"Switzerland! Welcome people!" The cheerful, firm voice of the pilot sounded, after they had arrived Switzerland, standing on the heated tarmac of the airport, looking into the distance. While they stared, their first, vivid experiences played before their eyes, making them see images of floating spikes and robes. They shook their heads, warding it off, in order to have a clear view of the airy airport. The images seemed to them, like a single night's dream.
They hung heavy bags, inhaling the bland scent of the fresh breeze that tarried around the airport. It was bland really, and it gave way for each of them to decide on what they perceived. Alban perceived his family home, Olivia perceived the foots of the Jura hills, Meinrad perceived nothing, Camillas perceived the scent of a newly-polished, grand piano, Ali perceived dust, and Jake perceived styrofoam. From where they stood, they could see the snow-capped Alps, which was a major landmark in Geneva.
The pilot chuckled, directing their attention to what stood right beside them, rather than the far-fetched Alps. "Really long, really long I came here." He sounded South African. He placed his hands on his waist, smiling and shaking his head. A good-looking man in his early forties, showing off the finely-spaced gap between his incisors while he smiled. His smile was like a stamp on his face, and he carried it like an insignia, ever willing to show it. He looked neatly pressed, and the peak of his cap glittered brilliantly in the sun. Meinrad turned to him.
"Thank you...Jabulani." Meinrad nodded at him. The pilot laughed at the way Meinrad called the name in his American accent.
"You can call me Jabu for short." He grinned.
"Oh Jabu, thank you Jabu," said Meinrad.
"Anytime." He laughed and walked away.
Meinrad peered at the distance, expecting the arrival of Mr. Basil already, but what he saw were a group of technicians, approaching the aircraft to tend to it. Shortly, they heard the hum of a vehicle, coming from behind the control tower. It was a black Mercedes bus, with tinted screens. It ran from behind the control tower, with a moderate pace, but enough to assert that the driver was in a haste to see someone. The vehicle stopped before them, while they tried in vain to see through the tinted glasses of the vehicle, but all they saw were shadowy apparitions. But they sensed there were two people inside. Both doors from the sides of the vehicle went open. Mr. Basil got out from the driver's side, beaming, with his sight grazing along, searching for Meinrad, and he saw him, looking a little different. Dr. Dedeon got out of the other side, searching for Alban. He seemed youthful, tall and stern looking, with grey stubbles around his bony chin; he looked nothing like Alban. Alban's looks changed so well that Dr. Dedeon couldn't tell him from the others. While the both of them approached, the scientists were visited once again by the vivid images. They saw the humanoids coming before them, other than Mr. Basil and Dr. Dedeon. For few seconds, they wondered why they wouldn't cease to be visited by such fiendish images. They sensed something wrong somewhere, but they warded it off by rapidly blinking their eyes, and the right images reappeared.
Alban pulled a childlike smile, looking at his Dad. "Dad," he called, walking towards him. It was at that point his father spotted him out. The rest of them looked at each other in surprise; they hadn't seen Alban in an emotional state before. Dr. Dedeon hugged him tightly, kissing his hair and rubbing it vigorously, until it got a little shaggy, while Mr. Basil stood beside him, grinning, with his arms held behind.
"Alban." He withdrew, holding him out and staring at him; head to toe, then they hugged again.
"I missed you dad," he said, with his dad's tweed coat, muffling his voice.
"Missed you too son," Dr. Dedeon replied, then they finally withdrew. Dr. Dedeon stared at the rest and flashed a smile at professor Meinrad. "Professor," he called. Meinrad walked towards him and they shook vigorously. "CERN expected your arrival so dearly. You came right on time," he said, with their hands still glued. They withdrew their hands afterwards, and Meinrad shook with Mr. Basil.
"Welcome Meinrad," Mr. Basil said. "Glad you finally came."
Dr. Dedeon looked up at the rest. "You all should come over here." He waved briskly. They walked to where the trio stood.
"Your staffs?" Dr. Dedeon asked Meinrad. He turned around and stared at them.
"Yes they are. Your son inclusive." He laughed.
"Of course he is. Hope he hasn't been giving you a lot of troubles." Dr. Dedeon dropped his brows. Alban looked at him and dropped his brows too, wanting to say something, but kept shut.
