As I write this, I've started to think about how much fun God must have had creating the world. He had control over every atom in the entirety of the universe. In fact. He created every atom... AND the entirety of the universe! What was it like bringing each individual star, planet, solar system, galaxy, into existence? What was he thinking when he made some in the shapes of footballs, and others in randomized spirals. Did he make them football shaped simply so that us humans would come to realize the significance and have a laugh about it? Was it so we would take this moment and wonder at God's massive imagination skills? I can totally see God sitting in his 'workshop upstairs' looking at these different body parts that he imagined, lying on the table before him, wondering where to put everything. I mean, look at the Proboscis monkey, the ant eater, giraffe, etc. It really makes you wonder. But, I can also imagine that it was nothing like that and that God had no trouble deciding what each individual creature that inhabits the earth would look like, what purpose it would serve, and how it affected its surroundings. This is because he's God, and he has no trouble in making decisions like us humans do. This then makes me think of the time span of it all. Did it really only take 7 days? How could God's creation of the earth even fit inside time if God is outside of time? Was it a figure of speech? Perhaps like '40 days and 40 nights' which does not always literally mean '40 days and 40 nights' in the Hebrew language, but simply a very long time. It says in 1 Peter 3:8,
"But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day."
So, did he create the world in 7,000 years, or did he literally create the world in 7 days? The latter would explain how the earth so conveniently works around a 7 day week. One fact that possibly helps proving in God's existence, or at least helps prove the significance of the Bible in the history of the human race. But then again... God is good at taking his time. ;)
Okay. Here is the story. It was 12 pages long, so if you don't finish, I won't hold it against you. :)
This story is a personal narrative which I have so wittingly entitled:
The Accounts of Madeleine Ogren - Sci-Fi Style.
“Maddy” A voice called my name. But
I was too preoccupied with getting comfortable on the very uncomfortable train seat, that I didn't hear it. Man, who knew
seats could be so uncomfortable? There were no pillows, the cushioning on the
seats were very thin, and the windows were made of glass. It had been four hours since I had boarded the train with my
two sisters, Jo and Pran, and still, not a single waiter or waitress had walked
by to offer us drinks or snacks.
“Maddy” The voice said again, a
little louder this time.
What kind of vacation is this? I thought
as I, again, shifted my position, trying to stretch myself across the three seats
in the isle that I was sitting on. Long Lost Atlantis didn't sound like
anything special. Who wanted to spend two weeks looking at a bunch of old
buildings that had been buried under water for thousands of years? Not I. Winona
with my basketball court, friends, and technology. I missed my music already.
Mother had forbidden it. “You need to start spending more time with society. Not with that brainless machinery
of yours,” she had said the day we left, plucking my technology from my bedroom
before I could pack it in my carry-on.
“Madeleine
Joy Ogren!” Jo kicked my foot, which was now hanging over the edge of the isle
seat. I looked around.
“What?”
“We’ve been
trying to get your attention, you doofus” Pran said, crossing her arms. “But
you were off in La-La-Land trying to get comfortable.”
“She was
probably dreaming about her stupid tech,” Jo smirked, pulling her phone out of
her pocket. “Luckily, mother trusted me with my phone.”
“And mine,” Pran waved hers in my face as
well.
Jo and
Pran, my older twin sisters, sat next to each other, across from me. Both were
glaring at me. I could see them judging their youngest sister with those creepy
green eyes of theirs. Their thick, curly brown hair had been tucked behind
their ears with hair pins, and hung down their backs like a roiling, brown,
cascade. Every now and then, Pran would pluck a lose curl off her forehead and
tease it back into the rest of the mess. But right now, they were just staring
at me, waiting for my reply to their insults.
Suddenly, I
didn’t care about how uncomfortable I was. I really missed home. My sisters,
who had just arrived home from boarding school, were not very nice people. I
had discovered this after the first few days they had been home for summer
vacation. They had corrupted my mother’s trust for me, blamed things on me, and
snuck around behind our mother’s back. But, my mother didn’t see any of this.
She just saw her perfect twin daughters, and… the other one.
“Oh, haha,”
I sarcastically laughed, swatting Pran’s neon pink phone away from my face. “If
you must know, I was thinking about how lame this summer vacation is going to
be, and how old-fashioned everything is,” I gestured towards the interior of
the train car. “This stupid train doesn’t even fly, and it must be traveling at
a measly 60 miles per hour.”
“Ah, that’s
what mother gets for sending you to public school instead of boarding school,”
Pran sighed. “No respect for the classics.”
“What has
happened to the world?” Jo flung her arms in the air in mock helplessness, then,
let them flop to her sides.
