Chasing the wind

   “The few have ignored the needs of the many.” The embodiment of the water spirit spoke, looking almost sad.     “For this reason, we find humanity worthy of another chance.” Never moving an inch, not even their lips, the wind spirit whispered into the ears of everyone in the room.     “Under certain conditions.” Smoke visibly rising off them, the fire spirit announced for all to hear.     “If these conditions are broken… then we will return.” The earth moving with every word the earth spirit spoke unphased by it all.      “If we do, then the day of humanity will end!” They all spoke in unison.    At this moment, everyone in the room knew these would be the only words that would shape the future. Even if no one else knew that they were spoken, it was still deafening for all around the world. Given an ultimatum overcome with fear, relief, and anger. Every country began to plan for a future vastly different from the paths they were previously on.                                                                                            ~     “So, class, what can we interpret from this passage? What do you think the author was trying to get across to the reader?” Ms. Wilson asks, looking around at the students. Briana’s hand went up in the air before Ms. Wilson was even done talking. Without also looking in her direction, she said expectedly, “Yes, Briana.”     Briana jumped up from her seat and pronounced, “The author was trying to get across the severity of the current state of civilization at the time.”     “Care to explain what state they may have found themself in might have been?     “Well, obviously since they used four speakers, then there are four problems. We can figure economic and political since they decided to speak directly with the world leaders. We can figure there is a widespread illness based on the previous chapters, and war is happening because of the passing remarks about a draft. Obviously, they were writing about an uprising that happened but was smothered by the government.”      Unable to focus on her words with my foot tapping on the floor. My mind is flying a mile a minute, pulling up images on a private alternate screen overlapping with the edge of the class.      “Well done, Briana, like always. Would you care to read the next passage aloud for the class?”     As she began to speak, I sank deeper and deeper into my own little world. That world filled with irrational possibilities of the past and questions of the present. Flipping through material faster and faster jolted when a notification pops up on the classroom in big red flashing letters. Closing out of my private screen and focusing entirely on the classroom again, I notice it’s dead quiet with the teacher looking at me.      When I dare to look up, Ms. Wilson starts speaking again this time, not as enthusiastically as when speaking with Briana. “Ms.Sparrow, would you like to share with the class what have you so worked up? Please, the class would love to know what you are mumbling about so excitedly. Is it perhaps you don’t agree with our analysis of the story thus far?”     Clearing my throat and bowing my head slightly, I say, “No, sorry. I guess I just got a little bit too excited by the material.”     “Sure, you were. Don’t let it happen again or I’ll increase the volume and playback the imaging of whatever it is you're muttering so we can all be let in on your thoughts. Do I make myself clear?”     “Yes ma’am,” I say, sinking back into my seat with my head down.     “Good. Marcuse, please continue reading where you left off.”    With class continuing again, I read at my own pace taking mental notes but not reopening my other screen. Thoughts of elemental magic filling my mind. Careful not to get too carried away. Lost in my thoughts, I don’t realize when the class times out automatically closing. I don't even notice the homework notification on my desk screen until I feel a tap on my shoulder. Slightly jumping, I realize the only thing in front of me is the learning room in my house. I lift the glasses and rub my temple, relieved that my classes are finally done for the day.     Turning around, I see William’s little half-grin as all six feet of him stands over me, sitting in my seat. He sighs saying, “You know I didn’t code that back door storage so you could ignore your classes? Can’t you at least hide your excitement when you aren’t paying attention?”      Looking off to the side, I mumble, “I don’t know what you mean.”     “Oh, you don’t?”  Crouching down next to me, he taps on my desk screen, saying, “Look, your class score went down again, and you have a class review message too.”     Wincing, I barely dare to look to see a score of seventy. “It’s ok with my assignment grades; it averages out to eighty-nine. So, it’s not too bad, right?”     He chuckles, swiping at my screen to send the independent assignment to my cloud file then pulls me from my seat. “Come on, that was your last class, and I’m starving. You should feel bad for me. I've been waiting patiently after my last class ended.”     “You could have left without me to get something to eat, you know.”      “I couldn’t just leave your house without letting you know. Plus, it was your idea I came over so we could have school together kind of like people used to do. Which, if I’m honest, is kinda odd, and it’s very random info for you to know and expect me to know.”       