Only girl in the world

Cause and Effect

Thalia

This was very strange. Too Strange.

What could Cromwell, a lowly lab partner have held over the the most influential country in the world that could make him president just like that? Did he brainwash them? Promised them the Elixir of life? There is absolutely nothing I could think of that would not get him killed for even attempting to take over the world.....nobody tried to stop him?...

I racked my brain all morning trying to figure out how Cromwell got to where he is. It was no easy feat. To gain so much power, he must have planned this for years. I let out an exasperated sigh as James came into the room with breakfast. 

"You look like someone ran you over" He said chuckling. I probably did, knowing I can get terrible bed hair and that fact that I didn't get much sleep added to my zombie like looks. 

"I can't do this" I whispered as he came over to sit beside me on the bed. 

"Can't do what?"

"This! Any of this! Its Ludacris" I yelled as I got up and started to pace. "Were just kids!" I reasoned as I moved back and forth in the room. "How can expect to go up against a man who has nuclear launch codes at his disposal and expect to win"

"Thal-"

"And even If I do win...what then?" I looked at him, tears in my eyes, "My parents are gone, I have missed most if not all of my brother's life!" I slapped my hand to my forehead. "What do I even do? How will I live? They're going to hunt me down and either stick me in a lab or an aquarium! And I...I.." I was starting to panic now. The tears where flowing waterfalls as I grip my chest struggling to breath. 

"Hey, hey, hey" James came over to me, taking my arms. "Listen, your brother will never let that happen, I will never let that happen" I looked at him, eyes a little cloudy from tears. He had a serious look on his face. "Now I know we don't have a plan and this is no easy feat, but what we do have is each other, and as stupid and cheesy as that sound, it is what it is" He took my face into his hands using his thumbs to wipe away my tears. "We don't have all the answers yet, but if Cromwell did this, its up to us who know the truth to do something about it" .  Using my palm to wipe my face, letting out a deep sigh I asked,

"What do you have to gain from all of this? This is all you have ever known James. I am practically screwing up your life" He smiled 

"What I have to gain is an easy life my father picked out for me before I was even created...what I want to gain is a life that means something to me, one that I choose and Thalia I choose you"

"I'm not a Pokémon" I said trying not to smile.

"What's a Pokémon?" he asked. I looked at him, he was right. We are the only ones that know the truth and anything is going to be done, we were the ones that needed to do it. 

"Tell you what, if we get through this I'll go through all 721 of my magical friends with you" I answered. 

"Deal?"

"Deal"

________________________________________________________________________

Kevin arrived a coupled of hours later so we could work on how to approached the Cromwell situation. I had contacted Caleb and he told me he is not allowed to leave the lab, but I should keep him posted on any updates we may come across.  As we were settling in the living room, Kevin started to complain about his father forcing him to marry. 

"He is just up my ass! An arranged marriage at that! I've never even met the guy" He argued. Keven was of Indian decent, thinking about it as I looked at him vent his frustration to James, I could help but smile at the things that have not changed after all these years. As much as I myself was not fond of the custom, the fact that some traditions are still around gave me a little hope...and some questions.

"James, you remember when Caleb said that they only release a total of 1000 specimen for the month for the entire country?"

"Yeah" 

"Doesn't that seem a little odd to you? I mean I get the whole controlling the population thing. But back in my time America's population was...."

"318 Million" Keven answered for me 

"Right, a 1000 new people a day seems like a crumb compared to how many babies were being born back then, what is the population in America now?"

"Given that the population  surviving from your time until now is around 5% that's roughly 16000 people and and if this population plan was implemented as soon as Cromwell came to power that's roughly.." Keven reeled of as he calculated in his head.

"He's good with numbers" James answered looking at me smiling 

"348,000 people" Kevin ended 

"So you're telling me that the population of the United  States of America at this point in time is roughly-"

"364,000 people, and growing" Kevin answered. 

"From 318 million!?" I asked incredulously

"Yup!" said Kevin, making his 'P' pop.

"And nobody see's the problem with that?"

"What do you mean?" asked James 

"The Female population was at most half of that amount, What happened to the other half?" I asked

"Some people died complications, killed themselves?" said Kevin sounding unsure.

"Complications? Seriously?" I asked "What happened to the other 159 million people that were suppose to be left, because if you aske me 29 years isn't enough for a 159 million people to die of complications, unless there is multiple mas genocides that you are not telling about?" I asked looking at both of them. Neither had an answer.

"We don't only need to find out what happened, we need to find out why"