Alone

All of the children in Deloraine, start to congregate on the football field, not knowing why they felt the need to go there, but being drawn to it nonetheless. Everyone starts speculating on what's happening and why there are no parents or adults around in the town, if and when they would come back, and what they would do if they didn't.

"When I went home last night, my parents were there, waiting for me to get back and make sure I was safe due to the storm, but when I woke up this morning, they were nowhere to be found." Says a boy with dark hair, to a girl with long blue dyed hair.

"Yea, same here. Nothing has been moved or taken since I got home from the game last night, car is still in the driveway, my mom even left the clothes in the washing machine, and now they smell.." Replies the blue-haired girl, with a puzzled look on her face.

"My mom said that there was something big happening at the drill rig last night, do you think that might have anything to do with it?" Says another boy, to nobody in particular

"The oil drilling rig... nah dude, how would that be possible; they found a new cap rock, used the oil wells to pump the crude oil to the surface, and decided to dip? Come on dude, get your head out of your ass." Replies the dark-haired boy, rolling his eyes.

“OMG, I’m not talking about the mainland rig… I’m talking about the Barge Mobile Offshore Drilling Unit, you know, the one that requires a high-security clearance to get in and has the military base located beside it” The boy shoots back but no one responds

Cameron, Jasmine, and Killian arrive at the football field as well, they were initially heading over to Samantha's to see if she had a way of contacting their parents, but while on the way, they found themselves being pulled in another direction and unable to alter their course, thus finding themselves at the field with every other child, teenager and young adult in their town, but absolutely no adults.

"Cameron! Jasmine!"

Both girls look around to try and find the location of the voice that had called them, Killian finds them first. "Look, it's Sam and Anita." He says, pointing to our left. Sure enough, as we look to our left, we see both Samantha and Anita walking briskly toward us, worried looks etched all over their faces. Anita reaches Jasmine first and starts speaking immediately.

"Please tell me your parents are at your place and I'm freaking out for nothing." She says, grabbing Jasmine by the shoulders and bringing her in for a hug.

"I was hoping you were going to tell me that everything was normal at home for you and that your parents were there with you... I don't know what the fuck is going on but something is wrong, I can feel it in my bones." Jasmine replied while leaning into the hug and breathing in the reassuring scent of her best friend.

"Did you happen to hear anything from the other kids on the way over here, by any chance?" Cameron asks Samantha "A little here and there, from what I was able to gather while trying to keep up with Anita is all the same. No one has seen their parents or any other adults since the blackout last night, and before you ask, no, I don't currently have a way to contact anyone with the towers down, the HAM radio is working but there was no response when I used it. Don't worry though, I'll figure something out. I always do." Samantha replied with a confident smile "Of course you knew I was going to ask that" Cam replies with a smile "I wasn't worried, you're one of the smartest people I know, I'd be more surprised if you didn't have a plan." she finishes just as another group of students comes walking up to Jasmine and Anita.

"Hey, Anita, I would ask how you are doing but considering everything, that would be a dumb question." The boy leading the other group jokes "Hey, Christopher, yea no doubt, this is insane. Anyways, what's up?" Anita replies with a kind smile. "Well, Jocelyn and I were thinking of going around and checking all of the houses, if all the adults are gone, there might be kids left alone that need help; I can't bring Clara with me, I was hoping you wouldn't mind watching her while we're out, we shouldn't be too long." He asks with a pleading look in his eyes. "Oh, of course, Richard, that's not even a question, Clara is welcome to stay with me whenever you need her to!" Anita replies happily while looking behind Christopher to wave at Clara, who smiles and waves back.

Richard thanks Anita and turns to Clara, gently putting his hand on her shoulder while she walks towards Anita with a huge grin on her face. "Can we go to the park to play?" Asks Clara to Anita once Christopher left. "Sure, did you want to ask Killian if he wanted to join us?" Anita replied with a smile and looks toward Cameron who nods her head in agreement.

"Hi, Killian, Anita is taking me to the park! Did you wanna come, we could play tag and grounders!" Clara excitedly says to Killian and Killian also gets excited "Oh my gee, yes I do! May I Cameron, please, I'll be careful I promise!" Killian responds looking towards Cameron for approval "Yea, I don't see why not, Jasmine will be there with you as well, have fun kiddo, and be safe; I'll meet you guys at home once you're done, Samantha and I have a few things were wanting to check out." Cameron says addressing Killian, Anita, and Jasmine "No problem, be safe, see you later." Jasmine says, waving goodbye to her sister and walking to the park with the children and Anita.

