Audio Enabled

Entry Two

<Sir, the following entry is dated for two days succeeding the previous one. The girl appears to have deciphered the intricacies of the tablet, namely usage of the visual feature.>

Begin entry?

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It's this one isn't it? Come on mate, work dammit, aha!

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<The camera reveals a petite girl with a tangled braid hanging loosely over her shoulder. Note: do the inhabitants have access to any hygienic practicing? To the left of her eye is part of a bandage, newly applied. She's attired in the same blue and gray robes of the others.>

Finally got back the tablet. Tired of me singing Fall Out Boy, these guys are. I can hit the screaming parts and not feel bad about it because they're the only ones who will hear me. I mean, I'd be tired of me too. I am, actually.

But time for a dramatic backstory! That's what I promised you, and that's what you'll get.

I guess it all started when I was seven- so 2008ish, September. My mom and my dad, they were these like super smart scientists, and they worked at this lab in DC. It kind of like doubled as a meteorology station of some kind, because a bunch of the scientists there were tracking weather patterns of something. Some sort of energy phenomenon, maybe?  Someone else had been trying to create these hybrid storms according to my mom. She snickered a little the first time she told me. She thought it sounded funny, like a shitty horror movie, like Sharknado or some shit. She didn't laugh when she told the story later.

But whatever, so we're going home from the park one afternoon when my dad wants to stop by the lab to check on one of his experiments. So we roll by, and when we go inside, there's this incessant beeping that won't stop. So I skibble out to find the noise because I was curious I guess, and the sound leads me to the stations from those meteorology experiment I was talking about before. Apparently the guys were right- they could track the energy in weather patterns. I wonder if they ever knew. Probably not.

But there was a bigass storm coming nonetheless, and I shrieked for my dad to come look at the blinking screen, because I couldn't find out how to turn off the beeping and it was driving me nuts. The noise haunted my mom for weeks. I'd say I can't stand beeping, but I... 

My dad came rushing in, and I still remember the look on his face as he saw the flashing screen. I guess he knew what it meant, because he snatched up the old fashioned phone on the desk and, even though his face was panicked and pale, spoke calmly though the phone. They were right. The storm's coming, and everyone in the city is in danger. Like really, some true Captain America type shit.

Later we heard sirens in the distance. Within minutes the sky got dark over the lab, the skylights in the window only pronouncing the darkness more. 

They said my dad was a hero. I found footage once from that night. Winds ripped street lamps from the sidewalk, cracked windows and concrete. The streets flooded in some areas, and kids traveled around in canoes. Sectors lost powers for weeks. It sounds fake, out loud, like a crappy horror movie. The article was taken down when I looked for it again. According to the internet, it never even happened. You've got to dig really deep to find anything, and in those internet black holes it's hard to even know what's real or not.

The storm seemed to be at its worst right above the lab. My mom held my hand tight in hers as my dad tried to call the meteorologists who had spent their lives trying to prove this theory. I don't think the calls ever went through. My mom went to try one of the other phones in the building.

A bolt of lightning struck the tree outside the lab and I shrieked at the thunder. Have you ever heard a thunderclap from up close? The tree was famous, they'd actually named the lab after it. It was the only one for miles around. It wasn't really native to the area either- my dad told me many years ago a scientist had found a way to get it to thrive in our climate. Something fancy and complicated about genetics. 

But as usual I'm rambling. One of my flaws, though its saved my ass a couple of times too. But anyway.

This sounds shitty, but after the first clap I swear time slowed. The thunder clap was deafening. Have you ever been inside a thunder cloud? I swear, even to this day I haven't heard a noise that loud. Well, I'm not really in the position to make that argument. But I say time slowed because I feel like I could see the lightning bolt strike through the ceiling in slow motion. I remember it hitting the screen my dad was standing in front of. My mom appearing in the doorway seconds before, her face slowly morphing into a scream. 

I'll be honest and tell you right now, the lab was low key a huge safety hazard. There is no mcfreaking way they could have kept it open without bribing someone. I'm telling you this because as the lightning struck, it entered the plethora of wires crisscrossing the room, and seconds later when I tripped like a dumbass over a wire, it subsequently flowed into me.

I never heard my own scream as the thunder was, quite literally, deafening.

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End of entry.

<Sir, it according to the record the device "died" as you say. The power reserves on the device are remarkably small. Perhaps take measures to extend battery life in future projects.>

You know what I'm going to leave it at this, hope you liked it.