New Genesis

Chapter 3

“So what did you find?” asked Mark.
“I’m not sure?” answered Jessica
“Ok… Well how are we going to find it?”
“Once I find a place I know how to get back to it.”
“Then how did you did you get lost in the first place?” inquired Tyler.
“Katie got us lost.”
“Hey! It was not my fault. It was Diana.” Katie piped up.
“Shut up Katie. It was so not me.” Diana looked at Katie indignantly.

The group stood outside Jessica’s house. They had arrived a few minutes earlier.  Jessica lived in a suburb on the outskirts of the city. Jessica explained they had gone exploring in the forests across the meadow near her house. They had gotten lost after walking around for a few minutes. Jessica and her sisters searched for hours until they found something interesting. After they had found it, they left and a few minutes later they discovered the meadow that lead to their house. Jessica would not tell the group what she had found.

“Let’s go.” Blake exclaimed loudly and with that the group started walking. As they walked, they wondered about what Jessica and her sisters had found.

“Maybe it’s a shack?” Jake asked.
“Or a field of flowers” laughed Josh.
“How about a cool rock formation” added Zach.
“Whatever it is. It better be worth it” chimed in Matt.
“It is I promise” Jessica walked on with resolve.

They entered the forest and kept on walking. Jessica and her sisters lead the lead the group through the forest. They made turns and after what seemed like an hour they finally stopped. In front of them, there stood a massive stone structure. Six massive Jet black stones formed a circle. Each was at least six feet wide and thirteen feet tall. Each was smooth with no rough edges or jagged points.

“Whoa….” was all any of them could say.
They stared at the stone for a few minutes.  Steven made the first move.  He walked up to the stone and asked Jessica what it was.
“I have no idea. Me and my sisters just found it.”
“Well its amazing!”
Mark excitedly ran around one. It was the same all the way around. The group started to walk around it and talked about how it might have gotten there. Some thought they were placed there by Indians. Others thought they might have been made by Aliens.

“Nothing can be this perfect” thought Blake. Blake took a step forward and touched one of the stones. Each of the stones began to glow brightly and then the ground in the center of the circle opened up. 
“What did you do Blake?” yelled Zach.
“What have we told you about touching things” Jake said with a wondering look.
“What I just felt like I had to touch it. Like I was meant to.”
“There are stairs.” Mark stood near the opened floor.
“What?!”
The group gathered around Mark and looked down. Sure enough, there were stairs leading down into darkness.
“This didn’t happen when we touched the stones.” Jessica said.
“Well why did they appear now?” Loscher inquired.
“Maybe there needed to be more people?” Blake shined a flashlight down the stairs.
Pham started down the stairs “Let’s get going.”
“You sure it’s safe?” Mark hesitated.
“Come on, Mark. It’s still your birthday party. Live a little.”  answered Steven.

The group started down the stairs. The air smelled stale and musty. The stairs ended in a hallway. The hallway was long and as the group walked down the hall, they were able to make out doors along the walls. None of them had handles though. They continued down the corridor. They eventually entered into a large room. There were computers in groups around the room and a giant monitor at the front.  Right in front of the giant monitor was a single computer.  The room was dark and it looked like no power was running through the computers.

The group began to look and walk around.
“This is crazy.”
“How long has this been here?”
“I don’t recognize any of these computers.”
“Also there aren’t any markings to tell who made it.”

The entire place was dusty. Everything looked like it hadn’t been touched in at least a few years.  They all gathered around the computer near the big monitor. The was only a hand symbol next to the keypad.

“Somebody should put their hand on the symbol.” Josh looked around the group. The group looked at Blake.
“What?”
“Well you’re the one who made the steps appear.” answered Chewyy.
“Well ok. Here goes nothing.”

Blake placed his hand on the symbol but nothing happened. A few seconds later the big monitor lit up with GENESIS ONLINE appearing on the screen. It stayed on for a few seconds and then turned off.

Tyler looked at everyone and asked “What the hell was that?”
“No idea.” answered Mark.
“But everyone saw that right?” Matt looked around at everyone.
They each nodded and began to look around again.

Blake tried to see if the hand symbol would do anything else but nothing happened. After a while the group decided to leave the room and head back to the surface. They each had their questions about the place, but Josh believed he knew the answer.

“It’s either a superhero or supervillain base.”
“Why do you say that?” asked Katie.
“Well who else would be able to build something like that?”
“Yeah but it’s been so long. How does it have any power left at all?”
“It’s been eighteen years since the heroes killed all of the supervillains and had their war. It might be a secret base that no one ever found.”

Mark smiled as he came to a realization.
“We have found the coolest thing ever. Think about it. No one knows about it. It’s secluded and no one can bother us.”
“You’re saying it’s like a club house?” Chewyy looked puzzled.
“Yeah. Somewhere where we can hang out and not be bothered by problems.”

The group agreed and began to leave. As they were passing the stones Blake stuck his hand out and touched a stone. They each glowed and the ground closed back up. They walked back and talked about what they wanted to do. All of them wanted to find a way to explore the rest of the facility and possibly return power to it too. They agreed to keep the facility a secret and they would return in a week. They reached Jessica’s house and began to leave.

“Bye Jessica and thanks for the present”
“No problem. It’s so exciting.”
“What do you two think of everything” Mark turned to Diana and Katie.
“It’s really cool. I just wish we knew more about it.” answered Diana.
“It’s weird that it was hidden near our house.”  Katie added.
“Well I got to go.”

Mark drove home. He checked the time. It was 12:35. He would explain to his parents that he had lost track of time. They would understand. Mark went to bed as soon as he got home. He fell asleep fast and he slept well. For some reason he was very tired. He didn’t even notice the clock near his bed was speeding through times and the story he stereo near his bed kept turning on and off.