Character Roleplays discussion

Everyone has just disappeared.
*cues action*

While humming along to a favorite tune playing on her Grooveshark page, Helena flipped through a fun sci-fi book(she had already finished her schoolwork for the day) as her mother watched some boring mystery show.
It took her a little while to notice that something was wrong. Her laptop was quiet, but she just assumed that Grooveshark was being glitchy or her laptop was being slow. But when she realized that the tv wasn't making any noise but static and she couldn't hear the sounds of her mom tapping away on the keyboard, she looked away from her book. Her lovely, safe book. So much better than reality.
The first thing she noticed was her laptop screen showing that there was some sort of error connecting to the internet. The next thing she noticed was the room as a whole. The buzzing, staticy tv on the wall with the floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, the stack of books by the empty, plump black couch, the dark blue curtains covering the bay windows, and her lovely Black Russian Terrier running around the room and looking somehow confused.
"Come here, Circe." Helena leaned over and grabbed her dog gently by the collar. "What's wrong, girl?" She asked the dog and gave it an affectionate pet. "Let's go find mom."
Tossing her book to the side, she got up and turned off the television. With the soft padding of Circe's footsteps following her she made her way through the house. "Mom?"
Nothing but silence replied to her. Where could her mom had gone? She probably just missed her wander off... maybe she had to go somewhere?
"Come on, Circe." Helena crossed the dining room and walked back into the living room, crossing the soft carpet to get to the spot on the couch her mom always seemed to claim.
Worry started to creep in when she noticed the phone on the couch and the laptop running with the pages still open and not saved. That was so not something her mom would do if she were planning to go anywhere. "Mom?" She called out once more, uncertainly. When nothing but silence replied again, panic started to creep in.
She found herself gripping her mom's phone and typing in the password to check past calls and the calendar. No... nothing recent enough. Where was she?
Just as she started shutting off the phone, she noticed that it didn't have any coverage at all. No cell phones? They always could call people in their house with the cell phone!
Normally Helena was a very calm, understanding, level-headed person. Normally she could think things out. She rarely freaked out over anything. Very little upset her. But something... something was wrong. Something had happened, and the shock of it gripped her with a cold, dark fear.
Panic sent her sprinting towards the door. She bolted out and stopped abruptly at the sight of a car drifting along slowly with no driver, and a car wreck at the end of the road by the stop sign. Someone's baby stroller lay abandoned in the middle of the crosswalk, the baby left crying inside.
A part of her recognized the stroller as belonging to her neighbor. No way on earth would that stern lady leave her baby in the middle of the road like that. Forcing her mind to block out the fear and panic swelling up in her, she pulled the cart out of the road and set it in the shade. She'd get back to it....
For now, she needed to see what was going on elsewhere. Something was very, very wrong, and she wanted to find out what.
With a quick call for Circe to catch up, she sprinted off towards the town hall. That would be where more answers could be found, right? Maybe? Hopefully?

((woah... all our posts don't need to be that long right?))

[hmmmm I don't believe so, but from what I've experienced from one of Lynx's old roleplays she is like megaboss roleplaying pro.]

Blake blinked and looked up from reading the nutritional facts on the back of a box of Cookie Crisp. Looking around she frowned at the abandonded cart in the aisle way. "People really shouldn't leave carts out like this. It's just a hassle." she muttered and walked over to push the cart to the front of the store where some worker could deal with it. Touching the front of the cart she paused, "Purse.....milk? Who leaves milk in a cart, or a purse?" Frowning she looked around as if expecting someone to jump out from behind one of the displays and yell 'gotcha' or something equally dumb.
Told you things were changing....., the hairs on the back of Blake's neck rose up as she heard the whisper and she gripped onto the cart tightly to avoid from falling to the ground as her knees went weak. Dropping the box of ceral she turned and raced through the store, towards the exit, checking every aisle as she ran past. In each aisle there were abandoned items, luckily there were no small children, most of the kids being in a daycare of at school. As the sound of her converse hitting the linolium echoed throughout the grocery store, Blake had to bit her lip to keep from shouting out or falling in a heap and crying. Things weren't normal and no matter how badly she wanted to believe she was crazy and this was some hallucination she couldn't bring herself to think that.

♣

Riley looked up from his notebook, the ongoing drone of the teacher had stopped. In fact there weren't even the hushed conversations of girls as they talked behind hands to their friends. Everyone in the class looked like they had seen a ghost and one of Riley's buddies, Justin, tried to give a laugh. It sounded like a laugh that you'd give when you just saw someone die. Shaking his head Riley frowned, the door hadn't shut, so that meant that their teacher hadn't left. Well, where was he?
Putting his pen in his pocket Riley grabbed his notebook and stood. Heading for the door he decided he wanted to know what was going on. He wasn't going to sit around like a chicken waiting to be slaughtered. Going out into the hallway he started to head out of the school and towards town hall. He paused at every door to check and see if there was anyone inside, but in all classrooms it seemed as though every adult was gone. It's got to be a prank or something..... he hoped as he left the school grounds, praying to get some answers.

((aww, thanks. I never thought of myself as such. :)
and yeah, they can be as long or as short as you wish them to be, Esther. I find I usually have really long beginning posts, then they slowly get shorter as things go along and I start talking to people in the rp. Don't worry about length of posts at all, really.))

Silence.

Perfect... Silence.

As hard as Shane tried to listen, that was all he could hear. Aside from his own breathing, a heartbeat that was starting to pick up and his footsteps crunching the graveled asphalt of the highway, there was absolutely nothing. It seemed like the birds had stopped chirping, the insects had stopped buzzing. As if everything had just shut up for once... Waiting.

Mom and Dad are just playing a prank. He tried to reason with himself. Like the one time on the Savannah, when they ducked into the long grass and made him hunt for them. Sure, it hadn't taken more than 5 minutes for his mom to burst out laughing and give them away, but it had already been 3. There was nowhere to hide out here in the hilly roadside, and he had only looked away from them for a minute... No. Not even thirty seconds. What had happened? Where are they?

It wasn't long until he saw a car. Shane couldn't tell if someone was in the vehicle or not, so he broke into a jog towards it, waving. There was no indication that the driver had noticed him, but the car wasn't reversing either, so that was a good sign. Maybe I can hitchhike back to town? Maybe that's what Mom and Dad did, I just didn't hear them... His stomach began to sink. There was no way that would happen, his parents wouldn't just abandon him completely. Could they still be back at the campsite? He wondered, nervousness starting to make him itch. He wanted to run, but he knew he had to conserve stamina. He was still a ways away from town. For now, he could just focus on a short-term goal.


Shane didn't stop when he didn't see someone in the car. He didn't even make a sound. He just followed suit of the silence and walked on As he neared the green Volkswagen Van, however, he could tell a lot of things.

The engine was running.
The radio was on, playing static.
There was a drink in the cup holder.
There was a woman's wallet in the other.
There was no indication of them to have left.

He felt sick as he opened the door to the car. Predictably unlocked. The keys were still in the ignition, and when he put his palm against the seat, there was a lingering warmth. And it wasn't from the sun.

