The aftermath

A girl slightly taller than 160cm stood in front of her doorstep. She had rushed to her room a moment ago after watching an unnerving show on TV, slamming the door behind her as she attempted to take hold of her emotions.

The aged lady that had watched the show with her - her grandmother - didn't stop her : Marie was similarly reeling from the news...

Her grand-daughter and youngest member of the 5th force association, Eléonore, had just learned about the terrible event that had occurred to her friends: Altin, François, Paul, and Julien were kidnapped, and in the process of escaping and saving them, François had died a heroic death.

She laid panting and breathless in her beautiful ornated room, facing the wall ahead of her with her favorite wardrobe but not seeing it.

She could only see the faces of her friends and feel nothing except for her sadness... and the pain that surely Altin, Julien, and Paul must be feeling.

Her heart ached.

The face of François flashed from her memory. The realization that she'll never see him again, that a teen just like her - died - took her.

Unprepared for death, believing that she and her friends would live forever, she could not take the blow.

Her feet lost strength, and she collapsed on the floor, crying.

Little steps could be heard behind the door, yet soon they stepped away.

It would be wrong to say that Eléonore was best friends with François, and yet, after spending close to 7 months meeting the boys and training with them, they had become friends. Unlike the adults of the 5th association, Eléonore had found to share so much more things with Altin, Julien, Paul, and...

François.

"But now he's dead. I can't believe it."

Eléonore coudln't accept François's death.

All had been too sudden: a few days ago, they had trained on their mastery of the 5th force together with the orb.

But just two days ago, their group chat had suddenly gone silent.

There had been no news of them... until now.

Now, when the news finally talked about the kidnapping of the teens, how the death of one of them, celebrated as a hero, allowed them to call for help and be rescued.

How their intelligence helped the police discover a vital cache of drugs and weapons hidden in Seine-Saint-Denis.

The news had explained that the head of police had ordered to keep the operation a tight secret until it took place, which is why there had been no news of the kidnapping until now.

More than thirty cartel men were killed or arrested for recovering the cache whose location was leaked by the boys. Now, the police were busy searching for those who escaped.

It was a huge success. It provided a welcomed success story in the dark apocalyptic mood that took over France.

You could hear of a fifth-force accident daily now.

Zzzzzzz

The light came off all of a sudden.

"Not again..." Eléonore thought. "Must be another power outage."

The power outage drew Eléonore out of her stupor for the immediate need: Finding some light.

The sun was setting in France at 9 pm in September, so Eléonore found her beautiful room suddenly dark and oppressing with the light gone.

She took out her phone and turned on the flashlight mode. Then, she left her bedroom, trying her best to contain her emotions, holding back a torrent of tears. She had a hard time thinking, and only with a mixture of fear of the dark and courage was she able to put aside her grief for a moment.

Step by step, she joined Marie in the living room, who was already turning on the light on their secondary battery power.

Marie asked Eléonore as she saw her approach the corridor. "Are you alright?"

"Um," Eléonore replied with a sad voice. "He's dead, right? There's no mistake?"

Marie felt pain looking at the tearful eyes of her granddaughter. She could imagine her shock as it was her first loss, the first death she had ever faced. She finished turning on the nearest lamp and walked to Eléonore.

Then, she hugged her: "Yes. He is, but Altin, Paul, and Julien are all right... I'm sure François died content. He died at peace; now you must be. For his sake."

Once again, Eléonore's inner dam broke again, and she cried.

Fifteen minutes passed with no word exchanged between the two women.

Then, Eléonore, feeling exhausted, broke from Marie. "Thank you... I know." She said in a whisper.

She sat on a sofa.

An awkward silence took place.

"Thankfully, we have those batteries, or we would be using candles again," Eléonore commented, looking to change the subject.

Marie let a sigh escape. She was relieved that Eléonore had seemingly come through. She replied: "Yes. The batteries are very convenient; we can even power computers and most kitchen appliances. Can you make sure the communication room is working too?"

"Um, I'll check." Eléonore agreed and walked back to the corridor. She then entered a room with all kinds of equipment: radios, talkie-walkies, and a computer with several displays.

Eléonore couldn't help but admire the intellect of her grandmother. When power outages started to occur, Marie had been quick to understand it as an effect of the growth of the 5th force into this world. Foreseeing an increase in accidents and a potential communication blackout, she and Eléonore had gone shopping for long-lasting emergency batteries to power the lights and other vital electronics. They had also bought radios and other communication devices not dependent on the Internet.

It was only two days ago, but already it was said that this kind of equipment was sold out.

Like the toilet paper during the covid pandemic in 2020.

Thankfully, all the equipment in the room appeared to be powered on.

The switch on the batteries had been automatic and successful.

As the Hub and headquarter of the fifth force association, their apartment was a key location for the members. This constrained them to maintain a 24/7 communication line by Internet, mobile networks, and radio, linking them to all the association members so that any member could receive assistance in case of emergency at any time.

Any message, radio, text, mail, even voice - was displayed by its evaluated priority level in a well-designed control panel.

That had been Marie and Pascal's ideas, foreseeing a troubled and dangerous future.

Being in the communication room gave Eléonore the impulse to call Altin. Was he alright? Where was he doing what?

She took out her phone and searched for his contact. It was easy. She had friends at school, but none shared as much as the boys shared with her because only with them could she confide in the secret of the fifth force openly.

She called him.

The phone rang for twenty seconds, but no one picked up.

The soft feminine voice of the automatic call system sounded, inviting her to leave a message.

Eléonore took note of calling back later.

Slowly, she checked that no important messages were pending on the fifth's force association's messaging group.

Walking closer to one of the monitors, she noticed a red flashing icon on the desktop. This indicated that someone had sent a high-priority message, probably Pascal, the association's president.