“You tell
me,” I said, giving them a weird look, then, realized that they had so rudely interrupted my deep thinking. “What
do you want anyway?”
“Um, take a
look out the window,” Jo pointed. “We’re stopping,
you blind bat.”
“What for?” I asked, confused. “Are we there?”
“No, we’re
not there,“ Pran scoffed and slapped her palm against her forehead. “Atlantis
is way out in the ocean. Did you even look at the itinerary that mother gave
us?”
“Uuuh, it
was on my to-do list…,” I said, digging through my backpack to find the white
piece of paper that I had crumpled into a ball and shoved in my backpack a day
earlier. “Arrive at train station in Winona at
9am, 4 hour ride to Chicago ,
blah, blah, blah.” I scanned the paper until my eyes rested on where we
currently were. “Oh, we’re switching trains in an hour. “Great,” I said,
lifting my eyes and looking out the window.
I hadn’t noticed the Chicago
surroundings, then I realized why. The entire city looked to be covered in
dense fog. The only sign that showed that we were stopping were the flashing
red lights coming from the Chicago
train station, signaling an incoming train. That was us.
Contrary to what people thought in
the early 2000’s, the ‘go green’ campaign did not last very long, and soon the
carbon dioxide and acidity rate in the air nearly doubled between the years
2015 and 2025. Especially in big cities, frequent smog and acid rains would
cause chaos. Even in the summers, cities could be covered for days in a thick
blanket, blocking out the sun and making it very difficult for travel and
action in the city. The wildest parts of the United States as well, barely
touched by humans, were now being brutally affected by this overhaul of air
pollution.
“Well” I
said blatantly. “My first time in Chicago ,
and I can’t see a darn thing - how exciting.”
Again, both
my sisters glared at me, then both looked out the window as well, straining to
see any of the famous Chicago
landmarks. Not a chance. There was no sign of the city except for a faint glow.
Other than that, all there was to see was fog. The train began to slow down,
and I watched as the station came into partial view. Great, now we would spend
the next hour sitting in a boring train station filled with fog. At least it
was warm in here. I guess that the station would be brutally cold, judging by
the weather outside. Maybe there was food there. Or maybe there was stuff to
do, like the real train stations in
other big cities, like New York , Colorado Springs, and Boston . They actually had mini shopping malls in their train
stations. These days, every city was trying to one-up the others. I’m not
exactly sure why they were modernizing ground train stations though. They were
about to be removed from the grid permanently anyway.
Ever since 2030 when flying cars
were put on the market, ground trains provided very little use, except for
sight seeing. The flying trains were luxurious and high quality, providing food
services, comfortable seats, and BubbleGlass; a new substance that provided a
bit of leeway if you rested your head on the window, but hardened under extreme
pressure. This made it impossible to break, and much more comfortable than
Plexiglas, which is what the window, which my head was currently resting
against, was made off. Judging by how thick this smog was though, I was
actually glad that we weren’t flying today. That would be a horrible way to
die. The train stopped, and the lights in the train dimmed as someone started
talking over the intercom,
“Ladies and gentlemen, as you make
your way off the train, do not forget to grab your free mask on the way out.
The fog danger is orange, and may cause damage to your lungs and skin. If you
do not have a long sleeved shirt on, feel free to take a recycled
one-size-fits-all, environmentally green, long sleeved shirt out of the basket
to the left of your chosen exit. Thank you, and have a nice day!”
“What a joke,” I muttered under my
breath as I pulled on my jacket and shrugged my backpack on. My sisters were
already heading towards the door and I hurried to catch up to them before the
crowd of people blocked them completely from my view. I thought about
forgetting the mask, and just dealing with the smog, but one whiff of the dense
mist changed my mind, and I quickly placed the plastic air filter over my mouth
and nose. So this is what the big city was like. How… magical.
I followed behind Jo and Pran,
watching as they stepped in sync with each other, as I entered the train
station. Nope, this building was barely big enough to have a small Subway, much
less any clothes shops. I took off my mask just as two large gentlemen in gray
suits stepped in front of me, blocking my view of my sisters. I quickened my
pace, trying to move around them, but the crowd was too packed together. Soon,
the bright colors of my sisters’ outfits faded into the crowd, and I was left
alone. Trying not to panic, I glared at the two large figures in front of me.
There was nothing I could do. They were too intimidating for me to consider
walking up to them and giving them a piece of my mind.