Shane's head was empty as he got in the driver's seat. No, he didn't have a permit. But he did know how to drive. Shutting the door securely and buckling up, he lightly tapped the gas and shuddered when the wheels revved in return. ...Gotta get back to town. There's gotta be... Somebody around, right? He thought, pulling off the road and turning around before flooring it.


=========================================================


Zachary was furious.

No... Not furious. Beyond furious.

He was terrified.

With a stick, the five year old was hastily scratching in the dirt, his chocolate brown eyes wide with fear and anxiety. The rest of the children in the park were obivious. But he was completely aware.

There was a circle. A line was drawn from the edge of the circle, and then crossed through a little less than half way down. Two lines branched out shortly from the end of the line, and a smiley face was drawn in the circle. "Daddy". Next to it, another circle and smiley face. Some lines curled down out from either end of the circle, and then there was another line. Yet again, a line crossed through a little less than half way down the line, and two more lines branched out from the end, their ends connected by another line. "Mommy".

Two large X's were drawn through the figures.

Horrified, Zachary dropped the stick. He was nonplussed. He didn't know what to think at such a young age, with such a feeble mind. He understood exactly what he had drawn. He understood exactly what he had written. And he understood exactly what it meant. He raised his head from the dirt patch he called his drawing board, scanning the edge of the park. The two nice young people who had been sitting on a bench together peacefully. Gone. The girl's colorful knitted hat remained on the seat. The kind old lady who had been feeding the birds. Gone. The bag of breadcrumbs had landed on the pavement as if unwanted, spilling its contents in a heap.The daddy who had been pushing his daughter on the swing. Gone. She swung happily, not noticing the lack of hands on her back as she swung on her perch.

His parents, who had been watching him from afar from another bench.

Gone. And his mommy's favorite brown purse was sitting, abandoned.

It was building up in his throat before he could stop it. It had set into his gut and wormed its way out like a foreign alien that had finally hatched from an egg inside his intestines. He took a deep breath to calm himself down. Then another, and another. Then a third.

And then, he screamed.

He screamed as loud as he possibly could, causing all four of the other children at the playground to stop what they were doing and look. It was blood curdling. Toe curling. Hair raising. And it cried out pure anguish at what had transpired in the universe. He ran out of breath before long, panting as he recovered, but it wasn't long until he tearfully sucked in another lungful of air and started it all over again.

It wasn't long before he was joined by another child who had realized that their mother was no longer sitting under a tree on her cellphone. Then, two siblings joined in as they realized that their parents were no longer pushing the stroller that contained their two other siblings. The last child joined in as they realized that they were the only one left out, but it didn't matter. Zach just needed attention. He needed someone to come rescue them.

And so far, the streets were empty.

Genny grabbed a branch with one hand and 'swung' through the air. She expected her mother to say something along the lines of 'Genevieve! Don't hurt the trees like that!' but her voice never came. Ah well, maybe they'd finally realized Genny was big enough to do that now. She was 13, after all, and quite a bit bigger than most other girls her age. She could swing from trees if she wanted; it wasn't like they were going to break. Things most likely to break from that were her nails; her beautiful, long, silvery nails.

She the swinging thing again; still, nothing. In fact, she couldn't hear her parents talking anymore. "Mom, could you get me a water bottle?" she called without looking back; that should get her to answer. Silence.

"Mom? Dad!" she finally turned around; her parents were completely out of sight. Prank was the first thing that came to her mind; her father would often stop and let Genny continue on for a while without her noticing, but... Her mother didn't like that, she was far to protective to let her child wander off. Not precious Genny.
"Mom?" Genny backtracked, past the tree she'd first swung on, down the wide trail. "Mom, dad, come out now, this isn't funny," she called, putting her hands on her hips and striding through.

Crack. Genny lifted her foot up quickly and jumped back. She'd stepped on a pair of glasses, abandoned there in the middle of the trail. What idiot would forget his glasses in the middle of a state park? She thought, crouching down and picking them up.
The frame was wide, though the glass was just about the right size for her dad. She held them up to her eyes. One was normal, one was all funky. She couldn't tell whether it was for near- or far-sightedness.

She examined them closer; she could take her time, eventually her parents would start moving and they'd find her. The frame was copper-brown, shiny, as though they were either new or very well taken care of. Right by the glass there were little squiggly lines; she couldn't describe them to anybody, they were just... squiggly. Next to no pattern at all.
She flipped them over, to see the inside. Nothing too different; little grippy lines on the ends so they wouldn't fall off(what a help that was), and a little pockety thing on one side. She opened it without a second thought, and pulled out a little piece of paper: Mark Bandit.

"Dad?" she said aloud, reading the paper repeatedly. They couldn't be her dad's, although they do fall off a lot... What about her mom? Where was she?
Genny stood up and looked around. There was nothing except... A purple blanket by a tree, and a backpack peeking out underneath it. Genny removed the purple blanket, and saw three water bottles sitting in their holsters. In messy Sharpie writing - Genna instantly recognized it as her mother's - on the wrappers on the bottles were three names: one for each bottle. Mark, Nina, Genevieve.

Genna stood up very fast. Where'd they gone? She looked down at the ground to try to find more clues to where they could've gone, but the path was too well used; all the footprints overlapped each other. Her feet seemed to be almost missing, too, but that wasn't something to worry about. Probably just covered in mud, camouflaged to the path.

Genna ran, fast, down the path out of the park. Maybe she could find a park ranger or something to help. She was nowhere near the end of the park, she had to go fast. Only problem: she wasn't so great at going fast.

Lynx wrote: "((aww, thanks. I never thought of myself as such. :)
and yeah, they can be as long or as short as you wish them to be, Esther. I find I usually have really long beginning posts, then they slowly g..."

((thanks XD i've always been bad at super long posts but ill try to make a detailed first one... dear god i really dont feel like reading all of those...))

Ciel sat in her desk, listening to the teacher like the good person she was. Although to everyone around her she was simply staring into space, doodling little designs on her note-free piece of paper, she could always remember what the teacher said. She didn't see the point of taking notes. When he said to solve a problem she let her mind wander, changing the weight of her pencil without realizing it. Once it got to about 10lbs Ciel almost dropped it. She looked up at the teacher, before realizing he was gone.

Poof, disappeared. She looked around at the other puzzled students.

"Where'd he go?" She mumbled, thinking that she might have missed him leaving while she was absorbed in her pencil.

"Dunno, he dissapeared." The person next to her said.

Frowning, she stood up and walked to the front. Ciel looked under the desk, poked her head out the door, she couldn't find him.

"What's going on?"

((Yeah, don't worry about it. Post as long or as short as you are comfortable with.))

Shane raced down the highway with little regard to traffic laws. It had been about 10 minutes since he got in the car and started driving, and in that time, his nerves had been successfully frayed.

A mile back he had passed by a line of cars. All of them were empty when he got out to inspect them, and all of them contained evidence that the people inside driving would have had no reason to suddenly drop everything and leave. Shane had had the option to switch cars and get a Mustang in that little window of time, but he figured that the van he was currently driving in was much more useful; especially if he found anybody else around here. Perdido Beach and the area surrounding it was usually quite an active place... Hopefully, there would at least be one other person, maybe a group of other people that knew what was going on, and he could take them out of here.

