The Saviors

Chapter 10 - Hayden(Part 3 - The US, 2015)

I could not have been more wrong. The days pass, leaving me in an endless daze. The four of us remain in this room reading the instructions on each computer and doing everything it says. Aspen appears occasionally with provisions which gives us a slight break. I'm not sure how long we have been here for because I haven't seen the sun since coming here. My only indication of the passing days is when Aspen leaves for school, and then comes back after. I'm still a little unsure of how this plan will stop climate change even with most of the instructions completed. We have all been following the instructions exactly, and I feel like we are almost done.
We have explored the entire building, all the closed doors and secret hallways. We have discovered a kitchen, multiple bathrooms, some bunk rooms and meeting rooms. Whenever we have had a chance to take a break, we have used that time to search and at this point we have managed to look through every room. Each room that we have found has been bare. The only room that has items has been the main room with all of the computers. The kitchen did have a stove, oven and fridge but nothing else. The bunk rooms had some built in bunks, but Aspen had to get mattresses and blankets. The other rooms have been completely empty besides the occasional abandoned desk.

Today, I am following the directions on one of the last computers. I am working on building a rocket that is supposedly going to be launched into the sky to clean air pollution. It is a difficult task to follow the directions in the computers, but everything that we need to know is there, so we don't need any prior experience to do this. Along with the directions in the computers, the necessary materials are located in a room farther underground than this part of the building. The room contains every part we need and is a sort of warehouse. After we complete each step, we must connect my watch to whatever it is we built. The man we spoke to told us that the missing key is contained in the watch that I brought back.

I finish the directions I have been given as Aspen appears from the emergency staircase with a bunch of food. I take her arrival as my sign to take a break and get some rest. I head to one of the bunkrooms I claimed as mine, and I lay down on the bed and sleep.

⠒

"Wake up! Wake up!" Some shouts in my ear.

"Ugh, what is it?" I ask, rubbing my eyes.

"We're about to finish everything, and then we get to go home!" I jump out of my bed with the amazing news, and I sprint out of the room into the main spot.

"Good, you're here," Robbie says, beckoning me to approach him. I walk over to where he is standing, and he shows me the screen which says that we are ninety-nine percent done with the project.

"How did this happen? I thought we still had a few computers left." I ask, confused.

"We did, but the directions were very simple. The last thing we have to do is press start, and everything we have done will be activated," Alex says.

"So, what are you guys waiting for?" I ask.

"We wanted to do this together. This is the last step, and after this, we will most likely never see each other again," Robbie replies. We all approach the computer and put our hands on top of each other over the mouse.

"Three, two, one," Robbie counts down, and we press the mouse. Nothing spectacular happens, nothing changes. Everything remains exactly the same.

"Well, that wasn't as dramatic as I thought it would be," Brooke says, the first to pull her hand free. "I was expecting something more interesting."

"Yeah, me too," Hayden says, backing away. We all look at each other realizing that we are going to be leaving soon.

"We should probably pack up," Alex says, heading towards her bunk room to grab her stuff. I follow suit, leaving to enter my room. I look around slightly sad that I am going to be leaving this place. I will be glad to go home, but I have made some great friends that I will miss. At least, I get to go home and see my family. I can't wait. I am so excited, it all seems so surreal. In probably less than an hour, I will see my mom and dad, and my sister. I start to pack faster as I imagine my amazing family reunion. Once everything is packed up, I head back to the main room where everyone else is waiting. We don't say much, but we hug and I feel some tears slip down my face. Brooke, Alex and Robbie are the first to leave. They huddle together in a circle as they prepare to travel to the future.

"Maybe we'll be able to find you guys in the future," Alex says. I don't have time to reply before they disappear into thin air as if they had never been here. I stare at the spot where they were only a few seconds ago taking everything in. Then, I turn around to look at Aspen. I walk over to her giving her one last hug, and then I press my watch.

I don't know what happens during the next few seconds, but everything goes black. I am trapped inside my mind in an endless landscape. As soon as the darkness appeared, it's gone, and I am back in reality. I look around trying to get my bearings, and I notice something familiar. In the corner of the room I am in is my couch that was in my house before I lost everything. I look around taking everything. I notice the windows, the same windows with the curtains pulled over them. I see pictures of my family and me. Everything is as it was before my sister was killed, and my parents died. I run upstairs examining each of the rooms left exactly the same. I started calling out my family members' names, but no one responds. I end up back in the room I appeared in hoping that maybe they are just out on an errand. I head outside to hopefully take in my climate change free surroundings. I open my door expecting to get a breath of fresh air but finding something completely unexpected.

All around me is rubble. The old buildings that used to be part of my street are gone, replaced by rocks. The only building still standing that is visible to me is my house. What happened? I don't know what went wrong. We must have messed something up. We made things even worse than they already were. When I was here before getting kidnapped, things weren't nearly as bad as they are now. At least buildings were still standing. I fall to the ground as tears leak from my eyes. I can't believe we messed up. We put everything into helping save the world, and all we did was make it worse. I curl up on the ground letting my emotions escape from within me. I let everything out as I lay there wondering how we messed up so badly.

The sky above starts to change going from the bright blue to a dull gray color. Suddenly, the clouds open up and water falls, covering me with the tears of the sky. The weather seems to be reflecting my mood. After letting the rain cover me, I slowly stand up and start walking back inside. As I am heading towards the door, I notice something reflecting the sky from above. I head over to it and pick it up realizing that it is a screen. I quickly bring it inside hoping that the rain didn't damage the device. I turn it on and sit. Maybe the device will give me information about the events that happened.

"Hello," someone says from within the screen. I look at it and see the familiar man, the one who helped kidnap me, and then gave me directions on how to "save the world". "I would just like to thank you for making everything possible."

"What do you mean?" I shout. "I helped destroy the world!"

"Not quite," he says. "Now you must follow these directions." A notification pops up on the device indicating a place about three hundred miles away.

"You've got to be kidding me," I say. "No way am I following another one of your directions, not after what happened to the world."

"Hi Hayden," someone says from offscreen.

"Who is that?" I ask, forgetting for a moment not to trust this man. In response to my question, Aspen appears on the screen in the place of the man.

"H-how are you here?" I ask. "What happened?"

"I will explain everything to you when you get here. There is a car in your garage behind your house that you can use to get here. There are extra tanks of gas stored in the trunk along with food and water." Aspen replies.

"But," I begin but am interrupted by the man.

"But what? There is nothing else for you. You must come here." Before I can reply, he ends the video, and I am left staring at the directions I have been given. I sit there, on my childhood couch, wondering if I should trust this man. If Aspen was there, he must be trustworthy. He must have done something good for Aspen to trust him. I might not trust the man, but I do trust Aspen. At that moment, I get up and head to my garage to begin my journey to see them.