A thundering noise shatters the evening tranquility of the Memnonian Rainforest. Shia is suddenly awakened by the tremendous sound and instinctively the startled forest girl springs to all fours on the branch she was napping on. Looking around she sees bright lights blazing through the crystal maze of branches. The brilliant light is coming from the far side end of the swamp near the ocean.
Suddenly there is a horrifying silence, a deep bottomless silence the likes of which Shia has never before experienced in the lively jungle. Her mind races as adrenaline dumps into her system.
What’s going on? Shia thinks as she looks around. The sun has set for the evening and the crystal forest is glowing brilliantly. But the bright light glaring through the trees overpowers the pretty trees natural glow, and hurt the forest girl's sensitive eyes. Slowly making her way toward the offending blaze Shia delicately climbs through the leafless crystal canopy, barely disturbing a single dangling vine. As the forest girl gets closer she finally hears some sounds, peculiar disquieting sounds, and she now sees multiple lights moving around.
Perched high in the crystal canopy the wild felac watches Federation soldiers exit from an enormous shadowy ship. She knows the soldiers by their shiny black armor. Lights located all around the hull of the ship are focused outward invading every niche of the swamp, their unnatural luminance bleeding away the natural colors of the bog.
A tall broad-shouldered titan of a soldier exits the ship from an upper opening and stands on a retractable synthocrystal walkway over looking the sacred swamp. As the rog's black visor retracts, the forest girl is taken back by the striking man's dominating presence, his natural air of authority reminds her of the tribe's chief. Although he is unsettlingly impressive the soldier is actually not that large for a rog, but the man who comes out next and stands beside the well built man is odd indeed.
A fat rog? Shia thinks startled by the appearance of the squat man. She’s never seen an out of shape rog, but then again she's only seen rog soldiers, and not very many for that matter .
Something inside the teenage girl can't help but be drawn to the large rog who is obviously very muscular, even in his aeroarmor. But it's not just the man's physically provocative physic that captures the young woman's interest. It is the way the Federation soldier is looking at the sacred swamp and surrounding forest. There is a definite affection and something else. Sadness?
The handsome hulking man starts giving orders to the other soldiers in a very deep commanding voice which confirms Shia's guesses that he is their leader. The young girl finds the older man's deep baritone voice a little frightening, but also a little exciting.
Federation troops begin to move out over the crystal forest and mark the oldest and largest crystal trees at the edge of the swamp. While others pilot dark hovering vehicles with their own bright lights out of an enormous cargo door at the bottom of the ship.
Over a dozen shiny blueish-silver crysteel vehicles exit the ebony ship and approach the nearest marked trees. Black crystal arms extend from the front of the vehicles towards the trunks of the trees. One by one orange energy beam shoot out from the arms and surrounds the trunks of the trees. Intense red and violet magic rays shoot out from a dark disk on the lower front of the vehicles. The magic energy beams focus under the surface of the water on the roots of the twisted trees. A low moan groans up from the surf as an extremely high pitched electric squeal sizzles through the air. The twin energy beams penetrate the mounds created by the detritus caught in the trees roots.
The forest girl is horrified as the bassy rumble vibrates her to the core. The almost imperceptibly high pitched buzz seems to bore straight into her brain where it branches out until it has set her entire nervous system on edge. Neither of the unnatural noises hurt the girl and the rumble actually soothes her a little, which is even more unsettling to the creature of the forest.
The unnerving procedure seems to take an eternity as the girl watches with excruciating impatience. The intertwined crystal roots begin to glow brightly below the water as the colorful trees begin to throb chaotically.
Shia has seen the a similar light show from one of the older crystal trees when she was younger. The usually rhythmic pulsating patterns of the tree's liquic light show became very fast and intense, the colors eventually melding into one bright white light before...