Shane's knuckles turned white when he saw a car over the hill in his lane. He figured he would just drive by it, but instinct got the better of him when he saw something on the window. As he got closer, he leaned forward in his seat to get a better look, but then immediately regretted it when he realized what it was.

Blood.

Shane slammed on the brakes, cutting it all too close as his fender nearly rammed into the bumper of the next vehicle. He almost made a dent in the car's exterior as he shut the door with so much force, trembling violently. He really didn't want to know. He really, really didn't want to know. And yet, he had to. He had to know what they were up against.

When Shane looked into the window, his heart nearly broke in half. A little girl, maybe the age of 6, was face down in the space between the rear seats and the driver seat. There was blood on the window, where she had presumably smashed her head repeatedly out of some desire to get out, and blood was splattered nearly everywhere. With anguish, Shane bit his lip, examining the rest of the car. The doors were indeed locked, maybe because her parents hadn't wanted her to open the door and roll out onto the highway. Her name was Susie, as written on a cute pink backpack sitting on the seat opposite where she laid.

And then, he heard a loud, drawn out whine and a whimper come from the trunk.

=========================================================

((Would someone like to be awesome and pick up poor Zach??? ;u;))

Zachary's throat got sore before anybody came looking for the children. He felt disappointed. Angry, even, that nobody had come even when he had done his best (as a 5 year old) to raise hell. He had paused in his screaming to take another breath, but was interrupted as he broke out into a fit of coughs. His lungs weren't meant for this. But somebody had to do it.

The other children carried on, screaming and thrashing wildly as they cried buckets, trying to call their missing parents back. Zachary had stopped that utter nonsense, knowing that it was pointless. He wasn't going to call mommy and daddy back... They weren't coming back.

Climbing out of the sand pit and walking over to where his parents had sat, he gently lifted his mother's purse off the bench and cradled it, sniffing the leather. It still smelled of vanilla and cherries, the perfume that he remembered his daddy complimenting her about. She had smelled differently before, but after that, she had only smelled like this. And he liked it too. He slung the handles over his shoulder like a backpack, then retrieved his real backpack from the dirt underneath the chair.

Pulling out a pencil and his infamous sketchbook, he pulled on the little string that was sticking out the bottom and flipped the pages to it. Quickly replicating his picture in the dirt, he brushed his overly-long bangs out of his eyes and began carefully turning back through his book.

There were various pictures. Some of trees and flowers, some of people (stick figures) doing various tasks, and some of miscellaneous events that he had cared to draw. He was looking for only one, however. And he knew which one it was. He just had to find it. Placing the book briefly on the bench, he hefted himself up, sitting where his father's cologne lingered as he searched for what he needed; the screams of other children ringing hollowly in his ears.

((I can))

Her heart pounded loudly in her ears as she sucked in short gasps of air. Unfortunately, Helena was not as fit as she wished. A fast sprinter, sure. But no good at long distance.
A few blocks in she slowed to a fast walk to catch her breath as she took in the chaos around her, cold dread building up in her. What on earth was going on?
As she walked her mind went over the current situation. Phones, nonexistant. Internet? nope. Adults, gone. Blinked out in the space of a second. Why? Who knows. Some strange wrath of God happening? No... God wouldn't do that, would he? Was it aliens? Were they under attack?
Helena shuddered and reached out to run her hands through Circe's fur, seeking something even a little bit normal.
Her mind continued running a million miles an hour. Adults gone... what did that mean? Little kids are still here, and everything else seemed normal except for the disasters from the adults disappearing in the middle of things.
A huge weight seemed to settle on her shoulder as tears sprang to her eyes. Holy crap.... would the adults ever return? Were they cut off from the rest of the world? If they were gone forever... they had a lot to do! How on earth could the world be ran by young teenagers! The thought was even worse than the thought of all the adults disappearing.
'Calm down! Calm down, Helena. Think, think. A list. What needs done?' She sought after something to distract her from the horror that had been dropped on them. And all that she could find to focus on was a plan. But hey, if you have to focus on something that is the best thing that can happen! Helena had always been a logical girl and known by family as someone who didn't freak out over anything. Often though, her logical side got her some hate directed to her because she could be a complete control freak. She always felt things were her responsibility, and like she needed to make sure it was all done right. Control and trust was something she had much trouble handing over to people.
'1)Find out if areas out of town still have adults
2)Get everyone together to go over what needs done. But what else needs done?'
The gears in her mind turned over that thought as she started walking past the park. She hadn't gone far when a little kid, maybe only two or three, ran over to Helena and held onto her leg, crying. "I want my mommy!" the kid wailed. "Take me to mommy!"
Nervousness filled Helena as she carefully knelt down and gave the kid a hug. She had never, ever been good with little kids, yet they often seemed to be drawn to her if they weren't intimidated by her. "Shhh.... I don't know where your mommy is. Okay? I don't know." She winced as the child wailed loudly in her ear, then continued in as calm of a voice as she could manage, "We can go look for your mommy, okay? Why don't we do that. Stop crying, everything will be okay. I'll be sure of that, alright?" As she softly told those words to the little kid her gaze took in the rest of the park. There was maybe half a dozen kids there, many of them crying. Something clearly needed done about this.
"Come on, let's go get a popsicle." Helena carefully picked up the little kid, who was only crying quietly now, and walked over to the ice cream truck that always seemed to be parked right next to the park. She felt weird trespassing into the truck, but did so figuring the owner no longer was there and if the nice guy who owned it came back she would pay him for it. Her gaze flickered to take in everything in the truck before she walked over to a freezer and pulled out a popsicle for the little kid she was carrying. After pulling off the wrapper she set down the kid and handed her the popsicle. Helena then reached into the freezer and pulled out half dozen more sweets. "Okay, come on." She headed out with the little girl toddling along behind her.
As well as she could, Helena spent the next ten minutes giving the crying kids sweets to distract their minds while saying comforting words. She wished she could just hurry up and go to the town hall to see if there was anything else she could learn, but she felt it wrong to just leave the kids here all alone and crying. It would only make more chaos. So she spent her time working as well as she could to calm the young children. The last little kid she went to was the one who seemed the most calm and was sitting on a bench. "Hey, do you want a popsicle? It's strawberry." She knelt down in front of the kid and gave him a kind, if somewhat weary smile.

Shane was back in the van, driving at a slower pace down the interstate. He felt drained and hollow, as if not even the worst jump-scare would make him flinch. In that car, that silver Nissan Altima, he saw two things that would never, ever leave his memory. A little girl who died trying to leave her car, and a little golden retriever who was too weak to even move.

As much as it pained Shane as an animal lover to have had to abandon the helpless pup, he had no choice. Moving the dog would have killed it.

But now, he was all the more resolved to get to the bottom of whatever the hell was going on.

The highway was blissfully empty of traumatizing scenes as Shane drove. Nothing distracted him from the slightly hazy asphalt as he recognized the hills just northwest of that one preppy school. Coaty Academy, or something like that. He could make a pit stop there... Yeah. Surely there were some survivors? It was the middle of the school day after all, and whatever had happened to the adults apparently hadn't happened to that little girl, so maybe... There was a cut off age?

Whatever the case, I've gotta get out of here... With no adults and only kids, things could get really ugly, really fast...

