Chapter 3

Charles Walker lit the fire in the back of his house, fanning it to catch on to the stack of logs underneath the chimney. His house was large compared to the other houses in the community. Although the residents of Dawn didn't call him mayor, it was understood that he made the rules, and it was also understood that everyone followed them. At Dawn, he was the equivalent of a mayor.

As the logs in the fireplace caught, Walker moved back to his chair in the middle of the living room, grabbing a book off of the table to the side. He turned his chair at a slight angle to the fire so the light would fall on the pages of his book, a journal of sorts. Walker had been required by his boss to relay any and all information he'd acquired during his stay, and this journal provided an easy way to do it.

He was about to start writing when he heard footsteps approaching his front door, and then a knock. Walker grabbed a lantern and lit it with a match, bringing it with him to the front door. Who would be here this late at night?

With the lantern in one hand, Walker opened the door. Standing in front of him was Martin Haas, a taller man with short blonde hair. His clothes wrinkled, his expression restless, he was looking over his shoulder. When Haas turned to face him, he looked exhausted.

"We need to talk," he said flatly as he let himself in.

"Is someone following you, Martin? You seem anxious." Walker looked past where Haas had just been standing, wondering if there was anyone watching. After no more than a couple of seconds, he turned around and closed the door, curious who Haas seemed to be looking for.

"No, no one's following me, I'm just tired. I'm tired of lying to these people, tired of hiding everything from them. They did nothing to deserve this."

"Martin, we've talked about this. We moved here almost twenty years ago knowing full well what we were getting ourselves into."

"Not like this, Chuck." Haas sighed, moving over to a wooden chair near the fire, sitting down ever so slowly. Had Haas's face not been lit by the fire, Walker would have sworn the man before him was elderly.

Haas stared longingly into the fire. "We're torturing them. We're torturing them and they don't even know it." This was when Walker realized Haas was crying.

"We're not torturing them, Martin. They're not experiencing pain, and we're not forcing any information out of them."

"You're right, we're not. But we're withholding information. They're puppets, Chuck. Puppets in an endless show. No one who started this is even alive anymore. What's keeping us from..."

Haas was interrupted by another knock at the door. Walker instinctively grabbed his journal and placed it in a drawer in the table by his chair. "Mr. Walker, it's me, Danny!"

Daniel Helmink, a boy no older than eight years old, was one of the smarter boys in town. His father had died a few years after he was born, and having no children of his own, Walker became the father figure in Danny's life. Danny knew at an early age that Walker wasn't his true father, but that was of little concern to him.

Walker made his way over to the door, giving a look to Haas that said it all: We'll talk later. Not a word to Danny. Clean yourself up, you're a mess. Still holding the lantern in his hand from earlier, Walker reached for the door and swung it open, revealing a child no taller than his waist.

"Mr. Walker, you have to come see this!" Either Danny had just been on a long run, or the sheer excitement of what he wanted to show Walker made it difficult for him to catch his breath.

"I'm a little busy right now, Danny. I've got company." Walker motioned toward Haas who was facing toward the fire.

"I know, Mr. Walker, but you told me to let you know if anything interesting happens, and I've never seen anything like this!"

"Danny, come here, I have a question I need to ask you." Walker looked over to Haas who was now waving Danny over to the fire.

"But you have to..."

"It'll only take a second, then we can go see what's so interesting. How 'bout it?"

Walker glared at Haas, positive that his question had something to do with the conversation they were just having. As Danny looked behind him, Walker finally noticed a growing crowd in the center of the road that connected his house to the town's center.

"It's going to have to wait, Martin. Something's going on." Walker, relieved for the interruption, put his hand on Danny's shoulder and led him outside, leaving Haas alone by the fireplace. That was close; Martin is losing it. What was he going to ask him anyway? Want to know a secret about our town? That would have gone over really well.

Danny grabbed Walker's hand and began running to the center of commotion. The collection of lanterns interspaced in the crowd cast eerie shadows on the ground and nearby buildings, with further buildings being swallowed by the darkness. In the center of everything was a man that Walker recognized as Caleb Haynes, the local "mad scientist." Walker started calling him this not because he was crazy, but because he ran rather complex experiments in his home far beyond the level of comprehension of anyone else in town, with the exception of himself of course. He often made a spectacle when he discovered or invented something new, which Walker assumed was the case this time.

