Chapter Six Looking for Answers

I look at Lisa and I can’t believe she is here. She is an adult and older than the last time I saw her. I wish Katy was here instead. Jake releases his hold on her.

“How did you get here?” Jake asks her.

“It’s a long story.” She replies. I guess we aren’t going to get any details.

“You wouldn’t happen to have the keys to get into the Assembly Hall would you?” I ask hoping against hope that Lisa would be able to get us in.

“Assembly Hall?” She asks confused.

“That’s the name of this building in the future.” Jake explains, “At least the future that Nia is familiar with.”

“Oh right, let me check.” Lisa pats the pockets of her jeans and eventually pulls out some keys. She tries several keys until one of them opens the door. Lisa goes into the building and Jake follows her. I bring up the rear.

The room is almost pitch black. There are no windows and the only light entering the room is from the open front door. Lisa locates a light switch but when she flips it, nothing happens.

“What are you doing here?” Jake asks.

“I don’t know.” Lisa answers.

“Well, I’m glad you’re here because something has gone really wrong. The computer you built and programmed sent us into the past to feed it information so it would be able to fix something. When we got to the future, the village that was here before is gone so we are wondering what went wrong.” Jake explains.

“Let’s see if we can find out.” Lisa says calmly. “This building had its own power source, we will have to go down a few levels but maybe we can get it to work.”

“It’s really dark in here, let’s all hold hands so we don’t lose track of each other.” Jake says. Jake takes one of Lisa’s hands and then with the other hand grabs a hold of mine. Lisa leads the way and we both follow her. We have no idea where we are going so it’s a good thing Lisa is here to guide us.

Lisa being here can’t just be a coincidence. I mean the one person that could help us just happens to show up. I can’t help but feel like someone is controlling us but I don’t know who. Is it the computer Lisa build? Is it the preacher? Is it someone we haven’t met yet? I’m not even sure what we are supposed to be doing. I do know that I don’t trust Lisa. Jake may trust her because she’s his sister, but she didn’t tell us how she got here and I know there has to be other things she isn’t telling us. I can’t talk to Jake about it though, I’ll just have to keep an eye on her.

We walk slowly and quietly. If the preacher doesn’t know we are here, we don’t want to make it easy for him to find us. I hear my own thoughts rattling in my brain and the silence only makes them louder. Soon I’m not sure I can take it any longer. I want to scream but I bite my lip instead. After what seems like hours, I can hear Lisa turning the knob of a door. As she opens it I hear the hinges creak. I think I hear another sound at the same time but I can’t be sure that it’s not my mind playing tricks on me. Once we get through the door, Lisa closes it behind me.

We go down some stairs and through another door. Lisa seems to know her way around pretty well. After going through a few more doors we end up in a room. Lisa feels for a lever and pulls it. Nothing happens. I can hear her fiddling with something but I can’t see what see is doing. I hear Lisa pull the lever again and the lights come on.

The room we are in is a little bigger than our family room back home. There are controls on the walls. I don’t see any lights or anything so I don’t think any of it is working. When I turn around I see the preacher. Lisa and Jake just stare at him.

“You ruined everything!” The preacher says, “Nia, I told you if Jake succeeded that he would destroy everything. Now everything is gone and I’m stuck here just like you are. I can’t move through time anymore. I hope you’re happy with yourself Jake.” The preacher sounds really desperate.

“For someone who doesn’t have any emotions, you sure do a good job of simulating them” Jake comments.

“Don’t you get it Jake, everyone is dead. You are the last three people on the entire Earth.” the Preacher says dramatically, “I tried to protect everyone. I tried to keep everyone safe and I failed.” The preacher’s voice is strained. I am afraid the preacher is going to start crying any minute but he doesn’t.

“Hey, don’t be hard on yourself,” Jake says trying to console the preacher, “It’s the computer’s fault. You’re not going to outsmart a computer like that. I was just doing what I thought was right like you were trying to do what you thought was right. Does the computer still work?”

“Not without power.” The preacher answers coldly.

“Lisa, do you think you can get power to the computer so we can find out what happened?” Jake asks Lisa.

“I don’t know. We can try.” Lisa answers.

“Well, let’s get moving then” Jake says.