NaNoWriMo Day 2

“That
would be Evelyn.” Evelyn Medley was a long time friend of Ronia and
Grace, and was an extraordinarily talented musician. She was quite
tall and thin, but pear-shaped at the same time. Her strawberry pink
hair sparkled in the waves of sunlight, as did her glasses and
chocolate brown eyes. She was beaming – something that seemed to
show off her square jaw, but in some ways, Luke found it kind of
adorable. Though he’d never tell her that.
They all laughed, just happy to be with each other again. Simply
great friends enjoying one of the best moments in life.

~

“So what do you wanna do
today?” Evelyn asked the the other three. They were sitting on a
cream coloured couch in Grace’s house, where her mother had served
them tea and small jam cakes after returning from the train station.
It wasn’t a large house. There were all the essentials: Couch,
Chairs, Television, Kitchen, Bedrooms, etcetera, but it suited Grace
and her family just fine. Ronia flicked on the small television near
them, distracted in her thoughts. “…Dunno” she replied with an
empty voice. Luke decided to break the sudden awkwardness of Ronia
virtually ignoring Evelyn. “Hmm…” He thought for a while. “I’ve
got it! Lets go racing on Emberlake Road! Ronia – you brought your
skateboard along with you, right?” He said, turning to Ronia, who
was now transfixed on the Channel 12 News. “…Huh? Wha? Oh,
y-yeah.” She said, brought back to reality. “Great! Then it’s
settled. I’m gonna go get my bike – I’ll meet you all there.”
Evelyn said, hopping off the couch and running out the door. Grace
smiled. “Luke, you can use my brother’s bicycle. He doesn’t use it
any more now that he’s away at University.” “Thanks, Grace!” He
said, returning the smile, and begun to leave toward the backyard.
“C’mon Ronia!” Grace called as she followed him. Ronia was still
staring at the television. “R-right..!” And she got up to follow
them, taking a jam cake with her.

After a while, Grace’s
mother came in as she realised it was awfully quiet in her living
room. She saw that the four had gone, and begun cleaning up the cakes
and tea, but noticed that Ronia had left the television on, and was
displaying something rather interesting. “Hundreds dead, and even
more severely wounded. This is a dark day in history, folks.” The
reported said with a heavy American accent. The subtitle on the
screen said “Bombing Massacre in Egypt” and the reporter was
wearing what looked like a radiation mask. Grace’s mother sat down on
the sofa, her attention grabbed. “Early this morning, the sun was
blacked out by what the locals thought to be a Lunar Eclipse, but was
actually a tremendous explosive projectile. An entire civilisation
has been reduced to ruins. As you can see behind me, the land has
been torn asunder – craters, chasms, and burning pits, all what
used to be a sparkling oasis. Scientists hypothesised that a
meteorite had crashed into the Earth, but representatives from NASA
confirmed this wasn’t so, especially after radiation and particles of
metal were found. There doesn’t seem to be any link to where the bomb
came from, and many world leaders, including the communist countries
of China and North Korea, say that this catastrophe had nothing to do
with them. Officials will continue to investigate, and we’ll have
more reports for you as it comes up. I’m Leon Adams with Channel 12
News.”

Grace’s mother looked
wearily at her television, taking in all the reporter had said. “What
a nightmare…” She thought. Finally, she bowed her head and
gave a silent prayer for the victims of the bombing, and continued on
with her cleaning.

~

Later on Emberlake Road,
Grace, Luke, Evelyn, and Ronia all gathered at the steepest part of
the road – a long, downwards hill that any reckless skater could
reach their top speeds and fulfil their adrenaline needs. “Okay,
everyone ready?” Luke asked, but Evelyn waved a finger. “You know
the rules. Safety check first.” Luke sighed. “Oh fine…Helmets
and visors?” “Check!” They all replied in unison. “Elbow and
knee pads?” “Check!” “Leaving Evie behind?” “CHECK!”
and three of them took off, leaving Evelyn in the dust. “Hey!”
She scowled, and pedalled after them. It was probably worth noting
that anything with wheels was prohibited on Emberlake Road, for
obvious reasons. Of course, that didn’t stop these four.

