07 - Middle of Nowhere - Bree
The brothers were outside in their backyard, having a camp-out one night. Lying on his back, looking up into the blanket of darkness, Zac noticed something.
"Whoa, Tay, look up there!" Zac pointed up into the black sky at a brightly shining, moving object.
"Cool," Taylor said, only glancing at where his brother had pointed. He was trying to get his marshmallow perfectly toasted. Zachary didn't notice, since he was too busy staring at the star-like object in the sky.
"Hey, Ike?"
"Huh?" Isaac looked over at his brother.
"Can planes really go that fast?"
Isaac looked up at where Zac was staring. "What are you looking at?" Ike scrunched up his brow.
"Up there," Zachary pointed, not taking his eyes off of the white, glowing thing.
"Where?"
"THERE!" He kept pointing.
"I don't see anything, Zac."
Zachary looked back down, "You’re blind as a bat; I think you need some glasses." He smirked then grabbed Tay's marshmallow that had just now been cooked to Taylor's satisfaction.
"Zac!" Taylor whined as Zachary popped the marshmallow into his mouth and chewed with exaggeration. Then Tay poked him with a stick.
"Ow," Zac mumbled, still chewing. He rubbed his side. Grabbing another stick, he poked him back. It became a fight with the sticks, then went farther as they started sword fighting. Isaac just watched as his brothers acted like seven-year-olds. After awhile, they stopped and sat back down.
"Okay, time for ghost stories." Isaac grinned menacingly.
"Yeah, BABY!" Taylor huddled closer to hear the tale that was about to begin. Zachary squished up beside him.
With a measured beat, Isaac began: "A long time ago.. there were three guys.. sitting around a campfire.. when something happened.. something strange.. something that would haunt them.. forever.." Ike continued on, telling it as he made it up. Once it was over, they were well freaked out. No one, of course, would admit to being scared though.
"Umm.. no more stories tonight, okay?," Taylor asked hopefully.
"Yeah, good idea," Zac agreed. They inched closer to each other for "protection".
Isaac got out the graham crackers, chocolate, and marshmallows, and said, "I think we need to make some more of these."
"You mean, 'Smore’ of these right Ike?" Zac asked, grinning.
"Yup, that's what I meant." He handed out the gooey cakes and they ate and ate until they were almost sick.
"I didn't know I could eat so much," Tay groaned.
"What do you expect, Tay? It's chocolate!"
"True." The three talked for awhile more, then hit the sack.
The day after their night out, Zac was home alone. Since the rest of the family had decided to leave and go see Titanic for the millionth time, Zachary decided he was going to stay home. I mean, just because his older brother's wanted to drool over Kate Winslet a million times, didn't mean he wanted to. Zachary turned on the radio in the living room, and turned it to the station he usually listened to and blasted the music.
"And now for the newest release by Matchbox20. It's "Back 2 Good"," The DJ said as he put on the song. Zac was jumping from chair to chair, listening to his favourite band:
~"It's nothing, It's so normal, you just stand there, I could say so much, but I don't go there, because I don't want to."~
The music played in the background as Zac busily jumped. Minutes later, something strange happened. In the middle of the chorus:
~ "But I'm lonely now, and I don't know how, to get it back to.." ~ The music cut out and fuzzy noises replaced it. Seconds later, a much deeper voice said, "Zac?"
Zachary Hanson froze. He stopped jumping immediately and wondered if he had actually just heard his name.
"Zac?" It said again. The voice had a deep rumble in it.
Zac's breathing started to become faster. "Is someone talking to me?" He asked, frightened.
The voice had started to sing, "It's nothing, Zac, It's so normal."
"What in the..? Who are you?"
"I am your Leader."
Zac got off of the couch, he made his way to the radio, and checked around it to see if one of his brothers had a mic hooked up to it or something.
"There's nothing there. I am not your brother."
"What? Who? How did you...?" Zac had started to shake. He now backed away from the 'talking' radio. "Oh my gosh, I'm going crazy. I'm hearing things! Gee, nice one Zac, all those screaming girls finally did it, you’re hearing voices. Oh great, and now you're talking to yourself. Smart.."
"Zachary, you are not hearing things."