"Uhm...well, as far as one doesn't get on his nerves." Meinrad chuckled, and they all laughed collectively.
Dr. Dedeon looked at them for few more seconds. "Welcome to Geneva." He nodded. "This way." He gestured to the bus, and they proceeded to where the bus was parked.
CERN is roughly five miles from Geneva, sitting astride the Swiss-French border. It is flanked by the slopes of the Jura mountains on one side, and the snow-capped Alps at the other side, housing the most sophisticated machine on Earth--The Large Hadron Collider--A superenergetic particle accelerator which accelerates beams of particles to speeds close to that of light, smashing them together to obtain particles which constituted the building blocks of matter.
The vehicle took them on a short tour within CERN. The rise and fall of buildings and motley structures they passed by seemed sinusoidal. The first building they noticed was the building 40, which looked somewhat like the Fanfield laboratory. It was rectangular, and other than having a strong reflecting ability, it quelled the sunlight. They passed by office buildings, control buildings, and the globe of science; a grandiose, brown, dome-shaped building, which made Camillas unknowingly freak out. They drove past the Shiva's Cosmic Dance statue as well, which was once rumoured that human sacrifices were performed there, but Mr. Basil made it known to them that it was a gift given to them by the Indian government in 2004, to celebrate CERN's long association with them.
They rode within the confines of CERN for over ten minutes, before arriving at the courtyard of the Meyrin hostel, which was at the Swiss side of CERN. What towered above them where three above-ground buildings. The scientists tried to get themselves startled over the looks of the buildings, but they just couldn't, cause the buildings looked like every other apartment building out there. They saw smart-looking students exiting the buildings, with academic materials in their hands, giving the entire courtyard an aura of intellectual flourish.
"We are here," Mr. Basil said, after making a halt at the parking lot.
"Thank you Mr. Basil," they all said as they got down from the vehicle and stood, with their heads held up, staring at the buildings.
"The hostels haven't changed a bit," Alban said, squinting at the top of the buildings.
"You wish to stay here?" Meinrad asked him.
"My boy stays with me," Dr. Dedeon laughed.
"Sorry Dr. Dedeon, didn't acknowledge your presence." Meinrad smiled.
"Let's go in." Mr. Basil gestured towards the building.
Each of the hostels had a hundred rooms, and Mr. Basil had already done some hasty bookings before their arrival. They walked along one of the hall ways, which was at the third floor of the building. They passed by several rooms, with numbers attached to them. Mr. Basil stopped at one of the room doors and looked up to see the number. "Number 302," he said. "Ladies first." He unlocked the door and pushed it open. They felt a cold, banal sensation when they walked in. The room was modest, and it's smell demanded quietude. The room had a bed, a table and a phone on top of it. The room was for Olivia alone, but the rest were all in, to use what they saw to predict the looks of theirs.
"Like it here?" Mr. Basil asked her.
"Wonderful!" Olivia smiled, turning around.
"Good a thing you love it." He smiled back. "Let me take you to the bathroom." They began to walk.
The bathroom was small and narrow, and only Olivia stepped inside to have a view, while the rest stood at the door. Olivia walked to the window and peeked down, having an aerial view of the parking lot, as well as lingering students. Within a second, the images passed before her eyes again, and other than seeing students, she saw the humanoids. She gasped and took off her head immediately. Then she forced a smile once again and turned around. "I love it."
"Oh you do?" Mr. Basil beamed. "Then let's go show the men to their rooms."
When they all got out of the room, leaving Olivia behind, she sat on the bed, looking around the room. The quietude of the room became a means by which the images emerged again. She looked at the table and saw floating spikes. She blinked her eyes rapidly and got up immediately, looking up at the ceiling and breathing heavily, with her chest swelling and falling. She gently walked to the table and saw that there were no spikes there. Then she looked down and saw the drawers attached to the height of the table. She bent and pulled the second drawer, seeing a book with blurry robots on it. She took it out and stood up.
"Brave New World?" She read out the title; the book seemed familiar.
