Earth: Book One (Elemental Series)

~Dedications~

For Mama Corley, Daddy Corley and my best friend, Sara. I love you all!

“Pugsley: Are they dead?

Wednesday: Does it matter?”

~The Addams Family (Movie, 1991)

Chapter One

Day One: March 26
th
, 2020; 4:00 pm.

She doesn’t know her name as she got up.

In fact, she doesn’t remember anything or how she ended up there. She sat up, holding her head. She looked around. She was in a plain room which only had a television, a big window, two doors, and the bed she was in. She was about to get out of bed when she noticed a button that is marked, “Emergency Only.” She reached over and pressed the button. After a few seconds of nothing, she pressed the button, repeatedly.

Seconds felt like hours before she gave up. She swung the blankets off and put her legs over the side of the bed. She got to her feet but falls like she was a new born deer and this was her first time walking. She gripped the bed to help her up. Her legs shake as she tried to stand still.

Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw something on the window pane: a silver stainless case. She stared at it and then looked around.

She slowly goes to the window pane. When she gets to the window, she leans on it for support. She looked at the keyhole on the case. It was the shape of a square but as it goes deeper down, it goes into a triangle shape.

She started to look around. She pulled the mattress off the bed frame and then put it back neatly and straight. After she goes over to one of the doors and slowly opened it, as if she thought something was there. The room behind the door was just a bathroom. She goes inside, taking the case with her and goes to the sink, leaning on it. “Where’s the key?” She asked. Her voice was rough like sand paper. Her eyes searched the room before landing on the mirror.

Her skin was a caramel color but it was pale and sweaty looking, even though she wasn’t hot or sweaty. Her misty, coffee eyes lack bliss but complimented her coal short hair which is in a pixie cut and messy. Her face was round with a small button nose and full pink lips. She was short and a bit on the chubby side.

Her misty eyes wondered down to her chest where – even though she is chubby – her collar bones sort of popped out and a chain sat around her neck. The charm was hidden under her gown. She pulled out the charm and examined it.

The necklace was in the shape of a star without one of the triangles. Each side was a different color: one green, one blue, one red, and the last gray. The gray was pointing up and had a little line piece near the end of the triangle, going through it. The green was the same but pointing downward. The red one was on her right side and the blue was on her left. And the middle was swirls of all four colors.

She takes off the necklace, walking back into the bedroom. She tried to put the red triangle into the keyhole but it wouldn’t work. She examined the green piece before putting the triangle piece in and twisting it.

Pop!

She jumped at the noise of the case opening. Inside the case was a needle with a light green substance in it and a screen. Words came on the screen: “Please inject yourself with the needle,”

The unknown girl slowly sat on the floor with the case open in front of her and picks up the needle, shaking. She thinks why she would she take the injection, but then she thought
why not?
She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She stuck the needle in her skin, and feels a small bee sting. When the substance was in her system, she regretted it.

A face popped on the screen. It was a fairly young, handsome guy. He smiles. “Hello… I’m Doctor Greene if you don’t remember. You, my friend, are Forres Tanner. I have a game for you, Forres. Do you want to play?”

Forres Tanner
… She stared at the screen and gave a small nod. For some reason, she got the feeling that she had no choice.

“Good. In this game, you have to find these cases filled with your medicine,” he said.

“Medicine?” Forres asked.

Doctor Greene nodded. “In that needle was your medicine. You have an unknown, incurable virus… Well, I know what it is and it is, in fact, curable. If you win this game, you are free of the virus. If you lose…,” He shrugged. “We’ll just play again. There are four levels: Earth, Water, Fire, and Air, as your necklace shows. As the level goes on, it will get harder and harder as well as the hints. Understand?”

Forres reached up and played with her weird star necklace, out of habit. She realized the green side was for Earth, the blue side was Water, the red side was Fire, and the gray side was Air. She was staring down but she was listening.

