AGAINST THE TIME

Chapter 2

"FINDING THE PROPHECY"

5 years ago

Marcus was in a devastating state because his mother had just died. He just suddenly remembered the death of his mother, Madison.

Marcus suddenly had a flash black of his Mom sitting inside the room, sitting beside him on his bed, holding a picture of her younger self.

Suddenly, another memory flashed through in his mind.

This time, it was his mother waking him up.

"Marcus, sweetie, wake up" he hears the voice of his mother.

"Mom?" Marcus asks

"Marcus, please wake up, we'll be late" his mom says again

Marcus stands up as he fixes his bed for breakfast.

"Breakfast!" His mom calls

"Coming!" He replys

He got down to the living room and went to eat his breakfast.

"Eat your food fast, we're going be late" he says

They ate their breakfast together as they were going to Marcus' recognition ceremony.

*After a few minutes*

They were getting late since they woke up late and had slept in the night before.

"marcus! we had to go" his mom shouted

"ok mom....let's go!" marcus said

They were running late and due to excitement, Marcus just ran into the streets while he didn't knew a truck was going to pass by.

When his mother had noticed, the truck was close by. And without thinking, she dive in to save his son, as she got hit by the truck, blood splashing all over his shirt as he witness his mother dying.

--

Then suddenly, Jasmine notices him

"Marcus" Jasmine calls but he doesn't seem to respond

Jasmine shakes his shoulder and calls him again

"MARCUS" she says louder

“What are you thinking?” Jasmine asks Marcus to which he shakes his head and lets out a sigh

“I just miss my mom…” Marcus said

“Well, she would be very proud right now. Don’t think about negative stuff, okay? It’ll be much more difficult for you” She said

“I can’t stop thinking about her, I love her a lot. It’s like I wish she would be here, PHYSICALLY” He said

“Hey, it’s okay” She says as she rubs his back

“Just know that she would be with you every time, everywhere, alright? Now come on and let’s go because the others are waiting” She said

“Alright, thanks.” He said as they walked out together

They got outside and saw their friends that waited for them.

“Hey Marcus, Jasmine, what took you guys so long? We’ve been waiting here for ages!” Kenzi said, exaggerating

“Sorry you guys had to wait for so long, I just had a thought….” Marcus said

“Was it about your mom again?” Samara asks

Marcus wanted to deny but Angelo spoke up first

“Don’t think about it! Look at your face, there’s a frown planted there” He said

“Come on you guys, we’ll be late for school” Jasmine said

They got to school and attended their ceremony.

Every parent hung up medals on their child,

except for Marcus

They got off the stage and Marcus were instantly met with his bullies.

“Aw, poor Little Marcus, where’s you mom?” one of them asks

“Wait…you don’t have any” He added and with the others, they laughed at his misery

Marcus wanted to fight them but he knew they were so much stronger.

“Don’t bother. I bet no one wanted to come and hang up some medals for your award, besides you barely have any. If I was your guardian, I’d feel ashamed and pretend to be sick” One of them said as the others laughed.

Marcus’ friends were out of sight for the moment so it was just him and his bullies.

He took a deep breath as he walked away towards his friends.

“Okay, so I was thinking about going to camping for tomorrow” Samara said, reminding them about their friendship anniversary.

They had a conversation about their camping tomorrow so they decided to that they’ll pick a forest to camp in, since it would be peaceful and quiet.

Plus, they’ve been to almost every forest near the city.

--

The day of their anniversary comes and they already prepared and got ready for the trip last night so they could leave early incase.

They were about to leave when Marcus noticed that Kenzi and Angelo were missing.

“Wait, where’s Kenzi and Angelo? Weren’t they coming with us?” He asks the rest

Little did he know, the two of them, Kenzi and Angelo, were preparing for a surprise, that’s why they decided to get to the forest first.

“O-oh, yeah they’re coming with us. They just went to town to buy some food to eat on our way there and to eat there” Samara said

But Marcus didn’t seem to buy it.

“Didn’t we already buy enough (food) yesterday? We even bought them together.

What’s going on?” He asks them suspiciously.

“Oh yeah, but it wasn’t enough since for everyone since…” Jasmine said but didn’t finish her sentence

Samara let out a deep sigh and finished the excuse.

“Because I ate some food. You know me, I’m always hungry” She said

Marcus eyed them suspiciously but then he shrugged it off.

“Well, that is true” He says

“Well, let’s get going first, shall we?” He asks as they got their bags and belongings

They silently went to the forest where they were going to camp, and where both Kenzi and Angelo were waiting.

When they had arrived, everyone screamed “SURPRISE” which had startled Marcus.

He looked around and saw Kenzi, Angelo, Samara and Jasmine in front of him and a beautiful but clean design of the forest place both Kenzi and Angelo had done.

He ran towards them and hugged them tightly while they all laughed.

