To Live
The day after, morning.
The school's direction had declared three days of mourning till the weekend.
Everyone was shaken. 13 students and one teacher had undoubtedly died! Many knew one or more of the students that died. The high school students were in pain. September was supposed to be an exciting new start for them, many starting their 10th grade. Instead, the year began with an incredibly shocking turn of events.
Altin felt strong discontent for Jean. Jean had shared a video of him when he had shown to detect the 5th force.
Altin feared it had drawn unwanted attention. He knew that keeping his growing mastery of the 5th force secret was essential to keep himself and his friends safe. What if the government were to abduct them for experiments?
Thankfully, the feed had been cut instantly, and there was little doubt that nobody had the chance to have a good look at his face in that narrow second.
Of course, just like Altin, François, Paul, and Julien felt that Jean went overboard. They swore to get back to him for this.
As witnesses, the boys were urgently summoned to the Hub. Furthermore, any member of the 5th force association in the vicinity was asked to come as soon as possible.
It was the morning of September 25th, 2026.
Altin, Julien, Paul, and François stood in the middle of the Hub's large ornated living room, many strangers looking at them.
Pascal was leading the meeting. He announced: "Yesterday, a deadly incident swept the school of Altin, Paul, François, and Julien, here present." He nodded toward them. "According to our reports, it is the first of its kind. During this anomaly, it appeared the gym entirely disintegrated in seconds. Boys, please tell us what happened in detail."
François and Altin told of the incident in full detail.
Silence reigned in the room. Gaps were heard when Altin spoke of how their classmates disappeared into thin air seconds after the eruption of the anomaly.
Pascal then turned towards Marie and asked:" Marie, how do you explain this incident?"
Marie spoke: "We have known the 5th force to impact the gravitational and electromagnetic forces substantially, but... none of these forces should explain the disintegration... Unless..." She paused and seemed to consider. "Unless the 5th force destroyed the atomic structure of the molecule somehow. It may be that the "strong force" has been affected in the area."
"What is the strong force?" Somebody asked.
Marie explained: "The strong force is like the glue that holds different particles together. Thanks to that, atoms and molecules remain whole. Without that, matter dissolves into tiny subatomic particles. You should understand that the strong force is... a powerful force. Stronger than any other force. Only a great amount of energy can break it. Altin, you said you felt a tingling feeling of the greatest intensity yet?" Marie asked.
"Yes, it grew from small to great, to a point I thought I would explode on the spot..." Altin recounted, bitter, looking down.
"Yes...." Marie consoled. "Must have been terrible. This is the double-edge of great sensitivity to the 5th force. What you felt showed that indeed, the 5th force had reached an incredible concentration."
Pascal was interpellated about how two accidents happened at the gym in less than a year. Was there a relationship ? He voiced his thoughts: "Do you have any idea how and why this anomaly erupted?"
At that, none could reply.
---
The meeting came to an end two hours later, at noon. Altin and his friends took the subway to return to the school's dormitory. Their classmates thought them crazy for wanting to stay at the dorm, but they felt confident that there wasn't the slightest amount of 5th force remaining in the school area. Besides, the dorm was the best place for them to meet and gather. However, if they came back home, the distance would separate them. It was the last thing they wanted.
As they were about to arrive at the dorm, Altin considered: "If the 5th force can destroy matter, can it create too? What do you think?"
"It's much easier to destroy than create! Anyhow, influencing the strong force through the 5th force seems impossible for us." Julien said.
"I'm sure we can if we train hard enough." François was hopeful.
"I'd be happy enough if I gain mastery of light." Paul didn't consider ever reaching mastery over the strong force. It looked too hard.
"Well, what if..." Altin started to say, but he was interrupted by the loud noise of a black van pulling over next to them.
Four men wearing black balaclavas covering their face and black leather jackets swiftly came out.
They rushed towards the boys.
"Who are y..." Sensing danger, François started to exclaim.
However, he couldn't finish his sentence before being pushed to the ground.
Altin, too, was pressed against the ground.
He felt that a hand pressed a smelly gauze against his mouth and nose. Little by little, he felt awareness fading away.
His eyes closed... and his consciousness blurred.
The mysterious hand continued to press against his face.
The attack had been so unexpected that he could not understand what was happening.
---
"COLD!" Altin awakened as the feeling of the cold water pouring over him stung him.
"Wake up, kids! The boss has something for you!" An authoritative voice said.
