Zero 'g' (8 page)

Civilians all over the world assumed that
this was the end of the world. Movies
had been teaching them that for years. Chaos of that magnitude must
mean that it was over. People continued to die as the gravity
disappeared all over the world. People felt lost and hopeless,
trying to get to their loved ones, hoping that they were not
already dead. Time was of the essence, and yet the experts had no
idea how to turn everything around. How did it happen? How did
everything get so out of control?

The
president of the
United States was in a secure facility, wondering if this was
entirely his fault. Had the antigravity rocket been a mistake? He
had to wonder if they should have just left Particle B alone. But
they had been bringing it to Earth to save it from such
disasters.

Telecommunications networks all over the world began to
fail one after the other as
satellites moved out of Earth’s orbit, sending the world
into a form of seclusion. The ability to communicate electronically
had completely disappeared. People couldn’t call their families to
determine where they were, and the government was at a complete and
utter loss as to what could be done to restore it.

Carly and the boys arrived
at Linus’s bedroom and found it was empty. Carly checked
her sixth-sense bracelet for the hundredth time to call her mother,
but it still had no signal. Carly figured that all over the world,
the signals were lost, but she didn’t want to miss any chance. She
was dying to call her mother, but it didn’t look like that was
going to happen.

“
Telecommunications seem to
be out. We have no way of contacting anyone. Linus, do you have any
idea where your family might be?”

Linus shook his head. “I have no idea. I thought for sure
that they would be here.
”

He
nry turned to Linus,
who was trying to get a grip on one of the desks. “Can you hack
into the network and get things going?”

Linus was a skilled hacker; he had been breaking into
networks since they were kids. It was something he usually kept
under wraps since Henry’s father worked for the government. He
could make his own mobile
network in his home by powering up by using various
connections.

“
Yeah
, of course, I
can. It will be a piece of cake. I just need to get stabilized
here.”

Carly went to Linus and helped hold him into position while
he logged into the computer and then the mainframe of the laptop on
the desk. Henry wondered if he should let Linus hack into the
private files his father had at NASA
. Maybe then he would find out what his father had been up
to and whether it had anything to do with what was going on in the
world. He decided against it for now. He could always fall back on
it at a later time, but he didn’t want to violate his father’s
trust without having a good reason. He had a feeling that all the
secrets would be revealed now that the world was in such crisis.
The government would be digging into everything trying to scramble
around and figure out what was going on and how to fix it as
quickly as possible. They would want to minimize any damage,
especially if it reflected badly on them in any way. Henry hoped
his father had done nothing wrong because he would have a lot of
people to answer to about some very serious matters. He would be
ruined not only as a scientist at NASA but as a human being in the
United States. People would hate him if he had caused Earth to
fail.

Henry shook his head
,
refusing to let those thoughts get the best of him. They had a
problem in front of them, and they needed to devote their attention
to it. If Linus could get the network going, they might be able to
communicate with the outside world. He moved alongside Linus and
held on to the desk to steady himself. He watched as Linus worked
his magic, his fingers moving seamlessly over the
keyboard.

Carly
, on the other
hand, was lost in her own world. She was still holding on to Linus
to ensure he didn’t float away, but she wasn’t focused on what
Henry and Linus were doing. She was looking up at David, who
appeared to be resting against the ceiling. He had been so good the
whole time, not crying or freaking out, and she was starting to
worry that he might be in shock.
The poor thing. He must be so upset to not be with his
family and instead be stuck with a bunch of strangers.
He stared silently down at her, and
she hoped that she would be able to keep him safe so that she could
return him to his parents safely. That was what she wanted most in
that moment. A small smile formed on his face, and she almost
laughed. She hoped that everything was going to be OK for all of
them all over the world. What was happening right then was
terrifying, and she had no idea if they would even live on to the
next day, but she was damn well going to try.

Looking at that boy, little David, she couldn’t help but
think of her own little girl. Her heart ached at the thought of
little Rose. Was she confused and tearful, unsure of whether she
would ever see her mother again? The thought just pierced Carly’s
heart. She wished in that moment that she had a partner. Someone
that she could count on in a crisis, a
person who she knew would fight just as hard to find
Rose even if she couldn’t. But Carly was all that Rose had if
anything had happened to Annette. She couldn’t bear to think about
it, but she needed to be realistic. The world was falling apart,
and she had no idea how her mother had handled it. People were
dying all over the world, and she had to accept the possibility
that her small little family hadn’t made it.

She stayed focused on David’s face
, willing herself not to cry. She felt a panic
building up inside of her. She was sickened with worry about the
safety of both her mother and child. She needed more than anything
to help reestablish Earth’s gravity in the hopes that her family
wasn’t lost forever. If they were still alive, she needed to do
everything in her power to make sure that they stayed that way.
These boys’ lives weren’t the only ones she needed to protect, and
the only way she could protect her family was to get the world back
in order and then return home. She just hoped that she had
something to return home to.

Tears welled up in her eyes
, and her jaw clenched. She would not cry in front of these
boys. She was the only adult in the room, and she had to remain
strong for everyone. It was the only way. The only way that any of
them would survive is by solving Earth
'
problems.
If she fell
apart, they could also start to lose faith, and then where would
they all be? But what about Rose? Her sweet, little Rose. Lost in a
world gone crazy. She didn’t deserve this; she deserved a better
world. One that wasn’t falling apart. God, how had they come to
this? This crazy world that couldn’t even protect its own
anymore.

