"Hello!?"

"Karin, I don't dink awyun ih here. Just look at all these bodies, no one surwiwed this."

"Jake - if the two of ush got out of separate Hours, then maybe someun ih here."

Maris woke up with hair worse than the day before, face pale from tears, and now distraught from the thought that she heard voices. "Gosh Mare...now you are imagining voices. You are seriously going crazy..." Maris shook her head at herself and remained in bed, a slight headache coming on from the crying she did last night. She still had her mother's memorial to prepare but she had all the time in the world, yes? Or, at least until the disease struck her.

"Jake. I am getting hungry, can we just run into a hows and see if there's food."

"Yeah sure. I have never heard much about the Hour Three people except for the fact that they are really nice, I am sure their dead bodies wouldn't mind if we ate their food. They would probably appreciate it, actually." The voices were getting more clear and Maris rolled her eyes in annoyance. She had never met a Jake or Karin in the Hour so they had to be made up, a figment of her imagination, especially with the silly talk as if they traveled through Hours. No one did that except babies for adoption, and her father hopefully. Now Maris was starting to become reminded that her siblings were somewhere in that house. She didn't want to see their bodies exactly, she just wanted to honor them and her mother and the other people from her Hour.

"This is really funny! Huh, yeah! I bet you Time Keepers are doing this! It isn't cool - how dare you leave me in this...hole!" Maris jumped off the bed and shouted at the ceiling, wanting to vent her frustration at someone, might as well be the Time Keepers. But, what if they weren't doing this? Maris took a deep breath and thought through all the possibilities.

What if this was something that happened specifically in her Hour and the Time Keepers weren't aware yet? Maybe help would be sent and those voices were actual people coming to help? Maybe the voices were real. "Hello! Hello? Is someone there?" Maris found a new hope and started to run out the door before remembering her appearance; frozen in her tracks, Maris muttered some gibberish and patted down her hair and adjusted her twisted her light Three clothes. If someone were truly here, she should look slightly appropriate. But they haven't said anything since she said they were imagined...Maris didn't care. She was already bursting with energy.

Maris ran back down the padded floors and down the stairs, bursting through her front door. She had momentarily forgot about the horrors she were to face and was once again awe struck with all the people outside their homes. Helpless and left to rot in the glaring sun. She turned away for a minute but remembered that help could possibly be out there and she shook her body, as if to get rid of nerves, then stepped outside.

She pulled her arm up to help protect her eyes from the sun then continued on, "Hello! Is someone here or am I truly going mad?" Maris shouted then lowered her voice a tad, "I think I am going mad...at least no one is here to look at me in a funny way." Maris shrugged and started to walk around. She could have been playing hop scotch, replacing the bodies with lines of chalk. Each face was someone she had met before and each face received a silent word of condolence from Maris as she walked around them. "Hello! I-I heard you talking about food! I can get food! I know a great bakery with baked goods!" Maris continued shouting but no one appeared and she let out another sigh of frustration as she began to walk back to her house. Maybe the Time Keepers weren't aware and no one was here to help, it was just her mind playing tricks.

"You good now, Karin? I guess Hour Three isn't known for their meats, but that should sustain you."

"Ugh Jake...I am an athlete. In Hour One, we have at least three meats at every meal and carbs and milks and anything else you could possibly need. These people in Three are weaklings and sustain themselves off grains and meek bread."

"Well Hour Four is renowned for artistry, they have some excellent restaraunts I am sure. We can look for something more here then continue on tomorrow and hopefully get to Four for better food."

Maris gasped and her eyes widened as she saw the two figures moving in the distance, she could hear their conversation perfectly and she tried to call out but was too surprised. All that came out were some small squeaks and she caught herself pointing multiple times. "Ah! Ah! Y-yo-y-you! Hi! Hi! Please! Hello!" Maris finally choked out some words and started shouting to the top of her lungs. The two figures looked in her direction and dropped the mysterious meat and stared in her direction, whispering to each other. Maris wanted to meet them halfway and she started to run, but they weren't moving so she kept going and they obviously weren't made up, but she didn't recognize them as she got closer.

The girl, presumably Karin, stood in great confidence and was only clothed in a tight shirt with thin straps and intricate geometric designs around it. Her bottoms were tight too, stopping mid calf and decorated with matching designs from the bottom about halfway up. Her hair was jet black, reminding Maris slightly of Kevin, bless his heart, and was slicked into a elastic holder and she had electric blue eyes recognizable from a mile away.

