Upheaval

Two young boys were running at full speed away from a mass of darkness spread over 200m in width and 200m in length. It looked like a sphere that swallowed all light. The scene was terrifying. "Danger danger" was ringing into every passerby's mind.

When the anomaly started in the middle of the construction site, no one had paid attention to it. Now, however, it had grown so fast that several people had already reported the scene. The first witness to scream had triggered a mass panic, and soon after, the police had come evacuating the local inhabitants out of safety.

They didn't need to be told. The scene was so dreamy that anyone who saw the sphere of darkness growing would run away from it.

The whole area was in a full-blown panic with the sphere... still expanding.

Altin and Paul finally stopped running in the middle of a street a kilometer away from the sphere.

"Altin, I think we're far enough. It's well behind us. Let's take a rest." Paul suggested.

He was a little out of breath, and when he saw several people who stood there observing the growing ball of darkness around them, he decided that he was far enough.

Altin took a long and careful look around him.

He, too, observed that the other people ran about as far as they had. At this distance, the sphere of darkness didn't look as big as when they exited it. Instead, it looked approximately the size of the building where it was born. "Seems far enough..." Altin thought.

The two friends paused to observe the apocalyptic scene.

Up there, a TV chopper was circling the area to live-stream the mysterious scene of silent destruction.

The police and firefighters were cutting off the area and urging the residents to evacuate a.s.a.p.

Undoubtedly, the government would seal off the whole area.

Altin wondered if they were the only two people who got inside and whether they should warn the police. However, judging by how the police behaved, it looked like nobody was going inside anytime soon.

Adrenaline silently withdrew from the boys' body;

And Altin's stomach growled again.

"Paul, let's go back to the school now; François and Julien are probably worried to death. More importantly..." Altin smiled at Paul.

"You owe me your lunch."

Paul cursed silently. He had indeed agreed to give his lunch share in return for getting out of there alive.

"Sure. " Paul admitted dejectedly. "I'm sending a text to François to know where they are. Julien never checks his phone in class."

A few seconds later.

"François said they're in the gym. They have gathered here by the teachers."

"Alright, let's go," Altin said.

Without looking back, they headed back to the school.

They felt exhausted.

Altin and Paul took 30minutes to walk to their school, five whole minutes more than the go trip to the building now swallowed in darkness.

When they arrived, they saw about a dozen adults entering the school. More arrived at any passing moment. Some were leaving the school with their children: they were parents getting their boys and girls home.

Altin and Paul entered the school.

The courtyard was full of people, adults and teens alike.

Altin and Paul didn't know for sure, but they guessed that classes had stopped and people were leaving.

They headed to the gym where François had told them he was with Julien.

The gym was full of students, most of them glued to their phones and talking among themselves.

After going through a bit of crowd, Altin spotted them in the stands, relatively high.

A tall teen with strong muscles stood next to a small teenager with blond hair and glasses. They were François and Julien.

François waved at them.

"OVER HERE!" He shouted, not worried about attracting attention.

Altin and Paul climbed the stairs and arrived where Julien and François sat.

"Are you alright?" François asked worryingly.

"We were very worried," Julien commented.

"We're alright now, but we were nearly trapped there... with no exit in sight," Paul replied, "When we came near the 'black hole,' it grew to encompass us. There, we became trapped in total darkness. I thought we'd die there."

Paul and Altin went on to describe the events in full detail.

François and Julien silently listened.

They could imagine how scary it must have been and couldn't help to shudder when thinking of the scene. They suddenly felt the walls around them were much closer now...

"That's the story. What happened here?" Altin finished the story and asked.

An ominous feeling rose inside Altin. He felt like a long story would unfold.

"Wait, wait, before that, do you have food?" Altin interrupted François, who had started talking.

"Oh right, yeah, we have two sandwiches for you."

Français gave Altin two sandwiches from his backpack."

Altin saw the light in the darkness. The two sandwiches were made of a half baguette [traditional French bread made of cereals, shaped in a long and oval form], a slice of ham, a layer of butter, and some salad. It was called "a Parisien." It was a rudimentary sandwich, but everyone liked it. It was also the cheapest.

Paul was enviously looking at the sandwiches, hunger in his eyes.

Altin saw it.

