Interaction Chapters 4-6

Chapter 4 - Rocket Science

A large room filled with computers and panels with buttons and switches, it looked like an elaborate playroom. The doors burst open where two men entered, excitedly discussing the prospect of their work.
"Today is the day Lucas!" One of the men announced almost jumping around in the excitement. "The day that we change the world!" He turned to his older colleague, smiling brightly.
"Yes, this machine, if all goes to plan, will change the world forever!" The older man was dressed casually for this big occasion where as the other man was dressed in a lab-coat and smart trousers. As they began to prepare the gargantuan machine that laid idle in the centre of the room, more people began to follow them into the room in anticipation of the task that was ahead of them. They were all clad white lab-coats and a quiet badge showing their respective names, a quiet buzz of excitement flowed through the room as the group nervously set to work. They began to press buttons and pull levers, their anxious expressions glowing around the room and the machine began to drone into life. If the scene had been set anywhere else it would look like carefully organised chaos of people frantically running from one station to another making sure that each reading was correct, and then rushing over to the first station once more to make a minor adjustment. The two men stood in an elevated room with a large glass panel allowing them to see the hectic scenes before them.
"It's a dream come true, Lucas" The shorter man announced proudly.
"Yes, it is truly a magnificent sight" Lucas replied with a happy but concerned sigh. The workers below had all seemed to finish what they were doing as the machine hummed loudly in the room. "Today is a great day for man-kind" Lucas announce on a speaker, much more confidently than before so as to not deter the other workers hopes of the vast machine being successful. "Today is the day we give the common man, in poverty or in health, a chance to have free, unlimited, power. Power that, not only is free and safe, but is renewable in the way that it will never run out." And with that the older man  and his colleague simultaneously turned the respective keys. The machine began to rise, almost growing before their very eyes, it began to emit a low light filling the room with its gentle gaze. A large cheer filled the room as many of the workers began to dance and applaud around the large glowing structure, they began to pour champagne into each other's glasses. These once smart, civilised men and women, reduced to a tribal ritual, a celebration of their monumental achievement. A sudden jerk shook the entire room and all of the cheers and celebrations ended. Staring in disbelief at the machine, Lucas shouted suddenly breaking the cease of noise, from the workers anyway. "It's overloading!" His expression went from extreme happiness to utter horror of what was happening before him. Screams of sheer terror filled the room drowning out the angry wail of the machine that was emitting an evil orange glow from its bulk. A violently bright light shot from the top of the machine breaking through the top of the building revealing the brilliant night sky and letting the snow gently drift into the lab. The building now structurally unsound, the workers fled from the room, clambering  over each other trying to reach a similar goal, to escape. The walls began to crack under the buildings own weight. Lucas could hear various screams abruptly cut off be the sound of falling rubble, friends and colleagues, crushed into the very ground where they earned their wages to feed and care for their families, who will never see them again. His mind blanked as he made it out into the parking lot where a few others were standing, panting and crying in the loss of their friends. The screams eventually died down after the building collapsed in on itself, leaving nothing but the beautiful mountain tops in the background, contrasting their tranquillity to the chaos that they had just endured. He managed to finally turn and face the shocked and grieving faces that stood in front of him. With a massive struggle his legs finally gave up in their strength as he collapsed to the floor. In the distance he could hear a familiar voice as his colleague and great friend sighed in relief as he saw Lucas' body kneeling in the soft snow.
"You ok Lucas?" He asked, concerned for his friend's well being.
"Yes Tom, I'm fine" He whispered coldly, his anger showing through the pain of the incident. "I should be under that" He said, motioning to the huge pile of rubble and twisted metal.
"You shouldn't think like that, what of your family?" He said coldly but trying to reassure Lucas at the same time.
"Well what of theirs? Is mine really more important?" No emotion was demonstrated on his face at this point.
"Yes, well when you go home tonight and see your wife's face knowing that you nearly missed the chance to see her again." His expression was of relief as he too could see his family again despite the events of the day. The day that was supposedly to change the world. To it's surprise the world would change that day, but is it really for the better.