The two men, both at least 200 lbs
in pure muscle, judging by how tight their coats were around their arms, seemed
to be urgently talking into microphones in their ears. Perhaps there was a
robbery taking place in the station, or a lost dog had made its way into a
public restroom. Maybe there was some excitement to be had. Until that
excitement showed its face, or my sisters decided to show theirs, I walked in the direction of the glowing Subway sign. Jo
and Pran would soon realize that I was missing and come looking for me where
they knew I would be; with the food. Thanking my mom for trusting me with my
own money, I sat down at a table with my 5 dollar foot-long. I noticed the two
large men in gray suits standing in line for a Subway sandwich as well. That
was a site you didn’t see every day. However, when the two men made it to the
front of the line, they didn’t order a sandwich. Instead, the first one, a tall
black fellow with hair that spiked every which way, leaned over the counter and
whispered something to the skinny teenage kid that stood behind the counter.
The kid nodded, and then disappeared into the backroom. The long line of people
behind the men in gray suits grew a little irritated. Some people huffed,
others pulled out their phones and began texting, and still others began to
complain.
“Can this line get any slower?”
“I’ve got another train to catch!”
One woman had the nerve to tap the
second man on the shoulder and rudely ask,
“Is there a reason why you’re
holding up the line?”
Man number two, a shorter man with
a stockier build and thick brown hair, turned around and glared at the woman.
He reached into his pocket, fiddled with something, and immediately the woman’s
face fell blank. She walked back to her place in line and was silent. Was that
a red beam of light that I saw? When the man had reached into his pocket, a
small red dot had appeared, shining through the fabric in his pants; almost
like an old fashioned laser pointer. How
intriguing, I thought as I bit into my sandwich. Mmmm. I always loved the mayonnaise in Subway sandwiches. Something
about the way it mixed with the cheap ingredients in the sandwich made it taste
ten times better than a regular homemade sandwich.
Just then, I saw Jo and Pran appear
out of the crowd, walking towards me with glares on their face. They were
always glaring at me, I’m not sure why. Jo stomped up to me and put her hands
on her hips in diva fashion.
“Why would you run off like that?”
She whined.
“I didn’t,” I explained
nonchalantly. “Those two guys in the gray suits over there stepped in front of
me and I lost you guys. I was hungry anyway.”
“You’re lucky we weren’t switching
trains right away or you could’ve been stuck here for the next two weeks
instead of at Atlantis,” Pran huffed. “Although, maybe that wouldn’t have been
so bad.”
Both my sisters giggled, and sat
down, pulling out their own lunches from their purses. Each had packed their
own sandwich, apple, and bag of carrots; how perfectly… bland. I grimaced at
their meals, pulling a ‘I think I’m going to puke’ face, and opened the bag of
sun chips that I had bought with my sandwich. My sisters ignored me, and began
eating their lunch, being careful not to look at my face as I ate mine. Apparently
they were disgusted by watching people chew; another thing that I had learned
when they came home from boarding school. There was dead silence at the table,
apart from the normal train station noises that flew around us. This was a
normal lunch for my siblings and me.
The rest of the hour waiting for
the train was spent in utter silence. Both my sisters sat texting on their
phones and giggling while I sat and
stared at random people. When you’re in a crowded place, it’s quite intriguing
how many things you will find out about humanity. Across the station, a small
little scene between a man and a woman was taking place. At first, they were
talking quietly. The woman appeared to be crying, and the man looked scared.
Then, the woman turned and swiftly walked away, shielding her face so no one
could tell she was crying. The man hesitated, and then chased after her. He
grabbed her arm and spun her around, saying something to her before kissing her
on the lips. I tried to read their lips during this entire fold-out, and came
away with,
“I’m sorry your seal is gray.”
“It’s the cheese puffs. They’re
always wrong.”
“Don’t goat. You’ll reject it.”
“I already do.”
It wasn’t hard to know that the man
had told the woman he loved her before they kissed. Before I could see the love
story’s conclusion, a flicker of motion caught my eye. A man in a red coat
shuffled past the young couple with his hands in his pockets. He was on the
shorter side of the height scale, and was craning his neck, looking for
someone, or something. The man appeared to be holding his breath. Then, a look
of relief crossed the man’s face as he spotted the sign for the men’s restroom,
and sped towards the door. A child was trying to steal a pack of gum out of his
mother’s purse and a husband was secretly messing with his wife’s hair. Another
young woman was blowing bubbles with her gum, then, embarrassed, picked the
glob of gum off the floor after it flew out of her mouth when she had filled
her cheeks with air to blow another bubble.
My eyes continued to scan the
station, resting on the two men with gray suits. I had forgotten about them.
The Subway line had started moving again, and the two men were at the register,
still waiting for the teenage boy. Finally, the boy appeared at the doorway to
the backroom holding a small box. The box was handed over the counter to the
large black man, and as he pocketed the box, both men walked away. I blankly
stared at the place where the mysterious men had been standing, my mind
floating off into space. By the time I snapped back to reality, with a kick
from Pran’s shoe, I had gone from suspicious black boxes to wondering if the
mole on the teenage boys chin was cancerous or not.