He had every right to keep the two sandwiches for himself, and he really could eat two right now. However, coming out alive from the darkness had made Altin feel close to Paul. He didn't feel like leaving Paul hungry.

He gave one to Paul.

Paul gave a graceful look. Then, he silently told himself: "I'll repay him tomorrow."

They started to eat.

"Sorry about that, we haven't eaten anything. Anyway, go on; we're all ears."

Français wasn't surprised in the slightest. He had just learned what they had gone through, after all. He started to recount: "Within a few minutes, everyone started to receive texts or getting calls. I got a text from a friend too; he told me a huge vortex appeared in the city and that everybody was running away from it. He told me to look at the news."

Seeing Julien didn't want to add more to this, he continued:

"So I went on my Instagram feed, and already there were live videos of that sphere of darkness... growing. Then, the fire alarm rang." François looked at Julien, giving him a chance to continue the story in his stead.

Julien took the hint: "You know that when the fire alarm sounds, we have to head to the gym or the yard so that we can be evacuated safely in case of fire. It rings once a month for training. When it does, nobody rushes outside. Everybody knows it's just a drill, and the more time people take to gather, the more classes are skipped."

He paused, remembering the unease and adrenaline he felt back then.

"But not this time. In my classroom, everyone was tense and wondered what was happening. Even the teacher was on his phone, looking for any news. It was the same in François's class, so I imagine it was the same in every classroom."

"So when the alarm rang, ... Everyone rushed outside. Not a single person walked. I think we were all afraid that the hole somehow grew to reach the school, or that a thing like that would happen here. Due to the rush, the halls became suddenly too narrow. Quite a few people got hurt. That was bad."

Julien showed the left side of his face. He was bleeding very lightly from the head from near his left ear. Blood mainly had dried up. He explained: "I got hurt too because an asshole pushed me against the door. Fortunately, François was on the same floor. So when he saw me, he pushed everyone around me, and then he helped me get away from the flow."

"That was bad. Everyone was crazy. Most of the people had seen pictures." Français recounted. "Eventually, people fanned out in the yard, where there was enough space for everybody. After a few minutes passed, it appeared there was no immediate danger, so eventually, the crowd calmed down, and the teachers asked us to get into the gym if anyone felt cold. Everybody was told to wait until they knew what to do, given the circumstances. "

Julien continued: "So we did that. We stayed inside the gym and waited for any news from you. We were so worried, you know. We thought that something had happened to you. Well, something DID happen... Anyway, we were told we could get our things back and come home if we wanted. So people started to leave, while some waited for their parents. We came back to our classroom and got our backpacks; then we went to the gym. Finally, we got a text from you. That's the full story."

The group of friends then went on to discuss various matters.

Soon, Julien proposed to follow live news on the ongoing upheaval.

They were many live streams going at any moment, so they would not miss any information.

They diligently listened and read as much information as they could. It was addicting. They had never lived through a situation like that; they couldn't help but keep their eyes glued to their phone for any information.

The best piece of news was that shortly after Altin and Paul exited, the "black hole", as it was called in the news, had stopped growing.

The second good piece of news was that there was no talk of a similar incident.

The government had announced that the area would be cordoned off: no one was to enter within 2km of the cordon. It was a never-seen-before action taken in the famous French capital, Paris. Due to its high density, the government estimated that approximately 80,000 inhabitants would be temporarily relocated. If it had happened in the heart of Paris, the number could have reached 200,000 people.

Thankfully, Altin's neighborhood was located in the southeast of Paris, not far from the Bois de Vincennes. There, the density was a bit lower. Moreover, Altin's school was a bit more than 2km from the black hole, so it had been spared from the forced evacuation.

The evacuation was a logistic nightmare. Due to the massive number of people involved, the government announced it would pay for a temporary stay in hotels across the whole region. Despite that, it would still not be enough, so already the army was building camps of tents in parks and outside the city.

It was unbelievable. In front of Altin, François, Julien, and Paul, a catastrophe movie was unfolding in real-time.

Altin pinched his nose and blew through it.

"No luck, this is real..." He had verified he wasn't dreaming.

In the middle of the massive evacuation, the military sent drones and people into the black hole, but nobody ever made it back so far. So finally, after losing two soldiers, the army decided not to send people to investigate again.

They kept watching for 3 hours till 6 pm.