Altin scanned his surroundings, raising his head.
He found relief in seeing that he was with Julien, François, and Paul in the same room, which looked like a detention room with gray walls and barely any lighting; there were no windows nor anything of note.
He exchanged a glance with his friends, one at a turn.
Then, a tall man, bald, about 1m85, wearing a balaclava, walked confidently into the room. Each step he took echoed in the mostly empty space. He carried a long knife in his right hand, shining brightly under the artificial light. Unease crept into Altin.
The bald man said: "Hi kids, my name is Jurgen. I am your savior, the one that will free you... if you fulfill your obligations towards me, of course. We have brought you here using our men and our cars. That's efforts on our part, not yours. So, as a result, you owe us."
Altin and his friends silently listened for fear of angering the man. François did his best not to call bullshit on the man.
Jurgen, the bald man, continued: "Since we own you, you should do something for us. It would be best if you did the following: we have lost some essential goods in a warehouse here. We want you to retrieve them and bring them back here. Simple, right?"
Jurgen stared fixedly at the kids.
"SIMPLE, RIGHT?" He asked, again, loudly, moving his right hand, holding the knife threateningly.
The boys could only reply weakly: "Yes."
They felt like the man wouldn't take no for an answer.
"Thank you for agreeing with me." Jurgen smiled most devilishly. "Most people tend to agree with me. All people, since those who didn't are...DEAD". He screamed the last word.
Altin jumped back by instinct.
Jurgen took pleasure in watching the kids being scared.
"Well," He said, "Follow me. Both of you, make sure they don't try anything funny." He said to two guards in black and wearing balaclavas posted behind him, armed with sharp-looking knives.
He then walked towards the door.
Altin, François, Julien, and Paul followed after him, not saying a word, neither facing either man in the room.
The two guards trailed behind them, their knives at the ready.
Jurgen, the kids, and the two guards went through a long, narrow corridor, looking very ancient and decrepit. Various doors stood at the corridor's left and right, but they kept going straight. Finally, after 5 minutes, they reached the end of the hall, where a heavy metal door stood in front of them.
There, Jurgen stopped.
He faced the kids, grinning with all his teeth, four of them missing, replaced by golden ones, a grim testimony of the fights the man got into in the past. He said: "Welcome to the door to paradise. Behind that door lays the warehouse where you will recover three bags, which should be in a storage box marked with "Goodies." The warehouse is vast; you will probably need 10 minutes to get to the correct storage box, even after telling you where it is. Here's a map. Shut up and memorize it carefully. We took a great amount of effort to make it for you, one more thing you owe us."
Jurgen passed them an A4 sheet of paper. François took the map from Jurgen, then showed it to Altin, Julien, and Paul so that everyone could see it.
On it, a rough rectangle was drawn with a blue pen, which took most of the sheet. A note "warehouse" was written on the map.
At the bottom of the map, a red marker "entrance" with an arrow signaled the room's entrance. Altin assumed that's where they were.
At the top of the map, a wide "door" was drawn as a black bar larger than the others. However, the note "Vehicle entrance, blocked" indicated it was no exit.
Eight alleyways were drawn in the middle of the warehouse, as represented by eight straight, vertical, yellow lines.
Finally, a red circle indicated the warehouse's left side, where the target storage box was where a note, "BOTTOM SHELF; BRING THE GOODIES BACK", was added. It was the most prominent note on the cheap-looking map. This storage box was on the right track of the 3rd alleyway.
Considering everything, doing this "map" should have taken a minute and four pens of color.
Each of the four boys had their own way of memorizing the map. Altin relied on his imagination. He drew the map in his mind and silently visualized it until it became clear:
LEGEND:
=== : VEHICULE, BLOCKED
---- : HERE, ENTRANCE AND EXIT
1 : 1st alleyway
x : storage box
From left to right: the alleyways
From bottom to top: the racks
MAP:
______=====______
| | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | |
| | |x| | | | | |
| | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | |
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
________---________
"Questions, kids?" Jurgen's voice boomed.
"I..." Altin started to say but stopped when he saw Jurgen looking at him.
"Don't be afraid, kid. Speak up." Jurgen was exhilarated by the feeling of control he felt over the boys.
"Why us? Can't you go yourself?" Altin finally spoke his mind.
