Thunderstorm

Prologue

The lightning crashed. The world was engulfed in an seemingly endless storm. Jennifer was sitting on the floor with Ben, her fiancé. "I've never seen anything like it," she said.

"Neither have I," Ben said. "The government has been suspiciously quiet lately. Every time I look online to see something about the storm, every article has been deleted."

"Why?"

"I don't know, but-" Ben stopped abruptly. "What is that?'' He pointed at the sky through the window.

"It looks like a rock, but it's oddly large…. you don't think it's an asteroid do you?" Jennifer asked.

"No, of course it's not an asteroid, it would've been destroyed by now."

"Hang on, you mentioned that the government has been quiet lately. You don't think this is why, do you?"

"They would've sent a message on the news or something, they can't just not tell us!"

"They wouldn't want to cause a panic."

"Well that worked out well for them."

"No, there has to be some way to destroy it!"

"It looks like it's closer now...."

"No! This can't be happening! We haven't gotten married yet! We were supposed to have kids-" Jennifer cried.

"It's going to be okay, Jennifer." Ben hugged her.

Then, at that moment, the asteroid hit Earth.

And not just the United States.

About a million years later....

"Subject 112 successful, testing 113...."

"113 successful, testing 114, final subject...."

"Subject 114 crashing, Emily! What do we do?"

"Activate operation 77 on her."

"Operation 77? That operation has never been tested before-"

"Do as I say, Doctor."

"Activating Operation 77."

......

"She looks fine, we'll do a final test on her after we release the others to make sure she's alright."

"Wasn't 113 with 114 before the asteroid hit?"

"He was, why?"

"Don't you think he'll be concerned when she doesn't wake up with him?"

"We'll explain to him that we'll do more tests on her."

"What were the side effects of Operation 77?"

"Nothing you need to be concerned about. Now take her to room 114."

"Yes, Emily."


Part I

Chapter 1

Jennifer woke up.

Where am I? she thought.

It took her a while to realize what had happened. Then she remembered the asteroid.

Did I- die? No, if I did, I probably wouldn't feel sick to my stomach. she thought.

Her head was pounding. She looked around. The room she was in looked like a hospital. She quickly tried to get up, only to have the tubes suspending her body to the bed pull her back down. She noticed a console that had a button on it that could disconnect the tubes. She reached towards it, but could only touch the top of it, then get pulled back. She sighed, then reached harder towards the button and managed to press it, disconnecting the tubes. However, she forgot that she was no longer on the hospital bed, and fell down to the floor.

After a few minutes, Jennifer got up, feeling lightheaded. She walked towards the window. Outside, she could see what looked like cars zooming past her.

Except they weren't on the road. They were in the air.

Jennifer shook her head and walked towards the door, which was surprisingly unlocked, and opened it. As she walked outside, she saw hundreds of people walking around. She saw a group of girls who looked like they were in their mid-teens who seemed to be saying strange acronyms to each other. They were also carrying phones that had screens on both sides.

"T-L-S-C!" one of the girls exclaimed. "D-U-R when you went out with John and he had that R-C-D?"

One of the other girls groaned. "I-H-T-G."

They all nodded in agreement.

Shaking her head in confusion, Jennifer looked around at the others around her. There was also a group of men in their 40's complaining about "the prices to travel to Mars nowadays".

She continued walking down the street, and went into what looked like an airport. She sat down on a bench, trying to remember what happened. However, every time she tried to recall her past, she heard a ringing tone in her ears, and she got a headache.

A man sat down next to her. He looked like he was around 30 years old.

"Where are you headed?" he asked.

"Nowhere, I'm just trying to figure out where I am." Jennifer responded.

"Oh. I'm trying to book a flight to Mars, but the prices here are so unreasonable! I'd go to the Moon, but it's so rocky there! I feel bad for the people who have to go there on business trips."

The only response Jennifer could give was "Oh."

"You know, people from Mars are so irritable," the man continued. "They keep complaining about how it's 'so cold here' and how 'there's almost no sand here'. Are you from Mars?"

"No."

"Well, then, you're lucky. They have barely any technology there."

Jennifer stood up. "I have to go now." she said.

"See you!" the man said.

"....okay, then."

Jennifer walked out of the space station. As she was walking back to the streets, she heard someone call her name.

"Jennifer?"

She turned around. The man who had called her name looked around her age. She could hear the dull ringing sound again.

"It's me, Ben!" the man said.

She didn't recognize him.

Chapter 2

Emily stood in front of the window in her office, looking out. She wondered if subject 114 would be alright. Subject 113 looked really concerned about her. She never really referred to them by their actual names, since she had no idea what their names were.

Subject 113 referred to himself as "Ben", so she assumed that was his name. She also remembered the first thing he asked was ''Where's Jennifer?'', so she assumed that was Subject 114's name. The scouts she sent found both of them together. From Ben's reaction, she assumed that Jennifer was someone very close to him.

"Emily?"

She turned around to see her older brother, Jake.

"What are you doing here?" she asked.

"Sara-"

"Dr. Fox."

"Right. She sent me to tell you about the.... condition of Subject 114."

"And? Is she okay?"

"She.... escaped."

"She what?"

"She escaped."

"How? The doors are always locked!"

"Sara- I mean, Dr. Fox, forgot to lock the door when she left Subject 114's room."

"How do you just forget to lock a door?!"

"She had a good reason-"

"Oh, I'm sure she had a good reason, Jake! You're just defending her because she's your girlfriend-"

"Our relationship is strictly professional when we're at work-"

"Oh, right, so you won't try to stop me when I fire her?"

"She made a mistake!"

"Yes, Jake, she did make a mistake. A mistake that cost her her job!"

"Why do you you care so much about Subject 114?"

"Jennifer." Emily corrected him.

"Right, Jennifer."

"I care about all my patients."

"Is it because of Mom and Dad?"

"No! This your way of trying to make me forget about Jennifer and Sara!"

"You're the one with the high IQ, not me."

"I don't care what you say, Jake. I'm still firing Sara!"

"And what about Jennifer?"

"Try to track her down."

"How? She could be anywhere!"

"I put a tracking device on her after Operation 77. Go to the main computer and type in 114 and it will show her location."

"And then what will we do?"

"We'll send someone to get her and bring her back."

"And what about Sara?"

Emily sighed. "I won't fire her today. But next time she does something like this-"

"I understand."

"Now go. Track Jennifer down."

"Yes, Emily."