=========================================================
((Thanks, Lynx.))

Zachary took deep, even breaths as he quietly went through his sketchbook. He was in a trance again; too busy doing his own thing to notice the world around him. His small hands gently brushed over the various mediums of pictures, inspecting them, interpreting them, and then rejecting them as he moved on to the next.

Zach didn't notice when the kids had gradually stopped screaming and moved away. Subconsciously he noted that something was off, but then again, everything was off. His parents were missing and his drawings said that they were gone for good. And he trusted his drawings. They were nice to him in the way that they always told him the truth, and they never lied.

A sense of accomplishment came over him when Zach found the thing he was looking for. His face lit up as his fingers traced lines previously drawn with a crayon, but his happiness was interrupted as something entered his peripheral vision. A benign, if hesitant voice spoke to get his attention, and when he finally took his eyes away from his work, he blinked.

It took Zach a second to truly process what was happening at that moment. He could tell that this girl's smile was a bit forced, but it was good-natured. When he focused on what was extended out towards him, he found it to be a popsicle that was still in its plastic wrapping. In confusion, he looked back at the girl, but then glanced over at what had happened to the other children, and was shortly met with answers.

A smile slowly crept across the boy's face. The drawings had yet again proven to be correct. With a slightly shy cough, Zachary let his fingers slightly bend a corner of the page that his scrapbook was open to as he mulled things over, wondering if he should take the popsicle now or show her the picture. The latter option would save him a lot of talking and her a lot of questions later. And plus, he wasn't really that hungry.

Quietly coughing again after making up his mind, Zachary turned the book around, propping it up against his chest so that she could see.

It was a fairly simple depiction of the park. A couple of trees were at the farthest left and right sides of the pages, while the middle contained some people. Three short figures with clothes colors matching three kids not too far away from them were all eating oval-shaped things; also colored like their respective popsicles. Then, there was another two stick figures, a tall one holding out a pink oval to a shorter one sitting on a chair who was holding something. The date of the drawing was written to be a month and three days ago, signed by his mother as a witness.

"Me." He said shortly, pointing to the bench-sitting figure. His finger then drifted to the kneeling figure, and his smile widened slightly.

"You."

((anyone else at school during the dissapearance? i need someone to rp with...))

Ciel heard yells from other students that the teachers where gone, along with some of the older kids. Her first instinct was to look for Enders, which she did. She sprinted out of the classroom and ran down to the seventh graders.

~*~

Enders had been glaring at the back of the person in front of him, as if it was his fault he had to be at school. When the yelling started he looked up to see the teacher gone. "What the heck?"

"Get back here!"

Aleks ran, skirting around the corner to avoid the upperclassmen chasing him. He was fast, but the others were faster. They caught up with him, about to grab him…

And suddenly they were gone. He looked around, but no one was around.

"Where'd they go?" he asked, more curios than thankful. They were chasing him just a second ago, right?

He looked around, off to go investigate.

Ciel burst into the room.

"Ciel? What're you doing here?"

"We're going home." She said pointing a thumb out the door. Enders got up and walked outside the school with her without hesitation, they then walked to their house by the beach.

Aleks made his way out of the school after seeing how everyone else was panicking. He wasn't interested in sticking around, so he went out for a walk, subconsciously heading toward the beach.

"What do you think is going on?"

He looked over at the person standing next to him. It was just a random image, one he'd made up back when his powers started developing. It was a teen for some reason, but a talkative one. He was insightful enough that Aleks felt talking to him right now was useful.

"I don't know." Aleks said, arriving at the beach. It was his favorite place in town, so he wasn't surprised he ended up there. "Maybe some people just vanished."

☆Lily *Aria* Sokai☆ wrote: "Shane was back in the van, driving at a slower pace down the interstate. He felt drained and hollow, as if not even the worst jump-scare would make him flinch. In that car, that silver Nissan Altim..."

Helena closely watched the little boy as he thought things over in his mind. He was an unusual little boy, that was sure. Seemed more level-headed than the rest.
When the kid turned around the sketchbook to show her the crayon drawings, a brief look of forced patience came to her face. "Yes, yes. That's a lovely drawing." Her gaze flickered around to take in the bench as she looked for signs he had recently been drawing that, but she couldn't quite find what she was looking for. "Hm."
She straightened up and lightly pushed aside a purse to sit down next to the boy. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed the date on the sketch, and a frown of confusion flickered across her face. Did he get the date wrong? No, no. That wouldn't work. Someone else, his mom maybe, had signed it.
"Can I see that?" Helena asked hesitantly, reaching for the sketchbook. "I'll trade you." She held out the popsicle in the other hand.

Genny finally reached the border of the park, some feet away from the highway. Nothing was in sight; no car, no bike, no truck, nothing.
She walked in the ditch by the road, like she'd been told to do if she needed to ever walk by the road, hard boots tramping easily over the gravel.

After what seemed like a little over an hour of walking, Genny stopped and reached for a water bottle in the backpack she'd brought along; her mom's old one.
She sipped from it thirstily, enjoying the water falling down her dry throat. She only took a little; take too much and you'll need to stop all the time to drink, and you'll run out. Basically, try to train yourself to drink less and less. She thought to herself with a smile.

She sat down on the gravel a little while after that, opening the backpack to see what there was to see. A map of the area between the park and Perdido Beach, three packets of trail mix(each labeled with a name), a knife, some rope, and... a towel. Boy her mom was weird when it came to packing.
Genny opened 'her' bag of trail mix and took a few peanuts and raisins, popping them into her mouth before dropping the packet back into her bag.
As she chewed, she couldn't help remembering all those times she and her friends back in Portland used to play a fake-Hunger Games at the park by her house. This was exactly like that...

Except there wasn't a nice warm house with more food to go back to afterwards. There was only a chance at a place to find more people.

Shane pulled up the long, winding driveway of the preppy academy. He really didn't like institutions, or large buildings for that matter, but he forced himself to keep going, despite his prejudices against the place.

He parked in a towing zone because it was the closest to what looked to be the front entrance. There were no adults to arrest him now, and it wasn't his car anyway, so there wasn't anything to worry about, right? A nervous grin settled itself on his face as he opened the doors to the academy, only to be met with the chaos and disarray he was afraid of.

In honesty, Shane kind of wanted to shut the door and lock it. But at the same time, he knew that these kids needed to somehow get to town. And so, he gathered up his courage enough to shout over the incoherent screams inside; stepping aside as a torrent of Coates Academy students stampeded outside.

((Anybody who's character was at Coates, please feel free to start RP'ing with Shane ^^))

=========================================================

Zachary kept perfectly still as the girl looked about in an agitated manner, smiling slightly. His parents had reacted this way too, the one time that he had drawn his mommy spilling coffee all over his daddy's new tie. And then the time when he showed them the picture of where his daddy put his keys when he lost them for a long time. They had slowly come to accept that their child was special, but they had chosen to try raising him as a normal boy. Or something.

When Helena brushed aside his mother's purse, he felt a flicker of anger. But then, he remembered that, of course she wouldn't associate it with him. It was abandoned by his mommy. When she asked him for his sketchbook, however, he jumped slightly, recoiling out of instinct. His parents had tried to take it away from him once, and he had proven them ill-minded when he picked open a biking scab and drew a picture on the wall with his blood instead. They learned to never, ever take it away from him.