“It’s time to go,” Pran said, as
she and Jo put their phones back in their purses and stood up. “It’s better to
be on that train earlier than late.”
“Okie dokie,” I said, popping up
and grabbing my backpack.
“Where’s your suitcase?” Jo asked,
as she pulled hers around behind her.
“I didn’t bring one,” I said. “I
can fit everything in a backpack now that I don’t have any tech with me. All
that’s in here is clothes, toiletries and that book mom gave me to read.”
“Wow,” Pran said. “I’m actually
awed that you were able to fit all that in your backpack.”
“It’s all in the order, Pran, my
sister,” I said, giving her a knowing smile.
As we made our way out of the
station and fitted our masks back on our face, I again spotted the two men
boarding a train. Well, that’s the last
of them. I thought to myself, before realizing that my sisters were making
their way towards the same train.
“Wait, we’re going on that one?” I asked, pointing at the
train, my voice muffled by the plastic mask.
“Yep!” Pran said. “Aren’t you glad?
We’ll be flying this time. We’ll be at Atlantis in two hours tops.”
I was somewhat glad that we were
going to be in a more modern train this time, but did not exactly want to be
stuck in a flying object with those two mysterious figures. They were a little
too sketchy for my taste. For all I knew, they could have been carrying a bomb
in that box. I didn’t voice these thoughts to my sisters. This was partially
because I knew they wouldn’t listen anyway, and partially because I knew myself,
and I have a tendency to blow things out of proportion a little too much to
take my own worried thoughts seriously the first time I think them.
We boarded the train, and passed
through the first car and kept walking until reaching the car that we would be
sitting in. We all sat down, and I rested my head against the bubble window. It
was soft and warm, yet I could still see out the window clearly. Not that there
was much to see through the fog. I unzipped the front pocket of my backpack and
took out the book that my mother had given me in case “you find yourself in a
situation in which you and your sisters aren’t talking”, which translated to
“in case your sisters start ignoring you”. This would be about 80% of the trip
so far. I had thought I would wait until we actually arrived at Atlantis to
start reading the book so that I could stretch it out over the two weeks that
we were there. However, after the way my sisters had been ignoring me the whole
trip, I couldn’t really take two more hours of pure boredom. I pulled the book
out and read the title. A compilation of
three books written by C.S. Lewis, it read, including The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Prince Caspian, and The
Voyage of the Dawn Treader. I sat up against the window as the train
started to move, and opened the book.
Just then, I looked up and saw a
gray piece of fabric through the spacing between Pran’s window seat and the
window itself. The two men in the gray suits were sitting in the row behind my
sister. Before I had even begun my book, I couldn’t concentrate on it. I put it
back in the front pocket of my backpack, earning a weird glance from Jo, and
crossed my legs nervously. The train had now picked up a little speed, still
being connected to the tracks, then slowly lifted into the air one car at a
time. Slowly but surely, the train picked up speed and height. Soon the city
lights of Chicago
were far behind us, and just as quickly as the train was up in the air, Tall
Gray Suit (the name in which I bequeathed the taller black man in the grey
suit) stood up and walked towards the bathroom at the end of the car. Luckily,
it was on the end that was not behind me, so I had a clear view of his head
bobbing its way down to the bathroom without having to twist around and attract
my sisters’ attention. Just then, there was a slight bump in turbulence and
Tall Gray Suit went out of sight. I heard the bathroom door wiz open, and then
shut. I could not shake the feeling that Tall Gray Suit still had the black box
in his possession.
After a few minutes of fidgeting, I
heard the bathroom door wiz open once again, and saw Tall Gray Suit’s head
bobbing above the seats. Hoping he wouldn’t see me, I slouched down in my seat,
and then bent over to retrieve my book from my backpack. As soon as I heard him
sit down, I zipped my backpack up again, with the book still inside it; again,
earning a weird look from Jo.
“Are you going to read that book or
not?” She asked.
“Um, no,” I said, standing up. “I
have to go to the bathroom.”