“So. this is where you guys were” He said to Kenzi and Angelo

“Yup” Kenzi said with a smile on her face

“So, what do you think about the place? Is it nice?” Angelo asks

“Nice? It’s way beyond that! It’s absolutely beautiful!” he said looking around one more time.

“Well, thanks. We saw you feeling down yesterday with a frown planted to your face, so we thought it would make you feel better if we surprised you” Jasmine said

“Right, I haven’t told them about the bullying incident yesterday….” Marcus thought but kept a smile on his face

“Well at least this place looks beautiful and clean.” Angelo said

“Should we take a snapshot?” Samara asks referring to a picture.

They had lived during an era where advanced technologies were slowly evolving in planet Proxima-b.

“Alright” Everyone agrees

They got into place as Samara sets her watch on the ground and opened the camera icon.

She then clicked a few more buttons and a squared hologram representing the camera, appeared.

“Take a snapshot in ten seconds” Samara said as she gets into place along with everybody.

The timer countdown had started from 10 and took a picture when it reached to one.

They decided to put up their tent and light up a fire earlier than supposedly.

Hours had passed and they all had fun during those activities they had done.

Before sunset, they decided to prepare for dinner so they won’t need to be troubled when it gets dark.

Since they had hiking tomorrow, they decided to sleep early.

The wind blew stronger

"oh, it's too cold" jasmine said as she get into her tent

They all went to their tents,But just as Marcus was about to get into his tent, it blew towards the campfire they had made and even if they got it out safely, it had holes and signs of burning on it.

“Let’s share tents.” Angelo suggested as Marcus followed.

-THE NEXT DAY-

“Hey, hey wake up” Samara whispers

“We still have plans today. Come on now” She says shaking them.

Both of the boys decided to wake up and they immediately started packing their bags and belongings.

They made sure they threw their trash away properly and had turned the fire off.

They got their already made food as they walked away from the camping site.

“Come on” Jasmine says as they started to get closer to their destined mountain.

When they got to the bottom of the mountain, they decided to rest and eat more food for more energy.

"Wait, how about we talk about how we met?" Marcus suggested

"Yes let's do that" Jasmine agrees

"So, what happened is um..." Samara said thinkimg about what had really happened and tried to recall her memories while letting out a little laugh

"Kenzi was like the friend group leader" Angelo said laughing

"Ahh yes, I remember that" Kenzi said then laughed

"I was very friendly" Kenzi said

"Yeah, you were very friendly that time and you still are" Samara said then they all laughed

"Wait, didn't we met at that one event? What was it called again?" Samara turned to Kenzi, hoping she would know the answer

"I forgot. That was ages ago" Kenzi said

"As long as I know, my mom and Samara's mom were close and we met at an event both of our moms attended then became best friends ever since then!" Samara said

Marcus laughed and said "That's how I met Kenzi too but Angelo and I were already best friends. We were both failing in class so we both got a tutor"

"Yeah and that one time I wanted to copy from your homework but then you declined and told the teacher" Angelo said

"Your being to serious" Kenzi said then laughed

"I wanted to be close when you guys wanted to roam around but Samara and Jasmine already invited me to eat lunch, so I obvuously prioritize them first" Kenzi said

They all had a good laugh and had decided to climed the mountain and take a rest.

"Do you guys want to break the best record for climbing a mountain fast?" Kenzi asked

Yes, we need to do that too. Wait, does anyone know the best record?" Marcus daid

"26 hours and 7 minutes" Jasmine said

"So, we'll have breaks every half an hour, right?" Angelo asked

"Yeah, so let's get going since we haven't reached half an hour yet" Jasmine said

Hours had passed but Kenzi was getting tired.

"You guys go up ahead, I'll be resting here" Kenzi said

"We aren't even half of beating the record" Jasmine said

"Yeah but I'm super tired so I'll stay here for now"

"Oh, all right. Take care" Jasmine said

"Come on" Angelo said

They continued to walk except for Kenzi but Kenzi, she didn't knew that they were coming back for her since they had already packed everything.

Kenzi had tried to follow them but she was too late for they were far away and left almost to none trail.

The others had comeback to where Kenzi was supposedly, but instead, they saw no signs of her.

"Kenzi, come on! Stop hiding" Marcus said

"Kenzi!" Angelo shouted

"Guys, let's spilt up and find her." Jasmine suggested

They all split into two's and tried looking for her everywhwre

Meanwhile, Kenzi was lost, she also had tried to find her way back.

The sun were setting so they had decided to call her using via watch.

"It's not ringing" Samara said

"There's no signal here" Jasmine said

"Where did she go ?" Angelo also panicked

"We are so dead..." Marcus said

"Try calling 491" Angelo suggested

491 was the national number for calling help but they still couldn't reach it.

Suddenly, they heard a voice.