Suspicions

The moment that Jean got home, she dove onto her bed and laid there on her belly. The bed still smelled of smoke but the stench was a lot weaker now. The smell would probably be gone after another day or two so there was probably no need for her to wash her bed.

Jean reached over to the alarm clocked that was on the table to the right of her and then pulled out her phone from her back pocket. She checked the difference between the times and it turned out that the alarm clock was over an hour behind. 'If only I could turn back time,' Jean thought to herself as she recalibrated the alarm clock while she went over what had happened today.

Right after Josh left, Samantha bombarded her with questions about everything that happened. She had essentially pried all the information out of her while Zack just sat there enjoying the show. Even after Jean finished explaining to them the whole story, Samantha was still suspicious and asked her the same questions several more times to make sure that she wasn't hiding anything else.

'Ahhhhh... what a mess,' Jean sighed. When anything happened to her that involved boys, Samantha was always extremely interested. Jean didn't know why but Samantha would interrogate her about everything even if it was something as minor as receiving a thank you from a boy for lending a pencil.

And for whatever reason, Samantha would glare at them like she wanted to kill them whenever they tried talking to Jean. Jean was pretty sure that Samantha was the reason why all the boys in the class were scared of her to the point where they didn't even want to get close to her. The only exception of course being Zack.

She put back the alarm clock and rolled over to her back and stared at the ceiling for a moment. She was exhausted from everything that had happened yesterday and today.

'Forget it,' Jean told herself as curled her legs and sprung out of her bed. There was no point in continuing to think about it. She grabbed her bag that she had dropped beside the bed and put it next to her desk and then went to the kitchen. She went to the fridge and took out half of a leftover sandwich and also poured herself a glass of apple juice for a fast and light meal. She had eaten a bunch at lunch so she didn't want to eat too much before dinner.

Jean quickly finished the sandwich and chugged down the rest of the apple juice and then washed the cup. She then opened the fridge again and grabbed an orange in case she needed a snack while she was doing homework. She played with the orange as she went back to her room by tossing it up into the air and catching it as it went back down.

Jean let out a sad huff as she sat down in her chair and looked at the orange that was in her hand. She spun it around in her palm as she carefully examined it. It was cold since it just came out of the fridge and it smelled fresh. She loved fruits and it was a shame that she wouldn't be able to eat them for a while.

The dome that Jean lived in specialized and manufacturing and they had their fruit exported from another dome. But recently, there has been a giant underwater storm going on near the dome that exported their fruits and the shipment had been lost for this month. They had to wait until either the storm dies down or next month for the next shipment.

Jean put the orange down on her desk and walked over to her window and opened the curtains to let light in. It wasn't sunlight but rather artificial light. She took a moment to look out the window and up at the enormous roof that covered the entire city. There were multiple giant lamps attached to the ceiling that gave off artificial light for the city. The light was on all the time since, without it, the entire city would be completely dark. They were even on during nighttime but they would dim down to make it easier for people to sleep.

Jean sighed. She has always wondered about what it was like outside the dome. Even though they were living underwater, she has never seen what the ocean looked like and has always wanted to. There were very few people who saw the ocean, or if they were very lucky, the sky in their lifetime, and they all either worked as a transporter or as a scavenger. They were both extremely dangerous jobs as the ocean was very unpredictable and was filled with horrifying sea creatures. People who work those jobs were likely to lose their lives, but in exchange for the risk, they were able to see what the outside world looked like.

After a minute or two of staring out the window, Jean went back to her desk and started on her homework. She finished it faster than she had expected and spent the rest of the time until her father came home exercising. She had eaten a lot today and was feeling a little sluggish so she needed to get her blood pumping. There was still plenty of time left in the day and she couldn't afford to feel tired now.

When her father came home, Jean rushed out of her room and to ask him about yesterday's incident. "Hey dad, about what happened yesterday."

"Uh, hey sweetie, give me a second," said her dad as he takes off his and then his coat and hangs it in one of the racks by the door. "By the way, have you cooked dinner yet?"