I quickly walked down the isle and
made my way for the bathroom. It was just a hunch, but I had a feeling that
Tall Gray Suit was not going to the
bathroom. Short Gray Suit and Tall Gray Suit were too out of place to simply be
enjoying a ride to Atlantis. There was a specific reason as to why they were
here, and it wasn’t for the thrill. When I reached the bathroom, there was a
sign hanging from the door by a magnet that read, ‘Out of Order. Please Make Your Way To A Bathroom In The Next Car Or At
The Other End’, and had two arrows pointing in the direction of the nearest
restrooms. I pressed the button, but nothing happened. Looking back at the
seats, I could see that both Tall and Short Gray Suit’s had their heads bent,
as if they were looking at something. I looked back at the restroom door. There
was a manual latch attached to the door, just in case there happened to be
electrical issues. I took a breath and pulled at the manual latch softly so as
to quiet the small ‘click’ that it made when the door opened. I silently opened
the door just enough to squeeze in, and then shut it. Letting out the air that
I had been holding in, I looked around the small space.
There did not seem to be anything
unusual about the bathroom. I looked in the toilet, on the floor, and even
opened the trash. I realized the box had been too big to fit through the small
hole that led into the trash, so maybe it was all in my head. There was nothing
strange about those two men, only me. I sighed, and reached for the latch to
open the door. Just then, I heard a small ‘bleoop’. Cocking my head, I listened
hard. There it was again; that small ‘bleoop’. It was barely noticeable under the
sound of the air that was making its way out of the vent in the ceiling. The air vent! Quickly, I stood on the
sink and toilet and put my ear to the vent. The ‘bleoop’ was slightly louder
now even with the air blowing in my ear. I had never heard beeping noises
coming from restroom vents in any previous trains that I had ever ridden in
before; but, I hadn’t been looking for them either.
I surveyed the surface of the vent,
searching for a button that would allow it to open. On all four corners of the
square vent there was a small round bottom that was labeled ‘screw’ in small
letters. I pressed each one, and the vent cover opened like a lid, folding backwards
onto the ceiling without a sound. Craning my head to see the inside of the
vent, I glimpsed the outline of a small box with a blinking red light that
turned red in sync with the ‘bleoop’. HAH!
I wasn’t imagining things after all! There was definitely something very
suspicious about these two men. Then, I realized that I might be looking at a
ticking time bomb. Slowly, I reached towards the box and turned it. I didn’t
know a thing about bombs except that they blew up when someone either pressed a
button or when the timer went ‘ding!’ The box did not appear to be attached to
any wires, and was very light. I picked it up, and sat down on the sink. What
was this thing? I turned it around until I saw a small screen on one side. On
it was the word ‘menu’. Nervously, I pressed the word. ‘Menu’ disappeared and
in its place were three options; ‘overview’, ‘detonation options’, and ‘view
current settings’. I pressed ‘view current settings’ and watched as a series of
numbers and words appeared on the screen. The only phrase that caught my eye as
I scrolled down with my finger was ‘tech control setting – danger level low’. So this wasn’t a bomb, as far as
I could tell, anyway. Even so, as soon as that thought had developed, I knew
that I had to do something with it.
Pressing the back button, I
searched the entire menu for some kind of button that canceled the detonation.
This was done with luck. Whether or not it was a bomb, this thing could be
dangerous and it needed to be taken care of. I wasn’t exactly sure how, but I
figured it would be safer in my jacket pocket than in the air vent. Sliding the
box into the inside pocket of my jacket, I stood on the sink again and closed
the vent. Once I was back on the ground, I took another breath and silently
opened the restroom door manually and looked out. The two men were still
hunched over, looking at something, or perhaps they were sleeping. I quickly
stepped out of the restroom and closed the door. I looked around the train car.
No one else seemed to notice me, so I relaxed a little. Until I noticed the
bulge of the box that made me look like I had a cube in my stomach. I sucked in
my belly, and shoved my hands in my pockets, trying to cover up the ‘bleoop’
sound that was reverberating out of my jacket. There was a small indent on the
bottom of the box that the sound seemed to be coming from, so I placed my thumb
over it through the fabric that separated my hand from the box.
As I passed the row of seats that
the Tall and Short Gray Suit’s were sitting in, I noticed that they were both
leaning over small screens that they must have had in their breast pockets.
Both were watching a video of a very old man, with gray hair, and eyes, who
seemed to be talking urgently, but seriously. Not wanting to appear suspicious
at all, I walked by without slowing and sat in my seat, both my hands shoved
firmly in my pockets. Pran and Jo looked up from their phones for a split
second before both leaning down again to proceed with whatever it was that they
were doing.
I sat back and looked out the
window. Now that we were higher in the sky, it was actually bright outside and
the sun could be seen far across the clouds. It was a beautiful sight. Why was
I not blinded yet? The windows in the train had three layers that acted as
sunglasses, ultraviolet protection, and provided a clear view of the outer
world. It was convenient. I entertained myself for the next hour, guessing the
types of clouds that swiped by underneath the train, and creating shapes out of
the roads and field patterns far below me. I always liked the sky.
