Back from Where???

The parking lot for the facility was basically empty now. Usually I can never get anywhere to park because the scientists are still at work. My truck was blaring with the new anime soundtrack I got on the way here. It was amazing to hear a daughter of a musician’s voice sing awesome fighting songs.

My co-worker, Bryce, stood by the door. He wasn’t in the greatest mood today of all days. Something must be up his a*s about either me or them.

“You’re late!” he snarled as I entered.

“I was busy at school to support them.” I said. “It’s not like I’m late for work because of it.”

We continued down to our office where I spent all my weekend nights in. Bryce watches the monitors on the right of us and I watched the left side. He keeps quiet which bothers me on the first nights.

“What was going on at school that you decided to stay there?” It was 10:54 PM now and Bryce now asks me? Sometimes I think he doesn’t process certain information fast enough.

“It was the first basketball game of the season and my friend was cheering at it.” I answered. Thinking about what Skiry was doing with that boy made me angry. Why did it?

I slammed my fists into the table when my anger reached its limit. My backpack fell off and papers went everywhere. Bryce just sat there and watched as I picked everything up. Then he grabbed a certain paper he shouldn’t have seen.

“The cheerleading team? You want to join that?” Bryce held the form in my face. He was clearly angry because it could mean me quitting and him having to work harder.

“No, I wasn’t. The coach just gave it to me though since I help with their practices on the week days.” I explained. “She says I know everything they like my hand. I wouldn’t have to change anything besides when competitions come.”

Bryce got bright red when I mentioned changing my schedule. We turned our attention back to the screens again. I grabbed my flashlight and walked towards the hallway.

“Mind if I go on a walk around?” I asked. He didn’t turn around and shrugged. This was never a good sign.

Down the hallway were science labs that were closed down for the night. The only reason we are here is to make sure no one robs the labs of their research. We don’t have to know science enough to know what they are doing. I barely pay attention to science class when I could possibly learn the simple things these people talk about.

Some of the bigger ones were open with the scientists who think they will make it big with their new projects. Only a few have actually been successful in the end. The others are either scrapped by the mayor or by the scientists themselves.

One of the labs was opened as I walked by. It has never had anyone inside it for a week now. Maybe they returned just recently with something new.

I walked in and shined my flashlight around the perimeter. A small section in the middle of the room was glowing. No lamp in here made that color from what I knew. It was green, spherical, ancient and technological. My legs moved closer to it.

Something grabbed my shoulder. I nearly jumped when it made contact and I turned around. It was the scientist that usually was found here. He wasn’t just a scientist I knew from the facility though, it was my science teacher.

“Mr. Reese! I didn’t know you were still here.” I said. Surprise revealed itself slightly. The thing I can’t stand about this one is simple. He gave me a D in his class for the most recent quarter. He doesn’t show up for weeks, I watch over his experiments when he is away and, sometimes, pay attention in his class. I was the only one in my class to receive a low grade that quarter too.

“Ah, Zane. I see you still work during the nights here. Has anything happened while I was gone?” he asked. Does he really think I can forget what he did? My mom was pissed at me and didn’t let me drive to school or work for a week. I had to rely on her for transportation everywhere.

“Nothing much! Every robber knows it is impossible to take anything from here without being noticed. Sooner or later they will be found and return the experiment they take.” I answered. He wouldn’t care about what else I could tell him happening.

We both stared at each other, despising every second spent together. “Join any sports team while I was gone? You know I can talk about any sport that may interest you.” He couldn’t be serious. In freshman year, he told me to never join a team for a sport he liked. I would be given 0s on all of his assignments no matter how good or bad they were. Now he wants to talk about them?

“Eve and her coach have asked me to join them. I couldn’t make most of their events most of the time though. You know I can’t leave Bryce to work by himself! He can barely stay awake the hours he is here.” Mr. Reese’s assistant came into the lab. We both gave each other a welcoming smile and turned back to our current actions.

“Good. We can’t have slackers sleeping around on the job alone.” Mr. Reese patted my shoulder and went to the strange glowing object. What could it be though?

I went over to the assistant and leaned against the table he was at. “So what is that thing?” I asked. “Is it some kind of ancient, first civilization, orb machine?”

“No, Professor Reese has asked I don’t tell anyone else what it does. I can assure you though we haven’t found first civilization technology like those history video games you play talk about.” He was nice enough to tell me what it wasn’t. I still wanted to know what it was though.

“Tell me where you found it. I like to hear about this stuff.” The assistant took out a file and showed a Google Map image of a country. This guy was showing me a map of Suriname. I haven’t heard of that country or seen where it was on the Earth. Apparently it was located in South America.