Wind rushed through Luke’s
hair, as he got faster and faster on the hill’s decline. He was in
the lead, and was loving every moment of it. “Yeaaaaah!” He
cheered, watching the trees and small houses rush by. He felt like he
was on top of the world. Like he was invincible. Suddenly on his
right, he saw Ronia come up next to him, riding her skateboard like
it was gliding on air (it essentially was). She saluted him, and
crouched on the board, angling her arms in a position to take her
faster down the slope. She zoomed right past Luke and into first
place, with as Luke saw to his mild dismay, Grace following right
along her in second. Luke decided to use a function of this bicycle
that he never got a chance to use – something Grace’s brother
referred to as “The Unlocker.” It was a series of extra chains
set on the wheels, that capped them at a certain speed, put in place
by the manufacturer for safety reasons. Grace’s brother had modified
his bike so that these chains could be disconnected from their
tethers with a red push button mounted on the handlebars. With a
determined expression, Luke reached his thumb over to the button, and
pushed down on it. Instantly, he felt like he’d just hit an
acceleration pad that you often find in one of those racing video
games. The wind became exceptionally stronger, and it reflected on
his speed. He saw that he was catching up to Ronia and Grace rapidly,
passing Grace in seconds and Ronia in a few more. Nothing was clearly
visible now except the goal at the bottom of the hill, marked with a
small red flag.

It was also worth noting
that the location of the goal, a clearing that sat right on the edge
of a lake – one that shown like embers in a fire during sunset,
hence the name – was an archway leading into the clearing, and
it had a large digital clock in the centre of it.

When Luke looked up
at it, a cold chill ran down his spine. Instead of showing regular
hours and the date, It showed the words “Thirty Days Remaining.”
There was a short stone wall blocking townsfolk from falling into the
lake on the very edge of the clearing, but Like was going much to
fast for the wall to stop him. In the next three seconds, the bicycle
had been smashed into the stone, smashing through it and flipping
itself – and Luke – into the murky Emberlake.

“No! Luke!!” Evelyn
yelled, but it was no use, the wind stole away her words and only
left panic and fear. They each reached the clearing, making a half
circle on the pavement to stop themselves, and ran to the place where
Luke had crashed. “Oh God no! Luke!” Grace exclaimed. Ronia made
a quick decision, throwing off her helmet and pads and diving into
the water after him. She couldn’t see much, but thankfully Emberlake
wasn’t very deep at this time of year. It was the dry season and
there wasn’t much rain. In a few seconds, she’d swam down to the
bottom and spotted Luke and the bike, unconscious. She grabbed them
both, and thanks to her strength and agility learned from her
archery, she was able to reach the surface without much delay. Grace
and Evelyn pulled up first Luke, then Ronia, who was carrying the
bike. As soon as he was out of the water, Luke awoke in a coughing
fit, his lungs depositing all the water he’d swallowed. “Oh thank heavens
you’re all right!” Evelyn said with a massive sigh of relief and
hugging him.

“Sorry…I..” Luke
began, embarrassed and ashamed beyond belief. But Grace cut him off,
hugging him as well. “It’s okay, we’re just happy you’re safe.”
Although, Ronia was relieved that Luke was okay, she responded to the
situation differently than the other two. “What the bloody hell
were you thinking?!” She yelled at him. “Are you trying to
get yourself killed?” Luke looked down in shame. “I’m sorry,
Ronia…all of you..it was a stupid idea to race down this road.
Especially when I thought to use The Unlocker…” He began, but
stopped when he turned his head and noticed the wrecked bicycle lying
near them. One of the wheels was nearly detatched from the bike, and
the handlebars were twisted around in a grusome position The
Unlocker, or rather, what was left of it, was disconnected from the
bars, its welding shattered. Its chains were missing, and were where
Luke could only guess, at the bottom of the lake. He had a a
sickening feeling when he thought that those could’ve been his lungs.

“Oh, Shit! Your
brother’s bike, Grace…He’s gonna murder me. No – He’s gonna
murder me, revive me, and then murder me again!” “Ssshh…it’s
all right. I’ve got some money saved up. I can get it repaired before
his next visit, and he won’t ever know. It was my stupid brother’s
fault for putting that thing on his bike anyway” Grace said
sympathetically. Although, this just made Luke feel even worse. He’d
rather pay for his actions himself, though sadly he had no money to
his name.

He tried to stand, but
slipped, letting out of grunt of pain when he felt how much his legs
ached from the collision with the stone. Without a word, Grace and
Evelyn picked Luke up and supported him by putting his arms over
their shoulders. Ronia picked up the broken remains of the bicycle,
and followed them. Not another word was spoken until they returned
home