But this girl, she was different. She was in a lot of his drawings, and so were a lot of other kids that he didn't know. But she was supposed to lead him to them. So, he gave the terms of the deal.

"Purse and popsicle." Zach bartered for the book. "Then you can see."

Helena laughed a little and nodded, relieved he had agreed. After his initial reaction she'd been expecting a complete no and a lot of anger and complaining directed towards her. And that kind of thing was something she had no idea how to handle.
"Okay. Purse and popsicle." She pulled off the wrapper of the popsicle and balled up the white plastic before setting it next to her on the bench. She then reached over and grabbed the purse, setting it right next to the boy.
"Here." With the somewhat drippy popsicle held in one hand and her other hand outstretched, she waited for the boy to hold up his end of the trade.
"What's your name? I'm Helena," she found herself saying suddenly. Every once in a while her mind would start running away from her, and when she finally caught up she had a tenancy to blurt things out seemingly out of the blue. She had picked up that strange habit from her mother. They had the most unusual conversations together, hoping from one topic to another in a hard to follow way. Helena continued with what she was saying, "and that big black dog over there being pet by that girl in the pink shirt, that's my dog Circe."

emily*the ninja queen of implication* wrote: "Aleks made his way out of the school after seeing how everyone else was panicking. He wasn't interested in sticking around, so he went out for a walk, subconsciously heading toward the beach.

"Wh..."

As they walked Ciel saw a two boys walking on the beach. "You head home, I'll meet up with you later."

Enders nodded and continued on his way home as she ran to the beach.

As Shane held the door open for the children rushing outside, he considered something for a moment. So, not only did the adults disappear at this school, which was about two or three miles away from where I was, but it looks like all of the upperclassmen are gone... This is just too weird. He thought, biting his lip. As the last few stragglers made their way out, however, he considered something briefly.

Maybe there are some survivors farther down the highway?

With that thought in mind, Shane reluctantly entered the school building, looking for the science wing. He needed a tube to be able to siphon gas if "his" Volkswagen ever ran out, and he doubted that the gas stations worked back in town, so he jogged through the corridors as he looked for any tell-tale signs that he was in the right place.

Soon enough, he found what he was looking for, and was able to exit the school successfully. His sense of direction was better than most, but he was still glad to get out of that rat maze of a school building and find that his car hadn't gotten jacked.

With a length of clear plastic tubing looped around his shoulder, Shane got back in his car and pulled out of his illegal parking space, feeling actually somewhat confident as he did so. At least I can manage myself. I have a couple provisions, I can make-do with my own shelter, and I haven't encountered that many hitches yet... I just hope that there are people down the way. He thought, getting to the bottom of Coates' long driveway and turning back the way he came, flooring it again as he prayed he wasn't going backwards for nothing.

((Eleanor, I hope you don't mind??))

=========================================================

Zachary's face lit up when she extended the popsicle, taking the sticky ice cream eagerly with one hand, making sure to keep it far away from his sketchbook. When Helena also returned the purse, he nodded slightly.

"Don't bend pages, smear pictures or get them dirty." He warned her, seeming to hesitate once more before he reluctantly extended the sketchbook, but he ultimately placed it in her hands and then quickly drew away. He sat quietly for about two seconds, watching her before something changed. Something in his mind clicked, and it caused his expression to get darker and darker. But at the moment, it wasn't because he was physically parted from his beloved drawings. It was because Helena's words from just before were starting to sink in.

A couple of days ago he had drawn a picture of a black dog with a snake on its body, like it was a name of some sort. He couldn't tell what it meant, or what the name would be, but as he looked over at the dog, the popsicle was completely forgotten; hanging suspended over the concrete as it slowly melted. As the Black Russian Terrier wagged its tail and barked its happiness, Zach's frown got worse and worse. He couldn't place it. But that dog was definitely going to play a major role in something and for someone, or multiple people, it wasn't going to turn out pretty.

Despite that, he took a deep breath and pushed all of the air out of his lungs in one big rush as if to blow away all of his problems. He attempted to look at the situation brightly, then ultimately gave up, his shoulders drooping a bit as he slouched.

"...I'm Zach. And I knew that." He mumbled, the second part almost inaudible as he sighed again.

((If I overstep something with Zach's precognitive abilities, please let me know...))

((I could try to do something with Shane, but not if he's at Coates... I need someone to rp with...))

((Nah, you're at the beach. emily is also at the beach, so wait for her? I think I know what I'm going to do with him.

--Edited my post.))

"Don't worry, I won't ruin your lovely sketches." Helena reassured him as she gently took the sketchbook from his hands and smoothed out the page so the wind wasn't tugging up the corners. She took in the sight of the page and narrowed her eyes a little, somewhat confused. Either this kid had a lot of coincidences happen around him, or he had some strange ability to predict the future. At this point, nothing would really surprise her.
Her gaze flickered up to look at Zach when he introduced himself. Surprise was clear on her face, but she smiled faintly. "Pleased to meet you, Zach. So... can you tell me how you knew that already?" Her gaze closely examined him as she waited for a response. Zach seemed to sad and gloomy it tugged at her heart to see him looking that way. No child should ever need to look that sad. Then again, no child should ever had to deal with their parents blinking out without warning.
Helena felt her mind shift gears rapidly, and she haltingly started to say, "Everything is going to be alright. I promise. I'm going to do everything I can to make things better. I-I'm going to find out what's going on and how we can manage right now and until whatever is going on stops. You can trust me."
She gently set the sketchbook on Zach's lap, putting it as far away from the range of his dripping popsicle as she could. "Zach, I need you to listen to me and answer seriously and honestly. Do you have any idea what is going on around here? Has anything... strange, other than your parents disappearing, happened to you in the last year? I need to know as much as I can if I'm to try and figure things out and make this all better." Some part of her felt like Zach knew something, or could at least help in some way. As it was, Helena could feel her mind changing somehow. Like it was altering itself to be able to understand more and see the entire picture. It was as though some part of her mind was telling her what needed to be done in order to survive in this new and alien world, then changing herself to be fit to tough things out and do what needed done. It also gave her a sense of responsibility, like it was her job to figure things out and make it all better. And she swore to herself she would, at whatever the cost.

Zach had almost completely zoned out, staring at Circe enjoying herself until Helena returned his book. Immediately, his free hand pulled it towards his chest, and that was when he remembered that he had a popsicle dripping juice down his hand, splattering on the concrete. His mood brightened considerably now that he had his prized possession back, undoing his spell of muteness. He hadn't answered her first question initially, so he continued to ignore it, bringing the strawberry confection to his lips before he bit off the tip of the ice cream.

When the girl tried to comfort him, Zachary turned his head to look at her, chewing on the soft, sugary goodness. As soon as she mentioned trust, however, he swallowed hard, coughing a little bit in discomfort.

As Helena questioned him further, the boy bit off another chunk of the comfort food, considering the easiest way to convey what he knew without confusing her. The fact that she requested he swear to tell the truth, he concluded that she would believe whatever he said. And plus, he had pictures to back him up. Some pretty damn snazzy pictures, if he said so himself.