She opened the first page, seeing a few things, which later appeared to be the lines of the poem the humanoids sang. She opened to the second and saw the same thing. Then the fourth page, the ninth page, until she began to flip the pages rapidly, running her lips, adjusting her glasses, and shaking her head, while her breathing accelerated. She threw the book to the table and moved backwards. Then she began to hear the rhymes in her ears; they sang with choking, faded voices. It reverberated in her head, like they were in an empty auditorium. She gripped her hair, shaking it, but the rhymes kept coming. She quickly freed her head and ran out of the room.
Meanwhile, after Ali and Camillas were showed their room, they began to survey the place. The room where they stayed was along the second floor of the building, and it was a room before that in which Meinrad and Jake stayed. Camillas walked around the room, with his hands held behind him, looking up and around, while Ali spent time, laying his hands on things he could see. Camillas walked for some time, before settling on the bed, while Ali stood before the table, rubbing his fingers over the telephone, then he took up the receiver, jokingly pressing the numbered buttons, with the receiver pressed against his ear.
"Yea, this Bernes Lee, calling from within the collider tunnel, send help right na," he spoke with a stiffened voice that made veins bulge from his neck.
"Crazy you." Camillas slapped the air.
Ali laughed and dropped the phone back, then he stood, looking down at the table.
"Let me see wha they got here." He bent a little and pulled the first drawer, seeing a red bow tie in it. "Seems a waiter formerly lived here," he muttered, opening the second drawer.
When he pulled it open he saw a black, voluminous book slide a little bit in it. He tilted his head a little, reading it silently, then he took it up. "Angels and Demons -- Dan Brown," he said, quietly.
Camillas adjusted his glasses. "What book is that?" Ali turned around and showed him the front cover of the book. He squinted while reading it. "Angels and Demons" He sat erect. "Dan Brown right?"
"Ya saw the name right here," Ali said to him.
"Oh, nah. I have read Angels and Demons twice...and I was wondering, what business does a student in CERN campus have with a book that describes CERN as a kind of paradise?"
"It isn't a paradise?" Ali smirked.
"I don't see any paradise here," said Camillas.
He looked around and gently fell to the bed.
Ali shrugged and dropped the book on the table. "I'll read this when I'm done peeing." He smiled and walked to the toilet.
Suddenly, the door flung open and Olivia badged inside, shutting it behind her, looking side to side, with her lips parted.
"Hey who's tha?" Ali said from the toilet. The door was slightly open. She kept looking at them. Camillas got up, walking close to her. "What's wrong Olivia?"
"I'm seeing things Kaku. Spikes and people in black robes," she said, breathing heavily. "I hear things in my ears, like chain smokers singing."
Ali walked out of the toilet, buckling his belt. "Hey Olivia. Ya okay?"
"She talks of seeing things, and they seem a bit familiar to me," Camillas said to Ali. Ali walked up to her. "Could you describe what you see?"
"People in black robes and spikes, singing a scary song," she said.
"The images we saw when we used Lucifie in the machine," Ali said. "Ah have seen it twice today. Buh not to worry, the images you see are results of persistent vision. It's natural bae, chill." He fixed his belt and went to the bed to sit.
"Same here. It mingles with my visuals. I see them periodically," said Camillas. "But I don't believe it's anything close to paranormal. Maybe Lucifie has a hallucinating effect in the mind, when high on energy."
"Kaku, aways looking for ways to rule out the existence of paranormals," Ali said.
"Cause they are inexistent." Camillas raised his brows. Olivia left where she stood and went to sit on the bed, with her fingers on her temples.
"They say things like thoughts an ribbons," she said, still bothered.
"Tha shouldn't bother ya much Olivia, the images will fade away soon, trust me," Ali said to her.
She took her hands off her temples and turned to Ali. "I will be staying here."
They both gasped. "Stay here? Wha would Rad think if he sees ya sleeping here hmm?" Ali asked her.
"I don't care what he thinks. I just can't go back to that room," she said.
"And you think you are safe here?" Camillas said to her.
"I sense they become more troublesome when you are alone...quiet. I just can't go back there," She said, shaking her head stubbornly. Ali and Camillas looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders.
"Whatever, but remember to be in your best tomorrow night. We rock the tunnel and get this stuff over with," Camillas said.
"Maybe Switzerland is hunted. We could get free from this whole thing when we are back to New Haven," said Ali.
"I hope so," Olivia said, in a shaky voice, rubbing her temples, sensing the images coming again.