The World of the Unknowns: The Discovery.

by Nadia Bethell

  Chapter 2. Not quite a pleasant entry.

  When Megan was pushed down by Bradley, she got upset. Why do boys always do it this way? She was not quite ready to go and hurt herself a little bit when she hit the floor of the tube. If he gave her just a few seconds, she would have gone herself! The slide down the tube appeared to Megan similar to an enclosed slide on a playground, only it was much longer and steeper. As she was gaining speed, she was getting convinced that at the end she would not be able to land safely. As Megan expected, when she finally reached the end, she flew out of the tube onto the ground, more precisely the floor, since the tube actually ended inside of a building, and landed next to John. She was expecting Bradley to pile up on top of them any second, but to her surprise her brother managed to slow down and fell on the floor much closer to the tube than her.

  Megan looked around and discovered that they landed in the middle of a huge room. In front of them there were rows and rows of chairs, on which other children were seated, and on the opposite side there was a big table, behind which only one chubby guy was sitting on a chair. But she did not see that guy at first. The children in front looked strange and all appeared to be the same age. It occurred to Megan that before their appearance there had been some discussion in the room, but everybody was very quiet now.

  The voice behind suddenly called out, “Over here! Turn around, stand up and listen respectfully to the Chief of the Unknowns! Which is me! You are now in the Assembly Room of the Unknowns and have interrupted a very important meeting. Who are you and how did you get here?”

  “As simple as this,” John began, and Megan figured that he was probably the least scared of all at that point. He continued, “There was an extra wooden building on our school grounds that was not there before, we got in and then were taken up here.”

  “Simple indeed,” the chubby chief stared directly at John and inquired, “And who allowed you to enter this building?”

  Megan felt like if she was looked upon that way, she would freeze and not be able to say anything, but she heard John reply, “Well, nobody. There was not actually anybody to ask permission from. So everything was legitimate.” John paused, and Megan expected the chief to ask more questions, but instead John went on the offensive, “And who are you? I mean, I’ve already gathered that you are the Chief of the Unknowns, but I am not sure we understand what that means.”

  “You will understand everything in due time,” the chubby chief replied to John and then moved his gaze to Megan and Bradley. “Meanwhile, since you got here, we would have to make sure that you don’t get out,” he continued with all seriousness. “We are the UNKNOWNS, and nobody is supposed to find out about us.”

  When he said this, Megan got really scared. She swiftly glanced at the boys and noticed that John was still in a good mood. Even though John was known for his reckless behavior, right now the way he carried himself was encouraging to Megan. Maybe, it was not so bad after all. Some kids looked like they were playing a game, but they should have parents who would straighten all things out and help Megan and the boys to return home.

  Her heart sank again when she heard the chief say, “You will be assigned to a mentor according to your character and will start lessons tomorrow!”

  That sounded like they would be here for a long time and Megan did not like it at all. Where are the adults?! She looked around and her glance came upon John, who muttered, “Lessons?..” An expression on his face conveyed to Megan that he did not like the idea at all. “What lessons are we going to have?” he inquired loudly.

  “Flying lessons, for one,” said the chubby chief as-a-matter-of-factly. “And others. But they’ll tell you everything tomorrow during the orientation. And now, let’s see…”

  He paused and acquired a thoughtful expression on his face. Megan heard John’s excited whisper, “Flying lessons, wow! I wonder what we are going to fly? Airplane, helicopter? Either way I think this is great!”

  But Megan was not excited at all. She doubted Bradley was much interested in the idea, either. She was sure Bradley would love to learn to fly an aircraft, but he would have enough reason to not expect that these kids could teach him that. Megan did not believe the whole thing and wanted to get back home and go to her regular school. She knew they were in double trouble because of missing school today and getting stuck in this place for nobody knows how long. And on top of that the boys were not even concerned about them being stuck here! She also did not like the attitude of the fat guy, even though he was a Chief of whatever. Everybody here appeared to be of the same age, so why did he think that he had so much authority over everyone else?! She felt particular discomfort and fear, when after his speech the Chief of the Unknowns started staring at the three of them, one at a time. When his eyes stopped on her, she froze. Something bad was in that look, though Megan could not tell why she had that thought.