Chapter 5 - The rift

1 year later

'DRRRRRIIIINNNNGGG'

The final bell of the year sounded possibly marking the end of Sam's career. He had no idea where to go next after his dad died. He was told he died in a car crash on the way home from work although Sam never believed the claims made by the government and even though he wanted so much to learn more of his father's mysterious death he had no leads, no where to begin his search for answers. It was covered up rather poorly by the government despite his father's importance, much to Sam's surprise. He could not fathom why it was so poorly covered up, yet the majority of the public seemed to buy it. The drive home from the graduation party was lonely, after saying his goodbye's to many of his college friends he felt that he had no purpose, no reason to even still be breathing. Still his loneliness was probably better than staying with his mom and step dad, which luckily, he was given the choice of staying to live by himself at his dad's house. It was late evening as he pulled into the drive and his muscular frame stepped out of the car. He could cope with living alone quite well materialistically as his dad left a sizeable amount of his wealth to Sam, a whole $19 million, was given to him and another $2 million given to his mom. He did not mind not getting all of his father's riches, it was because of his mother that he was even there in the first place. He spent a large portion of the money on a state of the art gym so that he could look after himself physically and also to let off any anger that he might have and judging by the amount of dents and holes in the walls, he became angry at a great number of things. He also helped himself relieve anger by taking a great number of martial arts classes, learning the ways of controlling the body.

He guessed the thing he craved was the typical lecture his father would give him, imagining the time when his mother left the way he made Sam's sadness go away, resulting in an everlasting hatred but hey at least he could sleep at night now. The day dreaming eventually ended when Sam felt a rumble in his stomach so he clambered to his feet after resting in his chair and proceeded to the kitchen block where he began to make his evening meal. He was a good cook at times, learning how to look after himself when his dad had a long meeting or something and Sam would have to feed himself. After sitting down at the large table that spanned the length of the room he turned on the television screen mounted on the wall. The screen burst into life and a man in a suit began to talk as if he was addressing  an invisible audience. "Man found dead at the Cuacasus Memorial Plaque, where a year ago a horrific incident claimed the lives of 27 scientists working on a new kind of energy source. The man was found to have two things with him, a note which has been taken by the police for examination and a small hand gun. Locals of the area remember seeing the mysterious figure, later revealed as Lucas Belenki of Moscow, driving up to the memorial site in a large black SUV." Sam started to eat his meal quietly with his left hand grabbing the fork and his right repeatedly lifting and dropping a large dumbbell. He was about to turn around when he felt a sharp pain hit him in the shoulder, it instantly went numb, causing his left arm to go completely limp, he tried to walk to the bathroom where he could see if any thing was wrong with him, as he stood up he felt his legs give in as he crashed to the floor. His vision began to blur but just as he was about to black out he saw two tall men begin to walk up to him. In desperation he swung the dumbbell violently at one of the men's legs and heard a satisfying crack, the man screamed in agony and knelt down.
"He always was a fighter" The other man chuckled and kicked Sam violently in the ribs, as Sam began to lose consciousness and his vision completely gone he went limp and fell unconscious.

Sky saw the city in the lenses of his binoculars, as the sun shined brightly off of the tall building's glass windows. It was different to how he remembered it, somewhat newer, more advanced, and noticeably slimmer buildings. His siblings began to stare, awestruck by the magnificent site of the city. It was an exciting prospect that this huge playground was to be their new home. Sky became nervous, for the first time he feared for his siblings immediate safety. The sun was high in the sky as their long trek had taken almost half of the day.
"We better get moving if I'm supposed to get us a place to stay tonight."
His sister smiled anxiously at him awaiting his decision. "Come on" he beckoned them to follow him into the vast metropolis. After many minutes of staring at huge structures and acting like tourists, the group finally reached a very grand building standing proudly from it's foundations and boasting the bold letters spelling 'PALATHIA NATIONAL BANK' They strolled inside calmly and ghosted up to the front desk, ignoring the many stares that they got from many of the various other workers and civilians going about their daily business. "Hello" he eventually said nervously to the young mare that sat the other side of the desk.
"Can I help you handsome?" She said charming him slightly with each word.
"Yes, can I make a withdrawal?" He asked still nervously.
"Certainly, please pass me your card" She beamed back at him. Passing the card to the young horse, he smiled softly. She chuckled lightly,
"Okay, you can withdraw $670"
"Could I withdraw all of it please?" He supposed politely.
"Sure, here you go" She said with all of her politeness showing through her long maw with a cheeky smile she waved goodbye as sky and his siblings left the bank.
"She was nice Sky" The eldest sister said in her usual heavenly way.
"Yeah" Sky sighed "But we should get to a hotel or something." Without questioning his judgement Sky's siblings followed him to a very large hotel building and stepped inside. The receptionist smiled casually at them before he greeted them. After being given his room key card Sky slowly motioned towards a very large glass elevator, watching people laugh at his bewildered expression as they travelled up the building towards floor 75 where his key card said where his room was. Upon entry Sky thought little of the little space that there was and frowned at the fact that there was only 3 bedrooms, one of which being in the main living area. With a sigh he placed his heavy bag onto the small dining table. 'Well, home sweet home' he thought to himself as he began to prepare supper.

