Set In Motion

James keeps talking about where I am but I'm not really listening. I'm too busy staring at his eyes. There a gorgeous green, blue color and I just can't stop myself. That's why it takes a while for me to realize that he's not talking anymore. Actually it looks like if he's waiting for me to say something.

“Uh I'm sorry I was off on the moon, can you repeat that?” I say wishing I could hide underneath my bed in shame.

“I asked you if you wanted me to bring you on a tour of the condos. The first time around they might seem a little confusing.”

“That would be awesome!”

I'm still trying not to die in shame. He must have noticed me goggling at him and now thinks I'm a freak! If Sam and Nicole were here they would be laughing their buts off!

Sam and Nicole. That makes me think of another problem I have. I haven't asked James about them yet. Not because I forgot, but because I'm plain and simple scared of the answer I'll get. If they died I don't know what I would do! That's why I’ve held off on asking him. But my anxiety over them is too much and I decide to get the suspense over with.

“James, did anyone else survive? If there are a lot of people that did, are there a blond guy and girl?”

“There are a couple of people that we managed to save, though only a dozen. Three of them died from injuries here. I wouldn’t be able to tell if you’re friends we’re saved, or if they were one the threes that died. Is there anything specific you can remember that I would have seen?”

I rack my brains trying to think of something that would define Sam and Nicole to the other twelve that they had brought, all the while hoping that it wouldn’t I.D them as one of the three that died. It can’t be there height; I don’t know that by heart. It can’t be their eye color, brown and green, there two average eye colors. I can’t remember what they were wearing, though it would probably be not specific enough to difference them. Then I remember the perfect thing about both of them.

“Yes, actually, you see they were going out and as a monthaversery gift they got each other matching bracelets. They were charm bracelets, the girls had a puppy and a cell phone and a heart that said SAM on it, the guy a skateboard, an ice cream cone and a heart that said NICOLE on it.”

I pray as much as I can to God that James would've seen those charms or heard about them from his friends

He thinks about it for a while then says: “Of course I remember that! Yes I know exactly who you're talking about! Here, before the tour I'll bring you to them. There rooms are not far from here, just down the hall.”

I'm so happy I can't talk. Nicole and Sam were alive! I follow James out to a yellowish brown hallway.

I'm surprised to see Calico come out of a door on the left, smile at me, and then run to a door on the other side without a word. James shakes his head:

“Calico will crash and burn. I mean she's awesome and all that but there's just so much you can do without a break before you lose it! Ah here we are room 4.Now last time I checked the girl was asleep but she might be awake now.”

And awake she is. Nicole might look like hell and have a cast on her left arm but as soon as she sees me she gives an award winning shriek and tackles me like a professional football player. She squeezes me so hard I can't breathe for a while. She's talking really fast, so fast I can barely hear her.

“Oh Liz I was so scared! I thought you were dead and that I was dead and that Sam was dead but that would've been OK because then we'd all be dead together but then I woke up and I'd thought I'd be alone and that only you to were dead and then...”
She keeps going like that for a minute at least, without taking in a breath then calms down a little bit.

Though she's still shaky when she tells me:

“Liz what about Chloe! This girl named Calico told me that the whole town had been swallowed by the hole! I can't bear to think she's dead, not Chloe!”

I'm shocked. The whole town. It can't be. I turn to James for him to tell me it's not true but he’s just nods his head, affirming that it's true. For a moment I want to just curl up in a ball and stay like that forever, but I can't. I have to be strong for Nicole or else she'll lose it. So instead I calm her down and turn to James.

“You said Sam was here?”

He nods again and brings us to a room just like mine. Inside Sam isn't doing too well. He's unconscious, with a bandaged leg and hand. The right side of his face was swelling up and he was going to have a wicked black eye but he was alive and that was good enough for me. We sit beside him until James kindly says that he needs some peace.

“What about the other seven people that you got from our school? Can we see them and maybe identify who they are?” I’m hoping that I know at least a couple other people, hoping that at least some of the other people I knew have survived.

James grimaces a little bit at that. “None of the other people that we saved are awake yet, most of them are in comas like Sam. Thankfully none of them are in danger of dying, and Calico thinks they’ll come out of their comas in a couple of days. It wouldn’t make any difference if you identified them now. But as soon as any of them wake up, I’ll tell you and you could talk to them. It might comfort them to know that other people from their school are here.”
So we leave. Again I get that feeling of total despair but again I push it away. Not now I tell myself, not now. I need to figure out a plan to help my mom and Chloe and James and Calico. Not now. So I keep walking down the hallway with James and Nicole until we reach an exit. James turns to us with a smile.

“Girls, you're about to step into the world of the specials. Be ready and be advised. You'll never want to go back to your old life again.” and with that he opens up the door with a flourish.