"Yeah, it's leftover pasta and tomato soup."

"Didn't we just have pasta the other day?"

"Yes, but we didn't finish it."

"Ugh," her father made a sour face. "Was there really nothing else? I really don't like pasta."

"Not really," said Jean.

"Wait, are you sure?" Her father scratched his head. "I just went grocery shopping Sunday and I could've sworn that our fridge still had stuff in it."

"There is." Truthfully speaking, there were actually plenty of other things in the fridges that they could have had for dinner, but they all required some effort to make and Jean wasn't in the mood to do that.

"What?" her father said with a confused expression. "If there is then-" he paused for a split second and then shook his head, "Ah whatever, forget it." He and Jean went to the table and sat down. He started eating his food while Jean sat there watching him, waiting for him to tell her about what had happened yesterday.

"Ahem," Jean cleared her throat.

"Oh right," her father mumbled with his mouth full of food. Her father quickly chewed it and then washed it down with a sip of tomato soup. Her father cleared his throat as well and then told Jean about yesterday's explosion. "One of our instruments overheated and blew up which in turn caused the other machinery next to it to catch fire and explode as well. At least, that was what I heard anyway. It was on the 67th floor and I was on the 63rd floor so I didn't actually see it happen."

"It overheated? Are you sure that was what happened?"Jean asked. If she recalled correctly, the laboratory's machines were top quality and were made to withstand high amounts of stress and heat. She remembered that Zack saying telling her about it during a school trip to the laboratory. He ran around screeching like a little kid, pointing to computers and talking about them to her and Samantha.

Of course, since Jean and Samantha didn't know a single thing about computers, they didn't understand a single thing that Zack was saying. It was all gibberish to them. The only thing that they got was that the computers were very, very well made. Furthermore, the laboratory replaced and upgraded their machines very often, so it was doubtful that the explosion was caused by an old machine.

"Hmph, you're not the only one that finds it suspicious," her father said.

"What do you mean?"

"Recently, there have been many strange things going on in the laboratory. The power would occasionally shut off, new computers suddenly breaking down, elevator malfunctions, and the list goes on," said her father as he spun his hand in a circle. "Many of us think that something is going on and that the higher-ups are hiding things from us. We tried asking them about it on several occasions but we just got the same lame answers over and over."

"What did they say?"

"They kept saying that the equipment was faulty but it doesn't make sense. After all, how can you be expected to believe that an elevator that just passed its inspection to stop working the very next day?" Jean's father put both his arms on the table, then leaned towards her and said in a low tone, "Almost all of us came to the same conclusion."

"And that is?"

"Someone, or a group, is deliberately doing this," said her father. He then pushed himself from the table and went back to his normal position to continue eating.

"But why would they do that?" asked Jean. Ever since the ice caps have melted, the world had been turned upsidedown. Since living above water was too dangerous with constant storms and giant waves, they were forced to live underwater where they had to worry about the dome breaking. I.C.E. was trying to find a way to revert earth back to its original state and fix all of this, so why would anyone want to sabotage them?

"Well, there might be a good reason for all of this," her father said with a mouthful of food.

"What do you mean?"

Her father held up his hand to tell Jean to give him a second as he finished chewing and swallowed the food.

"You should stop taking such big bites, you could choke if you're not careful," Jean warned him.

"I don't like pasta so there's no point in trying to enjoy it. I Might as well eat it as fast as I can and get it over with."

"Then why did you even buy it in the first place?"

"That... Hmmm, I actually don't even remember buying it. Anyway, back to your question, the reason might be because of I.C.E. not making much progress. We have been stuck in the same spot for four years now and the people are starting to get impatient," he explained.

"But why would they do that? They just slowing things down even more."

Jean's father quickly gulped down the rest of the pasta and then poured the tomato soup down his throat. "Well-" he stopped to wipe his mouth before continuing. "I don't like either, but humans are just like that. We can't do anything about it."

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