"I've read a few posts from physicists and engineers. Some of them are trying to explain what's going on. Interested ?"Julien told the group, still gathered close to each other.

François was, but he was sure he wouldn't understand when he heard "scientist" and "engineer." He was in the 9th grade, after all, and not particularly fond of geeky stuff. Paul was of the same mind.

Only Altin had a slight interest. He was not fond of studying science in his spare time like Julien, but he was interested in it, like everything else. He was a curious kid.

"Go ahead, but can you keep it as simple as possible, please?" Altin said. He winked at François and Paul.

Julien expected that: "Sure."

"So, obviously, the most obvious thing going on here is that this thing affects light. That's why that thing is as dark as it could be. Do you know what light is?"

The unexpected question puzzled the boys. They had no idea.

Julien explained: "I don't understand very well, but we just need to remember this: the electromagnetic force creates light. 'Force' refers to something that can move or pull matter. So the electromagnetic force is the maker of light and electricity, and magnetism, as you can guess by the name. So if this force is influenced or even canceled, electronics and light would behave weirdly."

Julien paused to let his friends digest his words.

He summed up:

"A force is something that can move or pull things.

The electromagnetic force creates light and electricity.

However, it is influenced by the anomaly, which explains the darkness and the issue with electronic devices in some part of the world."

Julien then said: "There is also another force affected, much much easier to understand. It's gravity, which is known as the gravity force. It's what makes objects fall. If gravity is canceled, then things won't fall anymore. Rings a bell?"

Altin understood: "So that's what happened at the ball during our game? Gravity got canceled for a moment?"

Julien: "Most likely yes. There have been many accounts of similar accidents by now."

"Wow." That came from Français and Paul. Their eyes wide opened revealed they had simultaneously understood as well.

"Any other force we should know about?" Altin asked.

"There are also posts about the strong force and the weak force, but I don't understand anything at all, sorry. They get mentioned much less, so they aren't likely to be involved with what we've seen so far." Julien dutifully replied. He had withheld one essential piece of information and expected Altin to ask.

He looked expectedly at Altin.

Nothing.

Julien sighed.

"You haven't asked the key question. Wanna know what can influence the gravity and electromagnetic forces?" Julien threw the bait.

Altin, François, Paul all took it.

"Yeah!" They replied in unison.

Julien explained: "Another force that has never appeared before. Scientists say it's the only way to explain what has happened so far. However, they argue they will need years to understand, and a committee of the French Public Research Institute [in French: CNRS] has already requested 10 million euros in funding to research it if it exists or not and if yes how it works."

"Is that a lot of money?" Paul asked innocently.

"How many sandwiches is it?"François, too, asked.

Altin laughed. He knew François had asked for him.

Riiiiingggg.

"ANNOUCEMENT, ANNOUCEMENT!" A voice rang inside the gym. "This is the school principal; All students are required to come home now. The school will be closed temporarily. Students in a full pension can stay in their dormitory for now, but they must be ready to evacuate at any moment. "

"So this is it, the early end of our school life?" François mocked dejectively.

"More time for TV and games, perfect." Paul rejoiced.

Altin and Julien didn't say anything. They were worried.

"Is it the end of our school life or much more?" Altin thought tensely.

The four boys came out of the gym, crossed the schoolyard, and exited through the main gates. The boy dorm building was right next to the school, but they had to leave the school first to reach it.

Just as they exited through the main gates...

"Boys, please wait a moment!"

A young woman, looking 19 years old, of black hair and white skin, ran towards Altin and his friends. She wore black pants and a brown trench coach that made her look rather stylish.

Altin and his friends paused, waiting for her to speak.

They were not afraid of strangers with so many people around.

The woman walked confidently towards them. Her eyes were broadly open, her face featuring a natural smile. The way she moved towards the teens inspired trust and confidence, reinforced by how relaxed she looked on the surface.

"My name is Juliette. I have to show you something".

Juliette looked around. She seemed worried other people hearing her;

It looked like nobody was paying attention to her.

She said quietly: "I know your secret; I saw you... coming out of the black hole."

Without giving any time to the kids to process the information, she showed her hand and dropped the bomb she had planned to say:

"I feel it too."

On her open palm, the boys could see a copper key levitating 5cm from her palm.