As he mapped out his lecture in his mind, he tapped his chin, still calmly chewing the icy treat. "...I started drawing the future." He finally said, his free hand moving from his face to maneuvering his book so that he could turn pages without hindrance; flipping to the front. The first picture was dated to be exactly one year ago; though there was lingering evidence that multiple pages before it had been ripped out.

The picture itself was rather bland. It was a drawing of a stick hand drawing on a piece of paper; and on that piece of drawn paper was what looked to be the beginning of an elaborate sketch. After Zachary had made sure that Helena has saw it, he flipped to the next page, which was dated three months later. That was the real drawing.

On either side of the page were two vertical lines that nearly touched the top of the paper, connecting to each other to form what looked to be a very wide house. On the interior was an elevated stage in the middle, with two people standing, seeming to be talking to each other (as they had pac-man mouths). There were several other figures around the stage, though each figure had some kind of symbol above their head.

"We need to go here." He pointed to the drawing, then looked at Helena with his slightly messy face. Pink liquid was starting to dry around the corners of his mouth, but he didn't mind it. "You need to talk to him." Zach's finger delicately moved and tapped the the left figure on the stage. "And they need help." He gestured to all of the stick people. "If they don't, sombody'll do this. Poof!" He made an exaggerated noise as he balled his fists and then flashed his fingers, his eyebrows raising to show surprise. "That's what all the mommys and daddys did."

Christopher Wesley didn't notice anything was was wrong until the car came to a full stop. He'd felt the sensation of it slowing down, yes, but he'd passed that off as sickness from the call only a few minutes earlier bearing the news that his dad was in the hospital. He'd sat in a stony silence as his mom drove, earbuds tucked into his ears to deafen out anything she might say.
He looked out at the unmoving landscape quizzically, yanking out his music. "Uh, mom...?" he glanced over to the drivers side before turning his gaze back outside, wondering why they had stopped. Christopher almost got whiplash from his double take at the empty seat, and his wrist gave a sudden cramp from unbuckling his seat belt as fast as he did. He struggled with the cardoor for a second before realizing it was locked. Hastily untangling his earbuds from where they had fallen to around his neck, he stepped out of the car and slammed the door shut.
"Mom?" He yelled out into the empty air, looking around. A car had stopped a few meters behind them and he quickly walked over to it, peering inside the glass. It appeared to be in the exact same condition as his mom's car, doors locked, in drive, eventually slown down from no one's pressure on the gas pedal.
"Hello?" Christopher called out, cupping his hands around his mouth. Hearing no response, he rubbed at his head. What had effing happened? He strode back to his car, climbing into the driver's seat. His father in the hospital completely forgotten at this new development, he began driving back toward his house, trying to figure things out.

Enders looked at the cars around him, mushed together like childrens playdough. The worst one was multiple cars, it looked like about five or six, crashed together at a connection of four streets. As he walked by he paused, feeling sick to his stomach. He had seen gross wounds from his old fights, but it was something different to see them on someone dead. Especially someone so young. A little girl, maybe around six, was in the backseat of the car where another car ran into it. He finally tore his eyes away and kept walking.

☆Lily *Aria* Sokai☆ wrote: "Zach had almost completely zoned out, staring at Circe enjoying herself until Helena returned his book. Immediately, his free hand pulled it towards his chest, and that was when he remembered that ..."

"Poof." Helena repeated grimly.
She didn't doubt the little boy at all. Not in the slightest. It was a lot to take in, but she didn't doubt it.
This seemed to tell her that: 1) she wasn't the only person with weird things happening to her. Powers, she supposed they could be called. 2) people would still "poof". 3) Zach would be a useful kid to have around. 4) Things were going to get very interesting.... Who knew how many other people would have unusual abilities?
"So... what do the symbols mean?" Helena asked him, pointing to the symbols above the heads of the people in the picture.

((sorry it's a bit short, I don't have much time. Also, I have no idea if I'll be online next week. I might be visiting my great-grandma for the week and she has no internet. Hopefully I won't be gone all week, but I never know. Just thought I'd warn you. Anyway, please wait for me in the rp. It's never fun coming back later to find the person you've been rping with has wandered off.....))

((I'll just make it so that he drags her around. No problem, Lynx. I'll post later....))

☆Lily *Aria* Sokai☆ wrote: "((I'll just make it so that he drags her around. No problem, Lynx. I'll post shortly.))"

((Alright. Fine by me. If you need to you can also rp my character. I don't care if you do. Anyway, I hope I'll be here next week, but if not, talk to you later!))

((See you! Have fun :)))

((I'm involving all the characters in this post. I really hope everybody keeps RP'ing...))

Zachary made a delighted clapping noise as Helena asked more questions. He really liked people who asked him things he could answer. It made him feel useful and smart; as if he was really helping. Her questions were about things he really knew about, instead of dumb math problems or rhetorical science inquiries.

First, he pointed at the boy on the stage left. "Fire," He made a 'hame-kame-hah' pose with his hands and a vooooshhh noise, like he was projecting flames. "Water," then waved his arms like waves, "Air," he sucked air in, then wooshed it out, "Dirt." Zach hopped off the bench at this part, then scooped up a handful of sand and threw it. He turned back at her, then smiled. "His goes farther."

After managing to climb back up onto the bench, Zach pointed at a "girl" stick figure and then at the lizard-looking thing above her head. Zach glanced at Helena, making sure she was looking. "She hides. Chameleon."
A boy with a lighter-colored figure next to him. "He pretends. Imagines stuff."
A girl with lines of what looked to be garbled text. "She hears things. Whispers."
A boy with some kind of thing in his hand and a square in the other with something inside of it. "He draws too. They come to life."
Two boys with nothing special. "No powers. Normal."
A girl with a scale over her head. "She changes stuff across."
Another girl with two arrows, each pointed in opposite vertical directions. "She changes stuff up and down."
And finally, the last boy. He looked at her with a deadly seriousness in his eyes. "He makes the pain go away."

Christopher was not usually one to panic; though taking a look outside the car window at the seemingly lifelessness road and landscape, nothing seemed to be usual. He swerved off the road to avoid a smoking pileup of crashed cars, clenching his hand around the steering wheel to keep it from shaking. He focused on driving home, not giving himself time to think about what had happened.
"I'll figure out a plan when I get home," Chris muttered under his breath, hearing his voice waver slightly.

The road got more crowded with stalled cars as he neared his neighborhood and maneuvering around them got trickier. Christopher eased on the brakes and switched the car into park, cutting the ignition and pocketing the keys. He leaned back in the car seat, breathing deeply. It's not the end of the world. You're probably just sleeping in late and this is all a dream. A sickening feeling took hold of him as he got out of the car and started walking.
"If I am the only one left," he mused quietly to himself, allowing a small smile, "it's not exactly going to be the end of the world." And I don't know if I'm the only one left.

Catching sight of his house, Christopher broke into a run. He briefly thought of calling out but decided against it; if there was an answer called out from the deserted street, he didn't know what he would do. Almost at the front door, he reached out with his key already in his hand when his foot caught against the step. Free hand shooting out to keep from falling, Christopher let out a yelp as his palm scraped against the sharp edge of a brick. He cursed under his breath, wiping the cut against his shirt and managing to get into the house without any other injuries.

