Yay, finally another chapter! I know, I know it's been a while, but I've got exams coming up and my school's going insane :P Anyway, I've got an actual plot figured out for this story now, but I think the first few chapters will be just introducing the characters with little actual action-y stuff. Next chapter will be about the YDC characters, so that should be fun to write :) But, I'm gonna shut up now and let you read the chapter. Enjoy!
"So, do you really think this is happening everywhere?" Lucas asked as he rummaged through the cupboard, so far finding no sign of anything resembling radiation sensors.
"No idea" Jake replied, "But I don't think it's just here. I mean, what's so special about this place?"
"Certainly not it's health and safety standards" Zoe groaned, recoiling from where a putrid mass of God knows what had collected at the back of the store cupboard.
"For once, I agree with you" Amy said, chucking Zoe a pair of gloves so she'd have less chance of burning her hands off on leaking chemicals.
So far, the four of them had been searching the various science labs for half an hour trying to find the radiation sensors, since as none of them were sixth formers they had no idea where they were.
During that time, Jake had managed to swipe a pretty large collection of chemicals when Lucas and Amy had their backs turned. He didn't worry about Zoe, since they'd been best friends since they were three, but he didn't feel like alienating two people who could turn out to be pretty good friends just because he wanted to be prepared in case something bad happened.
"I suppose, but shouldn't we go check it out, see how many adults have vanished?" Lucas said, his words bringing Jake back to reality.
"No need, I saw Tobi on the way, he's going with Connor and Melody to check it out" Amy said.
"Who's Tobi?" Zoe said.
"Friend of mine" Amy said. "Well, sort of."
"Sort of?" Zoe asked.
"I'm not the most sociable person in the world" Amy explained.
The subject was dropped, however, as Lucas punched the air and yelled "VICTORY!" holding a cardboard box aloft as if it held the key to eternal life.
Jake smiled, "Guessing you found the sensors then"
"Nope, just punching the air and screaming for no reason" Lucas said sarcastically, taking out a sensor and throwing it to him, then throwing two more to Zoe and Amy.
Amy and Jake had theirs switched on in an instant, but Zoe simply stared at hers.
"Activate, I command thee!" She cried, mashing random buttons in the hope that it would work.
"Switch on the side, Zo" Jake said, smiling at Zoe's technological incompetance.
"Sure, I knew that" Zoe said, flicking the switch.
"Sure you did" smirked Amy.
"Glad you agree with me" Zoe snarked back and Jake and Lucas rolled their eyes.
"Right, if we're not gonna stand here talking all day I'd suggest we split up to cover the school quicker" Jake said.
"Sounds like a plan" Zoe smiled, "We'll meet back here in half an hour, yeah?"
"Okay, see you then" Lucas said, agreeing to the unspoken descision that Zoe and Jake would stay together and so would Lucas and Amy.
After all, when things got weird you should always stick with the people you care about most.
Skyler groaned as the blue light cleared from her vision. Was she dead? She didn't think so, she was still in the car after all. Whatever the hell happened after death, she doubted that her family's battered old ford would make it to the afterlife too.
There was also a strange smell, kind of like when Kara was still at home and the two of them would attempt to make cakes and the smoke from the oven would fill the whole kitchen.
That was bad...wasn't it? She didn't know. Maybe it was because she'd hit her head. Everything was a bit blurry.
No, that wasn't her, that was smoke. Were they making cakes? Kara must have got the oven wrong again. They were...what was the word?
Burning.
Skyler's mind cleared and she coughed violently. Crap, crap crap crap. She'd played enough Grand Theft Auto to know that when cars start smoking it generally means they're going to explode.
"Luke?" she croaked, her voice hoarse from breathing too much smoke. She looked around and saw her brother still strapped into his seat, unconscious. She undid her seatbelt and clung to the seat, lowering herself down so she didn't fall on her brother.
"Come on Luke, wake up" Skyler cried, shaking him frantically then trying to get him out of his seatbelt. It stuck for a moment and Skyler started to panic, but she managed to yank it free and drag Luke towards the door.
The car was on its side, so Skyler had climb to get out. For a full grown adult that would be hard enough, but Skyler was twelve, short and far from strong.
"Luke, please wake up, I can't do this" Skyler said, fighting back tears as she tried in vain to haul Luke upwards
/Come on, WAKE UP/ she thought, her inner voice sounding far louder then it usually did. Her eyes widened in shock as Luke sat up suddenly, coughing and gasping for air.
