Labyrinth of White - The Moon Trilogy - Book #1

Chapter ten:

"Have you located him yet?"

"No. There's something blocking our signals."

"Find out what the problem is. I want him back here within the next twenty-four hours."

"Yes, sir. We have the top techs trying their best. I'll let you know if anything occurs."

"Very good. That will be all, doctor."

"Yes, sir."

Alex was awake. It was Saturday. No school. He sighed and closed his eyes again. He could hear Becky snoring. He tried to go back to sleep but couldn't, He was wide awake. He slid off the bed and walked over to his dresser. He grabbed a bundle of clothes and walked to the bathroom to change.

He walked back into his room, searching for something to do. Everything was either too loud for such an early hour, or too boring. He decided to go on a walk through the woods. He was surprised at how early he had woken up. The sun was barely just peeking over the horizon. Usually, he slept in as late as he could, which resulted in many late arrivals at school.

The ground was very cold outside, which was strange because it was the middle of spring. He wasn't wearing any shoes, and he could feel of the pine needles on his bare feet.

He had been walking for half an hour when he came to a clear, sparkling creek. The golden light of the almost-risen sun reflected off of the crystal-clear water. Alex sighed. He had always liked the outdoors. He had been very happy when his mom had told him that they were moving to the forest.

He loved reading, especially comics, and he often came out to sit under the pines when he would read.

He saw a little chestnut-brown squirrel hop from branch to branch overhead. Pretty much the only reason that there were any forests at all was for the preservation of the earth's animal population. It had cost a pretty penny to move here because of the preservation laws and all that. They'd had to build the house themselves. That was before dad had died, two years back.

He sat down on the bank of the nice little stream and dipped his feet in. The water's cold temperature made goosebumps rise on his arms.

He pulled his feet out of the water and got up. His stomach growled. He decided that it was time to head back, so he started walking home. The sun had risen completely and Alex reveled in the warm rays that found their way through the crisscross of branches overhead.

Clarity walked up the stairs, pausing for just second in front of the door to her room. She had spent about an hour with her mom, talking. Her mom had had a lot of questions, some of which Clarity couldn't even answer. All of them had something or other to do with Rachel.

She opened the door. Alex was still laying on the bed, unconscious, and Rachel was leaning against Clarity's dresser, sleeping. She sighed and sat down in the chair by her desk. It had only been two nights since Rachel had first showed up at their house. It seemed more like two years.

Rachel's eyes snapped open. "What happened?" she asked, only a slight slur to her words to give away that she had only just been asleep.

"Nothing happened." Said Clarity. "That's the problem. It's too quiet."

Rachel closed her eyes again. "What are we going to do about Alex?" she asked. "We can't just keep him in your room forever."

"We can't really do anything until we learn more." Clarity sighed again.

"Maybe all of this has something to do with that metal thing on the back of his neck?" Rachel suggested, her eyes still closed.

"Maybe." Said Clarity, suddenly very tired of this whole mess.

Rachel just shrugged, looking slightly helpless.

An idea suddenly occurred to Clarity.

She turned around in her chair, opened her laptop, went online and typed: ORGANIZATION. She scrolled through the search results, but there was nothing that looked promising. She scrolled more, and at the bottom of the page, she was ready to give up. If nothing had come up yet, there likely wasn't going to be anything.

She only allowed herself one more page of search results, and then she would give up on it. So she scrolled a bit longer, and then her heart leaped slightly. There it was! On the screen was the strange emblem from Alex's holo-screen. She clicked on it and read what came up. It was a plain-looking web page.

"Hey Rachel, listen to this: 'the organization: a company funded by charity, doing research for the good of mankind. They have found cures for multiple diseases and have made giant leaps in the fields of science and technology.' If they really did all of this stuff, how come I've never heard of them?" Clarity said. Under this paragraph, there was a green button with the single word "donate," written on it.

Rachel looked thoughtful but said nothing.

"Well, whoever they are, I hope they don't send any more agents after us." Clarity said after it was clear that Rachel wasn't going to say anything.

"If they sent one agent, they must be planning on sending more." Rachel said grimly. Clarity hated the sense that her words made.