"So, I was thinking, that Christopher kid gave me an idea, while him and, what was her name, Jocelyn? Yea, Jocelyn, while they go around looking for any kids that have been left alone, I was thinking we go around and take a consensus, to find out how many children are without parents and maybe try and figure out the age group of those still in town. What do you think?" Cameron asks Samantha; Samantha thinks for a second before responding. "Yes, I think that would be a good idea, that way we can determine how many people have been left in town. I'm sure whatever happened will be sorted in a matter of time, but until that happens we will need to conserve food and water, again, just in case were alone for longer than we anticipate, and it will be easier to do that knowing how many kids have been left." Samantha replies while looking around at all of the children massed on the football field.

"True, okay, so here's the plan, let's start on one side of the field, take names and ages, we may need another person to assist with keeping track of everyone, that way, no one is excluded from the consensus and no one is counted twice. I swear I remember there being a kid with a really good memory in my grade... If I could just remember his name..." Cameron says puzzled while looking around, hoping to recognize the kid she was thinking about by sight.

"Oh, are you talking about Richard Steele, the kid who has both Hyperthymesia and an eidetic memory?" Samantha asks "I heard he's being fast-tracked to the HCSR just like his sister, Mary-Ann, she has an IQ of 220, stupidly smart. I'm pretty sure he hangs out with Christopher, so he should be here somewhere." Samantha finishes while looking around for Richard. "Shit, yea, him, Hyperthymesia? Is that what makes him able to remember things well?" Cameron asks "Essentially yea, it means he can recall his life in near perfect detail, all his memories are vivid and play out as if they are happening, it's a very rare condition, I believe only like 60-ish people have been diagnosed with it, I know the HCSR were super excited when they found out they got two siblings with extraordinary brains. Look, there he is, let's go see if he's willing to help us out." Samantha explains while heading in the direction of Richard.

Cameron and Samantha walk up to Richard who is with Chantel and Bernard talking softly "Hey Richard, I'm Cameron, uhm, I know things are crazy right now, but I was hoping to ask a favor of you." Cameron says, not too sure of herself. "Uhm, hi, Cameron, crazy is an understatement," he says chuckling "But how can I help you, hey, we're in the same grade right? You're the girl who's always in the library reading." He finishes, not asking but more making a statement "Uhm, yea, that's me... Anyways, Samantha and I were wanting to take a consensus to see how many children are here in town as well as the ages of everyone, so we can figure out the demographic of those who are left. Thing is, we will need some help so we can keep track of those who have already been accounted for as well as round up everyone to make sure we don't miss anyone. I was hoping you might help with keeping track of those we have talked to." Cameron finishes and shuffles on her feet.

"Shit, that's a good idea, especially if we don't know how long we're going to be alone. Not only will I help you girls, but I can do one better, I can get Chantel and Bernard to go around and get people to line up to give us their information. By the time we've done everyone here, Chris and Jocelyn should be back with any others who didn't happen to end up at the field." Richard says turning towards Chantel and Bernard and giving them a small nod to start rounding up people.

"Oh that is just amazing, thank you so much, I can't even explain how much that helps! Okay, so I'll ask the questions, Samantha, you can take down the answers and put them in a notebook, and Richard, well, just remember those that we have gone through already. Sound good?" Cameron asks, looking between Samantha and Richard "Yea, that works fine, let's get this over with, I already know this is going to take until dinnertime." Richard jokes as the three of them take a seat on the first set of bleachers and take the names and ages of all the people on the football field.

Around an hour later Christopher and Jocelyn return to the field with around twenty children in tow, they notice Richard over by the bleachers and head towards him. "Just as I thought, there was a bunch of kids that were alone and needing help, brought them back here until we figure out a plan of what to do." Says Christopher pointing towards the kids behind him "Are you taking names and ages? Smart, Jocelyn, and I were thinking the same thing while walking back. What's it looking like so far?" He finishes curiosity filling his features.

"Well, once we finish up this lot, and then the kids you brought from town, it's looking like everyone is between the ages of four and eight-teen so far, I only say so far because we haven't checked the HCSR university wing, that's where Samantha came from and also where Richard's sister is, according to Samantha, she heard others in their dorms when she felt the urge to come to the football field Why none of them are here, is something we haven't figured out yet, there is a little bit of speculation though." Cameron responds as a matter of fact "I'm guessing you only went through the residential part of town and not the HCSR, correct?" she finishes "Yea, your right, I honestly didn't even think of the university, to be honest, do you think we should see if they are interested in joining the rest of us? Or are we going to leave them alone, I mean no disrespect, but most of the Uni students I've met, turn out to be weird as fuck." Christopher says looking sheepishly at Samantha, who just smiles "Your not wrong, most of us are weird as fuck" Samantha laughs "To be honest, I think we should just leave them, most of them major in research and development, meaning that they are uber suspicious and very cliquey, they don't tend to associate with anyone outside of their work. So, it's best to not try." she finishes

It only took another half hour for the new group of friends to finish taking down the information about the children in the field, by that time, the sun was starting to set and the children were starting to get tired and hungry, so one by one, group by group everyone started heading back to their own houses or ones that they were going to share for fear of being alone without knowing what was going on.