She smiled softly at David. She pretended that she was also
smiling at Rose
, assuring her
that everything was going to be OK. Rose had nothing to fear,
because she, her mother, was going to find her and keep her safe
always. Carly had to believe that. She needed to quell the panic
for now, keep it hidden under the surface. It would do her no good
now; she had to ignore the panic and get down to business.
Reestablishing Earth’s gravity had to be their top priority, or all
would be lost. She turned from David and looked to see what Linus
was working on.

Chapter Ten

Linus had backed up all the videos
that had been taken from different cameras all over
the world. Because the network and the cameras were all lost due to
having no gravity, backing things up was the best that they could
do. Linus made a type of software that would take all the videos
and show them all what would happen if there was no gravity present
at the time the videos were recorded. It was brilliant software,
and the more Carly spent time with the boys, the more proud of them
she became. She wasn’t sure she would have been able to pull any of
that off without them. By using that software, they would be able
to find out what kind of destruction was occurring in different
places all over the world.

Carly looked at the computer screen in amazement. These
kids were certainly impressive
, and their parents would be so proud if they knew they
were taking initiative in helping Earth. They were bright kids and
eager to be part of something great. She just hoped that in the end
they wouldn’t be disappointed. She had no idea if they would be
able to save the planet. There were so many missing pieces that she
wasn’t sure if they would even be able to discover what had gone
wrong, never mind try to put it all back together.

Linus had in fact hacked into the system and
was giving them all a bird’s-eye view
of what was going on around the world. It was a frightening sight
to behold. She had never seen anything like what he was pulling up
on the screen. The images sent chills up her spine. Linus had
linked into various networks around the world and tapped into the
surveillance cameras. They could view anything they wanted to.
Carly was in awe of the boy’s skills. How could someone so young
learn how to do these things? He could get into a lot of trouble
for hacking into the government mainframe, though she doubted
anyone would complain at this point. At least he was using his
powers for good and not evil. He was helping to save the world, and
if he had to use some illegal methods to do so, then so be
it.

She looked back up at the ceiling to check on
David
, who had not moved. He
appeared to be sleeping against the ceiling. It was as if he were a
vampire taking a leave from the world below. He was curled up in a
ball as if he were on the floor. His eyes were closed, and she
could see his little chest moving up and down. She felt terribly
sorry for the child. What a crazy thing for any child to have to
experience. He just looked so sad and lonely up there. Carly
considered pulling him down to be with them, but maybe it was
better that he stayed out of the way. If he was sleeping, that
couldn’t hurt him, either. She wasn’t sure where their little
adventure was going to lead them, and if any of them could get some
rest, it only could benefit them. It appeared as if they had a long
road ahead of them, and she wasn’t certain how it was all going to
go down. She only could hope that they would all still be alive and
together when it was all done. She shook the thoughts out of her
head and focused on the screen once again.

“
So what are we looking at here
, boys?”

Linus looked up at Carly. “Well
, I have hacked my way into the mainframe, and that
allowed me access to any surveillance camera in the United States.
At that point, it was nothing to continue bouncing along the
network to get the same access to all the countries all over the
world. It’s actually pretty cool.”

“
So
, what does that
mean?” Carly knew very little about the hacking world. She knew
technology could leave people open to being violated or robbed by
hackers, but what Linus was doing was a little bit
different.

“
It means that we can look wherever we want in the world and
see what might be going on.
”

Carly laughed
. “That’s
incredible, Linus.”

He smiled. Carly and the team began looking at various
places around the world, attempting to get any sort of clue as to
how to restore gravity to the planet. They needed to see how the
rest of the world was doing. Maybe if there was an area that was
better off than the rest
, they
could determine why that was. Maybe it was something that would
stabilize after a certain amount of time. Everything was just a
good guess at that point.

“
Do you think that you can
find something that might be able to reestablish gravity?” Carly
asked Henry.

“
I’m sure of it. There has to be a way. It’s just a matter
of finding the right thing. We are all smart
people
, and we are about as
close to scientists as you can be right now. Who’s to say we can’t
solve this problem ourselves?”

“
Great, let’s do it. Let’s
see what we have out there.”

Linus tapped a few keys
, and camera images started popping up all over the screen.
Different areas of the world were right before Carly. There was
Ohio, New York, China, and Southeast Asia…and on and on. They could
pull up twenty different cameras at a time and take a look. Carly’s
mouth dropped open as she saw what was going on in each screenshot.
Her stomach rolled, and she swallowed back bile. She had never felt
a stronger urge to throw up before in her life. The images before
her were not only frightening but gory as well. Chaos and death
were everywhere in the world. No one was free from it. Buildings
were ruined, and bodies were either lying crushed underneath
objects or floating dead in the air. Although she had witnessed
some of it herself, to see it everywhere and in large masses
terrified her.
Oh, dear
God
, she thought.

She wasn’t sure if she could process so much damage all at
once. It looked like anarchy all over the world
, and she wondered if they really could stop it.
Could they bring the world back to the way it was, or would they be
stuck suffering without gravity until they were all dead? What had
happened to the world? How would any of them survive? Carly had to
calm down, or she would have a panic attack. She couldn’t allow
herself to get that upset again. Things looked bad, but that didn’t
mean that it was impossible to fix.