chance and save our lives', Kelsey? Isn't that what you said to all those daycare kids to make them come with you? Well why don't we take a chance, and bring back the daylight and stop these power-outages? And save your friends that are trapped in ReDart? And Meghan?" Amber said, knowing that I would cave at that. How did she know I had said that? But she was right. We had to take a chance. I nodded silently. "Good. I knew that would make you change your mind. Now help me pack up all of this, please." She said. I unplugged the printer and the modem, and packed them and their respective chords into Amber's knapsack. Once all of the equipment was packed up, we had to think of what to do with the generator. It was pretty small, but was consideraly heavy. "What if we have to use the Internet again? We might be in need of it, even though it's a bit heavy." I said. Amber nodded, and added the generator to the backpack. She didn't seem the least bit troubeled by the heavy load. "Well, the nearest ferry terminal is in Victoria. We should start walking now." Amber said. I toke a deep breath, and exhaled, thinking of all the tiresome walking I was about to commit myself to. "Amber, wait! We still have to get those ID cards from grama's house!" I said. She laughed. "Oh, how silly of me! Let's stash this stuff in the bushes over there, and we'll start towards your grama's house. Wait here for a sec." She said, and ran as fast as she could towards the far end of Field. I watched her stuff her knapsack in the shrubs there, and return. "Let's go." She said.
We were now entering Church Wood Place, and I was eyeing grama's dark house every step I toke. All the lights were out, and all of the vehicles were gone. Obviously, and hopefully, no one was home. "So where do you think their ID cards would be, just so we have a good idea of where to go?" Amber asked as we stepped into the driveway. "Grama's would most likely be in her purse on her dresser. Grampa's will defenetly be downstairs on the coffee table in the family room." I informed. "Okay. We'll get your grampa's first then, since it's closer." She said. The basement door was still open from the last time we were here when Amber lock picked it. We quietly stepped inside, and I scanned the dark basement for any signs of danger. I really did not want to do this, but I had no choice. "Keep the door open, please." I said. Amber left the door open, allowing some light to filter into the dreadfull basement, and I led her into the family room. The coffee table was a complete disaster, and I couldn't help gasping. In fact, the entire room looked like a mass killing had just occured momments ago. It was a sickening and disgusting scene. Blood splatters covered the walls, the two couches were torn to shreads, the TV smashed, the coffee table spilt in two. And the window was smashed. The carpet was also torn and slashed in some places. "Oh dear.. Kelsey.. what could of happened here? This is a disaster.." Amber whispered. She started to enter the room, and I followed close behind. She was searching the remains of the coffee table, while I stared around the room. There was a quite large pool of blood on the carpet near the TV, and I knew that was were someone must have been killed. I inspected the couch near the smashed clock on the wall, and noticed some large, bloody claw marks. The assassin must have had the assistance of some kind of large beast. I heard Amber cry out in joy, and I spun around. She was searching through grampa's walet. When she pulled out a bloody driver's license and a passport, she smiled at me. "Now let's get out of this room!" She said, and she didn't have to tell me twice! We rushed out of the family room, and stared uncertainly up the carpeted stairs that led upstairs. "Well, here goes everything." Amber said as she stepped onto the stairs. I was only on the first step while she was waiting for me at the landing. The stairs creaked so loudly and erriely, I almost couldn't stand it. Then when I placed my foot on the fith step, the door slammed shut behind me, shaking the entire house. "Oh my god.. Amber!!" I yelled. She shussed me, and told me everything was okay. "But it's not okay!" I cried, but continued up the stairs anyways, desperate to get as far away from the basement as possible. When I joined Amber at the landing, I sighed as I stared at the final case of stairs, then at the basement door. I noticed something strange, and it worried me like crazy. "Amber.. look.." I said, shaking, while pointing at the bottom of the door. Some kind of black liquid was oozing under the door and staining the carpet. I screwed up my face, and looked at Amber, whimpering. After the entire carpet near the door was a pitch dark black, the liquid continued to stain the carpet on the first step. I couldn't control my fear any longer, and neither could Amber. We both screamed, and bolted up the stairs. I was so scared, I looked around the living room for a hiding place. Amber calmed me down by patting me on the back. "We have to focus on getting the last ID card. Try to ignore everything that may scare you." She said reassuringly. I nodded, and pointed down the hallway. "The door at the very end is my