The next morning Kailan got up at his usual time, 7:30, to get ready for school. His mother made breakfast every morning as she and his father had to get up early for work as well. So there would always be fresh coffee, eggs and bacon. Kailan quickly ate his food and sipped his coffee before he got up in a rush and kissed his mother goodbye.

“Be careful out there sweetie.”

“I will. Don’t be late dad.” Kailan said in snark.

“Worry about yourself. I have a car.”

“And yet you’re late almost every morning…” Kailan rushed out the door with a wide grin as he replied to his father.

“Hey!” Edward tried to retort but didn’t have the chance.

“Seriously. I get no respect around here.”

“Then don’t be late.” Maria snapped.

“But honey…”

“Don’t ‘but honey’ me. Finish your breakfast and get going. You’re supposed to be there before Kailan arrives.” Maria stated as she emphasized the word ‘before’, shaking her head in exasperation.

“Yes mam.” Edward depressedly finished his breakfast and hurried out the door.

Meanwhile, Kailan had already made his way to the Marathon. He stopped in to grab a juice and some cashews for later. The clerk was a lady in her 50s and she always snuck a candy bar into his bag every morning he stopped by.

“Thank’s Mrs. Williams.”

“You be safe walking to school this morning Kailan, ya’hear?”

“Yes mam.”

Leaving the Marathon, Kailan continued on his trek to school. It wasn’t that far, just a 10 minute walk. He liked the brief time to himself in the morning, it was a chance to just enjoy a simple walk and some fresh air.

- 7 ½ Hours Until Merger -

Somewhere in Maine.

“Sir, those disturbances you wanted me to investigate. You were right. They’re happening all over the globe, but mainly in larger cities. It’s like there’s some kind of electromagnetic field that’s affecting only the power grids.”

“I knew it. But why are the larger cities being affected more? Sergio, how are the grids in the smaller towns and more rural areas?”

“They’re still being affected but on a much smaller scale. Only a tenth of what the big cities are experiencing. Dr. Brown, what’s causing this?”

“I don’t know. What I do know is it’s been happening for about a week. I initially received calls from several friends in Boston, New York, Seattle, Los Angeles and Dallas about abnormal power fluctuations. Later a few of my overseas colleagues called in from France and Japan asking if we were experiencing unexplained power fluctuations. That’s when I had you call our contacts in the various nations across Europe to confirm with them. Everyone is being affected and no one can seem to pinpoint the origin.”

“Could it be some kind of natural phenomena like a CME?”

“No, no. A Coronal Mass Ejection would have some variance in when it affected different systems across the globe. These fluctuations are happening at exactly the same time all over the planet. It’s like a pulse that is going out from the center of the world, hitting every grid simultaneously. And it’s not knocking out the grids, it's just causing strange blips that pop up for a moment and then die out just as fast.”

“Could a seismic event be responsible?”

“We would have felt it. Besides, we’ve checked that already and there were absolutely no seismic tremors during any of those time frames. Certainly not any that were happening simultaneously on every continent. We’ve checked everything from the EM spectrum to alien frequencies and still have nothing to explain this.”

“So what now doctor?”

“...”

Meanwhile, back in Indianapolis.

Kailan made it to school 10 minutes early so he went into the cafeteria to chat with some of his friends before class. Nothing too exciting happened throughout the day. Classes went on as usual, Kailan saw his friends and they hung out at lunch. It was a Wednesday so school let out at 2:45. An hour earlier than usual.

Kailan and several of his friends usually hung out at the park and played baseball for a while before heading home. Broad Ripple park was only a few minutes walk from the school and the ballfield was on the opposite corner of the park. White River ran along its western shore so they would follow the path along it as it curved around the north side.

They would often play up until around 4:20 when Kailan would head home to meet his father as he walked in. They weren’t very good but it was fun and they just casually played.

“Maybe we should switch to basketball?” One of them commented as he missed catching the ball that was coming right at him.

Everyone gathered at the pitcher’s mound.

“Why? We can’t play basketball very well either. I say we pick up swimming.”

“But we can’t go swimming during the school year, not to mention in the winter. Not unless you want blue balls.” He stated, as he flashed the baseball in his hand.

“Hm… Blue balls or baseballs?” Kailan turned to look at one of the boys standing next to him. The other boy turned to stare at Kailan at the same time as they shrugged their shoulders together.

“Baseball.” They both said simultaneously.

“Maybe soccer? At least you can’t go wrong if you're just kicking a ball.” Kailan jumped in with his suggestion.

“Still can’t play it in the winter.”

“Yah, but we could alternate. Play baseball in the winter and soccer in the spring and fall, then go swimming in the summer. There’s no reason we can’t do them all.” Kailan justified as he tossed the baseball in his hand up into the air catching it over and over.

“I second.”

“Third.”

“Everyone else?”

“Sounds good to us.” Everyone agreed. There were about seven boys who hung out after school at the park on Wednesdays. They were all friends growing up since elementary school.

“Maybe we should invite a few more people to even out our numbers.” One of the boys suggested.

“I know a couple guys in my English class who are cool. They live in my neighborhood too. I can see if they want to join us.”

“That’s cool. But that will take us up to 9 right? Shouldn’t we at least have 10?” Kailan interjected.

“I can handle the last one. My cousin just transferred in and he’s pretty cool. I’ll ask him later.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

As they were making plans to expand their gang, a strong wind suddenly blew past. Dark clouds started to cover the sky and it looked like it was going to start raining. Kailan thought it was strange since the weather forecast said it would be sunny all day. But the others didn’t want to get drenched, so they packed up and headed home.

“See you guys later.” Kailan waved at the group as they all split off into different directions.

“Later Kailan.”