Chapter 6 - The unknown

Sam couldn't remember much about the journey. Only that it was very bumpy and that it took a very long time despite waking up part way through it. It was pitch black apart from the occasional ray of light that would squeeze it's way through the seems of the hemp bag that was over his head. He instantly knew what had happened to him earlier, he had been kidnapped, captured like a wild animal and thrown into the trailer of some large SUV. Assuming the worst he began to sweat and breath heavily before composing himself to see more clearly through a small hole in the bag. He tried to get up and look around only to find his arms and legs were bound tightly with cable ties. The vehicle stopped suddenly throwing Sam into the front of the trailer, hitting his head and letting out a loud groan at the pain. The constant nausea of being thrown around a large trailer hit him hard and as the bad was removed from his head he vomited over the floor and was quickly met by the two men who just looked at him in disgust. His eyes blinded by the horrifically bright light. He keeled over in pain cursing the light, as the two men began to drag him inside the large building. The men finally released their grip on Sam throwing him into a leather chair. A third man stood across the room, smoking a cigar.
"Hello Sam" He said calmly.
"What do you want from me?!" He replied ignoring the greeting.
"Ah ha, Straight to the point, I see it runs in your blood line." He returned, still as calm as before.
"What do you mean?" Sam demanded
"Well your father was a very, how d'you say, active member of our organisation" He said with a chuckle, "He was just as concerned as you"
"Explain yourself" Sam demanded again.
"Well your father has been working for us for the last 10 years" He announced proudly, remembering him fondly. "Yes, your father was a very hard worker and spoke of you a lot"
"Well he would" Sam interrupted, blushing slightly at the fact his father had spoken so well of him.
"Yes, well as it is we need your help with something." He said more seriously.
Sam looked at him quizzically.
"What do you mean?" He asked again this time much more calmly.
"Well, Paul was onto something…big, really big" He looked at Sam trying to contain his excitement.
"So you know what he was onto?" Sam asked, already knowing the answer.
"Well, no actually" He said much to Sam's surprise.
"No?" He thought out loud.
"We know that it was, as the expression goes, out of this world. Quite literally and then he vanished, working on a craft of some sort" He said bluntly.
"Whoa, what? He just vanished!" Sam replied
"Technically yes, but I think he may have launched that craft with him inside it!" He exclaimed again containing his excitement. Sam slumped back into the chair, stunned by what he had just heard. "And from my understanding it was not only Paul working on this project." He said interrupting Sam's disbelief only confusing him more.
"Who else would have worked on this?" He asked intrigued.
"Well from this document, a woman called Lilly Jackson" He said passing Sam the folder as he watched Sam's face drop. "You know who this is?" He asked excitedly.
"She's only my mother" Sam replied emotionless, confused thoughts clouding his mind.
"Well we must see her at once, do you know where she lives?" His excitement bursting out of his words. Sam didn't reply, his eyes fixed on an imaginary figure standing in front of him. "Sam?" He asked concerned for him.
"Why did she leave the organisation?" He asked.
"Because she was concerned for your safety" He replied lightly, "She tried to get as far away from you as possible"
"Why, why did she not tell me?" He asked as rage began to build within him.
"We asked her not to" He said bluntly. As the man finished Sam's face became enraged, hid fists clenched. He began to struggle under the cable ties. His face clenched tightly as the man backed away cautiously. Suddenly the ties snapped and Sam leapt to his feet. His anger building he slammed his fist down on the grand desk that lay in the middle of the room. The thick wood snapping easily under the force. Still angry and with a blood laden right fist he turned towards a mirror in the corner of the room and stared at his reflection his face going from anger to disgust as he stared at the mirror.
"You treated her so badly because she wanted to protect you!" He screamed at his reflection and punched the mirror violently as shards of glass blistered his hand, still angry he kept punching the spot where his reflection used to be, causing a small crater in the wall. Screaming and punching everything as his rage built up. The man called in the other two men from before, both of the men needing to use tranquillisers to wrestle Sam back into his chair and bond him again, this time with rope, tightly binding his wrists together. Sam's rage began to die down as he regained control of his actions, not knowing what else to do, he simply broke down into tears.