Looking around, it was as if nothing had changed. The house was exactly like it was when he had left hurriedly this morning, his mom waiting outside with a grim face at the bad news. Dad, Christopher winced slightly, heading into the kitchen and turning on the sink. He stuck his still bleeding hand under, glancing around for the first aid and medicine cabinet. He turned back to clean the dirt off the small cut, reaching for the hand towel. He wiped off the blood again...

...and stared at his perfectly fine hand. The cut seemed to have vanished, only leaving a few smears of blood still on his hand. "I'm definitely dreaming," Christopher shook his head, turning off the sink and wiping his hand one more time to make sure his eyes weren't playing tricks on him. He then walked out to the garage, hefting the door up and smiling as his dad's familiar collection of motorcycles came into sight. Taking a spare key off the wall, he got on his own silver bike and took off on a side road down to Perdido Beach.

☆Lily *Aria* Sokai☆ wrote: "((I'm involving all the characters in this post. I really hope everybody keeps RP'ing...))

Zachary made a delighted clapping noise as Helena asked more questions. He really liked people who asked ..."

((woah, awesome picture!))
As Enders walked he heard a motor. His face lit up, motor means driving, and driving ment an adult! He ran towards the sound, towards the beach. Ciel saw Enders. "Do you hear that too?"

Blake bent over gasping for breath. She had ran until the voice had finally left her alone. Collapsing to her knees in the sand, she had been hoping to see that things would have changed when she kept running but they didn't. No. She had left the grocery store to find that cars were still driving, crashing into buildings and that their drivers were gone. The voice. It had been terrible, whispering things to her about children being trapped in buildings and cars. She couldn't take it.

Having looked up at the sky she felt sick when she saw a dome overhead. It was like being trapped in a bubble. Immediately she had gone to the beach, hoping to see that it didn't touch down to the horizon, that maybe it was just in the air. That they could leave.

Of course, now that she was at the beach, she realized the terrible truth. It was a dome, or a bubble. Either way there was no escape. And the adults were gone. All the big people. Everyone who could do something and they were gone. Leaving what? A bunch of middle-schoolers to take care of a town?

Her stomach clenched as a new thought entered her mind, a thought completely her own. What if it wasn't just Perdido? What if it was the entire United States? the world? Her head spun and blood trickled down her throat from her exersion as she ran here.

Sitting in the sand on her knees she retched. Dry heaving as her stomach felt like stone and covulsed painfully.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Riley looked around and shook his head. This was ridiculous, five blocks of walking and still not a single adult in sight? Where was everyone? Plenty of kids, he'd seen kids screaming, crying, laughing, playing, pigging out on junkfood, and some even just staring as if in shock. It was insanity.

There was just no way that every adult and high schooler could have just vanished. I must have eaten something poisoned. I must be sleeping. This must be a dream. That's the only logical explaination. He thought as he walked further and further into town. After awhile he stopped at the steps to town hall. It was intimidating.

He wanted to go inside, but as he walked up he stopped when his hand was on the door. What if he opened it and no one was in there? This was a last hope, thing. He shook his head and stared at the shiny brass handle, it was a hope and he was desperate that someone would be inside. Praying for it actually, but he couldn't bring himself to summon the courage of push open the door.

ESTHER *THOSE ARE ENEMY BIRDS!* wrote: "emily*the ninja queen of implication* wrote: "Aleks made his way out of the school after seeing how everyone else was panicking. He wasn't interested in sticking around, so he went out for a walk, ..."

Aleks looked up at her, curious. He knew there were other people still here, but didn't expect them to go to the beach.

"Hi." he said, waving at her. He looked up at the image he'd created, who he was pretty sure he'd named Thomas. He was rather shy, and Aleks was surprised he hadn't disappeared. He wave to Ciel, which was good enough for Aleks. Thomas was a pretty good judge of character.

Ciel smiled a little and waved back to them. "Have you seen any adults around?" She asked hopefully.

Zachary watched as Helena processed this new information. The gears in her head were visibly turning, and he looked back down at his picture, swinging his legs as he waited for what she was going to say.

"Do you know where this is?" Was her first question. Zachary nodded quietly.

"Can you take me there?" Was her second. Zachary nodded again.

"...Then... can we go?" Was her third. It was to this one, that Zachary shook his head.

A pleased smile came over the little boy's face as confusion took over the girl's features. He liked making people think. It meant that he was being a challenge for people older than him, and if people stuck around even after he was difficult, it meant that he could really trust him. He already knew he could trust this girl, but... It was nice having evidence in front of his own two eyes.

A period of silence between the two came about as Helena thought. "Why not? Is there... something else we need to do?" She asked him. She seemed to shift uncomfortably, and as Zachary thought about his reply, she looked around the park. The children had all scattered, but Circe was trotting back to them, looking a bit dazed.

"We need," Zachary finally decided to flip through his book, biting his cheek as he searched. When he found the drawing, he held it so that Helena could see. "--to go here." He lowered the book so he could peer over the top and see what he was pointing at; locating the place in where they needed to be.

It was a more detailed drawing than the last; dated 7 months ago. It was a map of a certain part of Perdido Beach in where there were lots of squares and strange symbols. Most of the squares were colored in with a greyish hue, but two houses were colored differently; one red, the other yellow.

"We need to go here first, and then go here." He pointed to the red house, then traced a path to the yellow house. "Mister Doctor will meet us here. He needs our help. And then a normal needs us here." He pointed to the houses respectively, then suddenly whipped his head around as he remembered he needed to check on something. He stayed that way for a moment, his eyes trained on something in the distance before he relaxed, turning back to Helena.

"--And then we go to the beach."

Helena seemed a bit startled by all of the instructions, but she nodded regardless. Maybe she understood him better than his parents, Zachary thought, listening to my directions. They had been blinded by what was "usual". But he liked how she could understand what he meant and believed him readily. She stood up from the bench, then beckoned him to follow. "Let's go to that house then, shall we? Do you know what street it's on?" She asked, and Zachary shook his head. "North." He pointed, then hopped off the bench and slid his sketchbook into his backpack, slinging it over his slim shoulders.

Helena seemed only slightly miffed, but Zachary didn't mind it. He pulled his mother's purse off the bench as well, then tested it's weight. He looked up at his escort, then held out the bag to her. A sweet, angelic smile accompanied his words as he spoke, but there was an underlying tone of worry. "Carry this please?"

The girl took the bag, if hesitantly, and then looked down at Zach. "...So, where are we going?" Zachary had already taken a couple steps, and simply looked back over his shoulder at her.

"Follow me. We need to run."

((Rixos, Honeysenpai: Do you guys mind that we're coming your way?))

ESTHER *THOSE ARE ENEMY BIRDS!* wrote: "Ciel smiled a little and waved back to them. "Have you seen any adults around?" She asked hopefully."


"No, sorry." Aleks said, shrugging. "There's hardly anyone older than me here, from what I can tell."

☆Lily *Aria* Sokai☆ wrote: "((Rixos, Honeysenpai: Do you guys mind that we're coming your way?))"

((Not at all. I can't post right now but when I can I can have Christopher run into them, if that's alright.))

