the stricking

Prologue

I hurried and scrambled up the cliff reaching out for any thing clutching at empty air. Then I realized my foot was stuck on the root of a tree. I turned around facing something that I could never describe to its full potential. I turned around into blinding light. A thunderous ear popping crash. And then a huge wave of water higher than a thousand sky scrapers coming towards us faster than anything before.

Chapter one

         “Your going to be late if you don’t get out of that bed right now” said my mom. “And I'm not going to call you agin”she added.
Ugh another day of waking up running to catch the hover board while scarfing down a granola bar. Hi I’m Alice. I live in the year 2030. You would think since the computers now days are so good that we wouldn’t have to go to school. That we could just learn from computers but no. I’m in six grade. I sit up in my bed sluggish and slow like a snail. I spin my feet to the side of my bed waiting for my bunny slippers to bounce onto my feet. I let them take me to the dressing tube. I push the button for the usual. Shorts, T-shirt, shoes, face washed, and hair combed. I grab my stylus and holographic journal and I’m out the door.
Hearing my moms faint “see you later and have a good day.”
I make it just in time. I sit next to my friends Hannah Lauren and Emma. We talk a bit and then sit quietly. There seemed to be a weird emotion drifting around. The animals seemed to be quiet. I didn’t have time to think about it much more so I just let it go. After all it was a Monday and people are usually slow in the morning anyway. We got to school got our things and went to class. My first, second, and third hour were ok I guess. I had already gotten one paper, a chapter read, and writing a spelling word list for home work. I guess it wasn’t going so great after all. I was on my way to lunch. Then a sudden loud siren went on and off saying in a robotic tone
“Emergency” it was slightly annoying but none of the teachers said anything about a tornado drill. I knew that something was wrong Emma Hannah and Lauren had snuck up to my side fear filled their eyes. I knew that I must not have looked to different.
“What do you think it could be” asked Hannah
“I have no idea” I said. Then one of the speakers came on stopping the blaring siren.
The voice said “ attention students and staff please go back to class some one who thinks it is funny to make a chaotic mess out of the student body has pulled the alarm please go back to class in an orderly fashion thank you”
It was hard not know that the principle was talking. He had a gruff scratchy voice that could be menacing if enough force was behind it or could be gentle and soothing. I started to walk back to class thinking about the person who was going to get in trouble. One part of me was glad that it was just a joke but the other was disappointed and was upset that we had to go back to boring old lectures and other stuff that no one really cares about. It was spring. The time teachers hate the most because the students are starting to count down to summer and have more and more trouble focusing on their work. I was so deep in thought that I jumped when I herd Hannah’s voice.
“I bet whoever pulled the alarm will be in deep trouble. Like a cat in a dog shelter” said Hannah.
“Yeah I bet they will” I said only half paying attention to the conversation. Then Hannah started to go off into one of those long detailed scientific speeches and I just nodded. It did get annoying from time to time but she was always funny and cool to hang out with. She can be a nerd but is trustworthy. Of curse that last bit is confidential. Emma one of my best buddies is energetic and always up to something though sometimes she can let people walk all over her. And finally Lauren. Lauren is that person who stands up for herself and her friends. She is totally independent. She is truly unique and amazing. She might be hard core but she can be soft. But all those things do not compared to her brains. She has to have an IQ that has made it up into the top ten highest IQs ever. The cool thing is she doesn’t brag she will actually act stupid just to fit in. “well this stinks” I said. “I was kind of hoping for so more action.”
“Maybe next time” said Emma. No one knew how much Emma was right.


Chapter two

I was glad when the bell rang and the clock flashed 3:55 and we were allowed out of the horrible dungun called school. It had been a long day with all the talk about the siren incident. I had a lot of homework and a math test I knew I would proboly fail if I didn’t study for most of the night. I saw Hannah Emma and Lauren and swiveled through the crowed to get to them. The halls were always full of people fleeing and it was always a challenge to get where you needed to go. “Hey you guys want to come to my house to hang out for a bit” I said almost out of breath. Who knew it took so much energy to get to your friends. There was a chorus of I don’t knows and maybes. “Please just come over for thirty minutes” I said. “My mom made some cookies”. I knew this would pull them in my mom made the best cookies in the world.
         “I’m in” Lauren said almost before I could finish the sentence.
         “Me too” said Emma and Hannah at the same time. On our way to my house I said “I’ll let you guys use our phone to ask if it’s ok with your parents”. Sure enough it was. We were not too surprised. The real reason why I wanted my friends to come over was because of the math test. If Lauren could help me (which she did almost every time) then I could maybe even ace it.  I opened the jar of cookies and took four out. We bit in to them slowly savoring every crumb and gooey chocolate chip. Feeling them crumble on our tongues as we ate them. They were nice and light .even the edge of the cookie was amazing and that’s the part that most people would rather not have. We worked on homework and talked. We studied and talked until 5’o clock. Sure enough my evil plan worked I was feeling confident about my test tomorrow. And Emma was excited to get her home work done because she had a soccer game. I walked each of my friends home until I it was only me and Hannah talking. Some thing made me interrupt Hannah from her lectures. I asked her “hey Hannah”
“Yeah” she said
“How would we know something bad was going to happen, I mean really bad? You know, would there be signs” I asked not sure why I had made the conversation make such a sudden turn in topic. Why did I just blurt that out? Then it hit me. This morning when everything was so… strange. When everyone and every thing was so quiet and so… strange. There was no other word to describe the feeling in the air.
“Well” Hannah said starting into a speech. This time though I listened closely.
“The animals would probely freak out or stay quiet. Then the trees leaves might curl up or bend slightly. Bascily mother nature would give us quiet a few signs before this weird bad thing happened you would just have to know how to find them” did Hannah always have such fascinating things to say or was it just because I knew what she was talking about this time.
“Hmm. Thanks” I said.
“Now it’s my turn to ask a question” said Hannah.
“Umm, ok shoot” I said my voice a tiny bit shaky. I was slightly nervous of what her question could possibly be.
“Why did you want to know” she asked. I could tell from her face she saw that I was a little nervous.
“Well” I started my mind scrambling to answer her question with out looking like a fool. It wasn’t like I could just say there weren’t any animals around so I was nervous. I decided that the truth was the best way to go. Then I found the best way to say it with out sounding crazy.
“To tell you the truth this morning things felt a little weird. People were quiet and I only saw a few animals here and there.”
“That is strange” said Hannah.” actually to tell you the truth I noticed it too. I thought it was just me but I guess not.” Hannah’s face had an expression on that I was not familiar with. Was it anger, fear, or was it not knowing everything about everything for change. Hannah turned her face toward me. Her eyes were narrowed and sharp.uh oh. Did I just say my thoughts out loud? If I did what could I say? Hannah interrupted my thoughts.
“This isn’t some kind of mean joke is it?” asked Hannah. Her voice slightly sharper than usual.
“Of course not. That would be mean” I said trying to hide how relived I was.
“Well that’s too bad because it would have been a great joke.” Hannah and I looked at each other for two seconds and burst out laughing so hard our cheeks hurt, we were gasping for air, and our sides hurt and we had to sit down. We got up and started to walk agin.we turned the corner and stoped at the edge of the driveway. We said our goodbyes and I turned to go. I walked home thinking about all the things Hannah and I had said.