Hope

Darkness. All around the boys.

If there was one thing to be glad of, it wasn't cold.

Forming a human chain, Altin could feel his right hand held firmly by François and his left by Julien.

As to Paul, he was at the leftmost side, holding Julien's hand.

"Is everyone alright?" Altin asked.

"Yeah," François, Paul, and Julien replied.

The voices of his friends comforted Altin.

He could hear no other sound. The atmosphere was as terrifying as in the black hole months before.

Having first experienced it before only made things slightly better.

"I'm okay, except the darkness creeps me out," François said. "How did you manage that ?"

"We didn't; we were scared shitless..." Paul had no shame in admitting this. "But it gets better once you get used to it."

"Oh, you CAN get used to it?" Julien complained. He felt no better than François. Blind by darkness, he felt vulnerable. "If we step back, can we go back the way we came?"

Julien walked back, gently pulling the human chain. They formed a great team; they all stepped back at the same pace in one movement.

Several steps backward, but still only darkness surrounded them.

"Altin, was it what you meant when you said that you couldn't find the exit after entering the black hole back then, even by stepping back?" Julien asked.

"Yes, it really is weird. Entering is easy, but exiting is hard. Once you enter completely, the exit is no longer behind you. Also, the area covered by darkness seems to spread infinitely outward." Altin replied; after the event eight months ago, he had tried to make sense of how the light anomaly behaved once inside.

He could only hypothesize that once darkness "ate" an area of ordinary space, the area "eaten" would be located in the center of the darkness. The exit would be similar to an invisible door somewhere in the space.

Given that, Altin indicated: "The storage box should be on the rack in front of us. But left side, so we have to circumvent it."

So they walked ahead for a moment.

BOUM!

"Ouch!" François exclaimed.

"What happened?" Altin asked.

"I ran into the rack, I think," François said. "This must be the rack separating the 3rd from the 4th alley."

"Right!" Altin nodded.

François then placed his hand against the structure in front of him. He said: "I will walk alongside the rack and circumvent it. You guys follow me, okay?"

Altin, Julien, and Paul voiced their agreement.

Altin took a moment to study his senses. He felt something very similar back then in the abandoned construction building. The most crucial difference was that in the past, he had to focus on feeling the 5th force; now, inside the anomaly, he didn't need to focus at all. It was much easier to judge where the anomaly was strongest.

While Altin was in thought, the boys formed a chain that successfully circumvented the rack.

"It isn't becoming weaker..." Altin murmured.

He didn't feel that they were getting closer to the exit.

A few seconds after, they stood behind the rack, at location (3,5).

They had arrived... but there was no sign of the darkness receding.

"Guys, do you see anything?" Julien asked.

"No... we're still deep inside the darkness." Altin knew that they would find no light here.

Altin remembered the note on the map: "The note on the map indicated that the storage box is on the bottom shelf, and the storage box should be marked with 'Goodies.' So it should be one of the storage boxes at our feet."

Julien commented: "The rack should be 4 meters long, like the others. That's a lot of storage boxes to search... blind."

"It is." Altin agreed.

Altin wondered how they could find the "goodies" quickly. Of course, they could somehow carry everything they found back to light, but who knew long it would take.

Or, they could try their luck and bring whatever they found in one and try again and again. However, that, too, was random.

Time was against them. Besides, what if the anomaly became unstable?

Suddenly, Altin got a bold idea. He spoke: "Guys, what if we can control the 5th force here to cancel some of its effects?"

"Ehhmmm... how?" Paul asked.

Altin replied: "We gather the force around us in our palm, maybe create some light if we can."

The suggestion made sense. They had been trained to control the 5th force; even though applying it was very delicate, guiding it was much more manageable.

"Okay, I think we can try." Paul agreed.

"Yes." François concurred as well.

"I'll try too," Julien said, less convinced of his capabilities.

The four boys came shoulder to shoulder and freed their hands.

It was scary to suddenly not feel the hand of another, blind as they were, but thankfully their shoulders were still touching.

Each then focused...

Altin reminded himself of Juliette's advice: "The 5th force exists anywhere and everywhere, albeit in different density. Know that our brain can sense it while our body can guide it to condense. It feels a little like flowing electricity. Whenever the electricity passes through a limb, you will feel warm or cold chills. Start by focusing on the feeling in your head, then let the feeling flow to your arm through your neck, shoulder, and arm."

Here, the 5th force was dense. It wasn't hard for Altin to feel it. However, control was more difficult. He kept trying.

A voice full of doubts rang: "I... feel I am gathering it in my hand, but it remains dark around me. I think I have condensed all the available energy on my palm, but... it's not enough. " This had been Paul speaking.