Maris finally caught up with them and hadn't said a word yet as she stood to catch her breath and take in their appearances. They didn't look too strange as Hour Three was basically a melting pot of the different Hours, but she had never seen people from different Hours that had grown up in that Hour. She never realized the big differences in the appearances that Hours created. The girl's physique resembled Jax, she was just more built. She must've been from one. Jax was never this tan, though, and didn't dress himself in such bizarre clothes - he stuck with the softer colors and jeans and pullovers that Hour Three was famous for. His hair wasn't nearly as dark and his eyes had lost the intensity that Karin's carried.

Maris shifted her eyes to the boy, Jake presumably, and absorbed his appearance. None of his features were really as defined as Karin, he was much taller and lanky. On his head, sat wild yellowish hair and on his face, light pink dots of acne. He was clothed in a simple tee shirt and torn jeans; they were both rather tattered in fact. Light scars laid across both their faces, but Jake looked much worse. He had a gashing scar on his arm and didn't look as fit as Karin, in fact, he looked a tad malnourished. His skin was also rather pale, his pupils a very light grey color.

 He could've passed for any of the people in Maris' Hour if he were passed out and had more bumps on his skin.

"Where are you from?" They both kept staring at Maris, straight poker faces and she quickly started to talk again, a nervous wreck, "I-I mean, sorry. I mean like, I heard Hour One and you? Well, no. Where do I start." She held her hands to her head in disbelief and kept rambling, "How are you here? I have never seen someone from another Hour at your age. Is this normal to travel? Are you from this Hour and I am just not familiar with you? Normally, we only have babies. But I guess this isn't normal, I mean look..." Maris gestured around her and almost started talking again. "Craz-"

"Uhm, please, stop." The girl, Karin, held up her hand and then crossed her arms, "All these questions, I am getting annoyed. Me and him, Jake, are from Hour One and Two. We aren't entirely sure what is happening, but so far he has been attacked by rabid animals and I found him after everyone I knew disappeared."

"Yo-you mean that this disease is something only here? But, you guys had rabid animals and disappearances? I guess that isn't much better." Maris muttered off and stayed looking at Jake, he didn't seem that athletic, and not to offend him, but how did he escape that?

"Well, what we have come to believe is that each Hour is receiving some kind of disturbance...Hour Three is disease apparently. Are there any more survivors? I couldn't find anyone in One and Jake didn't see anyone in his." Karin talked with such an authority it was foreign to Maris.

Maris still hadn't taken her eyes off Jake, yet she responded to Karin, "There are no survivors that I have found. But don't you think is just rather bizarre? Each Hour getting a disturbance seems a tad extreme." She hung her head and mumbles the last few words and slightly backed away, feeling a tad claustrophobic with the memories of her mother again.

"It would be bizarre if we weren't living in it. Right now, we can only accept it and move on quickly. And we are here now. Me and Jake have been trying to get to the Time Keepers, see if they can help. We presume the other Hours will be just like these, hopefully nothing worse. Little theatre boy here almost got killed the first day." Jake let out a shaky cough and turned red, probably embarrassed and still shaken up from the memory.

"Don't you think that's a little ambitious? You are from Hour One, yes? That's a lot to go through, to tell the Time Keepers something, even if you are athletic." Maris finally shifted her stare to Karin, "Besides, I think they would be informed by now. With all the disappearances, animals, and deaths - they would have gotten some notice? Not even taking into account whatever may be happening in the other Hours." Maris was a tad confused, she didn't want to leave all these people here, but then again they did deserve some answers. And if these two could make it through the Hours, then maybe she could and maybe her father would be alive. But this was so risky, she wasn't fit like these two (despite Jake's state). Her whole mind was conflicting with itself; stay and be with her mother or go and hopefully get answers but probably die.

"Ambitious? Yes. But, I need answers and so does Jake. I'm sure you do, too." Karin had a hard stare on Maris and she showed no emotion.

"So, you are saying that we are going to travel through the Hours to talk to the Time Keepers. What if they aren't there? Or, what if they don't want to see us!" Maris was frightened to say the least, but she still had a small itch to get out in the Hours and possibly get a clarity about her mother's passing. Maris didn't want to say murder but she wasn't sure. "You know what - this is ridiculous. My mother is dead in an office building, covered in some mysterious disease just like the rest of these people. I am building her a memorial then I will stay with her until I can come to peace with the fact that whatever hit them, can come to me too."

"Look, what's your name?"

"Maris." She whispered it quietly and dragged her look to the concrete sidewalk. Drawing small circles on the pavement with her right foot.

"Okay, look Maris. I haven't traveled through two Hours to be stopped by your soft heart. I am going to the Time Keepers and I am going to get answers about my family and quite frankly, if you love your mom so much, you should come too to get answers. And just saying, no offense Jake, but if he can make it through, then I think you can too."