"Who are you then? Why... why in the hell is my radio talking to me?!?"
"I told you, I am your Leader. I wanted to tell you that you need to come home. You have been here long enough, and now you will come back."
"Come back? Come back where? This is home!! I live here!" Zac now felt like he had gone insane. He was now having a conversation with his radio.
There was more static as the voice said something that he couldn't hear, then fuzz. A few seconds later the DJ came back on and said, "That was Matchbox20 with "Back 2 Good". Now for the latest by Natalie Imbruglia.." Another song started up. But Zac ran up to the radio, he reached out his hand and quickly pushed the 'off' button. Backing away, he kept looking at the radio with fear. What exactly HAD just taken place?
"But Zac, the radio could NOT have talked to you. Radios don't have minds or voices or anything. They are machines." Taylor was being sarcastic to his brother. After about an hour of Zac frantically trying to tell his brother's about the incident that afternoon, this was about the tenth time Tay had repeated that radio's weren't living things.
"I know that, dork wad. That's not what I'm saying!!" Zac was getting irritated with him.
"Okay, Zac, whatever it was it's over now, okay? So lets just drop it." Isaac said, exhausted with the topic.
"Whatever.. just don't go telling mom and dad I’m psycho or something," Zachary said.
"Guys!! We rented movies!!" Diana yelled from downstairs.
"Cool!" Taylor and Isaac spoke in unison as they ran, full speed, down the stairs. Zachary just sat on his bed and pondered about what had happened with the radio. "That's just so freaky." He wondered why or even IF he was hearing things. And if he was hearing things who was his "leader" and what was the deal with "going home"? He decided that he would get on the Internet and surf for awhile to get his mind off of it. He connected to the Internet and was surfing for Mortal Kombat pages when someone sent him an AOL Instant Message. It wasn't one of his online buddies, but he accepted it anyway.
BRIGHTSKY: Hello Zac.
MMMBop: hello
BRIGHTSKY: Don't be afraid.
MMMBop: what do you mean?
BRIGHTSKY: Don't be scared of your leader. Don't be afraid to come home.
MMMBop: I am home. what do you want from me and who are you?
BRIGHTSKY: I am your friend, don't you remember me? It's gonna be okay because I will be the one who takes you home. We miss you.
MMMBop: WHO ARE YOU? who misses me? WHAT HOME?? THIS IS MY HOME!!
BRIGHTSKY: Your family misses you, Zac, and your friends. And your home is not where you think it is.
MMMBop: yes it is. i live here, in my home, where do you think i live?
BRIGHTSKY: You live with us, Zac. I understand that you are confused but I will help you. When you come back you will remember. Zac, I know you feel afraid... don't.
MMMBop: come back WHERE? where will you take me? what do you want?
BRIGHTSKY: You will see.. Don't ask so many questions now. Can't we just talk like we did before?
MMMBop: who are you? i don’t know you. What do you want from me?
BRIGHTSKY: There you go again with those questions.. Yes, Zac, you do know me. But you just don't remember right now. For now know that my name is Lucy.
MMMBop: you're just some obsessed fan trying to scare me. well, it's not working.
At that moment Zac began screaming for his brothers to get up stairs right then.
BRIGHTSKY: Now, come on, Zac. I told you not to be afraid; you shouldn't be calling them.
MMMBop: calling who?
Zachary kept yelling his brother's names at the top of his lungs.
BRIGHTSKY: Tay and Ike. What are they going to do for you?
Zac froze in his chair reading that last sentence. How did BRIGHTSKY know that? How did the user know he was calling them? Taylor and Isaac entered the room and Tay asked, "What?"
"L-look. Look at this." Zac said shakily, as he typed in another message-
MMMBop: how do you know that?
The message didn't get through. The screen indicated that the user 'BRIGHTSKY' had gotten off-line. Zac's hands started shaking as he scrolled up on the conversation so his brothers could read it.
"Oh my gosh." Isaac sat down slowly onto the bed, after reading the messages.
"Should I show this to Mom?" Zac asked.
"I don't know..."
"It's freaking me out, Ike."
"Yeah, me too." Tay said.
"Same here," Isaac agreed.
