Other side

Ch 12// the <Z>

Kerry got into her room and slammed the door. She fell into bed and covered her face with her hands. The girl was tired, although nothing special had happened today, just another ordinary day, but the news told by her parents at the dinner table had derailed the girl. She didn't even know exactly what she was angry about, or that her parents were leaving, or that she couldn't reveal worries about herself. At that moment, she suddenly realised that James had not contacted with her today, even to say hello. "Strange," Carrie thought. A day ago he could not be stopped so that the guy would stop disturbing Kerry, today he seems to have fallen into a pit. The girl had doubts now about whether she has not had all this dream, but then the girl would know it. But you can't have several dreams with the same person, even in different places, when you could feel feelings that could not be forgotten. Everything was real, there was no doubt about it, but where is James left? On the one hand, Kerry didn't even want to see him, at that moment she didn't want to see anyone else talking.

Then the girl suddenly remembered the gift she had bought in the little shop with her parents. At that time she met a strange woman who had said something to her, but Kerry couldn't remember anything exactly. The wrapped gift was still on the top shelf, completely intact. Arriving at the closet, the girl stretched out and lifted it. The box was placed on the floor, and she sat down next to it on her knees. Kerry began to unpack it.

The wooden box was wrapped in a transparent film. Tearing it apart, the young woman threw the film in the trash next to the table. There was a symbol engraved on the lid of the box. Stylized letter "Z", calligraphically stylized. Kerry opened the box, which contained everything she needed: different colors of ink in small containers, different types of ink nozzles, the ink pen itself, a cloth, sheets of paper, and a booklet describing the training.

Although Kerry was grateful and satisfied with what she saw, something seemed wrong to her. Perhaps a little disappointed, the young woman had hoped for something more that would be more impressive, because she remembered how the owner of the shop had said something unusual. That something needs to be protected. But what? Kerry did see in this box nothing special. The girl closed it, but she was still holding the box in her hands. Kerry couldn't take her hands off it. Her gaze was focused on the symbol. Even without thinking, the girl crossed the engraved sign with her fingertips, then repeated it several times with one finger as if she was drawing the letter, it calmed the girl.

Then she slowly put her hands on her knees, thinking, whatever she thought, the woman was probably just weird. But when Kerry stretched out her hands to the side of the box, threatening to put it on the table, the letter shone lightly. Flashing for a few seconds, a rectangular shape shone around it. The girl leaned closer. Then the symbol was, so to speak, broken in the middle, and each broken half slid inside the box surface to its side. The view opened into a recess with something like a glass rod. Kerry took a closer look at the new case, doubting it at first, but later took it out of the pit. Glass was (it seemed to Kerry that it was glass) not smooth. The wand was octagonal in shape, with pointed tapers at both ends. It was no longer than fifteen centimetres, width less than one cm, about 5 - 7mm. Carry, holding it in her hands, studied it a little. Around the centre of the stick, the young woman saw the same identical symbol as on the lid of a wooden box, only much smaller, because to see it, her eyesight had to be strained. The thing Kerry was holding in her hands seemed to get a little heavier. Not very severe, but there was a difference. Looking at the glass rod, its centre began to glow a dim bluish light. At first, it only flashed in the middle of the wand, but it grew bigger and brighter. The girl did not notice it, but her eyes gradually began to shine, suddenly the surroundings changed.

At first, before Kerry's eyes, a parallel reality emerged, only older. There was a huge building, reminiscent of a base. The view flashed like a click of the camera's flash, and the inside of the base appeared in front of my eyes. Another flash. Huge space, all around there were devices of different technologies, tables connected in rows, computers on them, connected with metal plates, while there were switches, buttons and screens with cookies. People were sitting at these tables, all in costumes reminiscent of scientists, it really was. In the middle of the room was a huge turbine bubbling with electrical vortices - pure energy that came from an unprecedented source of energy. A metal grid bridge was attached above the turbine, which was set up there to observe energy from above. The bridge was built just above the turbine, to the side where the energy flow was not blocked, and there was only one path. You could go to the end of the bridge, where there is a dead end - just above the turbine, and back. Another flash. A woman with a child in her arms appeared on the bridge. Her daughter was held tightly in her arms and she watched the energy. Suddenly a bang sounded, then the sound of the wheels. Large tool carts interfered with the woman at high speed. The mother realized that she had nowhere to go, there was no way to avoid being hit by a heavy stroller. Although the woman tried to protect the little girl, the stroller hit the top too quickly, knocking the child out of her hands, herself, almost falling into the energy turbine, clinging to the grids at the last moment - the woman, holding with one hand, hung over the energy. The trolley, hitting the woman, flew over the bridge railings next to the turbine as a result of inertia, several tools fell outside, some fell on top of the bridge, many flew inside the turbine, others on metal plates, where the switches were, thus activating different actions at the same time, which can lead to an explosion. But baby... it fell straight into the energy turbine. Stopping right in the middle of the turbine... "in the air". The whole flow of energy began to seep inside the girl. Everything absorbed into the child and continued to seep... chaos reigned, objects flew through the air, the turbine glass, which is almost indestructible, began to c***k. The woman shouted... 

Kerry quickly backed away and dropped the glass rod on the carpet. At the same moment it stopped to shine, did not look anything unusual. Kerry was breathing fast. She didn't know what to do now. What this vision, an event meant, Kerry didn't know what she had just seen. The brunette approached the glass rod, pushed the sweater sleeve over her wrist, the young woman carefully picked it up and put it back in the recess of the box, it immediately closed, hiding the strange thing from the gaze. She placed the box back on top of the closet and covered it with a white cloth. Although her mind was troubled by the thought of trying to touch the discovered thing again, Kerry refrained from this idea and, convinced that she had already done everything by tomorrow, went to take a bath and soon to sleep.

**************

“Maybe we should get up them and say goodbye?” Mother suggested, pulling on her coat when it was a little past five in the morning.

"They will be more annoyed that we have awakened them than happy to say peaceful farewell," his father doubted, "by the way, however, we left them each with a note, where we explained the exact time, how long we would be away, and I also left them amount of money for each, that should be enough for them."

"I don't know. Maybe though..."

"Everything is going to be fine. We have to go, otherwise we will miss the flight."

"I hope you're right. It is a pity that we cannot take them there." 

That was like a slap in the face to father:

"Are you kidding me? Don't remember how it turned out last time? Even do not allow such an opportunity, forget such a thought," he set out in a strong, warning voice.

"I remember..." said her mother, but immediately something hurt her heart, and she quickly said like an confirmation, "no, of course not, we cannot do that."

The mother remembered how many years ago she almost lost one of her daughters at the base. She would not be able to survive it if something like this happened again. Thank God, everyone survived. But there were the consequences, no one foresaw them...