The Elements

Chapter 9 - The Search

"Okay... So now that we know the number, how do we know what it means?" This was the first time one of my questions had sent everyone into silence-thinking mode. Finally, Emerald spoke.

"Look." Emerald pointed at the edge of the device. I saw a fuzzy combination of words.

"It says... 'Made by'... something?" I asked.

"Exactly. It must be a company of some sort, right?"

"Right... But how is that gonna help us decode a mysterious number?" Silence again.

"Actually... It could be a serial number..." Amber suggested.

"But it's too small for a serial number," I immediately retorted.

"Hey, but a serial number could work," Amber retaliated. "It could have been made a long time ago by that company."

"Then, assuming it is the same company that was trying to catch us all, why would they use a very early version of their product, if they have better ones?" I rejoined.

"But maybe the company is very new. Then they would have fewer products," Alexa cut in.

"And anyways, if it's not a serial number, what do you think it is?" Amber shot me a glare when I couldn't answer. But this company... it really sounded suspicious, didn't it? I mean, who puts a number, whatever its purpose, in ancient mathematical symbols?

"Or... maybe a model number?" Aura suggested.

Emerald eyed Aura. "But model numbers contain letters." A brief silence emanated.

"How about a company index number?" Emerald propounded.

"But it can't be that short, can it?" Aura riposted.

"Whoa whoa whoa. What's a company index number?" I was left completely disoriented at their conversation.

"Yeah. What's that?" Olivia asked. At least I wasn't the only one who was confused.

"Uhh... I'm not sure whether your world has this, but a company index number is basically a number that a company is identified by. But now, all the company numbers are at least six, seven digits long. I don't know how you can have a company number this short," Aura elucidated.

"Yup, we definitely don't have that in our world," I remarked. But after this, a hush fell over us. Silence hung uncomfortably in the air as everyone eyeballed one another, as if trying to outstare each other. "Ugh," I finally let out a groan, "Why is luck so hard on us?" At that exact moment, a guy walked into the "Mathematics" section, but, upon seeing an entire group of girls gathered in a circle and hogging the path, he gave us a confused look and promptly shuffled away.

"Uhh... I think we should go somewhere else in the library. We look like we're crazy," Amber commented. Everyone agreed without hesitation and we walked out. Emerald, once again, helped us in navigating the vast expanse of books and soon, I found myself encircled by tables and chairs, with a sign saying "The Discussion Corner".

The Discussion Corner had all sorts of people crowding around, reading a book together, discussing about supermassive black holes, and just generally chatting. A glass wall was enclosed around the corner, which Emerald explained was made by those with the element of sound ("What? There's an element of sound?" I had asked, startled) as a sound barrier so that the rest of the people would not get disturbed. We chose a purple (apparently Alexa's favourite colour) sofa and sat down.

"So, back to the topic. What do we do now? We don't even know what that number means for sure. How are we supposed to continue?" I blurted, failing miserably at my attempts to be optimistic.

"How about... We go search in the library? I know, I know, this sounds completely weird, but I've got a plan."

"Trust you to always have a plan," everyone chorused, before Aura could even start describing her plan.

Rolling her eyes, Aura continued, "I'll pretend I didn't hear that. Anyways, I was thinking we could all split up. Find different categories. Like, maybe Amber, Emerald and Olivia can look for serial numbers, Pearl can look for company index numbers, and Alexa and I can look for model numbers."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold your horses," I protested immediately, "Why am I going myself? I barely know what a company index number is! Besides, why are there three people looking for serial numbers?"

"Okay, okay, okay, calm down," Aura replied, "How about Amber go with you?"

"Never!" Both Amber and I yelled at the same time.

"Why should I be going with a pear?" Amber muttered. Everyone burst out laughing; even I couldn't stop myself. But it was comeback time.

"And I shouldn't be going with a hamburger either!" I shouted. We laughed ourselves silly, until nearly the entire room was staring at us. Only then did I stop to catch my breath, gasping hard.

"Okay, okay, that's enough," Aura said, "How about Hamburger still go with Em but Olivia goes with Pear instead?" Both Amber and I glared daggers at Aura, but I had to try terribly hard to stifle my laughter.

"Wait, so Oliver tree goes with Pear?" Alexa asked. Olivia looked like she had reached her limit and exploded with laughter. Instantaneously, we were off again, nearly rolling on the floor with laughter. Damn it for being so contagious.

After a long while (and a hard time trying to compose ourselves), we finally stopped — though I had a sinking feeling the nicknames would stick. "Meet here in fifteen minutes?" I asked. Everyone agreed and Emerald, Amber, Olivia and I set off towards the "Companies" section, while Alexa and Aura went to the computer to try finding model numbers.

Seventy-four thick books later, I chanced upon an ancient-looking column of books. Tracing my finger along the mucky spines of the book, I made out the words "Yellow Page" on all of the books. They seemed to have an order, because I spotted the numbers one to seventeen on the books.

"Yo, Olivia!" I called, "I think I found something!" As Olivia (sadly, the name Oliver tree was still stuck in my mind) came over, I showed her the series of yellow pages.

"Wow. That's a great lead." Olivia pulled one book out, dust seemingly billowing out from it. She flipped open the book and saw the words "Company Index № 400–499". I nearly jumped up in excitement — this series of books was exactly what we were looking for!

"Hmm... This is volume five," I realised, looking at the cover, "Which means 328 is in volume four." I pushed the book back into the shelf before dusting off my hands. Then I set about looking for volume four. Sadly, they weren't arranged in order, so I had to blindly guess and check. Luck deserted us and it wasn't until the last book that we found volume four.

"Finally!" I cried, swiping the sweat off my forehead as I pulled out volume four. I flipped to the first page; sure enough, it said, "Company Index № 300–399". We skimmed through the book until we found a page ending with №319. However, the other page seemed to have been torn out hastily — there were jagged ends left at the sides of the page.

"What? Not again..." Olivia sighed. Soon after, we made our way back to The Discussion Corner and shared our findings with the others.

"Maybe... we just try looking for more clues?" It was the only thing we could do, so everyone just went to the "Companies" section and tried finding something else. But it just ended up being everyone picking a book and skimming through without finding anything. So I decided to look around at the library itself.

The many shelves of books just made the library even more confusing to navigate — every shelf looked exactly the same! I walked past millions of shelves, staring at some book covers that made no sense ("How to Abrien" is just nonsense). Then, I came across something that caught my attention.

A rusty, metal door. With a lock on it. That did not work. Because I could push open the door. I peered in.