Shocking Discovery

A tall and stylishly dressed teenager with All-Star hi-tops , black jeans and red-black Varsity , leans on a wall of his class door as he hums a melody , probably waiting for someone . He was another one of Kevin’s close friends who apparently is in another class . A few moments later , two familiar figures were in sight , walking down the hallway .

“ You sure wanna follow this guy to wherever he is going ? That sounds creepy as hell .” the teenager , known as Zack Ramirez , said . He was the first one to be told of the not-so-informative information that Ms.Rosy gave them . Like Kevin and Michael , he is an awesome guy with a really cool personality . He’s a super star in the school’s football team and apparently he is what the girls drool over , but someone already has a place in his heart , the most beautiful girl in the school whose name is Tracey Evans . They are the most popular couple in the school . To sum it up , he’s an immensely famous student and a really great guy to have around , though sometimes he’s a bit careless and too laid back .

“ Yeah . Come on we’re just curious as to where this super silent guy lives or does he even have a family . I already told my bro that I’m doing group assignments with friends and that I might be home late . Michael told his parents too so we’re clear . You live by yourself right because you’re parents are on a business trip so you’re clear too .” Kevin said to his friend .

“ Yeah whatever alright let’s go .” Zack said . “ Hold your horses . When we left our class , Riley is still in the class writing down some stuff on a notepad , so we’ll have to wait for him to appear .” Michael stated as he put a hand in front of Zack who was just about to head for the stairs .

Then , the sight of Riley was spotted . He was slowly walking towards the other set of steps that leads downstairs . The guys then started to follow him slowly as to not expose their presence . One thing the friends noticed was that Riley’s head never changed direction , almost seems like it was held in place by some poles from his shoulder . He , as expected , ignored everything around him , focusing only to get to wherever he’s going . He wears the same hoodie as the day before and had it put up over his head and hands shoved deep in the hoodie’s pockets .

They passed the main gate . Kevin’s bus was there and was just about to leave . Kevin took a second to wave at his brother in which he replied . The guys then continued to follow Riley from a rather large distance just to not trigger suspicion if Riley ever turns around . They were walking for quite a long time , they were sure it’s already been more than 3 kilometers . Then , Riley suddenly took a quick right into a field filled with bushes and small trees . Michael , Kevin and Zack were all asking themselves “ Where the hell is this guy going “ and “ Was it worth it “ . Riley walked about 200m , and then stopped at the middle of the field , in which the guys did just the same , and moved about 5 steps back and hiding behind some bushes . Riley first checked around to see if there’s anyone , and when he was sure he was alone , he reached out his right arm , fingers apart and directs it to the ground . Then , the ground exposed an entrance to some kind of lair, like a ramp being lifted , front side up back side on the ground . Riley then entered the place , closing the entrance as he did .

The guys were completely shocked and stunned at the sight . They were literally wide-eyed and jaw-dropped . “ What the fuck just happened . How the hell did he do that ?!?” Zack said in shock . “We should open that thing , maybe there is some kind of handhold we can use to get a grip on that thing to lift it up . It’s probably deep in the ground but what do you guys think?” Michael suggested , face still looking stunned .

 “I-I don’t kn-n-know.” Kevin stutters to complete his sentence . “Hey why are you all nervous ?” Zack questioned , noticing his friend’s discomfort .

“Question is how are you guys not nervous ? This guy may have some freaking supernatural power , and what if he’s a villain plotting something ?! And why the fuck would a normal guy live underground ?!” Kevin said what he thought in his mind .

“Dude don’t overthink things and rush in making assumptions . That might just be some gimmicky thing , maybe he didn’t need to hold out his hand . That thing just opened with detection of himself or something . Him living on the ground ? Yeah that’s kinda fucked up ” Michael replied .

“ I don’t know about you guys , but , I’m gonna go there and find out if there’s a way to open that entrance or lair or whatever . I’m gonna try and ask Riley what he’s up to ” Kevin said as he stood up from his crouching stance .

“ Suit yourself . Just don’t get killed .” Zack teased .

Kevin walked towards the area where the ground was lifted , sweating a bit at the thought of Riley , the guy right in front of him at school , to be a killer . ‘Stop making ridiculous assumptions Kev , we don’t know for sure ‘ he thought . He walked and stopped on top of the piece of land that they saw the entrance appearing out of . He pulled off the grasses and dug a bit of the soil hoping to find any good handhold to try and lift the thing by force . He dug and dug deeper and his hand finally hit a solid piece of steel . He waved to the other two signalling he found a good handhold .