About a half an hour before the
train landed, Tall Gray Suit stood up once again, and walked to the bathroom.
This time, I scooted to the end seat and peaked out into the isle. The tall man
looked around when he reached the restroom, and I looked down in case he saw
me, closing my eyes and slouching down. Then, I cracked one eye open. Tall Gray
Suit had his hand in his pocket, with his gaze turned back towards the door. I
saw a small red light blink in the man’s pocket, and the door slid open, this
time without a sound. That was odd. The man stepped in and disappeared behind
the closing door.
What were these red dots that seemed to make things do whatever the men
wanted them to? I thought back to the red dot that had lit up when Short Gray
Suit had glared at the woman. She had walked back to her spot without a word or
protest. Again, that was odd. I
stared at the restroom door, waiting for it to open. No more than 3 minutes
went by before the door slide open, Tall Gray Suit stepped out, and the door
slid quickly shut. I shifted back to the window seat before Tall Gray Suit saw
me, and proceeded to stare out the window. I heard the man sit down, and then
low muttering.
“-not there” and “-start early” was
all that I heard.
I’m not quite sure what their plan
was, but I most definitely was now scared.
What did this box do, and what were Tall and Short Gray Suit starting early? Perhaps the tech control setting was the detonation option, and they were going
to start it early. The muttering continued, quiet and urgent, and then it
stopped. Both men stood up and began walking towards the exit that led to the
front of the train. This was probably not a good thing. I made brief eye
contact with them as they passed by, then looked away quickly. As soon as they
passed, I turned and watch them exit the car. I looked away, not wanting to
attract the attention of my sisters with my weird behavior and shifted back to
the window seat.
I looked up; both my sisters were
still looking at their phones. Man, even
I’m not this bad with my tech. How did they manage to keep their stuff and I
didn’t? I thought. Then, realization dawned, and the streams of said
realization gushed into my brain.
“You guys sneaked your phones,
didn’t you?” I said accusingly.
“Um… No,” Pran looked up for a
second, blinking fast as she said it.
“I don’t believe you,” I said,
crossing my arms. “Why would mom allow you two to have your phones, and not me,
if this were supposed to be a vacation in which we spend more time together? She knows as well as I do that
you two are way more obsessed with those things than I am.”
Jo set her phone down and glared at
me, “So what if we did sneak them.
What’s it to you?”
“Um… Everything,” I stared at them, disgusted. “This whole entire trip you
two have made me feel like an outsider because you were too busy talking to you
stupid friends to realize that your own sister
is sitting right in front of you the whole time!” With this, I grabbed
Pran’s phone and looked at her screen. “Who are you talking to, anyway?”
Pran gave a strangled squeal and
grabbed her pink phone back, growling, “It’s none of your business.”
“I can’t believe you two,” I
huffed, sitting back.
Just then, I heard a ‘bleoop’ sound
come from my pocket. Both my sisters stared at the pocket.
“What was that?” Jo asked, raising
an eyebrow.
“N-Nothing,” I said, putting my
hand in my pocket and coving the small indent on the box.
“Sounds a lot like some kind of
tech, to me,” Pran said, sitting forward to grab my jacket.
“Wait!” I said, pointing out the
window. “We’re here.”
Both sisters whipped their heads
towards the window and gasped. It was now very bright out, and we could see the
sparkling blue of the Gulf of Mexico beneath
us. Up ahead, a large bubble protruded out of the water like a blister, a sign
that Atlantis was there, no longer hidden by miles of ocean. While some had
thought that Atlantis was somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean,
perhaps even buried underneath miles of sand in the Sahara ,
a Mexican scientist proved them all wrong.
In 2027, Miguel Marco, a marine
biologist, had taken his new submarine out for a week vacation in the Gulf of Mexico , determined to discover new depths in the
ocean that no one else had discovered, or been able to discover. This submarine
could last weeks under the ocean without coming up for renewal of oxygen, and
could reach a total of 900 kilometers underwater before beginning to crack
under pressure. It was the latest model. When he had reached the deepest part
of the Gulf, instead of finding new species’ of fish like he had hoped, Marco
found city ruins.
Now, after more than 20 years,
Atlantis was a tourist site in the middle of the ocean that many came to see.
The ruins had been cleaned up as much as they could be, the wall surrounding it
was rebuilt, and hotels, souvenir shops, and mini malls filled the space
outside of the wall. Our mother had won a trip for three to the City of Atlantis from some rally
she had gone to with her friends a couple weeks before. And now, my sisters and
I were flying towards a long lost world wonder.