Chuckling, I pull on my arm, trying to get him to stop to no avail. “I asked you to come over so we could talk about something I found after school. The idea of having school together was your idea. I just offered a little extra knowledge, is all.”     “Oh, come for school, after school, what’s the difference anyway? Let’s eat first, and then we can talk about whatever it is.”     He tries pulling me to the front door to leave the house, but before he could open it, the image on the door changes to show the delivery person and the doorbell chimes. William turns to me with a look of slight annoyance. Shrugging my shoulders, I go, “I knew you were going to be hungry. This way, we can talk and eat.”     William plops on my bed and grabs a slice of pizza as I start digging out the materials around my room. Used to my craze, William asks passively, “How long has it been this time?”      Spreading out everything on the floor before I attempt a response, “I don’t know what you mean?”      “You promised you would sleep at least four hours a day, and why do you have paper materials this time? You know how flimsy it is?”      “I knew you would say that, but some of this information is incomplete or completely absent on the net, even the darknet. Don’t worry though I scanned it all into my private vault. Oh, and thanks for that again the pizza is my thanks.”     Talking with his mouth full, he goes, “Then why can’t I look at the scanned versions?”    Rolling my eyes, I finally finish sorting through everything and grab the book I was looking for. I sit on the bed next to him and use my watch to bring up holographic images of pages from the book we are reading from in class. “You simply have no finesse, do you? So, you see here it talks about how all these different natural disasters happened simultaneously, which science tells us isn’t possible, well highly unlikely. When I say simultaneously, I don’t mean like the one happened then shortly after another happened, I mean at the exact same instance. Floods, fires, hurricanes, volcanic activity, solar flares basically you name it, and it happened. Not only that, but each type seemed localized in a type of way.”     I show the maps I made based on the info in the book and the map I found in the deep records from a day that happened in the past. Talking around the pizza, William shoves into my mouth, pointing at the maps I go, “See, they match up almost perfectly.”     William shrugs and goes, “So what, it’s not rare for an author to use actual events when they are writing and considering the state of the planet of the time it’s not surprising. The earth was at the peak of global warming. A massive-scale event like that could have happened.”     “Sure, I’ll give you that, but this wasn’t an event that happened for a few hours; it lasted for three days exactly. A three-day global weather event that no one saw any signs of ahead of time, that’s a bit hard to believe. People had to be rushed to bunkers at the last minute, and the casualties were high but only in certain places. It’s as if a few countries had prepared for it.” Bringing up two new maps, one showing the casualties from the book and the other with casualties from the same days from the previous map.      Glancing out of the corner of my eye, I see a little amused but interested look on William's face. Continuing, I say, “According to the book, there was a warning issued out to the governments of this mass weather event. In the book, only a few governments take it seriously and prepare for it saving as many as they could. Looking at the records of events from the same days as the mass global event, we can see something similar happened in reality. Not nearly as many people died as you would expect from such a random weather event, which is very odd. I don’t have proof of there being a mass message getting sent out, but I do have documented proof of governments issuing of mass evacuations.”     William nods and points at the book in my hand, asking, “Are the documents in there?”     I shake my head and point at the floor “They are down there, and I can show you later. First, this book is someone’s diary kind of; it’s their personal accounts of the events that were happening. Some of it’s just rambling, but there is some useful information here. It’s as if they were trying to prove that something like what was happening in this book was actually happening.”     “Were there any news articles? I feel like something like this would have been documented publicly. Why would this person need to prove it if it happened? We’ve never learned anything about any of this in history class or our eco class.”      “I’m not sure, but I’m sure the answer is somewhere in here. If the book is a good account of what happened, then that means the public wasn’t supposed to know fully about what was going on. We aren’t supposed to know about it. I just can’t figure out why.”     Taking the book from my hand, he starts to flip through it and mutters, “Eat. We can go over more of this after you eat. If you don’t eat, then I don’t stay that simple.”    Blushing, I grab a slice of pizza and start eating watching William. He always listens to my nonsense, but I didn’t think it would be this easy to get him to take my research seriously. While eating unable to stop my brain, I run through thousands of scenarios of why this might have been hidden again. Then a new thought crosses my mind. If all this was hidden as I think and the truth is still actively being suppressed to this day, what would happen if it got out?