"Karin, calm down." Jake turned to Karin and shyly tried to talk to her in private, which was rather difficult with no other noises except the wind and animals, the fires had died down and no normal ruckus of cars and people were there. "Karin, she just met us and it's not normal for people to make it through Hours without special travel ways according to this Hour. The only action they get is from babies arriving, and they're specially delivered through the doors. Of course she will be skeptical. Be gentle with her."

"Hey! I am right here. I am not fragile and I just honestly don't think it is safe to travel the Hours. It is surprising enough you made it through the two or one, but I don't think I can make it through many if any." Maris wasn't sure at all what they were talking about, but she only had three things floating around in her mind and they kept coming out in differently phrased sentences.

"Fine. Just die here. No point in persuading someone who would be a burden anyways. Do you at least have food?" Maris was a little taken back, but she couldn't let her personal feelings block someone's need for food. She gazed at the dropped meat before starting to walk off, waving the two to join her.

"I can take you to my favorite bakery...if I do, before you leave, though, could you help me with something?"

"No."

"Yes." Karin glared at Jake and rolled her eyes before nodding, changing her answer. She didn't seem to like Maris, but Maris didn't mind. She was giving them food, they were giving her assistance. They would be gone soon enough. "I am sorry about all the people in your Hour, I take it you were all close?" Jake caught up with Maris, but never looked at her when he spoke. He kept his stare on the bodies around him.

Maris nodded and quietly responded, "I am sorry about your Hour, too. Animals should be kind and it is rather terrifying to see them in such a miserable state. Rabies are bad for the animal and the people." She didn't want to talk much more so she just nodded to every other question asked, even if it was false. Maris couldn't believe that these two had traveled through Hours and survived certain catastrophes, just like she had. But why only one person through each Hour? Maybe it would be different through the others.

Maris was deep in her thoughts and hadn't even realized she was mindlessly wandering through the streets, almost about to walk into an area of shattered glass and exploded tire rubber from a car crash before Jake pulled her aside. Maris didn't even notice the burning rubber scent until she was yanked from the dream state.

Maris looked back and saw the bent lightpost, a person thrown across the hood of their crushed car. It was probably the worst sight she had seen yet, she had yet to seen blood from all this and here this person was - blood spilling from below them, dried slightly on their cheek. Maris felt lightheaded and turned her numb body to Jake and Karin again.

Karin snickered, "Maybe it's good that you want to stay." Maris glared at her and thanked Jake before turning to the correct direction, soon coming into contact with the cafe near her mother's office.

"There." Maris pointed to the shattered windows that belonged to the cafe and hastened her pace so she could be surrounded by the familiar pastries and drinks. She crossed the street and stepped through the shattered window frame, carefully stepping on the glass before being quickly passed by Karin. She practically crashed into the pastry shelves and stuffed her mouth with an abundance of different breads. Maris stopped in her tracks, she had never seen someone eat so much in her life.

"Vy ish dis shtale." Karin's words were distorted as she tried to speak through the food.

"I-I don't know. It might be because the window was cracked and air has been drying them out for a while. I have seen two nights since anyone else has been alive."

"Ugh. I guesh it hash been a vile. Whateber." Karin continued to stuff her mouth and she grabbed a mug for a mocha, the machine was never turned off and Maris was slightly surprised it wasn't scorched. "Vy ish dere money?" She sipped on the steaming drink and toyed with the coins and paper left on the granite.

"I came here a few days ago and got a couple pastries, I left money." Karin scoffed and stopped playing with it, grabbing more bread to accompany her mocha. Maris looked to her side and saw Jake just standing there, looking across the bodies of the dead. His face didn't know much expression but he was probably amazed at the pinkness of their skin, the amount of bumps and rashes present. It was hard not to be, but then again he faced rabid animals and this may not have been anything to him. Maris was starting to become less fazed with it every time she saw them, maybe this was just another day of dead bodies to him. Maris let out a sigh and felt rather bad for him. But he was going to the Time Keepers with Karin to get answers about his family, and maybe that would give him a sense of peace.

Now, all she could do was wait for Karin and Jake to eat their food then have their help to create the memorial. "Jake, why aren't you eating. Not to offend you, but you look a tad under the weather."

"That's exactly why. I don't really feel the best." Jake tugged at his collar and let out a cough, "If I eat I may throw it up, I think it'd be best if I just get some to take later." Jake walked behind the counter and shuffled around, looking for a bag, then stuffed it with multiple pastries. Maris could see how clammy his hands were getting, he could hardly grab the bread without shaking a little. It only took a second for him to freeze up and collapse, bringing down rows of stale baguette.