grampa and grama's bedroom. Her purse is always in there." I informed. We both stared down the dark hallway, luckily everything looked normal. We proceeded down the hall, staring into the dark rooms we passed to make sure nothing was there. I especially stared into the toy room, where the same bloody disaster as last time remained. I didn't bother saying anything when I saw the shotgon lying on the floor in my room. When we approached the closed door to grama's room, I noticed that the same blood-drawn symbols were painted on the door. "What do you think these mean?" I said, while pointing at the writing. "Must be some kind of alien text. Obviously drawn by the thing that is causing all these power outages." Amber said. "Whoa, if the very thing we're trying to destroy has set up shop in my grama's bedroom, then there is no way I am going in there. It'll kill us!" I complained, and started to cry again. Amber sighed. "Kelsey. We're going to die anyways if we don't face our fears. Understand? Now come on." Amber said, and turned the doorknob. I tried to stop her, but it was too late. I covered my eyes, ready to be slain by whatever deadly creature was lurking inside the room, but after a minute of standing there and I wasn't dead or in pain, I slowly opened my eyes. "Stop being silly, Kelsey! There's nothing in here!" Amber said. She was going through all of the droors in my grama's dresser. As I stepped inside the room, I noticed that the damage from before had been mended, and the room was perfectly preserved from any blood and gore. I felt so much safer, knowing that no beast had came in here yet. I helped Amber search the dresser, but the droors only contained clothes and old receipts. I thought for sure her cards would be in the receipt droor, but there were only receipts. And after going through the clutter of items on top of the dresser and finding nothing, we knew that it couldn't be in here. "Sometimes she keeps her purse in the kitchen." I suggested. "Then lets look." Amber said, obviously not wantng to waste any time. I didn't bother peering into any of the other rooms down the hallway this time. Not even down the stairs. When we entered the kitchen, I found out that the creature hadn't come in here either. The room was clean of blood and any other messes. Grama's purse was sitting on the counter, which Amber instantly ran over to and started searching. I was hungry, so I went through grama's snack coboard and began feasting on the junk food inside. Amber tapped me, which scared me so much that I screamed and spun around. "AMBER!!" I yelled at her. "That was for sneaking up on me at Field!" She said. "Anyways, I've got all of her identification cards. Let's get out of here, before anything weird starts happening." She continued. I sighed in relief, and nodded. I smiled for the first time as we walked towards the doorway. But my fears were far from over. Another twisted, horrible sight awaited me. "Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god." I continued to say. Amber even seemed appalled. The carpet in front of us was stained with some kind of bright red and black substance. It covered the entire carpet in the living room, down the stairs, and all the way down the hallway. It was so scary for some reason. The red was a bright blood color, and the black was dark as night. "Amber.. I don't think it's supposed to look like that.." I whimpered. I felt trapped. There was no way I was going to walk on that carpet now. "We have no choice. Remember what I said." Amber said, no longer scared. She was staring at the front door just a step and a jump down the stairs away from us. "We could take a run at it. Then we won't even need to touch the carpet." Amber said, and got ready to give a demonstration. She stepped back into the counter, ran, then jumped. She cleared the strange carpet, and flew down the stairs. She went slamming into the wall beside the front door, but looked fine all the same. She waved at me, and I could not believe what I would have to do. But I did it anyways. I backed into the counter, toke a deep breath, and ran. I jumped, and was sent flying down the stairs. But it didn't go exactly as I had thought. I didn't land in front of the door. I landed on the very last step. The very last carpeted step. I screwed up my face, and screamed as I leapt off the step. I examined my shoes, but there was no mark of me being on the step. But it felt so damp when I had landed on that carpet. It didn't matter. Amber flung the front door open, which almost flew into my face, and we ran outside. Amber slammed the door behind us, and joined me on the front lawn, gaping in awe at another incredible and nightmarish scene. We were standing in a thick damp fog. I could only see the ground, myself, and about six feet in front of me. "What's happening? Why?" I said, unable to contain my fear. "I don't know. All I know is that we must get back to Field and grab our gear, then get to Victoria." She said, unconcerned. She stood there, looking up at the fog. "I feel so strange.. but why?" She whispered. She shook her head and started towards the steps off grama's property, with me following close behind, trying to see through the fog.