Now she was 16, she didn't feel like a child anymore. Instead, she felt she had matured sufficiently to take on some responsibility and be told the truth about what was happening. As such, she opened the mail:

"28th September 2026

Dear Marie,

During one experiment last week, I stumbled upon a new discovery.

I have verified the results several days in a row, and I now trust that my analysis is correct.

With this, we may make a breakthrough in understanding the 5th force.

We must talk at once.

Call me back as soon as you can.

Please find attached an encrypted report of the data.

Your trustful partner,

Pascal"

Tension returned to Eléonore as she read the mail. Pascal had discovered something important. "Marie should know as soon as possible," she thought.

Eléonore hoped that Marie would explain it to her no matter what it was.

While in her thoughts, the door suddenly opened. Marie walked with her phone in her hand. She told Eléonore: "I got a text from Pascal about something urgent. Did we get anything from him?"

The teenage girl pointed to the screen with her finger and explained: "Yes, just now. There's a big file attached to the mail."

Marie replied: "Thanks, I'll have a look now. Eléonore, could you please take care of the dishes and check on Internet how long this outage may last?"

Eléonore nodded. She then left Marie to her work, feeling disappointed to be sent away. But she agreed, with no force to argue, still saddened and drained of the tragic news...

As she returned to the living room, where she had just finished dinner when the news of François's death was announced, she felt again gripped sharply by grief, remembering once more that one of her friends had died an unjust and unexpected death.

The table still needed to be cleaned. She welcomed the mechanical and menial task; it required no focus, no thoughts. She worked on cleaning the table and doing the dishes as she silently accepted the death of François.

----

For the next seven days, Eléonore called Altin every morning and evening. She left him texts, but neither her calls nor texts had been replied to. She was worried sick.

Eléonore had been staying home. She had violently argued against going to school with Marie, saying that she had better focused on training than learning useless subjects at school.

It had taken a lot of Marie to accept it. As someone of higher education, she wanted Eléonore to work hard in school. Yet, the world had changed.

Both Marie and Eléonore now felt that the modern days were ending. What use would a school be in these circumstances? At least, the current school system was not fit for the future.

The coming of the fifth force could no longer be denied.

It seemed as if there was no going back.

Even the governments of the world recognized it.

The over-reliance on electricity and the Internet scared the militaries worldwide. So it came as no surprise now that the army was repairing all telephonic lines and making new ones, setting up alternative lines of communication, not dependant on the Internet and only weakly dependent on electricity.

On social networks, survivalist groups grew every day. More and more people talked about the end of the days. They recommended storing supplies, forming local armed groups, and escaping the cities.

Truth be told, most of the population dismissed them. Even if all sorts of weird things were happening, surely it couldn't grow worse, could it?

But Marie and Eléonore were more informed than the general populace, so they could not live in the illusion that things would get better. This was precisely why Marie had agreed to Eléonore skipping school to focus on her training.

Eléonore was now more dedicated to training her senses and control than ever before. She was spending 12 hours everyday training. 12 hours!

Every day, she would meditate in the vicinity of the orb for 3 hours in the morning.

In the afternoon, she would play with the force by having it flow through her arms and hands for 4 hours. It was as if she was circulating a hot yet warm electric stream through her body.

After a break, she would store the orb away and train her awareness with no form of assistance for another 4 hours. She was having some success at it. Training in the 5th force for 7 hours before that helped enormously.

Finally, late at night, she would let her natural affinity for manipulating vibrations develop.

By controlling the fifth force to a specific area, she could slightly quickly lower and increase the bonds uniting the matter together. This resulted in matter compressing and decompressing in quick succession. Through this means, Eléonore could have any matter vibrate, including air, to produce sounds or other sorts of vibrations.

It felt wondrous.

Although it was hard to explain and nearly impossible to imagine in detail, Eléonore just had to focus on applying the fifth force by the power of visualization for an effect to occur.

During that process, she could feel the minute effects of the fifth force on the matter, and thanks to that, she could increase or lower the vibrations.

There was already a very practical application: Eléonore could break any glass within seconds in peak condition, even without the assistance of the power orb.

"Peak condition" never lasted. Any application still required a very significant focus. It was only because of being fully immersed in the 5th force that Eléonore had some results.

This way, Eléonore would drain herself like this two hours before sleeping. The exhaustion was such that she never took more than a minute to fall deeply asleep.

Marie was similarly working like a maniac.

Even since the mail of Pascal, she had been extremely busy working on some obscure mathematics and physics in her office all day.

In fact, both women were so busy that they had hired a cook and a maid for their daily needs so that they could entirely and wholly dedicate themselves to their work or training.

During that time, Juliette came only once. After that, she returned to the countryside, where Pascal lived, to help with mysterious preparations.

--

A week later, on 4th October 2026.

Eléonore and Marie were sitting at the table, quickly eating what was left of the delicious boeuf bourguignon served by their cook.

There were few words said. It seemed as if Marie was debating whether to say something.

As the last bite of the food was taken, Marie put aside her fork and knife on the table.

Eléonore tensed. She rarely saw Marie this seriously.

Marie spoke: "Eléonore, as you know, Pascal and I, and other members as well, have been working on new data obtained by Pascal related to the fifth force. The latest data gives us vital data on where the 5th force comes from and at which rate it will grow in our world. It is of extreme importance. Our future depends on comprehending and adapting to the fifth force, and fast, real fast. " Marie paused to emphasize this point.

Eléonore nodded.

Marie continued: "We have rushed to prepare a new experiment to gather additional data. Only this experiment will happen on a big, large scale. "

She paused once again and took in a deep breath. A mixture of courage, fear, and determination gathered in her eyes as she said:

"It will be extremely dangerous."