Chapter 5

            Zack sat up awaking from his dream. He frantically looked around and saw that he was in a regular room. He thought he was still in the dream so he pinched himself to make sure. It hurt and he was glad of it. He felt like he was awake. Then the girl in the dream came to him. There were two things that Zack noticed the most when he saw her in the dream.

            She says ‘this one’ instead of I and her eyes aren’t exactly the most normal thing I’ve ever seen. He murmured to himself. He looked around the room again remembering that he was left in a chamber. Just then there was a knock on the door. Zack figured it was Rican or Melissa but the person that walked in took Zack’s breath away.

            “Lara? Is it really you?” She looked at him hesitantly.

            “I’m sorry?” Zack noticed that she looked puzzled. He also noticed that she looked a little different. The girl had deep emerald colored eyes. Her hair was red like Melissa’s and was put into pigtails that ran down to her hips. She looked a little more mature look about her but otherwise everything else was the same. Her rounded face, her thin five foot figure, and even the way she looked at Zack when she was confused.

            “I don’t think there’s any possible chance that we could have me.” This time it was Zack’s turn to look puzzled. “I guess it’s just that you look surprising similar to someone I know.”

            “I see. I guess I understand.”

            “Are you a cousin or niece? I could have seen you at a family reunion.” The girl scoffed.

            “Of course not. Today is the first time I’ve met you.” The girl looked at a clipboard that Zack hadn’t noticed before. It looked like it was made of glass. There were no papers that Zack could see but the girl looked like she was focusing intently at the board.  “So you were from the year 2005? You were born in 1990.” The girl took a deep breath and gave Zack a defensive look. “I was born in 2072. That means this year is 2086.” Zack felt his jaw drop. “But the regeneration of the world…” She said still looking like she was expecting Zack to go crazy any second.

            “It already happened. The world finish half a century ago.” There was another knock on the door and another girl walked in. It was Melissa.

            “Excuse me, Mei, but I need to do a check up on him since he has finally awakened.” The girl came to Zack and opened his mouth using a flat stick.           “Hmmm. It seems that he is healthy and there aren’t any side affects that I can see.”

            “I see. Send Rican in.” Mei left the room and returned with a man in another traditional Chinese outfit.
            “So this is the boy that those two wanted to save so badly?”

            “You’ll find out why in due time, Mei” Rican answered. Zack thought he might be a captive by an enemy in some unknown war but when he looked at their faces he saw that they didn’t have a menacing look about them. Rican turned his attention to Zack. “How was your sleep?” Zack shrugged still shocked by what Mei told him. “I guess it was pretty good considering the fact that I was asleep for eighty-0ne years.” Zack looked at Melissa and she gave him a warm smile. “But if it weren’t for you two I would probably not be here right now. I mean alive�"you know what I mean. They brought me here with them to this year when I could have died back then.” Mei seemed to be shifting her glance from the clip board to Zack frequently.

            “And why does this girl look and act like my sister?” Rican chuckled. “That’s because this girl is your niece, I guess.” Both Zack and Mei looked at each other, shocked. “Well sort of.” Rican added in. “According to personal records Zack’s mother survived the regeneration hazards by the same way Zack did. She then had you, me, and I married this lovely woman.” Rican put his arm around Melissa’s waist. “That’s when Mei was born. We changed our last names to Herb, as in healing. No one really kept their old names. It was to symbolize our new beginning�"to start anew. After all, most of the companies and organizations had to start fresh so it was like a ‘what the heck’ type of thing.” A look of sorrow came to Rican’s face. “Unfortunately, the other Lara died early in the regeneration process due to a safety building collapsing on top of her. Tragically, your mother as well as my birth father came down with a deadly disease that had formed during the regeneration process, which was incredibly fatal at that time. She died only seven days after my birth. My father died a couple of years ago.”

            Zack could see that Mei was silently crying and found that he had wet streaks on his own cheeks. He quickly wiped at his face. “So that mean’s we are brothers? And if you were born after the regeneration thing then how did you end up in the time before it happened to save me.” Rican looked at Zack hesitantly.

            “If you don’t want to tell him then I will.” Melissa said quietly, putting a hand on his shoulder, and Rican shook his head.

            “No, I’ll tell him. If I can please have a word with him alone.” Melissa nodded and she walked out of the room followed by Mei. When the door closed Rican picked up a chair from a small table in the far corner of the room and set it next to Zack’s bed. “Did you ever notice anything exceptional about Mother?” Zack shook his head. “I see. Father told me that she was different but in a special way. She could do things others couldn’t. She knew what was going to happen to the world long before it happened. Our mother was a seer.”

            “Hold on a minute.” Zack interrupted. “Are you telling me my mother can see into the future?” Rican nodded his head smiling.

            “Actually, the reason why I was able to get to you was because of her abilities. Even though she was in the realm of the afterlife she was still able to contact me which states just how powerful of a seer she was. She came to me in a dream that was very much like reality. What was the bizarre part...” Rican reached into his pocket and pulled out an orb. The object shone a magnificent deep blue shade and seemed to react as if liking the attention.

            “I think I’ve seen this before. But I don’t exactly remember where.”

            “Maybe you saw this jewel in a dream as well. Our family is connected to it somehow.”

            “How did you get it?” Zack asked.

            “That’s the weird part.” Rican leaned back in his chair. “In the dream I had of Mom, she gave it to me and when I woke up it was in my hand. I remember her telling me that there was another orb just like this one. Except that where this one has a soothing effect when you look at it the other has the exact opposite effect. It reminds me of a gentle snow fall and a raging fire.”

            “So, what does it do?” Zack asked and Rican gave Zack a big grin.

            “This orb can do things that even your wildest imaginations cannot fathom. It is this very jewel that allowed me to get you to safety.”

            “Then why couldn’t you use it to bring us back.” Rican put the orb back in his pocket and shrugged.

            “It wouldn’t work in your time. I’m guessing it was because that the orbs didn’t exist then and so it’s like they never existed. There are too many possibilities but I was lucky that I could find the organization that your mother father worked for.”

            “What organization?” Zack glared at Rican. Zack himself didn’t know much about his father. His mother only told him that he was a scientist that had gone missing. Zack never thought much about the “missing” part because he was little when he heard the story and he never asked again.

            “It’s an organization that your mother started when she learned of the crisis. She wanted to save as many people as possible so she started the cryogenic project. Unfortunately, she left the project up to, what she thought were trusted people that were equally as enthusiastic about saving everyone as she was. The reason why she left was because she was starting a family. That’s when she had you. She already had married you father by this time of course. So that’s why the organization went downhill. The people that were in charge got scared when they found out that what your mother said was true and instead of doing what they were supposed to do the majority of the cowards just saved themselves and their family. Some were saved in other countries where there were other branches but no where near as much as there was supposed to be. Unfortunately, there was no word as to whether your father survived or not but, rest assured, he was a good person and stuck with Mother one hundred percent.”

            Rican stood up and stretched.

            “I think that’s enough babbling for me. I trust that you got enough sleep. After all you’ve been asleep for three days straight since you got out.”