Suddenly the unsettling magic lasers cease as the bright white light within the tree flickers and then goes dark! One by one the crysteel vehicles stop, their trees light dying as well. The federations deadly machines begin to creep backwards, the trunks still in their glowing orange grasps. Dozens of dangling limbs cling to their entangled neighbors, pulling and stretching until they tear free. Many of the larger broken branches bleed dark green liquic freely. Horrified the shocked forest girl sees that the crystal roots are no longer attached to the sea and ground, and then the first vehicle returns to the ship with the crystal tree firmly in its orange grasp.
"They’re cutting down the swamp!" The words escape her lips without thinking about it, luckily she is to heartbroken to whimper above a whisper. Repulsed she watches the vehicles carry the formerly lustrous, but now only a shadow of what the tree use to be to the ship’s cargo hold. Shia is so angry she wants to attack them. Young and rash the girl almost gives in to her feelings, but she stops herself. Her heart racing, Shia remembers to control her emotions. "Rather than surely dying today, retreat to live and fight another day." An old saying she’s heard her grandfather repeat hundreds of times flows through her consciousness.
Turning her anger to energy the agile girl quickly withdrawals through the twisted trees reaching the edge of the swamp in record time. Coming to a steep cliff face Shia leaps at the rocks and extends her nails in the air. She hits the vertical face quickly scrambling over the top before gravity has a chance to grab her. High above the rocky shore and crystal cove Shia hesitates as she stands under the starlight amongst a cluster of low lying cherriberry bushes. Normally the forest girl would fill up on the succulent nutritious and sinfully delicious berries but not this evening, she has to tell the tribe of this atrocity.
Before her the landscape is as clear as if it were a bright sunny day, her sensitive emerald eyes adjust instantly to the sparse night light. Shia starts to run along a trail near the cliffs edge as her nocturnal vision picks up every nuance of the rocky vegetation covered terrain. She has often wondered how her night vision works, everything has a slightly different color and seems to be shimmery and shinier than it is in the sun.
The girl is so distraught that she stumbles many times, a rarity for her, but she never falls. Her mind races even faster than her legs and heart as she tries to comprehend what it would be like without the bog. Tears begin to distort her vision as she pushes the thoughts from her psyche.
The young felac races back to her tribe's tigerwood tree. She must tell the felacs what’s going on.... and then it hits her like a large tree branch which does almost smack her in the face.
Suddenly skidding to a stop Shia ducks below the low lying limb.
But what can they do? The thought brings much more pain than the physical blow from the branch ever could have. And that’s when the tears finally win.
"They’re not going to be able to do anything!" She sobs falling to the ground in a pile of desperation.
Unsure of how much time has passed the girls instincts suddenly kick in as she senses something amiss. Almost by magic she stops crying and listens carefully as she slowly scans the area for whatever it is that has disturbed the forests natural harmony. And then she sees him.
A young felac chee student is sneaking through the canopy of the trees overhead. And then she sees another and another, that’s when she realizes she has made her way into the chee training grounds and it is first dark, training time.
The observant girl is not surprised to see that none of the boys have seen her, they are paying to much attention to each other. The teenage boys are playing a game and three from one team have one from the other team surrounded.
Suddenly the boys begin to spar and Shia momentarily forgets herself as she watches the intricate dance of the novice chee warriors. The boys swift fluid movements hypnotize the young girl as she observes every muscle of each boy. She quickly recognizes the boys as senior trainees and all of them are about her age, she knows them well. They are all lean muscular felac specimens with dark skin dark eyes and wild hair.
"Bastards!" The girl mutters to herself once she has come back to her senses. It's not that she really hates any of them personally, it's that she resents all boys, for only male felacs are allowed to learn chee and become warriors. Ever since she can remember she has wanted to train and fight like the boys, but it is strictly forbidden for female felacs to even watch the males train.
Shia waits for the four fighting boys to pass by overhead, swinging from tree to tree like wild rascals. Slowly and stealthily she passes through the boys "turf", a term they once used to refer to their training grounds when she accidentally wandered into them as a little flitten.