((Yeah, no problem. Thanks :)))

As Christopher neared the town of Perdido Beach he breathed in, able to smell the saltiness of the ocean in the fresh breeze. He'd followed the side road to where it connected to the highway, grateful to find it wasn't too crowded with crashed or unmoving cars. The fumes coming from the stalled and wrecked vehicles had tainted the air, pushing out the scent of the coast.

It was around that time when he began to hear faint shouts and whoops coming from the town. "So I'm not alone," Christopher muttered, leaning forward on the sportsbike and accelerating. He wasn't sure how he felt about that; yes, it might be easier and maybe safer if everyone had disappeared, but it would get lonely.

And of course, the kind of people that were left, that hand't disappeared, played a big part. He realized he had no idea what the choice of selection for who had vanished was; it could be completely random. But if that were the case, then it would be unlikely everyone in my neighborhood disappeared. But then unlikeliness is a key part of randomness, he remembered reading somewhere, his lips twitching.

Christopher turned off the highway onto one of the few exits that didn't lead directly into town and began to slow down cautiously, looking around for any signs of movement other than the swaying grass that hugged the edges of the sand-speckled road. Again, he didn't know what type of people hadn't vanished along with everyone else.

He sped up some as it became clear this part of Perdido was near deserted. Wherever the shouts were coming from, this wasn't it. Good, Christopher let out a breath, then squinted into the distance, his eyes resting on two walking figures. As the distance between them got smaller, he could make out a small boy, and a girl that looked to be around his age.

They can't be too dangerous, Christopher smiled slightly, easing the brakes until he came to a standstill then pulled on the clutch, nudging out the kickstand to the bike wouldn't fall over when he got off. "Hey!" he yelled out to the boy and the girl, waving a hand in the air.

emily*the ninja queen of implication* wrote: "ESTHER *THOSE ARE ENEMY BIRDS!* wrote: "Ciel smiled a little and waved back to them. "Have you seen any adults around?" She asked hopefully."


"No, sorry." Aleks said, shrugging. "There's hardly a..."

"Oh... Alright..." Ciel said. Enders stood beside her and heard some yelling.

"Did you guys hear that?"

☆Lily *Aria* Sokai☆ wrote: "As Shane held the door open for the children rushing outside, he considered something for a moment. So, not only did the adults disappear at this school, which was about two or three miles away from where I was, but it looks like all of the upperclassmen are gone... This is just too weird. He thought, biting his lip. As the last few stragglers made their way out, however, he considered something briefly.

Maybe there are some survivors farther down the highway?

With that thought in mind, Shane reluctantly entered the school building, looking for the science wing. He needed a tube to be able to siphon gas if "his" Volkswagen ever ran out, and he doubted that the gas stations worked back in town, so he jogged through the corridors as he looked for any tell-tale signs that he was in the right place.

Soon enough, he found what he was looking for, and was able to exit the school successfully. His sense of direction was better than most, but he was still glad to get out of that rat maze of a school building and find that his car hadn't gotten jacked.

With a length of clear plastic tubing looped around his shoulder, Shane got back in his car and pulled out of his illegal parking space, feeling actually somewhat confident as he did so. At least I can manage myself. I have a couple provisions, I can make-do with my own shelter, and I haven't encountered that many hitches yet... I just hope that there are people down the way. He thought, getting to the bottom of Coates' long driveway and turning back the way he came, flooring it again as he prayed he wasn't going backwards for nothing.

((Eleanor, I hope you don't mind??))"

((Totally fine!))

Genny kept walking, occasionally stopping to look up and down the road for any signs of human activity. Nothing yet, not even a car that had slid off the road. Something about the lack of that made this creepier than any movies or books she'd read about an apocalyptic future...

Aleks looked up, concentrating on hearing for any suspicious sounds. Because his focus was divided, Thomas poofed out of existence, dissapearing from his side.

Shane had been driving for a while now, his spirits sinking as nobody came into view. He was passing by the nuclear power plant at this point, considering slamming his face into the steering wheel out of sheer desperation. Surely there couldn't be nobody out here, right? Rule #1 of survival: Head to a town. Highways were your best option aside from rivers, so surely other people had enough common sense to head towards Perdido Beach, right?

An agricultural field created the scenery on his left, which is where Shane focused his attention (aside from the road). He couldn't bear to look to his right. Less than half an hour ago, that's where he had blissfully been laughing with his parents. As far as he knew, they were dead and gone, and he couldn't deal with that at the moment. There were more pressing matters at hand.

Shane checked the fuel gauge after a few more minutes of driving. Still fine. It'd be fine for a while. He slipped the piping off his arm and tossed it somewhere into the back, glancing out the windows again. The scenery hadn't changed much, but he had to slow down to navigate some abandoned cars. He wouldn't want to bend a bumper or something, in case people came back. If they ever came back. An unsettled feeling sat in his stomach as he passed by the same silver car that held the tragedy he discovered earlier. Flies had managed to get in, he saw as he drove by. They had smelled the oxidizing blood, even through the window and shut door. It sickened him to the core. Is this all I have to look forward to now? Discovering dead bodies?

Shane had sunken into a grief-induced haze before something made him blink. There was movement. Some one was there, just over a ridge. He had seen it. And it gave him hope. He eased down on the gas, however, realizing he had been pushing 80 almost the entire length of the highway. I should probably conserve. The nearest car to hear is the... Altima... And that's a mile or two back. He thought, glancing around at the scenery. He was past the desert, at least. A few miles from the State Park. Shane doubled back on himself, however, Maybe... I saw a mirage? He thought, starting to question his sanity. Maybe all of this was just his imagination. Maybe he had tripped and he was in a coma.

Maybe...

And then Genny came back into view.

----

Zachary had been jogging just before Christopher appeared. He had stopped to turn around and evaluate Helena's progress, though he was surprised to find that she was almost right behind him. "We're here." He reassured her, letting out a puff of breath before Christopher's voice reached his ears.

Immediately, a bright smile came to the boy's face, and he raised a hand readily in greeting. Helena looked a bit more reserved, but she also waved a hand. The smaller child looked back at the older, then reassuringly took her hand, turning to walk towards Christopher with a purpose in his step.

One down, one to go. As soon as he convinced Mister Doctor to come with them, they could go get the normal. He was important too. All of the pieces were starting to fall into place, but Zachary could only see the ones that he drew. His length of rope was going to run out soon, and he was going to have to grope through the dark to find the next clue of what to do. But he was okay with that. If he had Mister Doctor and Helena, things would go smoothly. He was sure of it. For now.

Genny topped a hill and saw a car driving down the highway towards her, slowing down from what couldn't have been less than 75. She waved her arms in a 'help me' way; up and crossed, down and out, and up again. She stood on the hill, on the side of the freeway; standing in the freeway would be stupid and useless.

emily*the ninja queen of implication* wrote: "Aleks looked up, concentrating on hearing for any suspicious sounds. Because his focus was divided, Thomas poofed out of existence, dissapearing from his side."

Ciel blinked in surprise when Thomas dissapeared and Enders stared at Aleks.

"Do you have powers, too?" Ciel asked him.

"Too?" Enders asked looking at Ciel now, he hadn't heard of her having powers.