The Neogene Project

Chapter 20 - Don't Forget

Chapter 20 - Don’t Forget

 

The pictures were printed out from Ryan’s phone and laid out on the table at Ramone’s Bakery and Café. The table, which was polished with a sleek finish, was set up so that all of the chairs were situated on one side whilst the other side was pushed up against the wall. Ryan had taped some of the other photos on the wall just above the table. With all of the pictures Ryan had taken all pinned up all along the table, it gave the whole entire gang a great view of them.

Ellie, who was cuddling into Elliot for warmth on the freezing cold morning (the weather had been acting up in McKinleyville), let out a raspy cough. “What does this mean?” she asked, sniffling slightly. Elliot secured his arm around her shoulders and dragged her further into his side. Ellie sprang away and slapped his arm. “Hands off, you goof,” she giggled, then sniffled, then coughed. Elliot only frowned, not letting a rude remark slip out of his mouth as he observed Kitchin. His eyebrows were creased as he only stared at her with hopeful eyes. “I hate when you do that,” Ellie sighed, returning to her spot under Elliot’s arms. His puppy dog eyes faded away as he resumed to his previous position of holding Ellie safely under his arm.

“You love it,” he murmured. Then, turning back to the works displayed on the table, he spoke again: “So, we can gather from the article that the actual project was first announced in 1981, but was soon, literally a day after, abandoned?”

“I guess,” Casey agreed from her spot next to Scott. She jabbed an elbow into Scott’s side and a snort escaped his mouth. Casey giggled as Scott shook his head and rubbed his eyes with his free hand.

“Sorry, what?” he asked groggily. “I’m not normally awake this early on a Saturday,” he defended. Casey ruffled his hair and sat down in a chair. Scott followed suit.

“Okay, look, I understand that it is not normal to be up at 6:00 on a Saturday morning, but this is important. We’ve found a newspaper, in actual print, with information about the Powers Project and how it was abandoned the day after it was accepted. It was a published article in 1981 with your dad Trenton. People knew about this, about us. They put a stop to it before it even happened and yet we are still here and still being experimented on. We need to use this article to do something and help ourselves.” By the end of her speech, Ryan breathing patterns were more labeled. She took that moment to look around the room. Trenton was slouched against the wall, one leg propped up, his arms crossed and his eyebrows furrowed in concentration. Aria was sitting on a chair, inspecting each photo with concentrated eyes, reading over the blurry, yet present, text. Alex was in the corner, half asleep, blanket around her as she attempted to keep her eyes open and trained on the photos. Elliot was holding Ellie and speaking quietly, hushed voices arguing over their different views on the article presented. Casey was sitting down and occasionally stabbing Scott to keep him awake and paying attention. “Okay, I give up.” Ryan sat down in a chair and put her head in her hands. It was as if the world was against her, against them all, and they would never find the answers that they wanted. Everything was working against them, and her friends were just letting it happen.

 

-

 

Aria placed her hand on Ryan’s shoulders and shook her slightly, jostling her out of her slumped position.

“What more is there that we can do by ourselves?” Aria asked softly. Her voice poured onto Ryan like honey into tea. It soothed Ryan and caused her to sit up, the stress leaving her body and causing her to feel a new current of hope rushing into her body.