Chapter Two
Captured By Fate
Relieved that she had finally made it to this place called Reefside, Sara a bit more at ease as this meant she would be able to get to a payphone and make a phone call home for help. With a little more energy in her step Sara walked somewhere around another mile before she happened upon a gas station. It was one of those small gas stations that you saw before leaving on trip that offered one last chance for a pit stop until the next city or town. It had a sign on the roadside with faded red letters that stood attached to a fifteen foot pole with chipping white paint. The name of the gas station was – Quick n' Save. No matter how corny the name sounded or how unkempt the place looked, once Sara spotted the payphone outside the front door of the small mini mart it looked grander than any other gas station out there. Having to jog across the road to reach this place Sara made a beeline straight for the payphone and didn't even notice how quiet and empty everything was around her.
Oh thank you God! I couldn't ask for more right now. Picking up the phone Sara put it to her hear and automatically heard the dial tone. Whispering another 'thank you' she quickly dialed a collect call to her home number and waited as it rang. "Come on, pick up, pick up, pick up." She muttered under her breath as it rang for a third time and then what voice greeted her hearing caused the bottom of her stomach to fall.
"We're sorry but the number that you have dialed does not exist. Please hang up and try again." The automated voice stated in its emotionless monotone recording.
Pressing the receiver pad down to hang up, Sara waited for the dial tone again and this time made a collect call to her mom's cell phone. Oh please let her pick up. "We're sorry but the number you have dialed does not –" Sara hung up and dialed again for her dad's cell. "We're sorry but the number you have dialed – " Again she hung up and tried one last number belonging to her younger sister's cell phone. "We're sorry but the number you have dialed does not exist. Please hang up and try again."
Slamming the phone down on the receiver with possibly enough force to have broken it, Sara collapsed again the payphone stall and stared down at the one thing that could have brought her home and yet was denying her access to her family. Forming tears started to sting her eyes as she started to force down the pent up emotion that wanted to be let out. "Why?" was all she muttered under her breath through clenched teeth while pushing herself off the payphone. "Why is this happening?" she seethed while swiping the back of her hand across her eyes to brush away a few stray tears that had managed to get free. Composing herself to seem stable for the most part, Sara breathed deep before heading into the mini mart where in upon her arrival the attendant looked up from his place behind the counter.
"Hello." He greeted. There wasn't any foreign accent as he was of course Caucasian, which was kind of odd for a gas station attendant to say the least.
"Hi." Sara greeted back while coming up to the counter. "Um, can you tell me how far it is to the city limits of Reefside?" she asked, stopping at the counter.
The attendant nodded his head in reply to this. "Yeah, it's about another mile from here." He answered with a friendly smile.
Sara forced a smile back. "Thanks." She said before heading back out the door to resume her walk. However, just at the door she hesitated and looked back at the attendant who was watching her leave. "Uh, what's the date today?" she asked, curious to find out how long she had been out for before finding herself in that forest some ten miles back.
"The twenty-seventh." He answered while checking his calendar real quick to make sure. "Yeah, January twenty-seventh." He confirmed.
"Okay, thanks." Sara waved as she left the mini mart and crossed over the small gravely pit row lined with only three gas tanks. It's still the twenty-seventh? But I worked the twenty-seventh and I was leaving the hospital at nearly five to ten! How the hell is it still the twenty-seventh! What's going on! Wait! Maybe I've finally cracked from all the stress that was going on this week. Yeah, that's it. I've gone insane, stark raving mad. God, I need to find like a police station so I can get some sort of help. Her mind continued to clamor on as she walked towards the city limits of Reefside.
It took a little around twenty minutes before Sara found herself passing a sign that stated – Reefside City Limits Population 444,776. Actually this whole walking an entire elven miles had been a piece of cake for her. After all she was used to having a great deal of energy demanded of her as she had played on school soccer teams for the girl since fifth grade all the way through her senior year in high school. After graduating she had been sought out by three different collage teams to come play for them on a scholarship and had been deciding between Notre Dame, UCLA, and USC while continuing work as a volunteer at the community hospital. But it just wasn't soccer, she also rode motocross with her next door neighbors at the local Supercross track at the fairgrounds. And she was pretty good at it too, although it was more of a hobby than anything else.
