"Ugh." He left the bathroom and started towards his class, not knowing what to do.
"Hi Rian."
Rian jumped. Rebecca limped toward him in her crutches. He turned bright red and said, "Hey Rebecca." His face went pale when he turned to face her. "How's your leg?"
"It's doing a bit better." Rebecca replied. Rian could tell that she was in a good mood.
"Well, I need to go. I'll see you later." Rebecca said after an awkward pause.
Rian nodded, then remembered which class he had and started towards it, punishing himself for being nervous.
****************
Rebecca really wished that she could be flying again, but she knew that she had school to go to. Her first class was really boring because it required her legs. She decided to then go downstairs so that she could do something else.
****************
Laura stopped. She knew that she couldn’t let Imraan and Kalyia see her do this. She turned to them.
"I need you to stay here for a little while. Stick together and stay here. Don't go back and don't you dare move an inch further from this spot. I'll be right back."
Kalyia nodded. Imraan was reluctant, but he finally agreed. Laura then started to move further up the tunnel. She reached a certain area and stopped, scanning the tunnel ahead of her. She walked over to a secret place in the wall and typed in a secret code. The traps that had been there previously disappeared and Laura walked back to Imraan and Kalyia.
"OK, it's good. Let’s go." Kalyia and Imraan started to follow Laura again. They walked past the booby trap section and Laura sighed in relief as she saw the door that led to the group unharmed.
"OK, you guys, you need to turn around and close your eyes for a few minutes. Cover your ears too. I'll let you know when you can open them up again.” She made sure that they had done so, then turned to the door. She typed in a code, then watched as two glass columns fell from the top of the tunnel over Kalyia and Imraan. Laura then started to type in all of the codes to open the door.
****************
It was gone. He couldn’t believe it. It was just wiped out.
Conner had been friends with Sean and James for a long time, but he had never gotten a call from them until now. The M-vid hadn’t been very good. It had been warbled and the connection kept cutting. He did the best to revive it, but it seemed that their system had been failing. That would explain the “infiltrate” and “attack”. But nothing explained this. It didn’t make any sense. How could the ASW just disappear straight off of the face of the earth? He couldn’t connect to their systems, no matter how hard he tried. Not a single one of them had their electronics on. Not a single one of them were connected.
At least that’s what it seemed. He couldn’t reach anyone. It was almost as if…
It was almost as if they were all dead.
No. He couldn’t believe that. There was no way. The ASW was well-defended, well-supplied. They were smart. Too smart, sometimes, it seemed. Sean was one of the best leaders he had ever known, even though he was only 25 years old. James, the African American kid he had first thought to be an idiot because of his daredevil stunts, was one of the bravest people he had ever known. Everyone else at ASW was intelligent, brave, and capable. It was almost like there was nothing that could stop them.
But something had. Something had tapped into their systems and killed it. It had to have. There was no other explanation.
And Conner was about to find out what that was.
****************
Again. He was with her again. But this time it felt different. Different, like the first time he had seen her. Better.
He almost felt free. He told her. About the accident. He told her everything. She looked sad, sympathetic, but it wasn’t fake. She understood him.
Then she told him about her life. Rian almost couldn’t hear it. He felt the happiness, the hope. It surged through his body, his mind, his heart. Filling the space. Filling the emptiness.
He could hear her. He could see her. He could feel her. It was almost like this was meant to be. They knew each other’s strength. They knew each other’s weakness. She knew about his emptiness, and he knew about hers. Suddenly, the emptiness was filled. Together, they filled each other’s.
It felt right. It felt free.
He woke up.
****************
He thought he couldn’t believe that they had disappeared. But now he knew that was easy to believe.
Because this wasn’t.
As the plane neared the sight and the voice of the AI told Conner he had arrived at his destination, his eyes widened in unbelievable surprise and his heart sunk all the way down to his knees in despair.
It was gone. All of it. Completely wiped out.
****************
It was gone. Everything. The freedom, the feeling, the happiness, the hope. He’d only had it for a short while, then it disappeared. Dissipated. It was all gone.
The emptiness was back.
That’s all he had. All he had to hold onto. The only thing that he owned. No family, no friends, no hope. All he had was emptiness.
Somehow he had to fill it. He had to find something that made him feel whole. From what he knew, he didn’t have any talents. But there must be a way he could figure that out. There had to be someplace he could go that would help him learn something new so that he could fill the emptiness inside of him. He knew where he would look first. He knew where he would go.
****************
He was having technological difficulties, and he didn’t know how to get past them. He’d been trying to set up an advanced electro-shielding around the underground facility without making it obvious. The problem with wiping out places with technological barriers was that in the scan it showed a large blank spot. People would be able to find out where it was by following the empty space instead. Sarah was obviously not helping; instead, she was eating in the mess hall. Although Brycen tried the best he could, he knew that he was better at robots instead of shields. For a second, Tyler thought maybe he could shield the entire island, but the idea was gone as quickly as it had come: like a flash of lightning. Camouflaging and subsequently invisible-izing the island would potentially wipe it off of the face of the earth, in technological terms. It would mean less problems for the SCOF (Secret Corporation of Fiji), but it would cause major problems for the rest of secluded Fiji, and also for the technological world. Of course, he definitely didn’t want that to happen, but he couldn’t find a way to make the shielding controlled and stabilized as well as blend it into the island background. He thought about calling in Imrann, but he knew the kid was somewhere else and wouldn’t be of any use to him.
Then he remembered. Wasn’t the newbie still at the HIA? What was his name…Colton? Conner? Maybe he could radio him in and tell him he needed his help in Fiji. The kid could wait for Sarah in Abaca, then four-wheel it through the forest into the park. It would work…if Conner wasn’t already on a mission. He tried it anyway. The HIA from desk said he had left for something but wasn’t particularly on a mission so he should be coming back at any time. If not in the next five minutes, they would radio him in.
Tyler was content with that. Now all he had to do was wait for him to get there and pretend he was actually working. This would be fun.
****************
As soon as he came back, he was radioed in. They must know what had happened. They must have information.
As he entered the office, Adm. Taylor wasn’t there. He would have been there for something like this. He would have told Conner whether or not the people in the ASW had survived. But he wasn’t there. Nobody seemed to know. Nobody else had gotten the M-vid from Sean.
They told him he had been contacted. That Agent Tyler needed him in Abaca, Fiji. He almost wanted to say no. He almost wanted to leave them to fend for themselves and see if he could find any survivors from the explosion. But he knew he couldn’t abandon this request. He knew he had a duty to the HIA and consequently to his fellow agents. He had to help Tyler, whether it meant telling someone else about the ASW or keeping this new discovery a secret. There weren’t a lot of people he could trust. But there was someone he knew would believe him.
He had to tell Rebecca.
****************