Julien considered the implications of what he said. "That's probably why it's dark here despite the light coming down from the roof. The darkness is too dense and wide. It's absorbing the light. We need to... consume... the source of the darkness. The 5th force."

"Umm"

More minutes passed.

Finally, Altin managed to gather the 5th force he could feel towards his palm. Yet, the darkness remained.

"I think I gathered the energy of the 5th force as well, but it's still ... dark. So we must try to generate light." Altin suggested.

"But, how ?" He thought to himself. He had no idea. He tried to control the force in a dozen possible ways, but none worked.

Then Eléonore's advice came to him: she had advised him to forget about understanding how it worked and instead focus on how it felt. She had said: "It's too hard to control the force by thoughts; instead, it is easier to control it by imagination." Eléonore was the intuitive type.

Altin then imagined - even believed - that light would come out of his palm.

He pictured that light would spread from his palm and englobe him and his friends.

This... didn't work.

"It's hard to convince yourself of something that you feel isn't real." Altin mused to himself.

Often, Altin had nightmares. And in these nightmares, he realized, his fears would most often manifest. If he feared and became convinced that a monster would show himself in the dream, the dream would change to make the monster real. In dreams, fears became real.

Altin had entered an intense state of focus and clarity.

"I must wish, believe, that the light is spreading from my palm. I must believe it is real."

Eyes closed, he stopped imagining that light would come out of his palm. Instead, he imagined that light was already coming out of his palms.

"WHAT!"

"HOW!"

"IS IT YOU?"

Three voices rang at the same time.

Altin woke up from his trance.

The light had manifested itself, but now, it was quickly receding, eaten away by the returning darkness.

He asked: "Did... I do that? Did I manifest light?"

"You did, you did it!" Paul replied with intense excitement. It seemed to him that Altin would yet again save them.

"Can you do it again?"

Altin closed his eyes and gathered the 5th force on his palm.

Then, he willed and imagined that light was spreading from him. He felt the energy on his palm depleting quickly, so he had to gather more power through his head and guide it to his palm.

Unknowingly, Altin wasn't just making light: he was consuming the energy of the 5th force powering up the darkness, effectively creating a bubble of space where light could spread again.

"It is working..." François commented.

"Let's search the boxes!" Julien said.

Altin heard them but didn't reply. He felt that light would extinguish immediately if he opened his eyes and lost focus.

He could hear the voices of his friends searching through the rack.

"Not here!"

"No 'goodies' label here either!"

This continued for a minute until...

"Found it! The storage box! It's labeled 'Goodies'"

"Great! Let's open it."

"Wow, three bags. Look heavy, just as Jurgen said. This asshole."

"I'll take one."

"I'll take the other."

"And me the last."

"There's something else here! It looks like... a map? That's a map!

There's an address on the map. Ummm, it reads '3 rue Jean-Pierre, 93200 Seine Saint-Denis'. That's not far from Paris."

"He just asked for the bag; leave it!"

"Altin, you can open your eyes. We have the bags."

Altin opened his eyes. That very moment, he could no longer force himself to imagine light; the pressuring darkness around him darkened his thoughts too much. The light receded, and darkness came to englobe him wholly again.

Altin, François, Julien, and Paul went back to where they came from approximately. They circumvented the rack and walked back straight.

However, no matter how far they walked, they saw no exit, just like last time.

It seemed as if once you entered the darkness, the entrance would shift, and space would seemingly infinitely expand outward.

This was not a problem for the four.

Paul could, by himself, find the exit by relying on feeling where the force was weakest.

They exited.

The sun had nearly wholly set.

Looking at the roof and the sun's position, Julien estimated that they came out from the same way they entered.

They decided to take no risk and walked back the way they came from by walking up the 7th rack, walking all the way left till reaching the wall of the 1st alleyway, and then walking straight back toward the bottom of the map.

They only met one problem: at one point, the electric anomaly had moved from (2,3) to (1,3). It was unexpected, and they nearly got themselves in danger.

Thankfully, Altin had felt it and allowed them to bypass it before getting too close.

Five minutes after, they arrived in front of the heavy metal door.

The warehouse had become nearly entirely dark.

"Is there no other way than obey them and trust them ?" Altin was worried that the bald man, Jurgen, would renege on his promise to spare their lives in exchange for the 'goodies.'

"I don't think so... you saw how they captured us right in front of our school. Even if we escape, they will be after us. We have no phone, no money, and don't know where we are. We should obey." Julien said.

Paul kept silent.

François said: "Let's do our best to protect each other and stay alive."

He walked to the door... and knocked.

----

Jurgen had been busy ordering his lackeys to pack what little stuff they still had here in the two vans they had.

This place had little value to him. Since the anomalies appeared, they had transferred their operation to their headquarters at Seine-Saint-Denis. This abandoned warehouse was not important enough to risk his life staying here.