Jesus, I would have really liked playing for USC since they were the only ones offering a full scholarship. Sara sighed heavily to herself as defeat seemed to have cruelly bitch smacked her across the face at this point. After shaking her personal despair of loosing a collage scholarship to the side and looking up from watching the ground disappear under her feet, Sara found herself now entering the city of Reefside itself. Somehow this brought about a sense of hope that had Sara now jogging towards human contact rather than walking. Once now on the streets of the city itself Sara could feel herself relax and loose the hopeless sense of loss and defeat that she had before when contact couldn't be made to any of her family. Having other people around, even if they were strangers, had an effect on anyone who felt alone and Sara was one of those types of people receiving that effect.
To the people she passed by who glanced at her and kept on their way without a second thought, she looked as though she had been out on a run considering the fact that she was wearing what looked like a sweat outfit with the DC Shoes sweatshirt, white pants, and white shoes. Well in a sense she had been running, but not for want of exercise. Okay, all I have to do is go into the first place I see and ask directions to the police station. And as she came around the corner and entered what looked like an outdoor shopping center, she did just that. The closest place to her looked to be like some sort of juice bar and restaurant that she didn't bother catching the name too before walking inside. Inside Sara's first assumptions about it were changed for the most part as most of the patrons were either high school students or collage aged. Psh, local teen hang out. Figures.
Rolling her eyes at this Sara managed to catch sight of a payphone off to her right. Figuring it wouldn't hurt to give one last try she went over and made another collect call to her home number. After three rings the automated voice telling her that number didn't exist came on and Sara hung up before even the third word could be uttered. Goddamit! Growling quietly at the phone Sara turned away and headed over to the bar counter she had seen upon first entering. There was a red haired woman working behind it and she seemed like the most logical person to go to and ask for directions. Coming up with a quick explanation in her mind in case the woman asked any questions, Sara approached the counter and held a small smile on her face. The woman noticed her approaching and looked up from her work on putting together the ingredients to a smoothie of some kind. "Hi, I'll be with you in just a moment." The redhead stated after greeting her rather cheerfully.
"Okay." Sara replied while taking a seat on one of the empty stools spaced out around the counter. She watched as the redhead plopped in a scoop of frozen strawberries into the blender cup and then turned around to face the back counter on which was set the blender base. Locking the cup on and adding the lid, she flipped the switch and in just ten seconds of loud whirring, the smoothie was mixed and then was poured into a large colored glass with a straw.
The redhead looked out to the floor and spotted one of her helping hands. "Trent, I have an order ready." She called out while placing the drink up on the side counter to await pick up. Now unoccupied, the redhead came over to where Sara was sitting and gave her a warm friendly smile. "Now, how can I help you?" she asked in a cheery voice that seemed to sooth out the tension that had formed itself inside the teen she spoke with.
"I was wondering if you could tell me how to get to the police station." Sara answered while her facial expression changed from the small smile she had mustered earlier to a passive look that held an air of hope that her question would be answered.
The redhead nodded to this. "Sure. All you do is go down Broadway and pass two intersection lights and then turn down Elm. On Elm, you're going to want to pass the first light and then there will be a cross street called Esther that you want to turn left on." The redhead paused a moment as she noticed the somewhat confused look on the girls face. She smiled sympathetically as she realized that wasn't familiar with the area without her having to say it. "How about I draw you a map and then explain it to you." She suggested while snatching a paper napkin from a dispenser and pulling a pen out of her pants pocket.
"Yeah, that would help, thanks." Sara grinned sheepishly as the redheaded woman started to draw out the map for her without a second of hesitation. Wow, either people here are really nice or she's just one in a few. While waiting for her mini map, Sara found her hand drifting into the pouch pocket of her sweatshirt and fingering the green stone she had found inside that oddly shaped trunk hole. Pulling the stone out entirely, Sara brought her hand back up to rest alongside her left one while fiddling with the stone in some sort of nervous habit.
It hadn't even been that long after Sara had asked for directions when the stool next to her was suddenly occupied. Both Sara and the redheaded woman looked up from what they were doing to see who it was that had seated themselves at the counter. The woman smiled broadly before returning to her map drawing. "Hey Dr. Oliver." She greeted the guy sitting at the counter wearing a pair of slim reading glasses and sporting short spiked black hair.