She quickly covers the rest of the rocky shore to the tribes tree and decides to use the federally mandated staircase. Added to the tribe's tree sixteen years ago the winding stairway leads to the tigris tribe's only constructed structure. The Tigris Tail Tavern
The boy is snatched from his personal demons by a voice calling his name. He tries to remember where he is as reality slowly seeps into his psyche. He can remember his performance, a horse, an owl, a panther and then he and Josh went for a hike...
"Get up Tyc this is important." The feminine voice pulses through his veins, quickening his heart as he desperately tries to grasp the ephemeral face from his perishable dream-world but as always it is suppressed into his subconscious while his consciousness continues to reassert itself. Quickly opening his eyes he sees the pleasant face of his friend Autumn. Oh no, something’s wrong!
Autumn’s angelic face is illuminated by a lantern, and Tyc is soothed by her simple natural beauty, but he's grown up with the girl and can read her worried expression as if they were his own thoughts. She has been running and is panting and flushed.
"Tyc I was just home and your parents called over to my house looking for you. They said Grampy Silvanus went out to the restoration zone to look for the professor and never came back." Nearly on the verge of tears Autumn hurriedly tells the boy about the older man who has been a grandfather to both of them since Tyc adopted the girl as his little sister.
The boy's groggy mind grapples with the information, when he suddenly jumps to his feet, realizing the severity of what Autumn has said. "Gramps is getting old!" Tyc says startled by the news. "Have they gone out to look for him?" The saddened girl shakes her head yes.
Grabbing his theremin Tyc quickly disassembles it and throws it in his backpack. As he looks around for Josh by the light of Autumn’s lantern the teen quickly realizes that his tall friend has already left.
"That’s strange, Josh usually gets me up before he leaves." The teen says scratching his head as he throws the packs straps over his shoulders. It just doesn’t make sense. He thinks shrugging his shoulders as he grabs Autumn’s hand and they race off cat rock and into the forested mountain.
A few hundred yards into the forest Tyc’s overactive and subsequently leaky imagination suddenly springs a thought.
"He was looking for Arronger earlier today!" The boy says to the girl as they run beside each other.
"Who Grampy?" Autumn inquires as she starts to gasp for breath, not use to keeping the fast pace the lean muscled boy is setting. Because of the shadows cast by the bright moonlight and intense crystal lantern the boys skinny body appears even more cut and buff than it is. But that just adds to the girls already burning attraction to the nice, cute, fascinating boy. Man does she like to watch him run.
"Yeah. Gramps said the Professor was supposed to meet us today and he didn’t show."
"Wha..." The girl loses her words in a gasp for breath. "What do you think happened to him?"
"I don’t know, but it’s not like professor Arronger to miss an appointment." Tyc ponders the puzzle. "Especially considering we were working on the old oak."
"Cool, you guys did the oak tree today? We should go see it one night." The girls attention wonders as she remembers the pretty colored chy energy fields from last year. She thinks that it is romantic that the iridescent auras are only visible at night.
"Wait. Arronger missed an appointment to work on the oak tree? But the professor loves that old tree!"
"I know, he and gramps are the ones who came up with the songs we’re using to save it. It just doesn’t make sense that he wouldn’t be there." As Tyc is talking he recalls the last thing that didn’t make sense.
Where did Josh go?
The thought really frightens the boy. So much so that he doesn’t even verbalize it, for Autumn's sake, as well as his own. Pushing his friend from his mind he concentrates on getting down the mountain quickly without tripping and falling over the edge.
One thing at a time. He thinks as he hops from stone to stone down the trail. One problem at a time.
They run down the mountain and through the forest to Tyc’s house, two miles away, in less than twenty-five minutes. A personal record for the thoroughly exhausted girl.
