Chapter 3: Video
March 26, 2044- Saturday
“Call me when you are ready to leave,” shouts his Ma, through the crack in the window.
The pickup truck rolls out of Ben’s house and onto the quiet neighborhood road. Two-story houses spread on green short lawns. The sunlight is beating hard on Rise’s back from the blue sky. It is time to go knock at the door. A row of dark hedges hide the glass and wooden door to number 509, Sumter Dr. Rise is not familiar with this neighborhood. The glossy leaves of the hedges feel cool on his hand when he heads up the steps to the door. In the light of the afternoon sun, Rise sees his reflection on the glass panels of the doorway. With a firm press of the white ringer, a soft melodious ringtone is heard behind the front door. To be safe, Rise texts Ben: here.
A notification pops on Rise’s phone signifying the message has been read. The front door swings open to reveal Ben with his phone in his hand.
“Hey, I thought I’d get us some pizza,” says Ben, ushering Rise inside.
“Oh yeah, that sounds good,” says Rise walking into Ben’s living room.
Inside the living room is a spacious room with large windows draped in thick beige curtains to match the set of sofas facing the television screen.
Ben indicates where Rise should take off his shoes- a white cube shelf along the wall. There is an open shelf in the bottom row where Rise places his red sneakers. With a thud, the shoes fall in the center of the shelf.
“Where should I place my backpack?” asks Rise, holding his bag in one hand.
“On the top the shelf is fine,” says Ben, walking into the next room over.
After setting his backpack on the cube shelf, Rise follows after Ben. The next room over has a ceiling of the same height as the living room. The light blue color on the wall paints the dining room and kitchen. Rise and Ben converse while Ben places plates on the table.
There is a ring at the front door.
Two minutes later Kevin walks into the dining room behind Ben. Kevin pulls the chair next to Rise, scrapping it against the white tiles. The boys converse for ten minutes until the front door rings again.
“Pizza is here!” exclaims Ben.
“Pizza time,” says Kevin.
“Yum,” says Rise.
Ben grabs the dollar bills they had left on the table for the tip and heads to the front door.
A warm pizza sits in the center of the dark wood square table. Steam ascends into the air moving into the blades of the fan above Rise’s head. He bites into the slice of pizza, tasting the sauce, cheese, and pepperoni all at once. Ben comes to his left side to pour him some juice. Rise holds his glass cup as the juice splashes into the cup like water inside the walls of a dam. The orange juice tasted refreshing in his throat to wash down the pizza bites. Ten minutes later the large pizza is gone; they left only the crumbs on their plates.
For a quick twenty minutes, they cleaned up after themselves. Ben gathered all the dishes in the sink. They wiped the table down with a wash rage. The boys exit the dining room area and go back into the bright living room.
Kevin and Rise retrieve their backpacks from on top of the cube shelf.
“This way,” says Ben, leading them into a small hallway beyond the living room.
Past the wood door, Rise sees into Ben’s room. A neatly made bed sits under a picture of a galaxy.
Kevin and Rise sit on his bed.
“Let me bring some chairs,” says Ben.
“I’ll help you,” says Rise.
Ben and Rise bring two extra chairs from the dining room. Rise notices the chairs are as heavy as they look.
They placed the dining room chairs beside Ben’s desk chair. Ben turns on his computer. They wait a while on the loading screen. The light from outside comes inside Ben’s room in small rays of light off the dark blue walls. While Ben’s computer loads, Kevin and Rise take out their laptops and connect to Ben’s Wi-Fi. They decide to split the workload into parts. Rise is in charge of taking notes to write their essay paper. Kevin will do the research to help Rise. Ben will do the PowerPoint. Their work has already started. Today is the final finishing of the last portion of the third point and conclusion and wrap the project up.
They work in silence for a few minutes sharing ideas every five minutes.
“Hey maybe we should add a video to our presentation on the revolts of 2030,” says Ben.
“Yeah that is a good idea, maybe on this slide number,” says Rise.
“Let me find some videos online,” says Kevin.
Kevin clicks on his laptop for five minutes. He casts his screen when he finds something.
They gather around Ben’s computer screen. The screen is a minimal website with a link labeled: The truth of the revolts of 2030. The link then sends them to another link labeled: Peace Brother in the middle of the page similar to the minimalistic style of the first web page.
“Click it,” says Kevin.
“What if it has a virus,” says Ben.
“Hmm that’s true,” says Rise.
Rise watches Ben click on to link in the middle of the page. A video player loads in the background.
Ben moves his mouse to the center play icon. The screen goes blank for three seconds. Rise thinks Ben must not have clicked play on the video until a static filter plays in front of them. The word “famine” scrolls across the screen. Pictures of people laying in hospital beds stretching for rooms. On some beds, white sheets cover the bodies of the masses where people lie. A closer image of the body of a young woman is hosted out of the bed and into a metal cart into a bag and out of the room. Her arm falls in one cut of the scene limp. The skin is ghostly white like the sheets of the hospital bed. More static plays on the video as the next word “chaos” is followed by images of people protesting buildings. The buildings are in the capital of the country. An image of police pushing back the people further into the street away from the government buildings is followed by the final static slide. The white words “but soon… Peace Brothers” float on a black background. A symbol of peace sign is in the middle, it grows larger on the screen until the ends circle with the upside-down version of ‘Y’ enlarges. The video ends.
Rise looks over at Kevin and Ben who stare at the screen and then stare at each other.
They try to shake off the eerie feeling of what they have found. The footage was very different from the educational-approved material they had been shown at school. Rise thought there was something their parents and schools wanted to shield them from. That year 2030 their grade was only in their toddler years two to three years old. They do not remember that time in history.
Ben finishes the slide presentation and Rise agrees to finish writing to paper on Sunday. The atmosphere has shifted as Rise waits for his mother in Ben’s living room. Ben’s mom is home by that time.
“Do you need anything to drink, Rise?” says Mrs. Pine.
“No thank you,” says Rise, remembering the pale arm in the video.
Kevin left home five minutes ago.
“If you need any help with the paper you can text me,” says Ben.
“Thanks,” says Rise.
A notification buzzes on Rise’s phone.
“My ride's here, see you at school,” says Rise.
Out of the wooden door with a glass window, Rise exits into the late evening. He turns to look to see behind him the tinted glass, frosted and thick similar to his thoughts. He walks the long path into his mother's pickup truck.
“How’d it go?” asks his Ma.
“Good,” says Rise with a shiver in his spine.
He is glad as the truck pulls away from Ben’s house to get away from the thoughts of the video.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone