Chapter 4: The Gas Leak

November 11, 2011,

 Maria, wake up, wake up. Maria woke up to see her brother Nicholas shaking her to wake up. Once she got up, her brother exclaimed to his sister excitedly, "Dad made his famous French toast," before running downstairs to get his first. Maria followed after her brother immediately right after. The Martin family then had their breakfast together before the parents had to go to work, and the kids went to school. The parents had to leave first, but the kids still had time before school. Both Maria and Nicholas travel to school by school bus. Their bus arrives at 7:30 am, and they wake up around 6:30 am so they have time to get ready. However, today, the parents decided to surprise them with French toast, so they woke the children 30 minutes early at 6:00 am to give them time to enjoy their breakfast. At 7:00 am, the parents had to leave, but the kids stayed home as they still had 30 minutes before their school bus arrived.

Maria and Nicholas had already dressed for school, so they silently ate their French toast and watched TV. Nicholas broke the silence by asking her about the mysterious creature they saw at the Pumpkin Theater. "That creature we saw was a dinosaur," Nicholas exclaims confidently. But Maria refuted Nicholas's claim that it was a dinosaur since they were extinct. "But you saw that creature too, and it doesn't look like a normal animal," said Nicholas. "We never saw the creature entirely, though, so we can't be certain what it is," said Maria. Nicholas simply shook his head in response to his sister's comment. He said she wasn't an animal expert, so her opinion didn't matter because he was sure what he saw was a raptor of some kind. After that, Nicholas got up, with Maria following behind as it was time to get ready for the bus. Once the two were ready, they started to walk to their bus stop. As they made it outside, they noticed it was also misty and windy, so the two made sure to be careful when crossing the road. They reached their bus just in time to arrive, so they quickly entered it. They sat in the back-row seats, with Nicholas sitting with a friend named Rei. Maria looked out her window as the bus started, and it was hard to see what was outside from all the mist. Maria signed at this realization before talking to her brother and Rei. The bus ride went on as usual until they reached the school, where red and white lights could be seen flashing. Maria looked out the window to see what was happening and everyone else.

Emergency vehicles could be made out from the windows. Still, soon after, the bus driver's radio went on and then the bus driver got up from the seat and explained the situation. An unexpected gas leak happened at the school, so we will be headed to the nearest school, where all our parents will be called to pick us up. Five minutes later, we arrived at the other school. We were then escorted to the gymnasium, where we were shown a movie as the teachers notified our parents. While waiting, Nicholas told me that since we were off for the day, we should go and play at the newly built playground/park around 1:00 pm. I agreed, and then Nicholas decided to ask Rei if he wanted to come too, and he agreed to his request. Rei's mother ended up picking us up because she was friends with our mother and wasn't working that day. Rei's mom came to pick them up rather quickly and took Maria and Nicolas straight home. Once the two got home around 10:30 pm, they decided to go and have more French toast as they were leftovers. The pair decided to play video games to pass the time, and they did this until they had to leave for the playground.

The weather outside was slightly better than the morning but still misty. The two made it to the playground 13 minutes later and saw Rei was already swinging on one of the swing sets, waiting for us. The park was big and had a typical park: a swing set, a slide, and benches for people to sit on. The park was connected to a woods trail and a deep, small fern forest. The children played on the playground until Nicholas took two items from his backpack: a map that looked like a child created it and a camera. Nicholas proposed that the three of them go on the forest trail to find an abandoned jeep so he could take a picture of it for the town photo contest. Nicholas explained that the misty background would make the photo look better. Both Maria and Rei look at Nicholas with skeptical looks on their faces. "I don't feel like walking in the forest, especially when it is misty, and do we even know where the jeep is and if it is still there," exclaims Maria. Nicholas explained that Eillot had shown him a photo of an old Jeep and given him directions on finding it on this map as he pointed towards it in his hands. Maria reminded him that he wasn't discussing raptors in the forest this morning. " That was in a different forest," argued Nicholas, but Maria reminded Nicholas that the two forests were interconnected according to his map. Nicholas said it would be only 17 17-minute walk and wouldn't go too far into the forest. While this was all happening, Rei just looked on, puzzled by the current situation. Maria eventually relented to her older brother's request but told Rei he didn't have to come. Rei said he was okay with going, too, and when he said this, Nicholas grabbed two nutcrackers from his bag. "Don't worry, we have these nutcrackers to help scare out any potential wild animals," shouted Nicholas. The three of them grabbed their bags before they embarked on their little trip into the fern forest. They walked for 4 minutes on the trail before going off trail to make their way to the jeep. Their footsteps were silent when they pushed through the forest from the soft forest floor. It was about this time when they noticed it was getting foggy.