The two teens race up the stairway winding around a supporting poplar tree trunk at the corner of the house. Bursting into the kitchen door the excited teenagers search the open lower floor, but no one is there. They look around as Autumn turns her lantern off and puts it into her pocket. Tyc spots the glowing message on the refrigerator's crystal notepad:
Tyc,
We have gone to the castle. Some others have gone missing and the town council has called a meeting. Come as soon as you can.
Love, Mom & Dad
Tyc reads the note three times, he cannot believe it. Turning to Autumn he is unable to find the words so he walks over to the sink. Stunned the boy turns on the cold water and splashes it on his face as he rubs his eyes and then opens them. Yep, They’re both really here and the note is still on the fridge.
"What’s going on?" The frightened girl whimpers.
"I don’t know, but we better get over to the library." The shocked boy replies.
The two leave the house and go up to the shed to get bikes and ride into town. The ride is short but strained as the two warn out teens pedal as fast as they can.
Carolina castle is usually hosting several different groups and small functions in the evenings, but nothing like crowd they see there tonight.
"I haven’t seen this many people here since the big debate." Autumn yells into Tyc’s ear as they near the town center. Tyc can see that a mild hysteria is building as town citizens pour into the already packed building.
Autumn and Tyc get off their bikes and walk up to the almost over-occupied stone and crystal building. They do not want to fight their way inside the building so they stand on the large stone stairway outside the open doors, with the other late comers. The town council is sitting at a table set up for them on the second floor at the top of the steps. A series of blue, green, and yellow crystal tiles have been activated and allow everyone inside and outside the building to hear the council members and the council members to hear anyone called upon when they invert the crystal audio devices.
"We are downloading a picture list of the missing people onto everyone's phones. We'll separate into our emergency teams and search our assigned areas. Anyone who doesn't have their lantern or phone can pick one up at the front desk." Jaz Berkle, the seventy-four year old senior town council member says as he stands and looks out over his people.
"This is what we've practiced for, so let’s get started -- let's find these people before something happens to them." Wren Silvanus, a councilwoman and Tyc’s now very frazzled looking mother, says as she gets up and heads for her E team.
The citizens shuffle out of the building and make their way to their cycles and horses as family groups. Tyc’s parents and Autumn’s parents and younger sister Hilly are all together when they find the two teens outside. Tyc’s mother runs up to him and gives her only child a hug.
"It’ll be okay honey." She says as she hugs him tight.
They separate and Tyc asks, "How many people are missing?"
"Nineteen so far." Replies Autumn's mother.
"Holy shit. What the hell is going on?" Tyc asks.
The four adults don’t answer and look at each other with doubt in their eyes.
"Mom did you see Josh in there?" The frightened teen asks weekly not really wanting to know unless the news is good. He can quickly see from his mothers expression that he will not like the answer.
"Honey he is one of the people unaccounted for. I was about to put you on the list if you didn’t show up soon."
Tyc can’t comprehend the news. His best friend is missing. His grandfather is missing. And his favorite professor is missing.
"What the hell is going on?" The shocked boy mutters to himself.
A bloodcurdling scream comes from inside Carolina Castle.
Just outside the doors the two families rush inside. There are only a few small groups of people left inside and they are all rushing over to a growing gathering of people. Tyc, using his small quick body to squeak through the crowd reaches a small crying girl in the center. Jaz and some other council members are standing around her.
"What's wrong Nina? Where’s your mother?" Jaz gently inquires of the frightened child.
Sobbing uncontrollably the little girl is unable to answer.
"Mmm my mm mmamma I iss gg ggone." She finally manages to stammer between her bawling.
"I just saw Nina and her mother a few minutes ago. She was just here." Ms. Hatcher, the primary school administrator says from the small crowd around the girl.
"Okay everyone, that makes twenty people missing," Jaz says in an authoritative, but kinda fake and emotionless voice, as he tries to keep control of the situation. "Now I want everyone here to spread out and find this girl's mother. She couldn’t have gone far. Everyone find your E team buddy. Parents find your children and hold their hands. We’ll get through this people. We just have to stick together and stay focused."