  The Chief did not look very long at her, though. He announced, “John is going to be assigned to the Adventurous, Bradley to the Tenacious and Megan to the Suspicious!”

  As Megan saw three kids stand up from their seats in the audience, she heard John’s surprised whisper, “How did he know our names?” She expected John to start explaining how cool he thought this was and why, but the three mentors promptly advanced towards her and the boys. The three Unknowns introduced themselves to their mentees and commanded them to follow their lead. The Tenacious opened the door of the Assembly Room, and they all found themselves on the street.

  It was a beautiful sunny day, so even Megan cheered up a little bit. She was trying to practice finding something positive in anything that happened to her, and this was a good opportunity. After all, everything was not so bad at this point. They were all together, which was very important, and finally got away from this scary guy, who did not even tell them what his name was. Megan thought, “I should not really be afraid of him. After all, he is just a kid himself.” She tried to convince herself that parents are out there somewhere and that the kids were probably playing a game, in which they had a chief, and an assembly room, and everything… It was probably just their school, like model United Nations where they all pretend to be ambassadors from different countries under the direction of their history teacher… But the uneasy feeling did not leave her completely: the way they got into this place was very strange, and it was still very unclear who these people were.

  They were marching towards a group of buildings in the distance. Megan noticed that the boys started to take great interest in scrutinizing the surroundings. Even though Megan in the beginning was walking with her face to the ground, deep in thought about their troubles, eventually she started to look up, too. The city was somewhat strange because the streets were completely empty. There were no regular types of buildings, such as stores and houses, she would expect to see. The structures that she saw were very simple-shaped, resembling the one that they entered on their school grounds when their adventure started, only they were much bigger in size. Megan thought to herself how they looked like the towns of the old West during the Gold Rush with unpainted wooden planks, build on top of a much more modern foundation, but very old and cracking.

  By the time Megan started breaking a sweat, and, dark-haired, wishing she had a hat, they finally approached a group of buildings, which she assumed was their destination. The Tenacious turned to the right and ordered Bradley to follow, but the Adventurous and the Suspicious kept going straight. Megan hesitated and started to slow down. She wanted to go together with her brother. When John resolutely followed the Tenacious and Bradley, Megan promptly ran after him as well.

  “Hey, there!” their mentors called out from behind. “You are supposed to follow us.”

  “It’s not right that we have to be separated,” John shouted back without slowing down. “We are friends, and we will stay together. If you are our mentors, it doesn’t mean you can boss us around like this; after all, you are the same age as us! Since you appear to know something I don’t, I will gladly star
t learning it from you tomorrow, but meanwhile…”

  But while he was making his speech, the Tenacious and Bradley suddenly disappeared. Megan screamed. While John was trying to check whether the Tenacious and Bradley took a left turn between the two buildings, the Suspicious caught up with Megan and ordered her to follow her. Megan hesitated, looking at John. Unlike him, she saw that the Tenacious and Bradley did not turn anywhere, they just disappeared, dissolved in the air.

  “Be careful, John!” she shouted. “They simply disappeared!”

  As she was saying this, she felt a little push into her back and was instantly transported to a small and well lit room with a bed against one wall. There was only one window very high up so she could not actually reach it and look out, and the scariest part was that the room had no door! Just like in that wooden structure on their school ground when they were opening those bags. Megan panicked and started running around the room, trying to feel the walls in order to find some kind of a hidden door, but there was nothing. Very quickly it became dark, or maybe not as quickly in reality, but Megan lost track of time. All of a sudden she felt very tired. “Strangely, I don’t want to eat, even though we did not have lunch or dinner,” she thought as she was getting into bed. The bed was very soft and comfortable, so Megan fell asleep as soon as she got under the blanket.

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