Amber was acting strange during our walk. She kept shaking her head and looking at her hands. And occasionally covering her ears and talking to herself. I asked her if she was alright time and time again, but she always responded with "I'm okay." or "Don't worry about me.". I was worried. When we reached the Super Store, I noticed that she could barely keep her eyes open. "Amber stop this! Tell me what's wrong!" I demanded. She looked at me with a tired look on her face. "I.. I don't know. I keep hearing a voice, and I feel so tired.." She said, looking at the ground. "We're not far from Field now. We can crash for the night there, and you'll feel better in the morning. Okay? Just try to stay awake. We're almost there." I said reassuringly. She sighed, and kept walking. I had noticed that we were the only living things walking about right now. Ever since I had left ReDart, I hadn't seen another person. Only the occasional animal. How could this be? What was really going on? I knew that these questions would be left unanswered for a very long time. I could see the faint sight of the Wal Mart, and knew that Field was just three minutes away. I kept glancing at Amber to make sure she was still okay, and I knew something really was wrong. She wasn't just feeling sick or something normal like that. She was now breathing heavily and with much difficulty. But there was nothing I could do about it, and I decided not to say anything. We finally stepped onto Field's tall and unruly grass, when Amber collapsed. I tried to find the bushes where Amber had hidden the equipment, without much luck. It was unbelievably hard to see now. I felt around until I finally fell face first into some shrubs. It was easier to find the knapsack, but getting back to Amber was harder than I thought. It was almost like walking through a white void, only being able to see the ground. I listened hard. "Amber?" I yelled out, but got no response. I couldn't even hear my voice echo. This would be harder than I thought. I swung the knapsack onto my back, and tried crawling through the tall grass. I could see resonably better now, but the thick grass was still a problem. I finally started to hear noises. But I knew that it wasn't Amber. It was a shrieking sound, defenetly not human or of any animal that lived here. "Amber? It's Kelsey!" I tried again, this time hearing her call back in response. She sounded pretty close by! "Kelsey!" She yelled. I tripped and was sent flying forwards. I heard Amber scream. "Sorry!" I apologized, and sat down by her side. "We should get going right now." She said. "No way. You said you were tired, and after watching you almost fall asleep while we where walking.. we're going to rest for a while." I said. She closed her eyes, and I was relieved. I looked through the backpack to make sure nothing was missing, then toke out the laptop. I had to find out where Amber had all of those documents that she had. The My Documents folder was empty, and knowing nothing about computers, I had lost hope. Where else could she be hiding them? And if I found out, there was the chance that they could be password protected or something. There was a noise from beside me, and I turned. Amber was gone. "Amber?!" I screamed, and quickly put the laptop back in the bag. "Amber!! This isn't funny! Stop this at once!" I yelled. No response, of course. I swung the backpack onto my back, and walked into the distance. "Kelsey? Why are you leaving me?" I heard her say, but her voice sounded distant. "Amber! I'm right here! I'm not leaving you!" I cried out. "What is this? What am I supposed to do with this?! Answer me!" She was screaming now. I ran in the direction that she was screaming, only to be sent flying backwards. A red flash blinded me temporarily, and the thick fog was basically blown away. There was only a light mist in the air now. In the middle of all of this stood Amber. She was looking at her hand in shock. "Amber!" I yelled, and ran towards her. "What was that all about?!" I asked. "I don't know. Let's just get out of here!" She said, and ran on past me, with me following close behind.
