The Neon City

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The lights, the sound, the smells, it all filled Troy with joy. With all his years in capacity it had only been a dream to see the world. But his dreams and his own imagination could not compare to the reality.

"Look at it, it's amazing!" he yelled with excitement.

"Yeah, brings back so many memories," Emma responded.

"Like what?"

"My mum, my real mum. She would take me here when I was a child. We'd go to the Spring Annual Fête. I haven't been here in about eight years."

"What happened to her?" Troy asked, making sure to keep Lily and Noah in sight as they walked behind.

"There was an accident. We were at the beach. I was put into foster care shortly after."

"You'll have to tell me what she was like."

"Yeah, I will, you would've loved her."

"Come on, you're gonna get lost," Lily turned around and said. The two walked quicker to keep up with Noah and Lily.

There were people everywhere and that was a good thing. With so many people it was unlikely that anyone would pay attention to anything but themselves or their family. Noah originally thought it would take them ten hours but with the convenience of being able to take the skyline he reckoned it would now only take them 90 minutes, but that was just an estimate.

"We need to get out of the shops and find our way to the residential part of the city," Noah informed. It was hard for them all to hear each other so when he realized that they had no idea what he said he grabbed Lily by the sleeve of her shirt and got her attention. Lily passed the message onto the others and tried their best to keep up with Noah. Troy was constantly getting distracted by the view of the city. Emma was burdened with the task to make sure he didn't fall behind.

As they walked through they tried their best not to draw much attention to themselves. Of course that idea failed and they were stopped by a young, curious woman.

"Little late to be walking around by yourselves kids," she stated with slight concern in her voice. See, time worked differently now in the world. It could be one in the morning and the next it's eight o'clock in the evening. This was a reoccurring event and people didn't worry about it too much, it only happened about once every month. The problem was, sometimes you don't even notice the change in time until it's too late. Usually this only causes the inconvenience of being late for work or missing your son's birthday. Scientists learned that the speed up in time is only by 19 hours, it's never been more, never less. Yet, the reason behind the change is still unknown.

The group had failed to realize this change. The lights of the city were so bright it couldn't be distinguished from the daylight.

"We were just on our way home," Noah informed as he tried to get past the woman.

"Yes, I reckon that would be a good idea. Lot's of people can't be trusted here and it worries me that parents just let their kids walk around freely these days." She rolled her eyes and walked towards the center of the city.

"Have a good evening, ma'am," Troy smiled as they continued on their way.

"So Noah," Emma began, "Dr. Daniel and you talked about a place called Alonal? What is that?"

"Anolon. I'll explain it to you all when we get there." Emma frowned in disappointment, she couldn't help but be curious of where they were going or what they were gonna do. Troy looked up, he noticed tiny, light, powdery crystals falling from the clouds. It was London's first snowfall of the season. It wasn't cold but rather refreshing on their hot, sweaty persons'. The snow brought back memories for Emma, some more happier than others. Noah put out his hand as he observed the snowflakes fall into his palm. Lily hated snow because once when she was little he older cousins buried her during the big snowstorm of Bath. She tried to ignore Troy and Emma's laughter as they caught snowflakes in their mouths.

Noah was so focused on getting to Dr. Henricks that he didn't even notice Emma and Troy's giggles. He was going completely off signs that pointed towards the residential area of town. Houses in The Neon City were addressed by what the driveway was named and the letter of the street. Dr. Henricks' new place was on Nackalin Road on street N. The streets were alphabetized by the driveways' names. For example, the addresses for driveways on street E would be Easthill or Eckwiew.

Dr. Larisa Daniel failed to mention to the group that this was not Dr. Henricks house. This was who she guessed to be his son's. A Mr. Philip Henricks'. An 18 year old reporter for the BBC. It was the only place she could think of where he'd gone. She guessed this solely by his last name, Henricks wasn't a very common one in the world so she figured they must be related somehow. But if things went south and Philip wasn't who Larisa Daniel thought he was then they would have nothing. All she wanted was to make sure Noah was safe but now she realized that she may have just put him entirely in harm's way.

Soon, Noah spotted houses and a large sign that read "B". He figured that this sign was for driveways that started with the letter B. They needed to find the sign that read "N", that was where Nackalin road would be.

"Come on, we're getting closer," Noah informed the group, getting their attention back. They walked quickly to catch up with Noah as they all looked for a sign that said "N". They were only at D now so they knew it would take a bit.

Soon, after about an hour of running and looking for it, Lily pointed out the sign that they had been searching for.

"Great, let's just hope the man of the hour is there," Troy said, catching his breath. Noah and Emma met up with Troy and Lily a few minutes later. Noah didn't even stop to rest, instead he sprinted down the pathway. He looked from left to right. He needed to find the doctor and nothing would stop him now. Lily, Emma, and Troy chased after him in fear of falling behind so much that they would get lost in The Neon City. As they got closer to Noah he suddenly stopped and just stared to his left. Lily and Troy stopped suddenly, Emma accidentally bumped into Lily who slightly pushed Emma away from her. Noah stared at the house, observing all there was to see. Lily glanced at the address, it read "Nackalin Road".

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