"Hey Haley." He replied back while glancing over the counter to see what she was doing and then voiced his question. "What are you doing?" he asked while raising a brow at her napkin drawing.
The redhead addressed as Haley, paused a moment to point her pen at Sara with a smile. "I'm drawing out a map for this young lady here. She needed directions to the police station, and isn't too familiar with the area." She replied while returning to the near finished mini map.
Looking over at the teen Haley was referring too, Dr. Oliver was met with a brown eyed gaze that seemed rather intense in color and gave her a friendly smile. "Hi." He greeted.
"Hello." Sara replied while she still played with the green stone in her hand unconsciously.
However, her fiddling with the object caught Dr. Oliver's attention and had him glancing down at the contents of her hand. For a moment he was rather speechless as if he was looking on some sort of priceless artifact or other, which in turn had Sara giving him a rather perplexed look as she looked from his facial expression to the stone in her hand and back down again before returning it to the guy sitting beside her. "Where did you get that?" he asked as his attention seemed to be half on her and half on the stone she had in hand.
"I found it out in a forest. Well actually, in a tree trunk." She replied while placing the green stone down on the counter top. "Why?" she now asked as it appeared this piece of rock had not just caught this guy's attention but also the redhead's as well.
"Oh, well…" he brought his attention fully on to the teen sitting next to him. "I'm a paleontologist. The name's Dr. Oliver." He introduced himself while extending his right hand over to her.
For a moment Sara hesitated to take his hand and shake it as it seemed rather odd to randomly meet a doctor of paleontology in a juice bar nonetheless. However she quickly banished her sudden arousal of curiosity and shook hands with the doctor. "It's nice to meet you Dr. Oliver." She smiled at him as they ended their handshake and glanced down at the green stone sitting on the counter. "So, if this some sort of rare rock from the dinosaur age or something?" she asked while holding a somewhat amused look on her face.
"It might be. I've just never seen anything like it before here in Reefside before." Dr. Oliver stated while looking at the rather smooth and yet edged stone that held a certain polish to its surface.
Sara watched him for a moment and took note to how absorbed the doctor was with this piece of rock she had found. "Well then, I guess you better take it." She stated while getting up from her seat as Haley placed the finished map in front of her.
Both adults looked at her with stunned faces to how easily she was just handing it over. Dr. Oliver looked from the teen to Haley and then back all in one quick motion. "Are you sure about that?" he asked just to make sure she didn't have second thoughts on this.
"Yeah. I mean if it does turn out be something really old from the prehistoric period, I'd rather that someone like you had it instead of me. I mean I would probably just end up using it as decorative knick knack in my room where it would just collect dust." Sara stated with a reassuring nod of her head. "If it does turn out to be special, at least in your hands it would collect dust in a museum where the public could see it." A small smirk came across her face at the little remark she had made.
Dr. Oliver grinned at her while standing up from his seat as well and extended his hand to her again. "I don't how to thank you." He stated with his grin growing larger from how incredible this was.
Sara placed her hand in his again. "It's not a problem, really. Well, you could mention my name if it turns out this is really something of discovery." She stated in good humor.
"Not a problem." Dr. Oliver replied while taking out a small pocket book and pen from the pocket of the black canvas jacket he was wearing. "If you give me your name I'll be sure to claim you as the discoverer." He stated while flipping to a blank page at the back of his pocket book.
"Oh, yeah, that would help, uh?" Sara laughed while feeling a tad embarrassed as she had forgotten to mention her name in the first place. "It's Sara Anderson."
As he wrote down the name, Dr. Oliver paused a moment. "That's 'Sara' without the h at the end, right?" he asked just to be sure he had gotten the name right. His question was affirmed as Sara nodded to this in reply. "Okay. Well, Sara, again I can't thank you enough. Really." Dr. Oliver stated as he closed his book and placed it back inside his jacket pocket.
Sara smiled at him again. "You're welcome. And, thank you." She stated to Haley while holding up the napkin map she had drawn up for her.
"You're welcome. I wrote down the basic directions to take on the back, so you shouldn't have problem in getting there." Haley explained while indicating to the other side of the paper napkin.