We were briefly awed in silence
before a piercing sound rang out of the box in my hand. Forgetting about the
indent, I covered my ears in agony. What was going on? My sisters sat, frozen
at the window, as if they hadn’t heard a thing. I looked around the train car.
No one else seemed to have heard it either. In fact, everyone seemed to be
frozen. Some were looking out the windows, others reading, but most were
looking at their phones. I pulled the box out of my jacket and looked at the
screen. It read, “Detonation – Phase 1”. The box had initiated the tech control
detonation! I scrunched my eyebrows together in confusion. Nothing had
happened. I looked up at my sisters’ again; their faces still had a look of
unblinking awe. Then, realization decided to dawn once again. They were frozen.
I looked around at everyone else in the train car. Everyone was frozen! What
was this tech control detonation, and why was everyone but me affected by it?
I stood up, slightly panicked. I
needed to find those two men, and fast. For all I knew, the pilots of the train
could have been affected as well. I ran down the isle, towards the exit door
that led to the front of the train, pushing the ‘open door’ button. Nothing
happened. I pushed the button again. Still, the door would not open. Then, I
noticed a small round magnet in the middle of the door, the exact same one that
had been on the bathroom door. I pulled the magnet off, and pressed the ‘open
door’ button again. This time, it opened. I walked through and noticed another
magnet attached to the other side of the same door. The attraction of the two
magnets must have messed up the wiring in the door’s mechanism. I walked
towards the other door, pulled the magnet off, and opened the door. One more car
and I would reach the front of the train.
When I was through the other two
doors at the end of the second car, I could see that the waiters and waitresses
were also frozen in position in their little portion of the train car that was
connected to the front. I passed by them, trying not to touch them, and weaved
around their bodies. I came to the door that lead to the ‘cockpit’ of the
train, and could see Tall and Short Gray Suit inside. I knew it! I thought to myself before pulling a magnet off of the
door and pressing the button to open it. Lying behind the driving seats were
the two engineers. Both looked as though they were sitting in invisible seats
with blank expressions on their faces. Tall and Short Gray Suit jumped in surprise,
and turned around to see what had opened the door, only to find a girl holding
up a small gray box.
“What…“ one said.
“How did you….“ started the other.
“What is this and why is everyone
frozen?” I asked without thinking.
Both men sat, shared a glance, then
grabbed for the box. I whipped it out of their reach, only to find myself grabbed.
“We don’t have time for this,” Tall
Gray Suit said.
“Let’s just tie her up and move on
with phase 2,” Short Gray Suit replied, turning around.
“Sounds good to me” Tall Gray Suit
stood up, and grabbed me by the back of my shirt, lifting me up and reaching
into his pocket. He pulled out 4 long pieces of plastic that looked familiar to
me.
“Zip ties,” I said, finally
recognizing the pieces of plastic, “How… Old fashioned of you,” I managed to
get this sentence out before Tall Gray Suit shoved me up against a wall with
one hand on my mouth, and the other pulling my wrists together. Short Gray Suit
put the train on auto-pilot and zip tied my wrists and ankles together and
looped one of them around a wall railing, then went back to his seat, taking
auto-pilot off.
“Should I take the box from her?”
Tall Gray Suit asked.
“Nah, we should have at least one
person to witness our genius before we destroy Atlantis,” Short Gray Suit
replied, turning the train sharply towards the bubble that stuck out of the
ocean.
“Wait, what?” I asked, straining
against the zip ties.
“Should you explain, or shall I?”
Short Guy Suit asked.
“Go ahead, I’ll steer,” Tall Gray
Suit answered. “I’m bad with words anyway.”
“Alrighty then…” Short Gray Suit
turned in his seat and faced me. “It’s like this,” he said, pointing at the
box, “that box is a radio wave magnet. When detonated, it can increase the
radio waves coming from any piece of technology and mix with brain waves. It’s
the newest thing. That is why everyone is frozen. The radio waves in their
technology are heightened at an equal frequency with their brainwaves, causing
their brains to loop between the equal frequencies, stalling the rest of their
bodily movements. The only reason why you
aren’t frozen is because you happen to be holding the box that heightens the
frequencies, allowing you to be protected from it if you don’t hold any
technology, which I’m guessing you don’t. The only reason why we’re not frozen, is because of the mini
versions we have in our pockets.” With this, Short Gray Suit pulled out what
looked like a small remote from his pocket.
“That’s what you used to make that
lady shut up!” I gasped, remembering the small red light that had shown through
his pocket at the train station in the Subway.
“You’re an observant little
fellow,” Tall Gray Suit muttered.
“Not observant enough to do
anything about it,” Short Gray Suit laughed, turning back to the front window.
“Why are you doing this?” I asked.
“What did you say about destroying Atlantis? Why would you do that?”