That was the question Jurgen had waited for. He said: "You see, the warehouse has become slightly... unusual. We sent four men before you, but one of them disappeared, his body never found, while the other three died of various causes. Many anomalies in the warehouse have appeared. Some even seem invisible." Jurgen was revealing all the information he knew, for he knew that it was the only chance to recover the precious drugs he had hidden there. He continued to explain: "My brave men don't dare to go anymore." He gazed meaningfully toward the two guards, which immediately provoked visible chills in them.
Jurgen stepped closer to Altin.
And he and his friends immediately stepped back.
"However, YOU, kid, we saw you on TV. YOU could feel the anomaly at your school before it manifested itself. Right?"
Altin didn't say anything nor move. He began to understand.
"So, wise as we are, we believe you have a shot at going where we couldn't."
Altin understood.
The bald man and his men were criminals.
They had hidden something precious to them in the warehouse, but now they couldn't get to it anymore due to the area full of anomalies; the main issue was that they couldn't feel them.
They had seen Altin's video shouting to prevent a tragic accident.
They decided to kidnap him.
...but what about his friends?
"But why my friends too? They know nothing, nor feel anything. So they are useless to you.." Altin said with a low, careful voice. He hoped he would negotiate for his friends to be released by making them appear useless to them.
Jurgen smiled with all his white and golden teeth: "I don't care, you were together when we fetched you, so naturally, we took 'em as well. Why not? We have more bodies to send." He gave a meaningful look to François, Julien, and Paul. It was as if he watched a video game unfold, where the players' well-being was unimportant.
François hated the man to the bones. Rage was burning his blood every second, but he knew he had to control himself lest they would die. After all, Jurgen seemed to have many armed men, while they were smaller, weaker, fewer, and unarmed. Not good odds.
Fra,çois stepped closer to Altin, put his hand on his shoulder to reassure him, and felt Altin's muscles relaxing. He spoke: "We will recover your "goodies." But what after? Will you let us go?"
Jurgen laughed. Of course, the boys would ask the question. He said: "I promised you all. Whoever is left will have a first-class ride back in one of our vans back to the nearest city, eyes banded and drugged for a quick sleepy trip."
Jurgen observed the looks of relief and determination gripping the kids. That was a most satisfying result: the teens would do their best to get them what they needed. He added more to that:
"In fact, I sincerely hope to send you back. We don't want to be babysitters to you, kids. So do your best and go. Now. Try to come back here before night. There is no electricity there, so there is no light other than the natural light through the windows. The night is in two hours."
Jurgen opened the metal door blocking the way.
The boys saw a vast room in dim light through the opening of the door;
They felt immense danger. Their rationality told them not to go.
Jurgen stepped on the side. He didn't miss the hesitation of the kids.
"You will go, or you will die." He said, "You have a choice to make, boys. To live at all cost or to die now and here." He motioned for the guards to move. The guards moved closer to the kids with their knife held firmly in their right hand. "If you give up, you die here. If you try your luck, you may live. You have 10 seconds to decide."
He started to count:
"ONE...."
Altin mused to himself, "Is there no other way?".
"TWO..."
"I feel the 5th force already from here...it is strong over there...." Paul voiced worryingly to his friends.
"THREE...."
None of the boys were unafraid. Confronted with the unknown ahead of them, their heart filled with coldness.
Altin felt just as the day before when he had barely escaped from the eruption that destroyed matter and... lives.
"FOUR..."
He felt a net tingling feeling, although not as strong. His subconscious was screaming like a madman: "DON'T GO THERE!!!"
Yet, his rational mind knew he had no other choice.
"FIVE..."
Waiting for death was scarier than death itself. Five seconds had passed, five seconds during which Altin became so much aware that death could befall him and what death implicated.
Dying.
"SIX...."
"I don't want to die..." Julien murmured.
"We... have a chance... if we go. We can feel..." François said in the lowest voice he could.
"SEVEN..."
"Mr and Mme. Durand will be lonely if I die here..." Altin worried about the impact of his death on his closest relatives.
"EIGHT..."
François and Altin pulled gently on the arms of Julien and Paul.
"NINE... !"
"We must go, Julien, Paul! We can do it!" Altin pressed Julien and Paul.
Paul moved... Julien didn't.
He had the fewest affinity for the 5th force and was scared to death to face it. He had yet to face the fifth force.
"TEN. Kill them." Jurgen unemotionally said.
Altin, François, Julien, and Paul ran to the warehouse.
The door closed behind them.
As they rushed in, they heard Jurgen laughing: "Hahahhahahha, come back soon, and don't forget... the goodies."