He was no fool: he knew that the anomalies could spread and threaten to encompass the whole compound, even the offices on the side of the corridor where he detained the boys.

The goodies consisted of three bags full of drugs, well-hidden inside an anonymous and ordinary storage box in the large warehouse.

They were important to Jurgen just as much as his henchmen: it was worth it to risk the lives of one or two lackeys but not worth risking his own life.

If he could recover them by using some kids, the effort to kidnap the teens would be worth it.

The kidnapping risk, too, since the police would search after him.

Jurgen didn't care too much about that. With chaos and anomalies spreading globally, the police were busy day to day chasing after looters, evacuating areas, relocating people, and a few menial tasks.

Besides, the teens had no clue who they were. Their faces had stayed hidden all the time.

So when his right-hand man announced to him that the kids had succeeded and were waiting at the metal door blocking the warehouse, he was delighted.

He gathered two of his men, all of them equipped with a flashlight since the sun had set, and went to welcome them.

----

After François had announced that they had all three bags, the boys waited for a full hour in total darkness in front of the door.

The kids talked among themselves and practiced with the 5th force; it was a way to keep themselves busy and hopeful.

At one point, Altin had wanted to say something, but, conflicted, he chose to remain silent in the end.

Finally, the door opened.

Blinding light came from the torchlights held by two men leading the way. They were the two guards that followed the boys when they had walked out of the detention room.

The guards motioned for the boys to walk inside.

Altin and his friends entered the narrow corridor again.

The guards placed themselves behind them;

Jurgen stood in front of them, grinning like a kid expecting his candies.

"Welcome, boys, welcome." He announced. "First, the goodies. Pass the bags to my men behind you."

François, Paul, Julien each carried one bag. "You'll let us go with them, right?" Julien couldn't help but ask.

"Of course, of course. I am a man of my words. After we check the bags, of course. Now give the bags."

The teens passed the bags slowly, the two guards behind them.

"Ahmed, check that nothing is missing," Jurgen ordered.

The guard on the left side of the corridor, Ahmed, opened the first bag by unzipping the zip. He then counted the plastic bags that were inside. He did the same for the second bag. "Boss, nothing is missing, and nothing was opened."

"Good boys." Jurgen complimented the teens.

"Well...." Jurgen said painfully slowly. "What should we do..."

"Boss, they didn't see our face, and they're still kids..." Ahmed said.

Jurgen's indecision was killing Altin. He and his friends felt like sheep in front of a mad executioner who would decide their fate based on crazed impulsions.

They knew that there were more than two men under Jurgen. When they were abducted, four men had come out of the van. Could they fight their way out? Who knows. There were too many unknowns to risk a fight if they could avoid it.

They were tensed beyond measure.

"You shall live." Finally, the verdict fell. Jurgen had decided to let them go.

Altin, François, Julien, and Paul saw hope.

Hope was a powerful feeling; it gave strength, courage, and light. The boys were elated: it seemed to them that the nightmare would end. They would live to see another day.

"Let's go join the others at the vans and leave," Jurgen instructed.

He began walking.

As he did, the boys followed, and so did the two guards behind them.

Paul felt drunk with relief and joy. He felt thankful for Jurgen.

Wondering where they would go, he couldn't but ask: "Are we going to Seine-Saint-Denis?"

Jurgen halted his steps.

"Did you just say Seine-Saint-Denis?" He looked meaningfully at Paul.

"Yes...?" Paul felt he shouldn't confirm, but he could not lie in front of the two menacing eyes.

"Why did you suggest Seine-Saint-Denis?" Jurgen asked.

"Oh no..." Altin murmured. Realization dawned upon him. They were not supposed to know this.

"I s...." Paul started to say... but was interrupted by Altin: "WE.. eh... just... thought of it!"

Altin couldn't come up with a reason to explain why Paul had said Seine-Saint-Denis out of all the cities in France.

Jurgen was not dumb; he managed his men by fear and the appeal of rewards. He didn't miss the lie of Altin; there had to be a reason.

They were indeed going to Seine-Saint-Denis, where their HQ was. The boys weren't supposed to know this!

A flash of insight passed through him. "Oh... I just remembered. There were more than the bags in the storage box. There was a map as well. Did you read it?"

The map indicated the location of their weapon cache.

"ANSWER!" He shouted at Paul.

Paul felt so weak and small that he could not manage to think straight but to say shyly: "Yes..."

Tension peaked in the narrow corridor.

"HA HA HA HA," Jurgen laughed wildly.

He then spoke with the same emotionless voice he had used to order the kidnapping of the kids: "Too bad. Ahmed, Peroni." He stared at the two guards.

"Kill them."