Chapter 25

Samantha's voice came through the phone very eagerly. It was the first time Jean had her best friend sound so excited in a while. Most of the time now, Samantha was too burnt out with school and clubs that she sounded like she was bored or tired all the time. "I gotta tell you, that traveler is one heck of a guy. Apparently, he has been to every single dome."

"Wow, really? What did he tell you?" Though her voice didn't really sound like it since she was tired, Jean was very interested in the things that the traveler told Samantha and Zack.

"A lot. It's going to be hard to tell you all of it, so I'll just tell you the main things. For starters, he is from Nove 3."

"Nove 3?" The massive dome where all trade and travel has to go through?"

"Yep, it's that one all right. He told us that he owns a transportation company and that is how he gets around a lot."

"Oh, did you ask him how things looked like out there in the ocean?"

"We did, but he said that it was hard to describe with words. So instead, he showed up pictures of the outside, and it's unbelievable. Here, I'll send you them."

Jean heard tapping on Samantha's side and after a few seconds, her phone made a dinging noise and a notification popped up that said 'from Samantha.'

"Did you get them?"

"Yeah, I got them," Jean answered while opening her messages to take a look at the pictures that Samantha sent her. There were four pictures and Jean scrolled up to the first one and clicked on it. "Wow..."

"It's amazing, isn't it?"

"Mhm," Jean agreed. She was looking at a picture of an underwater storm. These pictures were all over the internet so it wasn't her first time seeing one, but this one looked a lot more impressive than all the ones that she had seen. This one was the first one that she has seen where there was lightning. Jean never knew it was even possible for there to be lightning underwater. She wondered what was the science behind that.

"So, out of those four, which one do you like the most?"

"Uh, give me a sec. I only looked at the first one." Jean zoomed out of the underwater storm photo and looked at the other three that Samantha sent her. The second one looked like it was taken above the surface of the water. Everything in the picture was extremely chaotic. It was snowing and raining at the same time, the skies were black and stormy, and the waves grew to be what looked like hundreds of feet tall. The waters were also half-frozen, making it an even more bizarre sight.

"Well, take your time. I'm in no rush. Zack said that he really like the fourth one, and I also thought that one was the most interesting out of the four."

"Oh really?" Jean skipped the third photo and went to the fourth one. It made her raise one of her eyebrows. "Umm, it looks interesting, but what exactly is it?" The fourth photo was a blur of colors and Jean couldn't make out what the picture was supposed to be.

"Are you looking at the fourth one?"

"Yes."

"Oh, it's a whirlpool."

"A whirlpool? It doesn't look like one." As far as Jean knew, whirlpools happened above water and this one looked like it was underwater. But then again, lightning storms weren't supposed to happen underwater either, and yet the first photo very clearly depicted that.

"Yeah, that's what Zack and I said as well when we first saw it. But apparently, it's an underwater one," Samantha told her, confirming what she thought. Samantha then went on to say that, "The traveler said that this whirlpool is in the middle of us and Nove 3. Whenever there is a shipment is lost or delay, it is usually because of that whirlpool. I think he said the name of it is Green Grave."

"Green Grave? That makes sense." There were a lot of colors in the photo, but the color that appeared the most was green. In fact, the entire center of the whirlpool was dark green, and as it got further out, it became a lighter shade of green. The whirlpool was the only thing that was green. All around the whirlpool was colorful vegetation. It would've been a nice tourist or viewing spot if the place wasn't next to a giant whirlpool.

"It looks like a nice place... minus the whirlpool," Jean said after looking at it for a bit.

"It does, doesn't it. I actually want to see that in person."

Jean went back to the third photo Samantha send. It was the ruins of a city. The buildings were all mostly still intact even after being submerged underwater for so long. The storms and the other natural disasters usually only occur near the surface of the ocean and since the cities were at the very bottom, they were affected by them. Therefore, most cities still look identical to when they were still above the surface.

For some reason, she found the place to be familiar somehow. Had she been there before? No, that didn't make sense. The city was underwater and she has never left Dome Blue Zone before. Taking those two facts into consideration, there was absolutely no way that she had been there before. But then why did it seem so familiar. "The third photo, where was it taken?" Jean asked, trying to recall where she might have seen it before. She couldn't quite figure it out.

"Not sure. I didn't ask the guy. It was the most boring photo so neither of us bothered asking about it," Samantha responded. "Why? Is there something special about it that we don't know?"

"No, I was just wondering. What else did you two talk about with the traveler?"

"Other than about those four photos, we didn't talk about anything else. He was busy and had to leave for something after sharing with us the fourth photo. It was around then that we also left and went home."

"Oh."

Jean closed the photos and brought the phone back to her ear so that she could hear and talk to Samantha clearer.

"By the way, are those two boys still pestering you?" Samantha suddenly asked.

Jean answered with a simple, "No." Josh and Jackson. Coincidentally, both their names started with J. But that useless point aside, she had not seen Josh, or Michael, or whatever his real identity was, for some time now, and she suspected that the reason for that may have something to do with him getting chased around by the I.C.E. agents. She still didn't know if he was actually the president's son or if he was actually a terrorist like he joked he was several times. As for Jackson, she didn't consider him checking on her as pestering her. Well, she did, but she didn't mind it that much since she knew that he was just making sure she was okay.

Speaking of Jackson, she still couldn't figure out why he said the things he said earlier. Nor did she know what he was up to. Even though Jean did tell herself that she would ask about it tomorrow when she wasn't feeling so tired, she was tempted to go right now and find out what the heck he was talking about. Actually, she might do just that after this phone call since she couldn't rest easy until she found out.

"That's good to hear. If they ever bother you or something, just call me. I'll take care of them."

"I'll keep that in mind." It was a good offer, but Jean doubted that she would ever take her up on it, the reasoning being that Samantha might just beat them up. She definitely didn't want that.

"Alright, see you Monday, or tomorrow if you have any plans to go outside."

"Okay, thanks Sam. Bye."

"See ya."

Jean ended the call and tossed the phone on the side of her bed and laid her head down on the pillow. It was time to go talk to Jackson about what he meant by the things he said earlier. But before that, she needed to get up from the bed which was going to be difficult since her body was telling her that it didn't want to leave the comfort of the bed. She shouldn't have put her head down. Why did she do that?

"Ugh..." Jean laid on her bed for a few minutes before finally deciding to get up from it. Her entire body screamed at her to go back to the bed but it stopped after a few seconds. Jean waddled her tired feet out of her room and to her apartment door.

"Hm?" Jean's father saw her putting on her shoes and asked, "Where are you going?" since she wasn't in any condition to go outside right now.

"Our new neighbors, I want to ask them something."

"I thought you didn't like them, or him," he said, remembering that Jean didn't sound particularly happy after talking to Jackson.

"Well, I don't like him, but I don't hate him either. I just want to ask him something really quick."

"Okay then... Go have fun I guess."

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