"Is everything okay up there?" They heard Walker call.
"Yeah," Zac yelled back down. Seeing his brother's faces, he shrugged, "If we tell them someone is stalking us or something they will ground us off of the computer for, like, the rest of our lives!"
"True." Taylor agreed.
"What if it happens again?"
"Yeah, I know, I'll tell them.. I'm just so tired right now.."
"Maybe we all just need some rest," Isaac said.
"You know.. we should tell them.. I'm gonna tell mom and dad about this tomorrow. Okay? Because.. it's too freaky... and you never know what weirdos can do." Zac said, getting scared again.
"Good idea, Zaccy," Taylor said.
They were all kind of shaken up, and before they went to bed, Zachary came up to Isaac. Trying to calm his nerves and get back to normal he hugged him and said, "Merry Christmas."
"Yeah, same to you, Zac. Goodnight." Everyone knew, 'Merry Christmas' was Zac's code for saying 'goodnight. Zac then went to Taylor and did the same.
"Goodnight, Zac."
They all went to their beds. Zac curled up in his blankets and fell asleep almost immediately.
(Hours later): Zac, began walking in his sleep, he got out of his bed and went down the stairs. He opened the door and went outside into the backyard, toward the trees.
A girl, her light blond hair swinging onto her shoulders as she looked back at him, she then turned towards him and reached out for his hand. Her bright blue eyes looked into his. He took her hand and she led out into the trees. The darkness seemed to close in around him as he let her lead him to wherever she was going. Then he saw it. The bright object hovered and then stopped suddenly. It looked as if it was falling on them, but it landed in front of them instead. The UFO was a glowing ball of white. It seemed to be very bright, but actually let off only a little light. A thick white mist was surrounding it. He began to get scared, and looked over at the girl, she was pulling him into the space ship and he had no resistance.
Zac woke up still standing., his hand was still entwined in the girl’s. It was the girl from his dream!! He realized then, that that had not been dreaming. She let go of his hand and he looked at her. Her blue eyes had changed suddenly to all black. He jumped backwards at the change. She kept looking at him. He scanned the spaceship with his eyes. He was in a large room with light blue light shining everywhere. The room was circular and he couldn’t see a door, the only furniture appeared to be some small couches. Nothing more.
"I’m Lucy," she breathed.
"You’re that sky person! Bright sky!! The one I... oh my gosh.. what am I doing here?" Zac asked. He started to shake.
"Zac, don’t be afraid. Yes, I was, or, am your closest friend."
"My-my WHAT?" He was getting really scared.
"Don't you remember? We thought you would remember once you were here.. maybe once we get there you will... Come here, sit down, I will tell you." He did as told, and she began, "You are from Albertane. The leaders sent you down to earth twelve, almost thirteen years ago. They wanted you to be the one to tell them what it was like there. We were all curious. But on the transformation to become human..." He interrupted her,
"What transformation?"
"You saw my eye's change, right?" He nodded. "That's the transformation. All of us have black eyes, not different colours like humans do. "
"My eyes?" He asked, unsure.
"Yes, look." She pulled out a mirror and he stared into it. He saw that she was right. His eyes were totally black voids. This terrified him, but he still wanted to hear more of her story so he told her to continue.
"As I was saying, during the transformation there was a glitch and you lost all your memories of Albertane. There was a huge debate on what to do. As you can see, we chose to let you live on Earth for awhile. Actually the Leaders decided on leaving you there, so you could become human. But when you and your brothers became famous.. well, they changed their minds... there couldn't be an Albertanian on earth who was known worldwide, so they made a final decision and.. well.. here you are.. going back to your home.. your real home.. Albertane."
Taylor and Isaac woke up the next day. There was no sign of Zac. But there was music playing:
~"Flew off to Milwaukee, or perhaps Albertane, and left me at the bus stop, just barely sane, I've been sitting here too long, thinking 'bout Milwaukee, I've been talking too long, on my yellow walkie talkie, I've been talking to Mars, you may think I'm wacky, I know they'll come get me, come get me some day, I know they'll come get me, and take me away, I know they'll come get me, come get me someday, If not tomorrow, then maybe today..."~
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