Sam and Mandy slept soundly in their laboratory hideout, still reluctant to give up looking for the others, but exhaustion finally overcame them. Sam slowly opened his eyes and blinked twice to clear his vision and sleepiness. He rose from the workbench with a groan, looked over, and saw Mandy resting on a different bench across the room.

He walked up to her and nudged her to wake up. When she finally came to, Mandy quickly scanned the room in search of the clock.

Had I fallen asleep?

“Hey, what were we doing?” Mandy asked as she strained to get up from the bench.

“Our brains and bodies couldn’t handle the lack of sleep anymore... so we went out for a while, I suppose,” Sam replied with a yawn.

“Wait, do you know how long we’ve been out for?”

“I don’t know, but we have a lot of catching up to do.” Sam stretched his back and arms.

“Right!” Mandy darted to the computer maintenance console. She looked up at the big screen, and immediately, something caught her eye. “No way!” She exclaimed as her eyes widened. Samuel, you got to see this!”

“I’m a little busy, though...” Sam mentioned, trying to reboot the laptop console.

“But it’s Antonio! He and his friends are alive and well!”

“What?!” Sam rushed over and looked at the screen.

They both saw Antonio, Maggie, and Tommy cuddled up together as the sun peaked out over the horizon in the background. The ground looked like it had rained the night before, was now a sunny day.

“Isn’t that amazing?”

“It’s unbelievable!” Sam cried tears of joy. “How did they manage to—?”

“Who cares? They’re ok, and that’s all that matters!”

“Well, I’m still concerned about — wait, could you zoom in over there?” He asked, pointing at a small yellow area next to Antonio.

“What are you…?” Mandy zoomed in and analyzed the yellow object. They both gasped at the resolution.

“I knew it! It’s a crystal.” Sam deduced.

“He probably needed them to charge his batteries, so cut him some slack,” Mandy replied.

“And they seem rather tired.” He agreed. “Let’s wait until later to speak with them about that.”

“So, can we go back to sleep?” Mandy knew the answer but felt the need to ask anyway. Even though they barely got any sleep, they still had lots to do.

“Unfortunately, no. We still need to get them out of that place.” Sam said as he walked back to the control panel.

“Aw, man. I want to help, but I’m so tired.” Mandy complained, slumping against her seat.

“Well, you can rest, but I’ll keep on going,” Sam replied, not taking his eyes off the screen.

“Wait, you shouldn’t push yourself so hard. It isn’t good for you.”

“I won’t, don’t worry; we’ll just take shifts so that one doesn’t get more tired than the other; ok?”

“Sounds like a plan.” Mandy glanced at him with a smile. She didn’t know how much more of this they could take.

And so, the two scientists took turns staying awake to try and make more progress while the other got some sleep.

Before long, it was Mandy’s turn to work and give Samuel a chance to rest for a while. He wished his cousin the best of luck as he went to lie down on the bench.

Mandy went over to the computer area when something on the monitor screen caught her eye: A white object flying outside of the tree where the trio slept.

She tried to zoom in closer to analyze the object more closely. Mandy took a glance at Sam, who fell into a deep slumber. Not wanting to wake him up so soon, Mandy put on the headphones and communicated quietly to wake Antonio and the others.