"Sky? What's-"
"No time, just get out!" Skyler cried, scrambling up the seats and throwing herself out of the car with Luke close behind her.
/RUN!/ a voice in her mind, Luke's voice, called to her as he grabbed her hand and dragged her away from the smoking car. Skyler turned back to see a spark ignite in the car, and threw herself to the ground.
Luke stood over her, his hand held out as if to somehow hold back the explosion.
/Luke, get down!/ she thought spoke, since it seemed to be working so far.
/I don't need to, trust me/ Luke said in her mind, blue light shooting from his hand and sheilding them in a sphere of blue as the car exploded in a rageing fireball.
To Skyler, it was almost like it wasn't real. Flames roared around them, wrapping round the glowing blue bubble like scarlet tentacles, but it didn't even get hotter.
Luke had created a forcefeild.
An actual, propper forcrfeild.
And she has spoke using just her mind.
What the hell was happening?
Helloooo, grown ups? Anybody in?"
Eliza spun round, startled as she heard a girls voice calling through the letter box.
It had been three hours since her parents had disapeared, and so far she'd had no luck finding them. Obviously, they couldn't have simply walked away- they had no reason to, and they couldn't have gotten far enough to be out of sight by the time she'd looked round the corner.
She'd tried calling them, but neither her mobile nor the house phone was working, and the neighbors weren't in, so she couldn't use their phone.
She'd been just about to head out in search of her friend Timothy when the voice, accompanied by a loud and persistant knocking, had distracted her. Slightly annoyed at the interuption, she jogged downstairs and opened the door to find a tall, muscular boy with dark red hair, a freckle faced burnette who couldn't seem to keep still and a small, meek looking boy with messy hair.
"Aw damn you're not an adult" the girl pouted, looking pretty annoyed at the fact.
"Well by the looks of it neither are you" Eliza replied.
"Meh, true that" the girl smiled, "Please tell me you've seen an adult though 'cause this is getting really damn wierd"
Eliza's expression turned to one of confusion. All three of them were wearing the standard Skybrook Comprehensive uniform- surely in a school there would be adults.
She voiced those thoughts, and the taller boy answered her, "You'd think, but they just vanished" he said.
"What do you mean, vanished?" Eliza said, starting to get more and more worried.
"Like Connor said. There, gone. Bye bye grown ups" the girl said, "It was wierd, like they teleported or something"
Eliza's mind whirled, she leant againat the door frame for support as she tried to process the information. How could someone just vanish? It was impossible. She knew the science, people did not just vanish into thin air. But then again, that seemed to be the only option to explain her parents...
"Maybe they're dead" the girl said, not looking at all worried by the posibility. Eliza paled at the thought. Up until now she'd thought they'd just...well, she didn't know what they'd done but she'd never thought they could be dead
"Melody!" the two boys cried, the smaller one looking shocked that she'd said that, Connor simply looking annoyed like he was used to it.
"What?" Melody said, looking confused. "Oh, right. Sorry. Just thinking out loud, didn't mean to say that..."
"Don't worry, I'm sure they're alive somewhere" the smaller boy said, looking slightly nervous as all the attention was drawn to him. "I'm Tobi, by the way" he said, smiling slightly.
"Eliza" she replied, grateful for Tobi's reassurance. "So, do you guys have any idea why this is happening?"
"Not a clue" Connor sighed.
"As usual" Melody muttered under her breath, earning a death glare from her friend. "Hey, I'm just saying" she smirked, "I'm pretty confused too"
Eliza sighed, whatever was happening it couldn't be explained by a bunch of kids. Hell, she doubted it could be explained by anyone. Maybe whatever was causing this didn't matter, maybe they should just forget about the why and focus on what to do now. Eliza voiced those thoughts to the others, and the three of them agreed readily.
"Good, trying to explain this shit is killing my brain" Melody said, "So, got any ideas for what we should do next" She said, looking to Eliza.
Oh great, how did she end up as the leader. She looked at the group- Tobi who seemed to be trying to fade into the background, Melody who couldn't seem to keep quiet for a second and Connor, who smiled at her encouragingly and seemed to be looking to her as much as Melody was. She sighed, "We should go to the school, get people together" she said, "I guess that's a start".