The Bell of Time

Chapter 2: Die Klingel

Kerven entered the bell last and, like all of us, saw the electronics installed there, the others waiting outside the bell, examining the explanatory panels. "It feels like we're in the cabin of Apollo 11," said Matt, who also began to examine the fireworks. It was then that the unthinkable happened. It started with small electrical problems, the lights inside the bell flickering. Then it was the turn of some sort of blue lightning intensifying more and more, almost like lightning. Then what happened happened. These blue flashes which had stopped for a few seconds, this time resumed much more intense activity and they struck some of my comrades who were as if vaporized or rather "erased" by the lightning. Everyone was starting to panic a little but Mr Pessinito made the call and we then noticed that 12 people were missing: Alexis, Thomas, Nathan, Romain, Manon, Mae Lin, Noémie, Zofia, Raphael, Gabriel, Clara and finally Lucy. The most lively of those who remained tried to understand what had happened and said to themselves, while in great shock and not necessarily with all the clear ideas, that their missing comrades were not necessarily dead since there was no no trace of them even no blood. That's when Serena took matters into her own hands: "Okay everyone, it looks like there was a little incident, I think it's time to think about stepping away from the bell to think more carefully about where your comrades may well have passed; herself being convinced that they were not dead. It was then that under the benches of the bell, which I involuntarily lifted, I found a small piece of rather dirty paper and, paying no more attention to it than that, I threw it on the ground. But Kerven, who had German as an optional language, saw that the writing on it was in German, so he was able to read us a rather mysterious message (translated from German).
"Pay attention to the details, inspect each artifact, because the ones you are looking for are scattered around. Don't ask yourself where and how, but rather when and how. The rest of the message being invisible, Kerven put it back in his pocket, and as soon as it was done, we had a collective reflection on the meaning of the message found. Alexander spoke up to say: "What if they had disappeared into history? which cast a chill among the present Assembly. We all started searching our phones for solutions to make sense of it all, but Serena spoke up to clarify things: "We can't talk to anyone about what just happened here, because they'll take us for fools. crazy, but we can still try to bring them back. If I believe all the films I have seen on the subject and the message translated by Kerven, there is a possibility of bringing your comrades back safe and sound by scrutinizing every detail of History, but it may be necessary shift our attention to major events to determine where and when they are. It might take a few hours for us, but they risk feeling the weight of the years if they come back having spent too much time where they are, if we don't bring them back quickly enough. They can be everywhere so I advise you to scrutinize each big event to see if there is a change. Come, I'll take you to the memorial's computer room to...". It was then that I spoke up to say that there was no way to bring them back here and that perhaps to resolve the problem we had to go to its root, that is to say go back to the source of the problem. our troubles by using the machine (or rather the bell) to take back what it had taken from us. Serena and Mr Pessinito looked contrite as they said to themselves that there were no other solutions, and that they would have to explain to the parents why their children had aged so much in one week because the only alternative was indeed to send damn final year students wandering through the twists and turns of history. It was quickly decided who was going to go and a reduced number of people were chosen, to avoid even more deaths. Kerven, who spoke German well, was going to serve as interpreter for the two people accompanying him, that is to say Matt and your faithful servant, that is to say Hector (me if you couldn't follow) . Recommendations were given to us, such that we had to make good use of our knowledge, not to talk too much and to go straight to Germany to find this famous Hans Mattaus, a task which could take us many months. This is something that would seem very difficult, especially for people of our age. There remained one question, that everyone was asking, how to get there, since the machine seemed out of control? In the meantime, Serena and Mr Pessinito agreed on the date to choose although there was no dial to select the latter. We had to go to the start of the French invasion, in 1940, and try to cross the border by any means possible in order to find this famous scientist and at the same time, a solution to bring back all our comrades alive. Serena was giving us final recommendations that we might see things beyond anything we'd seen so far in horror when suddenly everything around me went blurry. I saw blue lights as if I was experiencing the same thing as my missing comrades, then I felt a feeling of falling that seemed infinite.