“That’s where it gets complicated,
my little lady,” Short Gray Suit said. “Let’s just say we have a higher genius
mixed in that does not like to tell us why we’re doing anything. We,” Short
Gray Suit gestured at himself and his companion, “are doing this for the
money.”
“But what are you doing?” I implored.
“Like you said,” Short Gray Suit
put his hands back on the controls, “We’re destroying Atlantis.”
That being said, Tall Gray Suit
opened a small window by his seat that allowed the air from outside to gush in.
He pulled two small canisters out of his pocket, pressed a button on the top of
each one, and dropped them out the window. Instead of falling, the two canisters
opened small portals in their bodies and shot towards the bubble. Short and
Tall Gray Suit’s turned their controls so that the train turned in the
direction facing away from the bubble.
“Looks like our job is done,” Tall
Gray Suit said.
“Back to the train station we go,”
Short Gray Suit agreed.
I stood in the back, tied up, and
watched as the bubble went out of view. Not before I saw a small explosion at
the top of the bubble.
“That’s it?” I said.
“No, that’s just the beginning.”
“But that thing is made out of
BubbleGlass,” I said matter-of-factly. “It’s impenetrable.”
“Not when a high amount pressure is
pinpointed in one spot,” Tall Gray Suit explained. “A crack will form on the
top, and spread until it shatters.”
“Would you like to see?” Short Gray
Suit asked.
“No” I answered, straining against
the ties, trying to break free.
“Well, I would,” Short Gray Suit smirked,
turning the controls once again, so that we were facing the bubble.
I looked out the window and could
see tiny black lines spreading across the surface of the bubble, showing that
cracks had already started to form. They spread faster and faster until the
spread of cracks disappeared underneath the level of the ocean. Everything
about the bubble was normal for a moment, besides the spider web of cracks that
were painted across its surface, and then the top of the bubble collapsed in on
itself. In less then 5 seconds, the entire top of the bubble that had protruded
out of the Gulf was now gone, falling hundreds of miles to the ocean floor.
Suddenly, the ocean, no longer kept away from the inside of the bubble by the
glass, poured into the hole, engulfing the spot where the City of Atlantis was. I watched in
horror as the ocean crushed the glass under its pressure and collapsed entirely
on the city. The water crashed, and roiled, creating gigantic tidal waves that
rolled away from the spot.
“No!” I screamed.
Atlantis was buried, again. There
had been people in that city. Who knows how many tourists were in there when it
collapsed. The waves that had proceeded the engulfing would probably destroy
parts of the Texas
and Mexican coast lines judging by their immensity.
“What have you done?” I cried.
Neither of the men answered my
question. Instead, Tall Gray Suit said,
“Do not worry yourself. This will
all be a dream,” as he raised his arm and knocked me over the head.
I flinched awake in a cold sweat,
with the shadow of this horrible memory in my mind. It was only a dream. I thought as I sat up in a hospital bed, and
noticed my mother sitting in a chair at the end of my bed, asleep. She, too,
jolted awake, and sat up, looking around.
“Maddy!” She cried in relief,
walking over to the side of my bed. “I’m so glad you’re awake!” She grabbed my
hand and gave me a kiss on the cheek.
“W-where are Pran and Jo?” I looked
around the room, searching for other hospital beds.
“They’re waiting outside,” my
mother pointed towards the door, “You were the only one injured on the train.”
“Apparently your train ran off
course and landed here in Texas ,”
My mother explained. “And thank goodness it did. Atlantis collapsed!”
I was now fully awake, parts of my
dream coming back. “What?”
“Atlantis collapsed!” My mother
repeated. “Apparently a bolt of lightning hit the surface center of the
BubbleGlass and created a crack, weakening the entire shield. The city is completely
gone. It’s all over the news.”
“B-but the people…” I started
“Nobody died, silly!” My mother
patted my hand. “You didn’t read the brochure I give you. There is a built in
safety bubble that generates when a crack is formed in the main bubble. It
stayed up just long enough for everyone to be transported to the submarines before
that, too, completely collapsed.”
“Good.”
Suddenly I remembered the face of
Tall Gray Suit when he had raised his arm to knock me out. Was it all real? Was
I dreaming? This large amount of information, panic, and stress overwhelmed me.
What a vacation. I thought before
slipping into unconsciousness.
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| Woke up at 5am on Thanksgiving Day to go hunting. Jordan was a little tired. ;) |
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| After hunting, we shot arrows at a piece of cardboard and lost 4 of them in our field. Abby and I raked the field clean and found only two of them. We felt very accomplished. |
Pictures from this past week....
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| I turned 16 on Tuesday. |