“Good. Your first hint will play after this. Oh yeah, Forres?” Doctor Greene continued. Forres looked up. “You have nothing to fear but the living… and the dead…,” The screen goes black. Forres stared at it when big letters across the screen. It read:

First hint: Your case is locked up tightly Tanner. You have three days to find it.

It took her a few minutes to tell herself, he could be lying. With that reassuring thought, slowly, Forres stood. Her legs shook from fear or chills; she couldn’t tell.

She got up and goes into the bathroom. She leaned on the sink and turned the knobs on it to splash her face with water but no water came out. She goes over and tried the shower knobs. There absolutely was no water turning on.

Almost freaking out, she quickly goes into the room. She pressed the “Emergency Only” button a bunch of times. Breathing heavily, she gripped the edge of the bed and tried to calm herself down. After a while of trying to breathing regularly, Forres took a deep breath and stood. She looked at a door on the other end of the room. Slowly, she goes over the door.

Hesitating, Forres puts her hand around the door knob. Her heart raced, not missing any beats and she bit her bottom lip. She turned the knob as slow as a snail. Once the door knob was turned all the way, she counted to three in her head. She swung it open.

She saw a dark red liquid splattered in the halls but no one was around. She gagged at the strong smell of iron and rotting meat. She shook as she walked into the hall. She covered her mouth, trying not to sob because of the amount of blood. Her small, bare feet slapped against the cold ground. A chill traveled down her spine as she turned at the corner of the hall. She saw a bunch of nurse’s stations and puddles of blood near them.

A growl came, stopping Forres in her tracks. She looked around her. Nothing was even near her, for what she can see. The growl came again and she now notices it was coming from her stomach. She relaxed. Because of the overwhelming moment, she had forgotten of ever being hungry. She started down the hall, relaxing. She now thought this is all a joke and a prank, someone had set on her. But why can’t she remember her past?

She followed the signs telling her where the cafeteria was. For safe measures, she took the stairs instead of the elevator. She quickly climbed down the stairs and came to a door. Peeking out of the door, she studied the two ways to go. When she thought it clear, she goes into the cafeteria.

The cafeteria is a mess but no one was in there. Forres starts to the kitchen, fixing chairs and the tables. When she gets into the kitchen, she goes to the huge fridge and opens it. A foul smell goes up her nose. She closes the door with an “Ew…,” Her nose wrinkles in disgust as a chewing noise comes. It sounds as if someone was chewing gum like a cow.

Her heart beat quickens in her ears as she, slowly, goes around the counter.

Chapter Two

Day Negative: March 25
th
, 2020; 3:50 pm

“Maximus Threadson?”

Max looked up from his card game with a few friends.

“Pills,” The female doctor said.

Max stood and said, “No one look at my card. Got it?” He looked at his insane friends. One was rocking back and forth, the other giggling at his own mind, and the last was scratching his arms, eager to claw at his eyes. Max smacked his friend’s hand to keep him from scratching himself. “Want the jacket?” Max cocked his brows at the guy and the guy shook his head. “Then stop.”

Max walked to the female doctor.

“Hello, Maria,” He rolled his ‘r’s.

She smiles, politely. “I’ve told you Max. I don’t date insane people.”

“It’s pretty insane about the amount of time I think about you…,” Max smirked. Maria cocked her brow, playfully. “Sorry, had to say that,” Maria thrust the little container at Max. “Trying to drug me already? At least take me to dinner first,” He joked and put his pills in his mouth with the water. He swallowed.

“Open,” Maria said. Max opened his mouth for her to see inside. “Okay… Good. Now go,” She said. Max smiled and winked at her before leaving. He frowned once she left and moved the pill around in his mouth. Max sat down and saw his cards were messed up.

“Who took a look at my cards?” Max whined. He grabbed his cards and lifted them up. Out of the corner of his eyes he saw Maria kissing a guard in the hall. Max growled to himself and threw the cards in. “I’m done.”