"Should we even be venturing out at night. I mean, we're safer staying put and waiting for daylight." One of the council members inquires in a very wavery voice, obviously on the edge of hysterics.
"Yes we should be searching for our loved ones Narmy. If we separate and search as we've practiced we should be safe and find everyone quickly. But, as I told you before, waiting 'til daylight is not an option. The family and friends of the missing will go searching even if we all don't. This way we know the search is quick and safe. Now lets get outta here and find our loved ones." Jaz commands as he hands over Nina to her grandmother, who takes her to the second level where small children and the elderly are going to wait and coordinate any assistance needed from the castle.
The community of Greenfield quickly breaks into their separate emergency teams and then head out as a group in the direction of their predesignated areas. The E teams are just that teams, working as a single unit to canvas an area very quickly. Even children eight years old and up are involved searching low, while their paired parent or guardian searches high. The teams practice twice a year and are very thorough at covering their areas. Every pair knows their own small area and is able to search it very quickly and efficiently. In order to keep the team atmosphere families are in the same teams. After children turn fifteen they are able to pair with their friends allowing their parents to repair with each other, if they want.
Autumn's family and the Silvanus family are assigned to the school campus down the hill from the library. Once the teams reach their areas everyone splits up further into their pairs and then head off to their areas, but never to far from others.
Spreading among the towns buildings and homes, out into the surrounding fields and into the forest buffering the landscape, the E teams go all the way to the edges of the restored land. Everyone looks everywhere for the girl’s mother, and the nineteen other friends and family members that have gone missing. There’s a specialized team that even goes out further than the restored forests surrounding Greenfield but there are also chy sensors on the edges that would have picked up a small animal moving across the perimeter. When they checked the sensors data in the castle they saw nothing moving through the perimeter bigger than a rabbit and especially not nineteen people.
Tyc and Autumn search the primary education classrooms, thoroughly checking the small buildings as they come to them, but none of them contain anyone. They then look around the west edge of campus eventually checking the woods behind the classrooms. They look up every tree and under every bush with Autumn's lantern. Almost two hours later Tyc and Autumn return to Carolina Castle which is now surrounded by clusters of citizens listening to Jaz. As the two teens get closer they hear what he is saying.
"That would make about a hundred and fifty people missing." The councilman announces.
Tyc is shocked. "Did he say a hundred and fifty?" He asks his companion who nods grimly.
Jaz looks like hell. Tyc thinks absentmindedly as he looks around and notices that many people look so scared and over-stressed that they are on the verge of a complete breakdown. He has read and seen a lot on the ecotastrophe, which was preceded by a social breakdown that many believe caused the latter. Terrorism, unequal distribution of resources, global spread of diseases, war, and unchecked capitalism led to a social breakdown in the mid twenty-first century which broke the environment's back. The individual descriptions and video footage of how humanity fell into centuries of darkness and death resemble what he is seeing all around him now. Ever so slowly the creeping signs of widespread panic are showing themselves.
Tyc sees his parents and he and Autumn go over to them. The boy’s father puts his arm around him, and Tyc’s mother, on the verge of tears, hugs Autumn.
Jaz gets up on a large boulder at the base of the building. "I think that it would be best if everyone went home. The Authorities in the Canadia colonies and Europea have been notified and they have all the satellites checking our area. They suggested we enact a curfew so they can see anyone outside or grouped in a building. I have called back all the groups. We are losing more people and we aren’t finding anyone. Go to your homes and your families people. I’m sure we’ll turn up some answers from the satellites or at least in the light of day." Jaz finishes with a halfhearted grin, only a shadow of the charming smile that helped get him elected leader of New Appalachia.
Autumns parents come up to Tyc’s family and hug their daughter. The two families, who live only a quarter mile from each other, decide to go to the Silvanus house and make some dinner.