Just as the two were about to head his direction , the ground suddenly shook and the piece of land lifted up . Kevin who was directly on top of it dropped to his back and rolled down to the grass . Knowing that just as soon that thing is closed back , he will be exposed , he quickly got to his feet and ran as fast as he could to the bushes and trees at the back of the lair . He got there just in time and managed to hide himself . Michael and Zack quickly ducked back to the bushes and hid themselves as best as they could .

Riley slowly went up the steps and exited the lair . This time the lair entrance closed by itself without any sort of sign or instruction by Riley . His appearance from when he got there didn’t change , and he proceeded on walking off of the field and into some housing area . The guys assumed that he’s heading to an actual house , so they didn’t bother following him any more .

When Riley was well over 100m away , the three friends got out from their hiding positions but not letting their guard down just in case Riley comes back . They gathered on the piece of land and dug a bit more of the spot where Kevin has opened up to expose the handhold . When they had opened up enough space for three sets of arms , they grabbed tight of the thing .

“Alright , on 3 … 1 ,2 ,3 … LIFT !!! “ Kevin cried as they used all their might to lift the entrance up . It was clearly shut tight , but the trio aren’t giving up . Kevin told them to pause for a while . He turned around and saw a flat , oval-shaped rock lying on the grass not far from them . It was quite heavy but he picked up and brought it back .

“ When there’s an opening big enough I’ll slip this under . If it’s an opening big enough for us to slip in that’ll do .” Kevin explains his intentions . The three then prepared for another attempt at lifting it . At the count of the three , they once again used all their might and strength to lift the thing . Their arms were pushed to the limit and they really gave it their all . Their backs and shoulders were stinging a bit from the pressure , but because of their teamwork an opening was made big enough for the rock to slip under . Kevin used his left foot to push the rock into the opening , carefully making sure the rock doesn’t fall inside . He was shaking as to maintain his focus on both slipping the rock and maintaning his lifting strength . After that , Kevin signalled the other two to stop .

The trio dropped to their knees , trying to catch their breaths . They never lifted something that heavy in a long time and their arms hurt a bit , but they were satisfied that they at least managed to open a path . Zack crawled next to the opening and checked to see if their bodies can fit . “ ALRIGHT ! WE CAN SLIP IN ! LET’S GO ! “ Zack said with excitement , curious as to what could be in that lair .

Michael and Kevin immediately dropped to the ground and took their turns to slip inside , Zack first , Michael then followed by Kevin . It was a rather tight fit but it’ll work for them . The three then made it through and they went down the stairs . It was a really long walk down but eventually they reached some kind of entrance to a lair . There weren’t any security doors or anything to prevent intruders which is surprise to the trio .

“ Thought there would be some kind of security in here , seems like this guy’s really confident that nobody will find out about this place .” Kevin said as he and the other two walked towards the entrance . He tried looking around just to see if there’s any lasers or cameras but there really aren’t any security which is lucky for them .

They entered the lair . It doesn’t look like a place where an evil scientist would be living in with all the complicated machines and stuff , but instead it looked rather simple , with a long table filled with many stacks of papers and documents , a whiteboard with a map and many more stuff . Some unfinished donuts and food wrappings were found around the place as well .

“ This place doesn’t look that intriguing , I was expecting some crazy scientific shit down here .” Michael stated . He and Kevin then walked over to what seems to be a notification board filled with posters of people , lots of them , along with some basic details such as age , name , hair colour etc . That really triggered the attention of Kevin and Michael , while Zack is busy looking at the other stuff .

“ Dude , what’s up with these posters ? Who are they ? Why are they on here ?” Michael said in total curiousness .

“ I don’t know but it seems like this guy’s here to look for someone . Look , some of the posters are crossed out , and there’s still lots of them that are un-crossed .” Kevin replied with a rather shocked face , seeing that many posters .

“ Hey , look ! There’s some guys on here , their details say that they’re from our town , a-an-and , one of them are crossed out .” Michael quickly points out to his friend , stuttering a bit .

“ SHIT , so it’s clear . Riley is looking for people , but what’s that shit for ? And another thing , if one of the people from our town has been captured , why isn’t he here anywhere ?” Kevin said , pointing out the obvious question he had in his mind .

“ I really think we should take some photos of these , just in case this guy is hunted down by the authorities in the future . We can be lots of help .” Michael suggested as he took out his red iPhone 5C .

Kevin grabbed his S4 and the two started taking photos of everything on the notification board , zooming in on the people’s details and side notes Riley taped on to the posters .

“Zack , you’ve been wandering around the place , you’re not seeing any body or any stuff relating to a person being held in here , right ?” Michael asks to his other friend .