Flipping it over to see what Haley was talking about, Sara nodded as she read over what had been written in neat hand writing. "Okay, thanks." She replied while shortly waving to the two adults in gesture to her leaving.
Haley and Dr. Oliver waved back while saying short 'good-byes' to her as she headed for the door and left the place. Once the auburn haired teen had departed Haley looked over at Dr. Oliver who was now holding the stone in his hand and holding a puzzled expression on his face now as he looked it over. "What?" she asked while furrowing her brow.
"Odd. This had a luster to it that almost seemed to glow in a soft iridescence." He explained while turning it over in his hand a few times and then looked over to the door. "But it's like once she left, it lost it entirely." Dr. Oliver looked over at Haley with a concerned look on his face that showed he was thinking about something in explanation to this that was starting to occur to him.
"You don't think that maybe it's a…" Haley trailed off as she knew he understood as to what she was hinting at with her suggestion.
Dr. Oliver just shook his head as he wasn't sure as to what he was thinking. If he was right in thinking that this was in fact what he thought it was, then that meant they had just let the one person who could answer it for them walk out the door.
Following Haley's map for about halfway so far, Sara now found herself waiting at the first four-way intersection and waited for the crossing light to signal for her as she stood with a group of four other people. Traffic seemed pretty heavy at this intersection as no doubt people were leaving work or headed to work since it looked to be around early evening now. While she waited for the light to change, Sara studied Haley's map and memorized the next part she needed to know. One more light and then I turn left on Elm. Got it. Sara smiled to herself while tucking her mini map into the front pouch of her sweatshirt and just in time to spot the light changing for her to cross. Looking both ways while everyone else started to cross, as she didn't want to be victim to someone's impatience, Sara then followed after the small crowd. Then that's when things started to turn odd on the lost teen. At about midway in the crosswalk it felt as though time was starting to slow down as a tingling sensation started to race up her spine. The cause of this effect had Sara turning her head to the left towards the center of the intersection for some unknown reason. Stopping in her tracks she watched a the air before her started to shimmer and then part like a sheet of water coming down on a jutting piece of rock that cut through its middle.
Almost in a split second after the sensation of slowing time began and the odd occurrence in the air the most ludicrous thing happened before her very eyes. Through that part in the shimmering air stepped out a thing of pure ugly as it stood around seven feet tall and looked to be a cross between a man and a fish. Apparently Sara wasn't seeing things as those standing on other corners and even in the crosswalk with her had stopped and were now screaming and pointing at the monstrosity that was standing the midst of a busy intersection. Sara watched in growing horror as this mutated freak of a thing faced down a car coming towards it at forty-miles an hour and somehow managed to bring both fists down on to the hood of the car as it just reached its position. The sound of flesh and bone driving into steel was disturbing upon the ears. Once hit, the car popped right up so that it was almost standing straight up and down before it flipped over the creature and landed upside down after bouncing off the road once and side scraping another on coming car.
Sara's eyes were glued to the creature that rejoiced in what it had just accomplished by throwing its head back and bellowing as it pumped its arms up and down. Just staring at the thing caused the teen to immediately think of the Creature from the Black Lagoon, only, more realistic and not some cheesy rubber foam one piece suit and mask. You could see the sheen of coated slime that covered its entire body of murky green scales fading into sickly white at the abdomen. The arms it pumped were longer than normal and webbed in between each finger and hooked with a sharp talon-like nail at the end. What the hell is going on? That thing can't be real! By now the crosswalk had cleared, people had abandoned their running cars, and fled the sidewalks to seek out cover and hide while screaming the whole time. Sara on the other hand was just rooted to her spot on the street and just stared as her body started to shake with a growing fear. After the creature finished its victory howl it looked about and immediately its large shinny black eyes fell directly on Sara. It blinked twice with its weird lids coming down and flicking up like a crocodile's or lizard's eyes did. The thing cocked its head to this side for a moment; a head that was shaped more like that of a fishes in the front but sweeping back in a long fanned out fin that traveled down its back until it ended at a ground length.