*****

Day Negative: March 25
th
, 2020; 8:20 pm

Max climbed into bed and so does his whispering-to-himself roommate. Max sat up and put his hand in his pillow case. Once feeling it, Max grabbed it. It was a toothbrush; the brush part was craved into a key and the other a flat end. Max rubbed his fingers against the key end. He took a deep breath before sitting back and looking at his roommate.

The guy rocked back and forth in the corner, muttering. At first Max couldn’t understand him but after a while he made out the word. “It’s all going to end… It’s all going to end,” Max scowled. As if the guy knew Max was listening, he continues with, “I can smell your blood…,” Max opened his mouth but closed it as his heart sped up. A wave of fear wrinkled throughout his whole body. He tightened his grip around the sharp toothbrush. “And I can hear your heart too… It beats so fast and the blood that pumps from it,” He sniffed the air as if he could actually smell Max’s blood.

Max froze, not breathing. The guy eyes rolled back and he started to shake violently. Max quickly got up and banged on the door. “Hey! Hey! Something’s wrong with this guy!” Max froze again. The hair on Max’s arms and the nape of his neck stood up as if there was a cold draft in the room which that could it because there was a window. But the window was closed, it was always closed. Max could sense the guy had gotten up. He tried to resist the urge to look but gave in. Max slowly turned his head.

The insane guy was staring at Max. His eyes were pure white instead of the color it was before. The guy lunged for him and Max stabbed his sharp toothbrush outward. The door opened and Max fell out with the guy on top of him. Max had stuck the toothbrush into the guy’s right eye.

The insane guy was pulled off of Max by a guard. The guy twisted and turned, sinking his teeth into the guard’s shoulder. Blood sprayed around as the guard cried out in pain.

Quickly, Max scrambled to his feet and ran down the hall. Because of the blood on him and his shoes, it felt as if the halls were a slip ‘n’ slide of death. But Max kept going. Running and yelling for help, he turned the corner only to get a forearm into his neck.

Max falls back, hitting his head on the ground. The lights turn off… not the lights… His consciousness. He slipped in and out of a conscious state; his vision blurred but he could make out Maria and her guard boyfriend.

“Max?” Maria gasped.

Max opened his mouth to say something but struggled to get something out.

“Oh Max, what have you done?” Maria cooed. She knelt down.

What have I done? 
Max thought, confused

Nothing, man. It was your roommate. Not you.
Another voice said in his head.

“What have I done?” Maria’s boyfriend asked. He ran his hand through his hair, worried.

What have you done? 
Max was really confused. He squinted a bit; it was the only way for him to see.

“Oh Max…,” Maria muttered, pushing Max’s hair out of his face.

“Max?” The guard scowls. “I’m going to lose my job. I just hit a client! Maria, what do we do?”

“We?” Maria stood, frowning.

“Yeah,
we
. Are you forgetting that you are dating me, not this guy? You’re mine, not his. So it’s we because we are in this together,” The guard stated.

Maria looked away. After a silent second, she whispered, “What do we do?”

The guard looked thoughtfully for a second then his light bulb turned on. Max actually saw the light bulb over his head and smiled a bit. “My trunk?”

Maria narrowed her eyes. “Are you asking me or telling me?”

“I’m telling you.”

“In your trunk?”

“In my trunk.”

“Will he fit?”

“Yeah, he should,” The guard bended down and grabbed the unconscious Max from the ground. Max was put over the guard’s shoulder.

“What happens if he wakes?”

The guard rubbed his chin. “I’ll handle that.”

“Okay…,” Maria answered, uneasy.

“Okay,” The guard sounded confident as if it would work or because he did this more than once.

Maria looked at him. “Fine, in your trunk.”

“In my trunk,” he nodded back.

In his trunk? 
Max questioned. He looked down at the guard’s butt.
Would I fit in their? I might need a flashlight too in there.

You idiot, you swallowed the pill!
The other voice yelled.

Not nice,
Max whined. The guard started walking.
Wee!

Oh my god. I’m in the mind of an idiot…,
the voice said.

Max’s mind chuckled.
It’s not only your god.