by Anna Wu
Chapter 11: Goodbye and Good Night
Jimmy was sipping one of Sheen's Atlanta specials in the control room of his lab. It had been nearly two hours since he and Cindy had returned from his adventure, and he had just finished everything that he needed to do before he could address all the kids. He let his mind wander for a moment to what his first day of school today would have been like.
"Jimmy!" Cindy's voice shouted from outside the door, awakening Jimmy from his trance. "Can I come in?"
"Hang on," Jimmy shouted back while getting up and walking towards the door. He unlocked it and let her in. "What's up?" he asked while sitting back down in his chair.
Cindy took a seat beside him. "Everyone's doing the dishes and stuff. Kind of a pointless activity if you ask me, but it keeps their minds off of the abduction," she said with a shrug.
Jimmy nodded while tossing a ball up in the air. "I'm going to talk to them in a few minutes, lay out our basic strategy." He tossed the red ball to Cindy absent-mindedly. She caught it and threw it back.
"And what exactly would that basic strategy be?" she inquired while releasing her grip on the ball.
Jimmy exhaled deeply while shaking his head. "You'll find out in about five minutes. Could you bring everyone inside my lab?" he asked while tossing the ball back at her.
Cindy nodded and set the ball down on the floor. "I'll bring everyone in." She got up and was at the door before she turned around and snapped her fingers. "Oh, Sheen and Carl are back from the hospital. They got some crutches, a wheelchair, and a few other things for Libby. They wanted me to give you these," she said while tossing him the hover car's keys.
Jimmy smiled as he slipped the keys back in his pocket. "Thanks. See you in a few," he told her as she closed the door behind her. He then turned his attention to his computers. He pressed a button on one of them and a silver CD was spit out. He grabbed it and walked towards the control room's exit. "Showtime," he muttered while turning the lights off and closing the door.
Several minutes later Jimmy was standing in front of all the children in the main room of his lab. He had inserted the disc into the large monitor's hard drive. Brittany turned off the lights as Jimmy had requested when the last kid entered.
"Ah-hem," Jimmy muttered while clearing his throat. "I'm not going to waste everyone's time reiterating what I told you last night. This little presentation is a preliminary sketch my plan for getting our parents back. But first, I need to address some rumors that have been going around."
Jimmy pressed a button on the remote that he was holding in his hand. A sketch of the city instantly appeared on the main monitor. Six circles marked the areas where Jimmy's cameras were located. "Many of you have been wondering about what Cindy and I were doing last night. The two of us left to check out the condition of the six security cameras I had placed around the city. I wanted to see why I only had one recording of our parents' abduction."
"What did you find out?" Betty's voice shouted from the back of the crowd.
"The cameras were destroyed by the Yolkians so that we would not have any useful information about our parents' kidnapping. Unfortunately for them, they somehow missed one of the cameras. This was the camera that recorded the video I showed you around twelve hours ago. This camera was then also destroyed, presumably in a rush after they realized their mistake."
"But we also found something else," Cindy told the crowd. "Jimmy?"
Jimmy had been debating whether or not to tell the kids about the force field, and had decided that it would be best to tell them a few minutes ago. It never ceased to amaze him how alike his and Cindy's minds were.
"Yes, we found out what was blocking communications to the outside world." Jimmy pressed another button on his remote, and a three-dimensional model of the force field surrounding the city appeared on the computer. "An electrified force field is surrounding the city along its border. The shield mildly electrocutes anyone who comes into contact with it. It is invisible, so you should all stay away from the city's border. I tried to disarm it, but nothing I had could work."
He paused for a moment, waiting for someone to ask the inevitable question. Finally, Nick's hand shot up. "Yes, Nick?"
"Well, if you can't disarm it, how are we going to get out of the city to rescue our parents?" he asked. A bout of murmuring enveloped the crowd.
"Quiet!" Jimmy shouted after a moment. The compilation of voices steadily weakened and died. "The force field is not our primary concern. I will be able to disarm it, but it will take some time. Do not worry about that. I'm the scientist; I'll take care of it. For now, we have to worry about how we are going to proceed after the field is torn down."
"And how are we going to proceed?" a male voice that Jimmy didn't recognize shouted.
Jimmy pressed another button on his remote. A picture of all of the kids assembling rockets came on screen. It was taken two years ago, when they were preparing to rescue their parents for the first time. "The battle strategy is going to be worked out as we go on. What we all need to do right now is begin construction of our rockets. Tomorrow we are all going to go to Retroland and get to work on building these vehicles again."
Jimmy cleared his throat as he put the remote down. "Today, rest. Cry, comfort your friends. Get your emotions out of the way. Our parents have been kidnapped and we're alone. It's scary and we all know it. Get rid of your anger and fear, because tomorrow we have to begin working."
Jimmy noticed the kids fidgeting and whispering to one another. "What we all have to remember is this. We can do this," Jimmy told them, his voice cracking a little. "We've done it before, and we can do it again. We have experience in building rockets. We're older, stronger, and smarter. How can we fail if we're playing a game that we've won before, and now we're better at it?" he asked them.
"How long until we get our parents back?" another kid shouted.
Jimmy ran a few simulations through his head. "If we get to work tomorrow, we can leave in less than two weeks. Then maybe two weeks to get to the Yolkian planet."
Jimmy stared at the crowd for a moment, expecting more questions. When none came, he clapped his hands together and rubbed them. This was the opportunity he had waited for to get all of the children away from his precious lab. "Well, that's about all I have to say. We'll leave for Retroland tomorrow morning. Bye, and please feel free to not stay another night on my lawn!" Jimmy said with a smile.
The kids reluctantly got up and slowly walked towards the door. Jimmy opened it for them and ushered them out. "That's right, go back home and rest…at your homes. Not mine, yours. Bye!" Jimmy shouted.
Nick, Carl, and Sheen dejectedly walked out the door after the rest of the kids. "Not you!" Jimmy shouted while pulling them back inside.
