I kicked the rocky, dusty ground in anger, flicking my red, fiery hair out of my face. I clenched my hands as I saw a large sign covered in ivy. It read : The Whispering Forest.
I had heard many “scary” rumours of the forest from my parents. But they might just be overprotective. Right? As I stumbled through the dark woods, I instantly regretted my actions. I heard strange sounds. I saw an old rusty hut big enough to fit maybe three people in it. As curious as I was, I peeked around the cobweb-covered door. The room I saw was all white and shiny with a board full up with little jottings. I was about to walk in as I heard some quiet murmurs. He came into view. He had white hair and a wrinkly face, wore a white coat and had blue goggles. His brown eyes were the size of marbles.
He then whispered in a friendly voice, “I know you are there young lady! Come in! Come in!”
I stepped in and asked what his fascinating notes were and he just told me to look for myself.
“The glowing cloud?’’ I asked sarcastically.
“You have never of heard the glowing cloud?’’ he responded in disbelief. I told him no. He went literally as red as a tomato.
“Fifteen years ago every week for two years the glowing cloud would come. It would change genres of colours. I did a news report report on the same day the cloud was here, and many times I lost control of my speech and actions. It was believed that the only harm it could do was drop dead animals to the size of, let’s say, an elephant! But I knew there was more it could do. So I have been studying it for 15 years.”
“It dropped elephants! You’re crazy! That is what you are!” I told him.
All he said was, “Come with me.” He showed me to a door.
“There is no way there is another room in this shed! It’s just impossible um..um...um! What is your name? Mine is Jess!” I say.
“The name is William Charlesman. And Jess, nothing is impossible with science!” He opened the door and there was a whole other room! A laboratory! It was amazing! All scientific equipment! So cool!
I walked over to a big tank with some sort of black sheet covering the view of whatever was underneath it.
Without saying a word, the nutty professor flicked open a milk lid-sized cap, pressed a light green button and the sheet flew off! In it was a black and grey robot. “Cool robot!” I said in amazement. I looked closer. No face? It had two arms, two legs, an abdomen and a head, just no face! He just told me he wasn’t an artist and walked off in embarrassment. “So… what are you planning to do with it?” I asked inquisitively.
“The robot has a jet-pack inserted in its feet. When I give it a bottle it will find the cloud and get a sample of it, yet the experiment might take days!” explained William, “We really just don’t know where that cloud is!”
I looked around for a second. I saw a transparent bottle with a glowing, fluffy substance in it. He told me it was a old sample of the cloud. It was just so old it wasn’t alive enough to experiment with. I looked some more and saw a navigator. “Don’t ask,” he said in a flash.
“Can you insert some of the old cloud into the navigator to track it down?” I asked, proud of myself.
He exclaimed happily, “You are a genius! That should work!”
We set to work straight away. After three or four hours we had a navigator that was tracking the cloud. “Beep! Beep! One Kilometre Away,” whined the navigator.
“This must be wrong!” the professor yelled. As we looked out the window. The sky darkened. The wind stopped. Silence. In the distance we saw a faint cloud about the size off a large house or a small mansion, glowing, changing genres off colours...It had returned!
“Robert...,” cried the man.
“It’s Jess,” I told him.
“No. Not you! The robot. Robert 2000 activate! Quick, Jess get in the safety pod to your right. And before you say anything, the robot has a mode to destroy the cloud now go!” shrieked Charlsman. Before I could say anything, I was looking out of a bullet-proof window experiencing a battle.
***
I woke up to water being splashed in my face. “What happened?’’I asked, still dizzy from shock. “You were in your bed! You just wouldn’t wake up! I was so worried!” screeched my mother, pale from worry.
I finally found the courage to ask my mum, “What is the glowing cloud?”
“It came 15 years ago, each week for two years. My father, your grandfather, did a forecast the same day the cloud was here. He lost control of his speech and actions. He has studied it and hasn’t been seen since the forecast,” my mother explained, suspicious of me.
The next day I returned to the forest and looked behind the cobweb-covered door. It was white. It was shiny. It had a board full of little jottings. And a post-it note. It had on it in neat handwriting:
๐๐ฎ๐ผ๐ผ, ๐ท๐ธ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฒ๐ท๐ฐ ๐ฒ๐ผ ๐ฒ๐ถ๐น๐ธ๐ผ๐ผ๐ฒ๐ซ๐ต๐ฎ ๐๐ฒ๐ฝ๐ฑ ๐ผ๐ฌ๐ฒ๐ฎ๐ท๐ฌ๐ฎ
-๐๐ป๐ช๐ท๐ญ๐น๐ช
-๐๐ป๐ช๐ท๐ญ๐น๐ช
And to this day, I have no idea what had happened on Thursday 14th of February 2019.
Isla C.