Over the squabble of the growing crowd, Haynes began to yell something, though Walker couldn't make out the words. A hush began to fall over the crowd as their interest shifted from discussions with their neighbors to the scrawny man now standing atop a wooden box in the center of everything. With everyone's attention focused on Haynes, he began to speak again.

"Ladies and gentlemen, as I was saying, I come bearing yet another one of my ingenious inventions!" Haynes had the unique ability to intrigue anyone listening to him. For all anyone cared, he could have been discussing his breakfast, revealing vivid details of buttering his toast, and his audience would no doubt be giving him their full attention, eyes wide open, jaws on the ground.

"This invention will change the way we go about our daily lives!"

Walker noted his hands, swaying over the crowd as he talked, giving more emphasis to his already over-emphatic presentation. Danny was standing next to Walker, or rather jumping, trying to get a view of the spectacle. Walker bent over, grabbed Danny across his stomach and lifted him on top of his shoulders so he could watch Haynes. Danny looked down at Walker, thanking him for helping him see the show.

"I, Caleb Haynes, have harnessed the power of nature itself! I have connected these metal rods..." Walker noted a pair of tall rods leaning against a table, he assumed made of copper, giving off a brownish glow in the low light of the cluster of lanterns, "...to this box." Haynes proceeded to put on a thick pair of gloves. Walker guessed, if this was indeed what he thought it was, that the gloves were for insulation, for protection. A black box sitting next to the wooden one that Haynes was standing on was connected to the rods.

This unveiling of a new invention was more and more starting to feel like a magic show, all leading up to the big finale, the big reveal. Walker half expected to see Haynes pull a rabbit out of the box.

"Watch as I bring these two rods together." Haynes stepped off the box, and with his gloved hands grabbed the copper rods, then stepped back onto his box. "Notice how the ends of the rods physically touch. You will see something new, and you will hear something new. Do not be afraid of what you see, it won't hurt you as long as you don't touch it. That is why I am wearing these gloves.

"Now, for the moment you've been waiting for." Haynes moved his eyes from the crowd to the tops of the rods, moving them ever so slowly toward each other. The silence of the crowd was incredible; Walker never imagined such a huge gathering of people could be so quiet.

As the tips came closer, Haynes spoke once more, "Would the people closest to me please put out their lanterns for a moment." Lanterns nearest Haynes began to go out, one by one, plunging the center of the crowd into darkness.

A few seconds passed and nothing happened. Since nobody could see anything going on, whispers arose from parts of the crowd, most of them concerning the validity of Haynes's claim. Almost as quickly as the whispers arose, a faint blue glow appeared from in between the rods. A crackling sound began to resonate, like someone popping popcorn, but much, much faster. From the source of the blue glow was a line, connecting the tips of the rods in a sweeping arc, constantly moving but remaining rooted to the same spots. This phenomenon reminded Walker of a Tesla coil he had seen in college, arcing electricity from one source to the next.

Walker looked around to see the expressions on everyone's faces and found that each person had their eyes wide open, unblinking. A question arose, "What is that?"

"My friends," he began, "what you are witnessing in my hands is the human creation of lightning!" Gasps could be heard from all directions, and although Walker couldn't hear it, he could still see the vivid blue glow emanating from the rods. He smiled, looking at the awe and amazement on Danny's face. He smiled coyly, knowing full well he was the only person in the crowd who had any inkling as to what was truly happening.

"I'll be right back, Danny. I need to put you down." Danny kept his eyes on the spectacle unfolding. Walker lifted him over his head and put him down. Immediately after touching the ground, Danny made his way through the crowd, trying to get a better view. Walker laughed at Danny as he worked his way out of the crowd.

As he neared his house, he could see Haas standing on his doorstep, hands in his pockets and eyes towards the crowd. "What is it this time?" Haas asked, a bleak undertone carried with the question.

"Electricity," Walker answered.

"Well, I'll be damned."

Reviews

[Jules]

I really enjoyed this chapter. It was electrifying! My attention was captured from beginning to end. Only thing I noticed was maybe you could give a little more detail to the setting of the town and the people's appearance. I will read more soon!