I had caught up to her near Colwood. She very seldom replied to my questions, but she did tell me about what was in her hand when the mist cleared. She didn't want to show the necklace to me though. I followed her into Royal Roads with hesitation. The first part of Royal Roads was okay, but the second half was closed off to the public. Black bears and other less than friendly creatures roamed the forests past the black-ironed gate that divided Royal Roads in half. We were now walking down a dark, narrow path between some skeleton trees, all the while being blinded by the fog. I reached forward and seized Amber by the shoulder, and twirled her around to face me. "We don't have time for this Amber! We need to get out of here and get to the nearest ferry! What has gotten into you?!" I demanded. She seemed to be looking past me, paying no heed to anything I just said. I shook her. "Snap out of it Amber! That's it! We're getting out of here right now!" I said, and tried to drag her back the way we'd came. But she stood like a stone statue and refused to move. I sighed. "What is it? What's the matter? You've been acting weird ever since we left grama's house. Can you please tell me what's going on?" I said, crossing my arms. She gazed off into the trees. Suddenly, I heard a twig snap from within the bushes. I spun around and scanned the area. She seemed to be looking there as well. I grabbed her arm. "Amber... what was that?" Silence followed. It was far too quiet for comfort. "We're getting out of here." I said, then jerked at her arm again, but she still wouldn't budge. "I can feel something... there's a sound... somewhere far away..." Amber said in a soft, dreamy tone. She slowly raised her hand to her face. I examined what she was holding. It appeared to be that necklace that she had mentioned earlier, that one that had magically appeared in her hands back at Field. There was a silver, heart shaped spider web dangling on the end of the chain. A tiny ball of glass was situated in the center of it. It reflected the dense fog and the crooked trees. For some reason, this awoke a nameless fear from deep within me. If that necklace had really just materialzed out of nowhere... perhaps something truly mysterious was at work here. "Did that thing really just pop up out of nowhere? What happened and what did you hear when you found it?" I queried. Amber finally spoke. "It felt as if something was running towards me. It was big. It said something about a horse it had found... a special horse that it didn't want to have slaughtered like the rest of them. It felt as if it were standing right next to me, when the fog dispersed and I found the necklace in my hands." She told. I said nothing for a moment, digesting everything she had just said, and trying to convert it into reason. All I could think of is that it had something to do with the fog. Ever since we had left grama's house she had been acting in this manner. "Have you been hearing anything since we left Field?" I continued to interrogate her. "Yes... and Kelsey... it feels as if this one I have been hearing... is inside me..." She said in a low voice. I knew for sure that something big was taking place here. I even had the suspision that Deltora or that minion that Amber had spoken of earlier had something to do with all of this. As if they were guiding us... or trying to get us killed. Maybe that gunman we had encountered back at grama's was this minion, and who's to say that he hadn't been tailing us the entire time? But I had a feeling that what was going on now with Amber was far beyond the capabilities of a simple human with a gun. That guy back at the house was probably just a simple thief who didn't want us ratting out to the police. I looked Amber right in the eye. "Okay, I believe everythingn you've told me. We really need to take this seriously. I think this is the only way we're going to get answers. Seeing that we're the only people around here, who's to say there's going to anyone in Victoria, at the ferries? What if we walk all the way there and find the place completely empty?" I said. She nodded her head in agreement. "But listen to me. No matter what happens or what you hear, you can't run away from me, okay? I'm going to stick by your side and help you, but the only way I can do that is if we work this out together as I team. Okay?" I said in the most serious and sincere tone I could muster. Amber looked from side to side, then nodded. "Okay. I'll try my best to tell you everything that she says to me..." She said, and offered me her hand. The same hand she held the necklace in. With a grimace, I took her hand, and we continued on down the gloomy path.
We walked very slowly, sometimes turning around and heading down another path. The things that Amber told me was mostly cryptic nonsense to me. She kept mentioning horses, and this one 'special horse'. I was a big fan and lover of horses, so it really worried me that all of these strange phrases she would recite had something to do with me. Things like "I coveted the horse, coaxed it into entering my land, I lead it to the stream, curious to see if it would drink." really caught my attention. I truly believed that we were being directed somewhere.