“ Nothing that you mentioned , but I found this place ! Come here , check it out .” Zack excitedly replied while standing on what seems to be a circular platform , with some buttons and controls built around it . Right above the platform was a bright blue light held above the platform with a cylinder like structure running down from the roof of the lair . That seemed to be the only thing that is suspicious .

Michael and Kevin , without hesitation head over to the place Zack was standing on and climbed up the platform .

“ Is this those stuff we see in the movies where they use to contain bodies ?” Kevin questioned .

“ Not sure , there’s a beaming light over our heads , not sure what the purpose of that is too . But these buttons around us might suggest something” Zack replied , as he moves around the perimeter of the circle , nearing the buttons .

“ Dude , be careful not to trip over and trigger anything. We might turn into zombies or somethin.” Kevin warned and advicing his usually clumsy friend .

“Yeah yeah don’t worry .” Zack replied .

He walked around the rather large circular platform , looking over the huge armada of buttons . One on and running screen triggered his attention so he decided to get a close look of what is on the screen . Kevin just noticed that and tried to warn Zack , but before he could , the worst possible thing happened , he tripped over . Zack’s face landed face first onto the red button , and both of his arms accidentally touched many others .

“YOU IDIOT !” Kevin said in anger and panic as he rushes to his friend . His friend was okay but his nose was bleeding a bit as the place his face landed on was metal , real hard metal . Then suddenly , a deafening sound broke out and the circular platform they were standing on started shaking .

“Shit something’s wrong , really wrong . We need to get out of here !!” Michael shouted in panic . Just as they were about to leave the platform , a visible ray of light appeared around the circle , acting as some kind of barrier . Michael stopped in his tracks and tried to punch a hole through the barrier , but it was to no avail . He tried lots of times and that only made his hands hurt .

“ This is bad . Real bad . Real fucking bad ” Michael said in despair and terror .

“ Try harder Mikey !! A little hole will do and we’ll work our way through there !! Whatever the fuck is happening it seems it doesn’t offer us much time !!” Kevin shouted as he helps Zack back up to his feet .

“ I’ve tried the best I could !! My hand is burning now !! There’s no way through ! You try !” Michael replied with a loud voice due to the deafening sounds around the place . Kevin delivered some strong punches , kicks , and even hard shoulder rams to try and break the barrier , but he failed as well. 

“ FUCKING HELL MAN ! it’s your fault Zack ! If you hadn’t been this so careless we wouldn’t be stuck in here , and being stuck here probably won’t be the only thing that’s gonna happen !” Kevin raged at his shocked friend . Zack didn’t reply and instead looked really guilty , a face both Michael and Kevin had never seen in such a long time . ‘I feel like a 5 year old right now , tripping over untied shoelaces and shit’  Zack thought .

They stayed on their feet and tried looking around for any possible way out , well , more to like analyzing and making predictions of what’s gonna happen . Suddenly , the ray of light above their heads started getting really bright , and shined down on the trio .

“ Now what ?!” Michael said , not being able to keep his calm . The ray of light started getting hotter and hotter , and excruciatingly hotter . The trio were sweating really hard . Moments later , things got worse . They were starting to feel a burning and extremely stinging feeling running down their spines , then their entire body . Somehow that limited their movements and they had very little control over their body . ‘ Holy shit , this feels like being burned alive while having sharp mothafuckin nails running up and down my back . This is so painful !!! Ohmygod !!!’  Kevin internally screamed . Their overwhelming faces tells everything .

“ HUARRGGHHHH !!! IT STINGS !!! BURNNSS !!! SHIT ! ARGH !!! HOLY FUCK IT FUCKING HURRTSSS !!!!” Michael screamed in extreme pain , cursing his way through his sentences and collapsing to the ground  . Kevin and Zack were sweating really really hard and their entire bodies were drapped in red . Eyes wide open , breathing getting chronically fast as they try to push the pain away . A few insanely agonizing moments later , they surrendered . They started to lose their vision and their five senses . Everything around them was a blur . They fall to the ground and it seems now that they have no control over their body .

‘ Well , seems like this it , whatever the fuck is happening . Never in a million years will I even think I’ll die in a situation even close to this . And I never thought things to escalate at such a fast pace . One day I see a guy I barely know and the next day I’m dying in one of his machines I never saw . Heh , to make it more funny it’s all because of a stupid untied shoelace . That fool . I can’t handle no more , I’ll just let whatever’s happening , happen.’ Kevin said to himself , surrendering his body to the grueling suffocation he’s facing . Moments later , the agonizing pain went away , and everything felt calm . Their bodies are now just silhouettes , and with every dying second , the silhouettes slowly disappear in the bright light . Kevin , Michael and Zack slowly closed their eyes , shutting down the world around them .