After it seemed to register something within its mind the creature started to advance upon her with a moderate pace as it appeared to either be coming at her with harmful intentions or in a way that suggested otherwise, like it was curious about her. From every direction people yelled and shouted for her to move, to get away. But Sara found that her legs and brain had ceased to further communicate with one another since the whole thing began with a tingling sensation that ran up her spine. The creature had come within ten feet now of the frightened teen and that was as far as it got. Its advancement came to an abrupt end as its chest was hit with a short beam of yellowish light that exploded on impact and had the thing reeling backwards in a stumble. Another few shots followed in the same manner and then from out of nowhere five figures stood before Sara dressed each in one soul color each with their backs turned to her. Their heads were covered in helmets matching their outfits, and for some reason this caused communication to begin once more with her brain and legs to get the hell out of there. Which she did. Turning about she ran down a line of cars that had been left by their owners and came to stop at the third one on her left. There she stopped and ducked down behind it while huddling up against the bumper, knees drawn up to her chest and arms wrapped tightly about them in a hug.
This can't be happening. This can't be happening. This isn't real. She repeated over and over in her head again and again as sounds of a fight broke out. The creature's bellowing and grunts were loud defined in between the other noises coming to her ears. I just want to go home. I just want to see my family again. I don't want to be here! It was at that moment that one noise rose up all others as it came in a high pitched screaming that sounded like an alarm system going off with one single solitary note repeating in a continuous loop. The sound so horrible that on instinct Sara covered her ears and shut her eyes tight to block out the noise or at least muffle it. Oh god it hurts! After what seemed like an eternity of this horrid noise, a silence suddenly took over in an eerie way. Cautiously, Sara opened her eyes and slowly removed her hands from her ears just to make sure the noise wasn't about to start up on her again. Nothing. Not even the sounds of a fight between the mutant creature and the five people who had arrived out of the blue. While Sara brought her hands down all the way she caught something out of the corner of her eye concerning her left wrist. Looking at it she noticed now that something cool was resting against her skin under the cuff of her sleeve.
Pulling the sleeve back quickly her eyes near became the size of saucers as she stared down at an ornate silver bracelet that held an opened lattice design that was about two and a half inches in width. And it seemed to be glowing with an iridescent green light about the entire frame work. The glow started to fade as the sounds of the fight started up again, which caused Sara to come out from behind the car and stand up to see what was going on. She watch in slack jaw wonder as the one dressed in all blue and another in all white attacked the creature from either side with what looked like curved swords. They cut across it from either side causing the creature scream in pain in an unrecognizable sound that soon became gargled as black liquid started to spew forth from the wounds created about its body. Falling to the ground and withering in pain for a moment it then ceased all movement and liquefied into a puddle that then evaporated and disappeared. The five figures came to gather about the area that the creature had fallen upon and seemed to be conversing with one another even though they were wearing full faced helmets with no open spaces at all. It was then that the horrid noise that had drowned everything else out and hurt the ears began again while the bracelet on Sara's wrist started to glow intensely. In quick reaction Sara threw her hands up over her ears and winced at how loud the sound was this time as if it were right there beside her and growing louder.
All five figures were looking in her direction now. Something started to take a hold of her and overwhelm her senses as the noise continued to screech and scream. Whatever that something it was, it was now bringing her into a state haze as her vision started to become blurry and obscured. Her body swayed as it was loosing balance and allowing gravity to take control. Her arms lost the strength to remain up so her hands covered her ears, and they fell to her sides. It didn't matter now because the noise was fading just as she was. Sara felt herself being pulled down and realized this as her knees struck the asphalt of the road hard. There was pain but her body had gone numb to it before it seeped through her. She was going to fall and the five saw this. The one in all red ran forward, breaking from the group and arriving just in time to catch the teen as she fell forward. It would have been a face first plant into the merciless ground of pavement had it not been that person in red catching her in their arms. As she was brought back up so that she was leaning and no longer on her knees, Sara managed to see the helmeted face of the person who saved her from direct second contact with asphalt. Completely helmeted in bright red with only a black visor strip cutting across where the eyes would be and outlined with silver razor pointed teeth, she could have sworn for a moment she was seeing through that and looking into a pair of brown eyes laced with worry. But before she could convince herself that's what she had seen, Sara lost consciousness and blacked out entirely.