“Later Kai!”

Kailan was left as the only one still on the baseball field. “3:50. I guess I’ll just go home too. I can finish my homework early and spend more time teasing dad.”

It took him a few minutes to collect his equipment before he started walking towards his house.

As he walked along the side of the ballfield, he suddenly stopped. There was a strange sound like an alarm going off all around him. He looked around trying to figure out where it was coming from but couldn’t find the source. “Above?”

The sound was far away like it was coming down from the heavens. Kailan looked up only for his jaw to drop in amazement. There in the sky were large red holographic looking signs. They were like stop signs, flashing in the sky. The alarm sound went off at each pulse of the strange holographic signs.

As Kailan stared at the sky, a soft, elegant and mature voice of a woman sounded out. As she spoke, the alarm sounds ended.

As Gaia announced the news, Kailan could feel a strange sensation like his mind was suddenly connected to something. It was a light airy feeling, but it was relaxing. He felt like there was a string stretching out from his mind and every now and then it was being tugged on.

“Ah!” Kailan was startled and let out a slight sound, nearly falling backwards, as another holographic sign appeared. This time the sign appeared in front of him as if it was speaking to him specifically.

Kailan was stunned. “What the hell is this?”

He reached out towards the signs in front of him, his hand slipping through it as if it were a mirage. “Holograms?” He turned his head and the sign also followed as if it was fixed in front of him.

As he tried to wrap his mind around it, he heard the sounds of car horns and glass breaking. Looking at the road far away, there had been an accident. Actually there had been several accidents spanning both directions. People in their cars got out and people on the sidewalks all stopped. They were reaching out just like Kailan had, only there was nothing in front of them.

“It must be something only the individual can see.” Kailan silently surmised.

Everywhere he looked there were people either staring in front of them grabbing at the air or looking up into the sky.

Kailan also turned back to stare at the sky. There really was a large clock just like the lady’s voice had said. It was a large digital clock with a light blue holographic background surrounding it. It was counting down just as expected. Kailan just stood there stunned as the timer quickly dwindled.

“What the hell is happening right now? I need to get home...” Kailan did his best to collect himself and decided to run towards his house. But as soon as he tried to move he discovered that he was unable to do so. He was stuck in place.

“What? Why can’t I move… What is this?” Kailan began to freak out as he struggled to move from his spot. It was like his muscles were moving but his body was nailed in place. He felt stifled and short on breath. Everytime he tried to move his chest he felt like it was being pulled backwards.

“Help! Someone help me! Hey! Help!” He screamed for help but no one seemed to hear him. They all continued to stare at the sky. “Help! Help me!” He screeched. But still no one heard him.

“Ok, calm down. I can still feel my body. Nothing seems to be broken and there are no injuries. My muscles are tense and it feels like my heart is being gripped. Crap! Am I having a heart attack?!” Fear was quickly seeping into his mind as he assessed his situation. It was smart to stop panicking and assess, but sometimes that only served to make one even more panicked.

Suddenly another sound like the previous alarms sounded out across the sky. Only this time it lasted for several seconds before it ended. Everyone who wasn’t already, stopped and turned towards the sky clock. The timer had reached zero.

Suddenly, Kailan felt a ripping pain in his upper chest. It was like his insides were being twisted. He let out a high pitched scream in agony. “Aaaaah!” Tears were welling in his eyes and he felt light headed like he was about to pass out, but he couldn’t because of the sharp piercing pain.

“Let me… go…” He cried out with great effort. He didn’t say it to anyone in particular, he just had to say it because it was how he felt. The pain soon shot up and down the center of his body. It began to pull at him from both sides like it was trying to split him in half.

“Aaaaaaaah! Stop!” He cried out. He had long come to tears as veins protruded from his neck, face and arms. People finally took notice of him.

“What is that?”

“Is that a kid?”

“What’s happening to him?!”

“Oh my god! He’s being ripped apart. Aaaah!” An older woman panicked and began to run away, fearing she would be next.

As people looked on they could see cracks in Kailan’s skin as it was splitting apart, blood began to flow down from the cracks but soon stopped as if it was being held in place. His tears turned from ones of clear salty water to thick red blood.

“Someone call 911!”

Several men began to run towards him, but as they approached they ran into an invisible barrier. As they slammed into it they bounced back and fell to the ground. They were dumbfounded as they didn’t know what had happened. They couldn’t see anything in front of them but as they felt around they could feel a wall.

The barrier seemed to come to light as it started to glow a deep transparent purple. It began contracting shortly after as it closed in on Kailan, squeezing tightly around him, seemingly trying to compress him into paste.

“Aaaah!” Kailan screamed again as he felt the crushing pain, but it was more guttural this time.

“Warning: Dimensional collapse in progress. Evacuate the area immediately.”

Alerts started popping up everywhere around him. Everyone could see them but no one understood what they meant.

“Aaaaaaaaahhhh!” Kailan screamed again as a black light with a light blue hue flooded out from the center of his body. It flowed out and around him covering the area, pulling him in before blending into the background as it became surrounded by the deep purple barrier. The people around could barely see Kailan anymore. But they could still hear him screaming.

The light formed into a sphere and it seemed to form a light gravitational pull. It wasn’t strong enough to pull anyone else in but it was noticeable all the way back to the street and the wind and leaves flowed towards it. Then it slowly collapsed in on itself. Taking the screaming boy and the ground around it with it.

“What the f*** just happened?”

“Holy…”

“Aaaah!” Everyone began screaming as they ran away. They didn’t know what they were running from, but they ran as fast and as hard as they could. What they had just witnessed terrified them.

Both Kailan and the strange sphere of light disappeared, nowhere to be found.